it’s the obligatory post-christmas, pre-new year’s post. am i the only one that feels that it’s necessary? (cause then, i suppose it wouldn’t be obligatory, would it?)
recap. christmas with relatives is fun. true, the shopping and planning is stressful, i think we can all agree on that, but the sitting there opening presents, and later the sitting there moaning how your belly hurts from eating, that’s all good. my fam is chill. we just…hang out. you know?
presents? oh yeah, i got presents. let’s just say i wear a watch now. (yeah, the first piece of jewelry [jewelry? or just accoutrement? is this actually worth looking up? ] i’ve worn in years. years. and i’m liking it. cause it’s damn cool.) what else? well, let’s just say that i don’t need two utensils to eat my rice and beans anymore. (
.)
yes, i got lots of cool stuff. great stuff to read, cash to buy things…and a bowling ball. indeed, it was a bit of a nontraditional christmas. but then, if my family has one tradition, it’s that we never do the same thing twice. hell, we didn’t even go to a movie on christmas day; i think that’s the first time that happened in fifteen years!
but what can you say about a family that goes to olive garden for christmas eve dinner. gotta love ‘em. (tip: the medditeranean shrimp scampi is delish, and the salmon doesn’t even come with pasta!)
new years? it’s coming quick. what are your plans? what are your plans? the question starts right around christmas time, and doesn’t stop until about 11 o’clock dec. 31st. parties? parties? what parties you got? how many? where you gonna be at midnight? etc. etc. me, i got one party. and i’m psyched about it. never been the party-hopping kind anyway. a few people i like around (a select few by my own admission), something to drink, and some good music, and i’m sooo happy.
resolutions? hm. get off my back. i’ll get back to you.
it comes up fast. it’s “holy shit, they’ve got christmas stuff up and it’s the day after halloween!” and then it’s “thanksgiving was good, i should start thinking about shopping,” and then there’s many days of “i hate all the shopping but i really should at least make a list,” and then it’s “hey guys, tomorrow’s christmas eve!”
how does this happen?
and all of a sudden, it’s time to get christmas-y, and there’s nothing on tv. “it’s a wonderful life,” “christmas story,” hell, even “scrooged” isn’t playing until tomorrow. what, no one’s in the mood on the 23rd? wtf?
well, at least it’s cold and rainy.
twenty degrees cooler and that rain could be snow.
here’s hoping.
Filed under: fun
“a thousand days. that’s like…three years? yeah. less than three years. cause 365 times 3…”
this is my life.
How Google Earth Killed Santa.
The truth is, there is no santa. And that lying to your kids is bad. To quote otis gibbs, how can people believe in jesus if we lie to them about santa? and if you don’t believe in jesus, then allah. or buddha. or an expanding universe originating from a big bang billions of years ago. whatever. lying isn’t good.
but santa is fun. christmas is fun. to quote jon stewart, “once your kid findsout about santa, christmas pretty much blows the doors off of hannakuh.” kids love santa. and every kid at schoolgets excited and talks about santa, and teachers assign students to write letters to santa, and…how can we deny them all that?
it’s a delimma i am pretty far away from dealing with, but something that i have been thinking about. janxy posted a really good christmas blog that got me to thinking. i must acknowledge these holidays. i am not the sort to decorate the house and go carolling or anything, but christmas is cool, and not to be ignored. especially once presents are all purchased, i really don’t hate the season. so talk about it i shall.
early in my scholastic career, i remember we got off like two weeks for the christmas break. the week before christmas right up till january third or so. two weeks. it felt like a big holiday till i got old enough to know anyone in college. when i found out they had a month, i was blown away. blown away. jealous? you bet. my two weeks seemed so paltry.
now here i am–thirty-three and taking my nice long christmas vacation. and it is nice. lying around on the sofa, watching arrested development dvds, reading peoples’ blogs (no one writes as much as they used to, it seems), eating lunch at two in the afternoon. it’s nice. but i am thirty-three. so it kind of feels…losery.
hey texas, you’re freaking me out, by the way. last week it was around eighty degrees. my shorts were packed away. this isn’t l.a., which, by the way, is apparently freezing. so pick a temperature and stick with it. it’s cold again now, and that’s how it should be in december. so stick with it a bit, wouldja?
christmas is about giving. right? or sharing? or love? is it about love? i know it’s about baby jesus to many people. but if you don’t believe in that, what is the common theme? what connects kwaanza and hannakuh, and…whatever else people celebrate. what connects all that to atheists and agnostics? what is it all about, upon which we can all agree? please no one say presents.
