Some random pre-holiday ranting may take place– be forewarned.
- My post-black Friday (brack fu-rai-day-ooh) trip to Target is making me paranoid about stolen data & credit card information.
- Considering the purchase was for Toys for Tots, do the positive possibilities cancel the negative?
- If “they” (not just Target) are going to charge me ten cents for a bag, it better not godd@m break on me and cause me to drop an expensive bottle of wine that I got for a gift
- People are agro jerks this time of year.
- Maybe if their banking information was “safe” they wouldn’t be?
- Or perhaps it’s having a 10 cent bag bust open while lugging packages to the door from the car and having wine explode at your feet that’s the problem?
Nothing is a spirit killer more than pissed off people at a store. Make it worse, pissed off people at a higher-end, gourmet grocery store who are just angry and entitled normally. The only thing I can think of that might be worse is Rainbow Grocery right before Thanksgiving (annoyed, vegan hippies who won’t be eating happy poultry anytime soon and just want their friggin’ hemp chips). Seriously, in all scenarios, it’s inevitable you’ll be run over by a cart. This wonderful sharing of holiday spirit took place at lunch today, where a pack of well-to-do “geris” (as MOTU would say), repeatedly cornered me with their carts to the point where I literally couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. I had my back pressed up against the apple display at Draegers in Palo Alto, trying to make myself as small as possible, while 3 ladies tried to cram their carts past each other and me without a smile or an “excuse me”.
Add this wonderful outpouring to goodwill towards mankind to the whole drama with Target’s security breach and I’m a happy girl. Normally, I do not set foot in stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas if I can help it, but it was for a good cause (Toys for Tots) and I had to grab a toy. This was around 12/1…I’ve been watching my bank accounts like a hawk, and I think I’m ok, but I’m on amber alert with my information security. Tech is not my friend these days (I’m going for my 2nd re-image of my work computer in a 3 week time span), so you can’t blame a sister for being a bit paranoid. Did I mention my cell phone has hit the skids and the charging port no longer works? Yeah, replacement cellphone will be here Saturday, until then it’s about charging my battery in The Husband’s phone so I can play Candy Crush like a civilized human being.
Back to Draegers. I bough a few loaves of Challah bread and a loaf of cinnamon bread with big plans to make bread pudding this weekend, for Christmas. Being that it was lunch, I totally forgot my tote bag and thought, “shucks, it’s ten cents. I can use that sucker again.”
Which brings me to the angel on top of the Christmas tree. I tucked a couple of gifts I received from work into said bag in order to transport things efficiently from my trunk to my dining room table. Literally 5 feet away. Both bag handles popped off (shitty adhesive) and the contents of the bag dumped out onto the pavement, and a bottle of wine from a co-worker exploded onto the sidewalk. We’re talking 3 loaves of bread, 1 wine bottle, an empty coffee thermos. 5 feet. Awesome.
Yet this shall not kill my Christmas spirit. I am making bread pudding with caramel sauce this weekend. You can take your broken wine bottle, computer crashing, grocery cart geri-jam and stick it you know where. I am counting my blessings in this trying time of year. I will not embrace the annual curse this time. What’s been awesome:
- I had a cronut.
- My cookie boxes are starting to show up and people are enjoying my treats
- I have some vacay to look forward to.
- I have good friends and a loving family.
- My smelly dogs are getting washed this weekend so they can be cuddled again.
I realize these are total first-world problems. I have nothing to complain about. At least I have the money to be shopping for gourmet bread at a gourmet grocery store during my lunch hour. Someone at my company who I did not expect to give me a gift, gave me a nice bottle of alcohol. I live in a time where I hear about a possible breach of information security before funds go missing from my bank account. I live in a city that is progressive, environmentally conscious and aware about what plastic bags do to the environment and has mads LAWS about it. For god’s sake– I know someone who overnight-ed me a pastry.
Nope, no curse here. It’s all about perspective right now. So I’m going to suck it up, bake something that I want to eat, and enjoy a less-expensive but equally tasty bottle of wine this weekend. I’ll even hope the best for the geris. You know why? I’m lucky. I’m happy. And it’s the holidays. If you can’t enjoy the holidays, WTF?
What are you going to do? 😉
