这个周末要去看女儿了，老妈又乐颠颠地周六开始在家包粽子，周日去逛mall, 想着给她带点什么好看的衣服，好吃的东西，想象着自己左手一箱衣，右手一箱食地"进城"北上去看女儿......
从小到大，衣服基本上是我给她买、或是陪她去买的。我知道她的尺寸、喜好。加上现在有微信，一张照片过去，一个yes or no回来，再不行，还可以拿回来退，真是方便的，除了要花点时间挑。
一两个星期前去附近的outlet已经买了一些。昨天她说，运动鞋旧了，想要一双新的，想想家里还有不少存货，遂拿出来，拍照送过去，好好的Nike， Asics, 说不喜欢。当妈只好说，那我再去店里看看。女儿倒是说，可以去她那儿再一起买。可想想就两天时间，还想带她出去多玩玩，自己也趁机看看西雅图的春色，想来想去，昨天中午又冲到了mall里。
好久没有逛这个mall了。偌大的停车场被围了起来，里面高高的升降机依稀可见。又在扩建，建新的店面，建多层parking lot。城市过度的开发，人口急剧膨胀，居民住宅的扩展，这座城市变得越来越拥挤，走到哪儿都是堵车，走到哪家餐馆都是人声鼎沸。
我从一个mall开到另一个mall，从Nordstrom Rack 逛到Nordstrom，鞋子最后没买成，在另外一家服装店，给女儿买了条裙子，给自己买了一件衬衣。今年的服装好像流行宽宽松松的喇叭袖，衣襟前也喜欢多点皱褶，还有满满绣着花的透明薄纱一样的上衣。服装一年一个潮流，而设计师的创新又是在怀旧复古的基础上的，曾经我们年轻时流行的，如百褶裙等，过时一段时间后，又会重新流行，就像mall里那只巨大的滚动风轮，轮流转着。只可惜人的青春不能像潮流、像服装, 流动向前又能折回。
在Shopping的过程中，不停地与女儿微信来回。女儿最后说了一句，“不要花那么(大)力气给我买东西”, 不经意的一句话，却触动了我的心。我的女儿，一个在美国长大的孩子，不会客套，不会甜言蜜语，她说的就是她的心里话。女儿真是长大了，懂事了，知道体谅妈妈了！
知道她平时工作忙，没有车(公司不鼓励开车), 周末买个菜，休息休息，偶尔去看场电影，也就过去了。而作为我，一个母亲，就希望她穿得漂漂亮亮的，希望在她最美好的年华，如花似玉般的年纪活得亮丽，活出她特有的色彩。见了面，最想跟她说的是，生活远不止工作、学习，这世界如此缤纷绚丽，享受它，它是属于你们年轻人的！
Coming out of Nordstrom Rack empty-handed, I headed towards a bigger mall, looking for shoes and clothes for my daughter. It was a rare muggy spring day, and I felt quite lethargy driving on the freeway I5. The mountains on both sides are barren and brownish, without the long-awaited greenness or patches of flowers that should have dominated at this time of the year. When I exited into the familiar mall, the constructions there on the parking lot, with high blocked fences and working craters, narrowed the driving ways, adding to the hustle and bustle of a busy shopping mall. Our city is overdeveloped, and is stretched to its capacity With so many new homes, commercial buildings constructed, the place is no longer what it was ten years ago, giving way to outburst of ballooning population and crowdedness.
I finally found a parking spot in front of Nordstrom, an extravagant store that has been on downhill and was rumored to go private or store reduction.
Stepping into an air-conditioning and spacious store, where fashionable commodities were gleaming under the lights, I felt refreshed and lifted from my lethargies. There were not a lot of customers on the first floor, neither many on the second. I strolled from the first to the second, glancing, looking and picking up the clothes from the shelves. What looks like in trend this year, for women’s apparel, are floral prints with bell sleeves, layered hems, off-the-shoulders, or transparent embroidered blouses. I took pictures, sent them to the Wechat family groups and awaited the feedback. At one time, my husband’s firm “No” dinged through before my daughter said anything. Disappointed, I walked out of the store, empty-handed again. I don’t know if it is my taste that is questionable, or it is really the style itself that is not to our liking. It is a store we shopped and liked before, and it is not the price issue that drove me away, as exclusion and denial came before price checking.
