If I had to pick one thing I already miss, it is Target.  If your local Target is a Super Target, you could literally shop at no other store and survive.  I’m not saying they have the best stuff, or the best prices, but they have everything a family like the Stockdales may need, or at the very least something that will do the job.  Plus, it is all in one place with ample parking as an added bonus.

So, imagine if a giant picked up an entire Target and shook it like a puzzle box.  Everything that was once nicely organized in common sense aisles and departments would now be randomly dispersed throughout the box.  Now, imagine the giant opens the puzzle box and starts randomly throwing handfuls of items in various directions.   Based on the giant’s ability to throw stuff MILES away, you now have a Target spread over a geographic region the size of a small city.  Now, imagine trying to go shopping at Target, but having to go from pile to pile to find what you want.  Welcome to shopping in Singapore!

For the last two weeks, I’ve been looking for a plastic dishrack.   I’ve looked at three separate malls and at least 20 different stores.  None of them have simple plastic dishracks.  TWO of them have these $150 fancy metal dishracks that look like they came from Williams Sonoma, but no one has a simple old plastic do-dad that I can use to let some plates dry (not even for $50).

If you want to buy an electric fan, every frickin’ store in this country sells fans.  If you need lightbulbs, Singapore has the cheapest lightbulbs I’ve ever seen.  But, if all you want is a simple plastic dishrack, you’re out of luck.  I’m sure the giant threw them somewhere, I’ve just yet to find that pile.

Mrs. Stockdale’s mother is shipping over some stuff next week.  There is a very good chance she might be going to Wal-Mart (no Targets in their part of Mississippi) and getting one to ship over.  I’m sure it will end up costing me $150 and I should have just bought the fancy one, but oh well.  If I’m willing to pay $12 for a box of cereal, is a $150 dishrack really all that out of whack?