the b,b&b sheets effect

About a year ago, my sister called me in an embarrassed panic. We sisters often have these types of conversations, and this particular conversation stemmed around a set of sheets she just purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

She wanted to treat herself to a nice set of sheets that felt really good and had an impressively high thread count. Such sheets do not come in a packaged deal (fitted sheet, flat sheet and pillow cases), but rather come a la carte. She took her items up to the counter, along with her coupon, and as the cashier was ringing up her purchase, she began to feel ill. Her legs turned to jelly. Her face reddened in embarrassment. Total cost of one set of sheets? Over three hundred dollars. She panicked. What do you do? You can't just tell the lady to stop ringing you up, you've crossed the point of no return. It's simply too embarrassing to not realize just how much your purchase is, until it's far too late.

So she called me. And we worked out that she would just return to the store a few hours later and return the purchase. By that point the cashier will have gone home, and no one would be the wiser.

Since this time, we have called this the Bed, Bath and Beyond Sheet Effect. When you realize too late in the game that your purchase it much, much more than you intended to spend, but because of your pride, you don't do anything about it until later.

This, friends, happened to me twice in the last 2 days.

Incident Number One occurred at JoAnn Fabrics. For the first time in my career at EHS I have the opportunity to decorate a bulletin board (for better or for worse). Since long sheets of paper are hard to come by, and leaving it naked is unsightly, I decided to cover it in fabric. I found a fun, autumnal print that fit my aesthetic, and took the bolt to the cutting table. I wasn't sure exactly how much fabric I was going to need (measure? what for?), and the bolt appeared to have very little left on it, so I told the girl I would take the remainder of the bolt. As she began to un-flip the bolt onto the cutting table, I realized that there was much more fabric than I thought. Like nearly 4 yards of fabric. I did amend my request, and asked her to just cut off 3 yards. She then gave me my receipt to take up to the cashier, and I looked down and saw that the fabric I just had her cut was nearly $7 a yard. I had $20 worth of fabric in my hands, and was married to it. There was no returning, no going back. My legs were jelly and I thought I was going to lose all of my faculties. This isn't a time though, where I can just turn around and return it later. No returns on cut fabrics!! Thankfully, I like the fabric and I will find other crafty things to do with it; but it simply wasn't a good feeling.

Incident Number Two occurred at the grocery store today. We are celebrating my brother's birthday tomorrow, and I offered to bake him a sweet treat. He requested brownies. And because it is a birthday, I wasn't content just to buy a box of brownie mix and call it a day. I had the idea to make Spicy Brownies. A while a go, my friend B made me some spicy brownies as a thank you gift. They were phenomenal. Rich and chocolaty, with a kick from cinnamon, cardamom, and chipotle powder. I thought they would be perfect for my brother. My grocery list was small: I needed butter, eggs, cardamom and chipotle powder, and instant espresso powder. Butter and eggs were easy enough. I did have a hard time finding espresso powder, so I settled on instant coffee packets made by starbucks in "extra bold." After a bit of hunting, I found the cardamom and chipotle powder and through them into my cart. As I was standing in the check out line, watching my items be scanned, I saw a purchase for $14 pop up on the screen. What the?! It was the cardamom! Followed by a $7 chipotle powder! $20 worth of spices?! This seemed crazy! I love my brother and all, but to spend $20 on some spices that will go stale in a cabinet (because of course you could only purchase these in containers the size of my head). Again, my face was red and my stomach turned. I walked out with my golden spices, only to walk right back into the store to return the chipotle powder and cardamom. My brother will be getting regular-old non spicy homemade brownies. Unless he's willing to shell out $20 for the spices.