Actually.....

I was wrong.  There are memories to be made while waiting in line at Kohl's .

The boys were napping or watching football or some combination of the two when I went to Whole Foods and Kohl's on Friday afternoon.  I needed groceries, so the market was a given. I had a coupon, they had sales, and finding a selection of flannel shirts in Tucson is a challenge anywhere else but Kohl's.  So, I went.

The line wound around the eye-catching front of the store displays, through the women's section, nearly touching the housewares at the end of the aisle when I arrived.  It wasn't much shorter when I joined it a while later, my mesh basket filled with gifts, my heart filled with smiles.  It's fun to imagine them opening the bags; I like the lead up much more than the actual event, I think. 

Behind me was the world's most well behaved two year old.  Not once did she whine or whimper or demand attention.  She hid behind the long pants and matching jackets for a rousing game of She's Gone Missing...OH, there she is with the grownups on either side of her mother.  She felt every item in her mother's stash.  There were no carts available and the mesh bag wasn't large enough to hold the cooker Mom was buying, along with lots of soft clothes, for herself. 

We agreed that taking care of ourselves was a priority, especially when everything was on sale on top of the sale on top of the coupons. 

Then we got to the shiny necklaces, reduced in price to a pittance, each one of them calling out FlapJilly's name.  I enlisted the youngest shopper among us in the decision making process, as we discussed the relative merits of big vs small, gold vs silver, tinkly or not.

There was a minor kerfuffle in front of me, to which all of us turned our attention, and which is how I began a conversation with the woman waiting in front of me.  She, too, was Hanukkah and Christmas, with a birthday on the 19th to add to the confusion.  We agreed that it was delightful to have non-over-lapping holidays this year, we laughed about the paucity of Hanukkah decor, and we talked about the joys of raising children in the digital age.

Mine grew up at the beginning of the personal computing age.  Hers grew up just as social media was starting.  Neither of us can imagine dealing with the challenges created by Instagram and SnapChat.  We traded parenting stories until she asked for help unlocking the FitBit.

I went ahead of her to the cashier, who smiled as she rang up pj's and socks and shirts and jewelry, who took my coupon and all the other %'s off, and I found that I had saved 75%.... that I'd spent 25% of the 100% Kohl's thought the items in my bag should cost.  I wondered to myself how they stay in business, until my thoughts led me to the obvious conclusion that everything must be vastly over-priced. 

Not wanting to dampen my good mood, I stopped thinking and strolled out into the parking lot, congratulating myself on walking to the very far parking space.  I spent time shopping, a longer time waiting in line, and I still had the energy to stride  to my car.

Yes, I was wrong.  You can make memories while waiting in line at Kohl's.