CareerMysteries

Here we go again, another black friday beckons. I think I will get up real early and hightail it down to the Christmas Tree Shop, gather all my made-in-China treasures in a big shopping cart and push and shove my way to the check out counter on the way out.

Are people just more rude in the Christmas Tree Shop or is it me? I walk in with the right attitude. I will be cordial. I will help rickety old ladies to reach their plastic snowmen and real metal icicles. I will not push my way through each meandering, almost random placement of narrow, congested aisles. I will be good.

And then, I get inside. On one visit to the Danbury store, there were two unruly six year old boys jumping in and out of the huge product bins on the floor, as their oblivious mother talked on the cellphone. I made my way as far away from that group as I could, but could still hear the woman screeching, “Marcus, Jared, cut it out now before I slap you silly!” (Paraphrasing here.)

Women were grabbing things and bursting through the aisles, heaving heavy sighs of disgust, just in case someone didn’t notice how perturbed they were by the crowds. Grown men sulking like babies, followed their wives from one sales display to another, muttering to themselves in a catatonic stupor, “It will all be over soon.”

Yep, happy holidays and remember, only 25 shopping days ’til Christmas!