If you like it, then you ought to put a ring on it, but what if the thing you like is a ring?

Last week, I went shopping with some friends. It's the holidays, and we needed clothes. Okay, I didn't need clothes, but I had the time to spare. It was a foregone conclusion that we'd end up in H&M. Indeed, we spent most of the afternoon there. The girls went crazy, and they began trawling the two floors dedicated to them. Me and my other guy friend went up to the third floor to see what they had.

As you probably know already, the third floor isn't even wholly-dedicated to guys' clothes - it's shared with the children's section. I walked around once to see what they had to offer. The clothes were cheap, true, but that didn't make them worthy of being worn. Their plain tees are a bit too plain, their checkered shirts are trying too hard, and on the whole it wasn't that nice. I did find some gems on my second walk-around, and tried them on. They looked okay, but I didn't buy them (because I'm broke).

Having looked around the guys' section twice, we checked on the girls who were still at the first floor. They weren't done. Not even close. I guess that makes sense. Mathematically-speaking, they should take four times as much time as we did. So we walked with the girls, commenting on what they picked as if we were experts in fashion. Actually, I think we did have authority, as guys, because if we think it looks hot, then it probably does, right? I might be wrong.

Anyway, the girls went to the second floor, and so did we. I wandered over to the accessories section and saw this set of 5 colourful rings. They're neon and chunky. What's more, they only cost $7.90....for five rings! That's like $1.60 per ring! I tried them on, and they looked quite nice! Okay, they were a bit...queer, but I was confident that if I matched it with the right outfit, I'd really be able to pull the rings off (not literally, duh).

I didn't buy the rings immediately. I put them back, and walked around the store once more. Walking helps me think. It doesn't help me think particularly well, but it does help me think. I walked back to the accessory section, grabbed the rings from a whole pile of them and made the purchase. I approached the cashier all cool-like, as if I was buying a gift for a friend. Pretty sure I fooled him.

After a significant period of time, the girls finally finished exploring H&M. We had one casualty - one who decided to stay at H&M while we went to other shops. I guess shopping is kind of like war. We went to Topshop (where there was this really cool TBB pop-up store, but that's another story), and a few more shops and then we headed home.

Fast forward to that time when you're lying at the bed doing nothing whatsoever.

I took the rings out of my bag. I tried slipping them into my fingers...but they wouldn't fit. Maybe it's just one of the five rings, I thought. I systematically went through the rest, and none of them fit. I looked at the packaging and saw a sticker which labeled it as "XS". The realization hit me like...you ever had those moments when you stand up and you bump your head against a low ceiling? Yeah, something like that.

The Conscious Collection is such a weird name. There's a joke in here...somewhere.

The rings weren't free-size. The ones I tried on earlier were probably L, or something. D'oh. And the one I walked away from is XS/S, which my fingers are clearly not. So now I have to go back to H&M to do an exchange. Phew. I have 30 days to do so...30 days to think of a likely store which won't sound too weird. Okay, granted the cashier probably won't ask, but it's not everyday that a guy walks in to exchange cheap plastic rings.

Maybe he'll think that the rings are for my non-existent girlfriend. But then he'll judge me for having a (non-existent) girlfriend with freakishly large fingers. I guess it's still preferable to the original story, that the rings are for me because I'm (trying to be) trendy.

I'll update this post with a picture of me wearing the actual ring when I get around to getting it exchanged, but for now I'll sign out. PEACE.

PS: Yesterday's post seems like it got a lot of 'hits'. I'm really glad that people took notice and I hope that we move towards being more tolerant as a society. What I did wasn't particularly brave or applaudable though; I just posted something on the internet. I could have taken it a step further by actually commenting on that particular person's post...but I don't like getting myself entangled into complicated matters. Hopefully, one day, I'll be braver.