September 20, 2016- The Mall

We used to like Menlo Mall before they remodeled it and made it more upscale in the early 1990s. There were a lot of shoe stores in it, including The Wild Pair. I got shoes similar to the ones that I saw in Seventeen magazine there.  They are Ciao brand and have Velcro instead of laces. I actually still have but don’t wear them.

    We also bought 5 nature scene paintings at an Art Gallery store. 4 of these are a set of the seasons. The big one is hanging in our living room and the others were in the hallway but 2 of them got knocked down and the frames broke. This place was near Nathans where we would sometimes eat.

   The anchor stores were Bamberger’s which became Macy’s and also Alexander’s. I got my first Swatch at Macy’s in 1983. JC Penney was there too before it moved to the newly built long wing of Woodbridge Center Mall. I had gotten a couple of Christmas pins in that store.

   Dad bought me the 1984 Topps Yankees set at a card and collectibles show at this mall. They had a nice candy store at it too.

   Woodbridge Center used to have 3 music stores- Sam Goody, Tape World and Musicland. There were 2 bookstores- Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. Anchor stores included Steinbach’s, Orbachs, A&S, Sterns and Fortunoff through the years. The latter was the most recent to close and it’s now a Boscov’s.

   They had an iron on transfer t-shirt shop but I don’t remember if we ever bought anything there. We did get some of these down the shore. We liked getting our knick- knacks and some stuffed animals at Little Elegance. I got my ears pierced at the Piercing Pagoda when I was 9 or 10 years old.

    I worked at Curtains Up for a year in the late 80s and at A&S for only a couple of months or maybe even less. I was mostly in the Juniors Department fitting room there.

   We mainly ate at Wendy’s, Chick Fil-A, or the Ponderosa. The latter was mostly when Aunt Ann, Missy and Grandma would come up to spend the day Christmas shopping with Mom, Mike and I. We always had such fun doing this. One time, Missy’s shoe fell off and landed in the fountain of the lower level.

   The coconut haystacks from Joanne’s Nuthouse were delicious. I liked the dark chocolate ones, of course. I’m pretty sure that Mom and Aunt Ann liked the milk chocolate kind. We loved the Swedish fish too.

   The malls that we would go to in Aunt Ann territory were Burlington Center, Moorestown and Quakerbridge. I think that the one in PA near Sesame Place is called Oxford Valley. Mom, Aunt Ann, Missy and I went there after staying in that boring theme park for only a little while. We were there as part of a Girl Scout trip. The mall was much more fun.

   I’ve also been to a couple of malls in North Jersey with Matt- Paramus Park and Willowbrook. I’ve been to Bridgewater Commons and Short Hills too.  I’ve only gone to the Cherry Hill Mall twice when they had collectibles shows there. I got Mike his” Doctor Who” shirt in either 1990 or 1991.

   I was more of a mall rat in the late 1990s and 2000 than I ever was before then. It would have been for the best if I had avoided them or not gone there much. I could have saved lots of money to use on more important things. I would sometimes go overboard on the spending because of my depression and anxiety. This was not a good form of therapy for me.

original band of my Swatch

Menlo Mall- 1968

 

Woodbridge Mall

1973

 

Other Malls, Stores and Stuff

                       

Coconut Haystacks

Swedish Fish

Ponderosa 1980s

 

Oxford Valley Mall

Burlington Center

Moorestown Mall- mid-1980s

 

 

Note- Photos 1-3, 5-7, and the Sesame Place ticket are mine; the rest are from the internet

 

 

 

 

 

Dreamtime-

September 24, 2008- DD Autograph Signing

I was at Target one moment looking for my mocha frap and the next at a mall in the holodeck.  This mall was like a combination of Woodbridge and Quakerbridge, 2 of my favourites.  I saw a small crowd gathered outside of a music/book store and wondered what was going on there. As I got closer, I saw a sign that said that Duran Duran was going to be at this place for a few hours doing an autograph signing.

   Part of me wanted to go on the line for this event but I was feeling a little anxious even though they wouldn’t even be the real DD guys. It is nice that it wasn’t a mob scene. The reason for this is because Sam knows how much I hate big crowds so he made it a smaller one.

