The Closing of Kmart

At long last here’s a post that I’ve been working on for two months, which documents the closing of a local Kmart.

I’m not surprised that the Kmart that was located in Greenbelt, Maryland at the Cipriano Square shopping center (across the street from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) has just closed its doors for good recently—one of hundreds of stores that were doomed to go out of business throughout the United States. Both Kmart and its parent company Sears have been suffering financially for a number of years. The main problem is that both companies are presided over by a CEO named Eddie Lampert who has been applying principles he derived from reading Ayn Rand novels to running his business enterprise with disastrous results. Here’s a quote from this article.

Plagued by the realities threatening many retail stores, Sears also faces a unique problem: Lampert. Many of its troubles can be traced to an organizational model the chairman implemented five years ago, an idea he has said will save the company. Lampert runs Sears like a hedge fund portfolio, with dozens of autonomous businesses competing for his attention and money. An outspoken advocate of free-market economics and fan of the novelist Ayn Rand, he created the model because he expected the invisible hand of the market to drive better results. If the company’s leaders were told to act selfishly, he argued, they would run their divisions in a rational manner, boosting overall performance.

Instead, the divisions turned against each other—and Sears and Kmart, the overarching brands, suffered. Interviews with more than 40 former executives, many of whom sat at the highest levels of the company, paint a picture of a business that’s ravaged by infighting as its divisions battle over fewer resources. (Many declined to go on the record for a variety of reasons, including fear of angering Lampert.) Shaunak Dave, a former executive who left in 2012 and is now at sports marketing agency Revolution, says the model created a “warring tribes” culture. “If you were in a different business unit, we were in two competing companies,” he says. “Cooperation and collaboration aren’t there.”

All of which proves that Ayn Rand is a poor role model when it comes to applying her principles that she espoused in her novels to real life. This worship of Ayn Rand is a reason why Eddie Lampert has shown up on a number of “Worst CEOs” lists like this one.

It sucks that things are going bad for both Sears and Kmart since both stores have been around since my childhood. I still have memories of the times my mother took me to Sears to buy clothes for me. I remember my father had a few Craftsman tools that he would use for things like yard work.

And then there’s the other store that began with the letter K. When I was growing up, there was a Kresge’s at the local Harundale Mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland (which is notable in the Wikipedia for being the enclosed shopping mall to open on the East Coast). Kresge’s was an independently-owned five and dime store and it was located just a few feet away from another five and dime—Murphy’s. I can remember the times I purchased cheap toys with my allowance money from both stores and the years when my mother would buy me one of those cheap plastic Ben Cooper Halloween costumes that were sold in both stores instead of sewing me one with her sewing machine.

Murphy’s eventually went out of business while Kresge’s started to open larger stores and, in the process, changed its name to Kmart. When I first moved to the area where I live now, there was a Bradlees that was the main anchor of Cipriano Square. Bradlees was a big box discount store that had nice things for pretty decent prices and I used to shop for clothes there a lot. A few years later Bradlees closed down and it was replaced by Jamesway, another large discount store that also had nice things at pretty decent prices. Jamesway closed down after a couple of years and Kmart moved in its place, where it had stayed until recently.

I bought a lot of things from Kmart over the years. I’ll admit that the checkout lines were always crowded mainly because the store always put too few employees at the cash registers (mainly to save money) so I always had to wait in line for at least 15 minutes. No matter what time of the day, there were always more buyers than cashiers. Yet Kmart had some nice things (especially in women’s clothes—I bought a lot of professional looking clothes for the office jobs I worked at) so I still shopped there despite the crappy service. I learned early on that Kmart was not the store to shop in if you had limited time and you needed to be somewhere else by a certain exact time. Basically if I needed to buy something, I went to Kmart on days when I had nothing else that I had to do so I could endure the very slow checkout lines.

Even Kmart’s purchase by Sears didn’t improve the checkout lines very much although it was convenient that I could get Kenmore and Craftsman products at a store that was located closer to my home than the nearest Sears.

Basically shopping at Kmart was something that was endured but the hassle turned out to be worthwhile in the long run because I obtained useful stuff, some of which I still use (such as a Martha Stewart laundry basket that I bought years ago and it’s still in very good shape).

When I learned via one of the Facebook groups that I belonged to about Kmart’s imminent demise in my area, I knew that I needed to take advantage of the going out of business sale because there were a few items that I needed to buy and it was an opportunity to get them at even lower prices than before. I also decided to take pictures to document the store’s decline. I made a few trips to that store before it finally closed for good this month. Here is what I saw during those trips.

February 13, 2015

It was very fitting that I made my first trip to Kmart after I heard the news on a Friday the 13th. The outside of the store didn’t give any indication that it was closing down soon.

But once I entered I saw the signs announcing a massive sale where everything in the store was between 10-30% off the regular price. The signs said “Huge Inventory Blowout!,” which would lead one to believe that Kmart was just having the usual end-of-season clearance sale in order to make way for new inventory for the spring and summer months. If I hadn’t seen that Facebook message that someone in one of my groups posted online, I would’ve made a similar conclusion as well.

Since Valentine’s Day was the next day, it was natural to see a rack full of Valentine cards near the store entrance.

There were all kinds of merchandise that had the discount prices on them.

Even though the going out of business sale was in its early days, some of the shelves were already starting to become empty.

And the Refreshments area near the cash registers had already closed down for good.

There were some merchandise that were haphazardly thrown into bins. Some of the stuff looked like leftover Halloween costumes while others looked like leftover Christmas decorations. I wasn’t about to go through those bins to get a closer look because they looked so messy that they seemed intimidating to me.

I found a My Little Pony Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks doll set that’s a Kmart exclusive.

Among the normal items on sale, there were a bunch of things that I thought were pretty odd. There is this toy shaped like a Kenmore vacuum cleaner that’s supposed to teach little girls the joys of doing vacuuming while subtly instilling brand loyalty to Kenmore products at an early age. (If my parents had given me a toy like that when I was a kid, I would’ve thrown a fit. I was into dolls, stuffed animals, and craft kits. Anything that resembled household appliances were considered boring to me.) It’s pretty ironic since Kenmore was originally created as a Sears store brand and I’ve read that Sears is among the list of companies most likely to go out of business permanently in 2015. Unless Sears sells its Kenmore line to someone else, any little girl getting a My First Kenmore Vacuum Cleaner would consider this one as My Last Kenmore Vacuum Cleaner.

This kid’s t-shirt had me going WTF?!? at seeing Ariel from The Little Mermaid wearing glasses. I hate to say it but glasses are totally not practical for mermaids or any other creature who spends the majority of time underwater.

Then there is this really bizarre game that’s being marketed for girls called Freaky Becky. Judging from the box, it looks like each girl player has to do something with the enclosed zombie doll known as Freaky Becky and that zombie parts will frequently fly all over the place as part of the fun. I can imagine parents getting exasperated over having zombie doll parts fly everywhere and maybe even get lost in between the sofa cushions or on a rug where someone steps on it later.

There are similar games made by the same company for boys as well: Johnny the Skull and Zed the Zombie.

There were a few strange items for adults as well. Remember the Snuggie? Well Kmart was selling sleeved blankets where one can choose from Minnie Mouse or Elvis Presley.

I needed to buy a few new items but it wasn’t until after I arrived in the store that I realized that I didn’t have as much money on me as I thought so I bought fewer items than I wanted. Since the sales only ranged between 10-30%, I decided to focus on buying only those items that I really needed to buy (as opposed to items I’d like to buy but I really don’t need). I bought one Playtex bra to replace at least one of the old bras that I’ve owned for years that have been getting increasingly ratty and stretched out. I also saw this exercise DVD that was originally marked at $10 but the price was lowered to $8 called Lesley Samsone Walk Away the Pounds. Lately I’ve been making an effort to walk a minimum of one mile a day, six days a week and I’ve been wearing a pedometer to make sure that I make at least the minimum goal. Some nights I’m short of my minimum goal so I’ve been taking short night walks around my neighborhood in order to push my pedometer beyond the 1 mile mark. The DVD comes in handy for those nights when I can’t go outside because it’s raining or snowing.

