Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Wednesday story

Let me tell you about my day.

It being a work day, I got up later than I should, did my thing at home and was out the door later than I should have been.  I picked up a copy of Metro at the subway station (as I do each morning) and, as I sat down on the subway, opened to the first page.

There before me was a double-page spread ad for H&M, advertising their new pants.  Now, I like pants.  As with most people, pants are a necessity of my life (a girl can't wear skirts all the time) but women's pants have also become more varied over the last little while.  Skinny jeans; leggings; trouser-cut pants; high-waisted 70s style pants; harem pants; you name it, it's pretty much in style.  So I'm always interested to see what the "new" pants are, since they all seem to be out there already.

Anyways, H&M was hawking several of the above styles, but they were new for spring so I guess that counts as new.  One pair of pants shown was priced as $9.99.  My first though was, "That's a crappy typo to have."  But then I realized this is H&M so $9.99 pants isn't the strangest thing in the world.  I figured they must be made from the leftover thread of their other clothes and didn't think much more of them.

I got to work and went about my day.  I worked through my lunch hour in preparation of two back-to-back afternoon meetings....that were both canceled about 5 minutes before their respective starts.  Balls.  However, this opened up the opportunity to venture outside into the Arctic winds (how is it that Toronto is so magical that, no matter what way you walk, you're always walking into the wind?  Even when there are no buildings around?) and headed down to H&M.  I wasn't thinking so much about pants; more, I just wanted a destination where I could wander around bright, springtime clothes for a bit and not be hassled by salespeople.

Upon arriving at H&M, lo and behold, there were the $9.99 pants.  The advertisement showed them in khaki and I don't do khaki because I'm pale and kinda round and khaki just emphasizes both these traits.  But these magical $9.99 pants also came in navy and a pretty coral-red.  I can do navy.  And, oddly enough, they were not made of the equivalent of Ziploc bags but were actually cotton. 

Wait.  Navy cotton pants for $9.99?  And they were actually cute?  I just had to give them a try!

Now, I haven't tried on bottoms at H&M for near on two years, mainly because the bottoms there don't fit me.  As the sizes get bigger, H&M assumes the person grows square-like, without hips or a bottom, just a slab of a person.  And nothing fits me.  So I wasn't optimistic about these Shangri-La-esque $9.99 pants but I still began looking for my size.  I always default for the largest size - usually a size 14 at H&M - because historically I have always been the largest size.  Alas, no size 14. 

But there was a size 12.

So herein was my quandry: do I try on the size 12 and completely crush my confidence?  Do I walk away from the $9.99 pants, because really, $9.99 pants from H&M can't last that long?  I decided to go for it.  I tried them on.

AND THEY FIT.

Holy shit, the size 12 pants from H&M fit.  Despite my weight gain over the past two weeks.  Despite not being all that slim to begin with.  Despite being all hippy and bummy and belly-y. 

THE SIZE 12 $9.99 PANTS FIT.

So I bought them. 

And that was my day.

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