lemon love

My love affair with Lululemon began where any great love affair should begin, in San Francisco, while training for my first half marathon. Confession: I was kind of a clueless college kid at the time and kept calling them "Lulumoon". I hope they will forgive me.

Fast forward a few years, a lot more miles on my sneakers and some time at at real life big girl job in the fashion industry. I started to hear ladies around the office talking about the amazing butt enhancing capabilities of this pant made by some company called Lululemon. What? Who are these people and why are they so amazing? So I Google them like any curious twenty something person does the second they come across something they do not know about. Much to my surprise and also to my embarrassment they were none other than the Lulumoon of my past. Also I discovered they were full of fabulous and wonderful workout clothes of all kinds.

Sometime later my job opened me up to the wide world of Twitter and in turn it opened me back up to Lululemon. I loved browsing their website, falling in love with item after item, creating a perfect imaginary wardrobe for the life where all I do all day is work out. Of course, my budget is pretty small for the non-essential (even though I would like to consider anything athletic as an essential), so for a long time all I could do was dream.

It would be a lazy Sunday afternoon in the city, after picking up the latest copy of Runner's world at Barnes and Noble, that I would come across an actual Lululemon store. My eyes widened with glee and I stopped in my tracks just looking at the mannequins in the window. I knew a store like this was the last place Boyfriend wanted to be, but thankfully there were some chairs for him to rest on, and quite honestly I was instantly distracted by nylon and spandex in all the vibrant colors of the rainbow. The sales staff was cheerful and helpful, I know way too much about clothing construction and fit for my own good but they had plenty of helpful advice. And then I saw them, the Boogie On Short. I decided right then and there I NEEDED to own this short. It was a perfect mix of soft, tight, short, and awesome. Plus it had a bright colored waistband, and who doesn't love a bright colored waistband? I showed Boyfriend, he was not pleased that I wanted to walk out of the house in shorts so tight or so short. But I wanted them. I had to literally (but gently) be pulled out of the store by my arm with the painful reminder that I just could not afford these shorts right now. It was a sad time.

I had to find a way to justify buying myself a little something. And so last Saturday, after a nice 8 mile long run I decided I deserved a treat. At first this treat was a bottle of teal nail polish and a trip to the farmers market but when I couldn't find the polish I wanted I found myself (how convenient!) right in front of non other than Lululemon once again. And this time I was on my own, just a woman in a store with her wallet and no one to tell her no! I entered, almost too exited to contain myself. I was leaving with a new pair of shorts, I just didn't know which ones yet. I decided to be open minded, because if there is anything my life in fashion has taught me it is something just aren't meant to fit every body. So I picked up three different styles.

Boogie On Shorts; Run:Groovy Run Shorts; and Run:Speed Shorts.

While I was browsing the massive collection of Remix Lulu Hoodies the ever cheerful sales girls came over to take my things to a fitting room. This prompted a brief discussion of my name (Sara) and it's various different spellings, and how it's ridiculously common. Tell me something I don't know. But the girls were great and I began trying on shorts.

The Run:Groovy Run Shorts were up first, and although they were comfortable they were longer than what I was looking for.

Boogie On Shorts were up next, I had a feeling these were going to be the one. After all I had already loved them for so long. But for as comfortable as they were, not too tight, weightless and soft, they just couldn't contain my booty. This is no ones fault of course, and I for one am glad I had the sense to jog in place in the fitting room even if people could see my feet and thought I was crazy. At first I thought maybe I could just get them and pretend it wasn't that bad. But the three way mirror behind me said otherwise.

So now it was on to my last and final choice the Run:Speed short. Magical. Except too tight. Size up please? One was promptly brought to my room and as I slipped it on I quietly squealed with excitement. It was like thinking you had met the love of your life, been dumped, cried, and them met someone knew only to realize they were way better. Except with shorts and not boys. It was like wearing the most comfortable lounging around short, but with all the functionality of a running short. SUPER big plus, someone finally figured out a workable short rise to liner length ratio for my body shape! Side note most run shorts fit me in the liner but there is far too much length in the rise. I tend to roll the waistband down and the front crotch gets all baggy and bunchy and let's just say the look is not the most flattering. This short has the look of a split side but with a smart little bar tack at the sides so at least a little leg still remains covered. The Nylon/Lycra waistband, has an amazingly smooth feel with just the right amount of stretch to stay put on my hips with out *shudder* creating the dreaded muffin top. Oh and can we just for one second talk about the pocket? The wonderful ZIPPERED pocket in the back waistband so that my car key is no longer stabbing me in the hip when I put it into those little envelope waistband pockets? Genius.

I wanted to celebrate my excitement with the sales girls but I was sure they would not know what to make of such enthusiasm for a pair of shorts as I was currently experiencing. She did however suggest I check out the display for all the different colors available. I decided on black body, with white trim and a white waistband printed with random bursts of neon color. Things got even better when I received a discount for showing my registration for the upcoming Philadelphia Marathon.

I left the store that day with a little extra spring in my step. Do you think I'm a little bit of a crazy lady after reading how much I could love one company? Well that's ok if you do, I'll admit I can be a bit of a nut sometimes.

xx Sara