Black Friday "bluelight special"

Today was supposed to be so simple. The action today is all centered around retail shopping, and I had no intention of going near any stores. Simple, right?

Wrong.

My rectory is on a main street, the main street of Laurence Harbor. This street also happens to be a street that connects the Garden State Parkway to State Route 35. What that meant was that, this morning, at about 3:50am, I awoke to the sounds of cars zipping their way to and fro in front of my rectory (Note - on a normal day, my street doesn't get busy until after 5am). So why the action? People were on their way to join the rest of the drones who have been pressured into getting themselves out of bed, on what should be a day off, to walk around stores and malls at an hour when the only things that should be open are hospitals and diners!

Now, the next wave comes. I'm getting e-mails like crazy today, throwing discount codes and free shipping at me in a vain attempt to get me to do over the computer what I refuse to do in person.

So, in my attempt to turn lemons into lemonade, I will pass one on to you.

This one comes from the website Mexgrocer.com, who specialize primarily in Mexican food. But, they also sell (and I know because I have bought a few from them over the years) excellent prints of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With her feast day coming up in a few weeks (the 3rd Sunday of Advent this year), I figured some of you may want to get yourself a nice print. In addition, I was told by my e-mail, if you put the phrase MASECATAMALES in the coupon code box at check out, you'll get 25% off of your entire order.