Go. I'm a finicky clothing shopper.

I prefer to do it alone. My basic standards for any article of clothing are comfort and compatibility. It needs to be oh-so-comfortable, and it needs to match just about everything else I already own. I'm a weird height and often "between sizes", which makes it a challenge for me to find something I really like that fits perfectly. Even if I end up with armfuls of stuff, I usually discard most of it along the way to the checkout. (Niel gets so annoyed when I do this!)

I am in desperate need of jeans. I have two pairs that I wear fairly constantly, and these two pairs have been with me for most of my decade in Africa. I'm serious. (They're a great advertisement for the durability of Gap jeans.)

They are comfortable and comforting, in the way only a favorite-pair-of-jeans can be. They are worn in, and now worn through in certain spots. Namely, the butt and the crotch. What's up with that? The stitching around the zipper and button has just begun to unravel on one pair, so basically the crotch is falling apart entirely. Yikes.

My beloved Joyce has patched them multiple times, the most recent being yet another patch on the butt last week. She told me I just need to get new pants.

My mission is to buy a few pairs of jeans when I go home in a few months, so I told Joyce we just need to get these to last till April. I tried to buy some last time I went home, and failed miserably.

I have to, have to, have to this time.

Done.