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:: Frame Job ::

Lisa and I did some errands on Leap Day that were varying degrees of fun.

The most fun was picking up Lisa's framed pastel drawing. This was the first time we've had something framed by a frame shop. It's not cheap, but considering how long we want this work to last, it's worth it.

The least fun was returning a duvet cover. I didn't know what a duvet was until a year or so ago. Lisa's brother gave us one for Christmas, along with this cover. The duvet is great, we enjoy it thoroughly. The cover didn't really fit the colors of our bedroom, so we figured we'd return it. It came from one of the many stores owned by Saks, so we went to the Carson Pirie Scott in Lincolnwood (a few miles from here, northwest suburbs) to exchange it.

Here's how you return something, step by step.

1. Find parking. If you go during the holiday season, forget it. If you go on Leap Day, parking will be possible, but still a pain. You will have to circle the Evil Mall of Death many times to find parking.
2. Find the store. This is a little easier, because the store has an Enormous Sign.
3. Find the department. Because you're in a megastore, you can't return anything anywhere. You have to go to the galaxy, or department, where such an item as the one you want to return would be found.
4. Talk to the salesperson. This turns out to be the most harrowing step. That is, assuming the person to whom you must is a) half to 75% deaf, b) a little "slow", c) new to the job and doesn't know how to do a return, d) unable to find a manager to help, e) suffering major short-term memory loss, or possibly f) all of the above. Every time we said something to this woman, she repeated it, immediately forgot what she just said, asked us what we wanted, and so on.

Eventually we found what we wanted, exchanged the old one, and got out of the store alive. We Americans certainly have it lucky in most respects with the choices we have available, but that doesn't mean it's fun.