Why Pay More?

In my little world, there is nothing quite so embarrassing as being one of those "early bird" shoppers. For those of you who may live and die by the 6am call of the cash register, more power to you. But for me, I'm content to pay a few extra bucks later and stay in bed until Katie, Matt, Ann and Al have given me the 15 minute lowdown.

So today, at 5:55 am, the day after Christmas, with all its day after Christmas sales, where was I? You guessed it. I was standing outside the local grocery-mart-arama, shivering, with about 20 other insane people early bird shoppers because one of my Christmas Day not so Wise Men feats included frying the portable DVD player, and today was spend twelve hours in the car driving with everybody else in the world day.

And the eleventh commandment, for those who might not know is, Thou shalt not drive for 12 hours without copious electronic diversions. Otherwise, it's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" on permanent tape loop, which gets old after the first hour or two. At least it did when TinyTuna was three.

At 6am prompt they unlocked the doors of the local grocery-mart-arama. This is the only day in the entire year when this is done, since Christmas is the only day the store is closed. And in marched: me, the portable DVD slayer, and a bunch of old people who (seriously, they said this) had nothing else to do, so they thought they'd walk around the grocery store for awhile.

If only I had that much nothing to do...

I found the DVD players, but none had a Special Markdown Price for those who celebrate Baby Jesus' birthday by trying to set their house on fire tags. After speaking to no less than 5 bleary-eyed associates, we found someone with the holy keys to the display case, nabbed a DVD player, checked the price, and out I went.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, as we drove through grey Michigan, grey Ohio and grey Pennsylvania. Just when we were starting to feel pretty smug in the travelling department, the weather in Pennsylvania went from "isn't the snow on the trees pretty?" to "hrm, it's getting hard to see the trees" to "wow, it's getting kind of foggy" to "AIEEEE! WHERE WAS THE TRUCK THAT WAS 10 FEET IN FRONT OF ME?"

You may think your trip is going well, but I'm here to tell you, the Pennsylvania turnpike is the great equalizer.

And now we are here, south of the Mason-Dixon line, ready for some fun and relaxation Maryland style. As long as I don't have to drive Pennsylvania for a few days, or shop at 6am, things are looking mighty fine.

Y'all.