The shopping gods

An artist's rendering of a typical shopping day

You know, some days are just meant to be shopping days.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever experienced this before, but have you ever had those days where you were able to find everything you needed? Maybe it’s happened to you at Christmas, when you just spend a day finding the perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Or maybe it’s that day when you are trying to put together a special outfit, and everything from the shoes to the hair accessories just presents itself to you with the ease of a personal shopper.

In my trade I do a lot of shopping -- and I’m not always talking about normal, easy stuff, like paper bags or Crayola crayons. I’m talking about fingerprinting kits, 36-inch stuffed penguins, 48-inch inflatable aliens, iridescent slime... for a party of 20!

Granted, I have a bevy of resources at my fingertips: the Internet, trusted vendors, two party supply stores, and three Targets within a 5 mile radius of my warehouse... I’m in good shape. But more times than not, I still end up spending hours trying to find just the right items. And sometimes, even when I do locate the right items (especially online), the systems still fail me: I end up on a wild goose chase of non-accepted credit cards and out-of-stock items.

Not so this morning! Today I had one of those days where I woke up and all the shopping stars decided to line up for me! I’m looking for some pretty obscure items for an upcoming event. I’ve still got a good 6 weeks to go, but I’m not taking any chances. A good deal of the stuff has to be hand crafted, so I don’t want to cut myself short. Whenever you are dealing with anything that is personalized, give yourself at least a month or maybe two for delivery, just to be safe. Trust me on this one... the more time you have, the better!

I’ve actually been searching the Internet for some time now, trying to find fish-shaped wooden plaques... and not having any luck. But this morning I found ten sites, all offering me a variety of wooden fish that can readily be turned into plaques. It’s crazy. I swear to you, I have been typing in the same search words and using the same search engines for about a week now, and coming up empty-handed. Not only did I find just ten sites, but I also found the items on sale on a few of these sites! So now you tell me: is this meant to be a shopping day, or what?

I made the “divine shopping days” discovery many years ago, and since then I have always held true to this rule: if I don’t find what I’m looking for in the first three stores, I give up... The shopping gods are not on my side. I find that when I give in to the forces that be, I usually find what I need the next day - and, surprise, surprise, often at those same stores I checked the day before...

Who knows why the gods choose one day rather than another to shine upon me; and if you’ve never experienced the presence of the shopping god in your life, then you probably have no idea what I am talking about when I describe the nearly spiritual euphoria that accompanies one of these inspired shopping sprees. However, I know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m canceling all my appointments today, and going shopping!