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I've Made Up My Mind ... No, I Haven't ... Yes, I Have ... by Carol Wells

Carol shares another humorous story about shopping with the spouse. Well, not really shopping but the knack of sometimes leaving the store without purchasing what caught her eye. While some people may think this is not a particularly bad habit, Carol's husband may beg to differ.

My husband rolls his eyes in despair at times about a habit I have. More than one of my habits does not escape his attention. Nevertheless, the one that perhaps he feels is the most irksome is how I approach decision-making. At least, with the number of times he has commented about it, I think it may rank at the top of the list.

OK, in all honesty, I do not like making decisions. I would prefer avoiding making one. Yet there are times during the course of a shopping trip that I am required to make a few.

As much as I try avoiding making a decision, if I try to get my husband's opinion, he avoids becoming part of the process. "It's up to you." He feels this phrase will help to instantly excuse him, or so he hopes, or so he hopes, from getting involved.

If I try to push the envelope, he casually slips off to another section of the store. "I will be back in a bit, I have to go to the bathroom." The conveniently handy excuse which effectively distancing himself from the cart and me.

Let us say, for example, a cute wreath is available in four similar styles or different color schemes. It would be easier for me to purchase all four; no decision involved! I could just rotate their appearance on the door. However, the annoying price tag gets in the way of making that option viable. Reduced to the realization it is one or none.

I can hover in that aisle for half an hour debating. I can stroll down remaining aisles while still - in the back of my mind - debating, "Which one should I choose?"

I keep referring to that item and I will pass through the aisle it is located on one or more times. In the end, and this is the part that gets my husband's ire the most, I leave without buying the item I had talked about for most of the time spent inside of that store. Yet I will talk about it all the way home, during the week, and next week end we will go back and see if the item is still available for me to further debate over.

My husband cringes when hearing someone informs me that the store "offers a wide selection." I am a goner. It became a 3-month process to pick out my camera.

He can also point out about the time we went to buy kitchen curtains a mere 7 months after I started looking over various kitchen window offerings. I finally came to a decision in favor of the set with a chicken theme.

"A quick in and out trip," I assured him while getting in the car. Inside of the store, I went directly to the aisle and picked up the required packages.

Then, to his dismay, I strolled through the section to look over all the sets of curtains again. "Just to make sure," I explained when noticing his look.

I did not want to admit that the apple motif set also caught my eye. The quick in and out trip became 45 minutes, and I never left the curtain display area. A feat that deserves recognition that I did stick to my decision and we now have a set of chicken curtains for our kitchen window.

The other night it was "drive thru window" night in our household and he asked me what I would like to eat. Now this means it is a limited selection already: one of the three fast food burger chains or a fried chicken establishment. How hard can that be?

"I don't know," I finally told him after a couple of minutes passed by.

"You can never make a decision! How am I supposed to know what to get if you can't decide what you want?"

He had a point. "OK, you decide for us then. What one do you want to go to?"

"I don't know."

"Wait a second, just a minute ago you were harping about me not able to decide when asked the same question!"

Innocently he looked at me, "Well that's because you have a longer history of indecision than I do."

OK, I concede that he had a point. Yet, this does not negate the fact that he has a fair share of indecisiveness in his genes as well. I think that he can merely hide this fact better. For example, for around 5 months he has been saying he would like a new pair of shoes. We look at men's shoes while out, yet come home without a new pair for his feet.

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Humor for a Woman's Heart: Stories, Quips, and Quotes to Lift the Heart
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-- Anonymous

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