February 14, 2015

I’ll admit that I was annoyed with myself for coming to Kmart’s going out of business sale with not enough cash the day before. There were some items that I absolutely needed to replace (because they were literally falling apart) and I figured that it was a  rare opportunity to replace these items at a discount.

I’ve been to enough of these going out of business sales over the years to know that they tend to be multiple phase plans. During the early phase, the discounts tend to go no lower than 30% with many items only being offered for 10% off the retail price. But it’s also during that phase when you’re more likely to get the items that you want. By the time steeper discounts are offered, chances are that many items you want will have already been sold and much of the merchandise left are literally the dregs.

So I decided to take an organized approach to Kmart’s going out of business sale. During the initial 10-30% off phase, I decided to focus only on the items I really needed to buy while putting off other items that I would like to have but I really don’t need immediately for later in the going out of business sale process.

Since I stupidly didn’t bring enough money the day before, I decided to go back on the following day, even though it was Valentine’s Day. I didn’t mind shopping on Valentine’s Day because it’s not like I have a significant other to spend the day with or anything like that. I got a chance to take photos of a few more items that are a bit on the kitsch side, such as these pillows based on Star Wars and Frozen.

I browsed a bit around the beauty aisles where I found this cologne that’s marked with the 007 logo from the James Bond movies.

It’s been a long time since I last bought myself a bottle of perfume or cologne. There seems to be an excess in perfume/cologne with a celebrity’s name attached to it, such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry. I just don’t remember ever seeing such products named after celebrities like that. I just remember names like Chanel No. 5 and Jean Naté, which weren’t named after celebrities who are currently fixtures in the tabloid media.

Paris Hilton has a whole section dedicated to different brands of her perfume/cologne. Talk about a total inventory glut!

Here are some bath-related products for 20% off.

There was a large cardboard bin that had just books that were 80% off the retail price. I looked in the bin but I didn’t find a book that interested me enough to buy one. It’s too bad because it was about the only place that had the steepest discount.

There was a large pile of Easy Bake Ovens that were placed right in the middle of an aisle.

There was a section of brightly decorated bras from Joe Boxer. While I loved the designs on the bras, I felt that they were impractical because the designs would ultimately be covered with a shirt. If the shirt was on the sheer side, there’s a chance that the bra’s designs would show through, which would be okay if a woman was at a party or something like that but would be embarrassing if she was working in an office.

Between the fact that it was Valentine’s Day (with people doing their last minute holiday shopping) and it was a going out of business sale, there were plenty of people in the checkout lane. I saw people literally fill their shopping carts with merchandise. It took me a while to actually check out with my items.

Here’s what I bought that day. I purchased another bra to replace one of my older bras that have gotten ratty and is literally falling apart. My new bra is a pretty light pink color, which I like.

I purchased a can opener mainly because the last can opener I owned had a blade that was getting increasingly dull and I had a harder time opening metal cans. This new can opener works really well and I can open cans much faster than before.

Here’s the back of the package, which has the name of Kmart’s store brand (Essential Home). The can opener was really easy to remove from the package.

Here’s a close up of the back package, which features the Kmart logo.

I purchased two bath mats mainly because one of my current bath mats was really falling to pieces (I ended up throwing that one away after buying my new mats) and the other one is just starting to fall apart. These new bath mats have worked out really well for me.

This last item was an impulse buy. It’s a liquid soap dispenser that’s shaped like the Eiffel Tower. I thought it looked really nice and it was on sale for only $12. I got rid of a soap dispenser last year after it broke apart and I bought a new one at Target soon afterwards. With this new soap dispenser, I now have a total of three dispensers. This Eiffel Tower looks really nice in my bathroom.

February 17, 2015

Three days after my Valentine’s Day shopping trip, I made yet another shopping trip to Kmart. By that time the store had finally decided to put up an outside banner along with several signs in the windows and in the entrance foyer admitting that, yes, it really is going out of business.

There were all kinds of items with discount signs.

They were even selling this necklace and earring set with one of the stones missing from the necklace.

Then there was a whole row of Grumpy Cats.

There was the same large stack of Easy Bake Ovens that I saw just a few days ago, except the pile had gotten smaller.

There were sales everywhere.

The checkout lines were very busy with shoppers taking advantage of the sale.

The photo below shows my haul from that trip.

I bought another Playtex bra, this one in a tan color. I also bought a pack of Hanes underwear because I recently had to throw away a couple of panties because they had developed large holes (I had them for a few years). It’s always useful to buy underwear in bulk even if you can’t currently use all of the new panties at once because you never know when you’ll need to throw away a pair of old panties that developed holes big enough to shove three fingers through them.

The next photo shows my biggest ticket item I’ve purchased from Kmart to date. It’s a Blue Line stereo that has built-in speakers, AM/FM radio, a CD player, an alarm clock, and an outlet to plug in a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or MP3 player so one can listen to digital music in stereo. The price was originally listed at $69.99 but I got it for $50. I had wanted to purchase a smaller stereo that I could fit on a tabletop ever since I got rid of that huge stereo that was taking up a massive amount of space in my living room but I wasn’t able to do so until recently because money was very tight. So far it works really well and it has a great sound.

My cash receipt included this notice expressing regret that they had to close the Kmart in my area but I could call or go online to Kmart.com to find other Kmart stores. It also included this incredibly dumb-sounding slogan: “We’re Open. You’re Saving!” Whatever.

March 18, 2015

I grew tired of going back to Kmart for the last three shopping trips so I decided to take some time off from going there, figuring that the prices would eventually go even lower the closer the actual going out of business date arrives. I ended up waiting a whole month before I went back. By the time I made my return trip, I noticed that there were more empty areas inside of the store.

By that point the discounts had increased to as much as 40% off. I was intrigued by these MiP robots when I first started seeing them in other stores last year but I didn’t go for one because of the $99 price tag for a small robot. These MiP robots were now 40% off but I decided to wait a bit longer to see if they go any lower.

There was a shelf full of piñatas, which is great for parents of more than two kids because they could stock up on them for future birthday parties.

With more items being sold out, it seems like there are a greater number of merchandise that I would consider odd, strange, or off-beat like these weird fish-like stuffed animals.

Then there is the sleeved blanket for kids featuring Olaf the Snowman from the Disney movie Frozen.

For the adult collector who is really into clocks, there were various anniversary clocks on sale featuring I Love Lucy, Elvis Presley, The Wizard of Oz, and Marilyn Monroe.

For your next party or family get-together, how about playing a game where you do nothing but guess which logo belongs to which corporation. Sounds fun, no?

Then there are these creepy looking Lalaloopey Babies, which look like they could’ve been the offsprings of the Other Mother and the Other Father from the movie Coraline.

Then there is this Ketchup Kritter where you replace the cap of your ketchup bottle with this demon head and you get to see him vomit ketchup over your hamburger or french fries.

As to the weirdest item I found at Kmart during that time, I have to say that it’s a tossup between the Ketchup Kritter and this resin deer statue that functions as a toilet paper holder. That deer is a great example of how sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

I didn’t buy anything on this trip because I had already purchased everything that I needed to buy and I want to see the prices to go down just a little bit lower before I buy anything else.

