Ahh November, You Crazy Batshit Month

Like The Walking Dead, it seems the season of unrelenting Crazy is upon us. Sure, The Walking Dead is pure fiction, but experiencing the unleashed crazy of November doesn't feel any less horrific. For whatever reason, we go from people who can successfully contain the crazy to "Woo! I'm gonna' fly my crazy flag and let shit fall where it may!" And it always seems to happen with the onset of November. My personal theory is that this is brought on by three factors:

1. The end of Daylight Savings Time—and the fact that we're thrown into darkness. As a species we really don't do well with this.
2. The weather changing—again, change is hard, and cold weather makes us cranky.
3. The immediate and (in my opinion) absolutely premature introduction of Christmas decor and Christmas music in places we normally shop (especially when intermingled with Halloween decor).

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The convergence of these three things seem to flip the crazy switch for a lot of people (around here at least). And the crazy comes out in all sorts of ways, not least of which is the 'Everything revolves around me' syndrome. Sometimes it's innocuous—you come across a person who is so utterly overwhelmed that they're just not capable of seeing you or the fact that they might be in the way, blocking traffic, holding up a line, etc. When they do finally snap too, they're generally apologetic. We've all been there, we can relate. Apologizing for your lack of awareness goes a long way.

More recently, though, the pendulum has swung to those who are blatantly and defiantly unapologetic. These creatures are the ones who, in harried fashion cut you off in traffic, cut in line, passive aggressively push their cart into your heels so you'll move out of their way. They know they did something wrong or stupid and instead of controlling it or copping to it, they get meaner. I mean, really? This is how you're choosing to act?

This is why, starting in November, I stay as far away from major shopping areas (and Walmart) as I can. And unlike many of my friends, I never venture out on Black Friday. I don't find it fun. It certainly doesn't put me in the holiday spirit, and the people working on Black Friday (and in some cases Black & Blue Thursday) don't get paid nearly enough—no matter how many pizzas or dozens of donuts their managers have for them in the back (but I'm not bitter).

So yes, I managed to not spend any money on Black Friday or Cyber Monday this year. Partly because I had Amazon credit, so I just used that to get some free stuff. (Praise the review and consumer gods for Amazon gift card payments.)

Of course, as I typed this, I could hear the Gods curiously chortling in my direction. At the same time, my spouse was in the kitchen making noises that you usually don't want to hear coming from the kitchen. Things like, a nervous and rather prolonged "ummmm..." followed by "holy shit!" and "no! stop! stop! stop!" and finally, "honey? could you come in here for a sec?"

So, it turns out our over-the-range microwave decided to crap out in a spectacular way & because it's a 10 years old, Samsung has disavowed it & has stopped making parts—seriously, not even eBay could help a girl out.

Thankfully, this is the last of the Samsung appliances left in our house and I'm happy to be rid of it considering the number of times I've had to repair it. (Kids stay in school and don't buy Samsung appliances.) Not so thankfully, I had to spend $250 for a new LG microwave (highly rated by Consumer Reports and Bob the appliance guy—who I suspect is just "a guy"). I was gonna' go for the cheaper GE until I read the customer reviews (brutal).

So that's the story of how I nearly made it through the holiday weekend without buying stuff.

Stay tuned... next week will be the story of how I forgot to make advent gifts & rummaged around the house for stuff to wrap.