Sparkle Shopping

Countdown

Till my birthday: 33 Days

Till Christmas: 46 Days

Till a brand New Year: 52 Days

That's a whole lotta sparkles!!

I love the holidays.

I am one of those annoyingly chipper people who starts listening to Christmas music way too early and would have her lights up year round if propriety allowed it.

I am someone who is excited that there is Christmas crap everywhere when there's still Halloween crap everywhere.

I am also someone who has no problem buying myself presents while I also buy for others (See what I treated myself to above.  I was very surprised with my own generosity but I definitely deserved it).

I am also one of those people who laughs loudly when standing in the Shoebox aisle at Hallmark.

I even kind of enjoy retail during the holidays.

Oh sure, sometimes it brings out the worst in people and I get to witness the mounting tension as the days go by and procrastinators run out of time and options for mandatory gifts.

What do you mean you're out of it?

Well, sir, we've had our Christmas ornaments since July.

Hallmark is definitely the epitomy of the angriest of the crazies.

People don't usually get their feathers quite as ruffled over eggnog.

Plus, you can always offer them some complimentary sugar to placate them.

Gotta love Starbucks for that.

There was this really sweet older couple that came into my store the other day and they wanted eggnog lattes but we were out of eggnog.  So when they settled on peppermint mochas I joyfully declared, It's Christmas in a cup!  And when I called out their drinks, Two Christmases in cups! I also added, Now all you have to do is find yourselves some mistletoe!  The older gentlemen who had been genuinely disappointed over his loss of eggnog got a twinkle in his eye.  Say, you're pretty good at this, aren't you? he said.  I grinned back in agreement, Yes, yes I am.  As he walked away the lady leaned toward me and said quietly, We have our own invisible mistletoe and that works just fine. 

It was so perfect!  I love it when old people are still frisky.  That's how I'm going to be, frisky at every age.  And telling random sales girls about me and my guys invisible mistletoe.

And how!

I wandered around the mall today taking in all the sparkly decorations and musing over the fact that cheesy Christmas stuff still makes me giddy like a little girl.  I guess I've just always loved Christmas and no matter how old I get and what all I go through, I still become that hopeful little girl, delighting in the Charlie brown ornaments, gazing longingly at every sparkly piece of jewelry, giggling over the new naughty negliges I bought (well, that might be the hopeful woman, not the little girl). 

But you get the picture.

It's transcendent, somehow, and I loved that.

I also loved being the rare person that actually smiles at the cashier and talks to them like a person and not a robot.  I went to the post office today to mail a surprise to a friend and I cannot tell you how stressed out those employees looked.  This one employee was telling someone what they needed to do for changing their address and the way she delivered her words you would have thought she was a programmed robot who uttered the same 27 words over and over again.  It took everything in me to stifle my laughter.  People are so ridiculously amusing if you just take a few minutes to stop and watch them.  They say and do the most absurd things and get so upset over so little.  It really is like one giant ongoing comedy, right before your very eyes.

I freaking loved that.

I guess I was just excited to see what would happen next.

The ends of things often made way for new beginnings.

And newness was always extra sparkly and extra exciting to unwrap.

And anticipating all that lay in store added extra giddiness to this girls already overwhelmingly hopeful excitement.

Your birthday is soon! Grandma said to me tonight.  You're going to be twenty-nine!  Are you so excited?

And I was. 

I was beyond excited.

For something tremendous surely was in store.