The most wonderful time of the year

Ah, December—the festive time when I come down with a voice-stealing cold just in time for a string of choir concerts; the magical days when I somehow squeeze Christmas presents, travel expenses, charity giving and the occasional treat for myself out of one paycheck; the joyous weekends when I ask my fellow drivers to please GET OUT OF THE WAY so I can finish my shopping and make it home before the snow starts and the roads become undriveable until Puget Sound’s three snowplow operators remember how their vehicles work and start sloooooowly clearing the highways. Isn’t this time of year *great*?

Annoyances aside, though, I really do like the holidays. I like that my office makes up for a lack of party budget by throwing a potluck white-elephant gift swap (even though I’ve yet to enjoy the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader audiobook[!] that I “won” last year), I love having an excuse to bake Christmas-colored cookies, and I enjoy figuring out which decorations I can put up that our cats won’t eat or otherwise destroy. (I learned to be careful when I returned after the holiday to find that Sabrina had batted every single ornament down from the tree. I was still finding them under furniture when I moved out of that apartment last summer.) The Boy’s workgroup is having a crazy-go-nuts holiday party tomorrow, and I’m so excited to break out my awesome (but not wearable at any other time of year) bright red plaid skirt that looks exactly like a wool blanket we had when I was a kid.

This time of year also brings back memories of Christmases past—buying what is to this day my favorite holiday album (Ren & Stimpy’s Crock o’ Christmas, featuring the classics “Cat Hairballs” and “The Twelve Days of Yaksmas”), playing “Carol of the Bells” in a handbell quartet on Christmas Eve on a couple of hours of rehearsal and very little sleep since I’d just flown back to LA after finals, wearing my most festive holiday headgear while singing (croaking…I was usually sick, remember) in the Yale Glee Club concerts, singing nearly every women’s part in my high school’s and college’s respective traditional holiday concert closing songs, stumbling across “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and/or “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on TV…yes, good times.

And then the rest of me realizes that it is only December *2nd* and it is very likely I will burn out on Christmas music by the 25th if I start listening to it now, so I’ll go concentrate on getting my voice back by Saturday’s concert. And also decide whether to wear my red plaid skirt to work tomorrow, or change into it closer to party time. Tough call.

God I hate this weather

As promised... *sigh*

Yes, yes, it's pretty and all (that's the view from my living room window, btw), and this being the beginning of December it's hard not to feel a slight twinge of Christmas-y-ness (considering how long decorations have been in stores, it's amazing I held out this long), but the STUPID SNOW RUINED MY PLANS. While I managed to get my errands (and very important coffee shop-sitting) done before the snow started, I had two tickets to a Christmas concert beginning in...negative 14 minutes, and as is probably apparent from the fact that I am sitting in front of a laptop instead of in a dimly-lit church, I will not be attending said concert. I *thought* I'd be okay since the church is only a couple of miles away, and I wanted to take a cab rather than drive myself since a cabdriver would likely be better able to handle any crazies or unplowed roads, but when I called for a cab a full hour before the concert and got nothing but busy signals from multiple companies (at one point I was alternating cellphone and landline, hitting "redial" on each), it became clear that (1) no one else in Seattle wanted to drive, either and (2) even if I managed to get a taxi to the concert, God knows how long I'd have to wait for a taxi *home*. My co-ticket holder, a friend from work, bowed out earlier this evening since she lives several miles and a treacherously icy bridge further away, so I don't feel *too* guilty, but BOOO. This was supposed to be my first official Christmas-y event, and thanks to the weather -- or rather, the city's collective freak-out about the weather -- I am decidedly grinchy. Bah, I say. Humbug, even. So instead of listening to Christmas music, I will probably spend the evening knitting and YouTube-ing They Might Be Giants videos...which isn't the *worst* thing in the world, but it wasn't my first choice either. But my, there are a lot of odd fan-made TMBG videos, the most impressive of which that I've found so far is this: