I don't shop enough

Well, Anton in Show Business is up and we didn't have a Sunday matinee, so, being me, I scheduled some stuff. I called David Saturday night (from the theater) to confirm plans:

"Okay, tomorrow I'm having brunch with Sally and Laura and then I'm seeing Jeff and Andy in I Hate Hamlet and then I'll come to your house and we'll go shopping for my new coat and then we'll clean the bathroom!" That "we'll clean the bathroom," actually meant that I would clean the bathroom, a consumption-free gift that I gave David just because he's my sweetie.

Instead of greeting my fabulous plan with cheerful agreement or offers to come to see the play with me or anything like that, David said* "Uhm, shopping after the play?"

"Yeah, sure. Is that okay?"

"I don't think anything will be open then."

"The malls aren't open until 9:00 on Sundays?"

"Not when it's not Christmas shopping season, no."

I opted to go to the play and then do the bathroom cleaning. It probably says something about me that I regard seeing a play as a higher priority than going shopping for a present for me. I just think that the something that it says may be a little odd.

As it turned out, we probably wouldn't have gone shopping anyway because it was snowing yesterday afternoon and the roads were unusually slippery and icy, which I discovered when I was about half way to the theater.

It rarely snows here when the temperature is below freezing, but we had a mix of snow and ice that was truly frightening and not made any better by the way that people in the DC area "drive" in the snow. At one point on my way to the theater, I was in an area where people were braking on up-hills. Yes. Braking. On inclines. You'd think they wanted to spend the afternoon getting me pulled out a ditch or something. The brakers-on-inclines were ahead of me and the don't-leave-enough-roomers were behind me. I've never been so frightened behind the wheel and I was actually shaking at one point.

So I went to see a play (which I enjoyed) and cleaned a bathroom. And, yes, I made sure to point out to Andy and Jeff that I chose seeing their play over shopping for a present for me. No point in risking of life and limb for community theater if you're not going to get any credit for it. And maybe a flower or two when they come to see my show...


* Note: As neither David nor I remember precisely what he said, I am making up his dialogue. So feel free to assume that he was more clever/less clever, nicer/meaner, soberer/drunker, or whatever than I have portrayed him herein.