The Day After Driving Eve Back to Hamilton

Given Eve's new location in Hamilton, there is a new Marriott we will probably stay at while visiting her now (all Marriott all the time for us because of Matt's ridiculous buttload of hotel points) which is walking distance. I was a little nervous driving to it after dropping Eve back at her apartment after dinner because I don't love downtown driving in the dark, but it was very close. The first thing that felt weird was having to turn left on a big wide street with bus shelters in the middle of it, but because it was a one-way street I was turning into what very much felt like it should be a lane of oncoming traffic. After checking the big arrow sign multiple times, I did turn. I was able to pull up to the curb outside the hotel while I went in to check in and once again didn't get ticketed or towed. The underground parking door was the size of a postage stamp, but I managed to get in unscathed.

The room was fine. I didn't sleep terribly well, but I hadn't expected to. Eve had said she wanted to get a fairly early start in the morning, but when I dragged myself out of bed and texted her she confessed that she had been over-estimating how chipper she would feel, so we got underway around ten.

I parked in the lot beside her building and went up. She had moved a few more things and I noted them all approvingly. There was one lamp Matt had packed for her from home thinking they would get a new shade for it at IKEA, but there wasn't one, so I said I would take it down to the car when we went and stick it in preparatory to bringing it back home. 

We accidentally both wore green, and a woman in Tim Hortons said we were gorgeous so I love her. I said her baby was really cute, which it was, but I would have said that even if it was ugly.

Then we left the apartment, locked the door and got in the elevator and I said "huh, I forgot the lamp". Eve said "I also didn't bring any cloth bags". Would going back immediately have made the most sense? Indubitably. Is that what we did? Lol, no. We went off bagless, knowing full well that our rule when we do this is that we're not allowed to get any plastic bags. According to Eve, this is okay for anything up to three kleenex boxes - any more than that and you risk becoming a spectacle - but rules are rules.

We went to Canadian Tire for a few last kitchen things and a toilet plunger, the Bulk Barn and Dollar Store for spices and little spice bottles, Costco for snacks and pesto and toilet paper, and the grocery store for a first grocery order.

The only time carrying everything without bags was dicey was in the Dollar Store, and I told the clerk that we would take a bag if it was a pain in her butt for us to gather everything up, but she was totally into it and helped us stack everything in cooking pans or hanging baskets. 

Eve doesn't usually make impulse purchases - even when I'm paying - so I was totally up for springing for a Scrub Mommy.

When we got back to her place, we filled up our purses and pockets with everything that would fit, and after our first trip up brought down grocery bags for the rest. Then I put the lamp right in front of the door so I wouldn't be able to leave without walking into it. 

We had dinner and a swim at the hotel, and the next morning I drove by to give her a hug before I drove home (listening to the Legally Blonde soundtrack the whole way. But I swear I will be over it any day now.)