Here’s to 2007, and to 2008, which already feels like a limitless plain of possibility. Here’s to the Flaming Lips’ show tonight, and the Truffle menu at Trattoria il Centro, and the Flynns, who are on their way over. Here’s to you, and to a Happy New Year. Here’s to 2008!
| Photos, Sweeeet | Comments (2) |
Check out what I did today! I took an ordinary sheet of green origami paper:
And a whole lot of other colors as well, and I made this:
Click the photo to see how I did it! It’s really fun; I recommend trying it.
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I got us this duvet cover and new pillow shams from West Elm for Christmas, and my mom got us new Egyptian cotton sheets to match. One of my major projects for the first part of 2008 is to get our bedroom fully decorated and organized, because for the last two and a half years that we’ve lived in this house, it’s been a major problem area. More pictures will be forthcoming as I continue to get this place decorated.
Now. Here’s the part where I really test you, where I really open my soul to you, because until these wonderful new beddings came into our lives, our bedroom used to look like this. I promise, it never will again:
| Projects, Casablog | Comments (1) |
Happy Boxing Day, Internets!
Earlier I was playing with Sam, throwing around the new toy he got for Christmas. Unlike all his previous toys, it’s plastic, rather than stuffed, and so far he hasn’t taken well to it.
Usually when we’re playing I’ll fake him out a time or two; I’ll throw the toy, he’ll go get it, but then I won’t throw it. Sam’s not the brightest dog ever, and he always falls for it at least three times before finally, the jig is up. This time, I faked him out, and - my hand to God this is true - he ROLLED HIS EYES AT ME, turned in a slow circle, like, "Oh, yeah, whoops, I really fell for it that time, didn’t I?"
I got pity-faked by my dog. And it’s snowing on Boxing Day.
| Sam, Photos, Casablog | Comments (1) |
Okay, so here’s the deal:
The city of Edmond, Oklahoma, is, without a doubt, my least favorite place on the entire planet. I hate it more than Houston, which is the ugliest, most unpleasant city on Earth; more than Brindisi, Italy, where I was scammed out of a whole bunch of money by merchants who feed on people traveling to Greece by boat; and more than Padua, Italy, where I was accosted by African hookers.
I hate Edmond, Oklahoma, and when I was there today, doing some Christmas shopping at Target, the following happened. It’s a perfect picture of why I hate that town, and everything it represents, so very, very much:
Brian and I pulled up to a parking space in Target after swinging by his office for a second, to grab something we needed. Target is around the corner and so we went to try to find a certain present for my dad. We pulled into a space, and when I got out of the car I noticed that there was an unattended shopping cart full of food - and a case of Miller High Life - sitting behind the car next to ours.
I was looking around for the person who may have left this cart, and I saw her: a middle-aged woman with a bitter look on her face, yelling, "Excuse me!" and pushing a cart between our two cars. Also, full to the brim with groceries. Fine, whatever, it’s Christmas. The place is open tomorrow and the 26th, is all I’m sayin’.
"I have to squeeze through here because people park too damn close!" she screeched at her friend that was with her. You know, that thing where someone’s trying to make a point but doesn’t have the stones to actually say it to you, so they say it loudly to the person they’re with? That thing. That lame, chickenshit thing.
Brian and I heard, and stopped.
"Happy Birthday Jesus!" I said loudly, bitterly.
"Merry Christmas!" he said, simultaneously.
And sure, we were parked close to her, but we were in the lines, completely legal, and frankly, had she asked nicely, I’d have been more than happy to move the car over a few inches. Instead, I kept walking into the store.
*****
So we go in the store, do our shopping, and are standing in line, waiting for the person in front of us to complete her $640 transaction of nothing but toys. The register is near the photo center, which is being manned by a teenager in a red Target polo. As he stands there, he is approached by a beautiful, obviously-rich teenage girl, who obviously knows him. Her expression is pure derision; she’s looking at him like she would look at her shoe after stepping in pig crap.
"Oh my God," she says, her voice rife with disgust, "you have a job?"
*****
Last year my friend Jon Warren wrote a wonderful, beautiful, insightful and intelligent post about why the suburbs suck, and I think everyone should read it RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE. In it he expresses my own thoughts on suburban life more eloquently than I ever could.
Also, I was raised in the ‘burbs on the south side of Oklahoma City, and I have a bunch of friends who grew up there with me, many of whom still live there, happy, fulfilling lives with beautiful homes and children. But also, these are people who would not curse loudly at a stranger in a parking lot TWO DAYS BEFORE CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF THEIR PERSONAL SAVIOR.
It’s just not the life for me, what with no children and a desire to eat food that was actually prepared AT the restaurant where I’m eating, not in a warehouse in Omaha, then frozen in giant blocks and delivered to the local Olive Garden, where people delude themselves into thinking they’re having an "authentic" Italian meal prepared by a chef. Dooce has a wonderful rant about Olive Garden that I ALSO think you should read.
The point is, I’m pretty sour on the ‘burbs today, but four hours of battling holiday traffic will do that to a person. I swear to God, I’m SO tempted to burn all my presents and make my family spend the holiday keying Hummers and then volunteering at a homeless shelter, not out of the goodness of our hearts, but to see the horrified looks on the faces of evil suburbanites when we tell them.
And that’s probably not a good reason to do it.
| I Have A Story, Oklahoma, It's Not Right But It's Okay | Comments (7) |
| Sam, Photos | Comments (1) |
Yesterday Brian and I got to church early to bring dessert and help out with Mobile Meals, a local service our church helps with which delivers meals to the elderly. A cold front blew through Oklahoma yesterday and it was absolutely bone-chillingly cold outside, so it felt wonderful to be elbow-deep in a sinkful of scalding-hot water. Afterward we shopped for small presents to stuff in our families’ stockings and went to the mall to laugh at the people who still haven’t finished their shopping (haw haw!). We dropped Sam off for a bath and bought some wine.
By the time we were done, there was a blizzard happening. It’s supposed to get warmer by Christmas Day, so my obsessive-compulsive need for a white Christmas might not happen, but we have a white Christmas Eve … Eve. So, here’s this:
| Photos, Casablog | Comments (0) |
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This is a picture of, from left, my half-sisters Valerie and Lauren and my cousin Beverly, taken in the late 1970’s, before I was born. I don’t get to see my sisters enough, because Val lives in Pennsylvania and Lauren near Beaumont, TX., and while Beverly lives here in the Oklahoma City area, I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like.
But - my sisters are in Oklahoma for the holidays, and last night we went out for cajun food. Dad came up from Arkansas, and Bev came to have dinner with us all. My sisters and I didn’t grow up together; they were in college when I was born, but I love them a lot and was glad to see them. Tonight we’re cooking steaks out on the grill and we’ll sit and talk for awhile. I’m looking forward to it.
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| The Good Fight | Comments (0) |