March 26, 2015

A few days earlier I woke up with a scratchy throat that quickly segued into all of my sinuses being stuffed up and feeling tired all of the time. Yes, I came down with a cold. After staying completely indoors the previous day, I still felt so tired that I took an afternoon nap. After dinner I decided to skip my weekly support group meeting for people who are separated or divorced and just do a short outing. I ended up going back to Kmart to see the progress on its going out of business sale.

The first thing I noticed was the section near the front door. In better days Kmart used to display outdoor items for sale depending on the season (such as artificial Christmas trees or gardening supplies). That area always used to be well stocked with items that people could pick up before even entering the store. On this day the only things I saw on sale were bags of potting soil.

I managed to show up to the store after dinner. I discovered that these days this Kmart tends to close by 8 p.m., which is way earlier than normal. (In contrast, the Kmart in Hyattsville, which is not currently slated for going out of business, closes at 11 p.m. every night.) By this point more items were priced at least 30% off with many of them starting to be marked with the 50% off sale.

I also saw quite a few odd items. First there are these oversized neon-colored alarm clocks that were a bit on the gaudy side.

Until I made this trip to Kmart, I never knew that one could have the option of buying a hybrid lava lamp/table lamp.

I also never associated Kmart with beer making kits.

There were shelves full of Valentine’s Day cards for anyone who wanted to get a head start on preparing for Valentine’s Day, 2016.

There was this women’s shirt that was a midriff-baring tank top that had a scientific drawing of a T-Rex. Okay, whatever.

There was a clothing line with Selena Gomez’s name on it, although I’m more familiar with her name through the various celebrity gossip sites than with her clothing line.

There’s one of those giant musical step-on keyboards (such as the one that was featured in the Tom Hanks movie Big) that has the logo of Rolling Stone magazine on it.

Then there were a display of these giant action figures based on Star Wars and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that were at least 2 feet tall.

There were sections of the store that had rows upon rows of empty shelves. There were some areas where the shelves had already been dismantled.

I only bought two items during this Kmart trip. One was a box of acid reducer over-the-counter medicine. With the Easter holiday coming up and with the stress over filing my income taxes, I really want to prevent any kind of acid reflux as a result of eating foods that I normally don’t eat or stress. I got 50% off the listed price, which was nice.

And then I purchased this doll for 50% off. She is an Ever After High doll, a line of Mattel dolls that are similar to the Monster High dolls except that all of the students who attend Ever After High are children of famous fairy tale characters. I purchased Madeline Hatter, who’s the daughter of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

She carries a teapot-shaped purse.

She wears a teacup-shaped hat, which is incredibly cute.

The front of her hat has some gold designs that one would find on a fancy teacup. She wears earrings shaped like spoons and she has long curly hair that’s primarily purple with light blue streaks.

Even the heels of her shoes suggest a teapot handle.

All in all it’s an incredibly cute doll and I’m fortunate that I got her for around $11.

March 27, 2015

I came back to Kmart the next day because I made the same mistake as a month earlier: I didn’t arrive with enough money so I had to curtail what I wanted to buy. This day I made sure I had more than enough money before I arrived in the store. I still took more pictures because it looked like the store was rapidly clearing out with each passing day.

Many of the items were now sporting 50% off discounts, such as this line of 18-inch What a Doll!, which looked like it was Kmart’s answer to the ever popular American Girl line.

I saw these cloth Mooshka dolls on sale, which I thought were incredibly cute looking.

For those who missed out on last year’s Holiday Barbie doll, there was a second chance to buy that doll and one could buy it at a steep discount.

Going back even further, anyone who missed out on a chance to buy a special 30th anniversary Cabbage Patch Kids doll a few years ago also got a second chance to buy one at a major discount.

There were still plenty of cometics to go around, such as this perfume endorsed by Britney Spears.

I admit that there are two reasons why I had ever heard of One Direction in the first place: 1) I’ve seen various products bearing the band’s name such as the One Direction eye shadow in the next two photos and 2) I have a One Direction song on one of my Just Dance video games. (To be honest, I literally can’t recall the name of the song or what it sounded like. I could do a Google search but I’m too lazy to do so.) One Direction recently made major news when one of the members of that group, Zayn Malik, announced that he was leaving the band and it caused a lot of their teenaged fans to go into total hysterics.

The idea behind the One Direction eye shadow is to choose the package based on your favorite One Direction member. I looked closely at the photos of the enclosed makeup and it looks like all of the eye shadows are identical. The only difference is which photo of the One Direction band member is featured on the box.

There was perfume endorsed by the rock band KISS.

First there were the Monster High dolls, now there’s Monster High cosmetics. This is strange when you consider that Monster High was originally aimed at elementary school aged girls and the Monster High makeup I saw is definitely inappropriate for young girls. My parents wouldn’t let me wear makeup of any kind until I was in middle school.

A few weeks ago I found Ketchup Kritter, a device where you put a red devil head on a bottle of ketchup and watch him vomit ketchup on your food. On this trip I found his buddy, Mustard Monster, where you get to put him on a bottle of mustard and watch him vomit mustard on your food.

Then there is this device where you can mold bacon strips into an edible bowl. It might work with some foods but I can’t imagine trying it with ice cream or cereal.

There weren’t many books left on the shelves.

Here’s a sample of the books that one can choose from.

There’s nothing wrong with a dollhouse that one could assemble for a doll lover. It’s just that this dollhouse is designed to fit an 18-inch doll (instead of the usual 1/12 scale dolls that measures between 3-6 inches), which means that this dollhouse would take up a huge amount of space in anyone’s home.

No, the next photo isn’t upside down. That was how I found these Homer Simpson slippers hanging on the racks. These slippers are totally bizarre for this reason: you generally put your foot inside of Homer’s mouth so it would look like Homer is either eating (or choking to death) on your foot.

There were watches based on a band one of whose members has recently quit and a one-time teen idol who is now more famous for his frequent brushes with the law than for his music.

I was glad that I purchased my underwear pack when I did because the lingerie department was full of slim pickings. There is no way in hell I would ever wear THIS on my crotch.

And then there is this children’s loft bed with a sliding board. That poor kid would have a hard time deciding on whether it’s playtime or nap time.

A flameless candle?!?

Over in the school supplies section, there were Duck Dynasty folders available for students. Maybe I could see teenagers using this but I can’t imagine parents being willing to buy a folder for younger kids based on a TV show featuring a person who has gotten into controversy for making outrageous statements like this one featuring a hypothetical situation about an atheist family, rape, and decapitation.

You can have your lips smell and taste like soda pop.

I get the idea of something for a cold night like a matching mug and blanket set. But do you know how hard it would be to balance a mug full of hot liquid while keeping a warm blanket wrapped around you and hoping that you don’t spill the mug or the blanket falling off of you?

There were cheap shelves for items that ranged from $1-3. But the merchandise in them were pretty messy and disorganized.

And then there is this thing. It’s a hooded jacket but it has no sleeves. Or maybe it’s a vest but it has a hood and it looks awfully thick for a vest.

That camouflage hooded sleeveless coat or vest looked tasteful compared to this shocking pink variation.

I found this in the Plus Size Women’s department. This shirt was in at least a size 20 and it had thin horizontal stripes, which would make a 300 pound woman look like she is wider than normal and weighs at least 500 pounds.

And then there is this line of Selena Gomez flannel checkered shirts. On the surface there’s nothing wrong with them until you look closer at the shoulders.

Yes, those are studs at the shoulders.

There were the same shirts in other colors and they all had the same pattern with shoulder studs.

Okay, I’m not a fashion designer but I’ve done enough sewing to know that you don’t embellish anything that already has a pattern because the embellishments will either disappear among the pattern or make the pattern so busy that the outfit is ugly. If you’ve ever seen a gown or a cowboy shirt embellished with bling, you’d see that the designer typically uses a plain solid fabric as the base to embellish, not something that already has a busy pattern.

