random thoughts – Day 1,342 – (Sunday) – problem at the mall

I hadn’t been to dance class since the end of October and it felt great to be back in the studio this morning. The drive was pleasant, the stretching was much needed and the dancing felt good.

After class, there was a trip to Nashua for the annual eye exam. Sunday appointments are the beauty of an eye doctor with an office at Pheasant Lane Mall. The mall was quiet. There were a few families with the kids all dressed in matching Christmas outfits for photos with Santa, where there was no line and no waiting.

While headed to Lenscrafters, I was accosted by a sales person from a cosmetics shop. She held out a sample packet of some crème, which I stupidly took before I realized that opened the way to being convinced to enter the shop so she could show me an amazing undereye treatment. When I said I was on my way to an appointment, she promised it would “literally only take a minute.” I fell for it and she swabbed some stuff under my eye with a cotton swab and said something about it being better than Botox. It required a tiny fan to dry it. It did look better, but the spiel about the ointment “training the undereye muscles to be tighter”? Come on. Seriously? Training the eye area muscles?

She applied the stuff under the other eye and made me confess it looked better before swooping in with how the purchase of the tightening gel comes with a bonus box of some other thing. The cost, the most relevant detail, was withheld to the last moment  after she completed the obligatory sales steps to create the need and then solve it. The solution to the “problem” of the fine lines around my eyes costs only “two ninety-nine.” It allegedly lasts about 30 months, and she was setting aside product for after my eye exam, which I knew damned well I would not be back to buy.

Cranberry and
jalapeno dip.

While the eye doctor’s hours are convenient, the selection of frames rarely includes anything I want. It took three laps through the racks before I finally tried one pair on. During the browsing I kept trying to will frames I liked into existence. It didn’t work, but I noticed they finally had the frames I wanted years ago after seeing someone on TV wearing them (signifying they existed) and ended up buying online in 2017.

At Target, there was success with something unrelated to eyeglasses. They have a cranberry and jalapeno dip, which I’d been looking for since we had it from Costco in Vegas. A $5 solution to a problem is one I can commit to. It was tempting to buy several containers, but sensibility took over and I got just one, along with some crackers.