Day 3: Daddy's Little Girl

Date: February 3, 2010
Friend/Family Member: Daddy (aka Pat Hamilton)
Activity: Mall Walking
Location: Westroads Mall
Total $ spent: $1
(in the interest of full disclosure, I only spent $1, my dad purchased a few goodies here and there)

My dad and I have been fortunate enough to be simultaneously unemployed. That's right. We were both laid off within a week of each other. You would think this would light a fire under both of our hineys. You'd expect that we'd be motivating each other to "keep your chin up" and "don't get discouraged!" That might be what normal people do. But not me and my dad. Nope. We pretty much stay home all day, me in my pj's until the afternoon, and my dad playing his computer games. Yep, I've just outted us to the world, or at least the 22 of you who read this blog regularly. WE ARE LAZY. It's a good thing today was our $1 date day.

I first met my dad when I was........GOTCHA! You totally thought I was going to tell some crazy story about how I've known my dad for 32 1/2 years and the first thing I did when we met was cry. I know, I know. I'm hilarious and I had you fooled. But seriously, I have been a Daddy's girl my whole life. He's basically the apple of my eye. Now, I'm not saying he's perfect (but it's okay if you think I'm perfect). But he's darn near the best dad a girl could ever ask for.

On our $1 date, we went to the mall and walked, window shopped, for real shopped, and people watched. It's important to mention that my dad has recently had major surgery and excerise is a critical component to his recovery. Actually walking around the mall with my dad would not have been possible a few months ago. He's still got a long way to go before he is at full strength, but we walked for almost 90 minutes today!

We started at Von Maur and remarked at how lovely the piano music sounded and how we both still think of the terrible shooting that occurred there 2 years ago. We saw beautiful, expensive items and I oogled at the shoes.

Our next destination was to find him a new watch band. We jaunted over to the kiosk by the Food Court and within about 5 minutes he had already found the one he wanted and it was attached to his wrist. "You're such a fast shopper!" I said. "I don't shop, I buy," he replied. Fair enough. Moving on.

We then passed the lady with the smelly lotion and the dude with the fancy cell phone covers before we window shopped at a sports store. I priced Red Wings jersies and he admired a NY Yankees flask. Suddenly, and without warning, we found ourselves magically placed in a chocolate shop sampling the samples! How on earth did we get there? I figured I had no choice but to find something under $1. So I spent $.75 on a gooey piece of caramel filled chocolate heaven while my dad purchased 10 orange creams. He had methodically purchased 10 thinking he and my step-mom would each eat 2 creams at five different times. There was also specific planning as to when he would eat the dark chocoloate versus when he would eat the milk chocolate. My dad is the ulitmate planner.

After our chocolate treats, we stopped by the candy dispensers and I spent a quarter on ju ju bees for my nephew (which I'm sorry to say I forgot to give him). If you're paying attention, that makes my total spending exactly $1. My dad, in his glee over discovering that Suncoast Video still exists, splurged on a couple of hard to find DVD's.

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL THE LADIES: If you find yourself at Westroads and you need to use the facilities, always, always chose the restroom in Von Maur over the mall restrooms. I had a senior moment and chose the latter. I'm not sure I'll ever fully recover from the experience. This message has been brought to you buy the letters P and U.

We saw the model trains and reminisced about the model train set we had when I was a kid. It was THE coolest train set of all time. My uncle custom painted the whole landscape, and my dad used every detail possible on our mountain bridges, the old west town, the farm, plus all the trains and interwoven tracks. Our train set was located in the city of Renomaha, Nevaska and it provided endless hours of entertainment. We both felt a stab of regret remembering how we were forced to abandon our little city when we moved in 1994.

About this time, we started to get a little achey and decided our exercise was coming to an end. Besides, all the little old ladies were walking circles around us and we were totally intimidated by their focus and speed. We made our way back to the beautiful and bright Von Maur and out to the car. It was on the ride home that we realized we went through 7 cars in 2 years (1994-1996). I know you're dying to know so here it is:

- 1979 Buick LeSabre
- 1983 Subaru Brat
- 1980 Dodge Aries
- 19?? Datsun something
- 19?? Eagle
- 1985 Mazda GLC
- 19?? Ford Taurus

We swang by Panera to pick up dinner for my step-mom and we travelled back to the house. He couldn't let me live a life of imperfection so he gave me a little tip. "To gently chide you, genius is spelled without an o, " says my dad, the genius. Fine, I admit it. I misspelled genius in my Day 2 post. But guess what? I'm still Daddy's Little Girl, and you're still reading my blogs. So there.

On deck for day 3: Evan. I'll be seeing you...