Reia had been mentioning Ugg boots for several weeks now. Last week she woke me up at 4 in the morning and asked me if I would buy her Ugg boots. Not knowing what was going on, I sleepily agreed. And put it off as a dream. Until the next morning Reia confronted me saying I'd agreed to buy her Ugg boots. On inquiring why anyone would ask for something in the middle of the night, her response was simple, "I was sure you'd not agree, if you were awake." Since the accent and methods used were questionable we agreed to put off the discussion to another day. But not before realizing that these boots that I'd never heard of were apparently owned by everybody and were expensive.
http://www.uggaustralia.com/
As luck would have it, that very day, Thanksgiving we went over to her favorite aunts house. And in a believe it or not situation, she was presented with, you guessed it, a pair of Ugg boots. I was happier than her. Didn't have to worry about my sleepy promise. Had no idea that this was just the beginning of my Ugg Saga.
On getting home the first thing she did was try the boots. Oops, they were too loose. And were purchased from the Outlet Mall in New York, Woodbury Common. A place that was 110 kms from where we were. Reia managed to convince me to take her there and we finally set off to exchange her boots yesterday.
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7
When we got to the outlet mall, the nearby parking lots were full. We finally got parking in a remote lot, but by then were just happy to have found some parking. We set off in search of the Ugg outlet with the temperature at sub zero. Not exactly a fun walk in the park. Most of the outlets had people but were not crowded. Seemed like we chose a good day to come. Not much crowd. The food courts were very crowded, and seemed like this is where the crowds were.
As luck would have it, the Ugg showroom was at the other extreme end of the mall from where we had parked. From afar we saw a long line of people and wondered which silly people were standing in line to get into a shop. On coming closer we saw to our horror that it was the Ugg outlet. Over 100 outlets and only 1 outlet had a line. And it was the 1 outlet we had to go to. Not wanted to, but had to.
Reluctantly I got in line. Reia was laughing away as she found the whole thing hilarious. Seeing her broad smile, several people approached her to check what the line was for. Each walked away shaking their head on learning that it was to get into the Ugg store. After what seemed like a lifetime, we were finally ushered in to the store.
Reia was in her element. She went through the store. Several items were on sale. A few weren't. She seemed to have zoomed on to the 1 item that was not on sale in the store. It was called "Classic". She tried them on. They fitted and she was all set. They seemed to be be nice, simple looking boots.
We were set to do the switch. No surprises. Like everything else, there was a long line to the checkout counter. When we finally got there, the shoe exchange needed a Manager who wasn't around. They requested us to wait and summoned the Manager. It was a while and when he finally arrived, he was pretty efficient. He checked in the returns on the gift card receipt and checked out the new shoes.
And presented me a bill to pay. It seemed like the simple shoes Reia chose was twice the price of the designer shoes she was exchanging. Reluctantly I got out my credit card and paid. The smile on Reia's face made it worthwhile.
And said a silent prayer. Hope no one else gives Reia expensive presents. I can't afford it.
