Mall fun tonight. Left my sore throat at home and just went for it. The goal was to finish Christmas shopping tonight . . . that was until I found out that DTD wants a leather jacket for Christmas. Now how will I pick out one that she might be caught dead in?

I had coupons and stuff, but the highlight turned out to be a makeover at Clinique. The whole reason I did the makeover was to get the two little tiny free gifts so I can put them in DTD'S stocking (here's to hoping I still have stockings). Well, the girl who did my face was only about as cute a personality as they come. She spent 1.5 hours on me (gads, didn't know my face needed THAT much work). Anyway, she chattered away non-stop and I was in awe that anyone could have such an abundance of vivaciousness. I especially liked her because she is best friends with her mother and would absolutely have a heart attack if anything ever happened to her mother. She is in constant contact with her mother during the day. In fact, her mother and aunt stopped by but somehow I missed them. How did I do that? Then the other Clinique girl was great, too. I love my young hairdresser, too. Both of them. Yes, young women in their 20's, my new favorite age. Not to mention Christa, the oboist in our church. And others.

When all was said and done (and I bought THINGS, because the girls were not meeting their sales quotas, they would much rather gab and paint faces), well, not quite said and done, because I showed them my pile of gift cards. It's a good thing, too, because one was a SECRET CARD from VS, and I totally didn't know I had it. The one girl used to work at VS and said, GO USE THAT CARD, it might be worth $500. In fact, once one of her customers had the $500 card. Can you imagine? I imagined. But, of course, mine turned out to be worth the minimum $10. But I put it to good use and DTD now has more stocking stuffers. So does KEM. KEM also has new black jeans, courtesy of Macy's gift card. KEM also has new Calphalon panini press, the pan is ridged, which will be great for burgers, chops and bacon, I will fully expect ridge marks on my meat. Okay, so Mike isn't going to shop for me, I shop for him for me.

Well, I have to tell you, those Clinique girls just totally invigorated me. I told them, If I have the $500 VS card, I am coming back here to take you out to dinner. It's so JOYFUL to meet such lovely, nice people every once in a while, out of the blue. A God gift. Oh, and I decided I reasonably liked my nose tonight, which in and of itself is unbelievable, I must be delusional or something. I tried on so many jeans, looking for the one and only pair with even leg seams, which I just barely found one . . . sort of. By that time I would have taken anything, Macy's was open until midnight. Well, in the dressing room was a three was adjustable mirror, so I adjusted it until I found the angle I liked on my nose . . . sort of. CDW will appreciate this little tidbit, we have this little thing about our honkin' noses.

So, now I'm home and having headache. It must be the real Christmas tree. We are also having misty blowing weather.

Oh, one more thing and I'm outta here. Today I was walking downtown and heard a young woman on her cell phone, she had the cutest voice. She said, incredulously, One minute it's raining, one minute it's sunny, the next minute it's freezing . . . I got a big bang out of that and laughed out loud. It's true, today was WEIRD weather, while at the mall tonight the wind was whipping all over the place and very light mists were misting about.

Oh, one last thing . . . I hope we go Christmas caroling to the church shut-in's tomorrow. Except every year, they all pass away not long after we sing to them. Shouldn't that give us a complex? I'm not being funny, because it is not funny, not at all, it's awful, but just the same, it is the truth. It's the oddest thing.

Oh, and one final last thing. Mike brought home his leftover dinner from an Italian restaurant and it was so delicious that now I am going to duplicate it for my Christmas dinner. I think I can do that. It will be EASY. I'm very excited. When I found out the spiral ham from the health food store, my Christmas standby, was unavailable, I kind of dipped. But now I'm surfing on top of the wave . . . there she goes! Mike read in Men Are From Mars that women ride the waves. He just so happened to read that while we vacationed in Hawaii, so the location was positive reinforcement of that very accurate concept, and to this day, 6 years later, when I am down at the bottom of the wave, he just looks the other way until I resurface higher up. MEN.

Christmasy KEM