09 Dec Shopping On-line, on Free-For-All-Friday
I love the idea of Free-For-All-Friday! Of course we’ll talk literature, but we’ll talk a lot of other stuff if we feel like it.
In keeping with Wednesday’s post about domesticity and sensible vs high-heeled shoes, I’m still struggling with the juggling of Christmas decor calling and the stack of billing and articles beckoning. How to find the time to do it all and still do it well? Sigh.
One small time-saving pleasure I recently discovered: shopping on-line. Gasp, I know. Surely many of you are giggling behind woven fingers (please tell me your nails aren’t polished too…just one more thing I need to accomplish for this evening), but I am not a big on-line buyer. Here’s why:
1) For me, shopping is an “activity”, something akin to recreation. It’s often sociable and I love the thrill of the hunt, which is why many of my friends and I find great pleasure in thrift store shopping and garage sales. I’m not one of those women who shudders at the disarray of bargain booming racks at places like Winner’s and Ross (they don’t call it “Dress for Less” for nothing). The often messy, cluttered, scattered, falling-off-the-rack-and-spilling-onto-the-floor of fabric that occurs in these discount places only sets my I’m-in-it-for-the-bargain heart racing.
2) The other factor that deters me from on-line shopping…sizing, of course! How the heck do you know, if you can’t try it on. I’m super fussy about fit and have the super cute, but super small, Victoria Secret dress to prove it. I’ll never wear the thing. It just hangs in my closet, taunting me to stop eating cookies.
Desperate times called for desperate measures this week, however, when I looked at the calendar and realized my nephews are coming in a couple of weeks and I have nothing for them (or half the people on my Christmas list). Ranging in ages from one-and-a-half to nine, the boys are into toys and toys don’t need to fit. The “age appropriate” guarantee is right there on the box and so, armed with my credit card in my left hand, I scrolled down the screen with my right, and wouldn’t you know? Chapters had some fantastic Lego games and a bathtub play set and an artist kit and…books! See, I did mention literature.
Yes, indeed, one stop shopping. Nothing falling off racks, no mad scramble to out-search my fellow shopper, just a calm and civilized exchange of virtual money (until I have to pay off my credit card) for virtual (until they arrive at my door) products.
I stopped short of the gift-wrapping but now that I think about it…I wrap like Ross displays dresses…good stuff awaits the recipient, if she can make her way through the mess.
Happy shopping…and reading of “Annabel”…see you Monday. 
Cheers!
Shannon