Welcome to America! Now please start spending…

Right now, I am on a bus headed to Woodbury Commons with my 16 year old cousin and her friend. When I picked them up from the airport yesterday, I asked them what they wanted to do while they were here – “we want to shop and we want go to Woodbury Commons!”. Screw our museums and melting pot culture, all they want is to spend our funny money.

My cousin’s from London so Woodbury Commons is basically like shopping for free. And I guess when Europe is your playground, our “cultural” activities may seem less exciting. I’m reminded of Eddie Izzard: “I’m from Europe – you know, where all the history comes from?” She was getting organized this morning, trying to find her “American money,” and I told her she could just rip her pounds in half to use as dollars… Of course, 1 pound is a coin piece, not paper… But I have a pair of those Ginsu scissors somewhere so we should be fine.

Her friend is from Canada and can’t wait to shop here either, which just bothers me. Am I the only one who longs for the days when the Canadian dollar was so weak that Canada was basically just one giant shopping outlet?

I’m also missing my old Goldman paycheck right about now… Oh… the damage we could have done… Now, I’m probably going to walk out of Woodbury with a candy bar from a Kosher vending machine (my friend Angela just told me about them!) if I’m lucky… Or rather, if my husband’s lucky. I’ve actually never been before and just looked at the store list last night… Um, did you know that Williams Sonoma even HAD an outlet? Mama’s coming home with a deep fryer and an ice cream maker!!!

FYI – the bus ticket here is $42!!! US $!!! That’s like £5. Not really, but that’s what it feels like even though the dollar is strengthening… slightly. So $42 just for the opportunity to spend even more… No roller coasters, either. Oh well, happy shopping!