Late Night Wal-Mart Trips

I'm currently doing laundry at a nursing home, and yes it's as bad as it sounds.  Encounters with nutty residents make it all worth while though.


Most nights I get off work somewhere between 11 pm and 12 am.  I work way out in the country and have a 30 minute drive back into the city.  Every night on my way home from work I pass a Wal-Mart. Dare I admit that I often don't just pass this 24 hour evil super center, but that I often go in? Yes in fact, I regularly take late night trips to Wal-Mart after work.  Usually just to buy a $5 bottle of red wine.  That brand with the rooster on it.  It's pretty good for $5. Sometimes I also buy some cheap make-up and/or some cereal.  Sadly enough, I find myself struggling to get out of this store.  The smiley face keeps me in there for well over half an hour sometimes, or maybe it's because I'm in this weird post-laundry duty trance and I just find myself wandering aimlessly.  However, I really am starting to believe that the yellow smiley face casts a spell on me and my fellow American consumers.


I sometimes find myself looking at Miley Cryus's clothing line. (I'm sure she has little or nothing to do with the design or the creation of those items.) Gosh darn it! Sometimes those clothes are really cute.  Then I think about factories in Malaysia or El Salvador or some other developing nation where clothes with this teenaged multi-millionaire's name on the tags are mass produced by stuggling human beings. Then I feel sad and weird about the way the world works. Sometimes that's not enough though and I'll still buy a scarf or something small. Maybe subconsciously I think purchasing a Miley Cyrus scarf or a tank top isn't quite as unethical as a whole dress. Ha, that makes no sense. 


I remember when Wal-Mart's attempt to be hip with the tweens was through their Mary-Kate and Ashley label.  Hmm...Wonder what happened to those girls.  


One time I was babysitting this awesome 8-year-old named Frannie (and of course I love her name because of my love for Salinger).  She admitted to me in confidence that she just pretended like she liked Hannah Montana to fit in, but that she thought the show was really stupid.  She read a lot of books and was very clever. I attribute this partially to the intelligence, creativity and eccentricty of her parents.  Their house was small, historic, cluttered and amazing.  Her dad designed gorgeous and intricate furniture and her mom was a graphic designer.  Some hipster-ish, book nerd Ivy leaguer is going to fall smack on his/her face over that girl one day.


Anyway, there wasn't much of a point to this post other than to note that my anti-corporation, socialist-minded self is "secretly" a frequenter of Wal-mart. I don't think buying 1 to 3 items every time I go rather than 50 makes it any better either, considering how often I find myself there at 12am.