after christmas shopping is not as strategic as after thanksgiving shopping. on black friday, we have a mission--get our christmas shopping done. and we have a plan--scour the ads, make a list of items to be captured, and then do everything in our power to secure those items. oh, and stop several times to refuel (mcdonald's, cinnabon, wetzel's pretzels.) so there is a certain frantic, driven energy to our shopping that day.
but after christmas it is much more relaxed. the gift giving is over. we already have new stuff to play with. there is really nothing we need. so after christmas shopping is more about the wonderful surprise of finding something you didn't even know you wanted, marked down to a ridiculously low, low price, and maybe even getting the last one on the shelf!
for us that experience came in the form of water bottles.
we were at target. we had already spent a few hours at the mall, scoring some major deals. we had battled the never-ending traffic to escape the mall parking lot and were lucky enough to find an empty space in the target parking lot. we fought the freezing wind all the way to the entrance, only to stand inside wondering what we were looking for . . .
we ended up, as we usually do, in the christmas decorations. let me just say, we don't need any more christmas decorations. both my mother and i have boxes and boxes of christmas decorations. and yet we gravitate to all things red, green, and sparkly. as we pawed through the discounted items, looking for treasure, diandra found "the golden ticket!" stainless steel reusable water bottles!!
they are perfect! stainless steel inside and out, a secure top that screws on, a push button system that seals it up tight so it won't spill, yet also allows a person to drink without having to suck on a straw, a large enough opening that ice cubes can be dropped in. AND it doesn't sweat and drip when the beverage inside is colder than the air outside! i am telling you, they are perfect!
and diandra is the only one of us who bought them.because you see, my mom and i had already bought what we THOUGHT were the perfect water bottles earlier in the day. and we were happy with them, until we got home and realized that they were not perfect--they were just pretty good. diandra had the perfect ones . . .
i immediately started plotting as to how i could get one of diandra's perfect water bottles--did i mention they came in a set of three? i knew she was smart enough to figure out if i had stolen one--she knows how many she has and might notice me drinking out of one. so i had to take the high road and negotiate a price. which i did. i then proceeded to tell everyone in my family how perfect these water bottles were. and then everyone wanted one. and not just one, but a box of three!
so after dinner diandra and i trekked back to target, with enough money in our pockets to buy four more sets of water bottles. and after searching the shelves, we came up with one box. yes, just one. this afternoon there had been several on the shelf, but now, just one.
this was not good, not good at all. especially now that i had convinced my entire family that they had to have these amazing water bottles! so we did the only thing we could do--we went to another target.
i did not want to go. it was 8:00 and it had been a long day. but what if we didn't go and the last of the water bottles sold out tonight and we missed it?!?!?! so we got back in the car with our pathetic catch of one set of water bottles, and headed out to the next closest target--with even worse results. they didn't have ANY of the coveted beverage containers. not one.
i wanted those water bottles! but i guess there is a limit as to how far i will go to get what i want, and i had hit it. so we went home with our mission unaccomplished.
and yet, unwilling to give up without a fight, diandra called a friend at home to see if they would go to the target stores at home and search for the perfect waterbottles. because we still need three more sets . . .
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