Dream Big Today

Christmas Eve and the lady working the counter at Home Goods tells me they haven’t seen any drop-off in sales at all since the downturn and, I mean, obviously, right? Because where else can you find peek-a-boo cutaway nighties made in Thailand AND a boxed set of bar tools that'll pop out every kind of cork known to man including your own bellybutton?As I stood waiting for her to ring up my stuff I noticed  the shopper beside me pull out of her own her cart a massive space-age-style wall hanging made out of super-shiny orange and green wiffle-ball looking things welded together with 50 yards of plastic pipe.“Oh God! it’s cheesy isn’t it?” she blurted when she caught me looking.“No! It’s actually kind of awesome  – unless.... it’s not for your twenty-something son arriving home tonight from Brooklyn is it?”“Hah! No I'm afraid to buy him anything these days I get it wrong so often.No, this is for me,”  she added, looking shyly down at the thing.She didn’t even ask how I knew about her son.You take a couple of weary mums and they can most times see clear down into the other one’s life.

Anyway, I hope you guys out there can also dream on a grand scale so that Santa will also get you something that lifts you clear off the ground like the lady in this picture. (I was foolish when it was my turn at the Mall.  I just asked for this old looseleaf notebook and some Styrofoam full of greasy takeout.