What's a... "music" store?

I had a brain glitch of sorts the other day. It may be because I had just finished final exams for grad school the night before and my brain is on vacation, but whatever it was I looked like I just staggered out of an institution and had never had social interaction before.

Here's what happened:

Karen and I went to the mall to pick up some Christmas presents. As usual, we had to get some of our favorite cold drinks first: iced coffee and peanut butter and banana shake, respectively. So Karen got her drink and I placed my order for my shake, and as we stood there, a lady who had just gotten her drink asked us, "Do you know if there's a music store in this mall?"

In no way is this an odd question to hear at a mall.

But for me...

 

Karen was looking around to see who the lady was talking to, and I went completely blank. I'm positive my mouth gapped open, maybe I drooled a bit, and the look on my face probably traumatized her child. I went completely blank. No lights on inside, no blinking, no life left in my eyes--- complete mental shut down.

But really, as brainless as I seemed, my mind was racing:

(And by courtyard, I mean center court.)

Finally she gave me a hint.



And I pointed in some undiscernible direction.

Maybe this lasted a minute but I'm sure a 45-second mental absence had to be alarming. Karen was probably concerned that a stranger had broken me and she would never get home again... unless she jacked my keys and stole my car... or called her husband...

I don't know if the lady believed me when I said it was by Penney's, and I don't know that she ever found the music store. Hopefully she never finds this blog post, though, because she didn't look anything like my fine doodle and Karen says her kid was a boy. Oops!