Cheaper than Therapy

Yesterday was, on a scale of one to ten, probably an eight. Plans had been put in place weeks before, but you never know how things will pan out until the minute your foot hits the floor and the new dawn begins. The events of the happy day started like clockwork. My hair even cooperated, which as everyone knows, is the foundation of a fine day. My husband was given, and agreed, to the intricate, written layout of details for the next six hours. He was to be at the pre-determined pick up (and drop off) locations for our child and dogs at the designated times. Since my love muffin has been in training for the last 15 years for events especially like this one, I felt confident he would rise to the occasion and not fail me now by forgetting to transport the child or the animals. Like a well-tuned orchestra, everything was in place on the home front… I was goin’ shoppin!

My friend insisted on driving, she has the bigger car with more space for our finds. The general rule of thumb for shopping with a friend is when one person drives, the other pays for lunch. A no brainer for me, as trade-off for more freedom of cargo space – one doesn’t want to be hindered or confined, in any manner, as it mires the creative juices of shopping… and that would not be good.

Shopping is a fine art that cannot be shared with just anyone. Most folks have given up hope on finding an agreeable partner and now brave consumerism alone. But shopping can be like a fine wine that is better when you find the perfect companion to share it with. Trust me, in all my years of experience, only a small handful have elevated to the top of the “we-can-stand-to-shop-with-each-other” preferred list. The fact is it isn’t as easy as it appears to find a “shopping buddy” because there are diverse shopping types and techniques; various buying methods; dissimilar tastes and budgets, all to be taken into consideration. One should not despair over these obstacles, keep trying, a true friend will still be a friend, even if you can’t shop together. You may realize you are “let’s-have-lunch” friends, and that is okay, too. But if you can have both shopping and lunch together as one – you will realize it was a match made in heaven.

Since my shopping friend and I speak 3-4 times a week on the phone, we pretty well dissipate and dissect the everyday topics during that time. But we were not at a loss of words. Driving to the stores were non-stop chatter, laughing and serious dialogue, all at one time. Once inside the emporiums, we used the well-tuned technique of divide, conquer, reunite and divide to conquer again. We armed ourselves, each, with the gonzo shopping carts and dispersed to the various hinterlands of the establishment but gravitated together sporadically to see what the other had found. I realized I was shopping with a true expert when she located some finds I had helter-skeltered over and missed. I backtracked; I circled around like a scavenger ready to attack my missed prey and once found, proudly flaunted the find in my cart – the smell of success permeated the air. We methodically maneuver our way to the front, pay, hop into the car and zoom on to the next store and more shopping. Triumph and victory were ours for the day.

Time flew by…it never seems to go this quickly when I do other things…we realized the lunch hour was at hand and now, after the period of positive procurement had slipped by, we were starving. Without a blink we slipped over to a local eating establishment, grabbed our food, and reevaluated our buys and “almost” buys. The day, by all accounts, was deemed a true success. As we head home plans for our next retail experience evolve… all the while never running out of things to talk about.

Cynthia A. McClelland, curious observer of the obvious with interpretations of the oddities of daily life. Mother, wife and lover of the furry, resides in the north Lake Tahoe area.

Cynthia A. McClelland © 2003-