Who are you and why are you following me?

There was a time in my life where no store could clothe all of this.  *points up and down to my bod*  Catalogs like Woman Within and One Stop Plus were my only form of shopping and frankly, it was depressing.  There is nothing quite as defeating and that puts the final nail in your self-esteem coffin as having no options at any store ever...even plus size shops.  30/32 was the magic size number before you could shop at stores like Avenue or an occasional Lane Bryant and you paid for it.  I remember when I finally hit that magic number and went on my first trip to Avenue.  I saw a shirt I LOVED and not just because it was all that was available in my size but it was actually pretty stylin' at the time and the jeans were a perfect fit...something that seemed foreign especially when you're both tall and fat.  I'm like some kind of winged leprechaun according to the fashion industry.  I walked out with my new outfit with the Mr and proceeded to bawl in the car.  It was quite a victory and I was ecstatic.

As getting used to being able to have a few brick and mortar options sank in, I was a little more excited to shop than before.  But I noticed when I would shop, it was harder and harder to find stuff in my size.  I knew they probably offered less in the highest size but still, it just seemed like they had plenty 30/32's in other styles of things I didn't like but never in what I wanted but there were plenty of the other sizes so I couldn't wait to drop down to 26/28's so I could have more options.  When I did drop to that size, I did find an outfit so I snagged it up and then waited to change season before buying more in that size.  When I went back for a full-on spree, finding the abundant 26/28's I saw when I was a 30/32 were now suddenly scarce and I saw way more 30/32's than I ever saw when I was that size.  We even went to multiple locations and sometimes we still couldn't find things.  If I'd only been a 24, I could have my pick of the litter because that seemed to be THE size that was truly in abundance.  Size 26 jeans were ridiculously hard to find and at that time were not widely carried at department stores so I was just at that teetering point of really having a whole new world open up to me.  When the glorious day hit that I could fit into 24's I was so excited because now even more stores were open to me.  Shopping spree here we come!!

I'll be damned if 24's were again in short supply in the style *I* liked.  I was able to find more but damn it took a lot of work to find stuff and it was usually never all at the same store so the Mr would seek out his "dude chair" in the store and look up from his phone when I'd come out of the fitting room.  We both commented on how irritating it was every time I went down a size, the size that was abundant before would always become some hot commodity...like the cosmos playing a game of "this is gonna be funny."  Even the other night when I found a cute top in a place that carries size 0 to 4x in the same styles, they had every size but mine.  We just looked at each other and rolled our eyes because almost 8 years later we're dealing with the same crap regardless of my size.

So all I want to know is who are you and why are you following me?  Save me just ONE top and one pair of bottoms, please.  It's like some brigade of dopplegangers heckling me via clothing.

Anyone else ever have this problem or are the clothing gods just effing with me?

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