We went out to lunch today and the girl who seated us at the restaurant said she'd been up all night. We asked, "Was everything OK? Were you ill from Thanksgiving or something?"

"No, no. I'm just fine. I got a jump on Friday shopping, hitting the midnight madness sales." We thought that was wild. The traffic was so bad out on the streets that we didn't bother to go anyplace else other than the restaurant. You couldn't PAY me enough money to get me into a shopping mall or center today. I seem to have been born without a shopping gene of any sort. I also hate crowds. I won't venture back out into the retail market until January sometime. Unless I go late at night after the bulk of the people are home in bed. . . .