Free Pens and the Non-Organic Mango Tango Pina Colada Smoothie (11/29/05)

I was really bored this afternoon at school. I had finished my GA stuff and had found out that the paper I thought was due today wasn’t really due until next week, so of course I didn’t work on that. I got so bored I decided to look for a job. I mean, I’m supposed to do 10 hours a week on my GA but I rarely do more than 5. I tend bar Fridays and Saturdays sometimes but after I got so bored last week while I wasn’t in school I though hey, it might not be a bad idea to get a job over winter break. So I did that for awhile but got bored with that too.

Whit IMed me around 2:45 that Staples was giving out free pens and gel things. (Don’t know what the gel things were, I never asked.) I had to go to a meeting at 3 and had class at 4 but after a very boring afternoon getting a free pen from Staples sounded downright awesome! So when I got out of the meeting I convinced Rach to come with me to Staples before class. She said we didn’t have enough time but I said of course we did. When we came back I’d park illegally in the staff lot right behind our building so we’d shave off 5 minute’s walking time.

Rach said she’d come for the pen but was reluctant because of all the gas it would waste to drive to get the free pen and that it would most likely be a crappy free pen anyway, otherwise it probably wouldn’t be free. Plus, she said we had to stop somewhere else too to make the trip worth it so we settled on Wild Oats. We got $3.99 smoothies, which I paid for since she bought me dinner a few weeks ago at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I got Organic Strawberry Banana Sunrise and she got Mango Tango Pina Colada after much discussion over whether or not she should get it since it was the only non-organic smoothie. We decided since all the ingredients except the coconut cream were organic that it was okay.

We had to wait in a really long checkout line, which put us off my pre-determined, guaranteed-to-get-to-class-in-time schedule. While we waited, Rach described in great detail how incredibly fibrous her smoothie was, and we were both highly disappointed that there was like no coconut taste, since the whole reason she got it despite the non-organic label was the expected coconut taste.

So we got out of there and went straight to Staples to get our free pens. We walked in and Rach made me ask about the pens since it was all my idea to go, so I did and the girl looked at me like I was crazy. Free pens? What the hell was I talking about? And all the other Staples employees in their red Staples smocks pointed at us and laughed mockingly, chanting, “Free pens! Free pens!” (Okay, so I’m exaggerating a little but not much.) We hung our heads in the cheap shamefulness of the whole thing and slunk out of Staples.

We did get back in time for class but the whole trip was highly disappointing since we were free penless and Rach ended up throwing away half of her $3.99 non-organic Mango Tango Pina Colada smoothie because she couldn’t handle any more fiber.