   I walked around the mall for a bit before going back to that store. I was just there to observe the other fans interacting with that group, to look at the special DD merchandise and also at them too. I saw books and pictures that I’d like to have but I couldn’t make up my mind what to get.

   I was having thoughts of just wanting to back out of this. The line was shorter now but I was still too scared to get on it. Did I really need their autographs? Would Sam even let me keep them for my scrapbook in the real world?

     I felt sort of weird being there, like I didn’t belong with these fans. I do like DD, but not as devotedly as some of these girls. I overheard some of the things that they were saying about them. The one girl said that her walls were practically all covered with posters of them when she was a teenager. I wasn’t even into them back then.

  An employee announced that Simon was taking a short break. I was feeling like I couldn’t breathe, esp. when looking at John. It’s so ridiculous that that man makes me feel so nervous. I needed to get out of that mall for a few minutes.

   While I was outside, I saw Simon talking to one of the security guards. I hadn’t even realized that it was him until I walked closer to them. If I had known this, I probably wouldn’t have gone in that direction. Maybe it’s a good thing that I had though, because suddenly my fear of getting their autographs disappeared.

   I went back to the store, bought a few pictures and a book and then went onto that line.  I had wanted to spend even more but didn’t think it was wise to go overboard on the DD purchases.  I’ve done that enough in the real world. That was mostly my brother’s voice saying this in my head then.

   Nick and Roger were sitting at one table. I was surprised that I wasn’t even nervous at all when talking to Roger. But I was already feeling anxious about going over to the Simon/John table. I felt ashamed to even be looking at John. 

     I was trying to tell myself not to be so afraid. I also was thinking that I’m sure that I will do okay talking to him. Just as I was getting closer to him, the scene started to change. He was fading away and now I was seeing the bottles of Mocha Frappuccino on the shelves of Target in front of me.

   Darn, just when I was finally feeling more brave and positive, I was sent back to reality and never had the chance to get Simon and John’s autographs. I did actually still have those of Nick and Roger. I’m surprised that I was allowed to bring something back to reality- that hardly ever happens.

 

 

Dreamtime-

May 3, 2012- Simon and Roger

I was standing by a river looking at some elephants. There were a couple of adorable baby ones that I was taking a photo of. I heard a man’s voice asking me something about my camera. I looked over at him and saw that it was Simon Le Bon. We both looked in our early 20s.

   We talked about photography, travel, and animals. After about 10 minutes, we saw a crocodile approaching us at a fast speed. We ran into a cave to hide from it.

   There was a guy who looked like Harrison Ford in his mid-20s there. He told us that he was studying the plant life of this area. He invited us to stay for lunch but we declined. He then showed us a back way out of the cave. We had told him about the croc.

   As we were walking along the path and talking, Simon tripped over a rock and fell into a mud puddle. A middle aged couple approached us and gave Simon a towel to wipe himself off with.

   We sat under a tree that wasn’t that far from the hotel for a bit. Just as we were about to go there, the scenery changed.

    I was now sitting in the backseat of my Aunt Ann’s Honda Accord. Mom was there with me. My aunt was behind the wheel and a man with dark hair was in the passenger seat.

   When he turned around, I saw that it was Roger Taylor. We all looked as we did in the early 90s. Roger showed me a music mix CD that he had made. He would be doing his DJ thing at a club in Bordentown. As if he would really go to such a location.

   I found out that the son of my aunt’s friend was supposed to be driving him there but he was too sick to do so. We would be dropping him off there then going to Burlington Center mall. I would be going to that club later.

   At the mall, we went to Sears, Strawbridge and Clothier, JC Penny’s (where I bought a purple top), B Dalton’s (my aunt and I were looking at mystery novels), and Sam Goody (I checked out the Duran Duran section, naturally).

   We had dinner at the pizza place. I was excited about getting to see Roger again soon. Unfortunately, the storyline ended before I had that chance.

    I noticed that I still had the same purse from the holodeck. It had been in both scenarios. I opened it up and the camera was inside. I was happy that I would have photos of the elephants and one of Simon too.

 

 

Note- photos of  Simon Le Bon,the elephants, Harrison Ford, and the mall are from the internet.

