the thrill of victory!

so today . . . i accomplished the impossible--i found and bought a turtle pillow pet. and i only paid the suggested retail price of $19.96!

my nephew wants a pillow pet for christmas. and not just any pillow pet--he wants a turtle. his mother has looked for one. his grandmother has looked for one. but the only turtle pillow pets to be found were on the internet for $40!

so, of course, i decided to try and find one.

yesterday i looked at my local walmart. they had a whole bin of pillow pets--penguins, dolphins, and pandas. but not one turtle. and then today i heard that my friend jessica was interested in pillow pets. i tracked her down, told her what i was looking for, and asked her to let me know if she found one...

...and she did. at the mall right by my house. it was $35! BUT she said it was a limited edition, and that is why it was more expensive. i decided to do some further internet searching...

i found the official pillow pets website. the turtle was listed as "temporarily out of stock," just like the frog and the pig. there was no mention of anything special or limited about the turtle. i deduced that the kiosk person probably just kicked the price up because the turtle was popular, and they had one. i guess that is ok, but i was not going to pay that inflated price! at least, not until i was out of options.

my next idea was to try the "as seen on tv" store, since these cute little pillows were originally sold on tv. of course, that meant getting in my car and driving to a different mall. which i did. because i was on a mission. i endured holiday shopping traffic, finally found a parking space, and went in. i walked into the "as seen on tv" store and saw a pile of pillow pets--again, penguins, dolphins, and pandas. (apparently penguins, dolphins, and pandas are not as desirable as turtles, frogs, and pigs.) i desperately asked the sales clerk if any place else in the mall might have any more pillow pets. he said no. and then he asked what i was looking for. when i said the turtle, he told me that he had just seen one at walmart. "just seen one?" i asked, "like in the last day or two, or a couple of weeks ago." "just a couple of days ago," he said.

ok, there was no guarantee that it would still be there, but i had to check it out. i got directions to the walmart where he had seen the turtle, and was a little alarmed to find that it was quite a distance away. i was getting further and further from home, and did i mention that i had to be back at school by 6:00 tonight for our christmas program? yep. i checked my watch, and decided that if traffic wasn't too bad, i might make it. so once again, i got in my car, endured holiday shopping traffic, and headed for yet another walmart.

this particular walmart turned out to be a superstore--you know, the ones that also have a grocery store in them? and so the layout was totally different from my neighborhood walmart, which was somewhat disorienting. i wandered quickly about until i found the toy section. and there, at the end of an aisle, was a huge bin half-filled with pillow pets. and right on the top was a turtle--the only turtle in the bin, as it turned out.

i grabbed that turtle, checked for all the proper tags (to be sure it was a real pillow pet,) paid for it, and quickly secured it in my trunk. then i fist-pumped in the air. uh huh, i did! i felt powerful, invincible. i had found the elusive turtle pillow pet and only paid the suggested retail price of $19.96. i could do anything! i was wonder woman!!

because this wasn't just shopping, people. this was war, and i had won! i had found the thing they said didn't exist, and made it mine. bwahahahaha!

and the spoils of war? one happy little boy on christmas morning :)