That fox welcome sign is pretty cute. It’s too bad that you can see the large area of chipped paint one of the fox’s ears on the left side.

I had considered buying myself a bag of socks until I found that all of the sock bags had been opened. Many of the bags also looked like one or more pairs of socks had been removed from each bag.

I even saw a loose individual sock that was just hanging on a rack. Even though the bags of socks were at 50% off, there was no way I was going to buy an opened bag like that because I have a feeling that I wouldn’t get all of the socks that the bag label said I would get.

On this trip I purchased two items. First is this box of Life cereal. Yeah, I know it sounds lame but I was running low on cereal and I saw a shelf full of Life cereal that was on sale for 30% off so I went for it.

Then there is this other item that I had my eye on for quite some time. The MiP robot was originally priced at $99.99. This robot’s discount had finally sunk to 50% off and there weren’t a lot of MiP robots left on the shelves so I decided to buy it. The price was $50 and I got an extra $2 off because I was using my Kmart Shop Your Way Reward Card and I had received enough points to get that discount. Sweet!

I chose the black robot. It looks pretty nice and very attractive and it definitely warrants its own entry that I may get around to writing at a later date. The box of Life cereal and the MiP robot turned out to be the last items I’ve ever purchased at Kmart’s Greenbelt, Maryland location.

April 1, 2015

Yes, I made a trip to Kmart on April Fool’s Day but the going out of business sale was no laughing matter.

The bags of soil that were the only outdoor items that I saw for sale on a previous trip were sold out. Only the two soda machines remained.

I checked both machines to see if I could purchase a soda like I used to do sometimes before entering Kmart in better days. I took a closer look and found that the LED lights weren’t working. I tried inserting a dollar in the bill slot in one of the machines and that machine just wasn’t working at all. It looked like someone had disconnected those two machines for good.

Inside the store I saw a new sign saying that the going out of business sale was now in its final two weeks.

There were even steeper discounts than before.

However there were more empty areas than before as well. There were floor marks indicating where stock shelves used to be located.

There were also areas of the store that were roped off with yellow police tape where collapsed shelves, signs, and various fixtures were stored.

Plus there were rows upon rows of empty shelves.

One part of the store looked like a portion of the drywall was stripped away. There were instructions spray-painted in this neon red paint color. There were other instructions that were written in ink. I have no idea if these instructions were written recently or if they were originally written when remodeling was originally done on the space when the former Bradlees turned into Jamesway then, again, the former Jamesway turned into Kmart.

Despite the increase in empty areas, there were still plenty of items that were available for sale at steeper discounts than ever before. The items ranged from pretty nice (sadly the clothes that I personally liked didn’t fit me because they were in sizes that were either too big or too small for me) to totally bizarre.

Even though Easter was just a few days away, there weren’t a lot of holiday items aside from these greeting cards.

In fact, there were far more Christmas items than items for any other holiday (including Easter). At least it provided an opportunity for anyone wanting to get a head start on this coming Christmas in just over eight months while paying far less than they would’ve just four months ago.

I didn’t buy anything on this trip. Like I wrote earlier, the clothes that I was interested in were either several sizes too big or too small for me. I began to have a feeling that the window of opportunity for me to buy the choice items at a discount has closed for me and I’m just seeing the dregs now.

April 5, 2015

Easter Sunday fell on April 5 this year and it was also Passover as well. After attending church, I decided to go to Kmart because I was curious about whether it would close on this holiday like many other area stores did. When I arrived, I got my answer as I saw plenty of cars parked outside. At first I thought it was a shame that employees were made to work on Easter/Passover until I realized that once Kmart closes for good, they were going to have all the time off they could financially withstand so they might as well work through a holiday.

When I first entered I noticed a new sign that was literally the final countdown of the number of days left until Kmart closes its doors forever.

There were plenty of shoppers on that Easter Sunday as they were looking for bargains that were starting to hit rock bottom prices.

There were more and more empty and partially empty shelves on that day.

The back of the store was mostly blocked off with yellow police tape. I noticed that the ceilings had these pulleys with yellow rope dangling that weren’t there before. I saw that more and more dismantled signs and shelves were behind that roped off area.

The one area in the back that weren’t roped off was the aisle leading to the Layaway section and the public restrooms. I decided to go down that aisle to check it out.

When I first approached the Layaway desk, I noticed that no one was working there and the lights were off. When I stepped closer to the desk to investigate, the lights automatically turned on. It was a pretty surreal experience to say the least.

The public restrooms were across from the Layaway desk. I decided to check out the women’s bathroom.

One toilet still had the seat cover on it but, otherwise, the women’s bathroom was just as clean as I found it on previous trips before Kmart’s going out of business sale.

Down the hallway from the restrooms was this opened door that looks like it leads to the warehouse where inventory was kept before being put on store shelves.

Also near the restrooms was another opened door that looks like it leads to an Employee’s Lounge. (I didn’t investigate either doors because I think those areas were for employees only.)

The leftover inventory was getting slimmer and slimmer. Most of the items left were ones that I photographed on previous trips. There were a few new items I took pictures of for posterity.

I couldn’t help but notice a One Direction board game, especially since the Internet went in a total uproar a few weeks earlier when one of its members decided to quit the band. I guess this board game is a collector’s item now (assuming that anyone will even care about buying One Direction collector’s items 10-20 years from now).

I found one oddity on this trip. It’s a CD called Music for Vampires. I have to admit that the title sounded intriguing and it was on sale for $6.

Until I turned the CD on the other side and I found that it was basically a compilation of mostly New Wave and Modern Rock songs from the 1980’s and 1990’s that only used the word “Vampires” in the title in an attempt to get Twilight fans to buy this. I would’ve bought it myself but I didn’t because I already have most of the songs either on other CD’s or as MP3 files.

April 9, 2015

With Kmart closing soon, I decided to make another trip to see how things were going. The countdown sign located by the front door was updated to reflect the fact that shoppers had only four more days until the final closure.

The discounts have gone very steep with some items reaching the 85% off mark.

There were plenty of shoppers when I was there who were searching for something—anything—they could buy very cheaply.

There were more bare shelves and more empty areas when I was there. If I had to guess, I’d say that about 25% of inventory was left.

The stuff I found on the shelves were literally the dregs, such as this candy that was supposed to look and feel like boogers. The Elf on the Shelf was back on the store shelves along with various leftover Christmas items. There was literally nothing that tempted me. Nothing.

I found this Ashlee Simpson CD that was a Kmart exclusive. It was originally $5.99 but it was now on sale for $2.99.

April 17, 2015

I intended to go to Kmart on the final day of its existence. It would’ve been interesting to see what was left on the shelves. It also would’ve been interesting to observe both employees and customers to see if anyone would get misty-eyed over Kmart closing for good. Or if the employees would just stop giving a damn about anything since they were going to be unemployed the next day.

But then a few things happened that distracted me. First there were the taxes. Yeah, that sucked but the alternative to not bother filing would’ve been worse so I gritted my teeth and made every effort to get them done by the April 15 deadline.

Then there were the cherry blossom trees, which bloomed later than usual this year. On top of it, after a long cold winter, the weather had gotten warmer at last and the snow was becoming a distant memory of me. I fell into temptation from both the weather and the cherry blossoms and basically enjoyed the beautiful scenery instead of going to a dying big box retailer like Kmart.

By the time I returned to Kmart the store had already closed for good. But I noticed a few interesting things that I photographed.

The giant Kmart letters that once graced the outside of the building were gone. There were faint outlines that showed where the letters used to be placed.

Curiously the soda machines were still located near the entrance. Not that it really mattered since they weren’t even working.

