On the verge...

...of a nervous breakdown.

Last night I left work (rather late--my first mistake) and headed to Wal-Mart in WVC. (Second mistake--Wal-Mart, a week before Christmas, in the ghetto.) The place was packed and crawling with people walking too slow, taking up the whole aisle and screaming children. To make matters worse, I could not, for the life of me, decide what to buy for my co-workers. Or even which co-workers I wanted to buy something for.

After calling my mom and asking for her advice (yes, it got to that point) I had made a decision and went off in search of something to put this "gift" in. Nothing. Could not find a single container to meet my needs.

Frustrated, I fought my way to the electronics section of the store. I needed to find a CD. A CD that can only be purchased at Wal-Mart because they sell edited music. After searching for the CD and having a creepy man hovering behind me, staring at me with a nasty-toothed grin, I gave up.

By this point my head hurt and I was starting to get shaky because I hadn't eaten since lunch (third mistake) and I'd almost given up trying to find anything. But I decided to head over to the food section and finish what I originally came there to do (get co-workers Christmas gifts if you've forgotten).

I walked up and down the aisles in no particular order (fourth mistake) collecting bits and pieces of what I needed. I could not find peanuts. No peanuts anywhere. I called my mom--again--and asked where peanuts are located in Wal-Mart. She pointed me in the right direction (from our living room in Michigan) and I added them to the basket.

Last on my list was butterscotch chips. Easy. They're with all of the baking stuff and I'd probably walked down that aisle three times by then. I made my way to the baking aisle (not before telling a young screaming girl to shut up as I walked past) and walked right to the spot where they should be. No butterscotch chips. Not a bag to be found.

Standing there in the baking aisle of Wal-Mart, my eyes started to well up with tears. I contemplated scrapping the whole deal and leaving my entire cart right there where the butterscotch chips were supposed to be and giving my co-workers and note that said, "I would've made you tasty holiday treats but Wal-Mart didn't have any f'ing butterscotch chips. Merry Christmas!" Instead, I pulled myself together, walked to the check out and waited (not-so-patiently) in line.

When did I get so emotionally unstable? And, more importantly, what kind of Wal-Mart runs out of butterscotch chips?