Shall I compare thee to a bedroom dresser?

Brandon and I have been saving up our Christmas money for another dresser for our bedroom. We have been trying to share one, but it is not working: we have too many clothes between the two of us for one dresser and the closet space in our old house is almost non-existent. Anyway, I heard about a ONE DAY ONLY sale at a furniture store from nine to nine yesterday guaranteed to deliver us the lowest prices of the century, so after dinner last night at about seven-thirty, we left for the furniture store.

The closest store was in West County and since I live here and you don't, let me explain something about West County. West County is a sort of artificial part of the city where the most wealthy St. Louisans live. The homes there, some of them, were built for the World's Fair almost a century ago and are complete with ballrooms on the third floor. We run around in that area often given that the seminary and our church are located there, but it definitely a far cry from the part of the city where we call home. The one important thing to remember is that chain stores and restaurants can charge almost double what they charge in the rest of St. Louis and get away with it. We forgot this until we got out of the car and trudged into the store. There were about ten salesmen ready to pounce no matter what route we took trying to avoid them and in unison they cried, "May we help you?" desperate for a sale. We meekly replied that we were shopping for a dresser and they pointed us to the back wall where there was display after display of beautiful bedroom sets. Seeing that they were all pretty well out of our price range, we scooted out of the store within five minutes of arriving. Just before we reached the door, the breathless salesmen caught up with us and asked, "Were you able to find anything?" Brandon shook his head and said, "Not this time." (That wasn't exactly true - we found plenty, we just could not see spending a billion dollars on one dresser.) We finally managed to escape the store.

Later on, over smoothies from Smoothie King, we decided that we would carefully watch the outlet version of that store that is about five minutes from our house. The prices we had seen there were a lot closer to the truth and they were bound to get in one of the dressers we liked eventually. The trip wasn't a total waste - I always end up discovering new parts of the city that I never realized existed. And upon my first time seeing these areas, they are not so friendly since I am usually lost and tired when I happen upon them. But a second viewing is always kinder and more appealing and makes me want to drive back out that way another time.

Also, I wasn't driving and I got to stare out the window at all the Christmas lights still up and shining. I always feel a little sad when the Christmas lights come down because then the reality of winter actually hits. Cold weather (which we haven't had a lot of recently because apparently I live in the South now), dead looking trees, and gray skies. Snow makes for a pretty winter, but I'm not sure how much of that we are going to get.

I am once again writing at work and hopefully this day will prove busier than yesterday. I was so bored! Our normal call volume is at least twice what it was yesterday. Goodness.

I think I am the new children's choir director for our church. I have taken the last couple weeks to think about it and I have pretty much decided I am going to do it. I am pretty psyched. I will be able to stop by church on the way home from work and practice the piano music (I miss piano so much!) and I will get a chance to be teaching again. I really didn't think that I would mind not teaching this year, but I do. I miss the kids from Tall Oaks and I even miss recess duty. Maybe I'll teach again someday. . .