And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?

Life imitated art (well, a Chevy Chase Lampoon movie) last night, and I’m shittin rainbows over it!

Yesterday, I had to re-assemble my Department 56 Christmas village I mentioned in an earlier post. The strand of twinkle lights that I placed under the blanket of snow to emulate the sparkly magic of Christmas-time blew out. So I had to replace them. Happy f#*@ing Christmas, ya know? Normally, I would have been highly irritated about wasting my time re-doing something I already did, but M and I turned it into a festive occasion. M wrapped gifts, the cats were piled up on the couch, a festive “I only have one more day of work” mentality pervaded the atmosphere...and we played National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in the background.

For some reason, this year - of all the years I’ve watched this damned movie - I found the Griswold’s cameo-relegated neighbors to be butt-clenchingly hilarious. They’re only in three or so scenes, but they pried the show right from Chase's grubby hands. I lost my shize during the scene in which they discover the mess Clark’s antics left in their house. Earlier in the film, Clark was hanging exterior Christmas lights on his house and, as dictated must happen in nearly every one of Chase’s contracts, Clark falls off the ladder. Ah Chevy, you fall guy you, with the sexiest chin cleft that exists, past, present or future! Clark grabs onto the gutter, and in a very Chevy-Chase slapstick show, the block of ice that had formed in the gutter shoots out of it, breaks the neighbors’ window, and causes havoc in the currently vacant neighbors’ house.

When Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guests’ yuppie neighbor characters arrive home, they are aghast at the mess. They’re sizing up shards of glass and broken knickknacks when Dreyfus’ character discovers the melted ice on the carpet.

“And why is the carpet all wet, Todd,” Dreyfus asks incredulously, haughtily drawing out the name “Todd.”

“I don’t know, Margo,” replies the equally snooty and exasperated Todd.

A laugh escaped me. This is comedic gold!

I’ve chuckled at this line during previous viewings, but this year it struck me as particularly funny. So, during the rest of the movie, I continually exclaimed “And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?” and then would laugh to myself, because that’s how I roll.

Well – toward the end of the movie, I had to grab something from behind the couch. In my stockinged feet, I walked over to the couch, leaned behind it to grab a blanket, and felt a pit in my stomach form as my foot become cold and wet.

I looked down to discover I was standing in a puddle of amber-colored liquid with two paper towels meekly floating in it. I became enraged. What is this? What am I stepping in? What is this half-assed attempt to clean it up? (The two floating, soaked paper towels obviously did shit to help the situation.) Dammit, M! He had a habit of spilling things (mostly cans of Diet Coke, as in this case) or dropping ice cubes on the kitchen floor and letting them melt, and not cleaning it up. My socks, invariably, find these messes. “Wet Sock Syndrome” has become my nemesis during my long tenure with M.

“Why is the carpet all wet, Babers?” I asked incredulously, haughtily drawing out the name “Babers,” and OH MY GOD! I HAVE BECOME JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS!

Yippee-kai-yay....

It's a tradition in my household to set up my Department 56 Christmas Village with a friend of mine. Last night was the night, so we had a couple people over to deck the halls! When I asked what Christmas movie they wanted playing in the background while we decked, they voted on Die Hard, after I refused to submit to their argument that Star Wars was a Christmas movie too.

So we watched Die Hard, and damn if it isn't a Christmas movie - and a really good movie (I have only seen it once before)! 

In doing my post-"I'm really excited about something" research, I found the following wonderful article. It's an interview with Alan Rickman who, among other anecdotes, explains how he was offered the role of Hans Gruber - his first movie role - two days after he arrived in L.A. at the age 41!! And he almost turned down the role! 

Alan Rickman: 'I almost turned down the role of the villain in Die Hard'

Hot damn, do I love Alan Ricman, or what? Ho. Ho. Ho.

On Blogging: Part I

I revived my blog as of late!

But, that’s sort of self-evident, no? You’re reading about me reviving my blog on my revived blog, so you already knew it was revived, right?

Anyway – the revived blog. I love blogging!

