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A shopping day …

I went on a hiatus for the first time since this journals inception … sure I’ve had times I’ve been gone on vacation, or been too busy … but this time I was feeling fine, wasn’t THAT busy … I just didnt do any entries. Sort of a hiatus … so now I’m back, with a minor redesign. This section will be filled with my days events.

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmases and got tons of gifts. I spent the day cashing in all the gift certificates and cash I got. I took a drive to Macy’s this morning to try to find a nice wool coat that I’ve been wanting for some time. My mom gave me $100 in cash to use for that purpose, and so I scoured four different Macy’s for just the right coat. In the end, I bought the first one I saw at the first Macy’s … and I couldnt help buying a second one … I’ve become a jacket hog.

Actually, the first jacket is a wool, charcoal colored coat that reaches above my knee and is usually about $185, but was 50% off today … the second is a suede light brown jacket that is usually $135 but was also 50% off … my total was $150 which covered the cash from my mom and my grandmother ($50). So now I have two nice new coats, that are also more dressy than the ones I have. I’m so excited about having these and the fact that they would’ve cost me $300 normally.

After that I went over to Old Navy to spend the $50 gift card from my mom. I got a pair of corduroys and a jean shirt, along with a second plaid type shirt and a belt. I swore I’d never wear corduroys again, since they make that funny noise when you walk, but the thicker cords are pretty cool and comfortable … and it’s a nice change from the jeans I’m usually wearing.

My final stop was at the Werehouse music store to buy some CD’s, with the $45 in gift certificates. I got the Macy Gray CD I’ve been dying for, and I also got a CD of the movie Mr. Hollands Opus … and spent a little out of pocket for some new headphones for work, and a CD organizer that looks like a binder … it’ll help me get organized.

That was my day in review … mostly shopping. It was actually alot of fun … normally I dont like shopping, or dont have time, but since I’m off work for the week, it was nice getting in on the sales.

So, to back up a little, Christmas was held at my aunt’s house. Somehow the whole family of about 15 – 20 people fits in her double-wide trailer. I dont know why she ever bought a trailer, but it had to do with the inexpensiveness of it … it’s nothing like the trailer park jokes we can all come up with.

Well, upon arriving two aunts and an aunts boyfriend were doing the chain smoking bit. I am highly affected by cigarette smoke … especially the second hand kind. So I immediately began choking and weezing and opening windows … somehow no one seemed to notice and kept smoking.

Luckily they dont smoke around the younger kids and things cleared out. It was kind of a rushed night … I arrived, had some small talk, and ate dinner, then my sister and I rushed out to visit my father and his wife. We spent some time at her families house, who is also my friend’s families house … and then rushed back just in time to miss the opening of the gifts.

In a way, it pissed me off that the family would open gifts without us. I mean we were gone for just an hour, they were all eating when we left, and we hurried back … and somehow they all opened gifts during that time. Just made me mad to miss it, but I opened what I got. My aunt gave me a brown polo shirt … not exactly my color, but I’m sure I’ll wear it once I wash the cigarette smell out of it; my uncle and aunt gave me a really nice scarf, I really do like it; my one cousin gave me a small CD organizer; my other cousin gave me a gift certificate to the music store; my other cousin gave me a hot beverage cup thing; and my other aunt gave me a calendar/planner type of thing (she gives them to everyone … every year … no surprises there).

We spent the end of the night playing my aunt’s new Playstation … with a game I gave my cousin, Crash Bandicoot Warped.

Christmas morning I spend with my mom and sister, and got cash and prizes from them both. My sister bought me a $100 gift certificate from CompUSA, which I spent on gadgets for the Playstation (I really wanted a digital camera, but didnt have enough); my mom gave me the $100 for a coat, $50 for Old Navy, a couple of sweatshirts and miscellaneous small stuff.

Overall, I think I did okay … not great, not superb, but I did get to buy things I wanted … so it was okay.

My favorite gift, as strange as it may seem, is from my mom. A paper shredder … I’ve been taking every thing I find and shredding it … I’ve got a bag filled with shredded paper. It’s really amusing … you take some paper and zzzzzzzzzz it’s shredded. Okay, I have to get a life … but this is the next best thing. Hours of entertainment … even the cat had to come and look at it..

