what? Whaaaat???

I was at the mall today. Yes, just hanging out at the mall. Don't laugh. I had good reason. Waking up with a splitting headache and feeling my sinuses throb, canceling my dentist appointment, having no plans, and knowing that getting out of the house would be extremely wise in light of the fact that my 2-year-old goes rather stir crazy sitting at home all day, I thought that the mall would be a perfectly fine place to go and hang out. Yes, and there's a lovely kids' play area that is just perfect for wee Plava to play in.

So to the mall we went. I sat. Plava played, and sat beside me, and played, and ran to my side again, and played. Pito sat on my lap, smiling at the kids running by. I watched. I laughed at the kids. I rescued a crying boy who couldn't spot his momma. I encouraged Plava to go down the "big slide". I relaxed.

After a while, we decided to get going. Plava was done with the big slide and wanted to go play on the coin-feed toys. You know, the little cars or whatnot that you put a coin into and it jiggles for 30 seconds? Those ones. Thankfully, no one has let her know that they do anything except stand there. And that's just fine with me.

So we found some, just by the exit door, and I sat down while Plava climbed in and out of a little pink ice-cream truck, pressing the flashing buttons and serving me "brown" ice cream.

Suddenly I heard a noise. It was a funny kind of growing roar. I looked down the hallway of the mall and there came a fleet of strollers. That's right, a fleet. They were all different kinds, but all of them had a mother dressed in workout garb pushing them along. As they passed by, I heard the leader call out, "So we'll do this circuit 8 times!! Let's go!!" and she pushed her stroller around the corner and out of site, leading the fleet of power-walking moms.

I actually laughed out loud. Not AT them, in mock, but at the idea of a mall-stroller-speed-walking-team. It was a weird moment.

Then it struck me as not so weird. After all, there are plenty of things happening around me these days that I have a hard time not laughing at. The doggie-in-a-bag thing is one. Completely lost on me, people. Don't ever ask me to pet your little doggy-in-a-bag, for if I lay my hands on it, I might wrench it from it's spot and bowl it off into the distance yelling, "BE FREE LITTLE DOGGY!! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIFE!!!!"

I was walking along in an outlet mall some months ago when I passed by a couple, each pushing a stroller. The strollers were quite small and covered in mesh. I looked closely, trying to figure out what in the world they were pushing, and yes, you guessed it. Doggies. Doggies-in-strollers.
Has the idea of exercise completely been lost on us? Why in the world would you need a doggy stroller?

Aaaaah, enough. Where does my rambling criticism get me anyway? Perhaps I should head to the mall again next week in my gym clothes, ready to bite the bullet and actually do something to get in shape. :) No, I think I'll stick to the outdoors. The air is a little less stale.