I love how cheerful and polite people are around the Holiday season.

I was at a shopping center...you know the kind, where everyone races to get the parking spots closest to the stores because this is America and no one likes to walk. And everyone rushes around with their kids in a furious race to buy things for Christmas?

Yes well, a minivan and I pulled to a 4 way stop at about the same time, and since he didn't go immediately, I went. That's what you do when you arrive at the same time. What was I supposed to do, get out of my car and discuss it with him? No. So I promptly went. He lays on his horn of course, and starts SCREAMING at me out his window. Over a stop sign. He spent more time yelling at me than it took for him to turn and get behind me and be on his merry way.

People have absolutely no sense whatsoever of courtesy, good-will, and joy. Does it really matter whether you got delayed 2 seconds at a stop sign? I would have muttered a bad name at him and gone on with my life if it were me.

Do the holidays--or let alone human decency--mean anything to anyone? This is why I hate over-caffeinated Americans in their freaking huge ass cars. In shopping centers. This is why, on top of the crappy music and the Giant obnoxious Santa stand ups, I hate Christmas. Everyone TALKS about being nice to toher people. We all THINK about being courteous and happy. But obviously that's not what Christmas means to anyone anymore. No, it's a race to see who can be the biggest **** in the parking lot so they can participate in the frenzy of commercialism and materialism for validation that they are good parents.

I'm sorry, but Christmas makes me bitter.

 

This is why I tend to hate driving and go anywhere near the malls, big box electronic stores, etc. at this time of year.

 

Reminds me of last night.

Not exactly having to do with cheeriness and politeness, but I had gone to see Narnia at the domed theaters, right?

Anyway, I got up to go on a potty break right when Susan and Lucy were about to follow Aslan to the White Witch. I was thinking "Hey, I'll get this over now and come back in time for the good parts."

So I get up, go down this semi-round hallway before the main concourse area and there's this guy in the middle of the floor, lying down, his upper torso and head slouched against the wall and in front of him was a spilled popcorn. This guy was OUT. It was kinda creepy, what with the mysterious Narnia music playing in the background...

At first, I didn't completely register what I saw. A quick moment later, I walked by and into the lobby and told the manager there was a guy asleep in the hall. So then I go take my leak and return and the staff still haven't handled the problem, judging by how they come up to me and ask what the problem was. So I point out the guy to them and they're like "****."

Now, I've never, ever seen something like this before. It was a bit like a "losing-your-viriginity" experience, so to speak. But that popcorn wasn't popcorn. It was this yellowy, popcorny VOMIT. The guy was actually passed out.

That's right.


Wasted at Narnia.

Now I only realized this ten minutes after the fact just because I haven't seen something like this before yet. At first, when they were bending over him, trying to wake him, a quick, dreadful thought flashed through my mind that he might've been dead and I was the first on the scene. And then there was this other guy in the lobby who was collapsing all over and I'm like "Oh ****.... is it the popcorn? Am I at a virus outbreak? What the hell's going on?"

Oh no, they were just drunk off their asses, literally.

Thank god no little ones saw it. The managers ended giving me three free tickets (any movie) for me and my bro and his friend (I'll be using those for KK, I guess). But I missed like the whole sacrifice scene, the battle, and didn't come back into the theater until the crowning after they had cleaned up the vomit and the drunks had gone home and I had gotten a breath of fresh air.

Sheesh.

 

Screw you.

 

Everyone celebrates the Christmas spirit in different ways, Coruscant.

 

too long did not read.

 

So true. There is no Christmas spirit besides commercialism. It just makes everyone pissed and the stores completely full and sold out, so you can't shop anywhere for two months (December because everyone's buying and January because everyone is returning crappy items). Everyone says it's in the spirit of giving and good will, and it's the thought that counts. Bull. If the thought counted and it was just in the spirit of giving, yo wouldn't need to be fighting your way through lines of people to get someone a Gameboy. You wouldn't be trying to steal the last XBox 360 from that bastard in front of you who got it before you. You would accept it and say, make something yourself.

As for the person who came to the intersection at the same time as you, what kind of car was he driving (e.g. SUV, Hummer, Station Wagon)?

 

Everyone celebrates the Christmas spirit in different ways, Coruscant.

But in public in knowing presence of kids?

 

I was at a shopping center...you know the kind, where everyone races to get the parking spots closest to the stores because this is America and no one likes to walk

I would normally laugh and agree at your fat Americans joke, but I think now it has most to do with not catching pneumonia and dying, or slipping and breaking something than not wanting to walk.

 

Yeah, it's funny when I park in the farthest from the store and just when I get into the store, I see these people still circling the parking lot.

 

Exactly why I hate this time of year.

And people look at me funny when I say I hate Christmas.

 

Does anyone [else] here actually like Christmas?

 

The person was driving a mini van. The kind with electric doors on both sides so you don't have to waste any energy closing them yourselves, with DVD players in the back because your kids can't stand reading a book, coloring, or playing with each other during car trips.

