So ... Costco

As per usual, I walk into Costco expecting to buy one thing (eyeglasses) and leave with ... rather more.

My local Costco (and, perhaps, all Costcos) has discontinued frameless glasses.  Apparently, they're sick of the damn things breaking on everyone.  So, as I did at Lenscrafters, I picked out a pair of "close enough" half-frames.  As it turned out, the best looking ones were the house brand, so the frame was a whopping $40.  They hooked me up with the same lightweight brown Transitions lenses, with the same two week waiting period (actually, perhaps a bit less), and the whole thing totalled out to about half what Lenscrafters wanted to charge.  And I'll probably get at least $75 of that back (perhaps more) once I submit a claim to my insurance (which, apparently, they're authorized for).  So, yay.

And then I proceeded to walk around Costco.  I stopped for the $1 hotdog for sustenance, and attacked.  Two hours later and I was packing my car with three hundred and forty-three dollars worth of stuff.  And no one purchase was more than $30.  So, I mean, I got a lot of stuff.

After a while, I was sort of shopping in a daze.  By the time I hit the non-prescription drug aisle, I was just mumbling things like, "Ooo, Advil," and throwing a box in my cart.  

I even ended up buying their crappy tasting energy drink -- this because the nice man gave me a free bottle of it and it actually gave me enough energy to make my way through the rest of the store.  Getting through Costco actually requires quite a bit of energy, so I thought it was a pretty good energy drink.