Went out today to get a pair of pillows after having a discussion with a friend of mine regarding not getting a decent night's sleep and us thinking it had to do with our sleeping equipment. Then and therefore, we went to the store last night to check out new pillows. Finding the selection somewhat lacking, we planned to go the next day to a larger and more stocked store. I also got it in my head to pop by the shoe store down the street as I desperately need a new pair of kicks (the store is somewhat far by foot and too cold by bicycle, so having my friend and his lovely car takes care of that problem).
At lunchtime today, maybe four hours ago, off we went to the local home centre. We did indeed succeed in locating new pillows, however he got it into his mind to pick up a new mattress pad while he was at it, thinking it could only do more good than harm. My idling while he unwrapped and test-slept in several pads led me to unintentionally locate a pad the same size as my bed - at a good price, too. Ching-ching. Extra purchase count: 1. The selection of pillowcases, though, was not as plentiful, so we decided to go back to the same store we were at the previous night to have a look.
Oh by the way. I decided to get one more pillow than I needed to.
Extra purchase count: 2.
Next stop was the shoe store. Perhaps the only shoe store to carry larger than a size 28 in a select number of models (To give you an idea, a Japanese 28 is about an American/Canadian 9.5 or 10. I typically wear 11, so that nets me a Japanese 28.5 or so). No success on locating anything good there, so we thought about going to the shoe stores in the mall that has the aforementioned no-pillow-selection-but-possibly-pillowcases store.
Arrival @ the mall. We go to the first shoe store, whereupon I locate a nice pair of runners. I found a great burgundy runner/dress shoe combo, however they didn't have my size. Nevertheless, the idea of brown/burgundy shoes stuck in there. My friend also saw shoes that he likes, but decided against them at the moment of truth: When he was at the register. However, now, he was also of the mind to buy shoes (that he didn't need).
From there, we got to the no-pillow-selection-but-possibly-pillowcases store. He didn't find shoes, but I found pillowcases. Since one of the those pillowcases was for the pillow that I didn't need -> Extra purchase count: 3.
On our way out, we pass the second shoe store, which at first glance appeared to be only women's shoes. At the last second, the vaunted corners of our eyes did spy some men's shoes. Ray in a shoe store + having it in Ray's mind to buy shoes + locating a pair of brown shoes in his size = Extra purchase count: 4.
ALMOST at the exit to the mall, my friend decided to look at his first cancelled pair of shoes one more time. Five minutes later, he had them in a bag in his hand.
So let's have a recap.
Original mission:
1 pillow @ $9.80.
Actual Results:
2 pillows @ $9.80
1 mattress pad @ $35
2 pairs of shoes @ approx. $60 each
=
Excess purchase amount of $164.80 = Fail
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
And... We're back
Ok, so just yesterday I had to get a facebook post bemoaning me for not putting up a new blog in three months. I’ll totally concede that I have been lazy (busy, bored, unmotivated, unimaginative, etc.) over the last several weeks; strangely enough even, I even started an entry yesterday with the intention of putting it up by evening. However, with the kick to my butt swiftly delivered, I shall now give a quick taste of these past three months in a nutshell.
The biggest and most relevant news is already known to a few, so I may as well enlighten the rest so we’re all on even playing field. I’ve decided not to renew my contract with JET and thus I will be returning home to the True North, strong and free this coming summer. I’d like to say that it was an easy decision, but I can’t. Instead, I’ll say it was a simple decision (If you didn’t know by now, I’m an English teacher). It happened when I was talking to someone and they became the 9,000th person to ask me, “So are you going to stay another year?” Before I had the chance to give my detailed outline of an answer that indicated that I hadn’t, my brain shut down. Every thought evaporated, every image flickered out. I think I may even have forgotten to breathe for a few moments. During all of that, a single sentence remained both audible and visible in my mind’s eye, alone in the darkness: “You are going home next year.” Returning from my cosmic trip to the Astral Plane, I dwelled on the ramifications of such a vision, and every cell in my body lifted a pint to chime its miniscule approval to the course of action.
