228 - Single Best Shopping Night... Ever...

I treated myself to a steak dinner tonight. I was just going to cook a potato and be done with it, but then I remembered that I had steak in the freezer, and I need to remember to use the stuff in my freezer. I also got off work a little early so I thought, 'What the hell, let's do it. Celebrate good times and all.' Fired up the grill, made some compound butter, tossed the potato in my convection oven and voila. I mean... voila! (you pretty much have to say that word with a flourish don't you?)

Was going to go to the nursery on the way home, but decided to put it off until tomorrow. It's a hobby of mine... putting things off. Even things I want to do. Figured I'd have all day Saturday to toss plants into the ground, why hurry it? I did transplant my thyme and sage. Pretty sure they're going to die. The plants were too small, very hard to handle... but fingers crossed.

So... you know me... (or at least you might have picked up on it from my posts by now)... I don't leave the house much. Nope... I'm not a house leaver. Somehow I've even avoided going out after dark for a few months now and just didn't realize it until I got in the car tonight... and that bright thing in the sky... it wasn't there... Anyway, if I bought Crest Whitestrips at CVS I'd get $10 in extra care bucks, and I just got a coupon for $10 off in the mail today so I figured, strike while the iron is hot, because the flyer changes sometime tomorrow, and I want to do this before I get my braces. This year I'm a butterfly, but right now I'm in the chrysalis stage... I'm changing... losing weight, straightening my teeth, eating healthy... (that was just mind vomit that probably confused you... sorry... it comes out with a wet wipe). And while I was out... if the nursery was open... why not go get my plants? It would give me a head start on tomorrow. So I checked the times, and yipee skippy, I still had an hour.

Drove to the nursery, semi-painlessly after taking the roundabout way to avoid traffic backups and since there were a lot of pallets being moved around and trucks being unloaded, thought I had gotten the times wrong and they were closed. The guy at the front reassured me that they were open.

I'd gotten a call while I was driving, but since I have a 6-speed I can't talk on the phone and drive even if I wanted to (which I don't) so when I saw the number I worried a little... this person never calls me... was something wrong? Nope. He saw a show that reminded him of me... it was called After Armeggedon... when he thinks of the Apocalypse he thinks of me... isn't that sweet? Well, it kind of is, lol. The Apocalypse occupies more of my daydreams than I care to admit, and he knows it. Even this garden is in some small way Apocalypse related. It's a sickness, it really is.

I headed for the tomato cages. They come in colors now... if I had my druthers I'd have gone with an unobtrusive green, but my color choices were bright yellow, bright pink, bright purple, bright orange and a nice tomatoey red, no surprise I chose red and since I couldn't get to another one easily, orange... like a traffic cone. Then I picked up some tomato food and sevin dust. Then I began my hunt for tomatoes. Where or where were the tomatoes? Not in the back... not on the left side... gads this place is huge... So the guy from the front asked if he could help me find anything. Probably pointless to tell you that I asked for tomatoes. He led me toward the front... when he got me to the aisle he pointed out the deals and then... randomly... as he walked away said I had beautiful eyes... amazing eyes.

Hmm. This doesn't happen often. Oh well *shrug* there are tomatoes to be bought!

So I shopped. I got five different kinds of tomatoes... big ones, little ones, yellow ones, orange ones... an eggplant... strawberries... two kinds of lettuce... brussels sprouts (shut up, I like them)... broccoli (shut up, I like it too)... jalapenos... chives... oregano... sage... Italian parsley... and maybe a couple of other things... I'm not really sure... I went a little vegetable crazy. Then I went to the front and got some soil.

When I checked out, I had my $5 off $30 and my $10 off $60 coupons at the ready. Figured I'd need the latter, but you never know. So the guys rings everything up, and it's $40-something. Seems low, but I hadn't added everything up in my head. As I'm paying he says, "Since you're pretty, I'm giving you the strawberries for free." I smile, unsure what to do except say, 'wow, thank you.' Then he adds that he's also giving me two other plants free, because I'm really pretty. Okay, wow again, this never happens to me. I hand over the credit card and the coupon. Then he adds that if the guys up front ask why those other two things aren't on the receipt, tell them he must not have seen them.

Huh?

The other two things were the tomato cages. They were $10 apiece... but I'm really pretty.

So I walked out with about $25 worth of stuff that he didn't charge me for. Because I'm pretty. Really pretty. With amazing eyes. And ONCE AGAIN I'm in my ponytail and baggy assed jeans with this morning's untouched makeup. What. The. Fuck? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, the compliments were flattering, and the free stuff was even better... but again with the grungy look and the male attention. It's mind boggling. (and hey, I'm a cougar! he was probably in his early to mid-20's)

So I head over to CVS. There's a bunch of (mostly crap) on some tables with a sign that says 50-90% off. Hmmm.... I'll check that out later. Right now I have some whitestrips to procure. They were $31.99 - $10 coupon and I get $10 ECB. That effectively makes them $11.99. Score. Then I check out the tables up front. Frustrating because there are no prices... I'm taking this on faith and probably about to get screwed over royally. But I got some lipgloss, two kinds of moisturizer (one of them Roc so I know it was expensive), some eyeglass cleaning wipes, and when I handed over my coupons and ECB's from the last trip, I walked out paying $0. That's right... zero, nada, zilch, nothing... I still had $3 ECB and earned $10. So...

I FINALLY WALKED OUT OF CVS AND MADE MONEY! I set a goal and I more than met that goal.

*dance of joy*

*second dance of joy*

*dance of joy for the tomato cages and free plants*

*dancing just for the hell of it*

So I'm all happy, and I come home and realize that I have text messages from my cousin (and this will answer your question Joe... and thank you for asking... thank all of you for asking and praying and caring, it means a lot).

After two days of his swelling going down and other good news, my uncle is having blood pressure and heart rate issues, plus the swelling seems to have come back to some extent. They've also decreased his sedatives and he should be alert, but he's not as alert as they would have expected. The doctors have told my cousin that he's in the process of dying, which as you would expect, does not make her happy and it's not what she wants to hear. Frankly, I'm not going to get upset about it just yet. Like I told mom when I heard her start to stress out, every day is different. Three days ago they thought he was dying, for the past two days he was doing great. Oh, and apparently he had pneumonia and a staph infection to deal with on top of everything else... pretty amazing... So I hope that tomorrow he pulls another trick out of his sleeve and starts to improve for good. If I seem like it doesn't bother me today -- it does -- but I can't let myself ride that emotional roller coaster. Until they call it, he's not dead. Therefore he's still alive and there's hope.

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow... it's grocery shopping day (more importantly, I get my coupons)... it's Survivors day... it's Legend of the Seeker day... and I'll be out in the garden for a while. It's going to be a great day.