I’m treating this Blogger blog as I did my old LiveJournal back in the day. Man, oh man, I miss that sweet-ass LiveJournal (LJ). I wish the Russians didn’t get their vodka-soaked mitts on it. Things have changed since my LJ days, circa 2009, but pre-vodka-soaked mitts, LiveJournal was my ambrosia. LJ - and blogging - satisfied a desire I never knew I had: writing, with the possibility of somebody reading it.

I’ve always written. Prior to LJ, however, I never felt that anyone needed to or should read my shit. I write for only myself and had been content doing just that.

That all changed, though, when a friend wheedled me into creating an LJ account. I resisted, I really did! I was on my high-horse about blogging – a horse that was standing on a pedestal that was balanced on high-wire that was strung across two really tall skyscrapers. But, like many a-time that I’ve been on my high damned horse, I fell off spectacularly - down, down, down in the most ungraceful and comical manner. I eventually loved LJ, eventually became addicted. I embraced blogging and writing for public consumption and encouraged others to do so too.

It was fantastic! Back in those halcyon LJ days, we “bloggers” wrote. LJ was simply a text focused blog - a published word document, sans even Microsoft Word’s measly bells and whistles. LJ seemed to be full of if not writers, then creative types who enjoyed words at least. My kind of people, you know. Most posts scattered over LJ were long, journal-esque, autobiographical incident essays. I delighted in the reading of the mundane and the extraordinary of strangers’ lives. Sure, there was the occasional photo or picture that accompanied a post to illustrate or support an element, but LJ was first and foremost a writer’s community.

But then, I am ashamed to admit, I abandoned LJ. Once those aforementioned Russian mitts came along, the new LJ Overlord made site changes I didn’t like. Coupled with the alluring, meteoric rise of Facebook, LJ lost its shine for me and I stopped writing lengthy LJ posts. I incrementally migrated on over to Facebook — along with most of the world— and butchered my journal-esque writing down to status-length updates.

It was a dismal period in my life; a hole had formed in my spirit, and a tear had rent my heart. I was clueless and didn’t immediately attribute my discomfort to the lack of blogging. Now that I’m wiser, I realize that not blogging was wearing me down. Writing is cathartic for me. Writing provides a venue that offers one of the few times I ever feel heard… even if nobody reads my words. I get my thoughts out, uninterrupted and in an organized manner - a hard feat to accomplish with a human listener. The computer screen is a good listener – better than 90 percent of the people I know and talk to in real life. Blogging on LJ afforded me all this solace, but, like a turncoat, I abandoned my old friend for something fast, cheap and easy. (I do that sometimes. Don’t we all?)

Anyway, the blogging itch recently and thankfully resurfaced, and I weaseled my way back into the world of blogging by way of Blogger, as many LJ emigrants have. And so, I’ve recently drafted a few posts and experienced that glorious rush of pressing that “publish” button!

Blogger feels like home, but, I want more. I want to not only write and press “publish,” I want to recreate that wonderful fertile and inspiring LJ writer’s community I was a part of in the past. In hopes of recreating such a community, I searched for blogs to follow. As I started to poke around Blogger, however, I realized that bloggers don’t do what I do anymore; they don’t do what LJ-ers in the past have done. I realized that my way of blogging has become a dinosaur.

How is my writing Paleolithic? Well, I still write (demonstrably) long, (Footnote 4) autobiographical incident essays. (Footnote 1) My posts are essentially dramatized diary entries, and I simply adore this form of writing. Firstly, this type of blogging creates a record of my life – something to leave behind for others and to jog my memory when I get older. (Footnote 3) Such posts offer me the glorious a chance to turn my lil’ ole life into something cinematic or dare I say literary. I also hope, of course, that essay entries are entertaining to readers.

However, as I’m exploring this new LJ-free blogosphere and trying to find like-minded essayists, I’ve discovered you can’t go back home. Blogs today!? I shake my fist in your general direction! My biggest gripes are: 1) That a majority of today’s blog posts are pictorial posts 2) The proliferation of infernal “themes” and 3) Shameless content regurgitation. So much has changed in the modern blogosphere that I can only detect the faintest specter of my beloved LJ. 

