Friday

OK, so I wanted to do all these ambitious errands yesterday afternoon.  So I left work about an hour early and figured I'd get everything done in about two hours and I'd be back home in time to do some Friday evening stuff.

First stop was my favorite camera store way across the other side of town.  I wanted to look at a new kind of filter.  Got to the store.  They were fresh out of the filters.  Better part of an hour wasted.

Next stop was to get a new pair of black dress shoes.  I'm not a shoe fan.  I'm probably one of the few people in the Western world who doesn't keep shoes in the house (they're in the breezeway).  I only wear them when I have to.  But my old black shoes are, well, old.  Very ragged.  So I went to a big national retailer's shoe department (store will remain nameless) and told the bubble-gum-chewing sales clerk what I wanted.   Took her almost ten minutes to bring out three boxes of shoes.  Then she wandered off to socialize with two of her friends.  So I tried on the shoes.  One pair seemed OK, but I had a question and wanted to know the price.  So I walked around the sales clerk and her two friends in a circle a few times, tried to catch their attention, then sat down near them, then stared at them, then walked around them again - but they were totally engrossed in their conversation.  So after about four minutes I went back, took the shoes off, and walked around them again a few times - she still didn't realize I was there.  So I just walked out of the shoe department totally pissed off.  They might still be talking and laughing.  Jeez, I don't expect sales clerks to be at my beck and call, but I'd kind of like them to pay at least minimal attention.

Couldn't find another shoe store nearby.

OK, so no shoes.  More time wasted.  I get back on the expressway and traffic is pretty much at a standstill.  I figure there's a bad accident or something up ahead.  I was on that three mile stretch of freakin road for about an hour.  No way to get off.  Just inch ahead.  We never have those kind of traffic jams in Upstate NY.

Next, I wanted to get someone a gift.  Stopped at the bookstore with a title in mind.  Couldn't find it.

Now, on to the grocery store to pick up seven or eight things.  One item out of stock and couldn't find another.

Now it was 7:30 p.m.

Got hardly anything done and wasted most of four hours.  What a pain in the you-know-what.

Anyway.