i swear i'm not that girl who can't live without a mall...

...but I MISS MY WARDROBE!

there, now that that's over with, i do want to elaborate a bit.  three-quarters of my wardrobe -- and about 95% of my spring/summer clothes -- are in ann arbor, and i brought exactly 7 pieces of thick sweaters/jackets and 1 cardigan, just enough to fit into a medium-sized suitcase.  it didn't help that the world was frozen solid when i left, and when it's january and 15F outside, spring somehow seems like a made-up bedtime story.  so long story short, now that it's a balmy 45F out and people are busting out the flip-flops, i pretty much look inside my closet and say the all-too-familiar line, "i have nothing to wear" (but at least it's less of a lie now than it was before!)

so it's the perfect time to go shopping, right? wrong.  i've made up my mind 2 weeks into juneau that i will try my hardest not to buy clothing here, because the the two places to shop are walmart and fred meyer (aka meijer), and before you know it, you're staring at the fugliest clothes you've ever seen and saying to yourself, "well, this one is the least hideous of them all, and it's only $20, so at least i could cover it up with a sweater..." and this is how you get sucked into buying fugly clothes that half the town will end up wearing.  don't get me wrong, i've actually gotten cute clothes at walmart and meijer in michigan, but for some reason, i have yet to see a single piece of clothing here i would want to spend money on.  the couple expensive downtown boutiques that my housemate took me to were definitely a few notches better, but the price tag made me miss target and forever 21 just that much more. oh, and american eagle and my dress-shopping trips with KE last summer.  maybe i'll finally get over my phobia of buying clothes online and get just ONE skirt for the summer.

side note: if you are thinking about getting into shape for the summer and whatnot, the best trainer is a beagle.  yes, those dogs can RUN.  when you're only on Mile 0.6 and feeling like maybe you should stop very soon, those puppies will just be trotting besides you with such joyous nonchalance that you just won't be able to resist the strange desire to trot with them for the next 3.4 miles and end the run by racing to the front door.  because of such experiences, i've concluded most of running really is psychological.