I have nothing to do...

A new outlet mall just opened not too far from our neighborhood, which is quite nice, actually – before it opened, if we had some sort of outlet mall longing, we’d have to drive down I-35 to San Marcos, about an hour away. And the San Marcos outlets have been there for ages, so they’re older and laid out in an awkward fashion – it’s kind of just like a giant strip mall, with half the stores on one side of the road, and half on the other. So when we saw that the mall up here near us was open and ready for business, we decided we should check it out. Our first attempt to do so was a couple weekends ago, after the mall had only been open a day or two. Here’s a tip – don’t ever attend the grand opening of an outlet mall a week before school starts during the tax-free weekend. We couldn’t get NEAR the place. People were actually parking in empty fields, because the asphalt lots were completely full. Needless to say, we pretty much did a quick drive-by (or, rather, a SLOW drive-by so as not to hit the myriad pedestrians wandering outside) and decided to return at a later date.

So Rick and I went back yesterday afternoon, since school started on Wednesday (yes! Once again the malls of the city shall be mine!) so we knew it would be less crowded. And it turned out to be a really nice mall – it has a much better layout than those San Marcos outlets, and some great stores – Banana Republic, Calvin Klein, Burberry… there’s even a Michael Kors outlet, which I really wanted to visit, but I figured even the “outlet” prices would be more than I could afford. (But I’ll probably have to sneak in there someday… just to look around a little bit…) The one “complaint” I had was the 102-degree heat, which made strolling around outside the stores a bit unpleasant. All the stores are situated around outdoor pedestrian walkways – which, in about two months, will be very nice. But right now, it just makes you want to walk out of one store and immediately enter another to feel the air conditioning (hmmm… nice marketing strategy, I suppose…).

And you can’t visit an outlet mall without buying SOMEthing, so we went to the Nike outlet so I could buy a new pair of sneakers. I’ve had the same pair for a couple years, and they’re dirty, and the tread is wearing down, and they’ve just generally seen better days. So I bought a pair I liked, and we endured the heat on the walk back to the car (where we endured MORE heat until the A/C kicked in). Once we were home, I decided to cool off on the couch for a few minutes before breaking in my new shoes. I picked up my latest issue of “Shape” magazine, and browsed through the articles until I reached the last page. The final little one-page editorial was titled, “If you do one thing this month… switch out your sneakers.” It proceeded to laud the benefits of new sneakers, explaining that after a while, old sneakers lose their shock-absorbing capabilities, making walking and running harder on your feet and knees and joints. And not only were new sneakers an important purchase for anyone who walks or runs on a regular basis, but buying new sneakers was the ONE THING that must be done this month.

Wow, I thought, I’ve already done the only thing I have to do this month! I went back to my room where I’d tossed my new sneakers on the bed, and admired them as they sat in the box, feeling a sense of accomplishment. I hadn’t even KNOWN that buying sneakers was the one thing I had to do this month, and I managed to do it anyway. I didn’t even have to WEAR them – that wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to simply “switch out your sneakers.” I don’t even know why I’m writing this blog post – it’s not like I HAVE to. I’m done for the month. That’s it. Bought my sneakers. I’m finished.

Now what am I going to do with myself for the REST of the month?

This was all I had to do? That was easy...