First of all, it seems the writing aspect of blogging is gone, lost, disappeared, dead. Blogging has, heartbreakingly enough, morphed from writing into photo sharing. If I wanted to look at an online photo set of an obviously staged morning starring you and your spawn making and eating waffles, I’d do just that. But I really don’t want to do that. If you must stage a waffle-eating tableaux with your spawn, I’d rather read about your morning instead. I’d like to experience it through the magic of your words and discover what was going on in that pneumatic head of yours. I’d delight in a post explaining how you got irritated because Little Andrew is simply trash at timing those waffles. His waffles are burnt and misshapen; they came out like shit, and you have to force a blog-worthy smile as you shove these shards of burnt dough ino your pie-hole. To add to the crap morning, friggen Tommy then spilled the entire bottle of real Vermont Maple syrup all over the cat. Poor Willow spent the day licking off the sticky goo from her fur and directing the dirtiest look a kitten can muster at asshole Andrew. See - that there’s golden fodder for an essay! But, instead, all I see are endless, staged, over-wrought close-up pictures of Andrew holding miraculously non-burnt (ie: your) waffles, perfectly posed in your overpriced kitchen. Le sigh.  

I must add that I, of course, appreciate photography, and especially creative and evocative photographs captured through a photographer’s keen eye. I even appreciate when a blog features one or two photos to supplement a written blog post. However, a post composed merely of interminable pictures of the same crap is not worth my time. Blogs are stuffed with endless pictures of crafts or food or your kids blowing bubbles or freaking fashion selfies. Modern bloggers can’t even post a recipe without photographing the damned eggs and bottle of vanilla they used to make their damned cookies. Isn’t that type of photo-vomit what Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook exists for? As a venue to post your endless, crappily edited and curated (Footnote 2) photos?

In conclusion, Blogging used to be a writer’s medium - for sharing thoughts, words and stories. And I loved it. But, the essence of Blogging has changed since the early to mid-aughts, and I mourn the death of what once was. When cruising the disappointing Blogger, I long to be enveloped by words. MOAR WORDS. Essays! Life. Words.

Apparently my thoughts on this matter are, um, prolific. I’m going to break up this post into two, maybe three, parts because, hot damn, do I still have a lot more to say. Stay tuned for Part II shortly.

Footnotes:

(1) Screw writing fiction, you know? That shit’s hard. How the hell does one make dialogue sound convincing and not corny? Impossible! I’ll stick to IRL-based writing, thanks.

(2) Please people - be kind to your audience. Curate your muther-trucking photos!! Don’t post every snapshot you took of Tommy wearing your mom’s brazier. Repetition diminishes effectiveness.

(3) Sweet Baby Louise, have you seen Iris starring Judi Dench? It’s a beautiful film about the cutest old writer couple, who may have existed in real life. Dench plays Iris. Iris is worldly and vivacious and creative and intelligent and has had the most beautiful, long, yet complicated, relationship with her devoted husband. They live in a writer’s house and live the writer’s life. And then Iris develops Alzheimer’s and I can’t. Iris can’t remember words or the novels she’s written or where she lives or her husband. It’s gut-wrenching – probably the saddest move I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And of course, Iris gave me a phobia, and I’m now petrified about losing my memories whether it be through Alzheimer’s, or a car accident, or whatever. If you don’t have your memories, you don’t have your life. Poof – it’s gone. You’re gone. You have nothing and you cease to exist. So, Iris is the reason I must document everything and may or may not attach ridiculous sentiments and meaning to physical objects, ticket stubs, programs, brochures, wrappers, photos, gifts, etc. 

(4) Hey guess what, I know my posts are wayyy to long, and I. Do. Not. Care. I don't! This venue allows me to get out every thought, every angle of every thought, I've ever had about a topic and I revel in that opportunity. Like I said, I feel heard here, and I don't care if my writing isn't commercial; it's too damn long-winded, but I accept that. If I were writing commercially, you can be damned sure I'd never write such lengthy posts, but this ain't no media company - thank heavens. 

Let it go.

Carolyn Hax is my guru. She is the wisest advice columnist I follow - and I follow them all.

