The Shopping List

When I found out that I got this amazing opportunity, I started making lists (can someone say Type A personality?!) There is a list for everything (I need these 32 things to apply for my work visa! I need to do these 512 house-related things! I must make a list of all of the American TV shows that I just can't miss!) The longest, and by far the costliest list has been the - ahem - shopping list.

I've found that the shopping list is both a blessing and a curse. While keeping me organized and on track to get the items I must have for my trip, it's also become the dumping ground for things that I'm convinced I must own in order to live in England. What sensible person doesn't have a trench coat for those rainy English days? Only non-sensible people like myself go hunting for a Burberry trench because no other trench will do.

I had to travel to Virginia for work last week and lucky for me there was a Burberry outlet a mere 40 minute drive from my client. I work with an amazing team of ladies (Sarah and Nicole) who understood the urgency of the situation. So, we made tentative plans to visit the outlet after dinner with our client. Not knowing how long dinner was going to be, I wasn't sure if we were going to make it. At 8 pm (and knowing that the outlet closed at 9 pm), the ladies and I made the 40 minute drive to the outlet. We arrived precisely at 8:40 pm and with 20 minutes of shopping time, I managed to do something I haven't done in a while - blackout shop. Photographic evidence below of the damage.

Blackout shopping is a term that I coined a while ago when I realized that I could make purchases either online or in a store without really comprehending what I was doing. Sure, I look and sound coherent and am capable of holding a conversation, but it's like my brain is in fashion overload and I go into a state of amnesia. Some have witnessed this phenomena in person. You know who you are.

The next adventure is going to be packing but I'm looking forward to creating a whole new shopping list in England!