(it's going to get a bit wordy and back-story-y here, so bare with me)
So, last night I was talking with the boyfriend about how thanks to the washing machine, my last nice bra got trashed (it ripped off the hooks even though I hooked them together prior to putting it in the wash), and that for most, if not all my underwires, the underwire had come through. So, I was in need of new bras, but I didn't know what my bra size was (only because I was pretty certain that my size had gone up since I last went bra shopping). So, to the Googles I went, and I found a site that said how to do the measurements, and it had a converter thingy that after you put your measurements in, it'd tell you your bra size. I did the measurements, and got 26/28 (something like that). I put in my measurements, and the site told me that my size was 38DD/34F.
The bras that I have are 34As. I am quite clearly a member of the itty bitty titty committee.
So, away from that site I went, and next found a site that told you how to convert the numbers into a bra size yourself. From there, I got the way more reasonable 30B/32B.
Next day (today) I made my way to Target (if you never heard of the place, the best I can describe it is 'a classy Wal*Mart'), and went in search of the underwear section. It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for, although I didn't find any non-underwires in my size or at a reasonable price. Wanting to see if they'd fit, I headed to the dressing room and tried them on. In short, they did not fit at all. They were way too tight. Annoyed since I hate shopping for undergarments, I had to put those back and went for the next size up. Same problem as the previous sizes. Again, I put the non-fitting ones back and got the next size up. Still no. Next size isn't tight, but the cup part offered almost no support.
Sigh.
I gave up on my dreams of becoming a B cup and just grab a 36A to see if that fit. Finally, I got a bra that fit, and desperately wanted to make my way away from the underwear section. However, seeing as I was only picking up the one bra for the time being (the store was starting to get very crowded, and I didn't want to pick up a bunch of underwires because of what I said before), I figured that I might as well pick up some panties. Probably could use a few new pairs.
As I'm staring at the Wall 'o Panties, I realize that I neither remember what size my underwear was, nor what type doesn't ride up my butt. I was reasonably sure what my size was, but I didn't want to pick up a size that was too big/small, so I needed to check. However, after the four or five times I went in and out of the dressing room, the attendant was sick and tired of my stupid face, so I wasn't going back there to check. So, I basically had to wedgie myself, in public, to check my damn size. After that sad act, I had to spend more time trying to find my stupid size, while looking at the underwear models as I was trying to remember if it was bikini cut or brief cut that stayed out of my butt.
However, the ever increasing swell of people there was making underwear shopping even more awkward, I simply grabbed a pack and quickly made haste to the shortest register line I could find. As if to add more insult to injury, even though the stands for the bra and panties said they were on sale, the register scanned them as regular price. At least the sweatshirt looking pullover made of pure softness I found was the super cheap sales price it said it was.
TL;DR: Underwear shopping is more difficult and embarrassing than it should be.
So ladies, have you ever faced a similar situation of embarrassment/difficulty while out shopping for such things? I've found myself a bit curious since I was trying to reason with myself that all ladies must feel such a way, and that no one cared.