Caffeinated and ready to go.

It's on. Until last Friday or so, the malls were still pretty much manageable during the week and even on the weekend. But now, you can see, it's on. The rush has begun and mall parking takes you either schlepping across the street or car-stalking wayward shoppers leaving the malls with swirlies in their eyes and wandering aimlessly in search of their cars, stumbling with fistfulls of packages. And you think you're close to getting a spot, when the shopper you're stalking all of a sudden zigzags through the cars and takes a right and heads down a completely different aisle where there is already another car ready to stalk for a spot. I see it all the time. But this year is different for me. I won't stalk. I will be perfectly content at whatever parking spot presents itself. And I am armed with a list, so I will not be venturing toward this crazy cluster of mad shoppers empty handed. And as of this writing, I am quite caffeinated. There are still 13 days, and I am about halfway done, and this is wonderful progress in my world. So I will breathe in deeply the holiday spirit and exhale sighs of relaxing wonderment and the gentle scent of a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.