 

 

Shopping As Therapy In Excess - Not Good

My favourite brand of sneakers and shoes - Skechers. Got this pair and one
other as a part of the buy 1 get one half price sale at their store in Woodbridge
Mall last month.

I've been on a flannel shirt kick the past couple of months. I bought about 8 of them at a few different stores - Target, Old Navy and JC Penney on sale or clearance price of 12.00 or under. This one was more money though - 25.00 at Garage at Woodbridge Mall. I shouldn't have paid that much

These adorable doggie p.j.'s are from Kohl's. I actually ordered them onlinebecause the store didn't have my size. I did not know that you can order items at the store that you don't have to pay shipping costs. They were about 20.00 and I did save around 24.00 on them.

This cute cardigan if from Macy's. I had a 10.00 coupon from the paper so it cost only 15.00 after this and the sales price. I got mom the small Aflac duck which was their holiday stuffed animal for this year. I have the Scooby from about 6 years ago.

Sears seems to be the only store that still sells my favorite brand of jewelry - 1928. It is now sold as 2028 in other stores like Macy's. I got a good deal on it this time - 40% off. The Charter Club and 2028 earrings were on clearance at Macy's. I am totally addicted to fashion jewelry and have spent way too much money on it over the past 10 years.

The past couple of months I've been going bonkers with the spending which is not a good thing especially because I have been hitting other important funds like the computer savings one to pay for these shopping sprees. I have been guilty of using shopping as therapy to relieve my anxiety and depression throughout certain periods in the past decade. I was doing really well for about a year and a half but then starting last September I was at it again. The high of this is only temporary though. You would think that by now I would have learned my lesson but I keep turning to taking trips to the mall, Kohl's, Target and various other places to try to cheer me up. I really need to try and choose better ways of coping, like reading a book, connecting with my friends and watching DVDs from the library. I had some computer time last week which I should have been devoting to my friends here but instead I was looking at the Sears and Skechers sites for sneakers. I wound up buying 2 more pairs yesterday and they didn't even still have the special sale going on at the Skechers store. I'm always one for getting a good bargain so this impulse buy is even worse than my usual spending sprees. As if I don't have enough Skecher's to begin with - it's up to 12 pairs and I am now semi obsessing about one other that I want. This is pretty bad.

At the mall

I have not been to a mall since about November of 2008. I used to like going there but because of my driving anxiety plus my lack of funds, I have stayed away from there. Both of our malls are about 20 - 25 minutes away. I like Woodbridge Center better than Menlo Mall because the latter is too upscale ever since they did the remodle in the early 90's.

Menlo used to have many shoe stores, JC Penney, Alexanders, Bambergers which then became Macy's, Nathan's which we liked eating at sometimes and an art store which we bought a few paintings from. JC Penney moved to Woodbridge Center when they built the fourth long wing there.

My Dad bought me the Yankees team set of Topp's baseball cards in 1984 at a collectibles show at Menlo. A couple of my Swatch watches came from Macy's. Even though it was kind of a cheesy mall I have good memories of it.

I was never really a mall rat. I did go there and to Kohl's way too much for a few years in the 2000's because I was using shopping as therapy for my anxiety and depression which was not good. I got into credit card debt because of this. Should've stuck to reading books and going to Barnes and Nobel to read magazines to escape my problems.

Mom, grandma at the farm, Aunt Al, Mary, Mark and I used to go to Woodbridge sometime in either October or November each year in the late 70's to mid 80's to do our Christmas shopping which was fun. We usually ate at the Ponderosa.

Mom and I usually go to the calender store there in November for presents- I always get Mark the Star Trek one and she gets me a cocker spaniel one and I get her Golden Retriever pups. We didn't do this last year but I probably should try to get over my fear of driving there and do so this one. We also need batteries for our Swatches.

Maybe I'll just order the calenders from Amazon.com and try to find a local jewler who has these batteries. Just the thought of going to the mall is overwhelming. I'd be saving money on gas too.

My favourite stores at the mall are Macy's, JC Penney, Gertrude Hawke candy, Mandees, Wet Seal, Sears and Claire's. They haven't had Sam Goody in a while now and I forget the name of the music store that's there presently. They had a couple of bookstores - B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. I think that the former is still there.