More shopping with Mom

I believe Bulletholes called this an opportunity to learn patience.

Okay, my mom keeps saying how just the two of us need to get together and maybe go shopping or maybe go to lunch. Okay, I have no problem with that. Call me when you want to do something.

So after she keeps saying this, when she finally calls this week I feel bad that I don't want to go. I'm very busy this week. The party is Saturday, and the charity thing is Sunday, and as it is I'm thinking that I'm just going to skip the charity thing. I don't have the money for the charity thing, and the getting dressed up and such takes energy that I just don't feel right now. If I had a bit more time I could probably find that paper and do the gift basket thing that I normally do, but that's probably just not going to happen, and I think that I might feel better if I just don't go.

Except that my friend really wants me to go, and this is her big deal, and I hate to bail on her.

So I'm already busy with the knitting and such, and my mom wants to know if I can go shopping with her, at the mall, on Friday, at a sale that doesn't even start until four in the afternoon. On a normal day, this doesn't seem like such a good idea to me. If I want to go to the mall, it usually isn't on a weekend. Between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening there's lots of people, and I'd rather be there with less people. And I don't like being out late in the day, unless it's something I've planned for. If I go shopping, I like to go home before six, not just get started at four.

Oh, and it's a week before Christmas.

So even if I wasn't very busy, this already has a lot of things wrong with it that make it not seem like a good idea to me. But it seems like my mom really wants to go to this particular sale, and it's not like I can arrange to have the sale postponed. So, okay, I've got some stuff to do, but she called earlier in the week and I think that I might be done with everything by three or so on Friday.

Okay, on Friday morning, most of the stuff is done, except the stuff for charity that I've mostly given up on. But there's still a little time left to think about that, if I can just get this other stuff done. I have to finish up some leg warmers, trim the fringe on two scarves and put fringe on two more scarves, but one of those scarves isn't needed Saturday. I'd already found wrapping paper and boxes and even some bags, and after that a went out and bought a few more bags and some tape. So the wrapping isn't done, but I think I have time to get it done, once I finish up with the scarves and leg warmers. I'm still thinking that I can just about get all of this done by three, except for the one scarf that I don't need til later.

And my mom calls at 12:30 and asks if I still want to go with her.

Sure.

Then she asks if I'm ready to go.

No, I'm not ready to go. I still have stuff to do. I thought that I had until three.

So then she's wanting to know what stuff I have to do. She sounds a bit ticked that I'm not ready to go.

I don't really want to get into it. That wastes time that I could be actually doing the stuff instead of talking about doing the stuff. And I thought that the sale didn't start until four.

Well, she didn't want to be out late, and she thought that we could do some other stuff first and then maybe get something to eat. And even though the mall stays open late, she didn't really want to be out late.

Me, I don't like to be out past six, unless I've planned to do that. Do I need to plan to do that?

Well, no, not really.

I don't believe her, so I set the VCR to record Ghost Whisperer and some other stuff. I don't really think we're going to be out that late, but I figure I might as well be on the safe side.

Okay, so I figure if she'll let me get back to what I was doing, that I can do the stuff the absolutely has to be done, and then if we're not going to be out much past six I can still have time to do the rest of it after I get home.

She has an errand to run. She's going to call me when she's done with that.

Okay, so I finish putting the fringe on the third scarf, but I haven't trimmed any of the scarves or finished up on the leg warmers. I go and find all the boxes that each gift will go in, and get that all laid out, but I only get one present actually wrapped. Four things still are knitting that needs to be trimmed or finished up, so I can't wrap them. I'm going to wrap the other stuff when my mom calls and asks if I can do something for her on the way over.

Okay. I'm not done yet, and I wasn't supposed to be driving, she was supposed to pick me up. But I figure that I've got enough stuff done that I can do the rest if we don't stay out past six or seven. It's all laid out and ready to go, sort of. Okay.

So I go and get whatever my mom wanted and I leave the car and we head to the mall. Only we stop someplace first cause she has to return stuff at another store.

Okay, cause it's on the way, but I never return stuff unless it's broken or something. Returning stuff is my mom's main hobby.

And then there's the cell phone. I finally got a cell phone a couple of years ago, for emergencies. I have all of my original minutes, plus that amount again. I've only had one emergency, and I don't use the phone that much other than that. Most phone stuff can wait til I get home, and of course I would never talk on the phone while driving or anything else.

While we were in this store just to return something, my mom called someone to ask what the name of something was so she could look for it. Fine. But then the someone called back to talk about I don't know what, and then a family member called to talk about another family member's illness.

We are not even at the mall yet, and she's talked to people on the phone as much as she's talked to me. If anyone calls me while I'm out, I only answer the phone long enough to say that I'm busy and they will have to call back later. I wouldn't even do that, except that it's an emergency phone, so maybe the call is an emergency. But usually not. In fact, it's usually a wrong number or something.