The front door had a few signs posted.

One of the signs announced that Kmart was officially closed while the other sign announced that a fixture sale was going on and the store was opened from 12-5. Unfortunately I got there after the store had closed for the day. However, I noticed the dates and tomorrow was going to be the last day of the fixture sale. So I had another chance to go inside that store and take a few last photos of an empty store. The only problem was that the Greenbelt Mini-Maker Faire was also happening that same day and I was selling my wares there. Since the event was ending at 4 p.m., I had a chance to show up for the last hour of that fixture sale so I made a mental note to return the next day.

I looked through the door and saw that the store was empty of inventory. Basically it was an opportunity to purchase shelves or maybe a shopping cart.

I walked around to the side where Kmart once had its Garden Center. Instead of plants, potting soil, and other seasonal items, the entire area was mostly bare. Although I saw that the Kmart letters were there on one side of the empty space so I found out where the giant Kmart letters went.

The parking lot outside Kmart was empty except for a few shopping carts that were left behind. It was kind of eery seeing these shopping carts in an empty parking lot waiting for someone—anyone—to use them once again.

April 18, 2015

Thanks to the fixtures sale, I thought I had another opportunity to take more pictures of an empty Kmart. However April 18 was the last day of that sale and it would only be held from 12-5 p.m. On top of it, I had to work the Greenbelt Mini-Maker Faire, which was going on at the same time. Since that event ended at 4 p.m. I thought I would have some time left to check out the tail end of that fixtures sale. Once the 4 p.m. end time came, I quickly packed up my tables, chair, and inventory so I could go to Kmart for one last visit.

I arrived in the parking lot around 4:40, which would give me 20 minutes until the official end of that fixtures sale. Except when I came to the door I found that it was locked.

I also saw some glue or tape residue where the green since the sign announcing the hours for the fixtures sale was once placed.

It looked like the store closed before the official 5 p.m. closing time. I guess things like remaining open during the official posted time doesn’t really matter since the store is officially gone for good. It’s not like keeping customers satisfied really matters anymore. I looked through the locked doors one more time and I noticed that there were still fixtures in that store. I guess they’ll eventually be put in storage somewhere or get shipped to the remaining Kmarts that are still in business as of this writing.

The only thing different I noticed from the day before is that the abandoned shopping carts in the parking lot were gone. I don’t know if someone connected with Kmart took them or if someone simply stole them. All I know is that the parking lot near Kmart is now completely empty. The only odd thing that remained were the two soda machines near the front doors that aren’t even working.

Even though I hated the crappy customer service (due mainly to understaffing the cashier area so the checkout lines were always long no matter what time of day or even what time of year), I’ll still miss the nice things I used to purchase for reasonable prices. There is another Kmart in Hyattsville that I could go to. There’s also one in Crofton that I could go to on my way to my weekly support group meeting for people who are separated or divorced. But how much longer the surviving Kmarts will last is up in the air since both Kmart and its parent company Sears are predicted to completely go out of business. Right now it looks like Sears is more focused on dismantling itself and Kmart by closing a lot of stores across the United States than on doing anything radical to save both stores. Sears and Kmart are currently in a downward spiral where they close some stores, which results in lost revenue, which leads to closing even more stores, resulting in even more lost revenue, and so on.  In a way it’s sad since I’ve known both stores since I was a child. Oh well.

Five Years Ago Today

Okay, I’ll admit that this post is probably among the longest posts I’ve made in this blog. You may think that it’s self-indulgent on my part. Well, you’re right. But I have a real reason to be gloating today: Today is this blog’s fifth birthday.

That’s right, people, five years ago today I wrote my first post in this new blog. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I originally wanted to officially begin this blog on January 1 but my then-husband had arranged for the two of us to visit his sister at her home in Pennsylvania for the New Year holiday weekend and there wasn’t wi-fi so I couldn’t use my own laptop. She had a computer that was hooked up directly to the Internet through her cable company (RCN) but I wasn’t comfortable with using someone else’s computer to create a new blog with. So I waited until January 6 when I would be actually at home, which was the Feast of the Epiphany (or Little Christmas), to begin my first post.

Yeah, I know it would’ve been more audacious had I started this blog on January 1 with all the symbolism of a new year and a new beginning but I had to take what I could get. Besides, January 6 is still pretty memorable because my family have always observed Little Christmas.

It’s pretty amazing that I’ve been writing this blog for five years now. If this blog was a child, it would be attending preschool right now while preparing to enter kindergarten this fall. On that note, it’s time for a video break featuring will.i.am and Cody Wise performing “Birthday.”

So I started my blog in 2010 expecting to resume my arts and crafts career, which had been interrupted by my hip replacement in 2008. When I began I was also in a stable and loving marriage to a man whom I loved so much that I would’ve trusted him with my own life. Prior to December 28, 2011 I had no reason to ever doubt him or anything like that. But then there were so many dramatic ups and downs coupled together with trying to resume my art career despite my hip replacement and the ongoing economic problems still facing the U.S. in the five years since I started this blog that I had to go back through old entries in order to remember what happened. With all that I went through, it’s a miracle that I’m not stuck in some mental institution.

2010

I began the year by writing the first of many entries in this blog.

A few weeks after starting this blog, my husband and I visited a few friends in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Florida.

Surviving the epic Blizzard of 2010.

My mother-in-law’s sudden death from a massive stroke, which prompted a trip to Phoenix to attend her funeral just a few days before Palm Sunday.

We made a return trip to Phoenix just two months later to check in on my husband’s newly-widowed stepfather.

I attended the annual Sakura Masturi street festival, which is the event that closes the month-long National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.

My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary by spending a weekend in Baltimore.

We went on a weekend trip to New York City to visit my husband’s father and stepmother.

We went on a week-long vacation in Ocean City, Maryland with my sister-in-law.

We suffered through one of the hottest summer days in recent history. (The temperature went as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit.)

We traveled to Connecticut to attend the wedding of my husband’s oldest nephew and to tour Mystic Seaport.

We lost power for nearly 24 hours due to this massive noreaster that ripped through our area.

My husband went away to a month-long extended business trip to Melbourne, Florida (he and other people in his branch were taking turns keeping tabs on one of the government contractors there), which was the first time we were ever apart for this long. I spent the first weekend of that separation attending Otakon in Baltimore (which was even evacuated at one point by a fire alarm that went off at the Baltimore Convention Center) followed by serving as a volunteer to this massive one-day Free Clinics event in DC that was set up to provide health care to the uninsured and underinsured (as well as highlight the need for health care reform in this country). I flew to Florida midway through that month to spend time with my husband where we took a side trip to Walt Disney World. While my husband was in meetings during the weekday, I took side trips to places like Sea World, Gatorland, and the Historic Cocoa Village.

I checked out one of two competing marches in Washington, DC that commemorated the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” that were each led by Glenn Beck and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

My husband and I attended the massive One Nation Working Together event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in DC.

My husband and I traveled to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts in order to attend a special memorial service for my mother-in-law that was organized for her East Coast friends and relatives who couldn’t fly to Phoenix for her funeral earlier that year. During that trip we visited the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum near Williamstown, the Williamstown College Museum of Art, and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. We also visited our nephew and his new wife in their Connecticut home.

My mother, who was initially diagnosed with neuropathy, was hospitalized with a urinary tract infection that later segued into a bacteria infection.

I checked out another massive event on the Mall in downtown DC that was organized by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert through their Comedy Central shows known as The Rally to Restore Sanity and The March to Keep Fear Alive.

Dealing with my husband’s lung infection shortly before the Christmas holidays.

