Ode to a department store

There are things you don't even realize aren't there until they are back again.

Take department stores for example.

I've never really been a shopper. And I've definitely never been a department store shopper.

But during my first 33 years on this Earth, I never thought twice about a department store. They are there. You can buy stuff in them. And sometimes you just walk through them to get from the parking lot into the other stores in the mall you really want to shop at.

The other day I happened to be looking for some luggage and decided to pop in at Macy's. It was actually the first time I have been in a mall since returning to the U.S.A six month ago. And now here it is, a few weeks before Christmas, and I'm at the mall and entering a major Department store.

I had been so careful to reenter American civilization slowly. So careful to allow my kids to reenter slowly. We have purposefully stayed away from malls. My kids had been so removed from branding and advertisements while overseas, and we wanted to try not to inundate them. (I can still remember Sidge saying, "Look at all those swooshes! They are the same as the ones on the shoes we got in the Azores!" the first time we entered a shoe store back in America.)

But I don't think any slow down in speed would have prepared me for a department store.

The moment I entered it, I was flooded with sights, smells, sounds ...

Have they always been this smelly? I mean the perfume odors in these stores are incredible. There is so much stuff stuffed into the store that I feel like I can't walk (nevertheless pushing a stroller) without running into something. The sales signs. The music. Everything was just so ...

obnoxious?

Is that the right word?

Overwhelming. Bright. Flashy. Loud. Crowded.

All I could think was

Get
Me
Outta
Here
Now!

P.S. I don't plan on going back anytime soon!