Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Instant Holiday Traditions

Here's the last of my Holiday viddies for the season:



I went shopping today.

I didn't have to go to the store today. I could have made it until the day after Christmas just fine. I had food and drink enough, but I was low on canned cat food. So this afternoon, I went down to the supermarket for not just cat food, but to create a new holiday tradition.

I'm realizing that, here in the 21st century, traditions can be generated and extinguished at a fairly quick rate. Why, look at the new holiday tradition of watching "The Interview" on Christmas Day to celebrate free speech and Sony's despicable marketing practices.

In our family as kids, we had a tradition of dad making clam chowder on Christmas Eve. Then we opened presents afterwards. But even this tradition was something that emerged sometime in the 1970s. We had an angel on the top of our tree then. Now I have a star (when I actually put up a tree).

So I decided I would generate my own holiday tradition this year by getting some thin-sliced roast beef and making French dip sandwiches. After all, they were invented just a couple of miles from here at Philipe's in downtown Los Angeles. It made sense that I could take this tradition with me back to the Midwest for next year's Christmas.

When I got to the supermarket, there was not a parking space to be had, even with Steve's handicapped placard at my disposal. After about five minutes, I did get an open space. It was not quite at the far end of the parking lot, but I didn't care. I got my bags out of the trunk and headed into the store. There were only a few shopping carts left outside, but I was lucky enough to get one of them.

So I went inside with my cart and was confronted by the hundreds of other shoppers who had stopped in to pick up a few things. Here and there you could see those who had left all their shopping until Christmas Eve, not only filling their carts with food, but also finding just the perfect gift at the very last minute.

The store had overstocked items they anticipated would be in demand, so the narrow aisles were blocked with bags of flour and sugar, and other staples they had simply piled onto the floor. Add these to the displays that normally block the aisles, and a third of them were simply impassable.

So I picked up the roast beef, the rolls, the au jus mix, the cat food, some Christmas cookies and half & half, which I would run out of Christmas Day after my first cup of coffee. And some danish to go with that coffee.

It was rather dismal. People were either ignoring each other or giving nasty sidelong glances to those folks who were standing, transfixed, blocking the aisles for other shoppers. I gave people smiles and did my best to be polite and make room for other shoppers. Not once did I hear anyone say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." It was rather dismal in a frenetic sort of way.

The checkout lines were the same way: people jockeying for position, trying to find the shortest line (which, at this point, was academic). Got back home and lugged the bags in, put groceries away and sat down to ease into Christmas Eve. Planned viewing tonight is "Scrooged" with Bill Murray. I also have a couple versions of "A Christmas Carol" sitting on the DVR so I can speed through the commercials. And "The Wizard of Oz" is on Blu-Ray disc, so my viewing alternatives are solid.

Here's hoping your new year will be an amazing one. I'm looking forward to mine, I know.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

In Between the Holidays

Four days to go until Christmas, and I'm feeling very little holiday cheer.

It's not that I'm depressed (although I do get that way sometimes), just that I haven't really invested anything into the season this year. My one effort was driving up the coast this week to visit with Vena and get together with some other old friends while I was in the area, but it really wasn't holiday oriented or inspired. And, as usual, I took nary a photograph to share.

I avoided driving in the storms we had last weekend, waiting until Wednesday to head up to Grover Beach/Pismo Beach. As Kittie and David both had plans that night, I spent the evening with Vena.

Vena and I have become kind of a support group of two, both having lost a spouse in the last year. I was surprised that we were sharing things, finding common experience in our separate griefs, and feeling much less isolated from the world, feeling much less alone now that the person who was always there by default is permanently absent.

After some egg nog at her house, we went out to Old Juan's in Oceano for dinner, which was Vena's treat. I dropped her off at home and then headed back to the motel.

Thursday morning I slept in, and after having "brunch" at the Denny's next door to the Motel 6, I walked over to the outlet mall. Window shopping was about as close as I got to the merchantile Christmas spirit this year.

Thursday evening there was a get-together planned at Marilyn Blake's house. I got my facts screwed up and ended up arriving an hour early. Marilyn was out walking her dog, so there was no one there when I arrived. After sitting in the car for a half hour, I called Kittie, who informed me that people were arriving at 5:30-6:00, not 4:30-5:00. I sat back and played games on my phone until someone arrived. It turned out that Marilyn walked right past my car (she knew my red Mazda but not Steve's white Saturn, which is what I drive now).

So Marilyn, Kittie, David's sister, Susan, Lisa and Elaine all dropped by. We had some wine and ordered pizzas after David arrived. It was really great to see everyone, and I left feeling connected to all the things that I've been and done, and not just this last year of stress and grief. Several people mentioned that I should get involved in theater again in La Crosse, because I was the best director they had ever worked with.

These are the things I need to be reminded of, because I often forget that there's a lot more than web sites and brochures I excel at creating. As my design professor told me after seeing my stage production of "The Hot L Baltimore," "As a creative force, you're very good on paper, but you're much better on stage."

After the powwow at Marilyn's, Kittie, Dave and Dave's sister and I met at their house in Grover Beach, and I soon headed back to the motel to crash, as I was heading back to Pasadena late Friday morning. It was a quick trip up, but it was mostly to see Vena, because I know how isolated and disengaged she's feeling right now.

