Nordstrom Nightmare

As a Seattle native, I have been shopping at Nordstrom since I was just a little girl...my mom and I would go there for school shopping, and we even had a Nordstrom in the Shoreline area at the time (remember Aurora Village, northenders?  It's where Costco is now located.)  Going to Nordstrom was a treat; they gave you 'Nordy' balloons in the children's shoe department and when I was in junior high and high school the Brass Plum was the place to shop for that season's must-have trends.  Nowadays, if I do find myself at Nordstrom, it's the downtown 'flagship' store between 5th and 6th avenues, and I've really started to notice what Nordstrom is all about.  It's all about my feeling completely out of place and completely under-dressed.  Quite honestly, I can't tell which people are the employees (ladies in impossibly high heels, chunky bangles clanking) and which are the shoppers (ladies in impossibly high heels, chunky bangles clanking....and maybe a coat).  While I know that I'm far from being trendy or even fashionable a lot of the time, I can't believe how high-end things have become at Nordstrom.  And how snooty everyone seems to be when you walk in the door.  Has it always been like this?  And I just didn't notice for all those years when I was a regular Nordstrom shopper as a kid and a teenager?  I feel out-snarked by the snarky/snooty ladies at Nordstrom (is there a word that combines snarky and snooty? if there is, that's the word I need right now).  Oh well, maybe I'll check out Macy's next...if nothing else there's always excellent people watching at the downtown store...

Aaarrgh, Matey, Pirates in Seattle!

Ok, I get it, everyone loves boots, especially us ladies here in the Northwest. I myself have 5 or 6 pairs of boots, and I enjoy wearing them to work, or out with my friends. But this new trend of over-the-knee boots? I really don't get it. Particularly in the 40+ crowd (and I am a member of this group now ). I spied a gal the other day waiting for the light on the corner of 7th and Pike, most likely on her lunch break, wearing a pair, and it just looked wrong. Don't get me wrong, I am not the most fashion-conscious person out there (ask my friends, they'll tell you) but I think I do know when something is right, and appropriate (and don't think that because I'm 40 I now automatically think that everything that is trendy is too young for me, because I don't). All I can think when I see people (and I use the word here on purpose, because I've seen some gentlemen in the over-the-knee boots too) striding down the sidewalk in these get-ups is that Seinfeld episode where Jerry didn't want to wear the puffy shirt...he didn't want to be a pirate...but perhaps in 2011 he would want to be.