House of Mirrors

I lost Peggy today. It was in Macy*s. We had been at the K St. Mall in Sacramento for nearly two hours and our parking validation was about to expire, so when we finished lunch, she went to Macy*s and I ran back to move the car out of the parking lot, then circle the block and come back in again, to get another validation so we could stay another two hours. It was cheaper than worrying about $1.50/hour. We agreed that we’d meet in Macy*s.

I haven’t been in Macy*s in years. My store is Lane Bryant and other fat lady stores. They just laugh at me when I ask for things my size at Macy*s, so there’s not much point in shopping there. I figured Peggy would be looking for sportswear and I had no idea how huge the women’s sportswear department is. I made a complete tour of the whole floor and didn’t see hide nor hair of her. I realized that if she were trying to keep an eye out for me, we could easily spend the entire new 2 hours of free parking just running around in circles trying to find each other and just missing each other.

So I remembered the survival training I learned from the 6 o’clock news. I decided to pick a spot and stay in it. The spot I picked seemed a logical one. It was at the intersection of two rows, so I could look in 3 directions, it was the Liz Claiborne section, and I was standing in front of blouses with zebra prints (Peggy loves zebras). I figured that would surely do it.

But it didn’t. The minutes clicked by. Once I saw the top of a blonde head that looked familiar and left my post to go off looking for her. But I discovered that the head wasn’t where I thought it was and that I’d been looking at a reflection in a mirror. I returned to my post and began to realize how many places I could look that would be wrong because they were all mirrors. It was like being back in the funhouse again.

But finally I did spy her off down the row. Turns out she’d been on the first floor (the sportswear department is on the second floor) looking at socks and salt and pepper shakers. Whoda thunk?

But in spite of that little sidetrack, we had a great afternoon. We had planned to go tour Old Sacramento with O, but O called to say she had a migraine so we decided to go without her. To get to Old Sacramento you pass under the K St. Mall and I happened to mention that we were driving under Macy’s. Peggy’s ears perked up like a hunting dog and she sniffed the air for "sales." I asked if she wanted to do Macy*s or Old Sacramento first. It was a no brainer. We went to the mall.

It took us a long time to get to Macy*s. First we went through the Metropolitan Museum of Art store, one of my favorites, where she bought some gifts to take home. Then we found the Discovery store, where she bought a nice African print t-shirt and I started my Christmas shopping.

Of course we couldn’t pass by Doubleday Books without going in, and after extensive browsing, came away with a computer book (for Adobe PaintShop). Finally off to Macy*s, with a stop in the food court, where we both had gyros for lunch.

After Macy*s we had some yogurt and then went through a few more shops, not buying much. Finally we got back to the car around 4:10, with a few more minutes (but not many) left on the new validation.

We decided to skip going to Old Sacramento, since it was now so late, and just headed home, getting caught in the traffic returning from the direction of Reno and Lake Tahoe. (Good; they’ll all be gone by the time we get there tomorrow!)

So far we hadn’t taken a single photo, though we had bought brought our digital cameras. Peggy expressed an interest in photographing sunflowers. I remembered where I’d seen a field of them, but said it might be too late. We found the field and the flowers were all still there, but well past their peak, and now quite droopy, especially in the setting sun. But we took some photos anyway.

It was kind of nice standing out there in the middle of a sunflower field, with the sound of a outdoor concert of Mexican music floating past us from a distant amphetheatre. We took a few photos of the dying sunflowers and the harvested cornfield and then came home.

If it’s possible, Buddy looks pale. His eyes tell me how much he’s hurting. I’ve just given him his last dinner (and he’s returned my favor by filling my office with gas). Tonight I’m getting caught up on some work so we can leave tomorrow for two days touring Lake Tahoe and Reno.

Peggy is giving me a hard time for planning to bring my laptop along with us. But...but... how can I leave it behind???