Christmas Shopping - King of Prussia, Oklahoma

Last Friday before Christmas, 2pm......

I thought I would head out Christmas shopping by myself since it's hard to shop for Dustin when he's there and since he's not a fan of shopping. Dustin works late on Fridays so I like to go on adventures so I don't get too bored or lonely.

I went online, wrote down the addresses of all the stores I wanted to go to, mapped out my best route and then me, the shopping list, the Saturn and TomTom headed out on our shopping adventure.

I lived in King of Prussia for a year and worked at the mall for 2 years in Bath-n-Body works so I'm used to Christmas crowds. They typically don't even phase me because it is just what is expected when you live and work in a retail mecca. There were days that is was actually alot of fun and invigorating believe it or not.

Sometimes I forget that Tulsa is a city of 300,000 people. It's pretty easy to do because it's a very spread out suburban metro area, rush hour is typically not too bad and downtown is a pretty quiet place in the evenings.

I am certain that all 300,000 Tulsans descended on the Promenade Mall and then followed me to 71st and Memorial yesterday.

All of sudden, I found myself completely transported back to King of Prussia! Where the hell did all these people come from??????

As the afternoon went on & 2 non-fat lattes later, I came to a very important realization....Christmas shopping makes people drive crazy no matter where you live. All of sudden, every Tulsan began to drive like they were a Yankee!

SUVs trying to jam themselves into spaces they had no business being in.

I'm pretty sure that pedestrians in the parking lot crosswalks were 100 points each plus a 100 Christmas point bonus because I was almost plowed down 3 times and one truck almost earned 800 points on one shot!

You had the Mercedes with no handicap tag parked in the handicap spot while the conversion van with handicap tags was driving laps looking for a spot that wasn't a half mile away.

It looked like Target had set up valet parking with the line of cars parked in the fire lane outside the store. Apparently, the drivers were patiently waiting while their partners in crime did ALL their Christmas shopping inside the store.

The quietest place of all was Petco where I had to pick up cat litter and treats for Princess Fluffy Butt. Guess pets aren't a priority on people's Christmas lists. Poor things.

Even the Christian bookstore parking lot was full!

Once inside the stores, I found the obviously exhausted retail worker bees to very helpful and still hanging onto their Okie politeness :) I don't know if they feed the employees at the the Borders on S Yale or to the Best Buy helpers on Skelly but, they were so incredibly pleasant to be around. Maybe it's the smell of books or the ions coming off the electronics that does it but whatever it is, thank you :)

Even the Christmas shoppers were very pleasant. The same pick-up driver who almost earned 100 points on me in the parking lot (I wasn't in the crosswalk so, he would lose points for that) was now holding the door open for me at Best Buy. It was a Christmas miracle!

I got back to the house around 6pm. I wasn't as homesick as I usually am because I had found King of Prussia, Oklahoma and I felt like a Yankee again :)