I totally forgot that I took these videos on Christmas day. In the first one, my brother’s friend David tries to act like it’s been sooooo long since he played the quads, so he hands the sticks over to Evan. In the second one, you can see (provided you can see anything at all; we played that thing all day and into the night) a pointed lack of children playing the Wii. Also, you’ll notice…
One of my fabulous birthday gifts this year was a mouse (a wireless Mighty Mouse to be precise), which means I can finally get back on a proper design horse rather than the rickety little pole-with-a-mop-on-top I’d been using as a horse since I got this laptop. I don’t know about y’all, but I can’t design for shit using a trackpad. I mean, it’ll do in a pinch, but I’m kind of a mouse girl.…
Most years, when you have kids in the family, there’s that one gift that someone gets that just becomes an instant, ridiculous hit with everyone. My nephews got a Wii this year, and I think the grownups were even more excited than the kids were. (My dad watched two seconds of gameplay and said, matter-of-factly, “We’re gonna have to have one of these.”) We passed those controllers around from morning until late into the night.…
For one reason or another, my parents’ house is full tonight: Mom, Dad, my brother, me, my sister, my nephews, and my grandmother. I was originally slated to sleep with Grandmaw, which was old hat after last week in the mountains, but she left her C-Pap machine at home and is snoring off and on and, I tell you what, despite the fact that I am a snorer myself, I just absolutely cannot sleep with…
In just a few, I will be joining the shuffling throngs — again — to try and wrap up my shopping. Plopping a “vacation” and a couple of days of sickness right in the middle of December really threw off my timing and I’ve only just now gotten to paw through the bags of acquired knickknacks in my closet to see where I stand on everyone. I feel like I’ve been assembling Christmas gifts since…
Not eating for a couple of days does strange things to a body and a mind. Like, for example, causing a dream in which there is a band field show featuring two kids who look just like the Olson twins (circa late Full House), dressed up as The White Stripes, singing “When I Hear My Name.”
The last bit of my time in the mountains was considerably better than the first bit. Wednesday, my dad and grandmother and I headed eastward in my car (which was a trooper) to scale the mountain and turn around in Cherokee, N.C. The weather was heavy and wet and temperamental, but we braved it anyway. The dampness saturated the colors, but when the fog set in, it was hard to see anything through a lens…
This Christmas, surprise the one you love with this beautiful “Humping Bear” figurine. Today was quite a bit better than yesterday. Because it had to be, I guess. We got a late start but ended up frittering away several hours in Gatlinburg proper, milling around, wandering in and out of shops, and getting rained on. A lot. We’re a slow-moving bunch, for sure. Mom is hobbling around because both her feet are in orthopedic boots…
I settled into the jacuzzi and quickly ran out of hot water. I turned the jets on and realized that they were far too loud to run at 3 a.m., in case our downstairs neighbors might actually want to sleep. So I laid there in still, lukewarm water for fifteen minutes. Turns out I can only hold my breath underwater for fifty seconds before I start to panic.
It’s 2 a.m. in Gatlinburg. I’m out on the deck of our cabin, hoodie engaged, enjoying the ha-ha-not-free wireless we paid $12 for. The world’s tiniest creek is babbling several feet below me. The wind is blowing and my feet, despite being besocked, are cold. My grandmother is just inside, her hearing aids resting on the night stand, a frightening C-PAP machine strapped to her face, the television blaring its early-morning mediocrity to the world.…
You must be logged in to post a comment.