Time for holiday decorations in the Charpentier-Orogvany household. Which essentially consists of a felt star and some ornaments on our Christmas Tree and putting Tinsel Pig in the window.
Tag: christmas
Tinsel Pig
I now have the ultimate Christmas Decoration. Sam surprised me with a gift after 13 hours of work yesterday.
There is a story here. For the last few years I’ve stared at Tinsel Pig on the site shelves and said or been told wait until it’s on sale after Christmas. And every year it sells out before Christmas.
So to come home to find Tinsel Pig in my window made my night.
Last Day of Winter Break
SoI don’t even really remember many winter breaks when I was younger. I don’t remember what I did (except those three when I wrestled… I didn’t eat those winter breaks. I know that.). I assume it was child-like things such as sledding, snowman making, and other nonsense. But don’t quote me on it.
So this one was filled with a week at home with my parents, sisters, brother, nephews, niece and friend (I only put one down, because he’s the only one… that I’m aware of… that was home). But I got a few new games (Swish is amazing, Array is pretty good too) and spent several nights drinking wine and playing games with my family. It was awesome, it was what I want when I go home, play time with the nephews and niece, and game time with the family and friends.
I got home a few days ago and Sam and I have been in ‘extreme lounge mode’. We’ve been watching tv, reading, cooking homemade meals with new recipes, cleaning, and working on puzzles. We put one 1,000 piece puzzle together, and are working on a second. Its fun minutia and I like it.
So here I am, last day of break. Lets see what is on my task list for today:
- Dishes (Done)
- Laundry
- Take out Christmas tree
- Write new blog post (Done)
- Draw
- Read
- Scoop Cat Poop (Done)
- Print out SLO’s
- Review and take notes on SLO’s
- Put Clothes Away
- Tell Landlord about slow draining bath tub
- Sweep
- Vacuum
Alright, not a horrible long list. Half of that I can get done in the next hour. Christmas Tree is next. We need to get rid of it in order to tell our landlord about our tub. I took a bath last night and when I got out the tub half drained and then stopped to a slow drain. It took, I am assuming, about three to four hours to drain. It was most full and draining was l to the eye or able to be felt by the hand (putting your hand by the drain to feel suction). So yes, tree first.
Oh… and I need to clip my fingernails. I clipped them a week ago, less than a week ago, and they need it again. Stupid healthy fast growing fingernails.
So now I’ll find some good music to play that will provide energy and get started on the day.
Christmas
I bought Sam’s Christmas present about two weeks ago off of eBay.
It came in last Monday and I went down to the office to pick it up (all of our packages go to the apartment office to be held). Its a pretty big package. Holly, our building manager, had let me know it was there.
I pick it up and Holly asks what it is. I tell her its Sam’s Christmas present.
Holly’s exact words are: “But that’s way too big to be a ring.”
Holly loves us. We’re good tenants, we pay on time, we don’t bitch about small things, and we stop by and chat with her often. She always tells us we’re some of her favorite tenants and from the excitement in her voice when she sees I can tell its true.
“When are you going to do it? I can’t wait because you two are some of my favorite people!”
I tell her eventually to end this part of the conversation.
You see, its not that I don’t love Sam. I do. And its not like I’m going any where. I’m not. However I’m not sure marriage is important to me. Well I know its not. Its such a religious thing in my mind. And I’m not religious. Sam feels the same way. If marriage were a governmental thing without any religious twinge, I may feel differently. And I know you can get married without a church, or any religious institution, but living in the era of constant politics has made marriage a religious institution.
When religion is used as a basis to deny two people the opportunity to get married, I don’t care to get married. Period. That’s it. That’s how I feel about marriage. If the government changed the laws so that marriage wasn’t the word they used, instead it was civil union for everyone. Then yeah, lets get a civil union. Let religions have the word marriage, under the books and law it will be called civil union. Sam and I have joked about that. Civil Union. But regardless of what is said a Civil Union is not the same as a Marriage, and having two words to mean one thing during governmental law automatically makes them not equal. It has that feel. Only we, the right folk, can have this word. All you people we don’t like what you are doing, you get to have this word over here. Don’t worry, it’s exactly the same thing as our word when it comes to laws and rights, but its not our word. You can’t have that word.
I need a good happy relationship. Marriage, that’s like an end game, or a turning point in a relationship. I don’t need a relationship with turning points. I just want a good relationship that keeps growing. And ours does.
And Sam, and myself, are happy with our relationship.
