Shopping and Shortbread Eases the Blues

Sometimes in life, no matter the connection, no matter the fit of personality or spark of love, events occur that simply make what once seemed so absolutely right unfortunately wrong.  And for this reason Michael and I are no longer together.  We both continue to be fabulous, intelligent, and humorous people but, perhaps due to the stars, destiny, or simply, in Hollywood terms, irreconcilable differences, we broke off our relationship today. 

Instead of moping at home, watching holiday movies sure to invoke a sob fest, I cleaned myself up and took to the streets.  To be exact, the streets of the mall, zoning out with my favorite scavenger hunt activity...browsing for clearance treasure.  Pier One took up almost an hour of my time; I hadn't been in there for months.  Packed to the rafters with Christmas displays, it ate up a big chunk of my retail therapy quest.  It was then on to the soon-to-be-closed Sears store (only 20% off...no thanks) then onward to JC Penny, Payless, and Pac Sun, which was also going out of business.  Nothing caught my eye.

Departing the mall, my final stop was Fred Meyer, which seemed to be quite the Sunday shopping meca.  A good majority of my time was giving advice to a former co-worker who crossed my path and who had recently been laid off.  Between unemployment, Cobra, and on-line job sites, this soaked up a good 30 minutes, which helped keep my mind off affairs of my heart.

After arriving home, putting away the groceries, and grabbing a bite to eat, my next task was to clean my room.  Can you see how very desperate I was to keep my mind occupied?  Hung apparel, put away tees, then made the bed, all while watching Cupcake Wars on Food Network. 

Shortbread Bites

Subliminally the food channel spurred me to make Shortbread Bites from Delish.com.  I was even inspired to use the convection oven setting (for the first time!) to cook these little buggers.  While they baked, I painted my toenails a lovely dark green with sparkly green topcoat in honor of the holiday season. These will go nicely against my hands, which were painted last night red on eight nails with accents of the sparkly green on each ring finger.  Anything to bring a little merry into my life.

And thus here I arrive, writing my blog.  I'm determined to set aside some me time in the coming weeks, not only to enjoy the holiday but to ponder what may lay ahead for me in the next chapter of my life.