Why I Shop Online...

I met up with Jen for a day of shopping on Saturday. It took me over twenty minutes to find a parking space in one of the garages, and this was even though I was deliberately trying to park in a "undesirable" space that was further away from the mall.

Traffic leading into one of the many parking garages at the Natick Collection (formerly the Natick mall before it went upscale) at around 2 p.m.:

Traffic still backed up over three hours later:

The most aggravating part? I walked out empty handed. Some stores were just too packed to deal with - we'd walk in, take one look and walk right out. Plus, I like being able to search for coupons when I buy things online.

Even more shopping

Since I hit the outlets yesterday, I felt like it was only fair to hit the malls today to make sure I didn't miss any good deals there! Jen was my partner in crime and influenced in part by our Fruits & Passion gift cards, we decided to head west to the Natick collection (aka fancy name for a mall) and Shoppers World.

At the Fruits & Passion store, I was faced with a dilemma. Due to my cold, I had a hard time distinguishing different scents. This was definitely a problem since I'm very picky about scents. In the end, I went with their classic Cucina hand soap and lotion combo in lime zest and cypress since I usually like citrus as a scent.



Jen got a tube of their regenerating Cucina hand cream.

Four hours later, after doing a lot of walking and browsing, Jen and I were ready for dinner. As Jen was in the mood for a burger and a new restaurant, we headed to the British Beer Company. I was really impressed with this restaurant - although we didn't try any of the British beer on tap, Jen's burger was big and juicy, my French Dip sandwich was tasty and the fries were great (especially with malt vinegar on the side).

I think Sunday will be devoted to being lazy with Andrew as I'm getting worn out just thinking about all the shopping I've done this weekend. The good news is that I'm almost done buying gifts.