but i needed them

I caved.

I tried oh-so-hard to resist, really I did.

They called to me in a language that is easily detected by my inner shopper, my inner shopper who, even after years and years of being bludgeoned and bashed by in-your-face marketing and slick messages, still gets taken for a whirlwind ride every time.

Live Your Life! screams the in-store billboard. Live Your Life! they yell from 20" plasma screen TV's. Live Your Life in brown, Texas-sized sunglasses with spangly rhinestones affixed to the sides!

Damn those crafty young marketing geniuses at American Eagle. Spangly rhinestones!