It seemed like a good idea at the time

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.' -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland-

So I went down to the mall today to pick up a few things. I was fairly sure it would be busy, and I wasn't disappointed.
What would have otherwise taken a little over an hour, including a stop for food, turned into a 4.5 hour event. I was hoping for more of a 2-2.5 hour outing, but wasn't getting my heart set on that.
After we ate, my wife and I decided on the divide and conquer approach. She took 3 stops in one direction, and I took 3 in the other. This was the plan we should have went with in the first place, I think. We met back at the van, and bolted from the mall an hour later.
What actually impressed me the most about today's voyage,was the people. Generally speaking, any other time I've gone out in similar situations, everyone seemed to have left their manners at home, and loaded up on attitude before going out. Today was a very nice exception to that. With the exception of one couple, everyone down at the mall was pleasant, and polite. This includes the young people on their Christmas break, I might add.
The general atmosphere in the mall today made our longish day a lot more tolerable. Thank-you to everyone who was at the Station Mall today!

Pax, all.