Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas Shopping Epiphany

As I sit here in my nice warm, dry home tonight, I'm very thankful to be inside instead of outside sloshing around in the almost two inches of rain we've had in the last 24 hours.  Of course tonight when the temps drop, all of that will freeze and everything will be one big ice skating rink.  Other than dealing with round 3 of an upper respiratory infection, it's very peaceful and calm here at The Compound tonight.  Yet I'm reminded of my anxiety attack that I had last night after work. 

I mentioned that the Rents and I passed on our annual shopping trip to the mall, but I still needed to make a trip out there to pick up two gift cards. For the past 8 years, the School Friends and I have bought gifts for the teenage girls at a local school for runaway and abandoned teenage girls, instead of drawing names for the obligatory Christmas gift exchange. I needed to get two gift cards from the popular Hot Topic store, and believe me when I tell you that had it not been for these orphaned girls, there's no way in hell I would have driven out to the mall on a Friday night during rush hour traffic.  What normally would have been a 25 minute trip turned into a 70 minute trip.  While stuck in the rush hour traffic all that time, I think I invented some new cuss words. But I digress.  While having an anxiety attack last night over this frightmare, something dawned on me; an epiphany, if you will.  Next year, I plan on making Christmas mall-free.  I discovered that I can buy my Hot Topic gift cards online and they'll mail them to me.  You can't get much easier than that. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Being somewhat prone to stress and anxiety, this Christmas Shopping Mall Attack happened to me awhile back.  I am proud to say this is (I believe) my fourth mall-free Christmas in a row.  The stress of driving across town, fighting the traffic, and battling the crowds is just too much for me.  

In fact, next year I may shoot for a Store-Free Christmas.  I'll just do all my shopping online and at the mega gift card center at Kroger.