Had a good haul of gifts, considering we're a middle-class family under the strain everyone else is. Lots of strip'd and black things to deck myself in, chocolates, books.
Under the guise of some massive toy for the family pets [I had assumed it was some sort of cat-house-gym-contraption], my Uncle was kind enough to bestow upon us a new, much needed as far as electronics go, 32" flat-screen television. I watched The Dark Knight in such high-definition that you could see every pore on Heath Ledger's grease-painted face. Today I plan on watching the movie I received, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I adore that show! Guillermo del Toro is a god.
So I spent the day watching the new telly and generally being a lazy bum followed by engorging myself on a vegetarian Christmas feast.
Afterwards, I was invited by a friend to see the new Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories, which I actually enjoyed. There was Ruben and Scott and a much-missed face, Cass, who has been in South Carolina for basic training in the U.S. Army. He was bald [much to my amusement] and had to wear two hats; he also was getting over pneumonia and had the gunky cough to accompany it. Welcome to Utah, Private! We drove there in a blizzard with a disfunctional car that had to warm up for a while before putt-putting off. We barely made it in time for the movie and the snow had become six inches deep as we trudged through the parking lot. After the movie, with my umbrella providing no defense against the torrents of snow, we got in the car and tried not to succumb to frostbite as it warmed up.
We made a long, slow, and slippery journey to State Street to drop off Scott and almost rear-ended someone. More like sliding at one mph into a car stuck in a snowbank, but rear-ending nonetheless.
And then we chatted with Cass about army life, which seems to be working well for him, even if the gas chambers did singe off his leg and arm hair. I have no idea why they put people in gas chambers, but okay...anyhoo, the gas mask had saved his eyebrows and I thought it could have been fun not to have eyebrows so you could pretend to be Voldemort or doodle some Amanda Palmer ones on. Or Charlie Brown. He was in town "recruiting" and needed two names to get the paycheck or whatever and it only meant that the army would send you brochures and phone calls and stuff. So I obliged, but I couldn't join the army even if I wanted to, so ha! For once, being mentally and physically "damaged" has been in my favor.
I was then instructed to find attractive women for him since he'd been stuck on a floor with sixty other men. Ha. I thought it was bad living with twenty girls on a dorm floor [you would have imagined they'd be cleaner...]. He'll be leaving in a few days to go back to base, finish BT, and then get the specialized training for his field of work or whatever. I couldn't join the army. I'd be too bent on sticking it to the man, whoever "the man" may be, ha. So I'm glad he's enjoying himself and the weather, which he pointed out on several occasions.
And then I was dropped home, stepping into a foot of snow as I got out of the van and doing some sort of bizarre prancing through the snow-like a cat in an inch of water-avoiding it as much as I could.
A handful of pills later and I was off to bed. It was a good Christmas, which is saying something because I don't like Christmas very much.
Off to go find something to do!
-K.
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