Freebie Fest

John came home from work last week smiling. He told me that he had won a gift certificate for a pricey women's clothing store in a drawing. You know the kind of store: the one where the clerk takes the pair of socks that you just bought, wraps it in tissue paper and places it in a fancy schmancy silver gift bag. And then walks around the check out counter and hands the bag directly to you. The kind of store in which I rarely shop.

Being the sweet guy that he is, John immediately handed the certificate over. To me!

Woo hoo! In addition to being sweet, John is also not a fool. He knew that he would be in big trouble if he hadn't.

That thing was burning a hole in my proverbial pocket, but I knew that in order to fully enjoy the experience that only a gift certificate can provide, I needed to wait a bit and choose the day for that trip carefully: A day with no other outings planned; preferably not on a weekend so I could park closer to the mall to decrease my walking time; AND on a day when this store was having some kind of sale.

On a very special day when the shopping and Sjogren's syndrome stars finally aligned, I headed out to the mall and throughly enjoyed myself by spending every penny of that certificate. Well, almost. I still have 30 cents. I'm waiting for a really really really great clearance sale to finish it off.

I walked smugly out of the store clutching my fancy-pants silver bag, passed a Starbucks and realized that I also had a few dollars left on a Starbucks gift card. So I zoomed over (translate: walked without pausing to rest on a bench) and came out slurping one of their floofy frozen drinks. With whip, sprinkles, and chocolate drizzle, thank you very much. I sipped and watched shoppers go by as I sat at a cute little Starbucks cafe table, which had an equally cute and opened cafe umbrella.

Indoors.

OK. Allrighty then. I guess I need all the UV protection I can get.

image found here. 

Well, I thought. I'm loving this. Could shopping get any better? As in free AND tasty?

As it turned out, yes, it could. There it was, directly in my line of sight: a See's Candy store.

Well, now.

One of the reasons that I love See's is, of course, their delightful candy. But also because they give out free samples. I made a beeline for the store and was enjoying a dark chocolate and hazelnut truffle within minutes.

image found here. 

I headed back to my car after also receiving a spritz of the latest Yve St. Laurent perfume, (I have no idea how it smelled, but John said it was nice), a splat of a hypoallergenic hand creme, and a coupon for 50% off a pair of sunglasses from Sunglass Hut.

Ahhh....

Cha-ching. Ba da bing.