Help!!! They’ve turned me into a shopaholic…
Have you ever found yourself walking into a shop one day because it said SALE in block letters…only to walk out with your bank balance reduced to a miniscule…Well my life has been a series of those days since I have landed in the US….
I came with thanksgiving weekend around the corner and what all the friends and relatives were buzzing about was the after thanksgiving sale… walking into Sears at 8a.m , gave me a sense of being in another planet… I have never seen so many people so active on a Saturday morning…clothes were going off the hanger at speed of light…walking out with $350 spent and 5 hrs later. I promised my self and my poor husband. that this was a yearly phenomenon and it was only one day a person could let herself go…Was I ever wrong!!! :)
Quickly on the heals of thanksgiving comes the “days before Christmas” and the sales continued….well like a alcoholic getting a whiff of a spirit in someone’s perfume and falling off the wagon, all it took for me was the phrase “when u go to India you need to take gifts”…considering I had just come from India, this phrase should not have shook me.. but the urge to buy lots of things at really cheap prices overtook the reasonable person in me.. Jewelry was the name of the game this time, I knew that I could never go wrong with a fake ruby or emerald stone setting for my friends back home who would forgive me for not mailing the last three months.. a Sears and Macy’s card later, we were out by another $250 …though considering in Rupees for that price I could have bought them something in gold!
The demon of shopping should have been laid to rest ,however K and I are moving into a new apartment and unfortunately for him, he mentioned the word “refurnish”… well with “after Christmas” /New Year /Winter Sale about to start, the sale monster had to reappear and it did in a whole new fashion. For the old me, furniture and home improvements was a chair and a bed.. with a TV…but oh no!!! with a credit card and a 30-50% off on IKEA (a furniture /Home store)…I wanted everything from a candle stand to a fluorescent lamp and I spent another 5 hrs (with lunch) walking through the showroom and ‘marketplace' !!!But what we both as a couple wanted was a 6 drawer dresser (packed and unassembled) ..the entire furniture part of the store is self service… So a day before the sale ended, we spent half a day strategizing :- the borrowing of a truck, the time to IKEA, the time for billing and then the move from the car park to the house: Transportation equations at its best. Well moving on, it was my brilliant Idea, that we use the TV stand which had the wheels on them to move the boxes from the car park to the apartment…all went as per plan, till we loaded the dresser on the TV stand, a few seconds down, the stand collapsed!!!!! So it was back to IKEA for us, to buy a new one!!
Last Week ended with a visit to the Flea market. This is Ranganathan street, Koyambedu market,Tnagar thrown together along with a couple of furniture stores and fast food restaurants (for non-Chennaites – that means all the stuff under the sun from hairclips to entire apartment furniture in one place and REALLY REALLY cheap). The best part was the market… it was just like home,people bargaining, rotting vegetables and people walking whichever way they want. I love it!!! K has promised several more trips, provided I don’t buy most of the market and like a person in withdrawal I have promised.
Yesterday though I felt a small victory. It was the last day of the Macy’s new year sale, and at having a guilty complex about not buying anything for K ,I walked in at 6.45 pm with hope that maybe this time, I would catch a real bargain….however the faiths were against me .,.. and the announcement was that the shop would close sharply at 7.00pm that day ,compared to the regular 9.00 pm timings. I needed a bargain badly; something that would assuage my feelings of guilt of spending soo much money is soo little time…. With 5 minutes to go, and adrenaline surging, I tried everything from a tie to Calvin Klein shirts, with exorbitant rates or with K being extremely picky my time was running out, Then suddenly my eyes fell on blue shirt… K seemed to like it, saying a prayer, I looked at the price and I think I actually heard the hallelujah chorus from heavens up above , a $45 shirt was cut down to $10 .Picking it up I ran to the counter in a leap that would have put Sergei Bubka to shame :))..my victory was small and I had just won a little battle. But my war with Bargains and sale will continue Im afraid till my last breath… because, we all know even a 1$ saved can buy u a ladle at the dollar store.
Some Pics of my shopping fiascos and victory :)
Well for the jokes, and for this one I thank my aunt, in her 50’s she’s learning to be a Medical Transcriptionist- Ive put down some now and reserved the rest for later:)
Actual Medical Chart Notes
1.Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
2.Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
3.On the second day, the knee was better, and then on the third day it disappeared.
4.The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
5.The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
6.Discharge Status: Alive, but without my permission.
7.Healthy-appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful
8.The patient refused autopsy.
9.The patient has no previous history of suicides.
