O Tannenbaum,
This morning, I took Julie's Xmas tree to the dumpster. Her tree was quickly falling apart, and needed to be thrown out. I really didn't feel like carrying this botanical porcupine down 3 flights of stairs, so I decided to just throw it off the balcony. After making sure the coast was clear, making sure there were no maintenance guys in plain view, I chucked the tree down from the third floor.

When the tree hit the ground, it looked like I had tossed down a sack of green feathers, because half the tree blew out in all directions...kind of surprising. It also made some considerably noticable snapping sounds. I just figured it wasn't a very good tree, but upon further inspection, i found it to be worse than expected.

I walked up to the tree and found that more of it was dispersed on the ground, unattatched to the tree, than I had initially thought. When i started picking up the individual pieces i realized that the entire tree had been spray painted! As I carried it to the dumpster, more of it kept falling apart. Kind of silly.

So moral of the story? Make sure you buy a tree that isn't spray painted. Go shopping for the tree during the day, so that it is more obvious. You don't necessarily have to go searching for the Griswold family Xmas tree, but a little extra time and care at the tree lot will do you some good. Or just buy a fake tree that lasts for 15 years. A good deal when you think about it.