2008-12-27 - 11:04 a.m.

.....buying and throwing out sh*t.....

Like all good consumers, K and Susi and I packed ourselves in yet another snowstorm and went downtown to capture some Boxing Day sales. I needed some new undergarments. I did NOT need the beautiful cashmere sweater that was 70% off...

Mostly we enjoyed watching the hordes and staying OUT of their way. Wow, there were hordes. I couldn't believe it - I thought that the economy was supposed to be in the crapper, and that consumer confidence was low. I'd hate to see this mall on a boxing day in a GOOD year! :-) There was one 'hip' store with a 70% off sale that was packed to the gills - with a line of people wrapping around the corner waiting to get in as soon as someone had completed their purchases. I had never seen this before, but then again, I'm not hip.

I prefer old-fashioned department stores - I think because they remind me of when I was a little girl and my mom used to take me to Famous Barr in downtown St Louis. The store had a bridge over the street and there was a little pastry shop ON the bridge. I thought that was the COOLEST thing. When I was older we would sometimes order French Onion Soup and a piece of baguette. The other thing I loved about this department store - apart from the escalators and the furniture store and HUGE open spaces - was the parking garage!!! We would go up and up and up in those tight concrete circles. I LOVED that. In fact, when I was little and I saw parking garages, I used to get excited because I immediately thought that we must be at Famous Barr with the bright and cheery bridge over the street and the escalators (which I called "alligators").

Anyway, so that's MY memory of shopping with my mom. A far cry from the dark cramped and overcrowded spaces of the Pacific Centre. I can't believe how many people mobbed the food court, which is perhaps one of the most depressing places in Funcouver. This particular dark and claustrophobia-inducing room smells like a combination of old grease and floor cleaner. ugh.

So we wandered just a little bit, and then left when the ant-like swarms of humans finally got to us.

Our trip home was eventful because poor little Susi froze her hands and feet on our walk back from the Skytrain. It was a twenty minute walk in falling snow. K plowed the stroller through mounds of snow on the sidewalk, and poor Susi was pelted with snow and ice from above and the sides. By the time we got her home, she had, unbeknownst to us, removed both mittens. Her little hands were icicles, cold enough that she was shrieking in pain. Poor thing. I took her under the covers with me to warm her up, but it took a good half hour before she was fine again. And she is fine. K and I are taking this as a good lesson - she wasn't hurt, but we know now to BUNDLE THE BABY more than we had, and to institute regular MITTEN CHECKS.

Today - The Day After Boxing Day - is also known as Decluttering Day. I bought a book about Decluttering (I should probably be embarrassed by this. Or as K says, why buy a book about decluttering? It's just going to add to the clutter...). Anyway, it's been a useful motivational device, and I'll probably donate it to the library when I'm done. It's served as a catalyst for detaching my emotions from things that I really don't need to keep - like the 10,000 plastic bags in the cupboard. We are NEVER going to use them. Or the rocks on the key shelf. Time to say goodbye. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our work cut out for us......