Shifting gears, I'm obsessed with the $1 bins at Target. I love Target anyway, but I REALLY love the $1 bins because I'm such an impulse buyer when I get to the checkout counter. Hence my mounting collection of weekly magazines. The $1 bin keeps me safe, though, because on any given trip to Target I would only spend about $3 more than I planned (instead of the impressive extra amount at, say, Borders). Usually at Target I really do find items that I "need" (but I never actually knew I needed them). Or I find stuff that I don't need, but rather optimistically think I'll use, like 10 red Christmas wine bags trimmed with fur at the top and wrapped with a little black belt to look like Santa's suit. I still have all 10.
The $1 bins always result in fun stuff for my nieces and nephew, but the other week when I was shopping with Ale I was able to make a great purchase for myself. I bought a United States map placemat that doubles as a dry erase placemat so that I can take state capital quizzes. It's for ages 3 and up. I would be pretty impressed with any three-year-old child that could identify/write out for me (on my placemat) the state capitals. I'm on a geography and U.S. history kick right now, so it was a welcome find. Today I went to Target during lunch, and I was thrilled to find that the $1 bin had bath stuff with the Little Miss characters. They had Little Miss Sunshine, Little Miss Chatterbox and Little Miss Naughty bath gels and lotions. I love those books and I would have bought the bath stuff just for fun, but they all smelled horrible. So I left Target empty handed, which is hard for me to do. I missed out on the week or two when Target had the "I heart Jim Halpert" coffee mugs. I absolutely would have thrown down a dollar for that.
And speaking of throwing down, this morning I dropped my orange juice in my lap, so it soaked into my skirt. Gross. I'm such a dropper. I don't just spill stuff at work (or other places) -- I drop stuff. The two biggest stains in our hallways at work are from me. One spill was from a trip to Starbucks in the winter when I got a hot caramel apple cider. My coworker and I were having a rough day, so we made a quick run to get a pick me up. I took my first sip of it as I was walking into my office. It was so hot that I burned my tongue and accidentally dropped it on the ground. The mixture of caramel and whipped cream didn't mix well on the carpet. And every few months when the carpets are professionally cleaned the receptionist shows the cleaners the huge stain and they have to do extra stuff to clean it. I don't understand why it's still there. The other huge spill was when I was carrying four drinks in one of those cardboard drink caddies. I was about to walk into my coworker's office with the drinks when my purse slipped off of my shoulder and dropped down to my wrist. That, for some reason, made me drop all four drinks. So now I've pretty much stopped carrying drinks in the hallway.
But now that I have my new U.S. map placemat, I can spill as much as I want. From sea to shining sea.
