Saturday Silence

Providence Place. That is where I started my Saturday.

Rhiana told me earlier in the week that she had a “big Saturday planned.” I can’t remember what day it was when she told me, maybe Thursday?

We originally thought that I would be working on Saturday. She planned to meet with her mother and look for numerous wedding related items.

Bridal shoes, bridal jewelry, bridesmaid’s jewelry, bridesmaid’s shoes.

Basically it was the normal reason to go shopping. Shoes and jewelry.

So when we found out on Friday that I would only have to work Sunday, Rhiana felt bad that I would be home by myself all day.

You see, I’ve been working a lot lately. Starting with Monday February 13th I worked eight days straight and eleven of twelve days. And starting today I will work seven days in a row and sixteen of the next eighteen days. You can see now that we aren’t getting a lot of non working days to spend together.

It has been tough, but when Rhiana realized I wouldn’t be working on Saturday I could tell the air was departing the balloon that represented Saturday’s shopping journey.

She said, “Well I do have to meet with my personal trainer.” A valid excuse, but a limited one. She did not want to cancel the trip with her mother. I could also tell that she didn’t want us to spend an entire day apart.

When Saturday morning arrived, Rhiana jumped out of bed at around 6 a.m. I had been up watching the morning news and we were going to slowly get our day underway. As usual 6 o’clock is when we let the dogs out and feed them. We rarely plan to get going this early on Saturdays and in the back of my mind, I was thinking I might settle back down for an hour or two more of shut eye.

A short time later, Rhiana’s leather clad cell phone rang out a classical tune and she was soon talking to her mother. She explained that she would need to go to her trainer first and would then catch up with her mom and hour or so after that.

“I have an appointment with Robin at 7:40. I will have to come home, shower, get dressed, and drive down city.” And the shopping trip never skipped a beat.

Like clockwork Rhiana asked what time it was and I told her she had ten minutes to make a twenty minute drive to meet her personal trainer.

“Explicative.”

Two hours later Rhiana had been through the shower and I walked into the bathroom and said, “I can come with you.” I think I took her by surprise. I don’t think she expected that to come from me, but she did welcome the idea.

“We can take your car, you can walk around the mall while mom and I shop the sale. If you get bored you can drive home and mom will bring me home.”

The deal was sealed. I jumped in the shower, we let the dogs out briefly, warmed up the car, and jettisoned ourselves to Providence Place.

Patti, Rhiana’s mom, seemed surprised to see me. Her mother introduced me to Inga the personal shopper whom proceeded to call Rhiana, “Rhonda.” Patti quickly corrected her and before my head stopped spinning I was being asked for feedback on an expensive pink suit…

“Um, I’m going to walk around the mall while you all shop.” With four women now giving me the look of permission, I exited stage right without ever giving my opinion one way or another. Sneaky, huh?

My first stop was the food court. It was barely 11:30 and most of the stores were just starting to see their first shoppers. I was ready for some breakfast so I stood in line at the Dunkin Donuts kiosk and rustled up a piping hot “extra large with cream and bagel with cream cheese.” Three Sweet N Low’s and 30 minutes later it was time to drink the coffee.

I sat down at the very corner of the food court. I always try to sit in the corner for several reasons. I am a people watcher. I am also paranoid so the thinking is this… In the corner of any room and in most cases you can see 100% of the activity going on in the room.

Sitting in the corner, I made some general observations while waiting for my coffee to cool.

First it appears that Saturday morning is the very best time for people with small children to visit the food court at the mall. I counted 37 strollers. Some doubles, some triples, mostly singles. Some had kids in them some didn’t. Some parents were carrying the kid that said strollers had been allotted to. Moms and Dads, just moms, just dads. It was quite the anomaly, maybe a special show at the IMAX for kids or something who knows. It’s amazing the technology in the strollers too. One literally had shock absorbers on it, although the contraption wouldn’t fit through the line at Subway.

Second observation, people are super unfriendly. Forget the days of smiling in passing. I saw a guy nearly knock an elderly couple over just to get around them. Had it been my grandmother I probably would have “nearly knocked him over.” And what gets me is that the guy didn’t even have the decency to say, “Excuse me.” Over and over again I witnessed the rude behavior that people have towards each other. In making these observations I witnessed one account in which someone actually stood out of the way appropriately and each person smiled in passing. And the matching name tags told me right away why they were so kind to each other. I’ve always been of the thought that it takes a bigger person to be kind to a stranger than it does to be kind to someone you know. For crying out loud people, you don’t have to be friends with someone to merely say “Pardon me.” And you can surely feel better about yourself by selflessly standing aside for 10 seconds while you hold the door for someone. The smile and thanks you’ll get 9 times out of 10 is worth it, I promise.

Finally, (and this may make me sound old) kids have no respect for their parents. I know what you are thinking, “Since when did kids ever have any respect for their parents?” This is what I observed. A teenager was strutting around the food court with a hooded sweatshirt on that read “G-Unit” and pants so baggy that Jared must have donated them. Ironically, the kid was headed towards the Subway next to my corner seat. As he approached, he stretched out his hand and snagged what appeared to be a folded twenty dollar bill from a middle aged man whom was in toe with a pre-teen daughter. Without breaking stride the kid moved into line. What gets me is this (or the lack of this) “Thank you.” The kid didn’t make eye contact with his father, didn’t say "please", and certainly didn’t say "thank you." No respect absolutely none. But Dad is just as much at fault, because if you don’t expect anything, you won’t get anything. My father only let me screw up like that one time. From that time forward I knew how to say “please and thank you.” Not only was it expected of me, but I know now anything less is unacceptable. I almost walked over to the kid and smacked him on the head. However, that move would’ve been more in line with my first observation.

Moving along from the food court I next found myself in Filenes. Normally I don’t shop at stores of this nature. As a matter of fact I usually find myself at the clearance rack at Target. I told Rhiana recently, “Clinton and Stacy would be very disappointed with me.” And she agreed. The reason I intentionally go to this store once a year is for the clearance sale they normally have in the late winter months. Last year I grabbed some serious Columbia fleece wear for about one tenth of the normal price. This year I was hoping to do the same. I browsed and browsed. The sales they have are usually 75% off of brand names like Kenneth Cole, Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren. I would not usually shop these brands at retail prices. I would not usually shop these brands at retail sale prices, but at 75% off I couldn’t resist. And it was a success. About 90% of the way through the clearance section I decided to try on a few pairs of pants. Once in the dressing room and with one half pair of pants on my cell phone rings out Rhiana’s special ring.

Rhiana says, “We are done here.” My mind races with the ugly thought that I took longer to shop than Rhiana.

“Oh, Okay, well I am in the fitting room at Filenes.”

“Mom and I are going to Johnston to continue to shop.” A sense of relief fills me. “We didn’t find everything we needed, but I got some make-up and some wedding jewelry.”

“Sounds good, I’ll see you at home then?”

“Yes.”

In all I spent about $200 for clothes on myself, but in total the retail on it was about $600. We went back later on and bought a new comforter that was on sale. Saved about $200 on that too…

And at the end of the day I thought to myself, “I didn’t really see Rhiana that much today.”

At least we were together for most of the day, in the same building anyway.