Souvenir Shopping

We are in Vancouver.  It is lovely.  Also, rainy and cold.  Heat indexes were in the triple digits (fahrenheit) back home, so rainy and cold is actually a nice change of pace.  But I decided that I needed a new jacket.  No problem, right?  Here in the land of Lululemon, I could snag a jacket and make that my Vancouver souvenir.  (You could say that I already had this scenario in mind while packing...  and you would be right.)

So Friday night after my conference, we headed from the Pan Pacific hotel up to Robson street for a little Lululemon shopping.

I tried on this jacket:

And this hoodie:

And I was almost sold on this little number:

But then I tried on the cool down jacket:

I loved it.  Everything about it.  It was my most favorite.  It's SO cute.  And it's reversable!

But it wasn't in my size.

No worries, right?  I'm in Canada!  Lululemon is everywhere!  There are five locations in the greater Vancouver area!  Plus Whistler!  Surely ONE of these stores will have this jacket in my size.

The sales girl helped me out by calling the two stores that were still open on Friday night.

No luck.  They were sold out.

I was slightly discouraged, but I was confident we'd figure it out the next day.  So we grabbed dinner (fish tacos for me, halibut for David) and then got gelato before heading back to the hotel.  The next morning, I had to head to my conference at 8am but my devoted husband called all of the Lululemon stores in Vancouver in search of the cool down jacket in my size.

But this is MY life, so of course things are not going to work out easily.  I met up with David on my lunch break and he broke the news to me:  There is no cool down jacket in my size in ALL of Vancouver.

Well, FINE, Canada.  Make things hard on me.  I decided I'd just order it online (free shipping!) and my Canadian souvenir will be waiting for me when I get home.

Except it's also sold out online.  Evidently it's last year's style.

Of course it is.


So I pouted for a while as I pondered the problem.  Do I go back for one of the other jackets I liked?  I really did like the dance studio jacket a lot.  Do I call it a loss and buy yoga pants instead?

Then I had a flash of inspiration.

Back on the Lululemon website, I clicked on "store locations" and I entered "St. Louis."

That's right.  There's a Lululemon at Frontenac mall.  I crossed my fingers and paid 20 cents a minute to make an international call on my phone.

And there were TWO cool down jackets in my size, waiting for me at home.

Of course there were.  Because I live in the middle of the country, where the general philosophy is why walk when you can drive, and every food (including Twinkies) can be improved by deep fat frying it.  It should be no surprise that last year's active wear is still in stock.


So I was celebrating this discovery, but after the sold out phenomenon of Vancouver stores, I was nervous that these two jackets would both sell before I could get back home.  I knew the store wouldn't hold it for me for over a week.  So what's a girl to do?

Well, this girl sat in her hotel room in Vancouver and called her BFF at work in St. Louis and asked her to go to Lululemon and buy me a jacket.

And that, my friends, is global commerce.

I'm glad I got the jacket I really wanted, but as I look at this week's forecast, it would be really nice to have that jacket here.

Instead, I'm wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt that my mom picked up at the Vineyard's Farm and Home Supply clearance sale.  It may not be cool, but it is keeping me warm.