Can I Get Your Opinion...?

I have become, almost over night, the crazy woman at the store who will talk to anyone and ask random strangers' opinions on what she is about to buy.

I've been fairly demure my entire adult life. (Insert various college roommates and current friends shaking their heads at this choice of words...) Ok, maybe not demure...definitely not shy, but I will tell you emphatically I rarely talk to strangers. Until lately. Now I talk to them all the time.

I asked a lady in the dressing area at TJ Maxx if she thought my butt looked okay in the jeans I was trying on. She told me it looked fine, but what could she really say, huh? Even strangers probably draw the line at telling someone a pair of jeans makes their rear look like a highway billboard sign. So, I'm not sure what I hoped to accomplish by asking, but I did feel better about buying the jeans based on her unbiased (though perhaps censored) opinion.

I engaged a woman AND her mother in a long conversation at Hobby Lobby recently about whether they felt a particular bow I wanted to purchase was okay for outdoor use. They actually got into a bit of a disagreement over it. The daughter said her mother used some just like it outside, which the mother repeatedly denied. I finally had to side with the daughter and purchased it to use on the wreath hanging above our garage door.

Days earlier, I had asked a different pair of ladies at Home Depot if they could tell much difference between said wreath (which was 36 inches in diameter) and another wreath that was 30 inches. They agreed the size looked almost identical but warned me against the glittery stuff on the 30 incher. "It's just going to wear off quickly," they said. So I bought the 36 inch wreath and am very happy with it every time I pull in and out of the driveway.

What has gotten into me? I used to be able to make purchasing decisions completely on my own. I agonized between choices, but I never enlisted the help of random neighboring shoppers. It's getting worse and worse, too. I'm on a downhill slide as far as my frequency of bugging other shoppers. Though to be honest, none of them (except that mother in the mother/daughter pair) seem too bothered by it. In fact, I've had some pleasant conversations about what wines are good, and how long to expect that cinnamon scent to last on those bags of pine cones available all over this time of year.

It's kind of nice to chat with the people I happen to come across while out and about. It makes the world seem a little friendlier. And a second opinion about a prospective purchase can't hurt. So, does anyone else do this besides me? Have the strangers been steering you right with their opinions?