Cause its a great one.
Dream a Horrible Christmas Dream
I had a weird dream of Christmas last night. Maybe it wasn’t exactly Christmas, but Christmas shopping.
First of all it took place at a Mall. I kinda extremely dislike malls. Bizarre weird places that are only good for people watching (or getting angry at Apple Stores).
Anyways, I’m walking around a Mall at night, but still during business hours. Not sure what I’m doing there, but I see a big box store. They sell some gadget you’ve all seen sold on TV but that I can’t place right now for some reason. It just has giant aisles and aisles full of this item.
However in the very back there is a section of the store dedicated to a new item. It is a book read. You put on headphones and use a telephone jack to plug the headphones into something that reads whatever book you want.
I’m mildly piqued and look around for someone to inquire about it with. I find a tall skinny man with a pointed goatee. He really wants to demonstrate it for me so I follow him to the front of the store. As we get to the front all of the lights go out. I look around and realize no one else is that with me. It is just me and the sales clerk in the store. When I check my watch it says 8:30 (I instinctively know that the store is open until 9).
He plugs the phone in (by telephone cord) to a small camera box he puts on a shelf. It is directly above a book. As he turns it on the device starts reading the book. There are a few caveats though. You have to manually turn the page, and as I find out, the camera section balances really delicately and is easy to shift and get out of place.
But the guy talks me into buying it. Says he can throw in an extra so I’ll get three for the price of two (they are sold in two packs for some reason).We get to the back customer service counter (where you purchase it) and he pulls out a big circular tin, like the kind you get popcorn in. It has big gaudy logos on it and it bright neon colored.
He tells me it will be $103. Which is way more than I’m prepared to pay, however he goes on about how it is his first sale, how excited he is and how proud his boss will be of him. So I give in.
I pull out my wallet, which is clearly not my wallet based on a) how much cash is in it; and b) how stuffed full and large it is. Tons of receipts, paper, and business cards. I count my cash but it turns out to be just shy of what is needed. I got to pay by credit card, but at the last second I feel a little shifty about the guy, so decide I will use a check (which I happen to have with me).
I tell him I’ll pay by check. This really confuses him but he says ok. As soon as I pull out the check he grabs it and sends it through a machine. I start to protest that I haven’t written anything on it and he looks more confused. I realize he’s never seen a check in his life, that he clearly has no idea how they work or what they are for. I try to get him to tell me the name of the store to put on the check, and he can’t tell me that (he doesn’t know the name of the store). I go back to explaining the parts of a check slowly but he just takes my blank check and puts in the register drawer and gives a receipt.
The dream ends here, but kind of doesn’t. I remember walking out into a dark empty parking lot with the tin under my arm, trying to figure out who the hell I could give this crappy gift to. I think Dad came to mind.
It was cool though. It was one of those dreams where I didn’t remember it until half an hour after I woke up. Just sort of doing something else and it all came flooding back.
Christmas Awesomeness
I made it home for several days for Christmas this year. It was awesome. I don’t know if its just my perception of previous Christmas trips home (to my parents) but this one seemed so much less hectic. I came away from it very relaxed.
I spent considerable amounts of time with my nephews and my niece. Considering I only see them twice a year its important for me to get as much time with them as I can. Rider definitely remembers who I am, and Wyatt spent several hours playing hiding go seek around the house with me. He also has this weird noise he makes instead of words. Something of an “aaaaeeeee.” Its pretty adorable. ‘Wyatt, say uncle A.” “aaaaaaeeeeeee” It rocks. I also played downstairs (in the play area) with Takara. She insisted on going down the kiddie slide over and over again as I set up two giant teddy bears at the bottom for her to run into. I was done after about ten times, but Takara kept it up for 30+ times, laughing the whole time.
As usual my family sat down for multiple board and card games. It is the expected precedent at family gathers, that at some point we’ll sit down for hours of games.
I also saw Reg, Shane, and Kevin (not bad, 3 out of the 5 friends I hung out with regularly in high school). Reg rocked the Karaoke. He even came close to hitting the high notes singing songs by the Darkness.
I don’t know what specifically made this trip so relaxing compared to others, but I think, maybe, it was because I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to. Not that I did much, but there wasn’t any running around, wasn’t any rushed feeling. There weren’t things I “had to do.” I came home, played it all by ear, had a particularly relaxing christmas morning and some good times with friends and family.
What more could I ask of in a Christmas Break.