Christmas Dorks

I know I can be a bit of a sarcastic dick at times, but I love this time of year. While you'll hear me groan a bit when the Christmas decorations come out before Halloween is over, there is a part of me that likes it. I tend to like it more as Thanksgiving gets closer, and this year I've been looking forward to Christmas even more than usual. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think our last Christmas had something to do with it.

We were total scrooges last year. There was a potential move for us on the horizon, and we told ourselves there was no reason to drag out boxes of Christmas stuff just to have to pack it all back up in the event of a move. We were collecting boxes and had even thrown some of our books into them in preparation. We didn't want to spend money on presents for each other since we were going to need every penny, so we only bought presents for our super cute and always wonderful nephews. There was no tree and nothing to put under it. We told ourselves it was fine. We're adults and don't need to spend money on each other due to tradition. We don't need to string up lights or force our dogs to wear antlers purchased from Petsmart.

We were wrong. By the time last Christmas finally came, we were both in a bit of a funk and depressed. We had fun with the family, but without our little quiet celebration with the two of us things just didn't feel quite right. So, this year, we're going to fix that.

Normally, I'm the big dork that gets us moving towards the Christmas Spirit, but it was a call from Jen this morning that got me thinking these thoughts.

Jen: Hey.
Me: Hey back.
Jen: So, I was thinking...
Me: Did you hurt yourself?
Jen: Dick.
Me: Hehe.
Jen: Anyway, I was thinking we should do the outside lights this year. And since we're rearranging stuff this week anyway to get ready for my mom's visit, maybe we could do the living room too so there's more room for the tree.
Me: Sure. What's got you all gun ho for Christmas?
Jen: I refuse to admit that it was the snow.

It was funny because the snow made me feel the same way. There were a few flurries yesterday, but they were thin anemic flakes that fell as fast as raindrops. This morning though, the flakes had fattened up, and lazed their way down into rush hour. Drivers slowed as if twelve inches of fresh powder had fallen, and the radio accident report sounded like a crash course in our city's geography. It was nice to know that in the midst of cars slamming into each other all around us because of the damp roads, Jen and I were being big dorks at the same time.

Drinking While Shopping = Mistake

It was a bad idea to start drinking this evening.

I think it's because I do it so rarely these days that when I break down and open a beer or have a Scotch, it feels like an event. So far tonight, I finished the Stella Artois I had in the fridge, singled out the lone bottle of Blue Moon, and have since moved on to the Guinness tucked away at the back of my fridge. Granted, my consumption isn't much compared to those who imbibe on a more regular basis, but I'm still at the point of feeling like I could be comfortable with some bad decisions.

First buzzed decision of the night is that I should really do this more often. Life is to short to be completely sober for all of it. Most of it, sure...but not all of it. I'll work on that. We all have room for improvement, and right now I'm convinced that the hole in my life could be filled with more beer. What of it?

Second, I need a record player. That's right, a good old fashioned record player so I can have a vinyl collection.

First and foremost, I'm a collector, so the idea of putting together a vinyl collection is way appealing. Second, there is just something beautiful and nostalgic about it. When I was a kid, my father had a massive collection of LP's. Granted, he was into Southern Gospel, arguably the worst music ever put on wax, but still...I remember going through those albums as a kid. There was something about the over sized artwork and the large booklets that sometimes came inside that was so appealing.

I still remember going into my local mall as a young boy, and seeing vinyl on the racks. The pictures were amazing to me. Kiss decked out in suits for the "Dressed to Kill" cover. Jimi Hendrix's over the top psychedelia of "Axis". Strangely, the album cover that stuck with me the most was the cover of Queen's "News of the World". That giant robot with the dead bodies in the palm of its hand grabbed me, and I remember being thrilled and intimated by it all at once. With my conservative Christian upbringing, that lone image was enough to incite all sorts of feelings I knew I shouldn't be having.



Hell, kids. I remember being young in a small Nazarene church in Hebron, Ohio when they brought in a special Evangelist to discuss the dangers of "back-masking" in popular music. This was, of course, the supposedly popular practice of musicians where they would inbed messages into their albums that could only be discerned when played backwards. Said messages would then prompt you to smoke marijuana (Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", I believe) or to "Just do it" (Judas Priest's "Stained Class" or Nike...I can't remember any longer). This man actually played records backwards to us causing a sound of warped noise to fill the church, an essentially creepy sound to begin with, and then would have to translate the garbled mess to us all so we could be sufficiently scared.

So tonight, when searching through some stuff on Best Buy, I realized just how many amazing albums are available on vinyl now and it brought all of this back. Hell yeah. I want a collection. I want Queen to convince me to get high, or Radiohead to recommend a good anti-depressant. I need Judas Priest to tell me to do anything. Fucking anything for Rob Halford, just name it, sir. I want the big album art and the big rich sound of vinyl in my house.

Don't hate. Your house if full of useless shit too. Look around.

Walkin' The Dogs

It's a beautiful night tonight. Hot out, but not thick and muggy like it has been and there was a bit of a breeze. Not a bad night to hit up our local shelter CHA and walk some puppies. It was just good to get out and clear my head for a bit.

There's a trail that leads around the outside edge of the shelter's property and you can take it through a stand of trees and out onto a nice paved bike trail (the trail that will someday take me to work). It was toward the end of my shift, and I was just letting Giselle, the lab mix I was walking roll around in the grass, when I felt my phone vibrate, letting me know I missed a call.

It was a friend of mine who had read my blog a bit earlier and was calling to check on me to see if I was OK. Awwww. I tend to be a bit morose when I write sometimes, and I know at the time of the posting I was just sick of my cubicle mates and wanting to be outside, but I definitely wasn't in bad shape with my day. I just liked the melodrama of wrapping myself up in that crappy carpet. I'm a dork like that.

She was fully prepared to talk me off the ledge she imagined me to be standing on, and sounded surprised when I sounded so chipper on the phone. Phone calls are always awkward with me, because I'm an awkward man, so we wrapped up quickly. I was totally laughing though. I had no idea I came across that bad.

So, for the record, I'd like to point out that I'm a pretty happy fellow most of the time even if my blog comes across as a downer occasionally. No, I'm not the jumping up and down with joy because I get to go play with mortgages every day kind of happy, but I'm doing OK.

So, to my friend that called tonight, I say thank you. If there's ever a time when I feel like I'm just going to steer my car off the cliff, I now know who to call. Fortunately for both of us, I'm awkward on the phone, so I'll probably just drive home instead so we don't have to have a weird conversation. I couldn't bear having someone in my life that I could be out drinking with and hear her say "Hey, you remember that one time I kept you from driving off a cliff?"

To everyone else, I'll work on being cheerier. I promise. Tomorrow, I'm totally starting on that .

In other completely unrelated news, my good pal Felix posted this mix his brother put together. Andor 2000 - Breakbeats. I've had a bit of a taste for electronica/trance lately, and while I haven't heard the whole thing yet (it's one track that runs an hour long) I'm really digging it so far. Plus, it don't cost nuthin'. Cheap as hell...you won't even know. If you snag it, stop by and let him know. He loves love.

Landmark

50th post. How then now, bitches?