doodledee

For some reason that I don't understand - and haven't been able to get an answer for - my company decided that President's Day was important enough to warrant giving everyone the day off. Wee!

Unfortunately, my body didn't get the memo and I woke up at 6:30 totally rested and ready to start kicking ass. The whole thing was mildly amusing because on a real workday there'd be no way that I'd be ready to go that early. I forced myself to stay in bed until 7, just to stick it to me.

I had planned on getting the muffler on the Saturn fixed. It's been broken for like 6 months and it's time it got some attention. I called down to the Midas place and they said they could get me in right away. I had some other errands to run, so I worked up a plan whereby I would wait until 8:45 to leave, then go get coffee, then drop the car off, then walk to the other stores I needed to go to. Sweet.

I show up at Midas down by Southdale and they check it out. Needs a whole new muffler. Gonna be like $280. Stupid Saturn. I hem and haw about it, talk some smack with the kid, and eventually I get him to knock $40 off. Still sucks, but hey, $40 is $40.

I leave the car and head over to Best Buy. It's like 9:30. The place is closed. WTF? No biggie, I've gotta go to the mall, too. I frogger across York, walk to the mall, and - surprise - all the stores are closed there, too.

I killed 20 minutes walking around. It was eerie. All these old people were mall walking in silence, most still wearing their coats. The stores were all closed, but you could see in through the windows and doors and watch employees with long faces and drooping shoulders prepare for the day ahead. (It was kind of like a retail employee zoo. I wanted to throw them some food... A cinnabon, maybe?) And the worst part was everywhere you went, this awful music played over the worst PA system I've ever heard. Make. It. Stop.

Some stuff was open, though. There was a healthy line at Caribou and the wig lady was up and running. I also walked by the Pac Sun and saw the girl inside dancing like nobody was watching with the music cranked up to 11. That was good for a smile.

It was such a new experience for me that I took some pictures. Check 'em out.

Now that I've returned to earth, it's time to ground myself in the reality of tax season. Buckle up, people, it's about to get ugly.