December 17, 2012

Shopping.

So I just got back from Christmas shopping by myself. Earl is in the red state of Tennessee until tomorrow and Jamie is on his way home from Indiana. With these moments of solitude, I decided that it would be a great time to go do some shopping at the local mall.

I’m not a fan of Sangertown Square, but it works in a pinch. Built in 1980, it was one of the many malls in the area where folklore dictated that it would sink into the swamp land it was built on by 1985. That didn’t happen. Sangertown Square has the basic anchor stores: Sears, JC Penney, Macy’s and Target. There’s really nothing to set it apart from any other mall in the northeast and if you were to walk into the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, Mass. or the Ithaca Mall in Ithaca, you would see the EXACT same mall with the same decorations inside and out. It’s kind of weird.

When I went to the mall this evening I had no idea that it was open until midnight. Apparently that’s the thing to do during the holiday season these days, so I didn’t feel the pressure of purchasing a bunch of crap for my loved ones. I took the time to pick out what I thought they would like and then stroll around the mall with the hope of seeing other happy shoppers.

The place was damn near empty. And that’s okay in my book.

I have just one or two more things on my list and I will have my shopping complete for the year, or at least until Earl and I shop after the holidays.

Talking to Earl this evening we decided that we didn’t find our shopping trip to Destiny USA last Saturday to be as holiday-fulfilling as usual. I think it was because the mall was too close to us. So we decided to spin the “big wheel o’ roadtrips to malls” (think of that big wheel on the Price As Right but without the outdated “boop” sound) and we found our target mall for an all-day road trip on Saturday: Danbury Fair in Danbury, Connecticut. At only four hours away from our house, it’ll be different than what we’re used to and it’ll feel like we went somewhere else to do our shopping. It’s been years since we’ve been to the Greater Danbury Area and we both had the feeling that Connecticut could use some holiday smiles and happy shoppers these days, so that’s what we’re going to do.

I’ll have to look on the Danbury Fair site to see if they are open until midnight. How I love looking forward to a road trippin’ adventure.

Now.

So I know Oprah talked about this book over a decade ago, but I just downloaded and started reading “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. As I prime my mind, build my body and feed my soul for 2013, this book felt like a natural fit for where I currently am on my path. I was wondering if any of the gentle readers of this blog had read the book or had any comments. I love feedback.