Today.

I have said it before & I will say it again "I have no control when I am in a bookstore". None. Zip. Zero. Nada. Today I was able to slip out for a couple hours & leave the kids behind.... so naturally I headed to Chapters. And then to Zellers (more on that later). 

I walked around for over an hour with a bag of liquorice allsorts & a chai latte. Mmmmm. And no kids to chase after (that was the best part). It is so nice to not have to sit in the oversized tea cup while my kids play with the trains or look at books. I mean, don't get me wrong, we've passed many awesome afternoons that way, but this was a nice change.

I found this awesome cookbook stand (splatter-proof) for just $7. My SIL got one at her bridal shower a couple days ago & I was green with envy. That last just 3 days. Hahah!

I also bought a new cookbook from the Bargain Book section (love!). I'll be sitting down with it & a stack of post-it notes later tonight.

I bought my husband these govino champagne flutes. He loved them. And deserved them because I came home to him cleaning the kitchen. Yay!

I bought four other books as well. Empire of the Beetle by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (which I read in grade school but would like to re-read, just because), Emma by Jane Austen (another classic I haven't read) and Karl Marxs' The Communist Manifesto. Its a bit of a weird combination, but I am a bit of a weirdo, so it works.

I also headed over to Zellers. I'm not a big WalMart shopper, never have been, so I will be sad to see Zellers go. When I mention that to people they always seemed shocked. Not sure why, because Zellers rocks. It's so Canadian. And when we were little, it was the only place to go for almost everything in Lloydminster. We even ate dinner at the Zellers cafe once in a while for a special treat! We would always see our neighbours Percy & Margaret there, having coffee with all the other seniors. Maybe thats why I like it. And maybe because I worked there for a bit in high school... and then again in college (although I quit quickly before they could fire me, I was a bit of a partier back then). Anyway, I will be sad to see it go. And walking through the aisles today, looking at all of the clearance 'junk', I couldn't help but mourn the loss of a Canadian icon. Don't get me wrong, I loooove me some Target, but I feel nostalgic when I am in Zellers.... like I am following in my moms path (she was a BIG fan of Zellers back in the day). I will probably reminisce to my kids about Zellers (back-to-school shopping, fries & gravy, lemon meringue pie, Club Z Points, our matching Zeddy Bear sweatsuits & the coveted Barbie aisle) with the same way my Mother spoke of Woolworths. Zellers was where we shopped for my first Cabbage Patch, my first backpack & cassette tapes with my allowance & now, some 30 years later, my daughters first pairs of underwear (we are potty training next week!). It seems like such a trivial thing, and maybe I am just a little too focused on loss today, but it made me sad.

Leaving the parking lot I got caught in one of those awesome summer showers. Summer showers are like, 1 million times better than Spring showers. You know, the ones that only last a couple minutes while the sun is still shinning brightly. It was so beautiful. And when I looked up I couldn't even figure out where it was coming from. My friend Pam, who would have been 29 today, must have sent that for me, knowing I was shopping in Zellers & missing 'the good old days' in Lloyd. Thanks Pam. It was perfect.