Oh, The Ridiculousness of It All

Last week I went shopping.  I wanted to do something fun and hadn’t been shopping for a while.  A friend and I normally go on a “shopping date” a few times a year.  It isn’t the same on my own, but we couldn’t go together this time.

Through the year as I get emails from the bookstore about the new books that have come out I make a note of the ones I am interested in.  In October or November I go to the bookstore and look at the books on my list to see if they will make the cut for my Christmas list. It’s fun to look around at the bookstore and I had some other errands to run anyway, so I decided to make a morning of it.

Off I went.  I looked through the books on my list and decided which ones I would be asking for for Christmas.  Fun!  Next, I went to the drugstore to pick up some thank you cards.  I had seen some at the store closer to us but wasn’t sure that day if they were quite what I wanted.  In the meantime, I had decided I did want them, so I thought I would get them while I was out.  They didn’t have any thank you cards at all, never mind the ones I wanted.  No thank you cards at all in this store that is bigger than ours? How odd.  I wandered around the store aimlessly to see if I was looking in the wrong place.  It just seemed so strange that they didn’t have any.

Next, there was an item that I wanted to look at at another store.  I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to buy it in the store and would have to order it online, but I wanted to have a look at it in person first.

I got to the store, wandered in, and couldn’t see it so I kept going further and further back into the store.  Someone came to ask if he could help me, so I told him what I was looking for.  He took me to what he thought I was looking for.  No, it’s not that.  It does this.  He wasn’t familiar with what I was looking for, so he needed to ask someone else.  I followed him as he went to ask her.  She didn’t know what it was either, so she asked someone else and was told that I need to call into their call centre.

I told her that it was disappointing that they didn’t know about it.  I understood that they didn’t have it in the store, but I have gotten several emails about it, so the fact that they didn’t know that it exists at all seemed a little ridiculous.  Let’s just say their response left me less than impressed.  There were other things I would have asked them about, but well, as I said, I was less than impressed.

Off I went again.  This time to find socks to actually fit my little feet.  Don’t laugh – one size does not fit all.  How can it?  There are different sizes of shoes, so it only stands to reason that there should be different sizes of socks.  But instead of a specific size for socks, it is a range.  Size 5-9 is difficult to find and let’s face it, that’s kind of a big range.  If you have size 5 or 6 feet, size 5-9 socks probably aren’t going to fit you perfectly, but unless you go without socks at all, it’s probably your only choice.

I went to a department store I had had success with in the past but hadn’t shopped in for a couple of years.  I got to the door and looked around to see if the socks were where they used to be.  Not surprisingly, they weren’t, and I couldn’t see a directory, so I went in and asked someone where I would find them. She thought for a moment, pointed me “over there” and said “They should be over there, yes, because that’s where the shoes are, so they should be over there.”  I wasn’t convinced, but what did I know?

I walked over to the shoes and saw a little rack of socks.  This was not what I was looking for.  So, I asked someone who worked there where the hosiery department is.  She pointed and said she thought they should be on the other side of the floor. Hmmm… based on all the times I had been shopping there – though that had been a long time ago – I didn’t think they would be, but again, what did I know?

I did know.  They weren’t there.  I couldn’t find a directory and no one knew where they would be.  Well, this is a pickle.  So, I decided to seek the socks myself.  It had started to feel a bit like a quest, especially given my success with the last couple of things I had been looking for.

This store has several levels, so I wasn’t sure how far up I was going to need to go.  I went up the escalator to the second floor, expecting to find a directory at the top.  There wasn’t one, but I did see a sign for a hosiery brand I recognized.  Hooray!  Progress!  Soon, I found the socks.  Wonderful!  But there was only one kind that would fit me.  They were black.  I didn’t want black.  I wanted white.  Just simple, boring white.  If I’m going to pay serious money for socks, I’m going to get something I like.

So, no socks.  No thank you cards, no item I only want to look at, and now, no socks.

I needed some joy.  I thought I would see if they have a Christmas display this year.  It’s normally in the basement, so I went to take the escalator to the basement.  I couldn’t find it.  Not the display.  I couldn’t find the escalator.

I looked to see if it was on the opposite side of where I was looking.  Not there either.  Where the escalator should have been – and I assume still is – was contained in what looked like a big box.  So, there are no directories that I can see anywhere, no socks for me, and now the basement is gone.  Hmmm…

I couldn’t very well ask if there isn’t a basement anymore.  That would sound ridiculous.

I went home.

The fun shopping trip was a bust, and really a letdown.  (This isn’t the uplifting blog post that you came here for, is it?  Just wait.  Like life during hard times, it does get better. I promise.)

My husband and I went out in the evening to run some errands.  The first store had what I wanted.  Hooray!  Next, I was looking for a massaging pillow. I have had one for many years, and it helps so much when my neck is bothering me.  It finally died, so I needed to get a new one.  I knew where to get it, so off we went.  When we got there, they were closed.  Poop.  I forgot that in the last while some stores have started opening later and closing earlier.  I need to remember to check before we go out.

Next, we went to the drugstore near our house to get the thank you cards that I wasn’t able to get in the morning.  “If they don’t have them…”. Guess what?  They didn’t have them.  They had the other cards that I had seen before, but they were out of the ones that I wanted.  Now I was tired, couldn’t seem to find most of what I had been looking for, and just wanted to go home and go to bed.

While I was looking at the thank you cards they did have, I looked up.  And I saw it. At the end of the aisle, there was a display of wellness products.  And there it was. My massaging pillow.

And my husband, knowing how the whole day had gone, said “This is the best shopping trip ever!”

It was a ridiculous day.  Truly.

When we got home, I got under my warm electric blanket, turned on my massaging pillow, and we watched some fun tv.

And it was lovely.