I hate x-mas shopping at the best of times. When I have little money to play with it only intensifies my distaste and difficulties with picking the right gifts for people. That said, I'm down to just my mom and Carolyn left to shop for, and still have 2 weeks to go. I tend to start my shopping early every year now to take advantage of the best online store/eBay deals I can find, but after a couple weeks, I can't take all the 'shopping' anymore and want to get on with the 'buying' and be done with it. It still has to be better than waiting til the 23rd or 24th.
Having gotten tired of the 'christmas cheer' from walks around the lights in Waterloo park this week (and watching, on multiple occasions, old people ignoring signs and driving their cars right down the main pedestrian pathway), we decided to go for a walk around in the Galt portion of Cambridge along the river. 9:30 on a Tuesday night, no record shops, but no people either; it was a ghost town. The rain I'm sure had a little to do with that (and made taking pictures less than spectacular), but with a major construction project on the main bridge, and the architecture school out for exams, the most activity was a lone patron and a bartender sitting and watching a hockey game in an old, run-down bar.It was a welcome change from the blaring carols on the outdoor speakers at the park, or the mall easy-listening versions of the same tunes while dodging ignorant and impatient people who feel the number of bags they are carrying is positively correlated to their importance in society.