sometimes i don’t know which way is up. and i, like everyone else in the world, deal with my lack of knowledge/understanding, get around this problem by ignoring it. as long as i don’t know what i don’t know, i can’t feel badly about not knowing it. but as i write this, as i think about the words that seem to be appearing on the screen as if written by someone else, i wonder–
what’s it all about?
it’s about something special, i know that, to everyone (except jehovah’s witnesses. they don’t celebrate anything. what a bummer for their kids).
so i guess i can shrug off the questions, and smile, and wish everyone a special whatever they want it to be, and hope that the meaning of that whatever is firmly planted in their hearts, and grows lots of whatever-type-fruit in their lives in the future.
Filed under: random
“greek people don’t scare me. I was just Aristotle-d.”
a pun.
i swear, i really don’t know where my mind goes when i sleep, but the things that are in there when i wake up scare me sometimes.
there was a time in my life where by three in the afternoon, i would be going crazy. sitting in my house all day would make me nuts.
there would be coffee in the morning, then internet, and some mucking about the house (it’s a british term), some lunch perhaps, and then…well, and then there would be some crazedd phonecalls made to anyone who might not be working (it was l.a., and that number is surprisingly high there). ultimately, there would be a walk to the grocery store, or a trip to the bookstore, or…something.
well, at this point in my life, and maybe it’s because it’s so nice to be out of school and stress-free about what homework i have or what book i really should be reading, i tend to just want to lie around the house and do nothing all day. it’s nice.
of course, it might have something to do with the fact that i have cable/tivo/four dogs/cabinets of food/no money for eating out/no friends/no life/it’s cold outside.
hard to say…
ben told me about these guys that do this show where people read embarrassing things from their diaries. this is one of those set to animation. i wish they had this in austin. and i hope ben gets to work with them, because this stuff is good.
there’s always something i want to say when i’m not sitting in front of the blogscreen.
and like going to the video store, or the bookstore, or the cd store, when i am there and ready to go, my mind is blank. why does the inspiration only strike when it can’t be harnessed?
so i will thumbnail the things that go through my head that make me think “blog it later…”
casino royale: good movie. a new james bond. i liked it a lot, i liked the girl a lot. new millennium, new bond, etc. i can see why b would say that a kinder gentler bond is no bond at all, so it’s pointless. he certainly seemed more…defanged. but the movie was pretty good, and the opening action sequence gave me sweaty palms. this is something i don’t say very often.
heroes is the best show on tv. it stole that spot from the office, though i will admit it’s close. let’s say it’s the best drama, and the office is best comedy. cause that way they can both be number one. cause DAMN. you know that feeling when you come home and you know your tivo (or vcr, right, janxy?) has a new episode, and you get all excited? heroes does that. so does the office, but then we all knew that, right?
my favorite thing to do (sports-related, at least) is to watch my dallas mavericks play basketball. my heart was broken that they didn’t win the championship last year, and i fully intend to watch as many games as possible this season, and help them go all the way. (and i plan to use second person when talking about them, as in “we won another one last night. we are soooo good!” deal with it.) this is our year. it doesn’t always seem like it, but my faith is strong enough for all you people who don’t believe.
and on that note, i just want to say that carmelo anthony is a pussy. he hit another guy the other night–in the midst of a pretty crazy riot type moment (watch it here if you want), admittedly, so i wouldn’t call it a sucker punch per se, but it was pretty close–and he immediately took off backwards so fast that even when a teammate tried to grab his shirt (to slow him down? to hold him back?), he ripped the guy’s arm off trying to back up faster. he hit a guy, ran backwards until no one could touch him. it was all stupid, it was all crazy, and he was not the only idiot out there messing up the nba’s image (as well as his own, but then that’s his right) and his own team’s chances of winning anything this season, but he sure hit the hardest and ran the fastest. and i have no respect for him.
let’s see, what else is on my chest? sufjan stevens has the awesomest christmas album out there, and that’s coming from someone who hates christmas songs. otis gibbs has the second best, with the advantage of having been super cool live (twice) and super nice (we’re myspace friends). those are the only two christmas albums i need in this world. and i always thought there weren’t any.
that’s all for the moment, but one more thing: i have been thinking tha ti will use this site more for holding links to videos and such that i like as well as for recording thoughts. so there might be more stuff you don’t care about in the future (or more stuff you do care about, who knows?). so heads up.
Filed under: random
best thing about blowing your nose–
that little dizzy headrush you get from lack of oxygen.
