Next year, I’m starting in August

Every year I think that I’ll get my shopping all done by the end of October, and every year I’m frantically driving around 3 days before Christmas while trying to simultaneously work.

A little taste of the last 24 hours of my life:

• Yesterday, I got a power cord for my ailing computer by driving 45 minutes so I could leap into the swirling maelstrom of the mall. Also wandered around with my dad to help him find a few items at various packed gadget stores. There were a myriad dazed men wandering around quivering slightly as they peered through the windows of the girly stores – clearly these brave souls had ventured forth through the black gates of hell to seek out presents for their significant others. I avoided contact, not wishing to startle the fragile souls. But I did silently wish them well.
• This morning, before starting work, shuffled blearily through the drug store looking for stocking stuffer goodies (candy, etc). Managed to get out of there in only an hour.
• During lunch time, I headed to the sewing machine store to get a sewing machine (from “santa”) for my daughter and a vacuum cleaner because ours just died. Encountered some very strange sales tactics on the vacuum cleaner but got one anyways because I’m tired of yarny fuzz on my carpets.
• After work, my dad and I drove back near the swirling maelstrom to get my husband’s xmas present. Unfortunately, that close to the eye of the storm the traffic was abyssmal and we ended up taking over an hour to drive about a mile. I hope he cherishes his present.
• We drove away from the vortex (whew) and entered the eerie deadness which is Vallco (a mall with very few actual shops, and thus very few actual shoppers). Visited my friend’s store so my dad could shop for a chess set.
• Feeling accomplished and energized by our trip to deadsville, we headed over to Fry’s Electronics. Which you can’t really comprehend unless you live near the Silicon Valley. By this point I was near exhaustion and I found myself caught in an inescapable fugue standing in the remote control aisle, holding a $230 universal remote. Fortunately, some kind soul bumped into me, causing the evil item to slip from my grasp, breaking its spell.
• Got a stocking stuffer for my dad there, he got the stuff he’d come for, so we headed for our ‘final destination’, Borders, where they were holding 2 knitting books for me to finish off my list once and for all.
• Got to Borders, helped my dad find what he was looking for, grabbed a copy of ‘Good Food’ (love that magazine), found a cool book called Nesting – It’s a Chick Thing which I grabbed because it seemed like something I should really have. I headed for the counter to get my knitting books, but on the way there I remembered that I needed to get a cookbook for my son to complete his Santa Package. I wandered over and got one, went to the counter and paid for my books. About 10 minutes out of town I realized that I hadn’t actually picked up the darned knitting books. So I’ll have to get a knitting present for my last recipient at my LYS tomorrow, in between wrapping some 76 presents and preparing 685 cards for mailing. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. Maybe I’m just a little tired. I swear, next year I’m starting in August. Or maybe June. Actually, I think I’ll just buy all my presents next week and have done with it. </ul>