Merry Grinchmas

As the title suggests, I am nowhere close to being in the Christmas spirit yet this year. I'm not saying the magic feeling won't hit me at all (and I truly hope it does), but now, as we crawl into December, I'm not feeling a thing. But everyone sure wants me to! Lights strung up everywhere, endless holiday commercials, schlocky songs wafting from every store, Santa's chair set up in the mall before Halloween was even over - it's all so annoying. And people who are into Christmas this early are annoying, too (except for Shannon - she's expecting a baby any time now, so she's allowed to be as excited as she wants to be about anything). It's all just too much way too soon! The weather doesn't even lend itself to feeling Christmasy, at least not here - I just went out for groceries in a light jacket and was sweating by the time I got back. I don't know, as I get older, Christmas seems like more of an ordeal - I mean, I enjoy spending time with my family over the holidays (at least until they start driving me mental, usually around Boxing Day), but every year just seems more and more...blah. Like I should be doing something more than sitting around stuffing my face with turkey and reverting to lazy teenagehood - volunteering at a soup kitchen, visiting someone who has no family, something. I think KP's got the best idea this year - head to Vegas and skip the whole damn thing, or at least, celebrate the garish gluttony in the most garish and gluttonous of places. Anyway, hopefully this is just the pre-Christmas blues and once I'm surrounded by the snow, trees and noisy family that makes up a Becker country Christmas, I'll be as excited as a 5 year-old. Who knows - it could happen.

Need to vent

The person who lives above me has been vacuuming ALL. DAY. LONG. I'm already well aware that this person is either a) incredibly messy, or b) an obsessive-compulsive vacuumer because there is usually vacuuming going on nearly every day for at least a few minutes. But today he/she has really flipped out. It's been on and off now for hours -- and it sounds like a goddamn forest is being cut down by a hundred chainsaws over my head. Who has to do that much vacuuming?? I've never seen this person, though I'm incredibly curious. In my state of aggravation, however, I don't think I'd better go up there and see what on earth is going on because I really feel like tossing the vacuum into the path of the Bathurst bus. ARGH! Whew, at least it feels somewhat better to have ranted about it...and now here's some sweet silence, for the moment at least. I'm going to enjoy it.