12 April 2002

I went to Target yesterday to buy birthday presents. Two of the three people I was buying presents for read this journal, so I won't say what I was getting, though none of them are going to be surprised if I tell you I was looking primarily in the Entertainment (movies and music) section of the store.

I had a list for each person, with likely candidates culled from their online wishlists. I started with the movies. I walked slowly up the length of the wall of tapes and DVDs, stopping frequently to look at my lists. Nothing. Not one movie.

Oh, wait... one. But that was it. I was beginning to feel mild panic - the joint birthday party, you understand, is today.

I turned to the music section. I found exactly one item.

Well, that was it. I was going to have to go somewhere else and look for these movies, or else order them online and print out some colorful and apologetic I.O.U.s for my friends. Dejected, I turned back toward the front of the store, planning to at least run some other errands while I was there.

On my way out of the entertainment section, I passed a tiny stand of DVDs. Well... it couldn't hurt to look, could it?

Oh, look! That movie is on one list! I snagged it, and walked around to the next side of the stand... Two more! And on the fourth side, another two! I'd now exceeded our budget for one person, so I picked and chose. I went back to the long wall of DVDs to check the price on the one I'd found there... and while I was there, I saw another movie I'd missed previously!

I now had something for everyone, more or less on budget, and was feeling much happier about the whole thing. I turned back toward the front of the store... and passed an entire section of kids' movies that I'd somehow completely overlooked before. And there were kids' movies on my lists! I looked the section over, and did some more picking and choosing and putting back of previous selections.

Ta-daaa! Birthday presents taken care of, right about on-budget, no less! I knew Target wouldn't let me down! (But they sure as heck could stand to re-organize the entertainment section a little better!)

So Jeff's coming to town this weekend. Driving up today. He's staying with K.T. and Kevin, so he'll stop there, and then all three of them will come up to our place. Rachel is also coming to town for the weekend, staying with us. She should get to town around 7 or so. I heard Matt making arrangements with Colleen on the phone last night, so some subset of her household is going to come up to our place in the evening.

It's going to be crowded; our living room isn't very big. But once we're all together and organized (this bunch? Probably around 9pm) we'll sort ourselves out into various vehicles and go over to the Mongolian for dinner and the joint birthday party of Kevin, Jeff, and (I think) K.T. It should be fun.

I'll be sure to take my camera... See you Monday!

--Liz