Domestic Geek

It's 11:11pm on 11/11 - did you make a wish?

Every year I try to add one thing to my Christmas decor and bonus if it can also double as a craft room decoration. A few weeks back (it makes me ill that I saw Christmas stuff that long ago), I was at Michaels and saw the neatest little needlework shop in the Lemax Christmas village series. I nearly had a stroke when I saw the $54.99 price tag, though. I was really disappointed until I reminded myself that there would be many sales/coupons between then and Christmas. I was getting a little irked, though, when I kept coming across 50% off one item coupons, but couldn't use them on this because the Lemax stuff was already on sale.

Imagine my hopefulness when I saw the email subject line from Michaels in my inbox this morning that said "This is One Coupon You Don't Want to Miss." SCORE! The one I was hoping would show up - 25% off total purchase, including SALE ITEMS (because Yay!, the Lemax stuff is 40% off this week, too).



So, 40% off of $54.99 brought that down to $32.99. The additional 25% off brought it down to $24.75. With tax, $26.63. I probably can't beat that and still be able to find one in stock.

It's going to stay in the box until I get up to South Dakota again the week of Thanksgiving. Hoping its all in one piece and the light works.

I was doing my usual surfing today and since I've purchased shirts from The Mountain, I get targeted ads for them on a lot of pages that I visit. I keep seeing ones about their new holiday shirts, but I've been ignoring them (since I'm kind of anti-Early Christmas). When one shirt caught my eye in my Facebook feed, though, I decided to click over and I saw a shirt I just have to get! Of course, they are currently out of my size, so I left on note on their wall asking if they would be getting it back in stock any time soon.

BEHOLD - Grumpenezer Scrooge!



ETA 11/11/13 11:37pm: The Mountain page admin left a comment on my post this morning that shirts were back in stock - one is on its way!

I'm going to get a little Grinchy here.

Marcus called and asked me to stop by the store on my way home from work tonight to get him some Honest Teas as he had no beverage with which to partake during his Teamhousewares Golf tournament. As I got out of my car and headed towards the entrance, this is what I saw:


WTF, man? Throughout the whole store, it was already a Christmas wonderland. You retailers want to know why you're having a harder time each year with holiday sales? You're making people weary of it. Instead of the wonder of the season you could experience because it should be short-lived, you're hammered with Christmas almost half the year now. By the time December 25th finally rolls around, people are so sick of Christmas that it becomes an ordeal to get through. I can almost understand Hobby Lobby putting stuff out for people who do craft fairs, but all the home decorating stuff can stay in the warehouse until Thanksgiving.

I even saw something in my Facebook feed from 9News that said Santa was already visiting Cherry Creek mall. Too freaking soon, people! Santa makes his entrance on Thanksgiving morning at the Macy's parade.

Let's get back to making the season special by only having it in your face for a single month of the year.

Marcus has said a couple of things to me recently in conversations we have had (I'm not going to say what exactly), that really has me taking a hard look at why I live the way I do. My whole life I have tried to be the good girl and do what I'm supposed to do. Meanwhile, people all around me get away with pulling all kinds of crap with no real repercussions. I also believed for so long that what I really wanted didn't matter, so why bother? I've been living so long trying to be what I thought I was supposed to be, that I never really figured out what I want. There was a conversation on the radio the other day about what would you do with your life if money was not a concern. Sadly, I really don't know what I want. I have a lot of interests, but I don't have a true passion for anything. I think one of the reasons I get so angry all the time is that I'm frustrated with my life and I don't know what to do about it. It may also be part of why I procrastinate so much, as well. I put everything off because nothing feels genuine.

I used to watch Steve Jobs do his Apple keynotes and be so envious of the excitement he had for what he did. I've been trying to meditate to get through the mental clutter to see if I can find that thing that is my reason for being. I'm just so tired of going through the motions of living with nothing to show for it.

A couple of my co-workers recently have had health scares (one had to have a hysterectomy, another waiting for test results to see if she has cancer), which has also got me wanting to get more out of the time I have left. I'm less than 5 years away from the age Mom was when she passed. While it is true that I eat better and don't smoke like she did, that nagging fear that I'll die early like she did is always in the back of my mind. I was looking at my 101 in 1001 page yesterday to see all the things I want to do, yet I never make time for. I also was blown away looking at some of my past blog posts and seeing that I have the same issues year after year after year. I've got to stop making excuses and rationales for why my life isn't the way I want and start finding ways to make things happen. This stagnation thing really sucks.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite Job's quotes -