Purchayzes

Today I went shopping for two things: running shoes and a computer. Both items are momentous purchases. I realize that the former is a purchase that I’ve made only a handful of times in many years of sports and exercise. In fact, for better or for worse, I had 1 pair of Nikes all through high school and I ran track for three seasons in them. My latest pair I bought just prior to moving to Uganda and I may have bought them for style over performance (for shame!) I have noticed on my up to four dog walks a day that my hipflexers are aching and perhaps it may be time to buy the right shoe.

For this reason, I made the trek to Chinatown in DC, walked into the store, directly to the back and got to work scanning the ginormous wall of sneakers. A silly sales clerk came over and immediately started pestering me and by pester I may mean that he attempted to do his job. I got grumpy when he suggested that I name my preferred brand. I looked at him blankly and stumbled, having not bought sneakers in so long. He took this as a cue that perhaps I was new to the whole buying sneakers thing. Mistake. Daggers flew at the suggestion that I, who played varsity soccer in college, may be a novice. Was he intimating that I was out of shape? That my behind was ever-expanding? Did he just point out my grey hair?! I gave him a withering, how dare you look and he slinked away, confused, hurt. I felt a little guilty and didn’t realize that buying running shoes was so personal to me. But it is.

To add insult to injury, I finally decided on two brands I would consider, New Balance because they are made in the USA (and not China!!) and Reebok, because the CEO of Reebok is a huge supporter of human rights. This place had one pair of NB, which were ugly and not in my size. They had no Reeboks. Nail in coffin. I about-faced and the sales clerk did not give chase.

Having failed at the first half of my mission, I regrouped and marched toward Best Buy for the computer. With my former employer demanding the return of the laptop I’m currently using and my need to stay connected, I bit the bullet and for the second time in my life bought a computer. The trauma of a computer purchase is probably a little more obvious than that of the running shoe. The second I swiped my credit card I knew this thing was already out of date. And this sales clerk, while less concerned about my cranky psycho antics, was not helping. He was like, “buy a Mac” And I was like, “uh, no they’re too expensive.” And he was like, “yes but if you add up all of the viruses, graphics, blah blah blah…”

I tuned out and waited for his lips to stop moving and when they did, I said “I’ll take this HP. Thanks.” So it’s out of the box, software’s installed. It’s taken me longer than usual to type this blog, because I’m not used to the keyboard or the mouse. Errant letters or symbols or spaces keep appearing. My eyeballs are spinning in reaction to my first true, honest to goodness HD. I’m not complaining now though, since I have just spent a fortune on this thing. So I’m embracing the purchase. I’m headed to the internet, which I’ve just accessed, to try to find running shoes online. Thank god there are no sales clerks online and yes, I know there are sales clerks out there saying, thank god Jessica is shopping online.