My husband and I spent Christmas Day together visiting the ice sculpture show at National Harbor, which had ice sculptures representing scenes from the Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

A few of the art shows, craft fairs, and other arts and crafts-related events that I participated in: Lust at the Cheryl Edwards Studio in Brentwood, Maryland. Erotica show at the Cheryl Edwards Studio in Brentwood, Maryland. The Spring Crafts Show at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi, Maryland. The Spring Artdromeda show in Baltimore. The “miniatures and more” show at the Cheryl Edwards Studio in Brentwood, Maryland. The Etsy 5th Anniversary Meet-Up in Washington, DC. The Pigtown Festival in Baltimore. The Art Outlet’s Ofrenda exhibit in Alexandria, Virginia. The Exhibition by Members and Friends of the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church’s Visual Artists Committee in Adelphi, Maryland. The annual Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church Auction. The Winter Artdromeda show in Baltimore. artdc Fundraiser in Hyattsville, Maryland. Paint Branch Members and Friends Exhibition in Adelphi, Maryland. Netroots Nation Online Benefit Auction. Holiday Craft Show at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi, Maryland.

Recounting all the events from 2010 has created a lot of text. I’m going to take a break by embedding this video featuring The Beatles song “Birthday.”

2011

On New Year’s Day my husband and I began the new year by visiting the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. At the same time my mother began the new year battling both a bowel infection and a urinary tract infection while she was in rehab.

My husband and I flew to Phoenix to celebrate his stepfather’s 80th birthday, which was the first major family event since my mother-in-law’s death the previous year.

Our area got hit with a major snowstorm and we lost electricity for 15 hours.

I accompanied my husband on his business trip to Melbourne, Florida so we could celebrate Valentine’s Day together by eating at a local Italian restaurant. While my husband was in business meetings during the day I took side trips to local attractions like Jungleland. I also spent a full day at Epcot and I ended that day by missing a step in the hotel’s lobby and I landed on my butt. I began to have walking difficulties during the rest of that trip.

I healed from that injury once I returned home but the following week I fell on some ice in Annapolis where I re-injured myself and once again I had difficulty walking. For the next few months I had good days (where I had no trouble walking) and bad days (where I was in such pain that I reverted to using my cane once again).

Meanwhile my husband and I celebrated another 80th birthday—his father’s—as we traveled to New York City to celebrate the occasion with his father and stepmother.

As my walking got progressively worse I went to the doctor where I was initially misdiagnosed with spinal problems but I eventually saw a different doctor where he noticed I was limping. I went to the orthopedic surgeon where I learned that the two falls had knocked my hip replacement out of alignment and I needed more surgery to correct it. My husband went through the effort to make all the arrangements for my hip revision surgery so I only had to worry about the upcoming procedure itself.

I shot a video of this massive protest that took place in Washington, DC on Tax Day, which was one of a bunch of protests that took place all over the United States to protest the fact that the rich were getting away with paying little or no taxes and they were doing things like polluting the environment and using Wall Street like a glorified casino.

During a few periods when I was in less pain I attended the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC, the Maryland Faerie Festival in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, G40: The Summit in Washington, DC, and the Big Cherry Block Party in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Just prior to Memorial Day my husband and I visited his sister in Pennsylvania before the three of us moved on to New York City where we visited my father-in-law and his wife. Afterwards we all traveled to the suburban town of Buchanan to visit my brother-in-law, who had recently moved into a group home.

My husband and I spent a week in Ocean City with his sister while I continued to struggle with my declining ability to walk without pain.

My husband took me to the local Verizon store where, for the first time, we became the proud owners of our first smartphones.

My husband and I (along with most of my family and friends who live in the Baltimore-Washington area) experienced an earthquake. Just a few days later my husband got on a plane to fly to Phoenix to help the family go through my late mother-in-law’s old things just a day before Hurricane Irene slammed much of the East Coast. My home lost power for two days and I ended up spending one night in a hotel room.

The day before my hip revision surgery I drove down to Tyson’s Corner Mall in Virginia where I walked around with my walker. Among the stores I visited was the American Girl Place where I looked particularly at the historical dolls. I saw one doll that was supposed to represent the 1970’s and she wore an outfit similar to one that I once wore as a child in the 1970’s. This doll also had a corresponding series of paperback books about the character and the 1970’s era that she was growing up in. I purchased the doll and the books figuring that I would have the latter to occupy me while I was recuperating from surgery. Little did I know that this shopping expedition would be blamed in a letter by my husband for breaking up our marriage just three months later.

I underwent hip revision surgery and I began physical therapy the next day. My husband took a two-week leave from his NASA job so he could take care of me. He cooked all of the meals and he made sure that I did the required exercises at home. He not only made trips to get my needed painkillers but he also lined up other drivers to take me to and from my physical therapy appointments once his leave ended. Once I was weaned off the painkillers, I was able to drive myself to my own appointments. At one point I had developed a complication where my surgical wound wasn’t healing so I had to make a weekly visit to the hospital’s Wound Center for the next month or so.

The following month after my hip revision surgery I felt well enough to check out Occupy DC (which was a local outgrowth of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement). I was very impressed with the movement in general. I wasn’t able to camp outside at all due to my recent surgery, I began to visit that movement an average of once a week. During one of my visits, I was attending a teach-in on the Montgomery Bus Boycott only to turn my head to one side where I discovered that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was standing just a few feet away from me observing the teach-in. I also checked out Occupy Baltimore as well but that camp’s location (next to Harborplace) was short-lived as the authorities cracked down on it shortly after I made my first and only visit.

I spent Black Friday visiting and filming Laurel Mall, which I used to frequent on a regular basis but it became a dying mall as more and more tenants moved out. (That mall has since been razed and a new outdoor shopping center has been built in its place.)

I had to take my five-year-old MacBook into the repair shop after the screen started to sport strange images and it was due to a bad monitor that needed replacing.

My husband came down with bronchitis in early November. Despite his own illness, he was very loving and attentive towards me that fall. He treated me with such extra care and respect and the only complaints I heard from him was about his bronchitis and how our home had gotten cluttered due to the fact that my injury prevented me from doing much of the housecleaning and we had received a lot of items from my late mother-in-law’s estate.

We celebrated a lovely Christmas Day together. The next two days were also calm and relatively quiet. On the third day after Christmas my husband came home from his job, announced that he was moving out into a rented room that he had just found, and handed me two letters. One was a schedule that will lead to a divorce. The other was the reason why he felt he had to leave. He cited the fact that I purchased a doll and books at American Girl Place the day before my surgery was a reason why we were headed towards a divorce. (He said that I did a huge amount of shopping at the same time that he was trying to clear a passage for me so I wouldn’t trip and it undermined his effort. Never mind the fact that the “huge amount of shopping” consisted of an 18-inch doll and seven small thin paperback books.)

I spent the next several days sending e-mails, voice mails, and texts to my husband, which went all unanswered. I didn’t know where he was and I was worried that his mind have snapped due to all the pressures resulting from his mother’s death, my hip surgery, and pressures he told me he felt both at his NASA job and at volunteer work he did for our church as treasurer. I began to ask among our friends if they had seen him anywhere and they were all just as stumped as I was. Three days after he left, my husband returned back home with two movers who took his desk, one bureau, and one bookcase. He refused to speak with me at all and he left with the movers when they were finished. I spent New Year’s Eve by myself for the first time in my life.

A few of the art shows, craft fairs, and other arts and crafts-related events that I participated in: Paint Branch Members and Friends Exhibition in Adelphi, Maryland. An online eBay auction benefitting AmeriCares’ relief efforts in Japan (which had undergone a devastating earthquake and tsunami). Riverdale Park ArtsFest in Riverdale Park, Maryland. Attending a few Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School events in Baltimore. Planned Parenthood’s fundraising “Sex. Art. Rock N Roll.” event in Baltimore. A free drawing event at Art Whino in National Harbor, Maryland. The Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Art Show.