And I agree with the comment about it being very cold, but I live in Arizona. BAM. you just got served


EDIT:
I love Christmas. I love bieng with my family who raised me to remember those less fortunate and who taught me that it is important and FUN to spend time with each other. I love my mom putting on her Christmas music while we decorate the tree, I love getting in family fights when putting up the Christmas lights because my dad broke the lights when I was supposed to be holding them. I love sitting on the couch and *gasp* talking with my mom, and making things for my family and I love the fact that we don't get XBoxs and video games for Christmas.

 

LOL, did Coruscant say "potty break"?

 

I think he did.

And although the guy was being indecent in public, the kiddies won't be traumatized if you explain what they saw in context. If they even notice that he was drunk.

 

HeHe potty break

 

Actually, I do, because of what Christmas really means to people like me.

Sadly, though, Anakins Girl has a very valid point. Although I do see some instances of people trying to be overly nice at this time of year, I also do see something of an increase in rather rude and unsocial behavior, just because some kid's parent(s) have to race in to the mall, have the closest parking spot, have to bend to the demands of little Jimmy or Sally to get the most, the biggest, the shiniest, the loudest, the most expensive "hot toy this year", all in the name of commercialism. *sigh*

It's times like that that I understand why Jesus wept.

But as for people being overly nice just for this time of year, what's so wrong about being that way all year long? Is it too much of a hassle for those people to actually treat others with basic human decency beyond the Christmas holidays?

In many cases, I guess it is.

 

Yeah, but since when does gift-giving = commercialization? I mean, isn't it possible that these parents are buying these toys because they love their child, and want them to be happy? Obviously, material goods are not the most important thing in life - but they're not nothing, either.

 

Especially if you have to work overtime and on Christmas day.

 

Oh, don't misunderstand me. I'm not knocking the wonder and delight that is gift-giving. I myself love to give to those I love, and delight in receiving from those I love. But for many, that is the focus of their very existence. They have made the aquisition of material things the motivating force that drives their lives. Does that make things a bit clearer now?

 

But as for people being overly nice just for this time of year, what's so wrong about being that way all year long? Is it too much of a hassle for those people to actually treat others with basic human decency beyond the Christmas holidays?


This is so true. This is another reason why I hate the holiday season. People punch their "be nice to society" cards and think they're good to go for the rest of the year. what a cop-out.

and as far as the gift-giving concerns, I don't think getting in a fistfight over an XBox is a parent just trying to make their kid happy. I also don't think spending an obscene amount of money just to make your kid happy is what "giving" is really all about. It takes more than STUFF to make someone happy, and by placing happiness in material goods, you are successfully misplacing your ability to relate to the rest of the world outside of the West, free of the kind of commercialism we see here.

Basically to back up my point, I will cite something I saw on I love the 80's 3D. they showed news footage from the 80's during the Cabbage Patch craze, which featured an interview with a mother who could not get to the goods. She said, "what am I supposed to tell my kids? You've been a good girl this year, but Santa ran short? What am I supposed to say?"

To that, you slap your brat upside the face and tell them to be grateful for what they have. If you are so depraved as a human being and as a parent that you honestly consider it a crisis that you couldn't get the PRECISE toy Johnny asked for, then you have serious issues.


I remember when I was 8, I wanted the Barbie horse that walked on its own, and my mom couldn't afford it. So instead, she got me a horse with bendable limbs so I could position it and make it walk myself. And you know what? I was *just* as happy.

EDIT:
and of course, I'm not saying that going out and buying stuff for your family is *wrong* or bad, I'm just saying placing the value of your parenting and the happiness of your children as justification for acting like a selfish bastard is wrong.

 

I do!!!



~Rogue~

 

I work at Best Buy. Yeah. That's right.

Day After Thanksgiving AKA Black Friday

Guy comes up to one of the guys working in Media that day, asking about some "Xbox 360". He does this 1) on the Friday after 360 release, and 2) at 8 in the morning when we've had our doors open since 5. Coworker does all he can not to laugh, and tells him "we sold out of those on Tuesday."

Guy: "You just ruined my kid's Christmas!"

BBY guy: ..................................

 

I HATE, HATE, HATE those stupid "Why can't we have Christmas all year round"-type songs, because for some reason the stores ONLY PLAY THEM AT CHRISTMAS. It would be a lot more communicative if they played that sort of song in the middle of June.

 

Hahahaha wow!

I used to work in retail. People figure that anyone wearing the shirt with the company logo on it has this "Unlimited power" that magically makes things happen.

Really they've been trained that if they complain enough the manager will come in like a parent to a crying child and let them have their way.

Me, I think that people have also been trained into thinking that christmas should be an exception where everyone should be nice to each other. Let's face it no matter what happens there are always going to be mean edgy people around. Time of year doesn't mean anything to cranky people.

I'm starting to sound pretty cranky myself