ETA: By all means anyone who wants to post about meetups, add your 2 cents (or 200 cents)...

So much to condense in one post! I'm sure there will be more than one - apologies in advance for that.

For two days of shopping, I actually didn't come home with much, and I consider that a triumph of PPP in action. I got a citron jacket from H & M, the army pants from Zara, and a burgundy sweater from Club Monaco (thanks to MaryK's "11 out of 10" rating!). I picked up a fringe leather bag and a triple-hole wide belt at the swap meet for a total of $7. Mochi kindly brought me the right size of the H & M emerald moto. Oh, and I got a silver Nine West clutch with a handle at Marshalls. Not a lot for someone prepared to shop up to her eyeballs.

But what I did was LEARN and REALIZE... That's the real benefit of meeting other YLFers!

The first thing that struck me was how much satisfaction I got just from browsing and trying things on IRL, and having (for me) an infinite amount of time to do it. This made me realize that 90% of my orders are just to experiment for fun - or explore, as Janet said - and play dress up. If I could do this more often, I'd probably cut down on most of my actual orders.

For instance, we went to Zara (a personal goal!) and the only thing I ended up with was the army harem pants I'm wearing today. Those were also something I'd scouted in advance.

Getting to try stuff on was also invaluable in educating myself about sizing in different stores and brands. H & M runs crazy small and the quality was all over, though I did get a citron jacket very similar to the Theory jacket there.

Seeing certain items on different body types was also super helpful and therapeutic too. Several of us are in a very close size range, yet the same item would llook totally different on each of us. Rae's slouchy checked pants were a good example - both Aida and I tried them also and immediately could see they didn't work. Rae tried them last and it was like the pants were transformed into pure awesomeness! Then there was a sweater at Club Monaco that I picked up and that happened to fit me best out of everyone who tried it. Sylvie and I tried as hard as we could to force each other to buy a studded green pleather jacket in a boutique that worked on both of us (but neither one ended up with it). Body type really does play a huge part in how things look.

Aida and I came up with this puzzle: is an hourglass both an IT and a pear?

Above all, it was amazing to have a travelng group of friends all knowledgeable, interested, patient, picky, persistent, hilarious and willing to put in time to really weigh in on everything. There was so much of "this doesn't work for me, you try it". Colors, styles, cut, sizing - just getting to observe all the factors in action was like taking a grad level fashion course. And that's not even counting the sheer thrill of meeting people who seem like favorite characters in a book you love to read over and over.

We didn't even get to the lessons we'd planned (dye workshop and photography), plus I was hoping to do some body measurements. Two days of non-stop shopping was more exhausting than I thought! If we could do it differently, with infinite time and money, I'd do three days - which would give us the time to do two days of shopping but mix it up with a couple of the workshops and hanging out time. Oh, and I wish I'd crammed in a day at Disney with Kari.

I am so so grateful to have been able to go to this meet-up. Anyone else have thoughts about meetup lessons learned?

Oh, here's another one: when MaryK starts calling everything "hideous" it's time for a drink.