I went to the mall

not for Christmas gifts but for a birthday gift for my boss. Fortunately she's relatively easy to shop for, she's around my age and we have amazingly similar taste, especially in jewelry. I just have to worry "Does she already have this?" I don't think she already has what I got her, and I liked it a lot so I'm hoping she will too.

The mall was hell. I think retailers are trying to create the perception of "long lines of shoppers" by putting the slowest bipedal humanoid-like things they can find behind the registers. Seriously, when did every single transaction require a goddamn committee meeting behind the register? Biped One takes item, summons Biped Two, they puzzle over the item like it's a friggin' artifact from outer space, one wanders off in search of a price for said item, wanders back with the wrong one, goes off again... this happened in two out of four stores. National department stores. And the local Hallmark store is hopeless, I remember why I never go there. Sweetest little high school girls in the world, but everything they do is so slowly earnest, I want to scream.

Work is killing me. It has ratcheted up several notches in the past week or two, and the days, they are very long and brain-numbing. Some of the stress is provided by the personalities involved, definitely - there are less stressful ways of getting things done. Most of the people I deal with are truly great, I'm really crazy about at least two of them, but others leave me with a tight, crushing headache. I'm looking for a recipe for Xanax cookies - wouldn't they make a wonderful Christmas gift? Don't you work with someone who needs them?