Girl's Night Out!

Having a million friends is nice... or having a few, really good friends you know you can always count on, that's even better. 

Over the months of learning at CAL, I have grown together with lots of new people. I have grown apart from lots of old friends. It's been a weird year in friend area for me, but becoming friends with my new, really awesome friend, Tara has been great! A couple of weeks ago, Tara and I spent our Friday evening driving about Troutdale and getting to know each other better. It was a really fun night. We learned that we were very similar. It's nice when someone is on the same page as you with just about everything. We are both perfectionists, she a little more than I am. We are both picky about certain things. She is a lot of fun. Last night, we went to Clackamas Town Center mall and shopped around. Oh dear... if we had a million to spend, our favorite stores would have been WIPED OUT. We are trouble when it comes to shopping because.... well we basically "kind of" love everything. We would do some serious damage. 

Our very first stop was Braganza Bubble Tea. It's a popular beverage that I have loved for years! I don't venture out of my regular... ever... so I think next time I will venture out of my comfort zone and get a different flavor besides a coffee frappe with regular tapioca pearls. The coffee frappe tastes amazing, especially with the tapioca pearls. I think I will scoot out just a little bit more and get the coffee milk tea with tapioca pearls. That's a little bit of change and from there I will get a different flavor of the smooth tea with different jelly things. I'm getting way off track...

Tara and I both ordered a regular, coffee frappe with tapioca pearls. 

We shopped around while drinking our boba tea. We went into several different stores, with hours to waste just looking and casually talking. We ended up at Wet Seal, looking around, then ending up at the wall of sandals. Tara picked out a cute pair of sandals with false, white, ruffled leather, and I picked out a pair of coral, braided, strappy sandals. Wet Seal also has darling phone cases. I was browsing through the phone cases till I spotted a mint, mustache, iPhone 4 case. My jaw literally dropped and Tara told me get it. It was only $8! Of course I am going to get it. We decided to put our things on hold and shop around some more, with the thought of running into some other great sandal deals and finding cuter phone cases. At this point, Tara had her heart set on a $38 COACH, cheetah print, iPhone case. I was ready to talk her out of it. $38 is a little ridiculous to pay for an iPhone case. 

We walked around the upper level of the mall, talking and laughing about things. We walked into ICING, and browsed a bit. Tara had been looking for a black, side satchel bag... she found one at ICING for $8! I told her to get it, get it now, and she did. We were pretty jazzed about that. We walked some more and went into Tillys. I have never been in there before, so we decided to go and take and look. They had some interesting iPhone cases, none that sparked my interest though. I went over the accessories and found the cutest, mint, polka dotted patterned headband. I had been looking for one! ICING had one, but it had a stupid wire in it! It was only $6, so I snatched it up and paid for it with much thought. I had to have it. I now have it. 

We ended up going in almost every store that sells clothing or shoes. We ended up going into Forever 21, admiring almost everything we saw. They have some really cute stuff in there. We happened upon an animal print section. Literal animal print, with animals printed on the shirts, or just animal print like cheetah print, zebra and giraffe print on the shirts or dresses. Tara found the prettiest grey, cheetah print dress. She really liked it and is probably one of the few people that can actually pull it off. On our next shopping trip adventure, I am going to make her buy it. I found a shirt with tiny elephants printed all over it. We decided to leave it and come back for it. If we came back for it, and I still loved it, I'd buy it. We walked across the way to Auntie Anne's Pretzels. I can't go to the mall and not grab an Auntie Anne's pretzel. It would be against mall code. It would be against my code. 

After our delightful snack, we walked through the shoe and handbag section at Nordstrom, wishing we had a million to spend, and putting things on our dream shopping spree list. We weaved in and out of different clothing stores and decided our best sandal prices were at Wet Seal. Tara noticed a cheetah iPhone case at Wet Seal for $8. She decided on that one instead of waiting to get the COACH one. We went back to Wet Seal and went up to the counter to get our things. Tara grabbed up the cheetah iPhone case and we paid for our stuff. It was a buy one, get one free thing that was happening with the sandals at Wet Seal, so we decided to pay together. It took me five seconds to realize that I just shelled out a $20... I wasn't really ready to pay that much yet. I am kind of a cheapskate. It took me a minute after the purchase that I realized I wasn't completely in love with the sandals I had just purchased. Tara and I sat down because it seemed like we paid too much for our purchases, we calculated it and it was the correct amount. I think we had a different $$$ mindset. We went back into Wet Seal because I wanted to give back my shoes and get my money back. Well... they don't give money back, they do in store credit. I would forget about in store credit, and I don't really like anything else at Wet Seal. I was in there not even five minutes ago. I said, "Fine, I'll just keep my shoes. This is a huge mess over $12.50." After we left the store, I told Tara, "I'm never coming back here. They just lost a customer over $12.50." Of course, after the fact, in my head, I was thinking up all these scenarios. I could have asked for the manager, I could have caused a huge things and badgered my way to getting my money back, but then I told Tara, "I'll learn to love them." and by morning, I do love them! 

So, I got a super cute iPhone case that I have been looking for, for a long time, and I purchased a cute pair of sandals. 

We went into Aerie, my favorite store of all time, and they were having a 40% off sale. I always have to look through Aerie. They are so generous and so nice to me. I love Aerie! I found this bra that I wanted there, and it was only $13.00 with the 40% off, I tried it on, loved it, was about to buy it and then I realized I only had $11 left! I was $2 short! I am so glad I am going back there today, I am going to get it today! I have to have it! Since I didn't have the amount I needed for the bra, I decided to go back to Forever 21 and grab up at that super cute elephant shirt. We trekked down to Forever 21, I tried it on, and I loved it! It doesn't look fantastic with jeans, but with shorts or skinny jeans it looks great! I bought up quick! 

As we were walking in the parking lot back to the car, it was drizzling just a little bit, and I noticed how amazing the clouds were in the sky. The sun was hitting them perfectly and it was beautiful. I took so many pictures of the sky, but my favorite one is this one. The water on the ground is reflecting the sun, so it looks like a creek or a river in the middle of the parking lot. 

There was also a rainbow on the other side of the sky, and that is the very first picture on this post. 

We went across the street from Town Center to the Clackamas Promenade. We went into Target to grab a curling iron for Tara. We went into Nordstrom Rack and browsed at the handbags and the shoes. There was a Kate Spade handbag that I was admiring, and I looked at the price tag... $189. I put the bag back on the hanger and joked with Tara, "I am not allowed to even touch that bag." A few seconds later, we found a Michael Kors bag for $289.... we joked that we shouldn't even be in the bag's presence. After Nordstom Rack, we walked over to Khols, I finally found some lavender shorts that I have been looking for, and I am going to grab them up once summer comes. We also sat down in the shoe section at Khols and talked. We relaxed our feet since we had been on them all day, shopping is seriously tiring. We rested a few minutes, and decided it was "go" time. We headed back to the car and drove back to her house. 

It was a really fun night! Tara and I need to get together more often. She is always fun to be with and we help each other out with style picks, her more than I. She said she should be a stylist, and I said, "Go for it!", but we both agreed that it doesn't pay much, unless you are a stylist in the Beverly Hills area.

She is a great friend. Last night was so much fun, and I can't wait till our next shopping spree. It's going to be such a blast!