shop and beer

I have to go shopping for work today. We do this thing every year for the holidays – we all join together in a big fuzzy, happy circle and are assigned a category, or in my case two, and pick ten of the best gifts, the best items in the valley and I go to the stores like a little elf because if I tell them I’m from the newspaper they will devour me with ugly crap like troll beads they’re pushing to sell. I’m sure none of what I just said makes any sense at all, but I have a headache and my sink smells like beer and it’s cold and windy outside. I’m looking at all the red leaves on the grass and wondering if I should rake them or leave them. Or maybe I could shake the tree where they come from so the inevitable will happen already. I’m wondering what sort of view I’ll have when all the leaves fall, what I’ll see differently staring at the same hill and houses or what my backyard will look like with snow in it and if it’s a graded enough hill that I can ride down it on a yellow saucer or maybe a red one or maybe we won’t even get that much snow anyway and it will look like snot on the streets.
We are going over to a friend’s place to make beer: porter to be exact. He’s making soft pretzels and the boys will boil all their yeasts and hops and barley and they mentioned chocolate. i say yes to chocolate beer.
And now it’s too late for secret shopping. That will wait have to wait. Beer comes first.