The Joys of Holiday Shopping!

I don't mind shopping. I don't even mind holiday shopping. I like buying things for friends, family, and some co-workers. It's fun to find things that they'll never expect to get.

But what I do mind...

Is the battle with other holiday shoppers. First off, I worked in a grocery store for five years. I know exactly how annoying... ignorant... and selfish shoppers can be. So I try to make myself unnoticable and get in and get out. I can relate to stressed out retail workers. I also worked at Boscovs. I'm a seasoned vet!!!

The battle starts before I even get out of my vehicle. The parking lot. Trying to find a parking spot is not fun. Up one isle... down another... find a spot, but someone beats me to the spot. Then I find another and someone steals my spot despite my turn signal being on. I'm ready to shout out my window, but the 6'7" 260 pound monster gets out of his hummer and I decide to continue on. Finally, I find a spot five miles away from the mall. It's windy... 20 degrees out... and I hate my life. Once into the mall, I start to shop. All is well until someone cuts in line. They're explaination is the person in front was holding their spot. I'm a nice guy, happy holidays... go right ahead. And then their friend... and their friend's friend jump in with them with hundreds of dollars of items. Find a happy place Sean. It'll be okay! I decide to head over to Best Buy... Kohls... Target. Sitting at traffic lights has never been something I had patience with. Green... Yellow... Red. Green... Yellow... Red. Green... Yellow... Red. Finally, it's my turn and some mini van with ten ribbon magnets on their hatch slam on their brakes when the light turns yellow. Sean's not finding a happy place. I want to get out. But I can see Swiss Family Stupidson is occupying the mini van with five screaming no neck monsters and I figure they have enough problems. Over to Best Buy, no parking, go figure? Now the fun begins... all the stores either don't have the DVD's I need... all the sizes I can't use... or completely out of the item I'm looking for. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Anyway, I finish for the day and fumble into my front door with several bags. Finally, peace and quiet. I can relax. But of course, the cellphone goes off a half a dozen times and then looking at the bags... I gotta wrap all the crap. I just love the holidays!!!

Onto better things... my music pick of the day. I'm going old school 80's hair band stuff. When rock music rocked and the men looked like chicks. God, I love the 80's. Cinderella - Night Songs. In my opinion, Cinderella is the most underated rock band of the 80's. Sure, they were as glam as it gets. But the tunes... a little bit of metal... a little bit of pop... and alot of blues. They were part Zeppelin... part AC/DC... part Cheap Trick. Check out Night Songs... songs like Hell On Wheels... Nobody's Fool... In From the Outside... and Somebody Save Me. Good stuff. Also check out Long Cold Winter and Heartbreak Station... both multi-platinum and filled with great songs like Falling Apart at the Seams... Heartbreak Station... The More Things Change... The Last Mile... and Coming Home. And if you see them in your area, don't miss Cinderella in concert. Even better live then on record. Rock on...