Wednesday, December 29, 2010

our epic adventure

today, alex left penny and me on our own for the day, and i decided that after her first nap, penny and i were going to target.  a girl needs warm jammies and socks for the winter, right?  we got bundled up and hit the road! normally, the walk to target is 20 minutes, tops, but because of the crazy amounts of snow, the walk took an hour and a half, and was replete with spirals around the block because there were intersections we absolutely could not navigate, danger blocks we spent in the bike lane, and lots of me carrying the stroller over sections of the sidewalk that were not shoveled.  now, i realize that this is a charming delightful throwaway blog about an adorable baby, but i am going to take one short moment here to rant.  you may skip if you like.

who is responsible for clearing the sidewalk around a church?  there are many, MANY churches here in my neighborhood, and usually i notice them because of their awesome architecture.  today i noticed them because none of them had passable sidewalks.  none.  at all.  wouldn't this be a great time to rally your community together?  hi, congregation - can you bring your shovel, please?  this annoyed me a lot.  brooklyn is a highly walked place - i understand that there was a lot of snow, and i'm not asking that everyone make wide beautiful paths for a lady and her stroller, but even the courtesy one foot in front of the other aisle would have been appreciated here.  seriously.  get it together, churches.
the exception to this is the church across the street from me (but i didn't have to walk by it today).  their sidewalk is completely clear; but it has to be to let the firemen in at any time.  that's another story for another day.

end rant

an hour and a half after we left, we arrived at our destination.  i figured it would be a quiet day at target because of the snow and that it's after the holidays.  it wasn't nearly as bad as it's been on previous visits, but it wasn't a quiet sanctuary, either.  i did my shopping, got in the rather long line for the checkout, and took penny out of her stroller because she hadn't stretched her legs in two hours or so.  the very nice lady behind me struck up a conversation, and it was all going so well - she guessed penny was a year old, she told me she was a nanny, asked me if penny got everything she wanted from santa ("he brought her everything she asked for" was my honest and not-wanting-to-get-into-a-thing answer), and her delightful pre-teen daughter was sassy and smart and cute.  then, THEN, i put my stuff on the conveyor, and it all went horribly wrong.  the purple jammies with the owls got an "oooh, cute" from everyone.  the jams with the penguins in scarves & hats, the same.  when the checkout lady scanned the robot pjs and the pirate pjs, the daughter brightly asked me "oh!  does she have a brother at home?" and i instantly changed my entire assessment of her.  "no - they're for her, i just don't like so much pink", i replied.  "she's WEARING pink", the checkout lady helpfully pointed out.  i kind of gave up, though i wish i had told everyone that i was a robotics engineer or a weekend buccaneer.  then penny and i shared a hot dog, and it took us much less time to get home.
am i a terrible person for not wanting to teach a lesson about gender bias in the line at target?  probably.  was it all worth it?
definitely.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, here's my ten cents. EVERYONE regardless of age- should have robot and pirate PJS. ESPECIALLY wee folk regardless of gender. I bet you a dollar they are SO MUCH MORE CUTE than those crazy crocheted headbands with giant flowers attached (which are quintessentially girlie). Also, I used to get happy meals from McDonalds all of the time and refuse to call the toys 'girl toy' or 'boy toy'. I'd say, I'd like the barbi, or the matchbox car, depending on my mood. But the counter folks never budged from their gender id names.

    Also, I am an AWFUL human being because I still think churches should all have hunchbacks somewhere on staff for ringing bells and shoveling snow. I hated walking past the church at the corner of 9th st and 4th ave on my way to work last winter, because I am clumsy (and prone to falling) and was pregnant and it was never shoveled. Sunset Park was worse, because there were a surprising amount of churches on my way to the subway station.

    ALSO, you are so very brave for walking to target. Walking just to the Ctown on 9th street was an adventure enough for me yesterday.

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  2. lauren, i would like to keep you on staff to comment that i am right and brave on each blog post, regardless of content. i can pay you in cheerios and plastic piggy bank coins.

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