CONFESSION: I totally dropped the ball when it came to Pearl’s birthday.
Pearl’s first birthday just so happened to be TWO DAYS after Hurricane Irma. (Read: we didn’t have power, we hadn’t showered in days, every store in town was closed.)
Instead of wearing a little cone-shaped hat and eating treats, Pearl spent her birthday in the car – evacuating to Illinois. (Honestly, I thought that was a decent birthday gift. I mean Matt and I did all the driving and she just slept in the nice, cool AC.)
Matt (albeit in Pearl’s voice) has not let me forget that Pearl didn’t get a proper birthday party. And she didn’t really get specific birthday presents either. Even though we buy her treats and toys and girly accessories all the time… none have been earmarked as a birthday gift and certainly none have been wrapped in cute birthday paper.
So, we’re using today – the 1st anniversary of her coming to live with us – to celebrate. (I am aware today is the anniversary of another significant event which I want to make perfectly clear is NOT what we are celebrating.)
I mapped out my errands yesterday – trying for as many right-hand turns as possible. I started out at the Smilin’ Dog Bakery where I bought an adorable little pink birthday hat and a cupcake sized birthday cake… which needed to be refrigerated. Genius. So much for the next 6 stops I had planned…
But, because I was so close to my next stop – Party City, I decided to risk leaving the little cake in the car with the extra cup of ice I ordered at Starbucks for that exact purpose.
I pulled into the Party City parking lot and noticed there was a Dollar Tree just a few doors down. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went into a Dollar Tree, but I thought – maybe, maybe they’ll have party décor for less money – since it’s for a dog and all…
Well, they DID have party stuff – cute stuff. I grabbed their generic “Princess” plates (because Matt always calls Pearl “Princess”) and some streamers and tissue paper. “I wonder how much this stuff is?” I said to myself as I turned over a two-pack of curly ribbons. No price. So I looked at the little bin I had pulled the ribbon from – and the bin where I got the tissue paper – nothing. Then I saw a little sign on a shelf behind me that said “Everything’s $1”.
“Well, that shelf’s only a dollar,” I thought to myself. “This stuff in my arms can’t be much more than that.”
So then I grabbed a little dog chew toy and a peanut butter bone and that’s when I realized – the whole store costs one dollar!
Because I had that little cake in the car that needed to get home, I didn’t walk up and down any other aisles, but who knows what else is tucked in that store!?!
When the cashier was ringing up my pink party favors and Pearl presents, I noticed Mylar balloons tacked up on the wall in the corner. AND, of course, they had a Princess balloon that matched the Princess plates on the conveyer belt. “Your balloons surely aren’t a dollar, too, are they?” I asked the cashier.
Well, of course, they were a dollar – because that’s their business model…
So now Pearl has a balloon and wrapped presents and streamers that I’ve twisted and a refrigerated cake. And I have a list of unfinished errands I now need to do another day.