Daily Trips.

I am developing a new rational when it comes to buying things – mostly dealing with the problems of getting purchases home. If it were not so frustrating, it might be kind of funny (okay, it is funny a few hours after struggling to walk miles in the rain and wind or the heat and wind with more things that I can carry!).

Today is a prime example (hang on to your brains … it might get a little complicated).

It is hot here, my housemate M is moving and taking a lot of our kitchen stuff with her and my iron jumped off the shelf and committed suicide last week – so my list of necessary appliances and my list of things I would like to have seems to have gotten out of control overnight. I needed to see about an iron, a fan, a hand mixer, kitchen knives, a toaster, a baking dish and I have been wanting to look at plants for my balcony and kitchen window.

We have a store here called EpiCenter that is kind of like HomeDepot and Target rolled into one (it even has a huge outdoor café). Off I went.

It is very unusual to find everything you might be looking for in one trip so I did not expect to find much … mostly I just wanted to look at some prices and get an idea of where I was headed. Shock of the century when they had several options of everything on my list! I walked around the store for about the next forty-five minutes trying to put my list into order of priority (iron … fan … toaster … plants … etc.); then I had to evaluate price and decide if I could get some of the stuff cheaper somewhere else (I decided a $60 toaster could wait)! It is at this point that the real rationalization starts happening – what in reality can I carry home!?!

I bought the iron first; after all it is a super priority. I knew I could not get a fan home by myself having bought the iron (never mind I was wearing a skirt and dress shoes), so I went down to look at the plants. I found one that I really liked, but in the end I decided I would not buy it right now because it would require a bigger pot and more potting soil than I already had a home, which means I would have to carry an iron, a pot, potting soil and a plant home. And, ideally it would be nice if the plant made it home in one piece.

Two and a half hours later, I came home hot and tired … with only an iron to show for my efforts!