My Target Hell

I love Target. Really, I love it. If I could, as the childish taunt goes, "marry it", Mr. Dog would have had a harder time getting me to commit. In the past Target has never done me wrong. If I needed something, they had it. If I decided I didn't need it after all, they took it back. Easy. And don't get me started on the One Spot! Until this Friday, I can't imagine any situation that would make me hesitate to head to Target if I needed diapers, or what not. I can't imagine ever being truly anxious to get away from my mecca of bargains. Now, I take partial responsibility for our falling out. I knew I was venturing into the realm of retail in the holiday season, but I thought I'd be safe. It was a Friday afternoon, people would be at work. I just needed to pick up a prescription for my son. Really, I'd be in and out. Granted, there was a flaw in my thinking. The only reason I was at home this Friday was because a freak storm had knocked out power in large areas of Seattle. While Big Dog's daycare was open, Little Dog's was closed, so I was working from home. I failed to think this through, if I was home due to the power outage, probably others were in the same situation. And the only reason I had the prescription for Little Dog called into Target was that our local Walgreen's was closed due to the power outage. Sure I should have considered this, but I thought I was smart when I called ahead to make sure the pharmacy was open. Well, I wasn't as smart as I thought. I packed Little Dog into the car and headed off to Target. On the way over I noticed several intersections were still blacked out. Nothing major, just a few traffic lights dark. It wasn't until I was ready to back my wagon out of my parking spot that I realized just how bad my judgement was. traffic in the parking structure was at a complete stand still. I'm not exaggerating. I sat in my spot for 15 minutes before I was able to back out. I spent a total of 50 minutes in the parking structure before I even saw outside pavement. During this time I realized I wouldn't make it to Big Dog's daycare before it closed. I did the polite thing and called to let them know I was running late. When I called I thought it would be a few minutes, maybe 15 minutes or so past closing when I'd finally get there. I had no idea. Outside of the structure, parking was so backed up surrounding the shopping center, it became obvious that Seattle Christmas shoppers are not daunted at all by a few non-functioning traffic lights, but become paralized when asked to treat them as 4-way stops. It was another hour before I was able to get to my friend's house to pick up Big Dog who would have been stranded at his preschool if it wasn't for the kindness of my friend A who did me the favor of russeling up another carseat and taking him home with her son. All I can say is thank heavens for cell phones and the kindness of sympathetic parents. A, I don't know what I would have done without you!