Christmas time is here....

So, I've just organized the Christmas albums and I'm trying to remember my favorite songs before I listen to them ad nauseum. So here they are pre-season, and I'll do another round afterward.

1) Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley (that one's a definite keeper!)
2) What are you doing New Year's Eve? (not really Xmas, but seasonal)
3) Song for a Winter's Night by Sarah McLachlan (again seasonal, but one of my all time top 5 fav songs. period!)
4) Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt (Eartha Kitt. 'nuff said)
5) Home for the Holidays ( Great sing along, what the holidays should be like)



I'm missing a whole bunch...I'll add them later as I remember them :)

There are tons of great Xmas albums and I always get at least 2-3 new ones each year, some times the classics, sometimes the weirder the better. I have the Monsters of Rock Xmas album....Megadeath is all I gotta say!

Some of my perennial favorites:
Joan Osbourne: Christmas Means Love
Bette Midler: Cool Yule
John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together

Just a few to tide me over....
And now for something completely different!
Hmmm, Eliot....

A whole new world?

Should I quit my job that I hate and take a lesser paying one while I search for a 9-5 job that pays decent but not great while I go on the great quest of pursuing my dreams?

TERROR!
HORROR!
EXCITEMENT!
FEAR!
DRINKING!

Yeah, that about covers it....

Neil? Neil Gaiman?

Well, I found a new book to hold my attention. And I finished it already. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I picked it up thinking, "Self. You liked Neverwhere and American Gods, why not continue on with Anansi Boys. It'll be good for you!" Now, I always want to avoid things that are good for me so I almost didn't do it (I'm so contrary) but I finished it within 24 hours. I love books that deal with the supernatural as if it were an everyday part of life, such as how I imagine human cultures dealt with their Gods and such. Oh, it's raining, pissed of Zeus again. Ah, got into a horrible chariot accident, most of forgotten to sacrifice...er a goat? A virgin (they taste better right?)? My first born? You know how it goes.... Neil has the gift to make the ludicrous seem completely plausible. I enjoyed the hell out of Anansi Boys, which I kept calling Anasazi Boys, cuz I'm smart that way, so I went into my library to see if I had any other of Gaiman's books. Lo and behold I came to an awful conclusion! I had no more books by him. Until I looked closely at American Gods and saw there was a bookmark left in the book. Now, for me that's not uncommon, I have half-read books with bookmarks stuck all around my home. But then it slowly dawned on me....I never finished it!!! Holy Shit, Batman! Yes, I have another book to read!!! And I started reading it years ago, around 2004-2005 so now I got to start over!!! YES!!! Ok, I admit I'm a little over-exuberant on this topic, but Neil Gaiman is worth it. Go! Find him! I'll wait.....


And while I wait, more husbands. Hmmmm...

Jayne! The man they caaaaaaallll Jayne!




One of my first...starting with Santa Barbara and continuing on to Without a Trace




Ahh, yes. I own nothing...except the visions in my head

Hello, I'm a Gleek.

Glee is one of the few things that is making my life bearable at the moment. It's just....awesome in the true sense of the work. The cast's voices are quite phenomenal and the songs that they pick out are great sing-a-long/karaoke type songs that make you belt along with the TV. Since I'm going through a tough time right now, it sounds really hokey to say that Glee is helping me out, but in a sad, pathetic, crazy cat lady without a cat way it is. Check it out! Its on Wednesdays at 9pm and it has been picked up for a full season. It makes me want to plan a cabaret....I would totally rock it too :)

Its a sad commentary when shows don't even have a chance for a full season to get it legs under them. Take Firefly....Oh. I don't even think I can even begin to forgive FOX for canceling that. And now Dollhouse is gone as well, though that got at least one full season. Pushing Daisies, ripped from us too soon...and now Eastwick is gone. Ok, Eastwick was crappy fun, but there's something about Paul Gross that does it for me. As a Mountie. Oh. Yeah.




Hmm... let's meet some more of my husbands....

Hello Salty Goodness :)





I like a man who can handle an orc or two...




