“Mommy, come see these underground shops.” my seven year old says. It’s the last day of our Spring Break in Seattle.
“Underground? Do you mean the tunnels of old Seattle by Pioneer Square?” “No, these shops.” He points to a hallway with a series of shops outside of Shuckers the restaurant at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel where we just finished lunch. I follow him down the hallway and spot a leopard print lining in a yellow raincoat. I stop in my tracks.
Stripes. It was only two more days until National Stripes Day (a holiday J. Crew created). Truth be told, I’d stop for stripes any time of the year.
In the shop window I see a gorgeous navy and white striped rain jacket. I have been schlepping around Seattle in my perfectly functional black Marmot jacket that I picked up at Costco over 10 years ago. It has served me well, but I have been a little jealous of my son the whole trip because he has been running around Seattle in a stylish St. James navy rain jacket with soft blue and white striped lining (the same fabric as their famous shirts). I bought him the jacket in Paris in 2014.
“Isn’t that lovely?” The store owner walks over “its Saint James. It’s perfect for you” Little does she know my son has one upstairs that is a perfect match. I try it on both hoping it does not fit and wanting it to be perfect at the same time. The arms are too short. Sigh. I try the next size. It’s perfect.
“It’s only $320”
“Of course you think that is a good deal. It’s surrounded by Bogner and four digit coats.” I text a photo of it to my husband. I’m disappointed it’s the last day and we don’t have all of our photos in this jacket that would look so perfect with my son’s.
I must think about it. I make it as far as another shop that has Sugarfina candy . My seven year old starts hitting the samples hard and lobbying for multiple candies.
My husband texts back:
“Cool jacket. For what?”
“I have no decent jackets”
“Anniversary and Mother’s Day?”
“Anniversary”
“Done”
I consider the jacket and picture myself wearing it. “Mommy can I have three?” “Three what? No, you can pick one” “Really? Yay!” He settles on gummy sugar lips and we plan to share them with my nephews that evening.
I head straight back and buy the coat. I really have not had a good rain jacket for a while, besides navy and white stripes go with everything.
We run up to the hotel room to freshen up. I change my Chanel lip stain to one that will pop with the coat and off we go to catch the light rail to the suburbs.
“Look!”
“What?
“The sun is shining”. We shuffle quickly to the light rail.
“I love your darling matching coats. You look so cute” A woman says as we are almost to the escalator
“Thank you very much”
Suddenly I remember and sigh loudly.
“What mama?”
“We forgot your booster. Ugh you are almost big enough to go without it”
“We need to go get it.”
We run back to the hotel, all the way up to our floor. He grabs the room key and runs ahead to get it. He runs back with the booster. We hustle back and just miss a train.
I am exhausted from all the running. My son puts the booster on a bench near the security guard and sits down on it. We ask the security guard “how long until the next 124?”
He responds “A few more minutes. You just missed one.”
I check my watch and text my brother. We are cutting us close to make school pick up. A combination of light rail trains and buses keep coming. A few minutes later we finally see the light rail we are looking for. We hold hands and step on and find one seat for my son. The doors are painted with penguins and a sign that says “Don’t huddle near the door”. I snap a photo and smile.
At the next stop it hits me again, the booster. “We forgot your booster.” He calmly says “Again? Oh no”.
A well-dressed man is eavesdropping “You should get off and cross over and catch the train to go back for it.”
We leave the train and cross over hoping to catch a train quickly. I approach the security guard. “We left our booster seat at the University Station. Can you radio them?”
After a few minutes, we are still not sure if it is there. In the meantime he gets us on a bus back by special arrangement as we have only our train tickets.
We arrive and run over to the security officer. He is holding the booster. He says with a thick Russian accent, “Yes, it is you the lady and the boy in the stripes. A woman with a stroller tried to say it was hers right after you left. I said no that does not belong to you. You are not the fashionable lady with the cute kid in the stripes”.
“Thank you so much.”
We wait only a short time for our train. This time there are two seats together. I clutch the booster tightly. A woman looks at us, smiles and says “Your jackets are so cute.” “Thank you.” I smile back and think to myself, “Best purchase ever.”
Crewcuts Slim Jeans in Wrinkle Rinse / Crewcuts Slim Jeans in Well-Worn Wash Crewcuts Sunnies / Lookout Jeans/ Piper Sunglasses / New York Tee/ Stan Smith
XO,
JAE
the navy leopard 