Day of the Day Trip

As I am currently running a business, I don't get to go out much.  I really can't afford to close my store for long periods of time to go on a vacation.  The best that I can do is a single day, usually for a shopping trip.  I know that I should try and shop local, but sometimes I just need to go somewhere else, frequently for things that I can't find locally.  It's usually just four or five times a year that I close the store for an entire day and go somewhere.  Yesterday, my trip, as it were, was to Lexington.  I almost wish I had waited to go.  My problems started the night before, when I was delayed by almost fifteen minutes to go to bed.  I wanted to go to sleep early, because of the earlier start time.  Didn't happen.  What's worse?  Soon after I went to bed, a neighbor turned of a light that shone right into my bedroom.  There was also the noise of an overloaded washing machine or dryer thumping to a loud stop, twice.  Add another thirty minutes before going to sleep.  Waking up a little after 4:00 am wasn't fun either, especially when I couldn't fall back asleep.  Anyway, the morning seemed to be going right, until someone had to change everything she was wearing, making us leave about fifteen minutes later than what we had agreed upon.  At least that meant that the sun was coming up.  The three hour plus trip with one stop was fairly uneventful, save the police officers looking for something near where we had stopped along the way.  Lexington was okay.  We limit ourselves to a few stores along Nicholasville road.  Sure, it can get repetitive, but my guest doesn't like change too much.  Target was first, but they either didn't carry or were out of stock of everything I was looking for.  Joseph Beth was next. I hadn't been there in months, and I didn't know that they had had a major renovation.  I know that it is strange that a book store owner would go to a book store, but I mostly go for the magazines and scoops on any books I might have missed in my own searches. (By the way,  of the four I bought, one of magazines isn't found locally, two might be only found at a competitor, and the fourth was out earlier than it would be here.) They had reduced their stock by 20 to 30%.  They still tried to provide about the same amount of books, but more space had been taken over by other products.  Next, was the Fayette Mall, starting at Macy's at the north end.  We had just really began browsing when I heard an alert suggesting that the store was going to be evacuated.  The sales associates on the third floor where I was at took a moment to realize that it was real.  However, my guest didn't realize what was happening due to her hearing problems.  She barely knew what was going on even after all but being dragged down the escalators to get outside. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the ten minute delay killed any enthusiasm for shopping.  We spent a few more minutes looking a collecting price information, but we wound up not buying anything there after the incident. Note, that because of the late start and the alarm, we were now over thirty minutes behind schedule, even with the curtailment of shopping at the previous stops.  She demanded such at Chick-fil-a, which was okay, if a little early and maybe a little more expensive than usual.  (The clerk may have rang up the wrong order, but it wasn't that a big of a deal.) A few store were passed over to get to Dilliard's at the south end of the mall.  I had already searched online, and knew that they could still have what I was looking for in stock.  I was mostly right.  I would up getting my cologne, as well as a shirt and a pair of pants (both on sale), but they didn't have anything else that I was looking for, at least in my size, style, and price range.  We actually managed to leave the mall early enough to stop to do some grocery shopping and still leave town before school let out, although that meant I couldn't stop by the Apple store to get some more hints and supplies.  On the downside, the store we went to did not have any of the groceries I was really looking for.  Should have went to a larger one; maybe I will the next time I go to Lexington, which is usually only two or three times a year.  The trip back, with another stop for something to eat, was uneventful.  Just some sprinkles of rain.  And I accidentally got some lemony flavored drink in my refill of Dr. Pepper and root beer.  Didn't taste too bad, but it was still weird.  At least the gas station had nice new pumps.  The rest of the way was boring.  I even got tired of listening to the SiriusXm free trial.  Hours of changing stations, trying to find something, while also listening to each song for a few seconds, gets tedious.  I quick stop in Prestonsburg to drop a book off at the library, run a few things off, and then pick up dinner, and then it was a dull ride home.  In the summer, we would have gotten home later, but I have some weird problems driving at night.  It is not that I have trouble seeing, but I have such good night vision that ultra-bright headlights can blind me.  Most drivers turn them off for oncoming traffic, but those that don't really hurt my eyes.  Anyway, dinner turned out to be a problem, as the restaurant got my Stromboli order wrong.  After I reheated it, giving the top a crusty crunch, the bottom collapsed. Too many toppings.  I noticed that the flavor was off just a tad.  It was only after the other sandwich was started on that I realized what had happened.  Her peppers had been put on my sandwich, and the mushrooms had been left off.  Fortunately, I had only eaten half of mine and many of the peppers and onions had fallen off of that side, so I could just scrape the rest of them off the uneaten half.  Still, I would have liked my mushrooms.  I felt a little sick the rest of the night from eating too much that day, especially those peppers.  The final straws--the hearings preempted my show again so I didn't get to record it and the episode won't re-air because the west coast probably did get to watch, and I forgot to watch another one of my shows because I was so caught up it reconnecting on the twelve hours of computer time I had missed out on, including the ten hour bonuses I collected in Candy Crush Saga.  With all of these problems, is it any wonder that I only do this a few times a year?  When I move to Lexington next year, as planned, things will be better.  Or at least they should be.