Having stayed off of Facebook and also hiding out from most news sources except for the Journal and the Economist (since I find if I even look at the NYT or WaPo I see the op-ed pages and am in danger of getting riled up -- mostly out of agreement), I was late to realize that there was a shortage of Christmas trees. We have also done a shitty job planning to give presents this year, almost unforgiveably, since we're around the house all the time and Google has mostly been working -- with the exception of yesterday.
So when I headed out on Friday to find one, I was determined and a little desperate. First I went down the the mall, but the TROSA place wasn't there at all. Next I went up on Estes to the Amity Methodist Church place that has been selling trees since the dawn of time. They were completely out, but there was a guy there doing something, so I pulled in. As I pulled in, a black dog got up from in front of where the car was and came around to say hello. Frankly, I hadn't seen the dog, and probably got closer to him than I should have. The guy -- who had come out to post signs telling people where trees could be had (thereby earning, most likely, my business for the rest of my days) -- looked at me a little funny, I think, probably because I had gotten too close to his dog which was, you must know, a five-month old puppy and the friendliest dog ever.
He said they had trees at Southern Village and also down near Brown's Automotive on 15-501 headed towards Pittsboro, so I headed to Southern Village first. Sure enough, they had some trees, but there was nobody there to take my money. So I went into this cafe across the way and asked the woman in there if she knew when they would be in to work. She was clearly a little annoyed, and said she didn't. As I left the store, I looked back and saw that there was a big sign in very brightly colored chalk saying people were supposed to stay outside and order using their phones. I had blown right past it. Whoops.
I went back south on 15-501 and found the other place. They had a good tree, but the guy said I needed to pay cash (though he was happy to hold the tree). I went back to an ATM and got cash, but on the way back I had to make a U-turn. While doing so, I didn't really cede right of way to a guy pulling out of a filling station (there was some ambiguity, admittedly), and he honked at me.
The point is, as I'm sure you can see, that because I was a little anxious about possibly not having a tree this year -- when the disruption of so many core Christmas traditions really makes the tree seem important -- that I was basically out of control. It's a good thing I didn't hit that sweet puppy, or get in an accident, and that the barista didn't kick my ass (she didn't look like she was playing around). Oh well. I'll do better next time.
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