Braved the hordes yesterday in order to drop a couple of hundred dollars on gifts, much to my chagrin and at the cost of what little holiday spirit I'd managed to generate. Ick. Over the past few years, I'd taken more and more advantage of Amazon, shopping and shipping so that all I had to do when I got to Iowa was wrap. Consider that trend revitalized after this year. Malls depress me, and that's above and beyond the borderline agoraphobia/demophobia I have around huge groups of people. I won't go into it except to say that those kinds of coercive spaces and that many people sets me on the edge of panic--to be fair, though, this only seems to happen in retail spaces. Maybe it's actually chrematophobia?
What's an academic to do when the holidays press on all sides? Umm, listen to some Christmas music to get back into the mood? Don't get me started.
Leave a comment