10.Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
I came with thanksgiving weekend around the corner and what all the friends and relatives were buzzing about was the after thanksgiving sale… walking into Sears at 8a.m , gave me a sense of being in another planet… I have never seen so many people so active on a Saturday morning…clothes were going off the hanger at speed of light…walking out with $350 spent and 5 hrs later. I promised my self and my poor husband. that this was a yearly phenomenon and it was only one day a person could let herself go…Was I ever wrong!!! :)
Quickly on the heals of thanksgiving comes the “days before Christmas” and the sales continued….well like a alcoholic getting a whiff of a spirit in someone’s perfume and falling off the wagon, all it took for me was the phrase “when u go to India you need to take gifts”…considering I had just come from India, this phrase should not have shook me.. but the urge to buy lots of things at really cheap prices overtook the reasonable person in me.. Jewelry was the name of the game this time, I knew that I could never go wrong with a fake ruby or emerald stone setting for my friends back home who would forgive me for not mailing the last three months.. a Sears and Macy’s card later, we were out by another $250 …though considering in Rupees for that price I could have bought them something in gold!
The demon of shopping should have been laid to rest ,however K and I are moving into a new apartment and unfortunately for him, he mentioned the word “refurnish”… well with “after Christmas” /New Year /Winter Sale about to start, the sale monster had to reappear and it did in a whole new fashion. For the old me, furniture and home improvements was a chair and a bed.. with a TV…but oh no!!! with a credit card and a 30-50% off on IKEA (a furniture /Home store)…I wanted everything from a candle stand to a fluorescent lamp and I spent another 5 hrs (with lunch) walking through the showroom and ‘marketplace' !!!But what we both as a couple wanted was a 6 drawer dresser (packed and unassembled) ..the entire furniture part of the store is self service… So a day before the sale ended, we spent half a day strategizing :- the borrowing of a truck, the time to IKEA, the time for billing and then the move from the car park to the house: Transportation equations at its best. Well moving on, it was my brilliant Idea, that we use the TV stand which had the wheels on them to move the boxes from the car park to the apartment…all went as per plan, till we loaded the dresser on the TV stand, a few seconds down, the stand collapsed!!!!! So it was back to IKEA for us, to buy a new one!!
Last Week ended with a visit to the Flea market. This is Ranganathan street, Koyambedu market,Tnagar thrown together along with a couple of furniture stores and fast food restaurants (for non-Chennaites – that means all the stuff under the sun from hairclips to entire apartment furniture in one place and REALLY REALLY cheap). The best part was the market… it was just like home,people bargaining, rotting vegetables and people walking whichever way they want. I love it!!! K has promised several more trips, provided I don’t buy most of the market and like a person in withdrawal I have promised.
Yesterday though I felt a small victory. It was the last day of the Macy’s new year sale, and at having a guilty complex about not buying anything for K ,I walked in at 6.45 pm with hope that maybe this time, I would catch a real bargain….however the faiths were against me .,.. and the announcement was that the shop would close sharply at 7.00pm that day ,compared to the regular 9.00 pm timings. I needed a bargain badly; something that would assuage my feelings of guilt of spending soo much money is soo little time…. With 5 minutes to go, and adrenaline surging, I tried everything from a tie to Calvin Klein shirts, with exorbitant rates or with K being extremely picky my time was running out, Then suddenly my eyes fell on blue shirt… K seemed to like it, saying a prayer, I looked at the price and I think I actually heard the hallelujah chorus from heavens up above , a $45 shirt was cut down to $10 .Picking it up I ran to the counter in a leap that would have put Sergei Bubka to shame :))..my victory was small and I had just won a little battle. But my war with Bargains and sale will continue Im afraid till my last breath… because, we all know even a 1$ saved can buy u a ladle at the dollar store.
Some Pics of my shopping fiascos and victory :)
Well for the jokes, and for this one I thank my aunt, in her 50’s she’s learning to be a Medical Transcriptionist- Ive put down some now and reserved the rest for later:)
Actual Medical Chart Notes
1.Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
2.Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
3.On the second day, the knee was better, and then on the third day it disappeared.
4.The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
5.The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
6.Discharge Status: Alive, but without my permission.
7.Healthy-appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful
8.The patient refused autopsy.
9.The patient has no previous history of suicides.
10.Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
posted by Anu at 10:25 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Anu,
Have a great time shopping. But surprised that you get good bargain in USA too. Anyway I should see that my wife does not read this post.
One she is crazy for shopping and she is an editor in Medical Transcription.
Happy Shopping Anu.
Its the other way round at my home.. my wife spends too much time on shopping, but buys very little. On the other hand, I tend to pick at least something or other from every rack in the aisle.
After a long time..
I correlated with what you wrote. It has been a frentic 1 1/2 months of shopping for us too. The doorbuster sale, red ticket watch.. what not.
time for you to get converted into a Window shopaholic.. :)
"The patient refused autopsy" - lol :-D
Shopping sometimes acts as a theraphy for me ( u know when i amm down n stuff) but yeah its only later the reality sinks that we have blown a good fortune ;)
But I think once in a while shopping spree is good for health ..hehe
PS : sorry i couldnt visit ur blog any earlier ..will keep visisting often :)
Post a Comment
<< Home