MTA Pro

When I was growing up, my dad had a shirt that he wore a lot in the summer. It was white, sleeveless and had a logo patch along the hem in the front that said "MTA Pro". The patch looked similar to one that a "Champion" or "Adidas" shirt would have on it - you know a "cool" shirt. The funny thing about my dad's shirt was that MTA stands for Meijer Thrifty Acres - well at least my sister and I thought that was funny and teased him mercilessly about his MTA Pro shirt.

You might be wondering why am I reminiscing about the MTA Pro shirt. Well, after my shopping trip on Saturday it came to mind - let me explain. Normally when I go shopping at Meijers, I shop for groceries, health & beauty products and baby items (i.e. diapers and lots of them). Meijers isn't a place I typically go to browse for things (especially clothing) - I save that for Target and fall victim to the $75 "rule". This past week, however, I noticed in the Meijer ad that they were running a sale on swimsuits - buy one piece get one half off (Matt was excited until I said the half meant dollars, not fabric). The swimsuit they pictured in the ad looked really cute and I thought that if I made it to Meijer sometime that week, I would try to remember to check them out.

That brings me to Saturday late-afternoon when we had no milk in the house and time was running out on the swimsuit sale. Even though Matt volunteered to go get the milk, I passed on his offer saying that I wanted to go to the store myself because there was something in the ad I wanted to "quick" check on. I really thought it would be quick, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Once I got to Meijer, I quickly found the swimsuit display - of course it was in disarray due to the sale all week - and all the swimsuits were mix and match. This turned out to be a nice option since I'm not the same size on top as I am on the bottom (no comments, please), but when I was trying to decide which suits I liked and then which size to try on, I ended up with about twelve things to take into the dressing room.

At this point I remembered why I dislike shopping for clothes at Meijer and why I dislike shopping for clothes by myself anywhere, especially Meijer. In order to get into a dressing room, you need to pick up the red phone and call for assistance. Once someone came to let me in the dressing room, I was told the limit of items to try on was 5 - lovely! First I thought I would follow the rules and took only five items in. Then when I figured out I picked the wrong size to take in with me, I also found out that the dressing room "attendant" (we'll use that term loosely) doesn't stick around when someone is in the dressing room! So, I was faced with the decision of getting all my clothes back on to go out and get my other selections or go the six feet wearing the swimsuit I'm trying on. I opted for the later and about paniced when I heard the door come close to closing behind me! At this point, I decided to break the five item rule and brought the rest of my selections in with me.

After way too many times of on-again, off-again with the swimsuits, I decided on a combination that I liked. I also decided that I would never shop for a swimsuit alone again, that I need to start working out or something, and that shopping for swimsuits in March is generally depressing! If I waited until I had a tan, however, I figure the swimsuit selection would be pretty bleak. (Side note: why is the retail cycle set up that we have to buy winter coats in summer and swimsuits when there is snow on the ground - a major pet peeve of mine!)

Just as I made my swimsuit selection and was getting dressed to go get the milk, Matt called me to say that he was starting supper (read: he was sick of waiting for me to come home make supper). So much for a "quick" trip to Meijer - I had spent close to an hour checking out the swimsuit sale! Thankfully, Matt was understanding and gave his stamp of approval on the swimsuit. However, that stamp of approval was given with the caveat, "but I'm not the fashion police", which pretty much means "sure I like it, but you better ask your sister before you wear it in public".

After all that I just kept thinking - it's a good thing that Levi is too young to mock his mom for getting an MTA Pro swimsuit!