I Hate Wal-Mart. For the longest time, I wasn't sure why I harbored this deep-seated rancor against Wal-Mart. Maybe cuz the "liberal media propaganda machine" called the intarwebs tells me that it costs Americans jobs and destabilizes local economies? Or it's bullying business tactics? Maybe cuz my mom frequently comments about how the whole store feels so "cheap" (condescendingly) on the inside.

No, I was out shopping at Ross with some coworkers today, and I had a flashback of being (mildly) lost inside of a Ross as a kid, the kind where you're "lost" for maybe like a minute or two. And suddenly it all hit me: the MAIN reason I HATE Wal-Mart is cuz as a kid, I once got separated from my mom while in a Wal-Mart, and it traumatized me more than I knew. It took a long time to be reunited with her, and the negative emotions just built and built. She left me in the toys section while she shopped, and after a really long time, I started wandering around looking for her but couldn't find her. I started crying, and eventually some strangers helped me out. But yea, it woulda been somewhere between kindergarten and 3rd grade, and it was the most severe case of my ever getting "lost" as a kid. So yea, I guess subconsciously, to this day, whenever I walk into a Wal-Mart, it stirs up these long buried emotions of abandonment and loneliness. And I walk away not completely sure why I hate the store so much, hah. But I finally figured it out, and I guess that's the first step on the road to recovery.

"To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kinda scary. I've wondered where this started, and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my dad."
~Jack Handey

...speaking of which, I think the movie It made a whole generation of kids dislike clowns.