Summertime and Target is Gleaming.

So, I think I will just pretend that it hasn't been 7 weeks since I posted anything. Will you play the pretend game along with me?

The Sophisticate and I went to Target the other day. That would be OUR Target, not the NEW very clean, wide-aisled Target that just opened closer to our house. We are loyal.

Several things stood out. First, the lights shine on the floor at Target. And to think that I thought only Saks Fifth Avenue did that!!! What was I thinking? Note, our floors at home do not look like that. Good thing I'm not in retail. I am not hardwired to desire gleaming floors, nor to achieve them.

And here is my hand, holding the things I am buying in my hand, with my vintage Blackberry on top. First, note that I am buying a BOOK. Not a book about potty-training or sleeping through the night, either. A book that I am going to read. FOR FUN. Read. Book. Fun. All in the same sentence, pertaining to me.

Notice that I am not pushing a cart. Not a cart full of stuff, not a cart full of kids.

I can't even think about the number of times I pushed a cart full of children through Target. We had a method, someone sitting in the seat of the cart. Someone sitting in the actual cart part. Someone standing on the cart hanging on to the handle, between me (pushing) and the handle. And one (or more) theoretically walking, someone usually was also riding on the front end of the cart, facing me. That made the cart weigh roughly - a lot of pounds. Also, it meant that there was no room to put anything in the cart. I don't know that I remember how I handled that (and we KNOW I don't have a picture of it, because seriously, who takes pictures in TARGET?) We always had Tide, so...whatever I did, it worked.

This week. No cart full of children, though I passed a woman in serious discussion with the two children riding in her cart. She was into the intense negotiations about what they would buy and what they wouldn't buy, and what they would do later in the day IF....the trip to Target did not end in a toddler-sized meltdown. IF. I mean, it would have been IF, with me and my kids. And she was pretty much headed toward "Meltdown on Aisle 12."

There is my girl. Walking. Not in any way riding in or on a cart. She was bringing me that book that she wanted to buy. I mean that which she wanted ME to buy. Some things don't change.