how to be 14 again...

(if only for a couple of hours)

The higher-ups in my company decided to give out gift cards to the mall (for a fairly substantial amount, mind you) to the schedulers of various departments as rewards for keeping overtime to a minimum. Since the department I do the scheduling for only provides services 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it actually isn't possible for me to schedule anyone into overtime, but they didn't seem to care about that. I'm not complaining, trust me.

So, anyway. Normally I really don't enjoy the mall. In fact, I think the last time I'd actually been to the mall before today was when I was Christmas shopping. Hm. I went online to see if my gift card was good at a particular mall, and it was, but what really caught my eye is that it was also good at the mall I hung out at when I was in high school. Sure, there are 2 perfectly good malls 20 minutes away...this wasn't about shopping, it was about nostalgia.

I drove approximately an hour and a half. I rationalized the cost of gas by telling myself that I wasn't going to be spending any of my real money at the mall--it was all on the company. And anyway, my brother still lives in that city, so I called him to see if he wanted to join me--it could be a regular family reunion!

(He called me back as I was pulling in to the parking lot to decline--he'd already been shopping and spent way too much for the day. However, we chatted for awhile, and he was able to tell me where the restrooms are in Sears, since they'd remodeled in the years since I'd been there. This was definitely necessary information, as it's a family trait that we are totally unable to ask store associates for assistance. I was a department store associate for years and I am still reluctant to approach them for any reason.)

It was worth it. I had lunch at the food court, spent the entirety of my gift card (plus about 5 dollars of real money--not bad), and watched all the middle-and-high-schoolers doing exactly what I did 15 (ouch) years ago. It's hard to describe, but it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes you need to run away to feel a little bit at home.