Tales from the holiday trail and other ramblings.

It is rare occasion that I shop, really shop.  When I go into a store, I usually know exactly what I want, load it in a cart and zip to the nearest check-out line, preferably the one with less than 40 people and a checker who does not look as though she resents being there.  I like to keep those experiences positive, and usually do..  Saturday afternoon, I bit the bullet and headed out to the store-with-more to do some Christmas shopping.

It was a mad house - not because of the other customers, but because all items had been shifted around to make the most desirable and expensive gift items more prominent.  The electric outdoor smoker i had decided to buy was no longer on the shelf where it was last seen, for example, but had been moved to the patio. Glassware, appliances, etc were moved.  The paper aisle no longer housed paper and binders - I was completely disoriented!!

And so we milled.  We found a boxed set of hot sauce called Hell Fire that appealed to my sense of humor.  We found - Lord Help Me - limited edition hershey kisses in peppermint and cherry cordial.  We found a TV-DVD player combo for only 149 bucks!  And even better, we found boxed sets of CSI Miami/New York, and I got all excited and solved my shopping partner's What-To-Get- Mara-For-Christmas dilemma. Just get me Horatio, I told him.

Are there any other CSI fans out there?  Next time you watch Miami, look at Horatio.   He's Captain Kirk in sunshades, complete with attitude and arrogance.  Perfect! Now if he would just twinkle a little bit...

Anyway, the list is down by 6 so far, and after all that grueling cart pushing, we headed to the new Starbucks (s. pines is coming up in the world!) and had a mocha peppermint latte and picked up a little booklet guide on how to order coffee. It isn't as simple as you would think.  But that's another blog.

And so, in about 3 more trips, we should be finished.  And instead of making this a chore, the plan is to go out there, ACT like it's Christmas, smile at people whether they smile back or not, and what the heck - might as well sparkle, while I'm at it.  Be the change you want in the world...

*Side Note:  I picked up a copy of the NY Times at Starbucks, and there was an article on the front page that reached out and pulled my eyes toward it..  Did you know that November was National Write a Novel Month, or something like that?  All these authors get together, write so many thousands of words for the word count, not caring about the content at all.  They just start writing, for the entire month.  Hmmm.  Maybe word count is the way to go.  There's a good possibility of achieving that goal.