Yehaw! Or, what to do for entertainment in Paulding County!

So, it's Saturday afternoon here in little old Paulding County. What on earth should we do to entertain ourselves today?

We start out with a birthday party at Stars and Strikes. This place has become the bane of my existence. I can't tell you how many times we've been there in the past month, including two days back to back for the boys' football banquets. If you've ever been to Chuck E. Cheese then you have a good idea of the size and scope of this place. A small, very small area of games that cost an arm and a leg to play. This microscopic little bumper car area. Very tiny Lazer Tag area and then two separate bowling areas. One bowling area is more "upscale" if a bowling alley can be called upscale. It houses the bar area and some coffeehouse like seating arrangement. Folks like to hang out here and get a little happy before their bowling time. After spending a few minutes in this place I was tempted to visit so called "bar area" and get a little happy myself. It is SO loud! You have to scream to make yourself heard. And the kids are constantly asking for more money to put more points on their game cards. There are a million people running around and the term "fun" is just not something I envision when I visit here. But, obviously 1/3 of Paulding County does find Stars and Strikes fun because they were there today. Don't anybody tell me we're in a recession. When folks can shell out untold amounts of cash to bowl and play arcade games then they're doing all right.

Next on our quest for fun journey was Wal Mart. Now, I like Wal Mart all right. My husband does not. He has nothing good to say about them after dealing with them because of his job. I, on the other hand, feel like their grocery prices are the lowest in town. Of coure that doesn't mean I buy my groceries there. I prefer the aesthetically pleasing Publix to anywhere else. I'll pay .50 more for something just so I don't have to smell the Wal Mart meat department. Anyways, Logan was in the market for some new football cards (I could write an entire entry on football cards and young boys fascination with them) so we hopped on over to Wal Mart when we left the birthday party. High on the excitement of Stars and Strikes, I failed to remember that not only was today Saturday, a prime shopping day for local residents, but it is also two weeks away from Christmas. We pull into the parking lot and it looks like July at Disney World. Folks swarming around like ants from a freshly kicked hill. Logan and his eagle eyes spotted a close up space and I only had to back up 40 feet and narrowly miss two shoppers to retrieve it.

As we enter the store the Salvation Army worker merrily rings his little bell in our direction. "Merry Christmas ma'am" he heartily cries. I clutch my purse tighter than I already was. What little bit of cash that is in there is staying in there. I'm broke people. While I wish I had oodles of extra cash to give to others, well, this year I'm doing good to buy for my own kiddos. Sorry. So, we head on into the mass of humanity and begin our shopping. Surprisingly we're not run over by any carts, yelled at by angry shoppers or involved in any fisticuffs over the last WWF wrestling toy on the shelf. Although I did purchase a WWF wrestling figure for Devlin and I felt very seedy as I put it in my cart. There is just something about wrestling that doesn't sit quite right with me, but anyways, who am I to judge.

We mosey on over to the grocery section to pick up a few items for tomorrows family get together and what to my wandering eyes should appear, but .88 2 liter Cokes my dears! You would have thought I'd found cash money laying on the floor. I stocked up on that stuff. Coca Cola is like liquid gold at our house. We can't keep it around. Lately, the price for a 2 liter has shot up to 1.79 at my beloved Publix. To find it for more than 1/2 off was like manna from Heaven. I'll be back in a day or two to buy more.

We finish our shopping and check out with only a 15 minute wait. The cashier is a right jolly old elf, with reindeer antlers and a name tag that says "Dancer". She was very pleasant and made the $100+ dollars that I shelled out almost palatable. Logan and I shuffle out to the van and toss our handful of bags into the trunk. Ten minutes later we're home from our day of excitement and all is well.

So, if you're looking for entertainment in Paulding County, there you have it. Oh yeah, Santa is hanging out at a tree lot across the street from the Shell station and they even have pony rides for those so inclined. We chose to pass up that little gem today, but hey, we might check it out next weekend.