Today was pretty awesome. I went shopping for the first time in ages. And by that, I exclude going to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, which I do all the time. And I exclude clothes shopping, which I hate most of the time.

Basically, my mom and I went various places because we were shopping for my dad's birthday. It's the first time she's been shopping in a long time too, she's got these hip problems that make walking not so nice. But both of us were feeling good (one of my reasons I don't go shopping often is the instant I go anywhere I have to poo) for once, so it actually kind of rocked. The sad bit is, we probably ended up with more little things for us than we did things with dad.

First stop: Osco (drugstore/grocery). We got birthday cards there, picked up a prescription for mom, and I got two different lip glosses, one dr. pepper flavored, and this crazy new bonne bell stuff that's like gel and has me crazy tickled. I really enjoy it inordinately.

Second stop: Beer nuts outlet shoppe. Yes, my town has not only given the world the Steakburger, but also the Beer Nut. Bloomington-Normal is where they come from. And my dad wanted some nuts from there. So we got him some.

Third Stop: World Market. Oh... we bought so many things there. With dad, we just guessed around at various candies we thought he would like. It's hard to know for certain, and he barely ever wants anything, so we have to be creative sometimes. My mom bought a load of candy for herself, too. And I got:

--Raspberry Sour Altoids: really, I could get these anywhere, but I saw them here. When they first came out, I loved the lemon ones, and now they don't sell them anywhere. Then, they came out with several other flavors, my favorite of which are raspberry, though they're still not as good.

--Sour Jelly-Bellys: Yeah, sensing a theme? I like sour candy. These are especially good because they're not SOUR sour, they're just a little tarty. Also, unlike the general assortment of Jelly-Bellys, of which the majority of the flavors are crap, sour Jelly Belly's are sensible flavors, such as cherry, strawberry, lemon, peach, blueberry, etc. that one would actually want to eat. It also came with this cool dispenser, and you know I'm all about that.

--Passionfruit Sour Altoids: WHOA. I don't think these are available at most stores. I'd never seen them before, and I've looked at the altoid website since, and they're not there. I think maybe they're special edition or something? The case is a little different than the regular sour altoid case. Anyway, verdict is: THEY ARE AWESOME. Maybe even better than the lemon ones. Which pretty much means they probably won't sell them ever again, and I'll only have them as a beautiful memory that I pine for at night when I can't sleep.

--Lorena Sparkling Orangeade: Honestly, I'm not sure if I got the name right. Anyway, it's about the closest thing I've found in the US to British Fanta (american fanta tastes like every other crappy orange pop, while somehow british fanta tastes like orange juice, but fizzy. It's awesome), so usually I get a bottle to drink on the way home from there.

I think that's it. Then we went to Borders, and got dad the two Bourne movies. He's weird about movies, a majority he won't ever watch more than once, but some he'll watch over and over. And like I said, we have to be creative. And he's fond of those two movies, and they were on display..... so, yeah. My mom got some girly chai drink while we were there, and some foot creme.

Then we went to walmart to get him some of the aftershave we've been getting him on holidays since before I was born. And bought a lot of me-oriented groceries, since I was feeling well enough to do it and have eaten nothing but nachos since I graduated. Rock on.

So a good day was had by all. And also, the awesome thing about shopping with my mom is she'll pay for little things, so all the stuff I mentioned she paid for. Which is nice, because in case you haven't noticed, I'm still unemployed.