More barn, less noble

There's a gift card for a bookstore burning a hole in my pocket. I had thought this would be an easy one, as I already have a running list o' books that I want to read, but it turns out I must be too cheap and indecisive to buy anything yet. I know - it's not even BUYING it because it's a gift card, and I still don't want to let myself pay full price. Plus, it just was not a good shopping experience. I haven't been having very good shopping experiences lately - WTF? Even with the holidays being over? Oh right, the kids are still out of school and there's plenty of other peeps who are Entitled to Copious Amounts of Vacation Time. So the stores are still packed, the clearance racks are picked over and boogered up, and everyone's too exhausted from the holidays to be polite to each other any more than is necessary. And maybe it's just me, but the last couple times I've been shopping the heat has been CRANKED. Which usually I don't mind, since I'm one of those always cold people (frigid bitch) but this was just excessive to the point where you just start getting really pissy and want to leave. Good strategy there. Then after dodging the kids playing a good old-fashioned game of Shriek and Run at the bookstore (in which I think the goal is to see how many senior citizens they could scare poopless/knock over), I noticed the store was playing an interesting selection of music, especially for a B&N. Like maybe one of their highschool employees slipped in a "Sex Mix 2006" CD from their personal collection or something, like I probably would've done at that age (oh wait, I DID do that at that age, but it was at an unpopular music store and I WAS a hornified teenager so that was understandable, eh?). Anyway, between the stifling heat and the disappointing pile of clearance crap (toilet sudoku anyone?), the breathy sex whispers and pulsating rhythm of the music and the meeting-then-breaking eye contact with a couple disillusioned guys who didn't immediately realize I was just some frumpy chick who was actually there to look for books - I figured I'd cut my losses, buy a half-price donkey calendar and high-tail it out of there.
Dang, all that and yet I find myself getting psyched up to do some shoppping this weekend...