What was I thinking?

I forgot that school starts tomorrow - and I made the colossal mistake of going to WalMart...  Sometimes I am just brain dead.  I needed to buy a new iron - sewing and my little travel iron just don't mix.  I am in the middle of making my bathroom shower rod valance and the steam function of that travel iron is virtually non-existent.  So, off I went to WalMart - since that's the cheapest place to buy an iron - and once I got inside, I was completely gobsmacked by the sheer number of people milling about.  One would never have guessed by looking at the parking lot.  Now, I love school supplies as much as any eager fifth-grader but I have no one to buy them for and I still haven't used all of the notebook paper I bought last year in a moment of weakness.  I will tell you, however, that those plastic pencil boxes make a great holder for dryer sheets - you know how flimsy those dryer sheet packages can be - so I do have some justification, albeit flimsy, for occasionally buying school supplies.  So after braving the crowd (in a handy little ride-around cart!) I found an adequate steam iron (for only $6.64!) and picked up a ream of printer paper - can't run out of that.  And while I was there, since one can never have too much Diet Coke on hand - a resolution I made after I'd been out of soda for three days and stuck in the house with no means of getting to a store to support my artificially-sweetened carbonated beverage habit - I headed toward the grocery department.  Again, what was I thinking?  I had to traverse the children's clothing section which was an absolute madhouse.  There were parents and kids everywhere, arguing over what to buy.  I mean, did you ever argue with your parents about school clothes they were paying for?  I think not.  The selection provided two choices: school uniforms or child-size gangbanger/slut clothing.  Nothing in between, unfortunately.  No wonder schools are adopting uniform policies - given that all the little boys show up with their over-large pants hanging off their butts and the girls all look like mini-tramp versions of Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus.  God help us all.  See - another reason why I am not a mother.  I hung a right through the footwear department and hit the soda aisle where I found Diet RC for the low, low price of eighty-eight cents for a two-liter bottle.  Works for me.  Zoom - back up the main aisle to the checkouts.  Where I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Amazingly, when I finally got to the cash register, the lovely girl was very pleasant and not stressed out by the crowd and long lines at all.  That was a nice surprise - even if the throng clamoring for school supplies in a crowded WalMart wasn't.