Generally my clothes come from the bins at the Goodwill outlet on Van Dam, but for the past few weeks I've been dying to go to the mall. Now, I don't get why people take trips into the city just to shop. Like, they have special express shopper trains into Manhattan during the holidays. WHY are you paying for a train ticket to come spend more money here on stuff you don't need than you would anywhere else? Haven't you heard of Amazon, where you don't have to squeeze through walls of people to make it to a space big enough to crouch and hyperventilate into a shopping bag? I feel the same way about malls. But. I sort of love a mall at Christmas. And right now I think is prime Christmas mall time because the decorations are up and the music is playing but December is still far enough away that most people haven't started panic buying last minute landfill fodder yet. I'm wearing leggings and a plaid shirt to go with my topknot and as soon as Diego gets back from his aunt's house I'm going straight to the mall to spend money I don't have on Starbucks and sweaters and deeply inhale that Christmasy mall smell. 

I bought a gym membership last week. I picked Planet Fitness because there's one close to where I live and I can't afford NYSC. I can't really afford PF, TBH. LOL. It's clean and the people who work there are nice without being too chatty and there's always a treadmill open and that's about all I care about. However, there are a ton of people just walking around taking selfies of themselves in the different mirrors, which doesn't directly impact my "workout" but is still confusing. Another thing I find confusing is that there's a giant tub of free candy at the reception desk. Also I've heard they have pizza/bagel days. Also also they're having some sort of social media contest where the prize is New Year's Eve in Times Square, aka The Worst Thing Ever. Going to the gym is yet another life thing that I find incredibly disorienting. 

I need to buy a birthday present for a one-year-old and I have zero clue. Well, not zero exactly. I know they like breasts and their moms and looking at stuff. I'm just going to walk into a baby store, hand an employee some dollars and ask them to turn that into a present. But what I'd really like to do is pick out a present for an older child and give it to the baby with a card that says, "For when you're more interesting." Not in a mean way, but in an encouraging sort of way. You know?