Target

I enjoy my work, I really do. But there are times I just want to rest my creative mind, and do something else, instead. Thankfully, there's almost always something else that needs to be done.

And then, there are the days I just don't want to do much of anything. Today was one of those days.

I've been looking for a specific item, an action figure (if you must know!), one that can be found only at Target. I've been checking, off and on, over the past few months, waiting for it to appear. I think I just missed it last week (based on having seen other items from the same assortment) at the store that's closest to me, about a half-hour away. I checked again today, but without success.

I decided, though, if I was going to spend this day accomplishing nothing, I might as well find a way to make it interesting. So I decided I'd check every Target store within reasonable driving distance to see if I could find what I was looking for. It wasn't all that difficult, really — each store was no more than a half-hour away from the last. (That is, except for when I missed an exit in New Jersey and wound up in the Lincoln Tunnel, and then midtown Manhattan. First time I'd been back since I left my job in late 2002.) Several hours later, I'd been to seven different Target stores (three in New York, four in New Jersey), and found — and accomplished — absolutely nothing.

But I am content to have wasted this productive day in a most ridiculous way.