Braving the mall

Somebody once told me that Hell will be different for each person, that it will be the moment or place in life that was most torturous for you but you will spend eternity there. I can't say that I believe that this is true but if it were, then I have found my experience - the shopping mall.

The day starts off dreary, rainy and cold. Seems like a good day to hit the mall but in reality rainy days are horrible shopping days. The drive to the mall in the sloshy rain, surrounded by harried drivers all driving to the mall as well and vying for the good parking spot is enough to make me want to turn around and hide in bed. I finally found a parking spot but was then faced with the dilemma, to coat or not to coat. If we wear our coats I will be forced to carry all of them around the mall with me. Inevitably the mall is overheated (why do they crank up the heat in there like that?) and this means DH and Gorilla will be cranky within 10 minutes. But if we leave the coats in the car we will need to get acros the 2 city blocks of parking in the pouring rain and hopefully avoid being too wet. Alone, this is doable, with 2 kids and a husband who doesn't value the need to "hurry", impossible. DH has no appreciate for those who have to straighten their hair to avoid it being a frizzy, pouffy ball of fluff. I decided not to coat and we mad the mad dash, me leaving DH, Ale and a child to figure their own way across the parking lot.

We started at H and M, determined to pick up some cool clothes for the kids. I pair Dh and Gorilla up with strict orders of 2-3 pairs of pants 2-3 shirts and all must coordinate and yet be cool. DH nods absentmindedly and I decide I can only save one child and this time it must be the girl and off we go. But a quick browse around H and M and I realize cool and skanky are becoming more and more difficult to seperate. My daughter is 10 and is crossing the line in clothing sizes from "girl" to "teenager" and apparently that means she should wear very tight pants and shirts with skulls on them. I'm sure that if I had browsed further I could have found some cute things but I am a scan and grab kind of a shopper so we aborted the mission and headed to the Gap. Besides the lines at H and M were very long and I have no patience with that. On the way to the gap, DH suggests we price comparison shop at Old Navy. I agree, we hit the racks and someone pipes up about needing to use the bathroom. DH takes the wee ones and I pull together an entire wardrobe for the boy in the span of 5 minutes. DH emerges with children, I hand a large pile of clothes to him and say "Gorilla needs to try these on. Choose what matches best. 2-3 pairs of pants. 2-3 shirts.... again they must all match and they have to look good. We are going to the gap, we'll see you there." I grab banana and we head out. I have learned that buying stuff from the Gap is pointless for Gorilla. When I buy stuff from old navy, I care less if he is hard on it and i like myself better when I am less fussy about this clothes. Once in the gap I am struck by the fact that most of the clothes are starting to look too young and cute for Banana. We find some pants and then head off to La Senza for girls. I've never been a big fan of this store but we found lots of cute clothes this time.

2.5 hours later, I feel rushed, harried, annoyed, too warm and very broke but we have clothes, proper runners, a bday present for a friend, a halloween costume, laundry detergent, a new charm bracelet (to replace a lost one), and DH has picked up socks for both kids (unfortunately he has bought kids size 5 as in for 2 year olds so I have to take those back). We head out and I don't even bother running through the parking lot this time. I've lost the will to care about the risk of frizzy hair. I am now broke but have crossed off numerous things off of my to do list and this makes me happy.