Investing in Personal Happiness

A few months back my husband and I went to the mall. The mall is now 1 1/2 hours away, so it's a real treat to go there. It was a sort of meandery day, no purchases in mind, just find a good $4.00 cup of coffee and walk around together. We ended up at a store called Teavana. They have these great samples outside, and of course we were suckers for the samples. We each took a little cup, walked in and began to order whatever it took to make this tea. Mine was hot, his was iced. Ends up the tea can only be sold by the ounce, you have to buy two ounces, and of course whatever it was we tasted for 'free' was a mixture of the two. $46.00 later the girl rang us up and told me, "You have invested $46.00 in your personal happiness today."

Best sales line ever. She wins. Forever. Not, "You have been an idiot and paid a ridiculous amount for some tea you likely will never even brew, unless you remember what you spent and feel guilty and make a pot, or pitcher.

So today, two months later, I'm at the mall, and all I want is to pick up a little pad of ink and some red striped string to make our own Christmas package tags. You know, simple homemade Christmas.

I picked out the string, and a pad of ink, and saw a fun stamp and that involved another pad of ink, but I was set. So I went to check out and the guy asked me, "have you ever tried embossing?" No, what's embossing?

Stupid me, stupid question. He proceeded to take me back, and show me that for a mere $36.00 for the kit, and I was already half-way there with the pile I'd laid on the counter, I could make not just okay tags but these fabulous package tags.

Because I was starving, and running late and had to go potty in the worst way possible, I figured it was just easier to say, "yes, I forgot that I'm dying to learn to emboss and please put all the stuff together, ring me up, take my money, and let me be on my way."

So how my bill was $96 for tags? No clue. And I was too hungry, and running too late, and had to potty too bad to ask him to explain it to me. Honestly, the tags are going to cost more than what's inside the packages.

Instead of saying I'm a flaming idiot I'm going to say, "today I invested $96.00 in my personal happiness." That's my story and I'm sticking with it. 

PS If you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, I'm under bevyg or Bev Gibson. You too can see lovely things to make for Christmas, go to the mall, and invest in your personal happiness. I'll count it as my effort to promote the American economy.