Wanted: umbrella thief

In case you weren’t aware, it rained on Monday. And it rained HARD. It was like Mother Nature was giving State College a bath (and, to be fair, after the weekend, I think a lot of people could benefit from that).

Fortunately, rain doesn’t really bother me. I actually enjoy it. As I walked to class, the sea of umbrellas, raincoats and colorful rain boots made campus cheery, despite the wet weather. With this in mind, I sort of had a vision for how I wanted the day to go:

I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want their life to be a musical? I’ve always been up-front about my disappointment in the fact that the American public education system looks nothing like High School Musical. But, I hoped in my heart of hearts, perhaps today will be the day campus decides to break out in that choreographed number I know we are all secretly (or, in my case, not-so-secretly) dying to do.

As I walked into class, my faith in humanity was fairly high. So I left my umbrella outside the door. And this is where the day went downhill.

Because someone stole my umbrella.

Why?

Please.

No.

I don’t deserve this.

Now, to be completely honest, I probably did deserve this. Someone had to dash my rather naive blind faith in humanity. And I guess the universe decided Monday was the day to do it. So I walked to my history class, with no protection from the elements. I tried to channel Holly Golightly at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

But I think I looked more like her cat, Cat:

As I entered my history class, I knew I wasn’t a pretty sight to see. I found my seat and tried not to drip on the guy next to me, making attempts at small talk by muttering something about how wet it is (oh, good one) and attempting to air dry for the next hour.

From here, my day doesn’t really get much better. I get a flu shot, which takes longer than I thought because apparently you have to sit in the room and relax for fifteen minutes after the shot. However, when a girl almost passed out (not really sure why, probably should be a little concerned about that), I took advantage of the diversion and slipped away.

When I went go back to my room, wet and aching from the virus that was just injected into my very being, I slid into dry clothes and decided to go downtown to get myself an umbrella. I could go to McClanahan’s, but its been a rough day and I want to buy something pretty.

So I go to Dwellings.

As I walk in, dripping and pathetic (I tend to look pathetic when I feel bad for myself), the store clerk immediately directs me over to the umbrellas. I pick out the last Lilly Pulitzer one (its meant to be!) and happily walk over to check out. The store clerk, who is incredibly friendly (probably the result of the fact that I just succumbed to buying a grossly over-priced but adorable umbrella), even offers to clip off the tags for me. Triumphant, I walk away, new umbrella in hand, to Spanish class.

Consequently, yesterday, as it began raining while I was walking downtown, I whipped out my new umbrella. Which reminded me — I need to go shopping.

Readers, trust me, I did actually have a reason this time. I wasn’t even shopping for myself. I needed to get birthday presents for a dear friend. Birthdays have always been very important to me. I put my all into celebrating birthdays – my motto is don’t go halfway on a birthday (say it out loud; it rhymes!). By that, I mean actually put some effort into it. Birthdays come but once a year — a lackluster presentation like this doesn’t cut it.

No, no, no. No friend of mine goes a year without having a fabulous birthday, complete with dancing

And, of course, surprises.

So, because I am a good friend, I walked into Dwellings for the second time this week. Also because I really like that place.

I found that Dwellings is a great place to get presents for friends, because they have a wide selection of small gifts. I ended up getting a scarf and earrings.

Of course, being a college student, I don’t have the gift-wrapping capabilities I had at home (if only you could see how I could wrap a present when I had all my bows, ribbons and wrapping paper at my disposal). Fortunately, the folks at Dwellings were more than happy to wrap the present up, complete with bows and tissue paper, for no additional cost!

All in all, I’ve really come to like Dwellings this week. Being the preppy haven that it is, it spoke to me, and I hope my friend likes her present. Additionally, I apologize for the many gifs I’ve included in this post; lately, I’ve really gotten into Buzzfeed and it is arguably changing me for the worse.

Until next week readers, I solemnly promise not to shop!