Girl's Day Out

Maria and I had a day out today. We aim to do this once a month, but honestly it doesn't really happen that often lately. John has been working lots of overtime and often has his own list of things to do on his days off. My parents have moved recently and no longer offer convenient babysitting. But today, we finally got out. We had tickets to a 9:30 show at the Arts Center anyway, so it seemed like a good day to do this. After the show, we decided to check out the new mall. Let me tell you...I *detest* malls. I literally have not been to a mall in at least 3 years. I hate crowds, I hate wasting money, and I rarely enjoy shopping at most stores....I would much rather shop by internet than navigate some mall. My daughter, however, girly-girl of the year, *loves* malls. I don't think she even remembers the mall very well. She has just seen them in movies enough to know they are "cool". So, off to the mall we went...bad Chinese food and a $45 blown at Build-a-Bear (*never* go to Build-a-Bear. I had no idea it would be this expensive and I promised her a bear before I had any idea!!), a smaller amount spent at Claire's buying a birthday present for a friend, and we had had enough. Even Maria had enough. I'm glad I got to spend the day with Maria, but I am done with the mall for another 3 years.!