[Rook]

Doing some last minute shopping for NYE dinner, decided to visit Kroger's instead of Wal-Mart.
Holiday + very crowded Wal-Mart = Cranky-Edgy-HyperAlert Rook.
The parking lot should've been a huge red flag, but then we usually have issues finding a spot.
Going inside, very few shopping carts should've told me "RUN , RUN!!"
Walked in, stunned....
"Where'd all these pipsqueaks come from???"
My brother surmised the students are back, their collective rich mommies and daddies with platinum cards were buying temp. stock.
"Hmm, I thought this crowd would be in wal-mart" ~twitch.....
We lacked one ingredient we use that Kroger's didn't have, my brother suggested walmart, so I grabbed a random kielbasa and shrugged "hell no, if this place is packed, imagine wally world"
"that's not the ham we get, and it's expensive!!" (he always was a penny-pinching miser, got him in teased as a kid.....he argued the cost of a butterfinger when it rose from a quarter to 50 cents..)
"I'll improvise, let's go, i can see the Lines from back here, use your imagination, it does have ham, you're close to seeing 2012, for now."
He merely grabbed his fave SoBe, and shut up....

The only part of Holidays I loathe.....Commercialized holidays, buy buy buy buy......

St. Valentine's? Buy this insanely big Pink teddy bear, why bother with a dozen roses, if u really love her, Buy these....75$ worth of soon to be dead 2 dozen!!!....And don't forget the 50pd box of chocolate !!! {i'm not kidding, I saw one...all I could think of was "wow, u really fucked up BADLY to buy that...."

Mother's /Fathers Day.....out of 365 days a year.....people pick that ONE day, to give them something.....and often, for the Father, it's a strange necktie?....My father was barely around, and when he was, the last thing on my mind was father's day......
Mother's got it better....
Dead flowers mostly, but still...cute stuff....
I still it oughta be a random deal every other day show appreciation, materialism kind of sux after awhile.
Won't even go there on the Easter/X-Mas thing.....

The officially recognized/federally recognized holidays srsly get exploited, no?
The quiet ones that slip by, or the lesser known ones {for now, shhh, hallmark's watching!!} seem to enjoy a smidge more respect.
At least within the U.S., I was a Military Brat, so we travelled.....Often....
The only times I saw "Excess" was in a global holiday, but not always revolving around Commercialism. X-mas in germany Was awesome. 3 Kings Day in Spain is somethin to remember. We stopped briefly in Israel once, during Sukkot, I was entranced with what I saw.....
I would suppose Holidays do help the sagging economy, but still, damn....