I REMEMBER WHEN…I managed all of my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve.

It was the night before Christmas, the year was 2002. Just a few days prior,

I had come home to Michigan from a long semester of school. After the long

ten hour drive I decided to loaf around and do nothing for a day.

Unfortunately that day of laziness spilled over into the next week and I

found myself doing nothing but playing video games and watching movies. It

wasn’t until Christmas Eve that I really began to feel that I needed to begin

my Christmas shopping. As I like to say often “I put the PRO in

PROcrastination.

I can only think of one other person that may rival me in the ability to

procrastinate, and she knows who she is. Other than her I feel that I

surpass all others in this area. I really feel that I’ve turned it into an

art form. It takes master craftmanship to accomplish a twenty minute

PowerPoint presentation in one night, finishing just minutes before class

begins. It takes sublime skill to write twenty-five pages worth of creative

writing (two-thirds of the class work)in a single day. Oh, I could go on and

on about my mastery of procrastination. Not that it is all my skill although

because I feel truly blessed that I have a patient God that watches over me

and intercedes for my laziness.

Back to Christmas Eve. At around six P.M. I sluggishly embark from my home

to find presents for everyone. I took Kurt, my brother, with me. To my

surprise there was nothing open! Now this sounds rather foolish, but at the

time I truly thought that something would be open on Christmas Eve.

I drove

around desperately looking for open stores, inwardly I was beginning to think

up what I would say when Christmas came and I had no gifts to give. Then a

beacon of pearlescent light shone through the dimmed streets, Kmart was still

open! Ha Ha, my salvation. My brother and I walked into the store only to

find that they would be closing in an hour. Using breakneck speed and

agility I weaved my way through the aisles searching for reasonable gifts.

When the Kmart toughs began rounding up the weary last minute shoppers I

followed without a fight even though I still needed to buy gifts for a few

more people. Once outside, my brother and I tried to think about what might

still be open. Not far down the road we found Blockbuster Video and I was

saved yet again.

There I found a number of good gifts. I had done it. I

had managed to get gifts for everyone and they didn’t suck. Wow. My brother

and I had a fantastic time laughing all night about how ludicrous I was

waiting until the very last moment to shop.