Well, it happened.  I took my very dear, very Southern friend shopping again.  Just as before, she had a few very specific items she needed.  A red jacket…plain red “you know Christmas red, anda pair of Ked’s…six eyelet, canvas, white in a size 9A.  I knew where we could find the Ked’s, so I stupidly thought this was a no brainer.  I am forever proving myself wrong.

We trotted off to Shoe Carnival because I knew they had six eyelet white Keds there.  I had purchased myself a pair just a couple of weeks ago.  I knew right where they wear and led her right to them.  We found the canvas six eyelet right away and began searching for a size.  Well Ked’s don’t come in narrow, so she had to try on every pair that might be a possibility.  Well that was easy, because there weren’t any 9’s.  She tried on an 8 1/2 and a 9 1/2 bet to no avail.  I found the right size and a good fit in the six eyelet white leather, but she had her mind set on canvas.  So off we went to Pinnacle Promenade in search of the elusive shoe.

At least the weather was cooperating.  It was cloudy and about 80 degrees that day.  I was soon to learn that the weather would be all that would cooperate.  Let me go back a few steps and tell you that while we were on our way to Shoe Carnival my daughter called to ask what I was doing.  I told her I was shopping with my very dear, very Southern friend who lives down the street, and she said “Oh! Fun!”  At which time I asked her, “you wanna go?”  Her response was, “hell no!  I’ve been shopping with her before.”  Well, my very dear, very Southern friend who lives down the street heard my part of the conversation and said I was trying to pawn her off.  I told her that I had not.  I had been asked what I was doing, and when I told my daughter she said that sounded like fun, and all I had done was asked her if she wanted to go.  I never said I wasn’t going to go to.  So you are caught up now and it’s a good thing cause her comes the good part.  The first store we went in she told the salesperson that I had already tried to get “shed” of her.  The second clerk was told I had been trying to pawn her off all day.  By the end of the day she was telling people that I just hated to go shopping with her.  She said she had to drag me out of the house kicking and screaming. 

Now the first time she lied, it contained at least a little truth so I just kind of smiled and let it go.  The second time she lied, I told the clerk that I had only tried to pawn her off once.  At the end of the day I told the salesperson “She’s a damn liar. ”  Now I don’t know if that was why the day ended or if she was just tired and wanted to go home.  Whichever happens to be the case we were headed home.  Again after shopping the better part of the day we had made no purchases.  She came close at J.C.Penney.  She found the same damn leather, six eyelet, white Ked’s that she had pooh-poohed earliet and was at the register ready to buy it when I mentioned that it had been $10 cheaper at Shoe Carnival.  Me and my big mouth.  So while we headed home we stopped by Shoe Carnival and finally bought the GD shoes.

The misery is not over, dear ones.  As I dropped her off at her house amid a clutch of hug and kisses, she yelled back to me, over her shoulder and said “let me rest up a bit and then we can go shopping for that jacket.”  You know what they say about no good deed…