When I got the forms on which to indicate my choice, it was a very quick and painless thing to mark an x in the corresponding box. That was that, and for many weeks I didn’t even give it a simple thought. It was only January or February that a number of reasons for staying hit me like the wave that flipped the Poseidon. Salary, fun and excitement, studying Japanese… I suddenly found myself searching for the ctrl+z combination that would bring me back to October in a frantic panic and mini-breakdown. A few good talks and/or pints later, I came to realize – and still do – I think – that I have made the right choice in deciding to come home.
NOW the question has changed from “So are you going to stay another year?” to “So what will you do next year when you’re back?” For the first time in my life, I have no plan for the future, and I have no shame in saying that it scares the hell out of me. My only inkling into what I’ll get accomplished is that I’ll take a few weeks to get re-acclimatized to Canada again. This includes spending time with my family, looking up old friends, visiting places I haven’t seen in years, and eating tons of bad-for-me foods. Once all that’s done, I’ve got choice aplenty before me, and no compass to point me to the quote-unquote right choice. Now, there are a great number of people who seem to take delight in telling me that I’m young and have all kinds of time and nothing to tie me down to anything and that the world is basically my oyster. That’s all well and good to say, but I’d much prefer to not be ignorant as to my future, thank you very much. Now, I’m not saying that I’d like to know it all and be led by the hand by fate, but to have SOME idea, not matter how vague, would help to assuage some of this trepidation. Oh, by the way, giving some thought to becoming a teacher. Ha, there ya go.
The biggest and most relevant news is already known to a few, so I may as well enlighten the rest so we’re all on even playing field. I’ve decided not to renew my contract with JET and thus I will be returning home to the True North, strong and free this coming summer. I’d like to say that it was an easy decision, but I can’t. Instead, I’ll say it was a simple decision (If you didn’t know by now, I’m an English teacher). It happened when I was talking to someone and they became the 9,000th person to ask me, “So are you going to stay another year?” Before I had the chance to give my detailed outline of an answer that indicated that I hadn’t, my brain shut down. Every thought evaporated, every image flickered out. I think I may even have forgotten to breathe for a few moments. During all of that, a single sentence remained both audible and visible in my mind’s eye, alone in the darkness: “You are going home next year.” Returning from my cosmic trip to the Astral Plane, I dwelled on the ramifications of such a vision, and every cell in my body lifted a pint to chime its miniscule approval to the course of action.
When I got the forms on which to indicate my choice, it was a very quick and painless thing to mark an x in the corresponding box. That was that, and for many weeks I didn’t even give it a simple thought. It was only January or February that a number of reasons for staying hit me like the wave that flipped the Poseidon. Salary, fun and excitement, studying Japanese… I suddenly found myself searching for the ctrl+z combination that would bring me back to October in a frantic panic and mini-breakdown. A few good talks and/or pints later, I came to realize – and still do – I think – that I have made the right choice in deciding to come home.
NOW the question has changed from “So are you going to stay another year?” to “So what will you do next year when you’re back?” For the first time in my life, I have no plan for the future, and I have no shame in saying that it scares the hell out of me. My only inkling into what I’ll get accomplished is that I’ll take a few weeks to get re-acclimatized to Canada again. This includes spending time with my family, looking up old friends, visiting places I haven’t seen in years, and eating tons of bad-for-me foods. Once all that’s done, I’ve got choice aplenty before me, and no compass to point me to the quote-unquote right choice. Now, there are a great number of people who seem to take delight in telling me that I’m young and have all kinds of time and nothing to tie me down to anything and that the world is basically my oyster. That’s all well and good to say, but I’d much prefer to not be ignorant as to my future, thank you very much. Now, I’m not saying that I’d like to know it all and be led by the hand by fate, but to have SOME idea, not matter how vague, would help to assuage some of this trepidation. Oh, by the way, giving some thought to becoming a teacher. Ha, there ya go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)