Sales Shopping Insanity
Title: Sales Shopping Insanity
Author: InsolentScrawl
Prompt: Carriage Trade
Waking up at four in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, really sucked. Yes, it did. Post-turkey mellowness didn’t just give up and fade away. It hovered, having sunken deep into muscle, bone, and brain.
At least, that’s what Beth muttered to herself as she groggily staggered down the hall, half-dressed and trying to find her way to the coffee machine in the kitchen. By the time she reached it (having blessedly set it the night before), her grimace turned into a smile as she appreciated the contact high from the rich fumes filling the air.
The first sip tasted like a deep blend of heaven, and even the harsh lights she’d just flipped on couldn’t take away the quick jolt of adrenaline.
Stacking random scraps of paper from the perpetually cluttered counter, Beth grumbled under her breath at the constant state of messiness. Why had the massive counter become the holder of all things?
School pictures sat next to her six-year-old daughter’s bag of stale popcorn. One of Bob’s greasy tools (and Beth really had no desire to know what the object was) sat right next to the pristine vase of half-wilted flowers. She tried hard not to shudder at the oily (possibly butter) tracks swirling about. Sometimes ignorance could be bliss.
She briefly considered drinking her coffee in the dark.
Grabbing up another stack of papers, she began shuffling through in vain hope her shopping list would be amongst the clutter. Flipping through sheet after sheet, feeling the varying consistency of the paper on her fingers, her hopes dwindled rapidly.
The Christmas list wasn’t there.
Rather forcefully dropping the stack of bills, school assignments, and miscellaneous other notes back onto the counter, she frowned.
The irony did not escape her. For as much as she might complain about Bob and the kids using the counter-top as a general storage area, she could be just as bad. Moving a few feet down the flat expanse, she grabbed up a stack of what looked to be Jake’s spelling assignments and Paul’s math homework.
And stuck smack in the center of the stack (as usually happened) appeared the small yellow sheet of parchment that held the precious list. She grinned and grabbed it dramatically, waving it about a little like a prize.
Carelessly dropping the remainder of the stack back onto the counter, she performed a ritual happy dance: butt-jiggle optional.
Moving to the family room just a few feet away, Beth sank into her comfy chair and set to work. Next to each gift and stocking stuffer, she wrote down the store’s name, and check marked which would accept coupons. Little stars indicated “On-Sale” and she knew those would be the first stops, followed by the local dollar store. Stocking stuffers of random dollar toys could be fun to pick out for the kids. For little Bree, anything princess-y would do. A puzzle for twelve-year-old Charlotte would work. And for the boys… anything Spiderman, Batman, or Transformer would cause a happy gasp of pleasure.
Reading through the list, she wished she could do more than provide just the practical for the kids this year. As it was, her mother had helped her buy the “Santa” gift each child would receive. Yet sometimes fate intervened in her Christmas shopping plans, as did the economy.
They just couldn’t afford the little things they knew the kids would love (although the gifts from Santa would make up for a lot of it). Rather, slippers, socks, and shirts would be wrapped and signed, “From Mom and Dad” on the tag. And actually, thanks to Grandma’s new-found love of EBay, a couple of the kids would be receiving some pretty fantastic (and begged for) presents from Santa. That would offset the 60%-off sale socks a little.
The rest of the gifts Beth would buy only if within the carefully arranged budget.
Slipping the paper into her pocket, she retrieved the coupons from the jar along with the Christmas cash she’d been setting aside these last months.
From the hall, Beth took one last glance at the mess as she felt fear, dread, and exhilaration rush through her at the thought of Black Friday shopping. Yeah, the family room looked like tornado demolition, with pillows, toys, and other random objects tossed about. And the kitchen on the other side of the family room looked like it had become a hoarder’s heaven.
She really didn’t care, because in a few hours the kids would wake up to a day to spend playing games with Mom and Dad.
She’d have to put her wish of having a maid back on the shelf, along with her dreams of winning the lottery and being an underwear model.
Then again, she’d have to buy a ticket to hit the lottery.
The thought of maid service and the last sip of coffee offset the shopping dread. Beth chuckled softly and headed to the car, where she would join the early morning hour traffic in the pre-dawn darkness. The closest she would ever come to the carriage trade was if she one day opened a service that catered to them. She didn’t really care, though.
Bob’s loud snore echoed down the hall and the grin turned into a smile. She had more than enough. Expensive gifts or not, Christmas was going to be fantastic.
