scotchneat.ca

And here we are at the end of another year. Since I tend to look back and evaluate throughout the year, I have no sudden revelations to ponder.

Instead, I find myself thinking about many years ago – 2000 (underwhelmed, no major computer failures, toasted the new year alone with a fantastic scotch); 2004 (lovely dinner, unplanned detour to a bar where we danced until the wee hours); several NYE celebrations in the 1990s that had to be reconstructed after the fact.

And while I haven’t moved that far geographically, or even in my outward life, I think the inward changes have been massive. It’s not the resolutions that matter; it’s acknowledging where I’ve been.

I sometimes wonder exactly what my (elderly) neighbours can see when they look across the street and into my windows (and I *know* they do). I wonder if they are titillated or scandalized by the 38 year old woman dirty dancing in her bra and panties to Beyonce or Madonna.

This is something everyone should do, though. Dance like a stripper, act out the words to your best secret pleasure song, mosh in the living room, rumba in the dining room, tae bo to Guns & Roses (yes, it’s possible), cool down to Prince – whatever you want, really.

But do it with verve and abandon and anger and lust and joy and contemplation. Do it at 38 and 78 if you get the chance. Heh. Now that will get them talking…

Having watched “Serenity” for the fourth time, I am flush with browncoat zeal. I truly don’t understand how a television show with such wit and grit and depth and vision could be cancelled. Or how a movie that makes you talk back to the screen, kicks you in the gut, and makes you laugh could not do well.

Shake off your lethargy and demand entertainment that transports you. Find out why “science fiction” at its best is the refracted image of a scratched mirror – familiar and other-worldly. Learn to belly laugh at fictional characters. Envelop yourself in pathos. Think about stories long after they’re done. Buy it for yourself and others…

http://www.serenitymovie.com/

1. JeanLuc does NOT like the coffee grinder, but one need only back off a few feet, the better to glower at it
2. neutral/light paint colours definitely brighten up the place, but they are not my milieu
3. I am completely happy and comfortable with my non-Christmas observation, but most other people aren’t
4. curry is a good holiday food
5. while it can be annoying and frustrating to most of us that we cry when we are angry or we cry when we don’t want to, it’s better than swallowing a flood of tears (but that doesn’t mean we have to do it in public ;).

Swiss engineers with French accents talking about muon chambers…

Enough to get a girl all hot and bothered! Discovery Channel is a good thing.

*my nephew’s giggle of glee upon unwrapping a “Thomas the Tank Engine” train set

*seeing a huge male lion scratching at the door of the zoo enclosure to get inside, exactly as JeanLuc would (and never mind about the “he should be free” – some must live in captivity for others to be free, and it’s the Toronto Zoo, which is one of the best in the world)

*Level 100 of Qwyzzle.

I have my own reasons for this. December is usually a bad month for me. This year more so.

But I had three conversations in the office today, with people who are feeling very *tired* of work, who want to curl up in a ball or hide out or tell everyone that rubs them the wrong way what they really think. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing, or a Northern clime thing. That need to shrink one’s world to a warm blanket and the warmer glow of a tv or a fireplace. Only a select few allowed to break through the perimeter for the occasional conversation or semblance of human contact.

I’ll be doing my version of Festivus again this year: basically me and the cat, a selection of movies and/or Joss Whedon DVDs, alcohol and my favorite red fuzzy blanket. I guess the tough part is thinking about the possibility of how it might have been different…

We need one. Now, I understand that retail professionals are paid to pleasant and to do what it takes to ensure each shopping experience at their place of employment is a pleasant one. But it seems to me that they ratchet it up a notch around the holiday season, such that dogs and American teenage girls are about the only ones who fully understand them.

I don’t like perky in August, and I despise it in December. I was waiting in line behind a guy, in a woman’s clothing store. He asked for a gift certificate. 100 dollars. Gruff voice. No eye contact. The clear signs of “I’m a man and I’m uncomfortable and this is what she told me to get and just hurry up cuz I want to get the hell out of here.” I’m all, “I’m with ya, brother.” Clerk, however, is in Christmas perky mode… “HOW ARE YOU TODAY. IT’S SO LOVELY THAT YOU ARE BUYING HER A GIFT CERTIFICATE. DO YOU WANT SILVER OR GOLD? [like he gives a rat's ass what the colour is] AND WOULD YOU LIKE A BOX FOR THAT [for a frickin' gift certificate?] AND OH, HOW IS YOUR SHOPPING GOING? I’M DOING WELL ON MINE, EXCEPT FOR MY MOM, CUZ SHE’S SO HARD TO BUY FOR, AND [this is when both he and I exchanged a look of shared horror, and I tuned out the rest].”

I think he’d agree to be the treasurer.

It’s good to conduct an archeological dig on your own cupboards now and again. Determine the source of the items, think back on the legends that go with them, postulate theories on their original function….

In prepping for painting in my bathroom, I cleaned out one of the cupboards. Weirdest thing in there: “grapefruit extract” in a bottle with an eyedropper kind of thing on the end. Why the hell do I have “grapefruit extract”???

heh.

I think it’s been around for a while, but our group has just got ’round to Qwyzzle.

If you hate puzzles, do not venture there.

If you aren’t good at Internet searches, do not venture there.

If you get frustrated easily, do not venture there.

If you have an answer-addictive gene, do not venture there.

I dare you to venture there…