Reasons to go to the mall..

Most of us, at least in the US, have a mall somewhere relatively nearby. Today, my friends and I decided to go out to the Natick Mall (scratch that, Natick Collections, ooo) which is the most utterly riduculous, useless mall of overpriced designer crap in the area. (they even have condos in the complex, for those folks with too much money who enjoy the mall's comforts a bit too much to ever really leave)

Then again, they do have a lego store.

So we piled into my recently repaired volvo 240 (which, as I realized, is mentioned in "the jeep song", as it's a light blue volvo wagon. Hurray!) and went off.

On the way, we stopped at Toys R Us, (to look at their lego selection). I kinda started yelling a bit when one of the first things we saw was the endcap for "girls night in". PINK board games just for girls! What? Since when did Scrabble or Monopoly need to be FRICKING PINK? The folks coming up with these *brilliant* ideas must be seriously messed in the head. Almost as good as Careers; FOR GIRLS!

Aside from the non-gendered classic toys section (with some sweet blocks, remade vintage toys, a JACK IN THE BOX and those great detailed medieval toys), Toys R Us is a vast, gendered wasteland. Even the legos seem primarily gendered... and lack the awesomeness I remember them having. The girls section is PINK PINK AND MORE PINK. How have we not improved since I was a kid? How are we only slightly beyond this?

The mall was crazy and bland at the same time (go mall!). Although I admit, I'll go back when the American Girl store is up and running just for fun. We got some tea samples at teavana (yum!) and I apologized to the poor guy stocking cups for all of us being jerks. Mostly we just walked around and tried to understand what was going on... Pretty much all of my clothes are from thrift stores. It's a little more time-consuming, and you never know what you're going to find, but I honestly do pretty well. Why would people need all those hideously overpriced bolts of fabric? Why in the world would you shop in a nearly pitch-black environment? I admit that I'm an anti-consumerist who likes things, (art supplies, books, vintage clothes) but I don't understand the need for such a vast wasteland of (overpriced) useless crap. I probably never will. I'd much rather support indie artists and makers any day.

So, I'm still searching for actual reasons to go to a mall... because I always leave in a fit, disappointed with humanity. (Which actually, might be the best reason after all, because I leave with inspiration to improve and change)

In better, less ranty news; I'm starting Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain again. My drawing skills have really gone downhill in the past few years (and I've never been a great fan of proportion) so I'm starting again and will post the results here. Unless they really, horribly suck. Everyone *and* my mom has suggested this book, so I figure it's worth a shot! I'm going to try and draw every single day for the next few weeks, and see what happens.

Yesterday I found a wonderful beret, complete with POM POM and a gigantic spoon. Pictures to follow shortly!