I took advantage of my day (or night) off to do some Christmas shopping. I could have stayed local and shopped at Westmoreland Mall but decided to head out to the other side of Pittsburgh and shop in Robinson.
I braved the traffic on the Parkway (and there was a lot of it… Squirrel Hill Tunnel, Fort Pitt Tunnel, and Greentree Hill) and arrived a little after 4 this afternoon. My first stop was the big Market District in Settlers Ridge. I don’t think you know this but I work for Giant Eagle now. This was the first time I saw the entire Market District and it is huge. It’s also very boujee. But I enjoyed myself there. I had some pizza, bought some alcohol, and headed to my next destination, Kohl’s.
I got a few Christmas items checked off my list at Kohl’s but despite the coupon, this trip could have benefited more from not coming here as it looked very picked over. Sephora taking over Kohl’s phased out their fine jewelry section in the bigger stores (smaller stores like Monaca and Butler still have a fine jewelry section). They’re definitely a better fit for JCPenney. That was my next stop.
I headed to the Mall at Robinson next and things got better here. I parked by the Food Court and walked into JCPenney through the home area. This was always a challenging inventory every year we did it when I worked for WIS. Ten of the eleven years we did it we always had trouble. It was also done in the summer most years so it was always a miserable count. Anyway, I had more success here than I did at Kohl’s. I knocked a few more items off of my list and got some great deals.
I started to feel like I was more into the Christmas spirit now. I seemed more chipper as I walked through the mall. It was time for me to shop for my second family. I found one of the coolest stores in the mall called Boxlunch. They have a lot of neat pop culture stuff in there. A few years ago they had a decent amount of Bob’s Burgers merchandise in the store and being a big fan of the show I almost bought some of it.
I stopped at Starbucks and got a Peppermint Mocha latte. By now I was feeling festive and I was dressed fashionable. The cashier who rang me up at JCPenney loved my fashion sense and complimented me on my Coach accessories. This Christmas Shopping adventure would have been much improved if I skipped Kohl’s and ate in the food court, Bahama Breeze or even Olive Garden. Not that Market District was a bust but the sandwich area was closed (I wanted to try that Rachel that my mom had last week or a Reuben).
After I finished at the Mall at Robinson, it was off to Target. Here I would thrive in my Christmas shopping as I checked a lot of things off my list tonight. I got my adopted family taken care off including the Mighty Thor. I still have a little more shopping to do next week but I’ll keep that local (Westmoreland Mall, my Giant Eagle, and the local Target). In the meantime, I’ll do some wrapping this weekend and see the lights down in Youngwood.
I’m a week and a half into Giant Eagle and so far so good. I got some compliments Saturday night for how much effort I’ve put in so far. I barely lasted a month the first time around and really shouldn’t have taken the job anyways (or just put myself on a leave of absence at WIS).
I’m on a leave of absence at WIS/RGIS right now and I’m going to need to make a decision soon on when to be scheduled again. Given the way things have gone at Giant Eagle so far, it’s a win win there. I’m enjoying this taste of freedom and being so close to home; thus my time with WIS will likely be ending very soon.
If so, I’ll resign within the next two weeks and make an announcement on Christmas Eve. It’s been a good ride and I’ll miss the people and the all the great times we had together. If not for coming back in 2019, I likely wouldn’t be where I am right now. I’d have missed some memorable overnight trips (Ashtabula comes to mind).
I wouldn’t be blogging and I probably wouldn’t have found myself. Therefore I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now. I likely wouldn’t have been as inspired to buy Coach and my gender nonconformity wouldn’t have been as accelerated as it is now.
WIS 2008-2021? It seems that way.
Bye everyone. ❤️ you.
Stylish 🍒 