Christmas love.

[icarus]

Last night my kitty sprawled out on my stomach, all four legs in the air, and the two of us dozed. Even though this kept me pinned to the couch and I woke up at 5am with a crick in my neck -- so worth it.

I love Christmas. I love the tacky exhuberance it takes to decorate one's house with a life-size light-up santa and eight plastic raindeer.

I love Christmas carols well beyond the point where most people's eyes glaze over and WG begs me to play something, please, anything else. (Yes, I'm Buddhist. Yes, I'll sing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' without one drop of irony.)

I love Christmas shopping, or rather, what I call Christmas buying, because I go into the mall like a commando on a mission and emerge 20 minutes later with what I came for or empty-handed.

I love the noise and the chaos and the third-world press of people. I love the bell-ringing and dropping change in the Salvation Army buckets (where are those guys this year?).

I love the crinkle of wrapping paper and designing yet another bow.

I love swearing like a sailor as I try to string the lights on the Christmas tree and have a whole strand go out on me after it's threaded through the branches.

I love lining up the Christmas cards and hiding the ugly ones in the back.

I hate visiting family and company Christmas parties, smiling so hard my face might crack -- I hate parties and I'd rather watch it all from behind a cup of hot cocoa. But in the balance, Christmas is good.

I love the 3am sigh of exhausted satisfaction on December 24th as I finally have it all done.

Finally, I love the latest part to sheafrotherdon's "Farm In Iowa" series. When you read it, you'll understand. I'll get you the link in a moment -- there you are:

Near the Earth, to Touch. John/Rodney, Farm In Iowa, AU NC-17. sheafrotherdon

Disaster, real-kids that have melt-downs and fling boogers, Christmas, wonder that goes beyond Christmas, and a world so ordinary you want to sink into it like your favorite chair. How I love this John and Rodney. gaiaanarchy said that sheafrotherdon writes wonderfully pointless and tangental John/Rodney arguments and I heartily agree. This story is like a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night: it's simple, yet everything you could want for Christmas.

I forgot the snippet, didn't I? Here you go:

It takes him a while to remember he has a cell phone in his pocket, product of Rodney's insistence that exactly this sort of thing was bound to happen someday. He flips it open, finds he has a signal, and mumbles something profane and thankful as he hits the speed-dial for home.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Rodney." His voice is surprisingly steady, he reckons.

"Oh god, what did you do? Are you in jail? You're in jail aren't you?"

Or maybe not. "Of course I'm not in jail." He rubs the heel of his hand against his aching forehead – blinks, surprised, when it comes away covered in blood.

"That is such code for 'I'm in jail'," Rodney protests.

"I'm not in jail!" John replies, rummaging in his pockets, voice rising despite the fact that he knows it's going to make his head hurt more.

"Then where are you?"

John squints into the distance. "By the side of the road 'bout halfway between the Brennemans' and Jackson Avenue," he offers.

There's silence on the other end of the phone. "And you're what, calling to tell me you've decided to sell your body on the least populated street in America?" Rodney asks.

"Kinda had an accident."

"Accident?" Rodney's voice ratchets up a degree or two. "What kind of accident?"

"Hit a deer."

"Oh my god."



ETA: wildernessguru left a note on the cookie batter this morning, "Keep your paws off." With child-like kitty picture and fluffy rendering of Monte's tail. Appropos to nothing, I'm just amused.

Comments

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

I love Christmas shopping, or rather, what I call Christmas buying, because I go into the mall like a commando on a mission and emerge 20 minutes later with what I came for or empty-handed.

It's the only way to shop.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*nods* You have to go in with bullet-proof jacket and marketing repellent in a handy 12 oz. can (though the 6 oz. purse size will do in a pinch).

Icarus

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, normally I don't mind lingering, maybe hanging around the bookstore for awhile. But in December?

There are lists. There are schematics in my head to get to all the right stores in record time, grab the right stuff and get back to the car.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

We should plan wars. They would have clear battle plans and be done in time for holiday baking. :)

Icarus

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

:)

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

I totally know what you mean. I don't get of tired of carols until well after New Year's.

And I love the Farm in Iowa AU

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I live with a man who has a low Christmas carol tolerance, so I wait for him to leave.

Funny, he's also one who used to stress and practically get ulcers with the onset of Christmas. Coincidence, no? For him it's the time of year where the family measures him and finds him wanting. But I'm hoping I've broken him of that with "who cares if we got the Christmas cards out in time, let's eat cookies" attitude.

Icarus

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Awwww! That's the best way to look at it.

(I USED to like Christmas songs. *baleful glare at retail workplace Muzak*)

[mad_maudlin]

D'aw. I've had Smokey kitty in my lap almost non-stop since I got back Thursday, and I agree, it's a great way to nap.

Also, glad to see you're online, and not blacked out like the rest of Seattle...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm telling you, one little windstorm and the whole city gets knocked out. There are benefits to living in an overpriced apartment inches from downtown. I had no idea it had hit so many people until Saturday, when WG had a massage in Magnolia (Magnolia! The district of million-dollar homes) and found the place was being heated by a back-up generator.

I hope this doesn't delay my grades. I have a bottle of Saki waiting for me to either celebrate or mourn my Sanskrit marks.

Icarus

[mad_maudlin]

Oh, believe me, one little windstorm can do a whole world of hurt. St. Louis got that experience twice this year...

Yay Saki! Just don't leave the apartment once you're into it. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize how bad it was. 120,000+ homes are still without power, and it's been a week.

