For those of you reading this who know me in real life you are saying to yourselves right now, “No way, this blog title can’t be referring to Snookie because she HATES to shop!” And you’d be right. I hate to shop.
But shop I did! For about three hours and believe me, I was ready to drop. Toni picked Bunky and me up this morning and off to the mall we went. I had a 15% off coupon for Penney’s and there were some things that I needed to get. I wanted to get a couple of those, for the lack of a better term, jogging outfits. You know, the pull on pants usually with a stripe down the side with a matching jacket. I figured this close to Christmas and with such a short winter season here they would be on sale and with my coupon I figured I’d get some good deals. I practically stole them! They were marked 50% off, coupled with an even better coupon than my 15% off that the cashier had, I walked out of there with $175.00 worth of stuff for $65 and change plus tax.
From Penney’s we walked the mall. Here is where I was really surprised. The mall wasn’t overly decorated for Christmas. A few large Christmas trees, Santa’s chair, a poinsettia here and there and that was it. Store decorations were also understated. It doesn’t feel like Christmas here with temps in the 80’s so I guess even the mall decorators just can’t bring themselves to go all out. Many individual store window displays hadn’t changed to reflect the season even.
This was my second trip to the mall and the first time out of the confines of J. C. Penney’s so I was pleasantly surprised to find Dillard’s. (Delawareans…think Strawbridges or Wannamaker’s) I hit the jackpot here with a new pair of sneakers marked down from $80. to $40. Yay me!
Brookstone’s was next and here I had the crap nearly scared out of me. I sat down in this massaging chair to see what it was like and Toni pressed one button and my back was being massaged and it was wonderful. She pressed another one and the chair went to work on my neck. I was in heaven! I’m thinking I gotta get me one of these. Even my legs could have been massaged because there was a space for each leg to lay in on the foot rest of the recliner when it laid back in position.
Toni pushed another button and chair went back ever so gently to evenly distribute my weight. Everything was being massaged. Oh yes, gotta get me one of these.
And then…..and then Toni pushed another button. And the chair tried to kill me. The. Chair. Tried. To. Kill. Me. It was like it came to life and the sides of the chair were moving closer together trapping me with its big, black, leather arms. The sections around my legs tightened so that I couldn’t leap from the chair to save myself. And it just kept getting tighter. I should probably tell you that I’m extremely, like to the MAX, claustrophobic. I do not like to be restrained in any way, shape or form. I don’t know if I just yelled, “get me out” or if I screamed and Toni could see the panic stricken look on my face, but I do remember the salesman suddenly being beside Toni and telling her to PUSH THAT BUTTON, PUSH THAT BUTTON! The chair released me and as soon as I could I fled it clutches and quickly said to myself, “Forget that!”
I was ready to go! Before we left Brookstone’s though I bought this really nice gift for one of my fellow workampers that will given at our party on Sunday for the gift exchange.
A few more small shops and I was all shopped out. I needed to get out of the mall anyway. It was getting harder and harder for me to keep my wits about me and not run up to people and yell, “You’re in AMERICA,,,,SPEAK ENGLISH!”
We decided to make a detour through the cemetery across the street from the mall. it was so colorful with all the flowers we just had to see it up close.
Nearly every grave is adorned with some type of artificial flower arrangement or a flag or something of a more personal nature. We saw baseballs, toy trucks, pictures in frames, stuffed animals and things like that.
Some of the arrangements were just huge.
Family plots were easy to pick out.
Some of the headstones and statuary were very elaborate.
Colorful, and in some cases even garish, the cemetery was peaceful. The heavy traffic from the highway, running right along side this eternal resting place, didn’t seem to permeate the air with horn blasts and sirens and squealing brakes. All those sounds were there but somehow muted in reverence to what this space is.
After a stop at the grocery store, read this as, BEER RUN, we headed back to the park.
We all went our separate ways and met up againm with husbands in tow, this evening to play Card Elimination. We play this every Wednesday evening. We had 108 players tonight so every one wanted to win the $108.00 jackpot.
To quickly explain the game: Eleven games or hands. Four players, deck of cards dealt out so each player gets 13 cards. You lay them face up on the table in front of you.
A large plastic cup is started at one the end of the table and each player puts a dime in it for the first game as its passed to the other end. The second game a quarter will be deposited and then a dime and then a quarter until you’ve used all ten coins. (5 dimes, 5 quarters) The very last game is played with a dollar bill.
The caller may tell us to throw all our clubs away and everyone puts their clubs in a pile in front of them. He’ll then proceed to call the remaining cards in the deck. If you have one he calls you take it off the table and put it in your pile. There’s all kinds of variations on what the caller may have you do with your cards in the beginning of the game to eliminate some of them.
When you get down to two cards on the table you yell out your home state or province. When you only have one card left you knock on the table at which time the caller will announce we’ve got some knockers.
When your last card is called you yell out WAHOO! and you win the game. Tonight each winner received 108 dimes = $10.80, 108 quarters – $27.00 or $108.00 for the very last game.
Halfway through the game our caller reads some mild adult jokes he’s gotten during the last week. its funny to see the heads nod when he starts to read one because those people have also gotten the same joke in their email.
Tonight Bob won a dime game but had to split the pot with two others.
It was a busy day to be sure.
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