Day 149: Let the shopping begin!

Fresh off my newfound holiday inspiration, I am ready to shop!

I decided to get a jump start on the stores and do a little research online before heading out to brave the crowds.

Instead of research I found myself shopping, from my couch in my pajamas.

There is something really liberating about avoiding the crowds and shipping gifts back home to my parent's house.

I took care of my dad's big gift immediately and then started in on a secondary gift... a book on winemaking. It's amazing what these stores are doing now. I was able to find a book and have them reserve it at the store for me, so all I had to do was pull up walk in get in line and swipe my card.

Of course that's not what happened. Since I have a lot more gifts to buy I have been perusing the stores looking for inspiration, which kind of defeats the purpose of having items reserved but it's all part of the experience.

No luck at the bookstore, but I did manage to get a few things for me.

Cruising around, top down, Christmas music playing, I definitely felt like Santa Claus... in a warm climate.

At the big warehouse store, I made out with 4 bottles of wine and 2 pounds of cheese and some crackers. No I'm not going to a party, or even throwing one, it's all for me, and I'm going to enjoy every delicious bite... and sip.

Although I'm pretty sure I'm not going to enjoy working it off when 2011 starts.

At the electronics store I picked up a laptop bag, a computer mouse and a gift card for my brother's girlfriend.

As I was wandering around looking for inspiration, one of the sales people walked up to ask if I needed anything, and he immediately recognized me from one of my earlier shopping extravaganzas.

He said 'oh its you again', ok wow, what did I ever do to this guy to elicit that response?

In an instant I remembered who he was but I was still confused as to why he was less than thrilled to see me.

He was the guy who said he could 'translate' a few months ago when I was inquiring about video editing software. Problem was, I had a greater knowledge and just needed someone on my level to talk to. I wasn't rude to him, but I suppose not patronizing him and his lack of knowledge on my topic was emasculating and he didn't appreciate it.

I asked him my question about the mouse and we quickly went our separate ways. I was a little surprised he even remembered me because it has been a few months, but I guess I made quite the impression.

When the shopping spree was over I felt like I'd done a ton of shopping and made some good progress on my list, then I got home and realized I had only purchased things for myself.

I've got a bit of one for you.... 2 for me going right now but I'll get down to business once I figure out what I want to get the rest of the people on my list.

I suppose I deserve them, but its definitely not the Christmas spirit I thought I had within me. It is hard to pass up the bargains this time of year!

So here I sit, putting all of the things I bought for myself to good use, while I try to research what to get the rest of my family in the next few days.

Then I got an email from the guy I met a week ago. He wants to meet up for drinks. He seems like a nice enough guy but he's definitely not someone I can see myself with for many reasons.

One of which is his name. I vowed a long time ago not to date anyone with his name. Primarily because I have dated 6 of them (on the low end of things) in my life and every one of them has been a jerk.

But that's not exactly a reason you can tell a guy... I know because I tried... and failed miserably. In fact that was Shit-head and I dated him for 2 years! You'd think I would have picked up on the name thing a little sooner with him. Eh? Live and learn I guess. He was definitely the last.

Now I'm not trying to stereotype this guy into the others, but I have noticed a pattern of behavior with this name and I am not willing to take a chance.

Not to mention, I just don't feel the need at this stage of my life to date just to date. So now comes the creative way to let him down easy.

That will have to wait until tomorrow. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?