mall rat

NYC has pretty much of everything, and the best of it too. However, one thing that it seriously lacks is indoor shopping malls.

The top three malls that I would frequent back in California:

1. Brea Mall
Brea is like your reliable best friend. You know the in's and out's of that place... you know where every store is, what types of booths there are in the food court, the whole she-bang. It's nice without being arrogant. There are a good array of affordable shops. You've got your Banana's to your H&M's to your Nordstrom's- nothing is superfluous. In general, the crowd seems to consist of friendly, wholesome middle class folks.

2. Beverly Center
This is like your rich cousin you see on an biennial basis... kind of snooty but tolerable. It's good to visit once in a while, but you would get sick of it if you saw it too often. Most of the shops you can't really afford, but it's nice to know it's there. Something about the place seems a little bare, lacking of substance & variety.

3. Puente Hills Mall
This is like your deadbeat ex-boyfriend that you dated in high school. Whenever you go back, there's constantly new stores (whatta whore), but they're all cheap and tacky and will be gone in a month. You go there maybe once every time you go home for some last-minute purchase, because it's convenient, but every time you go, you feel a bit paranoid that you'll see some blast from the past and try to get outta there as quickly as possible.

So for Black Friday this year, my cousin and I decided to go to the Garden State Plaza (NJ's landmark mall). Big mistake. I somehow forgot I can't stand mobs of people in enclosed areas. I also almost forgot how malls seem to attract the most annoying types of people.

1. Teenagers
They are just so loud and obnoxious, toting their Pacsun shopping bags and Mcdonalds cups. I ask myself if I were ever that loud and obnoxious when I was in my teens. No, I was always a 25-year-old in a 16-year-old body. ha! That can't be right because I don't even feel like a 25-year-old in a 25-year-old body. But yeah, I would like to think that I could've never been that bad.

2. Really big people
Okay, I know I'm going to come off as a really mean witch, and maybe because I now rarely see overweight people walking in the streets of New York, but they are just so slow and take up too much space. And always eating pretzels.

3. Asian mother-and-daughter pairs
I always seem to run into these types when I'm shopping in a store. It's usually the case of the overbearing mother telling the quiet, slightly insecure daughter what to try on and what to buy. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it just does. They're somehow always Asian... usually Korean.

Regardless, I know one of the first things I will do when I go back home is visit a wonderful popcorn-scented, mob-infested mall. Even of the loser ex-boyfriend variety.