Christmas weekend is always a trauma for me. Typically, the people I know all go to the far corners of the earth and revel in their holiday of choice. I get reports of holiday gatherings after the fact. Since I gave up on Chanukkah many years ago as a result of a laser show (more on that one in another post) I don’t get to excited.

Fortunately, I remembered to drink my homemande St. John’s Wort tea. (With other nummy ingrediants) And spent the holiday in good contact with two very wonderful people who wanted to make sure that I made some semblence of staying chipper.

Below then, the holiday report and results of the holidays….

Friday we closed the office early. Saturday was me at home being a complete slug. We’re talking wall-to-wall TV. (This didn’t help)
Sunday, I arose early to catch a bus to a Steelers Bar. My bus would come only every 45 minutes so I had to hit this bus on time or miss the first 10 minutes of the game. As I hit the corner of Van Nuys and Ventura the light to cross VN was not in my favour. And across the street was a Bus…immenant.

Now, believe it or not, I actually follow traffic laws. But this was nitty-gritty time. I gauged the traffic and ran for it. A car trying to make the light from the opposite direction honked angrily at my hellion behavior. I put a hand up to the oncoming bus a quarter block down to show that I was risking life, limb, and a good paying job to catch him. The car that turned quickly revealed the car in the next lane over. A pretty black and white car with red an dblue lights on top of it. 😛

I get across the street just in time to see that this is in fact…not my bus. I plop into the bench defeated….But not defeated enough. The cop pulls an illegal uturn in the middle of Ventura and pulls up to the Bus stop. I am polite…I ask if I can just plead no contest there and then. I try to explain that it was extreme behavior. The cop will have none of that. Meanwhile…while he’s calmly and slowly filling out the jaywalking ticket..Yup…there goes my bus.

I manage to catch a string of other busses and make kickoff. I was disgruntled. Not that I was exactly gruntled before the ticket…but such was the mood. The game however, salvaged it. The Steelers (which had already clinched the AFC Central championship (woohoo) spent the day beating the holy-hell out of the Lions and their Wexford H.S. graduated QB. It was a true sports spanking.

Thus I treated myself to my yearly holiday gift to myself…..A 2001 AFC Central T-Shirt.

Monday, I was still in flux. Depressed about the holidays, being cheered up by dear ones, and drinking more and more St. John’s Wort. But at 11:45 pm I was irrationally wound up. My manager had passed out cards and wrapped presents about a week earlier with the caveat that they were not to be opened until x-mas. I don’t care what you celebrate, you can’t open these until the 25th Now, still suffering the emotional baggage of last year’s delayed holiday gift being a layoff…I was too worked up.

Well, with due respect, I must show my favourite gift of them all….
This is a flashlight creature buddy. It has 4 legs and can hang onto anything you hook it onto. it’s got a key chain and is the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. And to annoy one dear friend in the future…I can make it look pitifully like it wants it’s nose beeped. Big wicked grin

But before I run out of room (too late) I want to show off the last of my catches…
In order of receiveing the gifts this holiday season:
3) During Chanukah, Meredith/Muirenn got me a beard clipper. I’d been commenting about this for a while and I suppose she thought this would shut me up 😉 And it really works!

4) I got a box from Arianna the day before x-mas. It contained a glamour shot of her (Not sharing 😉 and a piece of russian style garb she made me. She did this by guessing the size. It looks big in the picture, but it’s not bad at all for guess work

5) Tuesday, I went to an anti-christmas party with some members of the local OTO. Well, okay…it wasn’t anti-christmas. It was a holiday get together on the 25th with mild gift-exchange and potluck for L.A. transplants with nowhere to go on the holiday. The hostess and her family bought devil ducks for us. It is a small (maybe 1 1/2″ front to back) rubber duck. It whistles when you squeeze it. But…as you can see it is red with horns. This was just too damned funny.

So..I survived…X-thing 2001. I think I’m improving…Maybe I’ll even relax a bit.
Happy holidays to all no matter what you practice.

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