My Adventures at Wal-Mart.

I just have one thing to say.

Why?

I went to Wal-Mart today to get some milk, Dr. Pepper's, hamburger meat & a few other things we were out of, to hold us to our Big Grocery Shopping Trip on Wednesday.

Otherwise known as payday.

I pulled into the parking lot, looking for a parking space.

I spotted one on the next row, so I quickly, but cautiously, made my way over to it.

I got to the row & there was like a family of 5 walking down the middle of the row, as SLOW as they could. Instead of walking in a vertical line, they were in a horizontal line.

So, they're creeping along & I'm creeping along.

The dad like even turned around & saw me behind them, but did they move?

No.

Did they start walking faster?

No.

They're just talking & laughing & having a great time.

Finally, they get past the space I want.

I start to pull in, only to find out it's not a space.

It's the place where you put your cart after you unload your groceries.

Seriously.

So, I turn into another row & see a woman loading groceries into her car. She's parked in kind of the middle of the row.

I put my blinker on & wait.

And, wait.

And, wait.

And, wait.

FINALLY, she shuts her trunk, takes her cart over the cart place & gets into her car & backs out.

I pull in.

As I'm walking into Wal-Mart, I notice there are now like 4 empty spaces on my row, that are much closer to where I parked.

Seriously.

Can a girl get a break?

I decide to just shrug it off & move on with my life.

I grab a cart & start in the Meat Section & continue on loading up my cart with the items on my list.

I was only supposed to get meat, chicken, milk, OJ, Dr. Pepper's, paper towels & Powerade.

You wanna know what else I walked out with?

• Scrapbook stickers
• a package of white t-shirts for Matt
• a package of socks for Matt
• a photo organizer box
• Crunch-n-Munch (2 boxes, mind you)
• Chocolate milk
• a new book (Hey, who can resist a $4.95 trashy romance novel?)
• buttons to sew on 2 pairs of Matt's khaki shorts

I think that's all.

Instead of spending my budgeted $30, I spent $60.

But, I can't help it. I got sucked into the deep, dark hole that is Wal-Mart.

I'm also famous for getting sucked into the deep, dark hole that is Target.

I can spend hours in Target, filling my cart with stuff I don't need, but apparently, I've mastered the art of justification.

I can justify just about any purchase I make, that's not on my list.

And, the good thing about all of this is that I do the checkbook, so most of the time, SOMEbody never even knows how much I spend.

Except for when he opens his drawer & sees his new t-shirts & socks.