PHB and I met up for our ritualistic Christmas shopping trip this past weekend. We have been doing this for nearly seven years. He is one of those random friends I have on the side, who isn’t really involved in my life, but who I’ve somehow managed to keep in touch with for a long time. We meet once or twice a year and spend a day together, just the two of us, shopping, eating, and catching up.

Like his name might suggest, he is a perfect gentleman. He has never been in a long relationship because he is too nice and, as we’re all too familiar with, nice boys finish last. Most of the time it seems, girls use him when they need to be comforted, but at the end of the day, pick someone else to be their boyfriend.
I can’t say that I’m not entirely guilty of the same, considering I have never been attracted to him and yet I have let him take me out on these day-long dates for seven years.

We started the day off with shopping and ended the day off with shopping. In between, we had an amazing all-you-can-eat sushi lunch where we took our sweet time catching up. After listening to his ex-girlfriend woes, commiserating on the challenges of falling in love dating, and basically bringing each other up to date on our life stories, I realized that he has grown from a boy into a man. He’s become more cynical about women, become less of a “nice boy”, and I hate to say it but, more attractive as a result. He was proving his own theory about attraction between men and women; women are more attracted to nice boys who act like jerk boys than nice boys who act like nice boys (I have asked him to write a guest blog on this matter so I won’t go into depth here).

After lunch, we drove around aimlessly north of The City. We kept the GPS turned off and just drove, without an inkling of where we were going. It was great to sit in the car and chat and watch the farmland go by, a completely different side to The City I know and love. It was like a mini road trip. Suddenly, out of nowhere popped a mega-mall. We were pretty shopped out but at the sight of a Forever21 sign, I convinced him we had to make a stop.

Forever21, to me, is basically heaven. If I could, I would make that store my closet. I spent a long time in that store trying everything things on, and he was patient enough to wait for me and hold my coat and purse. I am guilty of totally enjoying his coat rack services while I pranced around the store with an idiot grin on my face like a kid in a candy store.

Forever21 and MAC purchases.


To be honest, I really didn’t mean to shop for myself at all as I have recently started to run low on cash. But everything I bought elicited a “OH MY GOD this is totally awesome I have to have this!” reaction, and after I picked it up I basically couldn’t put it down.

  • Black asymmetric tiered skirt: this skirt is reminiscent of the ballerina skirts that I love. What makes this even more fabulous is the different textures of sequin, mesh, and satin.
  • Metallic striped racer-back tank: Snazzy snazzy snazzy. The tunic on the online catalog is even more snazzy (didn’t see that in stores) but the one I got is the same without the tunic and hem. Not sure how I feel about the racer-back to be honest, but the metallic stripes go well with black bottoms.
  • Evening fringe shoulder bag: Everything about this purse (evening bag, whatever) spells G-L-A-M. Seriously awesome.
  • Silver textured leaf charm necklace: I’m totally digging necklaces that are multiple necklaces in one. Also, I love charms and this one has a leaf, a swallow, a pearl, and two flowers. Feminine and chic.
  • Gold polished bead necklace: I don’t have enough gold jewelry. I have been a silver girl all my life. Now, I’m evolving.
  • Dressy heart trio earrings: Classy and elegant. What caught my eye was the heart-shaped rhinestone pair, but the studded heart-shaped pair is nice too.

Later, we went to Sephora and MAC. I didn’t really want to buy anything, but the MAC ladies are so nice and knowledgeable that they can always talk me into trying stuff out. Once they get me in the make-up chair and start doing things to my face, I always always end up buying something. This time, the MAC girl ended up giving my cheeks a makeover. I had no idea blushes could be so complicated!

  • Wave a Wand Sweep and Define Brushes: For CAD $58, this brush set is a steal. I had wanted to buy a different set originally, that contained a slanted eye liner brush, but I actually already had most of the eye brushes in the set. Once the MAC girl explained how I could use the brushes in this “Wave a Wand” set to define my cheeks, I was sold.
  • Luna cream colour base: One of the products she used on my cheeks as a “highlighter.” I love it because it is multi-purpose – i.e. can also be used as a brow highlighter.

Since I felt so guilty about my purchases, PHB offered to pay for something as my Christmas present. Isn’t he perfect? When we walked into a Coach store, he noticed that I was holding my breath.
“Are you in shock?”
“It’s so prettyyy…” I said as I exhaled, floating towards a particularly eye-catching purse sitting on the top shelf. I turned to PHB and looked him straight in the eye. “If you buy me that, I will marry you here and now.”
Without hesitation, he said, “Done.” I may have fainted.

The next thing I knew, we were at a bubble tea cafe (’cause we’re Asian like that). After checking that he did not buy that purse for me and I did not black out and marry him in a Coach store, we settled in for a long chat about: men. and. women. It seems we have both come a long way from our naive notions of love and it was great to share everything we had learned with someone of the opposite gender.

When I got home, I felt like I was high. Was it the Forever21 shopping spree that left me in a state of euphoric stupor or was it the almost-engagement in the Coach store that left me light-headed? Both are equally likely. I guess I will never know.