Shopping at Full Speed

This morning, I decided it was the right time to go shopping. That decision was reached by my thinking a few things:

1. I hadn't done any shopping yet.
2. Christmas Eve is tomorrow.
3. I wasn't doing anything else right then.

Shortly after 11:00 AM, I began my shopping odyssey. On my way out the door, my mom said something about "beating the church crowd to the stores." I had debated about whether or not to eat lunch before heading out, before deciding to postpone food until after the shopping. It was a good choice.

First stop, a Barnes and Noble. Unlike some previous years, I had been able to put together a working list of possible gifts for my mom, dad, and two brothers. I'd looked online earlier to see if a particular gift was available, so I had a pretty good idea of scratching off two gifts for two people at B&N. Thanks to some in-store browsing, I switched one gift for something found at the scene, and picked up additional gifts for some others.

Back to the car and down the street about a quarter-mile to Best Buy. Here I had an even better idea what to buy, though I had no idea if it would be in stock. It was, and I managed to fill out the remainder of my gift roster. I proceeded to the checkout holding pen. It's a large, roped-off area where people line up BEFORE you can be assigned to the line for your individual cashier. It reminds me a bit of the lines at Six Flags where you have to wait in line in order to wait in line.

Through a massive display of good fortune and fortuitous timing, the holding pen was empty. I was able to stride rite up to the gateway leading to the actual cashier area. There was a blue-shirted employee there whose job it was to direct traffic. After looking around at the impulse purchase items surrounding me (who buys candy at Best Buy, anyway?), I turn around only to notice that the holding area is rapidly filling up. As I get directed to lane 10, I notice that the line behind me now contains more than 15 people. Arrived at the nick of time!

Luckily, I had those wonderful pre-gift ideas, and didn't have to settle for "I hope they like this thing I just found". I've made some unfortunate gifts to friends and loved ones in my time, and I hate to have people needing to humor me because of inappropriate guesses in my gift selection.