No Green
We were away from the place today. We made a mad dash to Montana to pick up a new flat bed trailer... one that the guys hope to create a bale feeder from.
Now, it takes almost 4 hours to get there... and it's just outside of Billings. Billings! Billings is huge anymore, well, huge according to our standards! It has boomed and boomed, changing drastically from the way it looked the first time I saw it (which was in 1981 on my honeymoon!)
We flew into Sofa Mart... just to see what they had. I'd already looked online, but you have to SIT in them to test them. They had push button recliners. Recliners with a motor! I could see this was a match made in heaven, Vernon loves to push buttons. Back and forth. Back and forth. Up down. Up down. I asked how long the motors last and what it costs to replace them! and if the electricity is off... yes, you're out of luck! Or stuck in a reclined or upright position... It was a close call... but we left with no couch.
So, we have a little extra time... would I like to do anything? Uh, yeah. I chose one store... Target. I've been window shopping online (is that technically monitor shopping?) and I had a feeling that Target would have the kind of things I'd been looking for... a new bedspread, bathroom organizers, valances, shades, baskets, silverware/knife holders, lazy susans, just cool stuff. I point the guys in the right direction (although I haven't been there in a LONNNG time, I found it!)
They debated entering with me or just waiting in the pickup. Since it was 22 degrees, they followed me inside. And they followed me. They didn't leave to go check out anything else... they followed.
I'm sorry, but I prefer to shop alone. Especially if you have no opinion on which color is better, which would be best, or any other question I might pose in your direction.
I finally just turned around to my shadows and said, "Isn't there something else you'd rather see? like in the sporting goods department?"
If I'd really been thinking I would have just headed to the bra and panties section... they'd have left in a hurry!
But they did that guy thing.
They'd talk and loop around three aisles and come back and check on me. They'd talk and loop around four more aisles and come back. Talk. Loop. Return.
This boomerang shopping was unnerving me.
I picked up a dark green glass soap dispenser. It was beautiful. It was classy. It'd look good in my new bathroom... except the pump was the dark bronze (which I love) and my faucets, etc are satin nickel (which evidently, Vernon loves, because he bought them).
Who cares? I could live with that.
The Boomerang Boys looked at me. Looked at the price tag. Not a word was said. I put it back. Daniel says "If you like it, you should get it."
Somehow, the joy was gone.
I hate shopping with guys.
I left Target with NOTHING. I've just ridden in a pickup for 4 hours. Picked one store. Zoomed through it. They had nothing I wanted besides a soap dispenser. Target Had Failed Me.
Back into the pickup. Daniel wants to hit the Best Buy store to browse tvs. He's thinking BIG TV. I let him quiz the clerks, I'm looking for the cool infrared thing Dori mentioned in my comments the other day. The one that lets you leave the doors closed on your entertainment center, but you can still run things with your remotes.
Guess what? Best Buy fails in that department!
BUT, I found ONE and only ONE little portable CD/cassette/radio unit. YAY! My other one finally died after many years... and yes, I still have cassettes. They work. It's good music...
Back again into the Dodge...
Walmart. <sigh> I didn't ask to go. I would have been ok with my failed attempt at Target. But the Boomerang Boys were going to go pick up the trailer... and that gave me a few more minutes of unsupervised shopping.
By golly, ol' Walmart had the stuff I wanted. I shopped until they found me and I stopped and we left and that's how my shopping goes.
I can't imagine shopping daily... or weekly for that matter... not that I want to... but I have to admit, it would be less sticker shock if I did it more often! I have a few more new exciting things for the Mills Place... but no dark green glass soap dispenser...
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January 18, 2010 No entry.
January 18, 2009 Dally Learns (Hopefully!)
I completely identify with you on shopping with guys!!!
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Great story - so true! The "boomerang
boys" had me laughing out loud!
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Boomerang Boys.......Too funny, it's like when my teenage kids go shopping with me. I call them my little ducks, cause everytime I stop or turn around I almost knock them down...there right on my ASS! Don't you kids have somewhere to go? I think they do this on purpose, thinking it will hurry me up, cause their bored and annoying me....ugh!! Shopping alone is like dying and going to heaven....lol! I'm with you:>)
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laughed about the chair...many years ago, my mother had one of those recliners that would throw you out in the floor (she was handicapped and couldn't get up any other way). the power went out while she was reclined as far back as it would go. there was no way she could get up. and wouldn't you know it...the only phone within reach was a cordless...useless with a power outage. thank God she had lifeline. you know the old commercial...i've fallen and can't get up? she told them that she had reclined and couldn't get up. after she explained they happily called my sister to go and help get her "out" of the chair. i loved those lifeline people. when she hugged the grandkids to tight it would set it off and we would apologize and tell them grandma was lovin' the grandkids too hard...they would just laugh and tell us that they loved those calls not to worry. so many funny stories to tell about mama and that lifeline necklace! now i miss my mama =o(
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I've had ducks and boomerangs and price checkers, and it all adds up to this: shop alone or with a girlfriend! I haven't been to Billings since 1982, except for a drive-thru about 1999, but given how much it's grown, I would bet they have a Bed Bath and Beyond, and that's where you need to go for curtains and spreads and rugs and stuff you didn't even know you needed. I shop on-line there too.
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