She advises to not expect people to behave well. Let go of that expectation, and it won't bother you when they don't behave in a manner that's suitable for a reasonable human being.

I was fuming for 20 minutes today because I gave a friendly, confident "Hello" to the guy who mans the welcome desk at work who I pass every morning, and he just stared and ignored. I felt like an asshole. To add insult to injury, he then said "Hello" and started chatting to the person behind me. I don't usually say "Hello" to him because he replies rarely at best. Very welcoming, ya know? But lately, we've been on a "Hello" basis. And today....this.

Why did I let it bother me and give it the power to ruin the beginning of my day? That's madness to give something so stupid such power.

And then the smiling face of Hax appeared in my vision like the angelic spirit of Emily Post. "Lower those expectations - let go of any expectations - and you will be given the gift of being pleasantly surprised when people do act in a courteous, considerate, human manner."

This will help greatly in grocery stores where I often become apoplectic when inconsiderate, un-thoughtful folk leave their carts willy-nilly or in the middle of the aisle.

I just made up a joke!

Q: What do you call a large, amphibious mammal who lives in Africa and was born after this death of his father?

Don't be Stupid....

Be a Smartie! Come and join the Nazi Party!

Shhhhiiiite! Mike was watching a stupid documentary about U-boats right before I went to bed last night, and I woke up with "Springtime for Hitler" lodged in my head!!

Definitely not the most appropriate song to be humming at work!!

"Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Rhineland's a fine land once more!

Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Watch out, Europe

We're going on tour!"

On mistletoe.

I sure do love Thanksgiving! I love the food, the family, the ushering in of the holiday season! For the past two decades or so worth of Thanksgivings, we have driven down to visit my beloved Aunt who lives in the DC Metro area in Virginia. One of my favorite things about this trek down I-95 is spotting mistletoe in the trees that line the highway.  

In addition to the mistletoe, and depending on the weather trends, the drive can be colorful, or it can be grey and bare, but it’s always delightful. I love to see the most tenacious of trees clinging on to the last of their colored vestments. I also enjoy the more seasonable or dry years, which yields boughs that brim full with copious, bold foliage! This year, mere skeleton of trees graced the landscape, but I actually don’t mind those Novembers when the leaves have all but given up. I find the trees’ inner frameworks - their bare, reaching bones - as beautiful and intriguing as those trees adorned in their finest fall finery.

Plus, when all the leaves have fallen, it’s easier to spot mistletoe!

It was my mother who only recently pointed out that the large, leafy spheres up in the highest boughs of the denuded trees were mistletoe. Prior, I was either unobservant of the masses and/or just assumed they were nests of some sort.

Since I’ve discovered it, mistletoe has held quite the charm over me. I’ve even delved into exhaustive mistletoe research over this new obsession. For instance, did you know that mistletoe is a parasite and eventually kills its host tree (although it takes a rather long time!)? Also, some research claims that back in the day, it was unsociable to kiss in public unless under mistletoe, which explains mistletoe’s popularity in the past! And did you know that the traditional way to harvest mistletoe and loose the orbs from their perches is to shoot it down from the tree with a shotgun? People still do that to this day! I, of course, immediately put “Shoot down a gob of mistletoe with a shotgun” on my ‘”Bucket List.” Nothing says winter kisses and budding romance like a shotgun, ya know?

However, even with all my research and new-found knowledge, my experience with live mistletoe is, tragically, very limited. The only real mistletoe I have ever been intimate with is the fake ball of it that my mother would hang from the 70’s amber lamp in the front hallway every year for Christmas. This obviously fake adornment was so lush and green, and brimming with berries that I always thought it was ivy. But as I got older, and relative’s gross and intrusive kissing comments started, I learned of the history and custom of mistletoe.

With my recent increased infatuation of the stuff, I decided to get my own ball of mistletoe to hang in my home, even though I do not have a 70s-style amber lamp from which to hang it.  I even planned to one-up my mother’s old, now raggedy, and obviously fake ball of plastic foliage; I was going to get real mistletoe, because that’s how my 18^th century household rolls.