Given the major drama that I recounted here, I think it’s time for a video break. Here’s Joan Jett performing the song “Too Bad on Your Birthday.”

2012

I started the new year dealing with both my husband’s abrupt walkout and my mother being sent back to the hospital for another urinary tract infection then subsequently being transferred to rehab. I also started attending a weekly meetings of a support group for people who are separated or divorced.

One month after my husband ran away from home, a few of my friends came to me and told me that he was seen in the company of a female friend of ours who had long dealt with severe mental health issues. A few hours after that revelation, I did a massive amount of driving until I ended up at a pet store where I became the proud owner of a pet hedgehog. Spike the Hedgehog would go on to become the subject of a few art pieces and many blog posts while I began to feel better about having someone else live with me even if he wasn’t human, he measured about nine inches long, weighed about four or five ounces at the most, and was relatively quiet.

I found out that my friends were correct when I began to see my husband and that friend in public later that year and there were times when they were holding hands as they walked together.

I was discharged from physical therapy for my left hip. One week later I began regular therapy in order to help me with dealing with my runaway husband.

I frequently had to put up with e-mails and texts from my husband demanding that I conform to this separation schedule and he treated me like I was an employee rather than his wife. I asked him to treat me with respect and he ignored it. Whenever I balked at whatever he wanted me to do he would threaten to sue me. He largely refused to talk to me in person. I told my husband that I had started to attend weekly support group meetings for people who are separated or divorced in the hopes he would realize that I was trying to work on myself and return home. That turned out to be a mistake because he would come by the house to pick up his things and return things of mine he mistakenly picked up only on the nights I attended the meetings. I had to endure the times when I happened to see my husband walking hand-in-hand with the woman whom I thought was my friend (but I now know better) out in public.

I was so lost that I took place in various activities just so I could temporarily not think about my runaway husband. I shot a video of the remnants of the recently dismantled Occupy Baltimore trying to help a woman hold on to her home against attempts to foreclose on it by Deutsche Bank. I attended the large Occupy Congress event in Washington, DC. I went to Occupy DC’s Carnival of Resistance. I went to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I attended a few events during the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. I volunteered to help with the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride in Rose Haven, Maryland. I went to Occupy DC’s May Day Rally. I attended the Greenbelt Pet Expo and the Greenbelt Green Man Expo, which were both held in the same area on the same day. I browsed the tables at the DC Craft Mafia Spring Thing. I celebrated the anniversary of the start of the War of 1812 by attending the Star Spangled Sailabration in Baltimore. I attended the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall. I went to the annual Baltimore art festival known as Artscape. I attended Otakon in Baltimore. I went to the official Washington, DC premiere of the documentary The Rise and Fall of The Clash. I went to Brickfair 2012, which was devoted to Legos, in Chantilly, Virginia. I went to the Hyattsville Arts Festival. I attended Baltimore Comic-Con. I went to the Greenbelt Blues Festival. I attended the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I went to the Fall Harvest Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. I attended the first ever Figment DC. I watched a whole lot of movies at the Utopia Film Festival where I met the legendary local host of Creature Feature, Count Gore De Vol. I went to the annual Faerie Con in Hunt Valley, Maryland. I attended the Annapolis Comic Con and went on the Greenbelt Pumpkin Walk on the same day. I went to the annual Riverdale Park Holiday Market in Riverdale Park, Maryland. During the Christmas holiday season I viewed the annual ZooLights at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

In the meantime my husband would buy a new townhouse for himself and his new love in July and by August they were engaged. (Yes, they got engaged eight months after he left me and he was still legally married when they decided to take this crucial step.) I wouldn’t know about either event until 2013 because they kept it all a secret from me.

My mother had ongoing health problems where she was hospitalized a few times. She was originally diagnosed with neuropathy but that turned out to be a wrong diagnoses. The doctors diagnosed her with having multiple sclerosis.

If all that weren’t enough, I had to endure the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.

At times I even took day trips to various locations in the Baltimore-Washington area in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the horrors that I’ve gone through (my recent hip surgery and my husband’s abrupt walkout) but I took a bunch of gorgeous photos anyway. I went to Frederick, Rockville, Annapolis, North Beach, Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood, Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, and Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville.

As a culmination of the total fallout from my husband’s abrupt walkout and his changed behavior towards me, I found that he sent me an e-mail on December 24 (yep, Christmas Eve) that included this attachment—a divorce petition in a .pdf format. That action pretty much expressed his total contempt and animosity towards me. He really wanted to hurt me real bad so he timed this to coincide with the Christmas holiday season.

A few of the art shows, craft fairs, and other arts and crafts-related events that I participated in: Attending a few Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School events in Baltimore and Washington, DC. Attending a Handi-Hour event at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. The art show commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the town of Greenbelt, Maryland. The annual Out-of-Order auction at The Maryland Art Place in Baltimore. The six-week Artomatic 2012 art show in Arlington, Virginia. Sketch Lounge at VeraCruz in Washington, DC. Taking part in three events that were held as part of the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival—the Art Show, the Photo Show, and the Retro Town Fair. Going to a few meet-ups and other events that were related to a temporary art event called the Laurel Factory. Attending the day-long Summit of Awesome in Washington, DC. Taking a six-week Life Figure Drawing Class at the local community center. I donated a hand-painted bag to my church’s annual auction. I took part in the annual Holiday Market at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi, Maryland.

After recounting all these events, I think it’s time for another video break. Here’s Katy Perry’s “Birthday.”

2013

I started the new year reeling from that awful Christmas Eve e-mail my estranged husband sent me which included a divorce petition in a .pdf format. That same month I also celebrated the one-year anniversary of the day that I brought Spike the Hedgehog home to live with me as my pet. By March I had received a court summons saying that my husband had filed for a divorce.

So, on the morning of April 10, 2013, my husband and I made our appearance in divorce court. The proceeding itself lasted around 15-20 minutes. Afterwards I drove to Baltimore where I visited the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium for the first time (it was a relatively new attraction at the time), toured Harborplace and the Inner Harbor before I headed to Fell’s Point. I basically turned my divorce day into a full day of walking around the streets of Baltimore until I was tired and sore all over my body.

Two months after my day in divorce court, I got word that my divorce was final. A few days later I learned via Facebook that my ex and the mentally ill friend he left me for were secretly engaged in August, 2012 (just eight months after he left me) but they didn’t bother to update that fact online until that moment so I didn’t learn about it until then. Two months after the divorce being final, I found out via Facebook that my ex-husband and that mentally ill so-called “friend” got married.

In the midst of all this divorce drama I learned that my ex-husband’s oldest nephew and his wife had just became parents for the first time.

And then there was my pet hedgehog, Spike. Just as I first brought Spike home to live with me one month after my husband abruptly walked out on me, I found Spike dead in his cage one month after I learned that my ex-husband had got remarried. By that point, he had lived with me for a year and a half. I buried him in my backyard then later bought a stepping stone kit from an arts and crafts store where I created a memorial stone and placed it over his burial spot.

And then there was the Federal Government shutdown, which lasted 16 days. Since I live outside Washington, DC, I got to see the effects of this first-hand.

I attended the Million Mask March in Washington, DC.

I had to get a new computer when the hard drive on my five-year-old MacBook kept on making clicking sounds and crashing at an alarmingly frequent rate while I had files that were damaged in the process. At the same time I had to get a new smartphone when my current one literally died on me one day after I got a notice in the mail from Verizon saying that I was entitled to upgrade to a new phone.

