It's the little things

I went to Best Buy during lunch today. And it felt good.

All I did was browse. Leisurely strolled through the aisles, feeling neither the pressure to buy something nor the pangs of want. And even better, I felt no rush to cut my lunch hour short.

It's been a long time since I went to a Best Buy or Fry's for no good reason. Since the IBM layoff, my trips to stores like that have been rare, in part to prevent me from torturing myself. I'd only go to get Christmas gifts for family or boring supplies like blank DVDs. I missed my occasional window shopping trips, thinking about things I might buy ... even though I almost never followed through. But I guess there's a hopeful quality to window shopping even if you rarely buy something. And I've really missed that.

Strangely, I've also missed running errands over lunch. Or rather, feeling free to do so. Even though I was lucky enough that neither of my contract jobs were with clock watchers, I still felt the need to minimize my lunch hours. I didn't want to abuse their leniency, and after all, I was technically an hourly employee. So the less time I spent "at lunch," the faster I could justify to myself getting out of there and heading home. I'd still make time to meet friends for lunch, but usually, unless someone else initiated lunch plans, I'd stay at my desk and eat as fast as possible.

And so today, on the second day of my new full-time permanent non-contract can I get a hallelujah job, with nothing to do while waiting for IT to give me a laptop, I went to Best Buy during lunch for no reason other than to kill some time. And while feeling free to do that is a tiny, silly thing that has no relevance in the grand scheme of things ... I sure enjoyed the hell out of it.