Everything goes downhill after Thanksgiving. Well, not really.
The holiday season is a rather stressful time for many of us. How can it not be? There are the dreaded finals high school and college students must first overcome to begin their Winter Break, the threat of contact with the unwanted, unliked and smelly relatives visiting, giving you a hideous knitted sweater with a deformed Rudolph embroidered on it, the need to spend a copious amount of money on people you may not like, knowing that you will gain weight, and more. It's also an incredibly dangerous time. Stores are filled to the brim with mothers who need to buy their child the brand new XBox or PS3. How else will they be able to satisfy their thirst for computer animated blood and violence?
It all starts at around midnight, maybe 4:00 a.m., on the Friday follwing Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the day we celebrate consumerism, materialism, awesome savings on things we need/don't need, and human population. Oh, and it's also a wonderful way to shed off all the weight we might have gained from stuffing ourselves with a copious amount of food the night before, as well as forget what we learned the night before! No, that's not true. We are grateful for awesome savings!
For those that don't really know, Black Friday is the day many stores decide to lower their prices on, like, everything. It's pretty much the first day of the holiday season. As wonderful as it may sound, this day is slightly infamous. People have definitely died, mostly by being trampled by obese peolple trying to get into the store. It's a good way to keep the population in check. Here's a video.
It can get a looooooot worse than that.
It begins.
If you unfortunately miss this day of fun and crowds, you're out of luck. Prices for objects your children want will return to normal and you will suffer. But if you feel the need to buy them crap, I have a piece of information that will save you from tearing your hair out!
About a year and a half ago, I signed up for the Borders membership thingy. I like books, but books are expensive. Fortunately, by being a member of Borders Rewards, I get weekly coupons! So plan ahead. There are a lot of different memberships for different stores, I imagine. So look into them. If part of the whole membership allows you to recieve a large amount of coupons for free, then by all means join said membership thing. Coupons are pretty much your best friends during this time.
Or, don't buy any gifts. Make some. It shows that you care a lot more (hopefully), and you won't have to spend any money.
Or don't give any tangible gifts. Just, like, hang out with the people you care about. Perhaps that's one of the many meanings of the holiday season. And all the religious ones, too, but I won't get into them, mainly because I'm afraid I'll get something wrong and religious people will descend on my like a pack of angry, hungry wolves.
Some people will be forced to spend time with their families they normally wouldn't want to be near. I say get over it. Some of these people could possibly die within the next couple of days, so deal with it. If you have to spend time with them, don't go out of your way to be bored, depressed, angry, angsty, annoyed, etc. Maybe try to enjoy your company.
One last thing. I come from a Catholic family, so we celebrate Christmas. My sister moved out recently, so I was the only child living in the house. My sister normally organizes the tree decorating crap, but she wasn't here, and my parents were all busy-like and stuff. So, I believed the tree-decorating duty was placed on me. I didn't want to, though. The reason I did is because I felt like I had to. So I conformed to tradition.
Normally, our tree is decorated in the typical fashion: ornaments, lights, strands of beads, and angel on the peak of the tree, etc., etc. I put fruit on the tree. It started with a banana, then a kiwi was added, followed by an apple and an orange. By doing so, I was pretty much flipping tradition off, but not so it was obvious. It was more like flipping tradition off so it wouldn't see me. So I ended up liking the tree a lot more by not following the rules and such, which made me feel better about it and stuff.
I don't know how this applies to going insane. Figure it out.
Happy Holidays, you guys!
Love,
Alejandro.
The holiday season is a rather stressful time for many of us. How can it not be? There are the dreaded finals high school and college students must first overcome to begin their Winter Break, the threat of contact with the unwanted, unliked and smelly relatives visiting, giving you a hideous knitted sweater with a deformed Rudolph embroidered on it, the need to spend a copious amount of money on people you may not like, knowing that you will gain weight, and more. It's also an incredibly dangerous time. Stores are filled to the brim with mothers who need to buy their child the brand new XBox or PS3. How else will they be able to satisfy their thirst for computer animated blood and violence?
It all starts at around midnight, maybe 4:00 a.m., on the Friday follwing Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the day we celebrate consumerism, materialism, awesome savings on things we need/don't need, and human population. Oh, and it's also a wonderful way to shed off all the weight we might have gained from stuffing ourselves with a copious amount of food the night before, as well as forget what we learned the night before! No, that's not true. We are grateful for awesome savings!
For those that don't really know, Black Friday is the day many stores decide to lower their prices on, like, everything. It's pretty much the first day of the holiday season. As wonderful as it may sound, this day is slightly infamous. People have definitely died, mostly by being trampled by obese peolple trying to get into the store. It's a good way to keep the population in check. Here's a video.
It can get a looooooot worse than that.
It begins.
If you unfortunately miss this day of fun and crowds, you're out of luck. Prices for objects your children want will return to normal and you will suffer. But if you feel the need to buy them crap, I have a piece of information that will save you from tearing your hair out!
About a year and a half ago, I signed up for the Borders membership thingy. I like books, but books are expensive. Fortunately, by being a member of Borders Rewards, I get weekly coupons! So plan ahead. There are a lot of different memberships for different stores, I imagine. So look into them. If part of the whole membership allows you to recieve a large amount of coupons for free, then by all means join said membership thing. Coupons are pretty much your best friends during this time.
Or, don't buy any gifts. Make some. It shows that you care a lot more (hopefully), and you won't have to spend any money.
Or don't give any tangible gifts. Just, like, hang out with the people you care about. Perhaps that's one of the many meanings of the holiday season. And all the religious ones, too, but I won't get into them, mainly because I'm afraid I'll get something wrong and religious people will descend on my like a pack of angry, hungry wolves.
Some people will be forced to spend time with their families they normally wouldn't want to be near. I say get over it. Some of these people could possibly die within the next couple of days, so deal with it. If you have to spend time with them, don't go out of your way to be bored, depressed, angry, angsty, annoyed, etc. Maybe try to enjoy your company.
One last thing. I come from a Catholic family, so we celebrate Christmas. My sister moved out recently, so I was the only child living in the house. My sister normally organizes the tree decorating crap, but she wasn't here, and my parents were all busy-like and stuff. So, I believed the tree-decorating duty was placed on me. I didn't want to, though. The reason I did is because I felt like I had to. So I conformed to tradition.
Normally, our tree is decorated in the typical fashion: ornaments, lights, strands of beads, and angel on the peak of the tree, etc., etc. I put fruit on the tree. It started with a banana, then a kiwi was added, followed by an apple and an orange. By doing so, I was pretty much flipping tradition off, but not so it was obvious. It was more like flipping tradition off so it wouldn't see me. So I ended up liking the tree a lot more by not following the rules and such, which made me feel better about it and stuff.
I don't know how this applies to going insane. Figure it out.
Happy Holidays, you guys!
Love,
Alejandro.
Whoa...that was a WILD Black Friday. Geesh.
ReplyDeleteHey, Nice post. YOu write really well. I'm intrigued about the Borders thing too... I wish they had that in my country. :-)
RYC: I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a kid (among others. :-))
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI actually want to be a doctor!