Shopping Excursion

We were planning to do some grocery shopping the other day. So my friend calls me, and of course, she's asking if we're going to town tomorrow, because she needs a ride so she can do some shopping. I then accused her of being psychic, of somehow knowing we were planning to go shopping the following day.

Anyway, we picked her up and drove into town, chatting with each other on the way. We went to get breakfast first. My family's been going to that café for a long time, and we're rather well-known by the staff there. I'm not asked, "What what you like to drink?" No, they ask, "Chocolate or vanilla?" By now they know I'm in love with milkshakes.

We went to Ross, because she had a gift card there, and we proceeded to spend well over an hour there while she looked for late Christmas gifts for her family. Then again, it was after Christmas, so things had been picked over and there wasn't a great selection. That, and she had a lot of people to shop for and only $100 to do it with.

Then we went to get some groceries. My friend and I were kind of hyper and goofy. Mom jokingly claimed not to know us.

After that, we started heading home. We were originally planning to pick up some things at the hardware store, but Mom was tired and didn't want to. That's strange, she acts like she spent ten years following my friend and I around Ross, or something. Either way, it was a fun day.

A Child's Christmas

I recall being a young child, and really looking forward to Christmas. I looked forward to the music, the television shows, and movies that were about Christmas. I enjoyed it when we put up the tree and decorated it. In class, we would do fun projects like making holiday-themed craft projects. Often we wrote letters to Santa as an assignment.

I recall my first grade teacher telling me she would send the letters we wrote home to our parents. I was skeptical; weren't the letters supposed to be sent to Santa Claus, up in the North Pole? She told me that she would copy all the letters, sending the original to our parents and the printed copy to the North Pole. Even then, some part of me wasn't sure if she would really do that.

Every winter, I hoped that it would snow where I lived. It's only happened a few times over the many years, but nevertheless, you gotta have dreams.

I recall some of the things that I've requested for Christmas over the years. Pokemon and Barbie was always appreciated. And I remember for a long while, I wanted a Poo-chi. I was rather happy when I finally received one. Later on, I also became a big fan of Neopets. At one point in time, I had interactive toys, stuffed toys, plastic figurines, and magazines. I also liked getting books for Christmas. I've been an avid reader since forever. In fact, some of my ultrasound pictures probably show me holding a book. And when I was born, I was clutching a Dr. Seuss story in my hands.

I recall many instances of sitting on Santa's lap, telling him what I wanted for Christmas. I remember one time when I was telling Santa what I wanted. He looked somewhat confused when I mentioned that I wanted Neopets toys.

What on Neopia is a kacheek? the man dressed as Santa thought silently as I prattled on.

On Christmas Eve, I could never sleep well. I was too excited, and so it took me forever to sleep. Even then, I woke bright and early and tried to drag my family out of bed as soon as possible. Of course, they wanted to sleep. But when you're a kid who wants to open gifts, you're relentless.

Like a lot of kids, I was happy about the toys and the books, but often wasn't very excited about clothes. Socks? I want a stuffed dog, and a Barbie doll, and a comic book, and some chocolate! Of course, if it's clothing for my Barbie, then I'll be happy about it. My friend says that there's a sort of irony about clothing for Christmas. When you're a kid, you get clothes and aren't enthusiastic. When you get to be older and are grateful to receive clothes, you oftentimes don't get clothes for Christmas.

It was always sad to see Christmas end. The tree and all the other wondrous decorations went away. The holidays are something you wish would last forever. But they do end. So the holiday decor goes into its boxes, the time of Christmas carols and holiday specials ends, and the children all wait impatiently for next December.

'Twas the Saturday Before Christmas

We went grocery shopping the other day. The traffic was horrible. We went to In-N-Out and there were hardly any parking spaces. We also ate outside because there was nowhere in the building to sit. There were plenty of people at the supermarket. When I walked into Barnes & Noble, there were a lot of people. The woman at Barnes & Noble said that the Saturday before Christmas is one of the busiest shopping days.
Of course. We really know how to pick our shopping days. So a few words of warning- beware the Saturday before Christmas if you want to avoid traffic and crowds.

The Pack Rat

When our family moved recently, we sifted through a lot of stuff. It was a time of major purging. We seem to be somewhat of pack rats.

I had at least eighty thousand stuffed animals that were sitting untouched in my closet. I also had a bunch of random stuff that I had kept for various obscure, trivial reasons. You know the kind of things I'm talking about: the miscellaneous objects, the little knick-knacks you have too many of, the useless items that anyone else would describe as junk or garbage. So I went through things and got rid of a lot.

And the scary thing is, some of my stuff never got unpacked from the previous time we moved. Somewhere out there is a shoe box filled with Pokemon cards, a dreamcatcher my brother made for me, some posters, and other things which have not seen daylight for several years. I don't even remember all of what's missing anymore. Some of the stuff will be kept when I find it and sort through it, but I'm sure a lot of it will be things that I don't need or want anymore, and ultimately will be sold or donated.

Even now, I seem to have a bit of the pack rat remaining. There are little boxes beneath my bed that have random stuff in them. There's an MP3 player I hardly use, a set of portable speakers that have the sound quality of tin cans, and a few small figurines. I also seem to have more cords than anyone could possibly need. Chargers, USB cords, and more litter my room. Why are there so many different sizes of USB ports? It makes life more complicated than need be. And then there's a container filled with random things, most of which would be classified as trash. I keep it in case I do a craft project at some point, and the random junk is still waiting to be used.

I look through some of the random stuff every once in a while, just in case I change my mind about anything. At the moment I have a ton of stuff hidden in my closet that I plan to eventually get rid of. If anyone wants it, please contact me at 1212 Packrat Lane. 

Journey of a Thousand Miles

I was going to vacuum today, so I started moving a few things off the floor to make the process easier. Then I decided that I could put a few things into the back of my closet to make my room feel less cluttered. After that, I figured I ought to dust a few things, especially my dust collector computer table. Then I decided to organize some of the things on the shelf of my computer table, and get rid of some stuff I didn't need or want anymore. Finally, I actually did the task I originally planned: vacuum the house. Once finished with that, I grabbed my hamper, computer chair, and other stuff I removed from the floor, and put all back.

My room looks a bit different now. The floor is clean, my desk is less dusty, my monitor is shinier, and the space where clutter once was is empty and looks bigger.

Now that everything is done, now that I've worked and worked, now that I'm tired, I'm going to relax until my room becomes so horrible that slime drips from the ceiling.

And then I'll start the process all over again.