Calendar Fail

I finally went shopping yesterday.

This is the first time I have been shopping (other than at a grocery store) since I pretty much did all of my Christmas shopping on December 20th. I had taken my mom out shopping on the 18th and picked up a few things. But other than that, and weekly grocery shopping trips, I really haven't been participating in the economy that much lately.

I was on a mission yesterday. I wanted to buy a calendar. Not just any calendar, but the Terence Dickinson Astronomy Calendar. I've had luck finding this in the past during the half-price days on calendars, which have probably been going on since December 26. Unfortunately by the time I got around to shopping yesterday, the two calendar places I visited - a kiosk in the Wyoming Valley Mall and the Barnes & Noble near the mall - were pretty much picked over. I could have gotten the Scientific American Astronomy Calendar at the kiosk, but I was holding out until I visited Barnes & Noble. I never did head back to the mall.

Actually, this was the first time I visited the Wyoming Valley Mall since the Waldenbooks there closed last January. (That used to be another reliable stop on my calendar searches.) With the departure of the resident Joe Nardone's Gallery of Sound some time earlier, there's very little of interest to me left in that mall now.

Shopping yesterday had a grim feel to it. Maybe because it was so late (I think it was after 7:00), maybe because most Christmas stock has been exhausted, maybe because most of the people who were out and about were either miserable-looking adults (and in this economy, who can blame them?) or clueless teens and pre-teens looking to spend their parents' money until the credit cards max out. I wonder if things would have felt different earlier in the day? Or during the Christmas shopping season, which I so carefully avoided?