Okay, so we finally get to the mall, where we return some other thing, and then we head to the sale. And I pick up a few things that I want to try on, and my mom is like, as long as you're here you should try on some other stuff.

I don't like trying on clothes. I almost said that I don't like shopping, but that really isn't true. But I don't enjoy the part of trying on the clothes, so unless there's a good chance that I'm going to buy it if it fits, I don't take stuff to the fitting room.

So off we go to the fitting room. And most of the stuff doesn't look good on me.

Okay, I'm done.

My mom says something like if I decide that I like those pants, we can always come back to get them on the way out. Okay. And then there are a few more things that maybe I would have tried on, but I didn't see them, and she says something like maybe we can try them on later, on the way out. Okay. So we go and eat.

And I hadn't really noticed that I was already tired until I sat down. But maybe I'll fill better after we eat. So we're in the food court, and we've come here to eat something, or so I thought. But it seems to take forever for my mom to decide what to eat. So then we eat, and my mom throws away half of her food. She had wanted to share something, but she didn't want anything that I wanted. Plus she has a cold. I don't want to share stuff with her when she has a cold, even if she is convinced that she's past being contagious.

The mall is very noisy, and I'm having to yell a bit to get her to hear me. Then we go back to the shopping, and after trying on a lot of stuff that doesn't look good on me, we buy some black pants, and she pays for mine and says it's a Christmas present.

Okay, it's past six, we have pants, time to go.

Only she wants to look at other dumb stuff that she has to get sometime, but not really right now. She sorts through the underwear and socks, but doesn't find what she's looking for.

At some point she says something about having to try on a bunch of stuff just to see how it looks. No, I don't have to try on a bunch of stuff just to see how it looks. In fact, I can keep wearing the same ugly stuff I have if I want to. One pair of black pants is a necessity, but the rest of this stuff isn't. And I really don't enjoy looking.

We go to pay for the pants, and she gets a phone call. This is one of those times when I would just refuse to answer the phone. The cashier has a job to do, and it's not to wait for people to have phone conversations with other people. But my mom answers the phone and talks a bit and doesn't get rid of the caller right away, so the checkout process is delayed while the cashier has to ask all of these "would you like fries with that" sort of things that she has to say even when it is clearly a waste of time, because if she gets caught not saying them she'll get written up or fired. My mom gets rid of the caller and pays for the pants.

Only then she returns the call. I wait some more.

Okay, we're finally back in the mall headed for the store where the car is parked. It is like seven and I'm tired and ready to go.

And we get to the store, and we're getting on an escalator. I don't like escalators. One level is okay, but more than that and I look for the elevator. But it's just the one floor, and we are getting on the escalator, and I'm looking at my feet.

And then my mother wheels around and says that she forgot that I didn't like escalators.

Okay, I would have been fine if she hadn't done that.

Do I want to get on the escalator?

I don't know, is that where the car is?

No, but we've got more shopping to do.

I'm done. I didn't want to be here this late.

Well, I'm not done. Aren't you going to come with me?

If we have to go downstairs, I'll get on the escalator, but I'd rather just go home.

But we've hardly looked at any of the sale stuff.

I don't know why we have been all over the rest of the mall if she still cared about that sale. I thought she'd looked at it and decided she didn't want any of it.

If we have to go downstairs, I'll get on the escalator, but just get out of my way. I can't get on the escalator if you keep doing stuff to distract me.

At this point I'm told that I'm very unpleasant to be around. Seriously, I should have just been rude and canceled the whole thing. I had stuff to do. Being at the mall on a Friday night the day before the party and a week before Christmas was the last place I wanted to be, I just came because I thought I should spend some time with my mother. I want to go home.

My mom finds a leather jacket that's normally more than two hundred but is on sale for less than fifty. And it looks really good on her. We try on some other stuff, but it doesn't look good. And she wanted to buy stuff for other people, but it was sold out. She should have bought it when we first got there and put it in the car.

But I at least thought that the leather jacket was worth it. And she bought the leather jacket, but then she's saying she wishes it was just a little different and she'll probably take it back.

Great. I was thinking that it was worth all this to get her the jacket that really looked good on her, but she's probably going to take it back.

Just right when we are finally leaving, I find some stuff that I might have liked, but I'm too tired to even think about it. Should have just told her to buy them, and then she could take them back when she returns the jacket. But I didn't think of that.

So we get in the car, and she's saying that she's thirsty. I say that I think that my throat is sore from having to talk over the noise in the mall.

That doesn't make your throat sore. You must have already had a sore throat and didn't know it.

Sure I did.

And the phone rings again, and she answers it, while driving. She talks to the other person most of the way home.

I really don't learn. I should never go shopping with mom, even if she is going to buy me stuff.

I get back to the car and thank her for the dinner and the pants. I get home past nine, and I'm too tired to work on knitting or anything. It isn't that much work, but I'm afraid that I'll make a mistake, so it will have to wait.

The party is at two, and I still have to do laundry and such.