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  • The Perfect Day

    I've been reading these stories of customers going into hysterics because they couldn't find the perfect whatnot at 5:45 PM on December 24th and complaining because now Christmas is ruined and little Junior will decide Santa doesn't exist and grow up to be an axe-murderer or something, and it strikes me that a lot of such attitude may be down to the fantasy of the Perfect Day.

    My roommate gets this a lot. He'll say, "Let's go to the movies tomorrow." "Great!" "Okay, I'll hop online and see if anyone else wants to go."

    Three hours later, he's corralled twenty-seven friends and thirteen acquaintances into attending the 6:30 PM showing of a completely different movie four days from now, dinner to follow, at a cinema some 30 miles away, because it's the only one we all can reach on the only day we're all available. What started out as a trip to the pictures has turned into a logistics conundrum second only to the setup and teardown of a Van Halen concert. I've seen Broadway plays roll into town with less prep.

    Then, if anyone cancels or can't make it or has to work, The Whole Thing's Ruined, and rather than just sit back and enjoy the movie with the 26 friends who DID make it, he spends the rest of the day muttering imprecations against the one who didn't.

    Now that that idea's in your head, here's the next bit.

    I was listening to the Doctor Demento Show a bunch of years ago, and the song played was "The Twelve Pains of Christmas." By about number nine, I was thinking, "Jeez, guys, if it's that big of a pain in the ass, why do you do it?" In fact, most of the Christmas songs on the show seemed to be about how annoying Christmas was. So do most modern Christmas movies - they're all about digging through the hassle to create the perfect holiday.

    Why not dispose of the stuff that pisses you off the most? Why hang the lights if it's just going to annoy you?

    There's an obsessiveness that comes with big events that has to match the fantasy. If you're not all dressed in hideous sweaters with a big roaring fire and Mannheim Steamroller piped in over quad speakers under a twinkling tree while your kid lovingly reveals the toy he had his heart set on, while Mom takes pictures and Dad sips eggnog, why, it simply won't do.

    I made divinity fudge. I didn't boil the sugar long enough, and I wound up with marshmallow slop. And yet, Christmas was not ruined. The fudge was, but the fudge =/= Christmas. Besides, the sugar cookies and meringues were awesome. (My kitchen is a disaster area right now, but I don't care.)

    I think that the people throwing a $#!+fest over their own inability to budget the time and money to fulfill their wildest dreams of the holidays are terrified of losing that fantasy. I think that's what turns normal customers into SC's and regular SC's into raving lunatics.

    Also, clerks make easy targets. "What do you mean you don't have the hottest video game in the world just before closing on Christmas Eve? Why should I have had to buy it before you ran out? It's all your fault and I'm going to blame you for ruining Christmas for my son, because he needs someone to blame...and it ain't gonna be me."

    Comments?

    Love, Who?

  • #2
    while the "Prefect Day" for me is only a memory (as I said in this thread http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=57602), I have not let that fact ruin really this holiday for me. kinda sucked for a few years, but then I got married and had a daughter, so the "magic" of the season kinda returned. Real fun stuff watching your kid tear open gifts and stuff. We mostly managed to tavel to my parents place for the holidays even after my Dad passed so the "warmth" of "home" still came to me.

    Which is partially what this holiday is all about (or evolved into). The togetherness, the warmth of home, the good cheer (or the warmth of the "spiked" eggnog if you will ), etc. Not that I am going all "all must be the perfect Norman Rockwell picture" , but the just essential spirit of the season. nothing more, nothing less.

    WHY OH WHY must this holiday now be ruled by consumerism, commericalism, EW's, SC's, must have the latest and greatest megaselling CRAP or I will die type stuff.

    my tastes are simple, no big gathering, just a few close people, no big flashy materalistic stuff, a few () lights on the house, a simple decorated tree, maybe a train set running around a small winter village, a few hours of cheer and a warmth that lasts for months.
    I'm lost without a paddle and headed up SH*T creek.
    -- Life Sucks Then You Die.


    "I'll believe corp. are people when Texas executes one."

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    • #3
      I dunno about anybody else, but Christmas is just about a perfect day for me. Lounge around and snack all day and enjoy the presents I got.

      If everybody's schedules allow it, we go visiting relatives on Christmas Day.

      I don't have to spend any time at work getting bitched at about this thing or the other thing. That in itself would be good enough for me.

      This whole "perfect day" thing stopped for me when I started working. I got called into my job on Christmas Eve. I really didn't want to go, but I learned Christmas Eve is basically just another day in the business world. And now I have to do my own cooking, decorating and shopping instead of letting the parents do it and just waiting for the part where we open presents.
      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

      "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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      • #4
        I only put lights and tree topper on our tree... I thought it was pretty just like that. And when hubby's family wanted to move the venue from our house to brother-in-law's house so they could watch the game. Hey, go for it, now I don't have to cook or clean, as thoroughly. Presents for the kiddo? Majority are from Santa, so they weren't wrapped. Yay. It was like an invisible 'easy' button was pushed, but that was probably to make up for my horrible, no-good, bad day on Christmas Eve.
        Make a list of important things to do today.
        At the top of your list, put 'eat chocolate'
        Now, you'll get at least one thing done today

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