Secrets of Shopping

I inadvertantly created a bit of a situation between P&AF and I recently due to my shopping techniques.

It all started when I decided that I wanted new shoes. I was tired of shoes that only sort of fit. I wanted comfortable flats to wear to work that didn't slip in the heel and give me blisters. So I went to Nordstrom Online and filtered their shoe selection by width. I looked through every pair of shoes that came in a narrow size. And I chose 5 cute pairs of shoes. I ordered them all. I knew they wouldn't all work out; I planned on keeping 3 pairs at the absolute most. It seemed like a flawless plan to me. It's free to return the shoes to a Nordstrom store, so I didn't think I'd lose anything. I saw my $500.00 shoe shopping total and clicked, "Purchase." I didn't bother to tell P&AF about it, because I knew that I'd ultimately be spending less and returning some shoes. I get home before him, so I knew I'd catch all the packages first.

So, moving forward to the following weekend...we went to Bryce Canyon National Park. I handed my credit card over to purchase our park entrance pass, and my credit card was declined! Yikes! I was left with no option but to call my credit card company to figure out what happened. I briefly thought about how my little $500.00 shopping spree might come into play, but I took a deep breath and dialed. And continuing my pattern of mistakes in this situation, I neglected to tell P&AF the story before picking up the phone.

And, of course, it ended up that my credit card company thought there was fraud on my account. There were several department store transactions. The $500.00 had been run and then returned, and then several smaller transactions went through, adding up to the $500.00.

Needless to say, P&AF heard the whole conversation documenting my $500.00 shoe free-for-all. BUT, he didn't so much hear the part about how I was planning to return most of the shoes.

I got off the phone, and we began to drive through the park (we had pulled over for the call.) Nobody said anything for a bit. I then tentatively told P&AF the whole plan.

His response, "Yeah, I wasn't even gonna touch that one."

And all was okay. And, as it turns out, 4 out of 5 pairs of shoes have now been returned.

Halloween Robbers

Last night (spooky Halloween!) P&AF and Miss Teen USA went out on a walk. I'm still laid up with the silly ankle, so I stayed home. I was sitting on the floor, folding some laundry when they returned.

P&AF said that there was a lot of commotion out in the community. There were cops walking around with their hands on their guns (the guns were still holstered), and several people stopped him to ask if he had seen the people in the black ski masks that were breaking into homes. Yikes...

There is a guy who lives near us who always freaks me out just a little bit. He's never actually done anything that warrants my wariness, but he isn't the most friendly sort. He seems like he might be rather drugged up all the time, and he just gazes around with a blank stare. This includes gazing blankly at me and Miss Teen USA on our walks, yet being disturbingly unresponsive when I say "hello."

Anyway, last night P&AF and Miss Teen USA came across HUG (High, Unresponsive Guy). They had already seen the police and been questioned about the ski mask guys, so they knew what was up. HUG actually stopped them to issue a bit of a warning.

HUG: "Hey man. Just go home. I got this. Go home and be safe."

So, obviously, HUG is actually some sort of superhuman community guardian who is not, in fact, high, but probably in alpha mode all the time or something. Just the same, I can't say that this event didn't add to the freakiness factor a touch.