Because Today Felt Like a Good Day to Write

The temperature in the Poconos is currently 81°.  No joke!  It’s October, early October, but it is still fall.  And normally the average temperature is about 65° at this time of the year.  It has been like this for about two weeks, so you know that everyone is in a great mood.

So after I left the doctor’s office, I decided to go to the mall to window shop.  No joke!  I can window shop.  I parked my car at the entrance so I could walk to the other end and simultaneously exercise.  I was in no hurry to get home.  The only thing on my agenda was cleaning.  Who feels like cleaning in this weather?  Not me.  That’s for sure.

First off, let me just say I was five minutes late for my appointment.  I waited about 20 minutes in the waiting room, which is unusual for this office.  Then I waited almost an hour for the doctor, very unusual also.  Did I get mad?  No way!  I took the time to check my messages on email and facebook.  I am so glad I gave in and joined the rest of the world and bought a smart phone.  Best invention since the wheel. J

So as I’m at the mall browsing, I knew IZOD would have something on sale that I could appreciate.  There was a golf skort that I could wear for tennis.  I’m in no hurry so I took four colors and two different sizes into the dressing room.  The smaller ones actually fit me.  I was feeling risky so I decided to visit stores that I don’t normally patronize.  I was surprised to see that American Eagle Outfitters had something I actually liked.  Three tops later, I realized this was getting serious.  At this point it wouldn’t hurt to enter White House Black Market.  They always have good things on the outside, but I can never bring myself to really liking anything once I got inside.  But today, what did I have to lose?

Not only did they have jean shorts in my potential size for $9.99, but my eyes fell on the cutest baby pink skinny slacks ever.  It was two sizes smaller than I had been wearing for the past few years, but you know how we women get.  “If I can just squeeze into them, I will convince the saleslady to call all the nearby stores for my size.”  Well my first surprise was when the shorts in my usual size were too big.  The optimist that I am, I always go to the dressing room with my current and old sizes, and today the smaller size fits better.  Then I put those pink pants on, and they were made for me.  No joke! 

They were $19.99, and I figured, why not.  Now you know this is Miss Frugal so since I’m too busy to go anywhere, why spend money on clothes that I won’t be wearing and might not fit when I actually have somewhere to go.  The saleslady thought the shorts were $14.99, which promptly caused me to correct her.  Then she thought the pants were $29.99.  Now it’s the only pair in this store.  It is probably the only pair in all of the stores because it is on the sales rack.  (As if I had to point that out.)  I said to myself, “Self, you are always finding bargains, so it is no big deal if you have to pay an extra $10 for something that you just got to have.”  The lovely saleslady got all my information since she was now going to hook me up with future discounts and birthday coupons.  After she entered the code, magically, the machine spitted out $9.99.  No joke!

Could this day get any better?

Of course I went to Au Bon Pain and got sandwiches.  I’m already on a roll, why stop!  Plus how could I explain to the children that I only bought their favorite sandwiches for myself?  As I left the mall almost $100 poorer, it dawned on me that this was the first time in about a dozen years that I had gone to the mall and had not bought anything for my husband or children.  And it felt great.  No joke!

Now let’s put this into context.  Some of you drop $100 on a wallet, but if you know me, you know there is no way I’m spending more money that I could put in said wallet.  Again, I hardly go anywhere so it would be pointless to spend money on clothes just to store in the closet.  And I am not one who looks forward to paying full price for anything.

So as I got into my car exactly two hours later, I thought about sharing this joyous day with my facebook friends when I realized I had so much more to say, that this called for an emergency blog post.

I live less than 15 minutes from the mall, and I know that the road is being fixed in a few places.  A few days ago, I had to wait a whole five minutes for our lane to get by.  But what the heck, it’s not like I had anything pressing to do.  About two minutes into my drive, I’m the third car in the line to be stopped, but who cares.  I spend the time responding to facebook messages.  Then one of my new favorite songs comes on, and I’m dancing to Blurred Lines.  Now if you know me well, you would know that me sitting and dancing is a prettier picture than me standing and dancing.  So it was a win-win situation. 

Oh, I was listening on my smart phone because if you have been paying attention, you would know from prior posts that my ride is a bit jacked up, so the radio doesn’t always work.  But today, I turned all the negatives into positives.  Because I am listening to iHeartRADIO, I get to choose the stations and the songs that I want to hear.  Then I turn my window down since I would be waiting for a while.  Guess what?  My window worked.  Yeah, part of the jackedupness is the driver’s window doesn’t always work.  But at that moment, it was working. 

Could this day get any better? 

After Blurred Lines, I changed the station to hear the end of Roar, and then Same Love comes on.  All my favorite songs are just being played back to back.  Now this post is rant free and controversial free, but apparently my favorite songs didn’t get the memo.  iHeartRADIO slipped in and out during Same Love, but again I turned that negative into a positive and that song lasted all the way home through the detour. (Yup the bridge is closed.  It is not a real bridge…just a Pocono bridge, which is really a bump in the road.  But they are repairing it, so I had to detour to get home.)

As I got home, 30 minutes later, I wished the hammock was still up so I could chill in it, but then I realized I could just use the outdoor chair I sit in to watch the children play sports.  It has a canopy, so it’s perfect.

The only thing that was missing from my moment was not being in my sky blue BMW convertible, but perspectively speaking, what I sacrificed to be in a jacked up Dodge minivan is totally worth it.