his and hers shopping

After 19 years of marriage, my husband and I have finally discovered the secret of shopping together: Don't. You see, my husband is a hunter. Not just the Deer Hunter, but the Bargain Hunter as well. Which, in some ways, is great. But when it comes to Christmas shopping, not so much.

The major problem with his style of shopping is that I HATE shopping. I want to go into a store, purchase the item or items I've jotted down previously on a list (I'm all about the lists), and get the heck out of there. Because, to me, there's no sense wasting a lot of time looking at things (1) I don't want/need, (2) at a bunch of different stores comparing prices, and (3) are not on the list.

So, this past Saturday we tried a different approach: we drove to the desired shopping area, related our shopping plans to each other, and went our separate ways. This was perfect! We each were able to shop for the items we wanted the way we wanted. And when we needed to catch up with each other, we just used the cell phones.

I know this isn't a new idea, because I've seen other people on their cell phones or even two-way radios and overheard the "ok, I'll meet you at the . . ." conversations. But this is a new idea for me and RL, because we've been trying so hard lately to do more things together. You know, going shopping "together" we just thought we'd actually be, um, together.

Now, there were still the awful crowds and seemingly endless lines at the cashier counters, but at least our stress was from those around us and not from each other. This made the whole experience so much better and helped me maintain some Christmas spirit. Well, up until the fourth hour of shopping, when I was just plain sick of the whole thing and wanted to go home.