Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and buy my first artificial Christmas tree ever. The Professor is almost always traveling in early December, so I am stuck every year with putting the tree up --- and then it dries out -- and then it makes a mess when you take it down --- but, damn, it smells good! But I digress. I went to Garden Ridge because they were having a big sale on trees. I spent close to an hour agonizing over which tree I wanted. When you get up close to an artificial tree, it looks, well, artificial. I met another woman about my age who was also trying to convince herself she wanted an artificial tree for the practicality. We were trying to give each other moral support, but I don't think either one of us had her heart in it.

I finally settled on a tree. On sale, it was $300, but it looked just like it was growing on a ski slope in Colorado (as long as you didn't get right up on it.) I grabbed someone to help me find the box and load it up. He said, and I quote "Oh, you want the ho?" I wasn't sure what word I'd missed, but obviously he said "Oh, you want the _ _ _, ho?" WHY was this young man calling me a ho???? Fortunately for him, he left for the stockroom before I could react. While he was gone, I wandered over to the boxes that were out on the floor, and noticed symbols on each box like HI, HA, etc. Aha! I wasn't the ho, my Christmas tree was a HO!

As it turned out, the tree really was a HO. Everyone else got it first, and there was none left for me. They assured me there would be a truck Monday or Tuesday, but I'll be out of town, so that doesn't do me any good. I went to two other stores, but didn't like their trees. I finally decided that all this was a sign that I should stick with a real tree for one more year. And that's even practical, since I won't really know until after the remodeling is done how tall or how wide a tree I want. I just love it when I can justify rationally what I want emotionally!