By:
The Dude on the Right
This morning, while visiting my folks, a friend stopped by and I cheerfully
said, while snarfing down a bowl of
Frosted Flakes, "Happy
Boxing Day!" She looked at me like I was an alien, although at first I
thought it was just the frosted flake stuck on my chin. Then she said
"What?" I retorted back, "Happy Boxing Day!" Again I was an alien,
although by this time I was able to get rid of the stray flake so I knew it must
have been my comment that begat such a puzzled look and inquisitive tone.
I quickly explained that today was "Boxing Day," the day after Christmas, and
it’s celebrated in places like Canada. Knowing I was fighting a losing
battle in trying to explain any further, especially since I wasn’t totally
positive of its true meaning other than I thought it had something to do with
boxes and not boxing, I just sunk my face back into my bowl of cereal knowing
that Christmas was over, I would be heading back to the Chicago area soon, and
it was time to get back to normal, although this week wouldn’t be normal because
of some extenuating circumstances that may or may not come out in either a blog
or podcast this week, depending how things go. For now I’ll just say some
of it is a bummer, some of it brings change, and some of it is supposed to bring
a new beginning, or at least a new year.
In any case, my Christmas weekend is
done, and it was pretty interesting. I won’t go into much of it here, I’m
hoping Stu is ready for a Christmas Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast tomorrow, but if
not, I’ll host my own tomorrow night. Here are some of the the low, mid,
and highlights. The lowlight involved some bad news that no one really
wants to hear at this time of year, or really, at any time of year, namely a
friend’s parent passing away. I learned this news on the drive back to see
my folks, and it really made for a reflective rest of the drive, in more ways
than one. On the midlight side, there, under the Christmas tree at my
parent’s, was a card for me from my brother. The thing was it was a thick,
puffy card, and I was suddenly struck with the paranoia that he actually got me
more than a card, that somehow a gift might have been stuck in there, and
suddenly my, his, and my sister’s agreement would come crashing to an end with
guilt for me. On the highlight side, it was great to be home with the
family, although my sister and most of her family was missing. I say most
of them because my nephew decided to hang out in the cold of Ohio rather than
the warmth of Texas. For a sometimes change, I had someone to go with me
to a movie on Christmas Day, or on any day, so I didn’t have to go by my myself
and be what our staff member, Whammy, says of
people who go and see movies alone.
I will always contend that I have to go because it’s my job. Anyway, we
saw "Fun With Dick and Jane," which was pretty funny, pretty generic, and
hopefully a real review will follow in a couple of days. I also realized
it wasn’t very nice to have an outside link describing my family in a bad light,
so, I actually removed them, although the Astros still got swept by the White
Sox, phhhhtttt. And finally, on my highlight list, I believe I might have
ruined the animated shows "Santa
Clause is Coming to Town" and "The
Year Without a Santa Clause" for my nephew, mostly having to deal with the
Germans, the French, drugs, greedy kids, and a dude named
Flavor Flav (for a hint,
think of Jingle, or was it Jangle, oh hell, I don’t know, I’m just setting
myself a reminder to truly dissect these two animated shows next year in time
for the holidays, much like I did for my nephew as I watched them last night.)
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Kwanza, and I hope you enjoyed your
Atheist day off, or enjoyed whatever you might be celebrating at the end of the
year. Hopefully all of it means we can all live together on this Earth of
ours with whatever we believe. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that way.
Here’s hoping next year is a little better that way.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!