Childhood flashbacks

lisakit bravely braved the hellhole known as Southcenter Shopping Mall the other day to help me with some last-minute Christmas shopping and as we were making our way we stopped at a Hallmark store. While she was getting cards for her family, I passed by the little blue ghetto of Hanukkah stuff, always tucked away on the left edge of the store where no one ever goes unless deliberately.

I was unimpressed with most of the display. Hanukkah isn't really that big a deal for Jews; it's a celebration of an Israeli fundamentalist sect, the Maccabees, and their military victory over the Greek occupation of Jerusalem, along with the "Hanukkah miracle" that allowed the Maccabees to light and keep alit the eternal flame at the Jerusalem synagogue for eight days until a resupply of the holy oil could be brought into the city. Kinda cool, but nowhere near the importance of Yom Kippur. It's become a big deal in the US because of its relative proximity to Christmas, of course.

On the top shelf of the display were the candles. Jews light one candle per day to celebrate the miracle. The holiday survived the Roman occupation only in oral form-- it's not recorded in the legalistic writings of the rabbis-- and mostly through the candle lighting ceremony, as a reminder that someday the occupiers would be driven out of the city and the city restored to the Israelis. And while I could remember nothing at all about what my family did during Hanukkah, I could still recite the prayer on the back of the candle box from memory.

The Seattle Men's Chorus 2008 Christmas Concert

On what had to be the worst driving night of the year, this past Saturday, Omaha and I took Kouryou-chan and Yamaraashi-chan up into Seattle and attend the Seattle Men's Chorus's annual show, this year entitled "Fruitcake." The roads were almost completely deserted, which was good because we were driving with chains on at less than half speed, and were still slipping now and then. The snow was coming down lightly, but still coming down.

When we pulled into Seattle proper, the chains allowed the old Ford Escort to scale the hills easily, but when we got into the covered and elevated carpark they made us slide on the ramps and we had to unchain the car.

The concert itself was lovely, but then it almost always is. They started out with some traditional Christmas carols, as well as some ancient Latin chants.

One of the more serious moments in the show was when they sang "The Promise," a song about a young man assigned to the Philippines during World War II who kept his promise to be home for Christmas. The family later found out that he had died on December 23rd, but they swear he was there for Yule. The song was very obviously a political appeal to end the Iraq war, but the SMC-- which is a foundational institution of the Seattle gay community-- is never shy about its political leanings. During the sing along portion of the show, in the middle of "Winter Wonderland," when the lyrics about the snowman read, "Then pretend that he is Parson Brown, / He'll say: Are you married? / we'll say: No man," the chorus interrupted the sing along to hold up placards that read "Civil Unions Now" and "Marriage Is So Gay" before resuming.

The song "We Three Kings" became a farce with three Elvises on stage-- a young Elvis, the gold lame' rockin' Elvis, and a convincingly fat white-suited Elvis, came out to sing the song, soon to be joined by a Billie Jean King, a Stephen King, a pharoah the King, a King Henry, a King Kong, and finally a Burger King. "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" was sung by the Seattle Women's Chorus core group, "Sensible Shoes."

The chorus also sang "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", changing musical genres every stanza in a bid, as the introductory speaker put it, "to keep your interest and attention in an era where attention spans are only as long as it takes to flip from one LOLcat to the next." LOLcat mention for the win. One stanza was sung in a creepy, Halloween-like minor key while reindeers with deaths-heads crept about the stage.

After it was over, the girls ran into one of their camp counsellors, who was a member of the chorus.

The drive home was actually uneventful. We didn't have to put the chains on until we reached our own subdivision. Everyone went straight to bed.

And while we're on the subject...

Merry Yule!

Dinah meets the snow

Dinah was so anxious to go outside this morning, so Omaha and I decided to let her out. It was before the rains had started to fall, and it was her first major attempt to go outdoors since snow had fallen at all.

She leapt at the open door, and immediately regretted it. She pulled up her left paw and shook it with a "What the heck?" reaction. Another step, and she shook her right rear paw. Then her front right. Then her rear left. It was very funny in a take-comfort-in-the-misery-of-others way. Omaha told her, "There's no grass out there honey. Why don't you come back inside?"

She took five more steps, then immediately turned around and ran back inside. She meowed loudly, "Make that stuff go away!" Sorry, cat, we'll just have to wait.

Just catchin' up with life

I went in to work Tuesday. The bus was only ten minutes late, for me. Other people at the stop had been waiting over an hour; the two buses before mine had never shown up. When I got downtown, I stopped at Uncommon Grounds, praising the man behind the counter for being a "not Starbucks."

"Indeed," he said. He was about my age, a little broader, a little greyer, with a charming and softened-by-the-years English accent. "What can I get for you?"

"A medium." "A grande," he said, correcting me. "Whole milk?" "No, light." "A skinny grande latte," he said. "Now, do you want it gentle, or definitive? In the definitive, you know the espresso."

"I think I want it definitive." He began making it. "That wasn't very definitive, was it?" I said. "I think I want it definitive."

He chuckled and we exchanged money, and gave me a pleasant "Cheerio" as I went out the door. Thank the Gods for not-Starbucks. Oh, and the coffee definitely expressed its espressoness. I felt awake by the time I got to work.

Getting to work was a mistake. Not in terms of actual work-- I got a lot done, finished one major project (although when I left there were six new entries in bugzilla about it, including one that read: "When there is no error, the error box reads 'There Is No Dana, There Is Only Xul!'" I was testing the out-of-band data handler and forgot to take out the 'no messages' message.), and got out of there early.

I stopped by Westlake Center to shop for more gifts for Omaha and Kouryou-chan, and then waited two hours for the bus. I ran into loba at the bus stop, and then lisakit was kind and wonderful and saved us from the chill and wet and drove us home.

Omaha had managed to wrangle an overnight for Kouryou-chan because both Kouryou-chan and our friend's daughter were going a little stir crazy and we thought it might be good to bounce the two girls off each other. Omaha and I took that as a chance to go to Red Lobster. On the drive up State Road 518, though, I accidentally took the exit to the mall; they'd put up a new sign that incorrectly indicated which lane was for the interstate. The connection to the interstate was only two blocks up, and I was happy to see I wasn't the only person who had made that mistake: at least eight cars were stacked up on the on-ramp.

We got to the restaurant with no excitement. The food was meh. My salmon had that mushy texture of farmed salmon with slow circulation and no real exercise.

We hit bookstores and clothing stores on the way home, picking up more gifts and preparing for a long night ahead.

Omaha taught me how to play cribbage. I can't say I'm good at it, but I won last night, thanks to one very lucky hand.