A Psychological Study

A study should be done on the brains of people who dare to go shopping so close to Christmas. Insanity might come up in the report. More than once. Scott and I hit Wal-mart yesterday. Hit is a good word. That is what I wanted to do to the lady in front of me that was moving at the pace of a snail. She was not disabled in any way. She was just too busy chatting with her shopping partner and didn't bother to get out of the aisle. I almost ran her down with my cart. I don't know what came over me. Maybe holiday hysteria. Is that a medical term? She's just lucky I gained my composure before I mowed her down and left nothing but some tire tracks on her back and a few pieces of Christmas wrapping paper in my wake. After I got around her, I was looking for some jeans for my middle son. (Don't worry, he's getting other stuff besides just clothes.) Whoever was there before me left the jeans in a shamble. Obviously, this person was not much of a folder. I had to dig around in what had become a massive pile of jeans. I found the correct size of jeans, but not before I almost passed out from lack of oxygen during the denium avalanche. It wasn't pretty. At this point, I beat a hasty retreat to the electronics department, where I knew that I would find my husband. Yep, sure enough. There he was. I got a few other things and we were out of that insane asylum. The same sort of drama went on at Target,Home Depot and Best Buy. At Best Buy the shoppers are herded through corrals to get to the cashier. I started to know what it is that a cow feels like. By the time one gets to the cash register, she's so exhausted and mind-numbed, that she would gladly sign away the rites to her first born if they'd just give her that stupid electronic gizmo that she's lugged all over the store.

After all this Scott and I were exhausted. We decided we needed to have some sustenance in order to keep our energy up. This led us to IHOP. We were finishing up dinner when we saw a friend of mine that I used to work with at school. She stopped by our table to chat and laughingly mentioned that she has seen us out and about on several different evenings...but never with the kids. Did we do something to our children?? Uhhh....umm....no. We need to get away from them (and them from us) for a little while. That is one of the glorious things about home schooling and working from home---we are together ALL THE TIME during the day. Sometimes we just need a break. It's good for all of us. Hey, Scott and I need to have some adult time once in a while. This reprieve allows my nervous eye tic to settle down and the muscles in his neck and face to relax a little bit. Then it's all good again and we can go back home.

Well, I'm in for the evening. I've washed the dishes, straightened up around here, and balanced the check book. The kids are working and trying to finish up their school assignments for the day. Scott is working at his computer. Life is calm right now. I take a deep breath. It's so peaceful. Okay, that moment is over. Now what am I going to fix for dinner????