it won't be safe for much longer...

i think today the window of semi-safe pre-holiday shopping has just about closed. i ventured over to our neighborhood targhetto this evening, partially for caffeine (stahbies may not have invaded the hood yet, but they are hiding out inside target... so now you can conveniently get amped up on soy chai as you fill your cart full of gallon-sized-double-pump-my-hands-be-ashy-lotion and 40lbs of kitty litter), and partially to get some xmas fixins, knowing full well that soon it will be an all out combat zone. that tinseltweak was already in the air, but not quite upped to 5-candy- cane-chaos-status just yet.

on my list of things to acquire, j.mo needed a new 'round the house hoodie- his current one has nearly detachable sleeves (as in falling apart at the seams), so it was time. i was wandering around in the clothing section, looking for an appropriately priced fabrique en cambodia vêtement. sniff, sniff... wow- sure does smell like liquor up in here. and then i rounded the corner and stumbled upon 3 very inebriated amigos from the far side of the rio grande, heatedly debating which sweatpants to buy as they removed their own pantalones and tried them on right there in the middle of the store. couldn't have been a couple of olympic divers, nope. it had to be a trio of pot-bellied muchachos looking for some elastic waistband action... for a moment i thought i had been transported back to 2001 when said target did not yet exist and in its place was the most god-awful kmart on the planet. this once-upon-a-kmart was definitely the last respite of implosion-oriented-bottle-friendly-urban-humanity. a couple of drunk guys trying on sweatpants in the middle of the men's section wouldn't have even raised an eyebrow from the fully armed security force stationed at the exitfrisk.

'tis the season for happy shopping- it only gets better from here on out.