I went to a bunch of events held that year. I went to the annual Katsucon anime convention at National Harbor, Maryland. I attended the annual American Craft Council Show in Baltimore. I went to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Washington, DC on the actual holiday itself. I attended a few events that were part of the month-long National Cherry Blossom Festival, such as the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival and the Sakura Matsuri street fair in Washington, DC. I went to a celebration of Yuri’s Night at the Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia. I attended the first annual Awesome Con DC event. I went to Robofest at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland. I went to the Art Lives Here/Better Block Night in Mt. Rainer, Maryland. I checked out the Occupy Monsanto protest in Washington, DC. I went to the annual Hon Fest in Baltimore. I went to a local Fourth of July fireworks show over Greenbelt Lake. I went to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I attended my first Major League Baseball game since 2007 (the year before my hip replacement) when I went to see the Washington Nationals play a home game against the San Diego Padres with people from my church followed by a free concert that featured Thompson Square. I went to the German Festival in Timonium, Maryland. I attended two different conventions in two consecutive weekends at the Baltimore Convention Center: BronyCon and Otakon. The following month I returned to the Baltimore Convention Center to check out Baltimore Comic-Con. I attended Intervention Con in Rockville, Maryland. I helped out with the yard sale that was put on by my support group for people who are separated or divorced. I went to the Silver Spring Mini-Maker Faire, which was the first Maker Faire that was ever held anywhere in the Washington, DC area. I attended parts of the Utopia Film Festival and the Greenbelt Rhythm and Drum Festival, both of which were held on the same weekend in the same location. I went to a Christmas party that was held at the German-American Heritage Museum in Washington, DC. I visited the Christmas Village in Baltimore a couple of times. I attended a book signing event featuring media personality Thom Hartmann.

I also took a few day trips to various locations including the Hampden area of Baltimore, Chesapeake Beach, Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, Maryland, the Dayspring Retreat Center in Germantown, Maryland, a few local composting centers (where I took photos on behalf of a group of people in my neighborhood who are trying to start a worker-owned cooperative that focuses on composting), Hershey, Pennsylvania, and parts of Washington, DC.

A few of the art shows, craft fairs, and other arts and crafts-related events that I participated in: The art show that was held as part of the Katsucon anime convention. Attending a few Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School events in Baltimore and Washington, DC. Auctioning some old art pieces at the Greenbelt Elementary School’s annual Spring Fair and Safety Day. The 18” x 18” Show at the Lustine Gallery in Hyattsville, Maryland. The Greenbelt Green Man Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. A special exhibit of works by members and friends of Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi, Maryland. The Station North Arts District Salon Show in Baltimore. The art show that was held as part of the Otakon anime convention in Baltimore. The Art Show and the Craft Show at the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival. The Greenbelt Studio Artist Tour 2. The Acorns A Go-Go Groovy Vegan Fest in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Holiday Craft Show at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church. I ended 2014 by drawing some specimens during the Faber Hour that was held at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Here’s another video break, this time it’s Selena Gomez performing “Birthday.”

2014

I started the new year with this horrible chest cold that lasted a month while enduring the frequent arrivals of the Polar Vortex and snow. I ended up spending both Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day being snowed in.

Then I received the sad news that my old housemate from college passed away from ALS (also known as Lou Gehring’s disease) while another person whom I only knew online through a political discussion group also passed away soon afterwards. My mother was hospitalized with both the flu and a urinary tract infection.The minister at my church suddenly suffered a stroke on Good Friday which has left her partially paralyzed. (She is still in recovery as of this writing.)

Then I was socked with a $600 repair bill when the windshield wipers on my car stopped working. Unfortunately it was one of those repairs that I needed done because, otherwise, I would not have been able to drive my car whenever there was even the slightest drizzle.

I spent quite a few Throwback Thursdays that summer reviewing a series of American Girl books (yes, that’s the doll company) that focused on a young girl growing up in the 1970’s.

I burned my old wedding cake topper in a bonfire that was held at a party that was given by someone in my support group for people who are separated or divorced.

I went to the Justice For All march in Washington, DC that was organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton to protest the increasingly disturbing trend of white police officers killing unarmed African Americans.

I went to The World of Pets Expo in Timonium, Maryland while I was still battling this horrible chest cold in the middle of one of those extreme cold snaps. I attended two simultaneous exhibits that were near each other at the Maryland Institute College of Art—one was on painted screens and the other was on that particular art form’s most famous artist who was also a sideshow performer known as Johnny Eck. I helped out with the two yard sales that my support group for people who are separated or divorced held in the spring and the fall. I checked out the Cowboy and Indian Protest that was held on the National Mall to protest the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. I attended Awesome Con DC. I attended ArtsFest in Riverdale Park, Maryland. I met an online friend from a forum in person at Döner Bistro in Washington, DC. I participated in the Greenbelt Green Man Festival for a few hours on behalf of a local community group. I attended a minor league Bowie Baysox baseball game with members of my support group for people who are separated or divorced. I attended Artscape in Baltimore. I went to the German Festival in Timonium, Maryland. I checked out BronyCon in Baltimore. I attended Intervention Con in Rockville. I went to the Silver Spring Maker Faire. I went to the Art Whino event in Washington, DC. I attended two festivals on the same day—the Hyattsville Arts Festival and the Greenbelt Blues Festival. I took advantage of a rare opportunity to see the clothes that were created on an episode of Project Runway in person at the American Girl Place in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. I actually took part in the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade for the first time in my life. I went to an Oktoberfest celebration in Greenbelt, Maryland. I attended the annual Crafty Bastards festival in Washington, DC. I banged my small bongo at the Greenbelt Rhythm and Drum Festival. I went to the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival. I went to a slideshow and dinner at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. I went to the Christkindlemarkt at Zion Lutheran Church in Baltimore. I browsed the Christmas Market at Baltimore. I went to the Christmas Market & Winterfest at Tyson’s Corner Mall in Virginia. I went to the Greenbelt Festival of Lights and the Mt. Rainer Craft Show on the same day. I ended the year with visiting various Christmas stores (such as the ones at Behnke’s Nurseries, Homestead Gardens, and Valley View Farms) just to see the displays and touring the various over-decorated homes in my neighborhood.

I also visited various places in the region like Historic Ellicott City, Takoma Park, Glen Echo, the National Arboretum, the Franciscan Monastery, Silver Spring, North Beach, College Park, Baltimore, Glen Burnie, Brentwood, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, the site of the former Enchanted Forest (which is now a shopping center), Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, the Smithsonian, Bowie, Crofton, Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, Maryland. Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, Maryland.

A few of the art shows, craft fairs, and other arts and crafts-related events that I participated in: Attending a few Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School events in Baltimore. Submitting my short video based on my late pet hedgehog Spike to the Crabby Clips Film Festival. The first ever Greenbelt Mini Maker Faire. The first-ever DC Mini Maker Faire. The Station North Salon Show in Baltimore. The Retro Town Fair that was held as part of the annual Greenbelt Labor Day Festival. The Diamonds and Denim auction that benefitted Changing Focus.

It’s time for another video break with Weird Al Yankovic singing “Happy Birthday.”

2015

The current year is only six days old so I don’t have any highlights to share here just yet other than I spent New Year’s Day checking out American Girl Place on the day of the rollout of its new Girl of the Year (a separate post on that is coming soon) and today being this blog’s fifth birthday. It’s been an amazing five years. Next year I’ll go back to the usual brief notice of the anniversary since working on this special birthday post was very time consuming. If I’m still writing in this blog by the 10th anniversary, I’ll probably do something special again. But I would have to make it more spectacular than the 5th anniversary. Maybe I’ll take a trip to some place special or maybe throw a special party. I don’t know. I have five years to think about this so I’m definitely going to take my time. Anyway, I’ll close this entry with this really cool video featuring sand art being created to the song “Happy Birthday to You.” Enjoy!