It’s just amazing. I had a lovely lunch with a friend yesterday. As usual, I planned a couple of other errands on the way back so I could make some more use of the long trip. I drove over to IKEA, because I’d spent the day before looking for a cart with wheels and large flat drawers to organize my beads and findings, and found nothing for less than three times the price of the IKEA Alex drawers. I got to the lines, which of course were all the way into the warehouse area, and picked the shortest one. Apparently it was short because the cashier was making mistakes on every single order and had to call a manager to resolve it with the screaming customers each time. Manohman. Had I gotten in the longest line, I’d have been out earlier.

My next stop was to check out the Han Ah Reum market in Edison, because Rigdefield Park and Cherry Hill were both way out of the way, and it would be nice to have something that was close to the middle of my usual Parkway route. Well. Of course I checked Google Maps first, and that was apparently a mistake. Take 514 and follow signs to the Raritan Convention center, it said. Mistake number one, because the signs for the Raritan Convention Center take you to. . .the Raritan Convention Center. I don’t know the roads, so I make this enormous loop to get back onto 440, because you can’t get back onto 514 West from the way you got off it. So, this time I don’t follow the convention center signs, and I stay on 514. For. Friggin’. Ever. They say “Turn right onto Old Post Road”. When I looked at the map, I thought it odd that there were two of them, and that Google was placing the market on the skinnier of the two. Wouldn’t they be more likely to have a store close to the highway? Well, who am I to argue with Google, eh? Well, 514 is really, really skinny at that end of Old Post Road, and it took about 5 or 6 light changes in a two block area to finally make that right. I drove all the way to the end, when there was no more Old Post Road, and there was no Han Ah Reum, either. I finally find myself at the intersection of Route 1, and I figure, the heck with it, I’ll take 1 to the Parkway and head home. Lo and Behold, I run into the OTHER Old Post Road, so I decided to check it out. Oooh! Signs in Korean! I must be on the right track! No luck, because the road turns residential. But. . .as I pass the giant Pep Boys, there’s a teeeeeeeny sign in Korean with soooooper tiny English letters saying “Han Ah Reum Market”. Getting back there requires crossing 1 again, turning around in a driveway, and waiting almost interminably for the light to change so I can cross back. The market is hidden in the corner behind Pep Boys, and it’s nowhere near as clean and well-stocked as the other stores I mentioned before. But. . .I got my kim chees, noodles, laver, and fish, so that was cool. Packed everything into the cooler and called hubby to let him know I was on my way home.

chitchatchitchat. Then he informs me that my new washer will not be delivered as promised because it arrived at distribution in a crushed box. Crushed box=crushed washing machine. No laundry until Tuesday, now, which means that after I drop Audrey off for band and before I start sanding the living room walls, I need to sort the laundry and take it to a laundromat. I can dry it here at home, but what a pain!

This all put me on the Parkway South at rush hour on a Friday. Even on the weekend after Labor Day, there was still Shore Traffic Volume. It was a very, very long afternoon, and a very, very long time in the car. And this has been a very, very long post, so I’m going to talk about driving in a different one. Suffice it to say, I had lunch, I got my drawers, and we had a yummy Korean dinner, but if everything took this long, I might move to the woods and live on nuts and berries.