Shop ‘til I Drop

The girls and I drove down to a nearby sidewalk fair today.  The girls were entranced by all the activity, and couldn’t decide which direction was more interesting. 

I was hoping to find some good gift ideas so I could start preliminary holiday shopping.  I know, I know – it’s very early.  But when I think about going shopping in New England inclement winter weather with two one-year-olds, my usual procrastination gets shoved to the side by desperation.  Unfortunately, nothing caught my eye other than an attractive antique drawing.  When I peeked at the price tag, I quickly concluded it was preferable to go shopping on Black Friday in sub-zero temperatures with two squalling children than pay that price.  You know how much the picture cost?

$15,000. 

Really.  I counted the zeros three times just to make sure I wasn’t mistaken.  This picture was sitting out in the grass in front of an antique shop, surrounded by $20 vases and chipped china plates.  The shopkeeper had written the word “Very Rare” beneath its list price, as if those two words could justify such an exorbitant cost. 

I immediately high-tailed it off the store’s property.  I could just imagine one of the girls somehow coming down with a sudden case of the flu and projectile vomiting all over the picture, thereby ensuring that I indeed finished not only my Christmas shopping early, but all shopping for the next fifty years.  Yikes.

So if you don’t end up with a good Christmas present from me this year, you can assume the horror I experienced from checking that price tag generalized itself to an all-encompassing sticker-shock.  Or else I ended up buried in a snow drift on the way to the mall on Christmas Eve because I didn’t get my shopping done in time.  Either is possible.