Why Even Put the Decorations Away?

I'm extremely paranoid about being late to places. I hate that first awkward encounter when you roll in a couple minutes late and have to mumble out an excuse as to why you're arriving at a place later than when you said you would. It immediately shifts the power dynamic to the other person in the conversation (or, at least it does in my head - they may not have even noticed you were late). As a result, I find myself stupidly early to things like interviews. If it's scheduled for 1:30 then I'm usually in the parking lot by 1:10. I then kill five minutes and arrive 15 minutes early, so as not to appear too eager. Well, the other day I had an interview scheduled and I was convinced there was going to be traffic, so I left extra early. The result was arriving at my interview almost half an hour early. Not wanting to just hang out in their lobby for 20 minutes, I instead went to a nearby store, where I had no intention of buying anything, just killing some time. I walked into this store and was greeted by the sight of a large Christmas tree.

Ok, this is getting stupid. Every year Christmas seems to encroach on the fall season more and more. I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but can we at least get a couple days into November before we start seeing the holiday decorations go up? I mean, I haven't even settled on a Halloween costume yet (more on that in a second). I should not have to start thinking about Christmas shopping and fighting mall traffic yet. Really, I was quite proud of myself for having one Christmas present taken care of already. Don't take my satisfaction away by pointing out I have a long list still to go and the holiday is quickly approaching.

-Nothing like waiting until the last minute to pick a Halloween costume, so I'm still debating a couple choices. I could go as a golfer, because, let's be honest, I already have the clothes ready to go. The only question would be whether or not I would hike up my pants and go for the knickers look. But, the one I'm leaning more heavily towards is Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis. Again, I feel like I could pull it off pretty easily. I've already got the crew cut - I would just need some khakis, a Notre Dame polo or sweatshirt (or both, cause it could be cold out), a headset and then a laminated card that I would hold in front of my mouth whenever I talked. Decisions, decisions.