Today was both an exercise in frustration and a victory (of sorts)

The day began bright and early.  Very, very early.  Like 5:30 am early.  On a Saturday.  *sigh*

After spending several hours reading the paper, drinking coffee and cruising the internet, the Husband woke up and began making all kinds of racket in the kitchen (why, in God's name, does he feel the need to make so much noise first thing in the morning?), so I waltzed off to get ready for the day.  After getting dressed, I told him that I was off to do a "drive by" to get the feeling of a potential house/neighborhood.  While it wasn't grim, by any means, it just wasn't "the One," in case you were wondering.  So, yes, the hunt continues.  The Husband is in knots and is convinced that every single house we've been even marginally interested in are being snapped up, right under our noses.

Where was I...?

Oh yes.  So after the drive by, I decided to drive downtown to find a theater.  Why?  Because my dear friend and I are off to see a play tomorrow (The Foreigner, if you must know.  I expect it will be wonderful.  Particularly based on the recent review I read).  But, I've never been to this particular theater, and knowing her, we will be flying in at the very last minute and I figured it might be helpful to know where we were headed.

Our downtown is fairly small, so I was confident that I could find it quickly.  I assumed it was in the same area as most of the other theaters.  Turns out, it's not.  After driving in circles for about twenty minutes, I gave up and called the Husband to ask him where this particular street is located in downtown.  He responded with, "It's downtown."  I kid you not. Once I confirmed that I knew it was downtown, I just needed to know where.  Turns out, I was only a block away and exactly opposite of the direction I thought it was...of course.  Gigi's notorious lack of direction strikes again!

So, I pointed the car in the opposite direction and, once again, began driving in circles.  I know I have a horrible sense of direction BUT it is exacerbated by the fact that, for some reason, in this town the streets are weird.  Weird, as in Davie Street is only about two blocks long and then it turns into something else.  This is not the only example of the weirdness.  Believe me, we have LOTS of streets like that.  We actually have one intersection in town where ALL four streets turn into different streets at that particular juncture!  New to the city?  Good luck finding your way around!

Finally, I pulled over and pulled out my "smart" phone.  I figured GPS would guide me.  HAHAHAHAHA!

GPS tried to get me to turn right...onto a one way street, the wrong way.  At that point, I gave up and headed home.  I figured I'd get home hop on the internet and look at the map - considering I'm directionally challenged I am surprisingly good at reading a map - and then head back downtown later to find this place.

Eventually, I found myself back downtown...driving in circles again.  *sigh*

Finally, I called the Husband in a snit.  I asked him if he would come downtown with me to find this elusive theater.  He tried to stifle his sigh, but he agreed.  So I headed back home to collect him...only to turn around and go BACK downtown.

Yes, I'm insane.

And, of course, the Husband found the place with no problem at all.  I had crawled ALL OVER that two block radius and HE waltzed in and found it immediately.  Needless to say, this was all the ammunition he needed to taunt me all the way back home.

At any rate, I know now where we are headed when we are, invariably, running late tomorrow.

So, after a morning of frustration, I headed into an afternoon of productivity....hopefully.

I have been in the market for new shoes (hush!  These are necessary!).  I needed black and nude/camel flats; since I'm trying to wean myself from heels.  I had been looking for the last two weeks to no avail...until today.  And the ONLY reason I am telling you this is because today I not only found the shoes that I'd had in my mind's eye but I learned something.  Something I felt that I should share, because HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?  And, if I didn't know this, then you probably didn't either.

If you are on the mailing list for DSW (and if you aren't, WHY aren't you?  And no, this is NOT a sponsored post.  Pinkie promise), occasionally you will receive coupons in the mail. When they send coupons, they usually send one to use now and one to use later.  I had totally missed the timeline for the first one, but today's particular purchase fell perfectly in time for the second one.  So when I got to the counter, I presented the coupon for $10 off and mentioned that she should use the second one.  She looked at me and smiled.  Then she informed me that they honor expired coupons up to thirty days after expiration and, not only that...they could COMBINE the expired coupon with the current coupon, if that was what I wanted to do.

HELLO?!  Are you kidding me?  Yes! Yes, please!  And WHY did I not know this before now?

This coupled with the remnants of a gift card meant that I walked out of that store paying only $13 for a $50 pair of shoes. I call that a win.

So, seriously, did you know that?  Are there other stores that do this kind of thing?  And if so, WHY are you hiding this knowledge from me?

Also?  Am I seriously the only person in this world that CANNOT find an obscure theater, tucked away in a HUGE building that is positioned in a short, two block radius?  Please tell me I'm not.