foot sore shopping

Technically this should have been called "Voting and Shopping"... but my feet are sore/tired, so we'll go with this title...

So, obviously, today is (FINALLY) the election here in Oz... and Ma and I wandered down to the local primary school to do our civic duty at the Crack of Sparrow's Fart (ie, early), like you do.

There were a ton more people there than I'd kind of expected, given that it wasn't that long after 8am, and as far as I'm aware, that's when the polling opened.

As always I started filling out my forms with the people I didn't want and worked backwards (on the green form anyway)... I stood there with the white form for a while just staring at all the little boxes (and that song they use as the title song for Weeds kept popping into my head... "Little boxes, made of ticky tack, little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same... etc")... now normally I'm a good little voting citizen, and I number all (in this case) 46 boxes below the line. But I just kept staring at them and seeing things like the "What Women Want" party and the "Shooters" party and whatever other freakshows had their names down there, and you know, I really couldn't be bothered with it all. So I did the thing I've never done before in however many elections I've participated in... I just ticked one box above the line and handed in my forms.

Not that it really matters one way or the other... the two parties that I actually want to be in charge of things never will be. I just want the whole freakin thing to be over with so we can all get on with our lives and not have to listen to all this blah blah blah blah... because, really, a) it's about time for a change (and it does look like that's the way the winds are blowing)... and b) like it really matters anyway.

But enough of my probing and insightful political commentary...

Next came the usual Supermarket Wander... but there isn't really anything much to report there... I usually end up buying mostly the same stuff every week... or at least variations on the theme thereof, so it's not like it's a revelation.

Since I've been hunting around for a couple of extra things to go in the "Goodie Basket" I'm making up for J, we headed into town with only really a kind of vague idea about where the hell we were going.

I swear, we REALLY need to make more of a whole plan thing when we go shopping like this... we must have been up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down the mall far too many times. Partially it was my own fault... I only got inspired about something to get for Showgirl and Rockstar during the second half of the excursion, and because I'd been looking in all the toy stores for something for J, we ended up having to go to all the same places a second time. Less fun. And I couldn't find the particular kind of fluffy toy I wanted for Showgirl, so that was just annoying... I mean I could find the right animal, but not many of them, and the ones I could find just weren't "right". So the search continues.

Strange happenstance while we were in Myer... we found these cute little toiletry bag that were some fashion brand that I have heard of, but the name of which escapes me right now (I want to say "Industri" but I don't think that's right... or even spelled correctly)... in conjunction with Canteen... so they had these quite sizeable bags complete with a (cheap) toothbrush and holder, a soap case and a razor case. And they had both "boy" and "girl" versions. Anyway, Ma decided that she was going to get some for random quasi teenage girlies, so we picked out four and were looking for a register when this blonde woman dressed in Myer black just seemed to walk out of nowhere and usher us over to her register. Turns out that not only had she seen Ma and I at the polling booth in North Adelaide this morning (although neither of us remember her... probably because we were more focused on just doing what we had to do and getting the hell out of there than looking around at the peoples)... but she lives just down the street from me and sees me out walking in the mornings. So the nice blonde lady from Myer could be stalking me. Scary.

Okay, she's obviously NOT stalking me... but I'm going to have to keep a lookout for her house number on Monday, so I know where it is... and can, you know, be all ninja-like when I go past there... or wave if I see her or something.

Oh, and Lush is finally open in the Mall... supposedly they were going to open in October... and here we are at the end of November... but they're open now. And I have to say... it's a bit of a weird store (okay, it's a REALLY weird store when you get down to it... "Yeah, I'll take 200 grams of that soap thanks!"... whatthe?) but I kinda dig it! Expensive, and a large amount of the stuff is kinda useless to me since I don't have a bathtub, but still groovy. I made the either smart move, or else fatal mistake, of asking one of the little Lush girlies (and, hello, where the hell were the cute little Lush gayboys... what's up with that?) about some random product... no, I tell a lie... actually, even worse than that, I made conversation when she commented that something had been knocked over or some such... and next thing I knew she was taking me (and Ma) around the store showing us various things. Interesting, but I'll probably know not to do that again. Unless, you know, they get cute gayboys.

We're actually doing pretty well as far as the whole Christmas shopping thing is concerned. I mean, I know that I don't really have that much stuff I need to get, but I have most of the stuff that I want (other than something to actually put all of J's Goodie Basket stuff INTO... that and the stuff for the remaining two thirds of The Spawn of Sheeba)... and Ma is only a couple of items short of finishing her shopping. Of course, the way the Universe works, those couple of things will take from now until Christmas Eve to actually find... but it's still pretty impressive.

Part of the reason that my feet ended up killing me, other than all the walking we did... was my thongs. Actually I don't know if it was the thongs, the walking, the fact I had body lotion on my feet, or WHAT... but not only do I not have a blister on the top of my foot, but my feet were BLACK under the straps of the thongs (which are also black... hence where the black came from). Icky. I should really have worn my red sandals...

Crap... I just made a list of things I need to do and stuff I'm doing during the next week... it does look as though next weekend may well be one of those "not enough time to scratch myself" kind of weekends. Fuuuuuuun...

And it's only a month until Christmas... then it will be 2008 already. Where did the year go?

I think I might wander off, fall down and go boom now... if you'll excuse me...

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