All I want for Xmas

As if the Niece didn't rock enough, what with the L'Occatane gift certificate, I just got a package in the mail. Cashew Brittle. No, not just cashew brittle, HOMEMADE cashew brittle. Which I have no intention of sharing.

I'm telling you, it doesn't get much better!

Best Xmas Ever

Recently there have been a lot of break ins in my neighborhood as all the meth freaks get their holiday high on. So, I have been trying to remember to shove my faithful MacBook, Della, into my murse when I leave the house.

This has reminded me of one of my all time favorite Christmas stories.

A few years ago, on Christmas Eve, I had to go into my old dentist to have an emergency root canal done. This woman was nothing like my current dentist, who aside from being all hot and yummy, is a really nice guy and a good dentist.

She on the other hand seemed to harbour some personal grudge, though she could well have been this way with all her patients. At any rate she hustled me into the chair and started in on me before the novocain had kicked in. I am pretty sure the shot was administered with a rusty blunt needle. She then got out a dull wood chisel and a ball peen hammer, though it could have been a 5 pound mallet, I'm a little fuzzy on that and performed a root canal.

Finally after about 2 hours of torture I was released with a temporary crown and a much lighter wallet.

At the time, I was still trying, foolishly, to play nicely with the ex. So as I made my way home I stopped in a few vintage bookstores looking for a 1925 edition of "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". It is one of my favorite books and I had introduced the ex to Anita Loos. He had always envied my 1925 edition with the Ralph Barton illustrations. As luck would have it, the last shop I checked in had a 1926 edition, but still with the Barton illustrations, so I figured good enough. It's not like we were having sex and I headed off home, warm in the glow of a good deed.

When I got home I had some trouble with the front door. When I walked into the Ganome Lair, I discovered why. The local drug addicts had been doing some holiday shopping of their own. Aside from relieving me of all my stereo equipment and electronics, they had also helped themselves to all the wrapped presents!

With one thing and another it was not the sunniest or merriest of Christmases. There is no silver lining to this story. No one came riding to the rescue helping me replace the stolen gifts. I had let the apartment insurance lapse, so I had to go through the long slow replacement process. Oh, and the dentist screwed up the root canal and a couple of years later I had to pay another dentist to correct the situation.

So why the best Christmas ever?

Whenever people get into those dreary conversations about the worst Christmas of their lives, I pipe up with this story and invariably everyone shuts up for a few seconds and then some always says, "Okay, you win." End of conversation.

So I guess there is a silver lining after all.

It could be worse.

I was going to do a very cranky post about what a crappy day I had. And believe me, today sucked out loud.

However, on the bright side, the Niece gave me a very generous gift card for L'Occatane and 2 of my orchids have thrown out spikes.

Therefore, no bitching. Regardless of how tempting it is, since today really, really sucked, but a couple of really cool things happened too.

It's always good to maintain some perspective.

Office party

I managed to survive the office holiday party. Actually the food was good. As a non drinker I didn't mind so much that they started to run out of beer in the first hour, though it was too bad. Our faculty at the best of times need all the help they can get in any social circumstance.

Overall, it ranked about 5 on the utter boredom scale. The poor soul who had to organize the thing I did feel bad for. She had had to cancel the event last Thursday because of the snow storm and reschedule for tonight. The food was good and there were a couple of real cuties from the catering company wandering around, but I have to say, the Math Dept. does not do holiday parties well. If this had been an English Dept. when I was younger most people would have shown up half lit, and when the booze started running low, some of the faculty members would have pooled some money and sent out for more.

However I don't think you can really expect too much from work parties anymore, so I am happy that I managed to get myself seen by the Department head and the HR officer so that I was out of there in under an hour.

Only 3 more days and I have a long weekend which I hope to spend with friends enjoying myself. I might even have a drink.