IT'S AMAZING!

Recently I went out to do a little food shopping for the holidays. Something I noticed really makes me pause, the urgency and rush of people as they try to secure their holiday. It seems that the need for both gifts and food consumes and makes people manic, almost depressingly so.

I have a lot of problems with getting ready for the holidays, it seems to me we do the same things over and over again, until we make ourselves sick. Why do we wait until the last minute? Don't our freezers work in July or August, can't we purchase food, freeze it and give ourselves a break? As you peruse the shelves, you have people breathing down your neck or falling asleep in front of what they may need, almost a catatonic state of existence.

The parking lots are also a battle. As we get closer to the big day, we need to get into the store, and fast, so we can get what we need, and at the late stages of the timeline, ‘out of stock' is not an option. So, we wait vigilantly for a parking spot to open, then we plan to drive right up to it and hope no one else is thinking the same thing.

The traffic leading up to the main shopping areas is always a problem, filled with impatient and rushing drivers, tempers are short and the anticipation of crowds becoming a part of your day makes you nuts, wishing you could turn around and go home, preferably under your bed.

The internet can offer anxiety also, just try ordering online late in the game, will they deliver on time? You take a chance and wait for it, hoping that they fulfill the promise of delivery. So, for the few days remaining, you have a knot in your stomach.

Bah! Humbug!

Company coming? Well get out the aspirin, you need to select menus, gifts, booze, and cooking along with baking time. What do you make? For some, it is the traditional gifts and for some, you need a little imagination. And time? When, what day of the holiday week do you plan for and what time?

And in the end, there are the long lines, to get into some stores and to pay for the purchases. Husbands wondering why they are there, mothers with young children, burdened down with packages, disciplining their little brats who choose to test mom's patience and that of everybody else. Once you turn online comes and it is time to pay, you have an overworked clerk trying to keep civil and not explode from the rudeness and discourtesies of the public.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Santa is a faker.