Off to Durham we go...

The thing about doing the Stuff Stand-off in Southern Pines is that it's not that hard to avoid fabulous shopping experiences here in the Sandhills. While this area is changing and growing quickly, we've hardly exploded with shopping malls where any item you could wish for is available at all times. We have the basics - Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Best Buy, Walmart... but we're lacking some of my personal favorites: REI, Ann Taylor, and Target. So it's hardly a shopper's dream. Our biggest obstacle is to stay out of the hardware store, but that's easy enough to achieve because my biggest itch these days is to get my hands on a couple of new jackets and cardigans, and Lowe's can't help me there. The sad reality of living in Southern Pines is that if you really need to shop for something good, you have to leave town, which I have happily done for over two years. When I need something I head up to Durham where I used to visit my good friend Christy (before she bought a one-way ticket to California), and now I simply visit Southpoint - one of the finer malls I've ever been privileged to shop in. For someone stuck in an area where Peebles is one of the only places to buy clothing, Southpoint looks pretty incredible.

Needless to say, there have been no trips to Durham so far this year. Why bother? But this past weekend Jonathan and I wanted to head up there in order to see our friend Sarah's art exhibit at a great new gallery in the city. And I had one purchase I needed to make at REI - the coveted bug spray that I needed for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica on Saturday, and I need only the best for that, because malaria is an annoying little problem to have.

So we geared ourselves up and headed to the "big" city for a night on the town, blind to the challenges we'd face. We made ourselves a dinner reservation for as earliest possible times at one of our favorite restaurants - 7:30pm. But by the time we got up there it was only 4:30, so we had to find three hours worth of activities. No problem. We slowly headed toward the gallery to see Sarah's ceramic show.

We loved her show so much that we commented that we'd be totally interested in buying a few of her pieces to have at our house. It took a minute before we realized we'd have to ask her to save us a few of them until next year when we could bring them into the house. Conveniently there were 100 pieces to one of her displays, so we're hoping to get lucky. Laughing as we realized our dilemma we enjoyed the rest of her show, and the proceeded to slowly stroll through the rest of the space in the building, dedicated to many different artists who's work we could admire as we walked around.

Sure that we had killed plenty of time we got in the car to go get the bug spray. 5:30pm. Seriously? That didn't even take us more than an hour?

We pulled out of the parking lot and proceeded to drive slowly through downtown Durham, which actually doesn't take very long. After a few more minutes it became alarmingly clear to us that if shopping isn't on the list of alternatives, we have absolutely no idea how to spend our time in Durham.

Now I'm sure that there is plenty to do in the fine city of Durham. And to be honest with you, it was a little embarrassing to not be able to think of anything. To fast-forward briefly to the end of this story, we went by our restaurant and scored when they sat us an hour before our reservation time. We ate and got the bug spray and headed home for an early bedtime - a must for me on a Saturday. So we dodged the awkward hour that would have been spent wandering aimlessly through REI with only bug spray in our hands. But even having dodged that bullet, it got me thinking.

This is actually reminiscent to me of the time I gave up my cell phone for a few years. It took a while for me to figure out how to function without it. How did people know how to find each other if they were supposed to meet up? How did you let people know you were running behind? How could you help yourself if you got lost? All of these very legitimate questions left me completely befuddled. What I learned, over time, was the value of planning ahead. Fascinating concept, I know. But it turns out if you have directions, make clear plans about where and when you will meet people, and give yourself the right amount of time to get someplace, then life is actually pretty manageable after all - even without a cell phone.

Perhaps we'll need to examine this idea in our travels. Since killing time in stores is not an option, we may want to consider some of the other things there are to do in the cities we visit. Maybe there are other museums or galleries to see, maybe we could call our friends and stop by and say hello, maybe we could go for a walk. I'm sure there are other things we can do with our time that might even be more fulfilling than shopping, but we'll have to put a little effort into it.

I think we're up for the challenge. In this amazing country we live in I'm thinking there are plenty of great things that we can see and explore and do. I just have to think like the Boy Scouts and be prepared. So watch out Durham - here we come!