The 23rd was the annual (okay, second) christmas dinner with the friends. My friend “A” likes to hype it up like its a big deal … she tells me, “you better get there early … it’s standing room only”. I’m like … there’s a total of five of us (because half of the friends dont like each other and can’t be invited) … so unless your christmas tree is taking up the entire living room, I’m sure we’ll all be just fine.

I knew it would be bad news … she is one of these negative friends who loves to bash you when people are around, but can’t say a mean thing when it’s just the two of you. She started right in on the company I work for, and then followed up with the car I used to drive. Her feelings of the company are that it won’t go anywhere, I basically told her that it’s nice to hear a perspective from someone who doesnt know jack shit about internet companies, especially since we’ve been getting rave reviews from CBS Marketwatch and tons of other experts in the field. Basically, “A” has started a little competition with me as to who has a better job and who will make more money … a competition I didnt ask for. As for the car, well another friend there has a Saturn and I used to have one … and “A” is looking for a car … so her first response was that she really didnt like Saturns and didnt like the options or the dealers … so we defended them because both of us never had a problem with the car … it’s just a car for gods sake.

So “A” has been on this competition lately trying to let everyone know … well, trying to make everyone think her life is so perfect and better than anyone elses … meanwhile, she clearly can’t compete. We can all see how her life isn’t better, one of us is a biotechnian making quite a bit of money, I’m working for an internet company also making good money … and “A” is afraid she’ll be left behind or won’t be able to keep up … so she puts our lives down every chance she gets … we must pity her. I dont need friends like this …

I should mention that my living situation is beginning to have some hope. Hopefully next week, I’ll meet up with this girl, also looking for a roommate, and perhaps if we hit it off … okay, if we dont hate each other, we’ll be able to start looking for a place to share. As much as having a roomate doesnt thrill me, living where I currently am thrills me less … and it wont be permanent. Anyway, it’ll be my first roommate situation … so when people are talking about how much they hate it, I can add my two cents. Now to find an ultra cheap place to live in an ultra expensive city.

But before we go there, I have to meet this mystery woman … is she at least the same age as me?? is she too conservative, too wierd?? does she have too many pet peaves?? does she get up in the middle of the night and bark at the moon on alternate weekdays … okay so that might be far fetched??

I always think of that movie where the girl gets a roommate and the roommate starts to dress like her and almost be her and even tries to take her boyfriend away, and tries to kill her … that’s what I think about roommates, so as long as she doesnt try to be me, I’ll be fine.

Do people become complete idiots at christmas time? I’m driving up and down the aisles of the parking lot, looking for parking … following all the arrows telling you which way your supposed to go, and these idiots are coming straight at me. So I’m pointed, “your going the wrong way” … and they’re pointing “I’ve got the spot” … and I’m thinking good luck asshole … trying to turn your car around in the middle of this very tight parking lot to get your car into that angled spot.

I didnt realize how many people were also going to be home from work today. I’ve always had to work the week after Christmas and assumed everyone else would have to also, but the lines were very long inside the stores … I knew school kids would be home, but what about these other people, dont they have jobs.

I’m walking through the aisles of Macy’s trying to look through clothes and I’m watching as people are pulling shirts out, totally unfolding them and then dropping them on the floor, not even folding them back up and trying to put them back on the shelf or hook. This is Macy’s for godsake … not the goodwill. Where the hell were these people raised?? The store looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it, clothes all over the floor, piled up on tables, and nothing was hung in it’s original spot. I feel so sorry for those poor underpaid people working there.

Why do cars have to be such a problem? I’m hearing this squeaking noise coming from one of the tires … it’s constant, and I’m going to have to bring it in, but it’s such a pain, I dont want to think about it … so I turn the music up … “I try to say goodbye and I choke, try to walk away and I stumble, though I try to hide it, it’s clear, my world crumbles when you are not near … ” squeak squeak squeak

Four days until the big Y2K. Does anyone else feel like this has been way over hyped? I mean, okay, so some people start spreading news of mass destruction and start cashing in on people’s fears. I have to admit, no matter how much I dont think anything horrible will happen … I’ve taken out a couple hundred dollars from the bank and have some water and canned foods handy … just in case. I mean I dont want to get hysterical, and am soooooo happy no one bought me a surival kit for christmas, but I also have to take precautions … you know, just in case.

This ones for my UK friends …

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