Productive shopping trips have been difficult to orchestrate this time around. I mean Christmas shopping, of course. Up until last night, my only success has been online. The best of intentions can be frustrated by the simple lack of planning.
Last night, my spouse and I decided that we absolutely must complete a significant part of our list. We travelled directly to the mall from our offices and sat down to dinner, which turned out to work beautifully. It gave us a chance to sit and talk, and to devise a strategy. We have had similar discussions in the past before leaving home, but the details are inevitably lost somewhere between the living room and the parking lot. Launching from our base of operations in the food court, we did pleasingly well.
A note on malls: It is imperative to arrive with a surplus of chi, because these places have a terrible negative energy differential and will suck the life right out of you. Last night I did okay, but could possibly have lost my soul had I not left in time. I don't know where those people come from or where they go when the mall closes, but I have rarely seen such a concentration of pitiful individuals. A keen eye can read the pain on their souls. I thoroughly hold it against them that their façades convey such confidence and disdain. It is so easy to wish them out of the universe, but terribly ineffective.
My return home brought me painfully back to the reality of finals at school. Fall term really comes way too close to the holidays. Soon it will all be over.