Disturbing packages

Disturbing things have been arriving in the mail. 

I shop online. A lot. Because I'm a single mom who works full time at work and then has a second full-time job at home. My days of leisurely strolling around the mall comparing prices carefully is over. Long gone. With the exception of groceries, socks, underwear and some sporting goods, I shop online. 

When I buy things online, they arrive at my home in boxes. This is good and bad. For a long time, my children were oblivious, so I could Christmas shop, and they never noticed the barrage of boxes arriving beginning after Thanksgiving. But now, when I get home from work, they ceremoniously hand me any boxes that have arrived and stand there expectantly, waiting to see what's inside. 

So the other day, I purchased some clothes online for Jess. She needed spring clothes. So I purchased shorts. I also purchased a couple of outdoor tables. These arrived just as I expected. It was what came with them that was disturbing.

Another word of explanation is needed here. I shop online opportunistically. I may have five minutes while I'm waiting for a conference call at work -- just enough time to go online and put a few items in my cart at whatever store. Then, I return in the evening after the children are sleeping to purchase the items. 

So I ordered Jess two pairs of shorts.Only the disturbing thing was that four came. Apparently, I knew I wanted to order two. So I placed two in the cart. Then, when I went back to order, I evidently placed two more in the cart. Jess ended up with four pairs of grey shorts. They're good shorts, comfy and durable, so okay. No harm, no foul. 

I chalked it up to moving too quickly. Then, today, I came home to find four boxes. Each one of them contained two of the outdoor tables I have been coveting. In this case, I have been coveting these tables for some time, and I've done the online equivalent of mall strolling -- I shopped around online for a good price. They are Polywood. Basically weatherproof and maintenance free. Maintenance free. Two words that make my heart sing. And they're my favorite shade of blue. So I shopped around. And then, apparently, I purchased the two tables I wanted -- at two different stores. Amazon.com and Homedepot.com.

So now, I have four tables (I decided to keep them -- they're quite pretty) and Jess has four pair of shorts, and this much has been confirmed -- I'm officially losing it.