I don't get it. I remember when only outlying areas went without power after a storm, and I've never seen it go on this long. I mean, in Michigan you had to have an ice storm to see people go this long without power.

Do they not have the manpower and skilled labor to fix everything? What's going on?

This is so bad, people have accidentally killed themselves and their families from rigging up heating solutions. A house burned down apparently because someone got creative with some sort of convertor and his car. Other people have had their BBQs and other such things indoors and died of carbonmonide poisoning.

We've only had the occasional flicker of the lights, but we're really close to downtown.

Icarus

[mad_maudlin]

It's because the power infrastructure is aging, and rather than going through the cost and inconvenience of a major overhaul, the utilities would rather fix problems as they arise and hope that shit like this doesn't happen too often.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah. Interesting. A smaller scale version of the cascade failure on the east coast back in 2003. That makes sense.

This makes me want to buy a house and figure out ways to make it energy independent. Solar panels on the roof. Can one generate hydroelectric power from the rain running down the gutters in Seattle? (Actually genuinely wondering about this.)

Icarus

[mad_maudlin]

Hey, anything's possible...line up some little paddlewheels in the gutter and see if you've got enough juice to run the computer.

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

OMG, kitty envy!

And I will never understand people, who think non-christians don't enjoy Christmas and singing carols. I'm very much atheist/agnostic and yet a couple of days ago I created a pandora music station just for Christmas music and have been listening to it all evening. The only thing, I don't like about it, is that it doesn't play German carols.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Stille Nachte is a favorite of mine. ;)

What's a pandora music station?

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

Pandora.com is a sort of internet radio. You tell them a song or artist you like and they create a music station that plays songs with similar characteristics. But voting thumps-up or thumps-down on any played song or adding a new song or artist to the station, you can tweak the song selection they present you with. It's a fun way to find new music or play only christmas music all evening. And they do have German carols. I just hadn't given them the right parameters before.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Cool. I wonder if my (pathetically out of day 12-year-old) system will be able to handle it.

Icarus

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. New music is always of the good.

[perfica.livejournal.com]

Speaking of appropos to nothing, I was at an iceskating rink yesterday and spent the whole time remembering John from 'Out Of Bounds' and how he likes to skate fast down big hills. It made happy.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Awww. :D

I'm having trouble shaking my writing funk after this awful creative writing class and seeing Xanthe get creamed in the comments to "Take Clothes Off As Directed." I liked both Xanthe and Helen's story, but the viciousness displayed in the reviews towards Xanthe gives me pause.

Icarus

[perfica.livejournal.com]

Your writing funk is understandable. From all accounts, the guy was a quack (can people other then fake doctors be quacks?) so really, he had no idea of what you were trying to acheive and his opinion can't be counted towards anything.

With regards to Xanthe - I, like many other (generally quiet) people, enjoyed her stories. I like Helen's too. The sad fact is that there are a lot of immature people in the world who believe tearing something down automatically raises up the 'competition.' I hope Xanthe managed to ignore them in the end as their comparisons are of no consequence.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I have two little ficlets percolating, though I'm nervous about writing them.

Quack, yes. Very inexperienced, yes. No intention of becoming a teacher this-is-just-a-job, yes, unfortunately.

I've been putting together my rec-list of stories that represent some of the main themes of the year in SGA, and Xanthe story has its own section. :)

Icarus

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

I see you and I have similar tunnel vision shopping methods. Well, unless I'm in a bookstore, in which case I emerge much, much later with no idea how all the time passed and purchases that bear no resemblance to my intentions going in.

I love the noise and the chaos and the third-world press of people. I love the bell-ringing and dropping change in the Salvation Army buckets (where are those guys this year?).

Well, while the local bell ringers who are concerned with actually raising money for the needy seem to be at the usual storefronts around here, the Salvation Army's high muckamucks may still be in court defending their organization's right to continue discriminatory hiring and management policies while receiving taxpayer dollars (as set forth by a back room deal with the Bush administration). Some info can be found here (http://www.nyclu.org/salvation_army_pr_022404.html). This is why I give to the United Way and various local children's hospitals instead.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The Sally Army ringers are hanging around our Albertson's stores and Fred Meyers. They seem to have given up entirely on dressing up like Santa; you're lucky if they bother with the hat. They also seem very dispirited (no pun intended) when ringing their bells, flipping them half-heartedly when shoppers come by and sinking back in their chairs with "this too shall pass...eventually" expressions when shoppers go.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of the Salvation Army, thinking, "great, some gung-ho Christian idiot failed upward into power." Then I read this:

b) authorize their religious leaders to reveal private communications to The Salvation Army

Oh. Not funny any more. That violates, say, the sanctity of Catholic confession. Why the hell would they want to know this sort of private information unless they weren't really Christian and using the organization for a power trip? That's really bad. *withholds change from buckets and gives instead to the local Union Gospel Mission*

Icarus

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

this post made me happy. we line up christmas cards. and i probably unconciously move the better ones in front of the bad ones.
i usually start singing christmas songs in july.
that image of you and monte curled up like that, fabulous. would be totally worth it. i love it when animals love me back.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The fuzzhead is doing it again tonight, only now extra soft, extra happy and confident, and his head is snuzzled up under my chin.

Icarus

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

Right with you on the X-mas carols though not christian. My boyfriend wants to stab me. ^_^

And the sal val guys?

They are at my Walmartz, ringing their Bellz

~N~

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hee. I wait till WG leaves and then put the Xmas music on. The news about the Salvation Army has me keeping my change in my pockets. They asked that employees b) authorize their religious leaders to reveal private communications to The Salvation Army? Creeeeeepy.

Icarus