The sponge that ruined my week.

This sponge. Ohhhh, this sponge has probably evoked more emotion than any other

sponge in the world. You see, a few weeks ago I ordered a fantastical pair of boots from

a website called Shop-cora.com. And, like a moron, I neglected to Google said website

prior to making my purchase. Nope, I got distracted by the sweet price 

and the fact that they were the only place I could find my size. 

So, I ordered away. And a few weeks passed.

And I started to get all antsy. Then one evening I went down to our mailbox and in that

little metal box was a little white padded envelope with my name on it and a Chinese 

return address. Weird. Really weird. My boots could not be this tiny.

And my boots were supposed to be shipped from some obscure place in Michigan.

I brought the envelope up to our apartment and asked Ryan.

Perhaps this was some super-amazing Chinese surprise gift he ordered for me 

to thank me for being, well...awesome. Nope. 

Open it, he said.
What if it's a bomb?

It's a really small bomb.

Yeah, they probably want to blow up only our specific apartment.

We risked it and inside was a sponge.

A stupid pink sponge.

My mind was still boggled. Was this a marketing tactic? Did our credit card number get stolen?

(If so, obviously it was stolen by some kind soul aware of my sub par housecleaning skills 

and hoping to do a good deed by providing me with cleaning supplies.)

But we went back to our business and the sponge sat on my desk.

Taunting me.

On a whim, I Googled the return address (why, oh, why couldn't my desire to Google

have struck BEFORE ordering rather than after?!). BAM. Listing after listing of 

people who ordered shoes from Shop-cora.com and received sponges.

I GOT SCAMMED.

And the tricky part is, because they actually mail you something,

they have a shipping confirmation to refute your claims that you didn't receive the product.

I have a few choice words for Shop-cora.com,

but unfortunately they're all inappropriate. 

So, to sum it up, I'll just say this:

Hopefully the next poor, sad, boot-fanatic will have the web-savvy

(or, you know, just the common sense) to Google the website.

And hopefully they'll come across this post.

If you'd like to join me in flooding Shop-cora's email inbox with giant photos of sponges,

be my guest! The address is shopcora2892@gmail.com.

Sponge away, my friends. Sponge away!