Mario doing his model pose before he leaped off the tree stump

We braved heading to Polaris last night.  Polaris is a little city in intself with strip malls on one side of the street and a shopping mall on the other.  It’s north of the city and takes about 25 minutes to get to it on a good night.  I purposefully left at 6:30 pm with the hopes we would miss traffic but cars were braking constantly creating walls of red in front of us.  When we finally arrived at the lighting store, it felt like midnight and I had lost all enthusiasm for picking out lights.  I got some of  my enthusiam back when Maria and Mario discovered a playroom in the showroom, which allowed me to spend more than two seconds looking at lights.  Shops that contain kids’ playrooms rock this Earth and I just want to kiss all over the owner for thinking of us crazed parents that need to bring our kids with us to shop.  

The showroom overwhelmed me.  Lights hanging everywhere – silver, bronze, chrome, gold, amber….   I am finding that I need a limited choice of things when I go shopping or I get overwhelmed and cannot make a choice.  Not like I can make a quick choice between two things but 100 things just make my brain freeze.  I could have stayed at the showroom for hours, though, because Maria and Mario were content in the playroom watching Ariel with a new friend whose mom was enjoying a reprieve, too. 

We hit Great Indoors next.  That store looks like it is going downhill.  It used to feel more perky and alive.  We walked in and there were hardly any people, aisles were practically empty of items, and the mood was dejected.  But, they did have some pretty lights.  Luckily, they also had a mattress section right across from the lights that kept M&M busy (they loved the remote-controlled adjustable beds, of course).  I fell in love with one but it was not in stock.  I want the light before Thanksgiving so that I can show it off to my family.  Of course,  the practical right-minded part of me is saying that I should order the light and not care about getting it up before Thanksgiving since I will have it forever and I will love it.  But the anal, perfectionist that I am wants to have my lights installed prior to Thanksgiving so that the house can be in order, and that part of me prevailed.  I left the store with no lights but an idea of three or four that I would continue to consider until I went back to the store by myself on Friday afternoon. 

Maria "flirting" with Jack Hanna

About ten minutes prior to us leaving for the Playland, Maria walked over to me and begged for us to go. “Mom, I am ready to die.  I am so so hungry!”  Mario, on the other hand, begged to go to the Playland first.  Maria conceded as long as we got pizza and an Oreo brownie afterwards.  As we passed mannequins in the Ann Taylor store window, Mario looked up to me and whispered “hot girls!”  He is so wrong.  He acted like a wild man at the play land leaping off rocks and animals.  Maria ran around with him for about ten minutes and then her growling stomach forced her to stop.  It took us ten minutes to round up her insane brother but we finally got him to go by telling him that he could hop all the way back to the Food Court. 

We took down some pizza and an Oreo brownie at the Food Court.  While we ate, I asked M&M what lights they liked best at Great Indoors.  They ignored me as they ate their pizza but then Maria finished her food and began to lecture me. “Mom, you WANT new lights but do you need them?  There are things that we want but that we don’t need.  Do you think the lights are something you want but you don’t need?”

Huh??!  Where did I get this little minimalist, philosophical girl?  Oh yeah, she’s my daughter and I helped raise her to think just like this.  Meanwhile, Mario sat in his chair making strange faces and putting the remainder of his pizza on his head and stomach to try to make us laugh.  Where did I get this over-the-top, comedian boy?  Oh yeah, he’s my son and I helped raise him to be insane!   We drove home and called Jon to wish him sweet dreams good-night, laid down in my non-reclining bed, and fell fast asleep.