shopping for underwear

Now there’s a title that you probably didn’t expect!  Most veteran travelers recommend that you take 2-4 pair of underwear for an extended trip like mine.  And then wear each pair multiple times before you wash.  Sorry, but I find that gross…I like putting on clean underwear in the morning so I brought way more than 2-4 pairs.  But I’ve found that traveling and living in other countries is hard on my clothes.  Particularly since I often have to wash my clothes by hand and I really don’t know how to do that properly.

Anyway, the other day I decided it was time for new underwear.  So I headed to the mall to go to the department store.  I assumed this would be fairly easy.  Boy was a wrong!  Remember what I said in a prior post about overly helpful clerks in the deparment stores?  Well…..I head over to the undergarment deparment and there are no fewer than 10 clerks in the department.  I kid you not.  Why oh why would any store need 10 clerks in their undergarment department?  Oh, and this is just the men’s department.  

On top of that, every one of the clerks was female.  Now.  I’m not sure how I would feel about having a male clerk help me shop for underwear.  But I’m pretty certain that I don’t want a woman helping me!  And yet no matter how many times I told them I was “just looking” they wouldn’t leave me alone.  ”Briefs, sir?”  

I left emptyhanded.  I went to another mall.  Same thing.  This one woman would not give up no matter how many times I told her I was just looking.  Eventually I went back to the first mall and just grabbed 3 pair of the cheapest underwear I could find.

Here’s the thing.  I actually know how to buy underwear. Believe it or not, I’ve done this before.  There are lots of things I need help with.  This isn’t one of them.  In fact, of all the things I’m qualified to do, buying underwear for myself is near the top of the list.  

(by the way, this was intended to be a funny post, but I’m not sure it came out that way).