The anti-mall???

Last night we met for our weekly Wednesday BBQ. This time we went to the Gypsy Den in Costa Mesa. I had been to the one in Santa Ana before and I liked it. I had a good time, but I just wasn’t feeling comfortable. I have gained quite a bit of weight lately and although I have started losing it again, some of my clothes don’t feel right on me. So that was part of the problem, but when I was sitting at the table I felt self-conscious about how I was sitting and my expressions. Another problem was the table was low and the chair I was in was a little small. The Gypsy Den has mixed-matched furniture. Reina seemed like she was uncomfortable with where she was sitting too, so we switched places. That helped some.

After dinner we stopped by a couple of stores. The Gypsy Den was located at The Lab, a self-described “anti-mall”, whatever that means. Urban Outfitters was the first. I had never been there before, so it was new to me. They had a lot of funny books and T-shirts, but nothing I would wear or buy. That look just doesn’t match my personality. That and I couldn’t pull off that look. The next stop was a “shoe store” named Blends, which had expensive shoes displayed in cooling units with glass doors (like the kind in the frozen food section of a grocery store). Odd.

I stopped for about two minutes in a sunglasses store (Eye Five) until I realized the stuff in there was over $200. No thanks. Our last stop was the Buffalo Exchange. This was new for me too. It was basically a nice Salvation Army. Most of the items are used and customers can trade items for others. I did see a shirt I liked, but after walking around with it for 10 minutes, I put it back.

Everyone else seemed right at home in these stores and probably some people reading this know these stores too, but I felt like Rush Limbaugh at a NIN concert. I guess I was unusually uptight last night. I’m looking forward to this weekend…

Congrats to Mike, Caroline, Brian, and Kelly on their new place. Too bad it’s 56 miles away from my place. :(