You can tell the holidays are almost upon us in my little part of the world. The malls, Wal-Marts, Targets, etc., are busier than usual. This is also my time of the year I avoid Wal-Mart and the malls like the plague. I am not a shopper by any stretch of the imagination. I hate it, in fact. Window shopping is not in my vocabulary…well…I guess it is since I just put it in this entry. Anyway…this is the time of year that fascinates me about people. It amazes me, for example, that people will wait outside a Best Buy at 2AM on Black Friday to buy merchandise. Sure, they get great deals this time of the year. But, come on…is it worth freezing your ass off at 2AM to 6AM when the store opens? I just don’t get it. Some people have camped out in front of Circuit City (apparently, not enough given their financial woes) to get great deals on computers. I just don’t understand it. Invariably, fights break out when someone tries to break in line. Cops are called, people are arrested and someone is going to have an unhappy Christmas.

Just as bad to me is the outrageous traffic. Airport Blvd is the busiest thoroughfare in this city. It goes between two huge malls in the city of Mobile. Around December 10th, it is bumper to bumper traffic. It will take you 30-60 minutes to go two miles that encompasses this area. That is no joke. And, still…still people come to be part of this. It’s this time of the year I am glad I’m not married any longer. I do not enjoy getting trapped in traffic during the holiday season. My ex-wife made it an issue that I accompany her on these holiday jaunts into the malls. If I ever do marry again, I will have a prenuptial agreement stating I don’t have to go shopping with her under any circumstances. Just joking…kinda. Why do women enjoy shopping so much, especially during the holidays? I have never understood that.

Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy the holiday season. It is a time of cheer, enjoyment, visits with relatives and friends you don’t get to spend much time with during the rest of the year. I love the turkey, ham and dressing just as much as anyone else. Even at my age, I enjoy the gifts. That’s the 10 year old boy in me, I guess. It’s fun and enjoyable. But, Christmas itself has become so commercialized until we seem to lose focus on the reason of this holiday. It gets worse each year. Even when I was a young boy, it was highly commercialized and I didn’t even realize it. Santa Claus is the ultimate pitch man for spending during Christmas. And, having said that, Christmas has never, ever been the same since the day I found out there was no Santa. It was magical when Santa was “alive.” I miss that part of Christmas. I regret I will never feel that kind of joy again.