FLASHBACK #2: THE BIG ONE-O (OR, EVIL DOLLIES REPRISED)

Friday, August 24, 2007

The wedding we attended in Chicago fell right on Sarah's 10th birthday. All kids make a big deal about the Big 1-0, because the next time you break through a digit barrier, you're 100, and you aren't really that excited about the whole birthday thing anymore. So Sarah was very bummed that the wedding eclipsed her birthday.

I was able to more than make up for it, though, when I told her we'd go to American Girl Place in Chicago 2 days later for a real birthday celebration.

This was a hard-thought decision. American Girl Place is a destination I had successfully avoided lo those many years we LIVED IN Chicago.

The first time I heard of American Girl dolls, Sarah was way too young to have one. A catalog arrived at our house. Inside were these large, very innocent looking dollies, each with their own history and clothes nicer than mine. More expensive than mine too! I thought to myself... oh brother. What a racket. Like the US government with Osama Bin Laden at that time, I pretended American Girl didn't exist and vowed to myself never to mention it. The catalog met an untimely death.

Sarah's friends in Chicago were not into American Girl, nor were their older sisters, so we were able to live our entire existence there in peace.

Then we moved to California. And into our house. And started meeting friends and neighbors.

American Girl dolls loom large here. There is a sort of trancelike state that all the 8-to-12-year-olds fall into when you even mention it. They carry these dolls around in public. By age 10, I would venture to say, I would not have been caught dead carrying a dollie around with me.

Some of the girls buy clothes so that they can MATCH their doll.

This is quite a phenomenon, and has led me to believe that we have girls in this particular generation pegged wrong. They are more innocent, more sensitive, and actually younger inside than we give them credit for. Everyone thinks kids are in a rush to grow up, and hence the invention of Bratz and other teen girl-looking stuff. But American Girl dolls look like they're about 9 years old. Go figure.

Anyway. Yah we got her a Samantha doll last Hanukkah. She about peed. Becca even started playing with the American Girl babydoll that one of our crazy friends in Chicago gave us. They could sit and play for hours with all the stuff.

So when it was time to go to Chicago, I knew that she would near-faint to go to the actual store. There are only 3 stores in the US... most of the business is catalog based. So the store is a-somethin'. There is a beauty salon where your dollie can get a new hairdo, a doll hospital where they remove ink stains and other violations, a cafe... like I said before, what a racket! PT Barnum himself would have grinned.

It's fair to say that I was completely unprepared for the American Girl experience. Mostly, I was not prepared in advance to set realistic limits regarding the shopping trip. And I was not prepared for the utter retail assault of this place... it doesn't feel as if it's in the real world.

Samantha got a hairdo that cost as much as the kids' haircuts. I did sign us up in advance for the birthday party lunch, which as you can imagine, hits you right in the wallet. If Don had not fished us out of there, it just would have gotten worse. Because these dollies are very needy.

"What were you thinking?" was my hubby's very practical question on the ride back to the hotel.

"Thinking? This did not involve any sort of thinking" was the only thing I could say.

After we returned to San Diego, we were at our friend Chris and Allison's house, and Chris and I had a little mini-meeting of American Girl Anonymous. He revealed to me that he encountered a Personal Shopper at the American Girl in LA. She "helped" him carry his stuff. This is deadly because the stuff is bulky, and that's how I knew I was sort of done... I was like Santa lugging around an unwieldy amount of girl crap and could carry no more. So removing the carrying aspect was probably even more damaging. We commiserated. It felt good.

Here's a little film of the highlights from the trip. It's set to Hannah Montana. Cuz why should I have to go through this alone?

Music: The Best of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana