Oops, I Did It Again

*sigh*

I did it again. Walked out of a store with more purchases than I meant to buy going in.

Let me explain.

Tonight, Borders had this holiday open house event with crafts and what not for the kiddos. It seemed like the perfect thing- the girls get to craft, I get to browse through books. I had a freshly (well, sort of) printed coupon for 25% off one regular priced item and there was a certain sock knitting book I have had my eye on. So around 6:15, I pack up the girls and kiss dh good bye, leaving him to put another coat of paint on our splotchy, and bleeding-red walls.

There was a craft table with a few things going on and the girls dove in and crafted their little hearts out with glitter glue and buttons while I looked through 3 books I had picked up off of the "buy 1 get 1 half off" table: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, Those Who Save Us and Ines of My Soul. At least two of those books (the last two) I have been wanting to read for some time now. But after I read the first chapter of The Lost Memoirs, I couldn't decide which two of the three to get! Meanwhile, the girls finished crafting and we moved on to look at the knitting books and then take another turn around the "buy 1 yada yada" table. Then I see another book I'd seen awhile back and wanted to read. I had forgotten all about it. Girl Meets God. Well, I definitely had to have that one. By then I had put the Allende book back, but after picking up Girl Meets God, it seemed silly to only buy 3 of the books when I could get a 4^th one half off, too.

Eight pm rolled around. Now, I don't know about you, but when my kids are tired they act anything but like what I imagine tired children should act like. They don't become glassy-eyed and lethargic. They don't become quiet and sullen. Quite the opposite. A.'s timer went off and she totally freaked when I told her it was almost time to go. Screaming and crying right there in the craft book section. I threatened her with a trip to the bathroom before we left, and she simmered down a little bit.

A fly-by the café was a great distracter, turns out, because they had sample peppermint mocha frapps out on the counter. They looked wonderfully delicious and were loaded down with whip cream and candy cane pieces on top. I handed each of them one, took one for myself and off we went to take another trip around the fiction section (I'm much like a shark in bookstores. I kind of circle around and circle around while I try to make up my mind). They were quiet for a bit (well, except for the slurping coming from their straws) as they trailed me. Until it was really time to go home. "Nooooooooooooooo!" A. wailed. I'm not sure what I did to calm her down that time, but whatever it was it worked long enough for me to pay for my books (all four of them) and get them out of the store without further incident. A. did, however, begin making "vroom vroom" noises as we walked out to the car. And kept going until I told her to cut it out. Which, of course she responded to with, "but why, mama?"

Grrrrrrr.

Quick trip into Best Buy, where I came windshield-to-windshield with some moron who I'm not even sure is of legal driving age (I'll get to that later) and then back into the car for the trek home. And neither of the girls would stop talking or stop moving. Even when we got home. A. stood next to me at the dining table at one point, bouncing bouncing bouncing like the fucking energizer bunny. It was driving me bonkers! Until finally I sent them off to shower (they cannot handle the responsibility of bath time, so they shower now. Also, I have to ration out their soap and shampoo and then put it away after they're received the proper portion. They can't handle the responsibility of being within close proximity to full bottle of body soap, either) where I let them whoop and holler all they want while I tried to figure out why the fuck itunes wasn't burning my playlist to a blank cd.

All this to say, I bought four books I didn't intend on buying tonight and didn't get the one book I did intend on getting with my 25% off coupon. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. And I'm still not sure. But I can say for sure that it just seemed wrong to walk out of the bookstore without at least Girl Meets God.

Now, this nice, new stack of books is sitting right next to the monitor, where it will stay until I figure out whether or not to take two of them back and get the knitting book I intended to buy going into Border's in the first place. But then again, I now have them. Here, at home, where they can join the other five or so books I've bought throughout this year with the intention to read but not having gotten around to it. In fact, there's becoming a cozy little gathering of the "unread" between my book case and my night stand. I'm afraid if I keep them all, they'll be forgotten when another book comes out that catches my interest when I happen to have spending money. As a result, my ever expanding collection of "books I wanted to read, bought and then never read" will continue to grow even larger. And then one day all those unread pages will take over my house, my life, my marriage...

Maybe I should just stick to making a wish list in my blackberry and prioritizing so that when I am ready to read, I can buy the book I will actually read. Right then. Until I'm finished.

*sigh*

Oh, bother.

Okay, now onto the moron at Best Buy. I had a diagram all drawn out and everything but it's getting late and I'm getting tired! So here it is in a nutshell:

I turned down the parking lot to find a spot. Some idiot chick in a faded gray van was perpendicular to the parking spaces, blocking the entire throughway. So I stop. She backs up, I wait for her to go around my car (you know, like, on the correct side of the road). She backs up, then pulls forward so we are literally inches away from being bumper to bumper. I can see her perfectly, and she doesn't look as if she intended to move. Ever. Which means I can't go forward to park. After sitting in my car and staring at her for at least 15 seconds, I moved. Backwards. But didn't get very far because cars were coming into the parking lot, too. She was still sitting there, on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD waiting for fuck knows what. Finally, FINALLY- just when I was starting to think that maybe her car didn't go backwards and began taking pity on her, the dumb bitch BACKS UP, pulls around me and then drives away. OH, OH, AND- she looked at me as if I were the fucking moron as she passed my car on her way out. This bitch took up minutes of my evening because she didn't know how to drive in a parking lot! PEOPLE!

Right-o.

Bedtime, mommy-o's.