Acquiring real mistletoe, I soon discovered however, is a near impossible task. Apparently there are mistletoe farms which produce the stuff for retail outlets- the biggest and most prolific being in Texas – but they rarely offer real mistletoe in its ball form. I’m not sure why – it’s too large? Too ugly? Too difficult to harvest? Too rare?

Fine, I’ll get a spring instead, I thought. One small sprig of real mistletoe still beats a manufactured plastic ball. But, no! Sprigs are hard to find too! And if one is able to find a spring, one may discover that real mistletoe is ugly! It’s not a lush green at all – it’s a gross, dried-out sage green and the leaves are tiny and non-descript. When one can actually find a fresh sprig, one will discover they are usually sold in a festive red box with a clear cellophane window. This window serves to disappointingly reveal a sickly, dried, smashed looking piece of sad foliage, all brittle and ugly. Who wants something so sickly and decidedly not festive adorning their home? No wonder mistletoe is falling out of favor.

So, my dreams of finding real mistletoe evaporated, and instead I bought the most symmetrical, luscious, festive ball of fake mistletoe with a foam core to ever exist! Now if I could only find an amber lamp.

So, that was my experiences with trying to acquire some mistletoe of my very own. But what about those balls that festoon our pilgrimage down to VA? Well, over the past few years we noticed a dearth of large ugly orbs up in the towering, skeletal trees along our route. As the passenger on these voyages to the countryside, I’m usually on Mistletoe lookout and shout at every gob I see. In the past, even Michael would cry out “Mistletoe!” as he was driving because they were so prolific and noticeable that the driver could spot them - which may or may not have been a rather dangerous game to play.

However, these last few years, my time spent Mistletoe hunting as a captive passenger didn’t pass the time well. Each year, I’d spot fewer and fewer gobs. There was actually no mistletoe to be found this year, although I was consistently tricked by the large squirrel nests nestled in the crooks of trees. Or sometimes even bird nests of unusual size. I’d cry out “Mistletoe!”, but upon closer inspection and noting that the orb was nestled in the crook of a branch and not on the outward tips where mistletoe grows, I would correct myself with a disappointing “Squirrel Nest.”

I have suspected that over the years mistletoe has been in decline, but this year I was able conclude that, yes, mistletoe is disappearing from the outstretched branches of our oak, birch and maple trees. Maybe it’s because of the super cold winters we have been experiencing? But I must know: where did all the mistletoe go?

I did some internet research, but there was a surprisingly anemic outcry of people noticing the same tragedy. Why aren’t people noticing? Why aren’t they upset? Maybe it’s because Mistletoe is a parasite and kills people’s trees? Or, because we can socially perform PDAs without the guise of mistletoe? Maybe the tradition and demand is dying because people’s mothers don’t hang fake balls of it from garish 70’s amber lights in the hallway anymore?

Upon even further research, I was able to find two measly articles that shed a small bit of light on this phenomenon, but neither offered either proof that there is a decline or a scientific explanation for a decline: Where Has all the Mistletoe Gone? and Mistletoe Gets the Kiss Off? Oddly enough, neither article specifically addresses Virginia’s dearth; one talks about a decline in Texas, and the other a decline in New York. The one article blames a drought in Texas, where the biggest mistletoe farm is, for the lack of the real stuff in today’s florist and gift shops. But no mention of Virginia’s mistletoe.

So, what about Virginia’s plight? After even more research, I did find a blog post regarding the decline of desert mistletoe that may help solve the mystery. (Apparently this verdant parasite grows in the hot dry climates of the Sonoran or Mojave deserts as well.) In this post was buried the following nugget of info:

“When cold weather conditions damage the year’s crop of mistletoe berries, [Desert Mistletoe] populations have been observed to go through precipitous declines.”

Ah-ha! As I suspected, it could be the severe near record-breaking cold that the northeast corridor experienced these past two winters! Apparently mistletoe spreads when birds eat its berries and disperse them elsewhere. I’m not sure if unseasonable cold kills existing mistletoe or not, but if the berries are unable to survive, and the birds can’t disperse them, there is no proliferations, which could eventually result in a decline.

So, although I am sad that our pilgrimage to Virginia is no longer garnished with mistletoe, I am glad the mistletoe mystery is solved.