Holiday Shopping "&&()@^@#&*"

I am a true believer that the quickest way to turn a person with a cheerful happy Christmas spirit into some sort of red eyed, snarling, head spinning creature is with a shopping trip this time of year.

I have never in my life ventured out on Black Friday to do any type of shopping what so ever. In fact I even gone so far as to make sure that I was stocked up on enough groceries to last at least until the first of the next week for that very reason. This may have come about from all the years of working retail.

Well, with the prices of everything sky rocketing this year, I decided to bite the bullet and charge out there with the rest of the world trying to catch a bargain and save a few dollars. I even had J.D. convinced that this would be the thing to do.

Come Friday morning, I had my list made and woke J.D. up long before the crack of dawn and we were on our way to town. We made Wal-Mart our first stop and had very little problem finding a parking spot. We made it inside fairly easily as well. It wasn't until we reached the back of the building that we came to a complete stop due to a bottleneck. Shopping carts were going no where at all. It was at this point, I left J.D. with the cart while I made my way through the people milling about in the aisles with my list in hand to find some of those bargains. After what seemed years, I found my way back to our cart and my husband, list still in hand, but no bargains in tow. It was at this point that we deserted our cart and made our way back to the front of the store.

Our next stop would be Sears. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad. What planet did I think I was on to have a thought like that. It was just as bad, if not worse because the store isn't as big. Another stroll to the back of a store and back to the front and I threw in the towel. Who needs this kind of stress so early in the morning?

It took me all of two stores to wonder why I had even thought that dragging us out in the cold at a ridiculous hour of the morning was a good idea. When it could all have been done in the comfort of our home, with a cup of coffee in hand. I didn't think about it until right now, but I could blame my temporary insanity on the bad effects of Lyrica (see yesterday's posting) on my system.

We left Sears and headed for Bob Evans for a good country breakfast. Not much can work up an appetite like a failed Black Friday shopping spree.

Kudos to those shoppers that do get out there on Black Friday and manage to save a few dollars and find those bargains to boot. It is a tradition for son, Chris and daughter-in-law, Melody and they find the bargains. I truly believe that if you are going to do this you need to have a game plan, as well as training. It is like a football game in a lot of ways. If you aren't going to train for it, and follow a plan, you might as well forget about any sort of wish list or happy ending at the end of your shopping excursion. All you are going to have is a head ache and nasty temper.

Note to Jo: From now on stay on the mountain and shop online. Just as many bargains there as in the stores. Drink my coffee and say, "Ahhhhhhh, I love shopping like this!"