Ramblings

I want some dim bulb to open their mouth and tell me how bad the economy is. Come on! I dare you!

I have been Christmas shopping. I have been Christmas shopping for several days now, and I can't find a damned thing I'm looking for because IT'S ALL SOLD OUT! A buncha somebodies got there already and bought all of what I'm trying to get.

Oh, I order online when I can and that stuff's here and what had to be shipped out of town left last week. But there's some stuff I don't want to order online because I want to see what it really looks like or feels like before I buy it ‘cause if there's one thing I hate more than Christmas shopping, it's having to return shit.

Selected examples:

How the hell hard should it be to find some damned reasonably-priced, medium-sized flannel shirts, huh? Oh, I could probably find a few by now at one of the fancy-pants stores, but I'm not getting them for some guy so he can try to look manly by wearing them. I'm getting them for Hubby so when he, as he always does, rips the hell out of one while he's working, 40 bucks doesn't end up being tossed in the trash. Four stops over three days, I finally found three of ‘em tonight. (It doesn't matter how many he may get during the year or what else for Christmas, if Hubby doesn't find new flannel shirts under the Christmas tree, he frets.)

Herself, Da Kid's fiancé, is a voracious reader but between work and school hasn't had time. I have no idea what her hours are going to be like starting next month, but know that the only thing that kept me sane sometimes (and my eyes open when I was behind the wheel and all I wanted to close them) was plugging a book-on-tape into Ol' Blue's dashboard. And I discovered she's never read THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. Three different places, I finally found one set of CDs that someone hadn't already bought.

Let's not even talk about the crowds in the stores and I'd prefer not even mentioning the parking lots. (If I do, I'll start cussing again.) These people aren't taking their daily constitutionals there! They're buying stuff. Lotsa stuff. In one check-out line I think the lady ahead of me had tried to buy out the entire store.

And I still have to figure out what the hell else to get Da Kid. This is the first time I've ever felt so clueless. Ever.

At least he flat out told me what he wants for his birthday on December 26. He wants me to take him out to eat at a specific place. A Japanese restaurant he and Herself discovered.

Da Kid assures me that despite the fact that I'm allergic to fish and seafood, there are other things on the menu. He also promises that I won't start gagging as soon as I walk in the place because I will not even smell the presence of any fish or seafood, despite the fact that I'll be surrounded by people — he and Herself at the same table as I am — all of them basically eating bait.

This should be interesting.