Misadventures in Post-Christmas Shopping.

Today was an interesting go of things.

After oversleeping until 1:00 (damn cell phone alarm not going off!), I got cleaned up and wandered aimlessly until everybody came home.

Shelby left for Joseph's visitation with Steve... both of them clean up nicely. I probably should've went, but I don't do those sort of things well, and I wasn't all that close with him.

Instead, Mama, Mike, and I set out on the quest to find my new laptop. We called Fayetteville and learned they didn't have the laptop I wanted, nor did they know when they would get any more of them. We went to BJ's, a snazzy wholesale warehouse, where we found two awesome models that I was interested in. Both of them were sold out except for the display models, which Mike told me not to get.

I was becoming a bit discouraged, because I was finding awesome laptops but unable to find them, and they were backlogged for orders. With surgery on Monday, I wouldn't have much time to get one before school went back into session.

We went across the street to the Best Buy, where we browsed through several laptops until we came across one I fell in love with. It had a built-in numeric keypad, which made me uber happy. (I adore the numeric keypad... being an accounting major means I'm punching numbers almost constantly. Finding one built-in to a laptop was an excellent find!)

We found an associate and asked him if they had the model in stock. He wandered off a moment and returned with a "Maybe." Much better than we had been hearing all night. He ran off to the stockroom to see if they had any when a woman walked up next to us and approached another associate. She was extremely rude, and demanded "I want that model laptop, right now."

She was pointing at the exact same one I was asking about.

I began to get antsy as the associate ran through the procedure and told her that there was probably some in stock. Suddenly, our associate wandered back with a box in his hand. He handed it to Mike while the rude woman approached.

"I want that model, right now." She demanded again.

The associate smirked and pointed at us. "They got the last one."

So satisfying.

They told us it was a very in-demand machine, and that it always sold out quickly. I felt so excited to get it.

The three of us went to dinner after that, which was convenient as my hypoglycemia had made me start to tremble. The sky was gloomy and foggy all day, which was rather odd. I can't remember a time that I've seen the clouds so low in the sky. It rained and misted and was one of those dreary days that you just didn't want to be out in.

Shelby came home a short bit later, and the two of us ventured out into the war zone that was the Newnan Wal-Mart. I snagged a new yearly planner and some more fragrances, as I'm a fragrance whore. (White gardenia and vanilla amber, so delicious!) Shelby got a sunflower-scented lotion and some Sharpie pens. We went to the checkout, grumbling about a pair of kids skating around on their little Heeley shoes.

Then this guy came up with his shopping cart. And pushed his shopping cart within half an inch of me. I was miffed. I said to Shelby, "I hate when people get in my bubble."

She gave me a look as if to tell me to shut up. I said louder, "I'm freaking claustrophobic, and I can't stand it when somebody is in my bubble!"

The guy backed off a ways and gave me a glare. When it was my turn to check out, my planner didn't have the UPC code, so I ran off to go find one. When I came back, the guy with his shopping cart was standing right where I needed to be. Angrily, I walked back over to my position and bumped my hip into the end of his cart, which pushed it abruptly into his gut. Needless to say, the dude finally got out of my bubble.

Why don't people understand that it's rude to stand right behind somebody? That drives me insane.

The fog was terribly thick on the drive back to the house, and I think it caused a wreck on the road in our "subdivision." Or something. There have been trucks and utility vehicles out there since 11:00, and it's after 2:00 now.

So yeah. The day after Christmas is nasty for venturing out.

But at least I have my new laptop, which Mike and I are going to set up tomorrow.