Drinks Optional

My dear and incredibly funny friend Priscilla reminded me of the time we went out and got wasted near Christmas, not wasted wasted, but enough (plum wine, sake, and God knows what else we were drinking at my old buddy Mark Long's party) and decided it was a brilliant idea to wake up my ex in the middle of the night and ask for his copy of the Alanis Morrisette cd, you know the one with that song about hating your boyfriend and asking all those questions about his new love, questions I won't repeat involving, well, movies. I liked the song okay as did she, but neither of us liked it enough to buy it. Hence our middle of the night stop. It was the kind of tune that wore itself out quick, like Ricky Martin's "Living La Vida Loco." But for some reason, that song had no grace period with me; I hated it on first listen. Most of the time, it takes me some time to work up to getting sick of something to the point of loathing.

He wasn't thrilled, I'm sure, but we were happy enough blaring it near my Charlie Brown-like Christmas tree and telling ourselves how great the lights looked. That's the beauty of Christmas lights -- they always look good, even the small pathetic ones and even the gaudy Las Vegas blinking ones that have all the subtely of Tia Tequila. And being with your friend in the middle of the night, laughing hysterically, and singing along with a song everyone knows at least for a little while, well, that's the best part of the holidays, drinks optional. Waking up your ex from a deep slumber, as the Visa card commercial says, priceless. And even if you wake up and think about how you wish the tree looked better at night, every Christmas tree is beautiful in the glow of the winter darkness as the days keep getting shorter, as the past longer.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It's that we should have a new soul." G.K. Chesterton

Cocktail Hour
Thanks for all the great Christmas movie and tradition comments! And Jason, you can wear the Gap clothes because you do look stunningly handsome in the plaid, but we can both agree -- the commercials really do induce trauma.

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy belated birthdays to my dear friends Keith and Robert! Keith is the uber-talented editor of Orchid and great writer, photographer, and all around cool guy. Robert, as you know him on the blog, is my ex-husband and also a wonderful photographer and all-around nice person, father to the beautiful Aria. Congrats to the beautiful Steph who has finished her last round of chemo! Happy Thursday to all!