It took me less than three hours to drive up, and it was almost four hours heading back, as there were about a half dozen stretches where the traffic was stall-and-crawl (more descriptive than stop-and-go) on the 101. When I got back home, even though I had been gone only two days, Patty was hiding upstairs. A lovely can of fresh cat food was enough to draw her downstairs, and after some time, she was demanding that I make up for all the petting sessions she had missed during my absence.

And now, a holiday interlude from 1963. If Ed Wood Jr. had made a Christmas movie, this would be it. It also provides an insight into what the youth of the 1960s were rebelling against.



Good times. Can anyone say "mealy insipid sexist doggerel"?

While visiting, I suggested to Kittie and David that they come down for New Year's Day, since this was probably the last time we would be able to see the Rose Parade live. At first I was thinking we could go down and stake out a place, sleep on the curb overnight and catch the parade. The more I thought about it, the more I thought the expense of the tickets would be worth having a warm bed the night before. So I checked it out with Sharp Seating (a fellow chamber member and directory advertiser) and ended up getting three tickets in one of the grandstands fairly close to here (it's about an eight-block walk). Not bad for so close to the event.

I have always avoided going down and attending the parade live, as many locals have told me that you get a better view watching it on TV. So this year will be an experiment: I'm going to record the parade on TV, then head down and watch it live and see if they're right. In the end, though, I want to be able to tell folks that, having lived in Pasadena, yes, I did see the Rose Parade in person.

So we'll celebrate New Year's Eve in a very sober manner, hitting the sack right after toasting in the New Year and rising early in time to bake some cinnamon rolls, make some coffee and head down to our viewing stand. Hopefully, Dave will be able to get Friday the 2nd off, so they can stay the weekend rather than having to head back home on the 1st.

If they do leave on New Year's Day, it's a delicate thing: you have to leave between the mass exodus after the parade and before the influx of folks heading to the Rose Bowl for the game. Most years, Steve and I would simply spend New Year's Day at home and wait for the world to vacate the area and leave us to ourselves here in Pasadena.

So I'm thinking that Christmas will just be another day off for me this year. All the decorations are boxed and ready for the move. I do have the tinsel tree from last year, which I plan on deploying sometime in the next few days. Other than that, I want to spend the next week collecting and organizing all the paperwork from this year, so that I'm ready to face the new year (and my 2014 tax return) with confidence.

One tradition I don't want to slip up on, though, is providing my favorite stop-action holiday animation, "Insect's Christmas." It's my holiday greetings to you all.



Hopefully, next year I'll have a more extravagant holiday rejoicing to share. An I will remember to take pictures, too.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I'm Thankful That I'm Thankful

I wrote the headline about a week ago, but then the directory got the better of me and I've been lost in chamber-of-commerce land for the last couple days. I'm about halfway through the alphabetical index, a process of searching the entire document for the 1200 member names and listing upon which page the member is featured.

Also, I just got the final correction list from Kelly at the chamber, and half of the short list is already taken care of. So the rest of the evening will be spent fixing typos, tweaking elements and finishing the index. I will not go to bed until I have a finalized book to hand off to them.

My last post was about a week before Thanksgiving, if I recall correctly (and I do). At that point I was facing the Thanksgiving weekend on my own. But Kittie called up, saying she and David were thinking about coming down here for the holiday. The day after I wrote the last post, they called to say they would be coming down. I take care of the turkey, Kittie does the side dishes.

The rolls are always the last on the table: TRADITION!
They showed up around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, having zipped through from Grover Beach with very little traffic: seems everyone was heading out of L.A., so the congestion was on the other side of the freeway. I had gone out the day before and purchased a fresh turkey hen, and Kittie arrived with her coolers filled with side-dish makin's.

I only remember three things from their visit: 1. It's so nice to have other people's voices in the house; 2. We got to the final two-guy tasks, like packing Christmas and the remaining artwork for shipping, and; 3. I realized Punkin Chunkin, or at least its spirit, will have to be woven into my new life if I am to truly embrace the Midwest.

Kittie's photo provides a bird's eye view of the bird.
I researched it, and Punkin Chunkin is first mentioned in the 12/1/09 blog entry "'Tis the Season to Be Dealt With." When Kittie called on Saturday to say they might be coming down, I said, "I'll record Punkin Chunkin for Dave." And I did.

The production quality had improved quite a bit in the past few years, and they now had hosts from the cable show "Mythbusters," which helped give it some cohesion. Then there was a special called "Superchunk" where they hurled pianos and small cars and a half-ton pumpkin and such through the air with trebuchets.

So Kittie cooked the meal on Thanksgiving, and it was really good. We had enough for leftovers on Friday and turkey a la king on Saturday. Also on Saturday, we went out to Andy's for brunch and then to Arclight Pasadena to see "Interstellar." I was really disappointed. Really.

They left Sunday afternoon and suddenly the house was silent again, and emptier than even. The cleaning ladies were supposed to come last Wednesday, but their schedule shifted and I said they could come on Monday (yesterday), which they did. So now the house is minimalist, all the surfaces shining, only the akimbo window screens destroying the perception of modernity on a budget.

So now I'm wrapping this up, as I have to return to the indexing chore. The cat is once again lying on the desk, head encumbering the mouse pad just enough to be a bother. She knows if she doesn't make room, she's off the desk until my work is done, so she's fairly cooperative about it.