Saturday Part 1 – Couples that clean&shop together, stay together…

We miraculously had a fairly uneventful move-in – that is until Tracy found Amoxicillin and Flagyl in the bathroom drawer (I found out about and visited a REAL pharmacy and oh my gosh what you can buy OTC and self treat - a whole ‘nuther blog entry). So although the landlord had the apartment cleaned prior to move in, Will and Tracy proceeded to scrub down the entire apartment on Saturday AM before our big trip to IKEA.

I thought I had achieved shopping greatness when I could battle the post Thanksgiving crowds at some of the biggest shopping malls in Michigan as a youngster under the tutelage of my Grandmother, Aunt and Mother. I was not prepared for this. 3 comments: 1. It’s Saturday 2. There is 1 IKEA 3. The population of Shanghai ~ 22 million - need I say more? I was no match for this, I just had to think about survival. In the end, it took us 3 ½ hours to get through the herd and the most exciting thing didn’t happen until we were standing in the checkout line.

I would have to say my most interesting visions have been of old men walking around in their baggy underwear (in public) and of pre-potty trained toddlers wearing split-crotched pants. You don’t really want to know why, but that is why I’m here, to enlighten you. There is a nice couple standing in line in front of us - the father was holding their ~18 month old son who was peacefully sleeping. The boy wakes up and all a sudden the father gasps and jumps. He proceeds to turn the child around in my direction while the child continues to PEE all over the floor in front of the check-out. I was quick, but not quick enough and some of the pee SPLASHED on my sandaled (but still) bare foot. I swallowed hard and stepped back. The boy pees for at least a minute, meanwhile mom and dad are giggling and NO ONE ELSE moves from line (there are literally at least 1000 people spread out between 40 checkout lanes). Heck no one even makes eye contact - like this happens all the time - and now there is a PUDDLE of toddler urine at checkout lane 17 at IKEA. With urine on my foot I pondered the “what ifs” of #2. Funny that now I don’t mind (so much) the old men in their baggy underwear.