I took a picture of this shirt for Liz, who’s a Red Sox fan. She apparently already has it, though. Later, I bought her a bumper sticker that says “There’s no crying in baseball. Except in New York.” Heh!
So Sunday morning we got up and hung around the house for a little while, before heading into South Portland to meet Debbie and Brian at The Country Buffet for breakfast. I made some pretty good choices, I think, sticking to mostly proteins with the occasional dab of carbs on the side. I got a teeny bit of corned beef hash, and Debbie made fun of me, saying “Can ya spare it?” Heh.
After we ate breakfast, we waited for the mall to open, and then Debbie, my mother and I spent several hours at the mall, shopping. I ended up with way more than either of them AS USUAL, because I had to stock up on So Sexy shampoo and conditioner at Victoria’s Secret (rumor has it they’re going to be discontinuing that line of products; something the woman working there didn’t know anything about, by the way, but you can never be too careful!) (also, I’m not currently using the So Sexy line due to the fact that I’ve still got hair falling out, and I’m using Nioxin, but I’m thinking about the future), and they also had this 3-in-one shower stuff (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel) in Key Lime scent, and it smelled FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, the smell doesn’t stick with you for too long, so I’m wishing I’d gotten the Key Lime scented lotion, too. They also had watermelon, which smelled fantastic as well, so I grabbed one of those. In fact, I got two bottles of the Key Lime 3-in-1, and one bottle of the watermelon. (This is the stuff, right here. I recommend it, for the smell alone, although I didn’t care for the chocolate scent.)
From there, well, we went all over the mall. My mother and I stopped in at a jewelry store, because I am an idiot, and I got it into my head that I could get a wedding band and engagement ring set to wear for the time being until I got to my goal weight and could resize my engagement ring and wedding band. I made the mistake of telling the saleslady what I was looking for, and she brought out this absolutely gorgeous set and had me try them on. I LOVED them – they were really pretty – but I could tell at a glance that even though they were 70% off, they were wayyyyyy out of my price range. The saleslady, no doubt with visions of a commission dancing in her head, figured out what the set would cost me.
Over $2,000.
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s a little more than I’d want to spend for a temporary set.”
“How much were you looking to spend?” she asked.
“A lot less than that,” I said with a smile, thinking About $50, if that much.
Later, I ended up buying a couple of cheap rings at JC Penney that I could wear for the time being, but really – I think at this point it wouldn’t hurt to have my rings sized down, even if I have to do it again in another six months. I really LIKE my wedding band and engagement ring, and I want to be able to wear them.
Speaking of JC Penney, I bought some earrings and rings there, and the guy working at the jewelry counter tried to get me to sign up for a JC Penney card.
“No thank you,” I said with a smile.
“Some people like to apply for the card, just so they can get the 10 percent off their purchase. You get ten percent off your purchase even if you’re not approved,” he said.
I gave him a lower wattage smile. “No thanks.”
And the fucker WENT ON. “Some people like to apply for the card, get the 10 percent off, pay off the card immediately and cancel it when it arrives in the mail!”
I gave Debbie a “Do you fucking believe this guy?” look, but didn’t say anything to the guy. It’s my strict policy to say “No” no more than twice, and then if the person goes on trying to sell me on something, I look at him or her as though he (or she) has jumped up on the counter and taken a huge shit.
With the transaction finally over, we walked out of JC Penney, and I said to Debbie “If Fred had been here, we would have ended up walking out and buying nothing.” Fred has even less patience for that bullshit then I do, and he doesn’t hesitate to be rude when a salesperson won’t knock it the fuck off.
From the mall… well, I don’t remember what we did after the mall. We went over to TJ Maxx briefly, and I helped Debbie find some cheap bath salts (TJ Maxx is really the best place to find bath salts, especially Dead Sea salts), and puttered around for a bit before we headed home.
Sunday evening Debbie was bored and I was bored, so she asked if I wanted to come over and hang out. I told my parents I was going over to Debbie’s, and Brian asked if he could come over and hang out, too (he was spending the night at my parents’ house), and so we headed over to Debbie’s. When we got there, Debbie said “We could either go rent some movies, or we could go see Click.”
We opted to go see Click, which was… not great. It wasn’t what I expected it to be, and it really dragged on and on and onnnnnn.
So after the movie I think we hung around Debbie’s house for a little while before I headed back to my parents’ house.
It’s a Benji-dog.
Monday morning I woke up early and took a shower and got dressed. The original plan for Monday was that Debbie and my mother and I were supposed to go shopping in Freeport and then go see the matinee of You, Me and Dupree. But my mother announced, on Sunday, that she didn’t want to go shopping in Freeport, so since my father was going by Debbie’s to pick up Brian, I asked if he’d drop me off at Debbie’s.
Debbie’s cat Punki.
Bumper sticker seen on a car. I need one!
Debbie’s cat Tigger.
We ended up having a good time in Freeport – I got another Healthy Back Bag at LL Bean (amongst many other things) – but we had to leave too soon to pick up Brian and meet my mother at the movies. We thought we might get something to eat, but we didn’t have time for a sit-down meal, so I got a grilled chicken sandwich at McDonald’s and Brian got… the same thing, actually, along with some fries, and we ate in the car on the way to the movie theater.
On a side note, eating just the chicken from a McDonald’s chicken sandwich? Not so yummy. In case you were wondering.
So You, Me and Dupree was pretty entertaining, and I got to see some nekkid Owen Wilson, which is always a bonus. I actually would like to see he and Kate Hudson in a movie together where they’re playing each others’ love interests, because I think they’d make an interesting couple.
We left the movies, and my mother and I ran over to the Cook’s Corner mall so she could return something, and as we were headed home, Debbie called and asked if my mother could drop me off at her house. It seems that my brother, Tracy – who just moved to Maine a few weeks prior – was a little overwhelmed with everything that needed to be done, and he asked if we could come over and help him get his kitchen straightened out.
My mother dropped me off at Debbie’s. I called my parents’ house and talked to the spud, who had arrived at my parents’ a few hours earlier. I explained to her what we were doing, told her to stay up so I could see her when I got there, and then Debbie and I left to go over to Tracy’s, after stopping at Starbuck’s on the way.
The kitchen… well, Tracy had started unpacking, but I could see why it would be so overwhelming. We ended up staying there for several hours. We got everything unpacked, and then Debbie did most of the deciding where things would go and putting them there, and I did most of the washing every dish in the place – everything was covered with this weird sticky stuff, probably from being packed and stored – and by the time we were done, the place looked a lot better. Tracy seemed to feel better about having things semi-organized (though we did leave him a counter full of stuff that still needed to find a place in the kitchen or be packed away), and Debbie and I left sometime after 9.
Before.
After.
Remember Gizmo? She’s all grown up, and a total lovebug. She’s a mighty sweet girl. I didn’t get a single damn picture of Tracy’s other cat, Dulcie, though. She let me pet her, but when I got the camera out, she was nowhere to be found, damnit.
We stopped at Applebee’s on the way back to my parents’ house so we could get a couple of salads to take home with us, and then Debbie drove me to my parents’ house. The spud came up to see me, and I gave her a hug and marveled that it seemed like she’d grown three inches in the four weeks since I’d seen her.
After I finished my salad, I went downstairs, talked to Fred (it’s our nightly ritual when I’m in Maine to talk for half an hour or so at 9ish Alabama time, as well as at various times throughout the day), and then went to bed.
(More tomorrow!)
All of today’s uploaded pictures can be seen here.
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8/8/06