I spit on your spirit
I can see where Christmas is a stressful time of year, why it causes a lot of depression.
In me, it just causes anger. I start with the stress, made worse this year by an earlier deadline. I knew if I didn’t get my presents sent out NOW, they wouldn’t make it in time.
After watching piranhas feed at stores, after standing in a line of people 10 people long and walking out of the store, and after spending quality time in the post office…I officially killed whatever holiday spirit I might have had.
It’s bad enough that the Christmas music and holiday decoration begins in October. Then there’s the solid month or more of solid feeding-holidays-down-your-throat holiday sales.
I don’t understand how people can be shopping in the spirit of joy and love and all that crap, when they’re so RUDE!
I give up. I officially spit on your Christmas spirit. I spit on your rudeness at the store, at your throwing crap on the floor and being too lazy to pick it up.
I spit on you trying to cut in front of me in line, and then pretend you didn’t think I was in line.
I spit on your kids throwing their damned ball under my feet.
I spit on your three shopping carts full of stuff, ensuring I will never actually leave the store alive. I spit on your damned price check, because there always is a price check in a line of 10 people deep.
I walk out, leaving all my stuff behind and vow to come back another day.
Because this stupid store has me at its mercy. I really wanted to buy the things I had in my arms, and now I must come back again and brave slightly thinner crowds of rude people with snotty kids who stand in your way. Or snotty kids that haven’t been turn to wait their turn and impatiently crowd you as you’re being waited on.
I hope all the rude shoppers I’ve met are proud of themselves. I’m sure that’s what the holiday spirit is all about. Not about the birth of their savior, but about getting the best deal and making sure your family, and no one else’s, can have a Merry Christmas.
Do I detect a hint of bitterness?
One thing is for sure, I’m wearing a raincoat around you next time we hang out together. Don’t want to get drowned in a torrent if saliva or anything.
I have just one suggestion for you: amazon.com and a credit card. It makes Christmas so much more enjoyable. They even do the gift-wrapping.
The Post Office thing is what breaks my spirit. I had to spend some time waiting in that line yesterday. Can any single person be slower than an employee of the USPS? If I’d had a gun, I think I would have been the one going ostal. I felt like Spongebob in that cartoon where he misses the bus to Bikini Bottom and ends up 384th in line at the ticket counter, waiting for the next bus…which he discovers left one second ago, when he finally reaches the ticket window.
Well, Matt beat me to my suggestion–shop online! But he’s also right about the post office, which tends to be slow any time of the year but worst at Christmas. I STILL haven’t bought Christmas gifts. Aargh! Think I’ll have to brave shopping next week whether I like it or not, though Todd and I seldom buy each other anything, so that makes it easier. (Besides, I got my waffle maker a month in advance, so what more do I need?) I always say I’ll buy Todd something, but it seldom happens. . . so then we justify a mutual gift to ourselves of some sort, usually electronics/computer stuff.
Dawn, I’m glad Lynn and I aren’t the only ones who don’t buy each other gifts. We always felt a little odd about that. I just got a new computer–which strangely I haven’t written about in my blog–so we’re calling that our Christmas present to ourselves.
Oh, and Todd and Dawn, your gifts are in the mail. It was for your sakes I bore the strain of USPS hell.
This Spit-On Roll is precious. Although emerging from a hellish experience, I so much enjoyed the LOL. But on shopping and Christmas, I’ve tried in recent years to shift from a buying mentality to a creating one. I take lots of photos, so I often put them to use at Christmas, circulating a prize pic for all in the family. One line that I’ve drawn with my (mom’s side of the) family: No more money gifts at Christmas!! Yikes! That ain’t what it’s about, and you folks ain’t got the money to feel obligated to give.
Oddly enough, in previous years, I was more than happy to do most of my shopping online. I did some of it this year too. But then I started outthinking myself. I was going to be several presents to the same place, and it would be stupid to spend money on shipping those things seperately from whereever I bought them. Or I had to have something shipped here because I was getting my annual Christmas present to my dad and myself, and I couldn’t just have my present shipped to my dad.
I do think, living so far away, that Christmas will be done differently next year. Lots of gift cards or Amazon or other outlets. I guess extra shipping is the price I pay for my sanity. And as it turns out, I still paid quite a lot for shipping. In one case, way more than I paid for a present, let’s just put it that way.
And as the other Melissa points out, Christmas isn’t about spending a lot of money, anyway. Years have been good and bad, so presents from me often vary by financial situation. But I’ve thought as the years went on that Christmas became much more about spending time with my family.
Except I don’t get that this year.
I hope next year I can make it home. But I’ll probably still bring gift cards, because I can’t carry on all those presents. Either that, or plan a last-minute shopping trip. And with my current opinion of Christmas shopping, that’s not likely to happen.
At the same time, I don’t really like gift cards in the sense that the same amount of thought and love doesn’t go into them that picking out a present does.
So I don’t know what my philsophy will be next year. But I’ve got to do something different.
Fresno shopping in general is frustrating to me because there are so many huge shopping centers, like big shiny strip malls, and you never know what’s in all of them. And no matter where you go, you’re guaranteed to bump into more people, because this place just has a lot more people.
I just guess I get grumpy at this time every year, because I can’t imagine how people celebrating the birth of their savior (if you ignore Santa Claus) can be so nasty. Or if you just want to go with Santa, even Santa only delivers to the kids who are good.
So what kind of lessons are these rude, messy people teaching to their kids? Be good, so Santa will give you presents, but now I’m going to drive like a maniac in the parking lot to ensure I get my fat ass two spaces closer to the store?
Be good, so Santa will give you presents, but Mommy knocked down a bunch of stuff and didn’t bother to pick it up to save the work for some underpaid store worker? Not to mention blocking the aisle for any shopper who comes through?
If you’re really good this year, Mommy can overextend herself on her credit cards, and buy you what every good kid really wants. Whatever that is.
After all this vinegar, I suppose I’m calmed down a bit. All my shopping is done. All my Christmas cards are sent, and so are my packages, with the exception of one MIA package that needs to be mailed to my dad’s, but hasn’t gotten here yet. Because I thought it was going to get here in time to mail with the rest of their stuff! So much for the online shopping!