Prep Alert

A welcome surprise from yesterday's trip to the shore: a new JCrew outlet has opened in Atlantic City.

JCrew is one of the more recent additions to Atlantic City's "The Walk" (Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City) and both the Walk and that JCrew are hard to miss if you're coming into town via the AC Expressway. I'm wary of outlets since I think you can find better deals on the sales racks in the regular stores. But I scored a few great sales on pants yesterday at JCrew, which is a major plus considering I'm updating my wardrobe (being back "on the market" and all). It's much easier to try out new looks, like winter-wear shorts paired with tights and boots as a "going out" outfit, at discount prices. I never though of trying that look until I found the pants for $9.97 at this JCrew outlet (and put in two months of serious running to get my legs back in the kind of shape where I could fathom pulling this off -- I rarely wore shorts this summer). And you know what? It looks pretty good -- much more interesting than my fall back of "jeans and a cute top."

Speaking of 'the market,' Saturday night I'll be at the Bridesmaids Ball, which benefits the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, with a few people who were in my Avalon shore house. I'll probably be the only woman wearing a ladies' tux (which is pictured in this post), so stop by an say hi if you happen to spot me.

Now, I didn't buy that outfit at JCrew, nor in Atlantic City. The tux was purchased a few years ago from a Guess? store in King of Prussia -- BUT there is a Guess? outlet at The Walk in Atlantic City, and I've seen a tux almost exactly like the one I'll be wearing on the outlet racks at an outlet price. It's an extremely versatile piece of formal wear -- I'm just glad I finally got rid of all my "testing every pizza parlor, Italian restaurant and ice cream shop at the Jersey shore" weight (thanks again to running) so I can fit into this on Saturday night!