Northlake Mall

Like any other 20-something year old woman, when you're bored you want to go shopping. I've never been one to spend a lot of money, in fact I'm normally SUPER frugal... until this past month. I blame Lerissa. With a new life, you need new threads, right? At least that's her motto for me, and an excuse for her to go shopping when she's not busy with work or school.

So far, I've been to two malls in the area:  Northlake  and Concord Mills (more on this one in this post).

I'm from a small-ish miliary town on the east coast, so all we had was this sad little one-story building, but it had a few popular stores. Barnes & Noble, Belks, JC Penny, Sears, Rue 21, Wet Seal, Journey's, Hot Topic... yeah, not much.

Then you drive into the parking lot of Northlake and you can't help but stare, maybe feel your mouth open slightly in surprise... It's HUGE in comparison! Now, I'm not saying it's the best mall ever, but I liked it. Perhaps a little too much. There are those stores that you can't even walk into without crying because everything costs more than your rent and utilities combined (i.e. Coach and Fossil). If you're living off moderate pay, I would just try to avoid eye contact with those adorable purses in the window. They're a bit like puppies for sale, you can't resist once you make eye contact.
   Just a side note, I've just walked by crying because I do make eye contact, but know I can't afford it. I'm a glutton for punishment.

If you find yourself in this mall, I would highly suggest sampling all of the teas at the amazing store called Teavana! I'm a huge fan of tea, and they have an incredible variety. Yes, it's a little bit pricier than buying a box of lipton at the grocery store, but if you have the spare cash and want to have some simple holistic-ness in your life, tea is the way to go. :) 
Teavana is a franchise, so if you live in a big city with a big mall, you might have one. Make sure you check it out!

Other stores to check out:

• L'Occitane (A little out of my price range, but it's a better, more expensive and French Bath & Body Works/Body Shop)
• The Body Shop 
• Aerie (cute lingerie!)
• Hot Topic (for those of us who like punk, goth, nerd, and/or hipster stuff)
• Forever 21 (or as I call it, Forever Lost, because I can never navigate through all those clothes racks without getting confused.)

The food court is okay. I've eaten at Showmars and Currito so far. At Showmars I had their gyro, which was pretty delicious! I don't remeber the service being that bad, either.
Currito.... I'd just stay away from that place. It was staffed by only one person when I was there, they were out of a couple of things, and everything had been sitting out for a while. Also, the server/"cook"/everything at the time had  her phone on and checked it in the middle of making my cajun burrito (um, ew?), and she also told Lerissa to go to one of the other areas for a salad. Scary. The actual burrito was pretty cold, kind of nasty, and I could make a better one at home. 

As I continue to venture into this mall, I'll be sure to do another post with an update on the other food options, and maybe some opinions on other stores.