I've spent the last two days shopping for Christmas presents. I didn't intend to spend two whole days doing nothing but going from store to store; it just sort of happened. It all started yesterday morning when I threw some clothes on pre-shower--something I rarely do with this curly mop of mine--and went to Walmart to get Star Wars: The Clone Wars Monopoly for Chandler before the last four in the store sold out. Monday morning the store still had about 30 of the games. By Wednesday, they only had four, and those were hidden on the shelf by Sorry, which is kind of ironic if you think about it. I was so proud of myself that I got the one that I called my mother to brag and to fill her in on the number of Star Wars helmets my Walmart had left. Her Walmart had sold out of the helmets a month ago, and it was one of the few, non-Wii-related things that my nephew has said that he wanted.Anyway, my bragging somehow turned into me volunteering to run to a few other places for her to see if they had this and that in stock. My mom was scared that this and that would be sold out by the time she was able to get to a store, not to mention that she was trying to avoid paying for express shipping online for the same items. After taking a quick shower, I was off again. Now I wasn't supposed to buy anything at that time; I was just supposed to look, but low and behold, Marshall's had toile purses in stock. My mom has been coveting a black and white one for quite some time now and even did a hint-hint when I asked her what she wanted this year.
Thank God for cell phones because I spent the next hour taking pictures of the different toile purses and emailing them to my mom at work, waiting for her to decide which one she wanted, and then debating with her whether I should go ahead and get it or come back. As the one she wanted was the last on in stock, I decided not to wait, and my mother promised to act surprised on Christmas morning.
After Marshalls, I went into Petsmart two doors down to check on the price of dog stockings, a new filter cartridge, and doggy aspirin. Then I walked over to Ross to see if I could see anything to get my grandmother and sister; I couldn't. The only thing that I found was an unpleasant odor in the store that gave me a headache.
From there I went to Famous Footwear. I had a $5 oof coupon so I was hoping that I would be able to find my sister some tennis shoes on clearance and then come back and get them today when my other PayPal payment hit. Unfortunately, there weren't any tennis shoes on clearance in a 7.5. Fortunately for me, there was a pair of clogs with the best arch support that I have ever felt on sale. Normally, I'm not a clog kind of girl. I like girly shoes, not big, fat, clumpy ones. However, my high arches have been bothering me so much lately that I've finally decided to sacrifice style for comfort, and these clogs were 5-star comfort material.
Well, seeing as 5.5 shoes are hard to come by these days, I called my mom yet again and asked her if she'd be willing to get me the shoes for Christmas. I had already listed tennis shoes on my Christmas list, but the ones that I thought I wanted online turned out not to be so comfortable when I tried them on in the store. The clogs were a much better substitute She said she would. Since Famous Footwear was having its BOGO sale, she asked me to look for her a pair of black slides or flats in a 5.5. After 30 minutes of looking, I discovered that there weren't any 5.5's left in the store so I had to try on a bunch of 6's for her. I found three possible pairs, took pictures, and emailed them to her at work. Finally, when she settled on a pair, I had to take both pairs to the counter and ask the lady to hold them while I went home to get my coupon. What I didn't tell her was that I had to wait for my mom to put the money in the bank as well.
About 45 minutes later, after scarfing down a bologna sandwich, finding my coupon, and waiting for the go ahead from my mother, I went back and got the shoes. My next stop thereafter was Target. Don't ask me what I was looking for in there. I can't even remember at this point. All I know is I didn't get anything the first time around. Then I was off to Books-a-Million to see if they had the Harry Potter boxed set for my nephew. They did, but it was $56 versus the $25 it was online at Walmart.
Once again I called my mother and told her what they cost. She asked me to look at Target, the very place that I had just left. Despite the fact that all I wanted to do was go home and take a nice long nap, I agreed to go back to the store that I just left. While they didn't have the boxed set, Target did have the books separately so after a few more phone calls, my mother said to just go ahead and get him the first three. After all, for all we know, he might not even like Harry Potter, and we'll be stuck reading them all. Not that I mind reading Harry Potter. Sometimes I think that I'm the only person left in the world who hasnt'.
While on the phone that time around, my mother mentioned that my grandmother said that she wouldn't mind having a quilted purse. Great...Like I wasn't tired enough at that point. Wanting to avoid a return trip today, I ran into Belk's to look at their quilted purses. All they had were paisley ones and few toile ones that were nowhere near as cute as the one I got my mother from Marshall's for less.
Thus, I returned to Marshall's, hoping to find that I had overlooked another toile purse the size of my mother's. I hadn't. All Marshall's had left were toile purses the size of duffel bags and ones the size of wallets, neither of which I could see my grandmother carrying. I finally settled on this leopard print Liz Claiborne purse. It's not exactly my taste, and it's not quilted, but I'm hoping that my grandmother's love for all things leopard print will make her forget she said anything about the quilted bag. If not, I'll be going back to Marshall's after Christmas, the purse and my receipt in hand.
You'd think that I'd be able to go home then, but I couldn't. I had to go back to Petsmart to get the filter and then drive all the way to Walmart to get Chandler's helmet for my mom before they, too, were gone. I also had to see if Wally World still had his Chaotic cards, which, of course, they didn't. I finally got home around 5 p.m. My first trip to Walmart was around 9 a.m. so I basically shopped for 8 hours yesterday, give or take 30 minutes for lunch. My body was a testament to that fact. My feet hurt. My calf, thigh, and butt muscles hurt. My arms and head hurt. I was even dizzy. You would think that I had run the Boston Marathon the way that my body felt, but I hadn't. All I had done was shopped.
I went to bed vowing to never shop like that again. Then I woke up this morning. All I was going to do was run into Target to get my sister some shirts for Christmas and then get my hair trimmed at the Fantastic Sam's next door. I left home at 12 p.m. I didn't return home until nearly 4:30 p.m. While I didn't go nearly as many places as yesterday, I still went more places than I intended.
As I was turning towards my house this afternoon, I remember thinking to myself, "Finally. Nowhere else left to go." Then my right turn signal went out. So guess where I'm going tomorrow? Yep, shopping again, this time for a light bulb for my car. If things keep going at this rate, either my legs will be in the best shape ever, or I won't be able to move come Christmas. Heck, I may even have to add a walker to my Christmas list.