Hmmm...dirty...



Hmmm...dirty in another way....



Of course I own nothing here, except my dirty thoughts....

Is it really the most wonderful time of the year? It's only mid November. I call Shenanigans!!! Can't we at least wait until AFTER Thanksgiving? Come on...

Customer etiquette tips from Emily Post...

Please, please, please, I beg of you, be kind to your retailer!!! We are people too you know! I firmly believe that everyone should have to work retail for 2 Christmas seasons, and yes people, it's fucking Christmas, not Hanukkah, not Kwanzaa, not the Solstice or Saturnalia (though that's where the modern interpretation for the date of Christmas stems from. Don't believe me? Look it up....) People get up at the asshat-crack of dawn to stand in line for a fucking Wii for Christmas presents....get over it. Frankly, I hate how retail has turned a wonderful idea into something so depersonalized and competitive. I LOVE the idea of Christmas, the concept of "hey, you know what? I'm a human, you're a human, why not just be humans together without trying to kill each other. By the way, here's a sweater I made for you." Notice it has nothing to do with religion or ideology. I was raised Catholic (13 years of Catholic schooling, if you couldn't tell) but I'm not a Christian. Frankly, never was, but I digress. The point is, you don't need to have the latest, bestest, shiniest, glowiest, gnarliest THING out there to show that you are loved, or that you love. It's about the human connection. Let's just be human. Is that too much to ask?
Anyways, I digress again.

When you walk into a store, you are expecting to get served. Well, we expect you to be ready to be served. So, straight from the horse's mouth, here's some polite suggestions on what to do or not do when walking into a store:

1) Do not walk into a store on your cellphone. Yes I know they're physically attached to your head, I love my phone too, but you know what? I don't want to know about dear Antonio who has been a good little boy, or the bitch-ho who's trying to steal your man (both situations I've actually overheard). Put. The. Phone. Away. Or at least, finish the call before entering the store. Do not try to complete the transaction while speaking to an imaginary person I can't see, then expect fabulous service. I. Will. Ignore. You. You suck. And nobody fucking cares that you're so important that you have to be speaking to somebody else RIGHT NOW! Cuz, you know, we all got them. And we all suck. So do you.

2) When someone says, "Hello, how are you today?", they're actually asking you a question. Now, quick grammar tip. A statement is its own entity and does not require any other response. It is what it is. Examples: The bus is late. Statement. "I love Hershey bars" Douchey statement. "$6.50 for a strawberry is insane!" Completely classless statement, yet a statement none the less. An interrogative is two parted, requiring (normally) at least 2 people. One person to supply the query, the other to, hopefully, supply information. So when a person walks in and I cheerfully say, "Hey, how ya doin' today?", it means you better fucking answer me, cuz other wise I will fuck you up. Seriously, it's not like we don't do this a million times a day. It's just being polite to answer. And don't ignore me like I didn't say anything and just jump into what you want. Oh no. I will stop you in your tracks. I will continue the above conversation and make you look like the uncouth jackass that you are. I will answer the appropriate, yet lacking, responding question with an insanely perky "I'm great, thanks for asking!" Shithead.

Well, this is just the beginning, I will be adding on to the list, but I have to stop at 2 so I can top off my vodka and pop some sleeping pills in order to calm down.

Well, I have had some time to read, which is shocking, but hey who needs sleep anyways? Hence the vodka and sleeping pills :)
One Shot by Lee Child was the most recent one. It was good, well into the series that I haven't read any of. Not sure if I would read any more, but nice plot movement, kept me guessing until the end, though the clues were there. So, I guess a B-.

Before that was Ice Station by Matt Reilly. This was an excellent read! Loved the fast paced dialogue and action sequences. Nice twists and turns, great characters. Definitely want to read the others. Solid A.

I just started Silent Bride by Leslie Glass, but I'm gonna put it down, because I just can't get into it. Gonna look for something else.

This was taken in Baltimore, MD right outside of the Inner Harbor October 2008.
I'm not sure what will be enlarged, big, big...but how could you resist taking a closer look!