Shop til ya DROP!

I haven't been to Bangor in years to shop... the dollar just sucked too badly, you'd have had to be 'loonie' to waste time and money. Border crossing used to be at least a once-or-twice-a-year event, and with the loonie making great strides, my co-worker buddy and I decided to have a girls' couple of days across the lines.

It was an adventure. I was looking for a dress for Angie's wedding and she was looking for kitchen cupboard hardware... we found neither to our liking... but we had a lot of laughs in the process.

Two in particular that set the tone for the trip. The first was trying to search out bridal shops that sell mother-of-the-bride outfits. We had a couple of addresses and stopped at the mall before we went searching. While trying on clothes, we chat with this lady and ask her for directions to the bridal shop. She doesn't know it but says there's this great new one downtown and gives us direction for that one. So off we go to look for the one we had on our list before we head for the new one she had given us. We eventually find it and haven't they changed location, so we stop to ask further directions to their new site. Eureka, we're successful. I try on a few and there's one I like, not love, but like, which is $309 US. Another reason not to LOVE. Besides they'd have to order it in another colour and they don't ship to Canada. So I leave my contact info in case we do decide it's the dress and I can make arrangements for pick up, and we set off to find the new place we'd been told about. We stop in a hardware store next door to see if they have the pulls for Penny's cupboards, but no. We're heading back to the car reading the lady-at-the-mall's directions and suddenly we realize she said it was next to a hardware store (and the name is the same as the one we were just in)... lo and behold the "new" place is the OLD place, just relocated. We have a laugh and decide to head for Brewer, Me. to find a kitchen store we found in the phone directory. We cross the bridge to Brewer and drive a long way down this very LONG street until we find the number... it's in a mini-mall and lo and behold, again, this store has relocated... to Stillwater Avenue (that's the street our hotel was on!) We laugh again and head back... and guess what? We find the store in another mini-mall NEXT DOOR to our hotel!!! And after all that a girl at the store in very short, tight little shorts, tells us the man who is the expert in that product is not in today.

After both of those experiences, Penny suggests "I" go into the gas station to get our next set directions. I laugh out loud because if anybody who knows me will tell you... well, that story would be a good Shelley blog. So I call my elder daughter and hand the phone to Penny... my daugher tells her, "If you hear NOTHING else, hear this... do not take directions from my mother!" I expected hysterical laughter so I am somewhat heartened by the response.

So we didn't get the high priority items on our list... but Madie, in particular, fared VERY well, as she will find out later today.

We figured out that with their sales tax of 5% and about 6% on the dollar we're still in money when you consider the HST... worth a shopping expedition ladies! (And gents... we're going back in August to take Angie and Mark to the airport for their honeymoon trip... and my honey and I will be in shopping heaven!)