Shopping again

Yesterday evening I took my parents to the synagogue's seder. I had been looking forward to it because this is one of the first times I have not gone to any seder on the first few nights of Passover, when everyone else does family seders, and in fact, did not go to a seder at all until then. So often in the past, I have led my own seders or helped others lead theirs. This time, I was on my own. It's impossible to get my immediate family interested anyhow.
I showed up to get my parents an hour early, but it should have been 2 hours early. I've bought my mom lots of clothes, but in a rather haphazard way, the way I buy my own--mostly on sale, so you never know what you're going to get, and the stuff doesn't necessarily go together. It is really stressful to shop with her, very difficult to undress and dress her, stuff her legs into the pant legs, pull up zippers, and manage all this in a space as small as a public toilet stall. So I didn't quite realize she didn't have any clothes that were really appropriate for the event.
After an hour of holding things up, only to have her reject them, I finally put together one outfit, though it really was a winter one and a bit warm for the time of year. After all of this, we got there late, having to slink in as quietly as we could (not too discreetly at all, given that we were stumping along with my father's walker) and make our way from one side of the hall to the other.
It didn't help that the synagogue's seder is a rather overstuffed affair, in all respects. The servings are overly large, the tables too crowded together, the people trying a little to hard to be genial. The rabbi, not at all a kid person, mugged desperately, pretending to be pharoah, as herds of 4 year olds pelted him with google eyed frogs.
Meanwhile, sitting sideways at the table, I felt slightly panicky, trying to keep my mother from eating every piece of matzo before we got through the service. It was kind of like having a two year old, and I looked over at her a dozen times thinking she might fall asleep and slip out of her chair. It was past her bedtime. And in fact, I did have to take them home after the main course, just as the service was starting back up again, because they couldn't keep their eyes open.
After that experience with the clothes, I realized I would have to go shopping again. Usually, I love shopping. I always tell my students that I like research because it reminds me of shopping, but going shopping with my parents is nobody's idea of a good time.
Today the shopping began in earnest, and it wasn't all that successful. I confess I yelled a bit. But we got some things done. There's more to do, certainly, but this is a start.