For those of you who know him (or who know any man, really), it probably comes as no surprise to you that Mr. Torres does not like shopping.
Not at all.
Mr. Torres is not one of those men who likes to help me pick out clothes or cares to browse through sale racks. He doesn’t even want to look around in the electronics store while I try a few things on next door.
From the time that we park the car and start walking towards the mall, I have approximately thirty minutes until he has checked facebook, his email and played a couple of games on his phone. Once he has done all these things, he is ready to go. Immediately.
Sometimes I can gain a few more precious minutes if I send him off to buy a smoothie or a chocolate milk shake, but that only works some of the time.
Needless to say, I usually go shopping by myself.
Yesterday was not going to be one of those usual occasions.
Mr. Torres and I were going to be driving down to Tulsa to celebrate National Cheesecake Day at The Cheesecake Factory (1/2 price cheesecake!) and pick up some art from one of the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition’s art shows. I was hoping to be able to spend a few hours doing some much needed back-to-school shopping, but Mr. Torres just wasn’t feeling up to one of our normal man vs wife, him vs her, one store vs ten shopping experiences.
He was taking control.
Before we left for Tulsa, I had to have a list of the stores that I wanted to visit and the specific items that I was looking for. Once I picked my places, I wasn’t allowed to change my mind or add new stores. What kind of rule is that?!? I thought about making a list of every single store at the mall just to show Mr. Torres what was up, but, instead, decided to play along and picked out my four top picks. Knowing what I was shopping for was super easy because school is starting in slightly over two weeks and I don’t have anything to wear (not exactly true)! I need work clothes (true)!
When we first got to the mall, it was difficult to walk past all the stores that I would normally spend time browsing through (although usually not buying a thing) and head straight to my previously chosen shops. However, as we went from the first to the second and then on to the third, Mr. Torres’ hands filled up with purchases. I was actually finding the things that I was looking for! And it was taking a fraction of the time that it usually takes!
Could it be that Mr. Torres, hater of shopping, knew how to plan a successful and enjoyable shopping trip? I think so!
In the end, I didn’t get to try on a bunch of fun clothes from Forever 21 or look at all the new stuffed animals at Build-a-Bear, but I did find some great pants and tops for work and did it so time-efficiently that Mr. Torres didn’t have time to get bored (mostly true).
Mr. Torres may not like shopping, but he may have just found himself a new role as my very own personal shopping trip director!
