TGIF

That was yesterday. Fridays are supposed to be a half workdays at our company. So, I got off work a little early. As much as I dislike shopping in the mall (especially around this time of the year), I had a plan to buy a few things. Malls, to me, epitomize the materialistic world far beyond the needs for a comfortable living. The lure creates artificial needs resulting in our insatiable craving for material goods. But we live in a materialistic society. Unless you want to be an outcast, we go with the flow. I am sure there are exceptions. But, I guess I am not. So, after a short work out at a nearby gym (yes, I am trying to stay fit and it's hard work at my age), I went to the mall.

I knew exactly what to shop for (the other members of the family). There was definitely a holiday spirit in the atmosphere. The dazzling sights and sound, the decor, the glitter, the colorful wrappings, the "Jingle Bell" music, store full of clothes (from all over the world including those from sweat shops of countries that you never saw a few years ago, Globalization!!), shoes, toys, neatly dressed shapely mannequins certainly took even those with limited means to a fantasy land and seduced them to charge it to the credit card. Tomorrow! Who cares about tomorrow?

I bought my stuff relatively quickly. Everyone was unusually nice and helpful. "How may I help you? I can check you out right over here. My name is XXX, please let me know if I can assist you some way." Customer first! But in reality, it was like the free champagne in Las Vegas, as long as you kept feeding those hungry slot machines. They wanted customers to keep shopping and keep swiping the credit cards until the cards reach the limits.

I finished my shopping and headed home. My wife arrived from work. The best part was that we got to talk to our older daughter who was in India for a workshop on GPS. She was just getting out of bed in a hotel in Banaglore. I also quickly checked our younger daughter’s (who is in Tokyo for two years) blog site. This is how we mostly know about her activities. She just had a hair cut.

After that, my wife suggested going to a nearby Wal-Mart for a few things. So, we went. Walking through the aisles of this mega Wal-Mart, I lost her a few times. After a couple of hours and after swiping the credit card again (credit card, what a marvelous invention!) we managed to get out of there.

The shining Christmas lights welcomed us back to our empty nest. Our cat was glad to see us back. Oh, what a Friday!