I really love bright colors. When asked to share my favorite color of all, I could not.

Yes, I have colors I am especially partial to. But I also can argue the point for nearly any color. However, if one were to look into my closet, you would see a whole lot of clothes that match the school my boys attend or very dull colors. Dull colors go with everything. Gray, black…dullness.

Perhaps it is the fact that we haven’t been browsing stores for so long or perhaps it is because my kids have been in school now for 14 years so I am really tired of the school colors or perhaps I am tired of the “same ol’, same ol’, but I have been on the search for clothes that I just really like.

Thus, this sweater.

Last weekend, my Shipsi women — my mom, sister, sister-in-law, niece and my niece’s friend — visited the Grainery in Wayland and then went to Tanger for the first time ever, to shop. I had run in there to visit a friend’s shop (HD Soap by Hilltop Designs) when it opened, but hadn’t been there to browse and shop. My sister-in-law needed a dress for a wedding, so on a very blustery and bitterly cold day, we headed to Tanger to find a summertime dress.

We didn’t shop long before we found the perfect dress, and shortly thereafter we found the perfect shoes for the wedding. Then we began the fun of browsing. And since it was so cold out, we were going into all the stores because who wants to be out in the cold wind?

And there, on an end rack, in the back corner of the store, on clearance with an extra discount, was this sweater. And not just one of these sweaters, at least ten of them in various sizes.

I gasped aloud.

“Mom!” I squealed, “That sweater!”

I couldn’t shrug out of my heavy, flannel outer shirt fast enough to pull on the lightweight sweater. “It fits!” I glowed.

I twirled in my happiness in the middle of the store, not even looking for a mirror. I didn’t need one. I was madly in love with a sweater. I happened to catch the look of another customer browsing a rack near me. By the look on their face, they did not share my love of this sweater.

My mom grinned at me, as only a mother can, who knows her child has found her thing. “You have to get it,” she told me. I looked at the tag. It was a $70 sweater marked down to the low price of 24 dollars. I briefly thought about whether or not this was a practical buy, and not much came to mind to make this practical at all, really. It was a steal of a deal. But then, I also remembered the brilliant line from Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side.

“Well, one thing I know about shopping is that if you don’t absolutely love it in the store, you won’t wear it. The store is where you like it best. So before you choose something, think of yourself wearing it and say to yourself: Is this me?” – Leigh Anne Tuohy, The Blind Side

I was swooning over this sweater so hard, I knew I had to bring it home. It was so me.

I didn’t even look around at anything else in the store. I just marched myself right up to the counter to check out. “Did you find everything you were looking for?” the sales associate asked politely.

“Yes!” I answered enthusiastically, and I pulled out the brilliant colored sweater.

I know you shouldn’t judge a person by their facial expression, but her face seemed to clearly say, “Is this a joke? Is she really going to buy this horrific sweater?”

The sales associate choked out the words, “Will this be all?”

I smiled brightly. Almost as brightly as the sweater I was soon to own. “Yes, I just love it!” I said to her, just in case she thought I was a nutcase. Although, telling a stranger you love something like a brilliant, bright sweater may make you a bit more nuttier than the typical customer. I am going to go with “more memorable”. And I was going to be memorable with that sweater!

“Yes, well…” she scanned the sweater, “If that will be all, your total is $13.72.” Ya’ll, the sweater was on super clearance. I mean, when it’s meant to be, it is really meant to be.

My mom coughed once. She knew. She knew, I was suddenly so much happier than the happy I had been at finding the sweater, that I was about to burst. I handed the woman my cash, I grabbed the bag with my sweater, and I walked out the door. I don’t think that door had closed all the way when my mom and I began laughing hysterically. “Mom!” I squealed because I didn’t even know what to say.

“I know, I know!” my mom laughed. “I almost think you should go back and get another one!” We laughed and laughed.

I would have bought that sweater on my own, but having my mom there to share the memory of this purchase makes it all the better.

What purchase have you made that someone else may have thought you were crazy but you have never regretted?