November 30, 2008

Retail Therapy



….or the further adventures of Mr. Shoptilyoudrop


G wanted his tree to have character this year…..Below: with details.




Himself: Diagnosed Grumpy. Drove Grumpy. Turned into Mr. Shoptilyoudrop, and he shopped and walked.

Herself: Not happy with herself, but then again I am not a car person. Went along with G and Grumpy. Last day of NoJoMo….kind of a sad thing to lose this focus.

Balance: Filled up Grumpy with toys from “Big Lots.”

  • We started our morning at an estate sale where G found my Christmas present…..a book.


  • Next, we figured out what we could afford to spend, and headed out to the cheapest shop of all shops, Big Lot’s. There he bought boy stuff, and in a sexist division of labor, I bought girl stuff. What a lot of fun too. We were only seven bucks over our budget, and we were very pleased with ourselves.

    Giving Grumpy a run for his battery on the freeway took us downtown to the main Salvation Army Headquarters. We got to meet the big boss and drop off the toys. She showed us the damage the water did, and it was heart breaking. The water had not only saturated the air, the walls, and the dripping mountain of toys that they are unable to give away, but saturated the offices too. Because of the water, their headquarters is almost unusable.


  • Mr. Shoptilyoudrop now led the way to Mission Valley, the oldest shopping mall in our town. As we were coming up from parking Grumpy, there was the Salvation Army officer again. Handshakes and smiles. Lunch a half sandwich in the food court, and we were off.

    We walked for miles…….just like we had done Friday night at Fashion Valley mall. We poked our nose in hundreds of stores, just like we had done the previous night. That first night there were wall to wall crowds. I was able to yell at several old friends out on the tarmac directing traffic. Yet, despite the crush, we found parking right at the front. Saturday the traffic was nonexistent and the crush was gone.

    The word is that most Friday shoppers knew what they wanted, targeted the area of the store they wanted, bought what was on their list, and were gone. Saturday morning there were few shoppers in the stores, but by noon the numbers were picking up.

    I found Mr. Shoptilyoudrop’s gifts at Tarjay….he says, “a very expensive shopping trip to Target.” I say, “You are worth every penny as far as I am concerned.”


3 comments:

  1. You are so barave to shop this weekend. I stayed put. Its hard to think that Christmas is just around the corner. I need something to get me into the holiday spirit.

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  2. Oh! And the tree is very sweet. Love the beautiful ornaments and the stuffed friends underneath!

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  3. That tree definitely has style--and what better way to back it up than to pose it in front of a whole lot of books. Excellent! (Can I come over and curl up and read and look at the tree????)

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