Yule be sorry!

Wow, like I was hit with a stupid stick and decided to go to the mall yesterday to shop for some Christmas gifts. Because it was a beautiful, somewhat warm sunny day, thousands (or ka-thousands) of my neighbors decided to burrow their way to the mall as well. This always happens on nice days because I live among people who don't know nice weather means you're supposed to go outside and enjoy it. No wonder we're becoming so fat-a-delic.

I struck out a few places I stopped, but did manage to snag a couple things for the Petite Filet. We're done shopping for the Cutlet (here is when I remind you his birthday is Dec. 26) for Christmas and his birthday. Next June may be the kickoff of a long stretch of "Half Birthdays" for our boy so that a) he realizes that he is special separate from Christmas, b) we can enjoy that aforementioned nice weather that is in greater supply during the warm months, and c) we can spread out our shopping by putting six months between Yuletide and Cutlet Day.

Back to my shopping experience, there were a LOT of people out. I found a parking space and ran into one store (found something!). A woman whose son had lost a sock a few days before was parked next to me. I heard her relate this whole story to one of the managers, about how she called and was told a stocker found the sock and threw it in jest at one of the managers. Beyond that, the sock was missing. I wanted her to check the grassy knoll, but I could see she was stressed over her son being tube-sock-impaired. Well, she left about the same time I did (not having bought anything but having a cart to shuttle her one-socked offspring around). I got in my car first and waited for her to leave so as not to upset her while she strapped in the barefooted toddler. Guess what? SHE LEAVES HER EMPTY SHOPPING CART BEHIND MY CAR. Where is the justice in this? I got out, pushed it to the front of the store, and then wondered what humanity had become.

Next stop, I find a parking space and decide to hike to the actual mall. I strike out and yet find gold again, and head back to my car. A couple in a white Suburban Assault Vehicle is trying to back out of the space directly in front of me. They are growing increasingly frustrated at having to wait for a woman in a car behind them who is likewise waiting for traffic in front of her to move. The windows are down (Mine are, too; it was getting toasty!) and the guy behind the wheel is yelling for her to "Back up!" The woman in the other car calmly shakes her head incredously and says, "No." Now the woman in the SAV is getting steamed, and calls her some words that sound like "fat bitch." This paragraph is getting so long!

So anyway, the guy decides to back up anyway, possibly seeking revenge in the form of soiled pants that he expects the woman in the other car will get when he nearly misses crushing her into paper-thick piles of holiday spirit. He has to do all kinds of maneuvering to get out, and then says something else I didn't really hear but that was exclamated with a certain finger. I pull out in the opposite direction, but manage to end up behind them waiting to exit the shopping center. Ah ha! I see one reason, other than being a Class A Jerk, for his frustration. His obnoxiously large vehicle has new-vehicle paper tags on it. The guy is not only prone to a hot temper, exacerbated by the traffic and holiday "cheer" around him, but he has not had enough drivetime to know the limits of his truck. So he took it out on everybody else. And so did the guy's (assumably) wife. Happy holiday heart attack, people! Watch that large vein popping out of your ear!

I lamented in my previous entry about (not the word necessarily) but the Christian meaning of Christmas being lost. Well, there I saw it has gotten worse. The manmade hustle-and-bustle we create in the name of gifted commerce means we've already lost the secular meanings of Christmas, that it is a time of love, sharing, good will toward men (and women in cars behind us). That's a generalization. There are tons of happy people left in the world, those of us who can summon joy even when it's cold outside or when one of your neighbors likes to blare Bing Crosby music 24/7. This is a time for reaching out to those who don't know joy, or peace, or have an inner sorrow that is only worsened by the real and imagined la la la that's going on around them.

Sometimes the greatest gift is simply a smile and saying "hello" to a stranger. You don't know whether that might be the only word spoken to them, or the only smile they've seen in decades. That gift is free to give, and warms our own hearts as well.

And by all means, take a freakin' deep breath while you're out shopping!