From The Past: December 21, 2006

Kevin’s Christmas vacation started yesterday. Since the kids were in school, we decided to brave Fayette Mall for last minute gifts. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning. I had specific stores I wanted to visit, so it made navigation easy.

We did buy several gifts, but I also found a beautiful red dress at Macy’s for Ashley to wear. She’ll look stunning, I’m sure.

When we purchased one gift in particular, I told Kevin to make sure the guy at the counter opened it to see if it worked. The guy pointed to the display and said, “It’s just like this one. It’s brand new in the box, so it should be fine.” Still feeling a little trepidation, we bought the item unchecked.

When we arrived back home, I was relieved. I could actually feel my heart smiling because it was over. We fought the mall, but WE had won …. Or so I thought.

As I began wrapping the items we bought, I casually asked Kevin to check that one item in particular; the one we wanted checked at the mall.

He carefully opened the box, and put in the required amount of batteries. At first, the item seemed like it was going to work. It was making a clunky sound and then all of a sudden, gave out.

We turned it off and then back on again and the same thing happened. The item only wanted to operate for less than a minute.

I told Kevin we HAD to take it back immediately or it would drive me insane. (That’s just how I am.) We got the receipt and put the item back in its proper bag.

As soon as we picked Ashley up from school, back to Lexington and Fayette Mall we went – during rush hour traffic no less.

We returned the item and got our money back, but since they had no more in stock, they suggested we try Turfland Mall.

You guessed it. We went from the frying pan (Nicholasville Road) and into the fire (Harrodsburg Road). It was okay though. We weren’t in any hurry, so we stayed in good spirits.

Turfland Mall DID have the item we were looking for, but their display wasn’t working properly either, so we decided these items simply weren’t reliable and we chose something completely different.

As of today, we are definitely finished with the mall until after Christmas and now my heart can REALLY smile.