Christmas Shopping

I've never been one for shopping.  My wife, on the other hand, loves it.  For me it's a trial and usually a waste of time.  For her, it's pure pleasure.

I sometimes accompany her on these shopping trips.  Usually when I have nothing better to do, or when after my wandering aimlessly through the shopping mall for an hour or two, there is the prospect of our having a nice dinner at some nearby restaurant.

Christmastime brings on added challenges.  The big ones being the crowds, the search for parking, the waiting in line at the cash register, and all the sound and the fury multiplied tenfold because it's holiday time and people are buying gifts at the last minute.

While my wife disappears into Nordstrom's, making sure that I have my cell phone turned on, I wander into a shop or two that might briefly engage my interest.  The first of these is a camera shop, where under normal circumstances I would be able to check out the latest digital megapixel marvels with extra-long optical zoom ranges, or to challenge the clerk on his mastery of electronic terminology and the gadget's operations.  

But there are dozens of prospective customers laying claim to his time, and it would not be fair to take up any of it unless I am intent on buying something. Which at the moment I am not.

Next stop is a bakery, to which I am attracted by the wonderful aromas, but here again the line is long, and the girls at the counter are so busy that it will be a while before they'll get around to my order, so I move on. I notice that at every food establishment in the mall, whether at the sprawling Food Court with its variety of mainstream American and ethnic food offerings, or at the many cookie, pretzel, and cinnamon bun shops sprinkled thoughout the complex, there are long lines of hungry young people.  Some quite overweight.

With Christmas less than a week away, it seems to me that everybody in the shopping mall is busy either buying or eating.  And every bench in the whole place is occupied.  People are seated on (or sometimes simply resting their bottoms against) every available surface.  The moment somebody vacates a seat on a bench, there is somebody else waiting to occupy it.  But I'm in luck.  Two older ladies leave a bench, having been found by a younger one, obviously the daughter of one of them. There is a brief verbal outburst that sounds like a scolding in a foreign tongue. They shuffle off, and I sit down.

This bench is located just in front of the main entrance of one of the mall's big 'anchor stores'. (I don't know if the term 'anchor store' is commonly understood, but it signifies a big name store that attracts a lot of customers, and so boosts mall traffic for the smaller stores as well.)  This one happens to be Macy's.

I like people-watching, and this spot is ideal for it.  With my MP3 player ear-buds in my ears, I settle in for at least a half hour of observing my fellow human beings as they go about their Christmas shopping, as I wait patiently for the expected call on my cell phone with the blessed news that my wife has completed her own.