Christmas shopping sucks...

[justmehere]

I had to run a few pre-Christmas errands tonight and then ended up meeting a friend who called to ask me to do some last minute Christmas shopping with him. Everywhere I went, there was someone sneezing! I don't think I went more than ten minutes without hearing one. I must have heard at least 20 different people sneezing (no less than 30 sneezes) during the course of the evening...I kid you not! Unfortunately, most of them were only heard and not seen, but several of those were very nice sounding indeed! In fact, there was a two minute span in which I heard about 5 sneezes...the last two were from a male a few rows away but plenty loud enough to hear. Let's just say that after those two minutes, I was very, very glad I am not male!

The best view that I got was of a woman who was in the middle of an isle. She was probably in her 40s with shoulder length, brunette hair and she caught my eye as soon as I saw her because she was a little odd looking to me. I'm not sure why I thought that, but she was wearing a long, red coat and very high black boots and she was quickly taking things off the shelf and putting them into her cart.

I had one arm full of things and was just taking something else off the shelf when my cell phone rang (darn phone). I struggled with my armful and managed to get my phone out. I turned away from the woman and answered my phone just as she burst forth with a loud "huh-CHUUUUH." I made my way a little further away so I could inconspicuously turn back around and get a peek. I managed to get off the phone as the lady started into another sneeze, similar to the first, but now I had a good view. She seemed to be looking at an ad she held in her hand and didn't even try to cover the sneeze. I moved a little further away and suddenly became very interested in the strange flying toy at the end of the aisle . I was so interested I don't even know what it was! I looked over at the lady who was completely in her own world, not even glancing up to see if anyone was watching her loud outbursts. I don't normally watch people for long as I am afraid someone will see me watching them, but there was nobody else in the aisle and she was totally oblivious. Her nose had become slightly reddish, but she had gone back to taking things off of the shelf and putting them into her cart.

At least 30 or 40 seconds had passed since the last sneeze and I was thinking that was it when she suddenly exploded with one last "HUH-CHUUUUUH!" Again, she didn't bother to cover as her head bend forward and slightly down. She was holding a can of something in one hand and practically sneezed directly onto it. She didn't seem at all bothered by her sneezing and just kept right on shopping. I hung around that aisle a minute or two longer than I needed to, but I didn't see or hear any more and decided to get on with my shopping since I had other stops to make. As I was paying, the same woman got in line behind me and gave one quick sniff as I started toward the exit.

My friend is dragging me out shopping again tomorrow because he still has a couple of people to buy presents for. I don't look forward to shopping the day before Christmas, but if I get half of the obs I did today, it can't be that bad!