and a happy new year

my friend lindsay told me that 2008 is going to be an amazing year.
an electric year.
lindsay is a smart person and a bit of a psychic.
so
if she said it, chances are, she's right.
she said that if you turn the number 8 on its side
it becomes the symbol for infinity.
and apparently, that means good stuff.
i'm willing to believe it.

new year's is the best of holidays.
only slightly edging out the fourth of july.
last new year's eve was spent standing on the main street bridge
in the pouring rain
with a kazoo in my mouth.
i hope for better things this new year's eve.
like a fire in the fireplace.
staring at it with my family.
something good to eat.
a modest amount of drink.
clear and peaceful thoughts.
my wooden pen and journal.
as usual, i will fight the urge to
create a long list of re-run resolutions:
eat better, exercise more, read more, spend less, be more patient ....
intentions are always good but
resolutions tend to intimidate me more than inspire me.
so i will just try to focus on a few things:
start as many days as possible with meditation
keep rooted in the now (which is all we really have)
and beat my son john at arm wrestling.
there is so much more i want to
strive for, experience and accomplish,
but i'm going to keep it simple.
and leave some room for
adventure,
fate
and
electricity .

giving what you would like to receive

last night while at a christmas eve gathering, the subject of gift giving and re-gifting came up.
one very honest soul admitted that she bought a present ( a book)
for her son mostly (entirely?) because she knew that she would be able to read it when
he was done with it.
so in actuality, it was a gift to herself, but with his name on the tag.
most of us have probably done the same thing.
i'm sure that i have.
feeling strongly that this concept needed it's own name,
i dubbed this phenomenon "pre-gifting".

another person told an amazing tale of a friend that gave her a gift this year with the condition
that it be returned to her within six months.
that's a new one on me.
but seemed like it needed a moniker as well.
we called this a gloan (meaning :gift- but -really- a-loan) .

we spent the remainder of the evening trying to come up with a name for a business
for one of the people at the party.
it started off as an earnest pursuit to help jim brainstorm some viable ideas
but eventually devolved into a mostly lewd and lascivious laughter fest. that session of hardcore laughter
was the best present i have received
in a long time (other than my laptop).

merry christmas .
with wishes for a hearty HO HO HO filled new year!

christmas comes early

this morning, before i even got out of bed,
santa came and dropped a laptop on top of my pajama-clad lap!
this is my first entry made with my adorable thinkpad.
now i can realize one of my long held dreams..blogging from bed.
when and if i actually do get out of bed, i can go to starbucks without having to look enviously at all the happy people avec frappachinos mysteriously tapping out words on their notebooks, wishing that i could be a member of that exalted wi-fi club. now at last i can join the ranks of those
people.
funfunfunfunfun!!

wishing you a merry little christmas

a retro picture from a wee weelo christmas circa 1964 or '65...
looks like i was working the cindy- lou who from who-ville thing.
red is still my favorite fun fashion statement.
need to get me a festive pair of slippers like these.

fa la la la la la la la la

christmas morning 1967:
come downstairs
count gifts under tree
make sure i have more than my sister. (I don't).(Harumph!)
check to see if santa ate the plate of cookies. (he did).
rip open many brightly wrapped packages and pretend to be surprised
even though i begged unmercifully for the stuff
and went on a full tilt search mission throughout the house every night for the last month trying to find where my parents hid my unwrapped gifts (i found them).
recount opened gifts
ditch all the big items
play with stocking gifts
because they are always the coolest.

christmas morning 2007:
come downstairs
watch my kids count their gifts
to see who got more..(he did! No, he did!)(Harumph!) (Harumph!)
hope they don't notice that i forgot to put santa's cookies out. (they notice).
watch them open the gifts that i had time to wrap

answer their question about unwrapped toys
by saying that santa is trying to be "environmentally conscious" this year and wants to "Save the trees!"!
(they're not buying it)
watch them not act surprised because they
mostly got what they asked for
watch them eventually
ditch all the big items
because stocking gifts
are still the coolest.