With a trip to Albany for Easter there is one thing I am thinking about…
Malls!
Stuyvesant Plaza!
Crossgates!
Colonie Center!
And the insane store The Cross Eyed Owl!
I LOVE MALLS!
It then leads me to dream about my favourite mall movie… Valley Girl! Fer sure!
Living here in the city I really miss suburban malls. I know – kick me out now for not being some Cool New Yorker. I don’t want to walk around 5 million blocks in the rain or stinking heat and wander for miles to look for a bag and a pair of earrings and some socks. I WANT ONE STOP SHOPPING!! That is what malls give me. I must be the only person on earth who moves to New York and end up shopping LESS… but it has happened to me!
I used to love spending Saturday afternoon at Northland – lunch at the foodcourt or maybe a hotdog and shake at Wendy’s… dropping into Portmans, Sussan, Sportsgirl and Myer. Smelling Myer smell… you know that smell that every Myer store has. I love Myer smell. Then there was going to Collins Bookstore AND Angus & Robertson, going to the Body Shop to buy a raspberry lipbalm, then Priceline to buy.. junk and then a long time spent in Kenny’s Cardiology because I just had to spend $5 on cards that had the year that you were born with all the number one songs for that year. Then I would stop by the $2 Shop for some plastic junk containers for my makeup before walking to the bus stop exhausted from my hours of walking around and carrying all my bags.
But then you come to America and you see that there is one thing this country does so well and that is malls. The shopping hours are unreal here.. at Crossgates in Albany it is open from 10am – 9.30pm Monday to Saturday!!!!! Even dodgy malls are good malls where you can normally find some place to hang out. When I was a backpacker and had no money left and was in LA, the Beverly Center was my home away from home. It was air conditioned with clean bathrooms, lots of places to sit and lots of stores where I could test lotions and body splashes… my days were spent hanging out there and enjoying real Americana – like pretending Brenda and Kelly would walk in and ask me to hang out with them at any moment.
A visit to an American mall is just a place where all TV shows and movies come to life and when I shop in one that is when I realize “Oh-my-golly-gosh-I-really-am-living-in-America!” It is the BEST feeling ever!