Those Are Still Around?

Like I talked about last week, I try to use gift cards quickly. It's just a thing I do. Anyway, as I was trying to use up a Visa gift card I got for Christmas, I was torn about which way to go. On the one hand if I used it to buy something off the Internet, I'd have been wasting several dollars in shipping cost, which are officially getting out of hand (I had actually picked out a new Notre Dame window cling for the back of my truck to replace the one that finally fell off, but I refuse to pay $6 in shipping for a $2 sticker). On the other, when you use a gift card in a store you always run the risk that you'll end up with a random 45 cents left on there and that's equally wasteful. In the end I decided to shop online, because I had a better chance of finding something I really wanted instead of buying something just because I wanted to use the card up.

So I was on one site and found something I wanted, only I came up $3 short of using the card all the way up. I decided to see what else this website had for low money. One of the items that came up was a rubber band bracelet for a charity. I'm stunned to see people still making those things. I know they were huge because of Lance Armstrong, but that was five or six years ago. Think of all the fads that came and went just as quickly. Anyone else have a lanyard when they were a junior in high school? Of course you did. But, by the time you got to college they weren't cool anymore and you tossed it out. I'm just stunned to see the rubber band bracelet is still hanging in there.

-Have you ever seen something off in the distance and your brain processes what it is, but then convinces itself that object must be something else? The other day I was driving around when I saw a large shape on the side of the road. My first thought was, "That looks like a big panda bear." But, it obviously couldn't be a panda bear, because what the hell would a panda bear be doing on the side of the road? It had to be an optical illusion - a group of black and white things piled up that simply looked like a panda bear from a distance. Then I got closer to reveal the object was... a panda bear. It was a giant stuffed panda bear doll that someone was trying to throw out, even though it wasn't a trash day for that area. So, while it doesn't speak well of my internal resolve about going with my first instincts, at least I know I don't have to get my eyes check anytime soon.

-You know, today feels a lot like yesterday... almost as if I'm re-living the same day over again. I bet someone could make a good movie out of a premise like this. But what would we call it?