Author: InsolentScrawl
Prompt: Carriage Trade
Waking up at four in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, really sucked. Yes, it did. Post-turkey mellowness didn’t just give up and fade away. It hovered, having sunken deep into muscle, bone, and brain.
At least, that’s what Beth muttered to herself as she groggily staggered down the hall, half-dressed and trying to find her way to the coffee machine in the kitchen. By the time she reached it (having blessedly set it the night before), her grimace turned into a smile as she appreciated the contact high from the rich fumes filling the air.
The first sip tasted like a deep blend of heaven, and even the harsh lights she’d just flipped on couldn’t take away the quick jolt of adrenaline.
Stacking random scraps of paper from the perpetually cluttered counter, Beth grumbled under her breath at the constant state of messiness. Why had the massive counter become the holder of all things?
School pictures sat next to her six-year-old daughter’s bag of stale popcorn. One of Bob’s greasy tools (and Beth really had no desire to know what the object was) sat right next to the pristine vase of half-wilted flowers. She tried hard not to shudder at the oily (possibly butter) tracks swirling about. Sometimes ignorance could be bliss.
She briefly considered drinking her coffee in the dark.
Grabbing up another stack of papers, she began shuffling through in vain hope her shopping list would be amongst the clutter. Flipping through sheet after sheet, feeling the varying consistency of the paper on her fingers, her hopes dwindled rapidly.
The Christmas list wasn’t there.
Rather forcefully dropping the stack of bills, school assignments, and miscellaneous other notes back onto the counter, she frowned.
The irony did not escape her. For as much as she might complain about Bob and the kids using the counter-top as a general storage area, she could be just as bad. Moving a few feet down the flat expanse, she grabbed up a stack of what looked to be Jake’s spelling assignments and Paul’s math homework.
And stuck smack in the center of the stack (as usually happened) appeared the small yellow sheet of parchment that held the precious list. She grinned and grabbed it dramatically, waving it about a little like a prize.
Carelessly dropping the remainder of the stack back onto the counter, she performed a ritual happy dance: butt-jiggle optional.
Moving to the family room just a few feet away, Beth sank into her comfy chair and set to work. Next to each gift and stocking stuffer, she wrote down the store’s name, and check marked which would accept coupons. Little stars indicated “On-Sale” and she knew those would be the first stops, followed by the local dollar store. Stocking stuffers of random dollar toys could be fun to pick out for the kids. For little Bree, anything princess-y would do. A puzzle for twelve-year-old Charlotte would work. And for the boys… anything Spiderman, Batman, or Transformer would cause a happy gasp of pleasure.
Reading through the list, she wished she could do more than provide just the practical for the kids this year. As it was, her mother had helped her buy the “Santa” gift each child would receive. Yet sometimes fate intervened in her Christmas shopping plans, as did the economy.
They just couldn’t afford the little things they knew the kids would love (although the gifts from Santa would make up for a lot of it). Rather, slippers, socks, and shirts would be wrapped and signed, “From Mom and Dad” on the tag. And actually, thanks to Grandma’s new-found love of EBay, a couple of the kids would be receiving some pretty fantastic (and begged for) presents from Santa. That would offset the 60%-off sale socks a little.
The rest of the gifts Beth would buy only if within the carefully arranged budget.
Slipping the paper into her pocket, she retrieved the coupons from the jar along with the Christmas cash she’d been setting aside these last months.
From the hall, Beth took one last glance at the mess as she felt fear, dread, and exhilaration rush through her at the thought of Black Friday shopping. Yeah, the family room looked like tornado demolition, with pillows, toys, and other random objects tossed about. And the kitchen on the other side of the family room looked like it had become a hoarder’s heaven.
She really didn’t care, because in a few hours the kids would wake up to a day to spend playing games with Mom and Dad.
She’d have to put her wish of having a maid back on the shelf, along with her dreams of winning the lottery and being an underwear model.
Then again, she’d have to buy a ticket to hit the lottery.
The thought of maid service and the last sip of coffee offset the shopping dread. Beth chuckled softly and headed to the car, where she would join the early morning hour traffic in the pre-dawn darkness. The closest she would ever come to the carriage trade was if she one day opened a service that catered to them. She didn’t really care, though.
Bob’s loud snore echoed down the hall and the grin turned into a smile. She had more than enough. Expensive gifts or not, Christmas was going to be fantastic.