Caterwauling

Can you differentiate a gash from a tash? The Craig David-inspired beat is probably the best part. 🙂

Thanks to Milk and Cookies for sharing this shameful fun. 🙂 (Oh, and I got 13 out of 16 right. lol)

A festive Friday Five.

1. What holiday or holidays do you celebrate this time of year?

The Christian holidays, although, admittedly, Xmas is for giving gifts and spending time with family and friends, instead of having the religious connotation that it *should.* I guess it would be fair to say that the holiday I celebrate is New Year’s Eve. lol. ‘Tis the season to be drinking! (oh, hell, that’s any season for me!)

2. What was the best gift you have ever received?

One of my cousins gave me my computer for Xmas ’98. Love it. Would probably have never owned a computer without her, and I’m still draining the life out of this fabulous machine, actually. She not only gave me a blueberry iMac, but the blueberry printer and even a scanner (the latter two were both a piece of shit, but I’ll digress). The printer is in its box and the scanner is somewhere at my mom’s place, but still, it was quite a generous thought. 🙂

3. What was the worst gift you’ve ever given?

I don’t give bad gifts. One of my trivial talents is not only buying the most awesome gifts for the people in my life (totally suited to their tastes and personalities), but I spend almost as much money on the wrapping paper. I love to doll up the perfect gifts with the perfect wrapping ensemble.

4. Where will you be celebrating the holidays? Are you hosting? Going away?

I will be spending Xmas eve with IKEA Boy and whoever else we can dredge up, probably attending mass at the Nat’l Cathedral and seeing the Nat’l tree. I hope, anyway. If not, I’ll spend Xmas eve alone, in front of my tree, pulling Maddie out from beneath it.

Then I begin my jaunt to Pittsburgh for Xmas dinner (shit, I need to make my hotel reservations ASAP!). I am dying to see Leslie, who will be home from Ireland for the holidays, as well as the usual suspects. And frankly, I can’t wait to see my mom. I miss her greatly. And my grandfather, too. His health always leaves us wondering if this will be the last time we celebrate a holiday together, so I will savor each moment that we have.

5. If you could spend the holidays with someone who isn’t around, who would it be with? Why?

My grandmother. We always lose a loved one on a holiday, and accordingly, we lost her on the Fourth of July in 1999. She was a riot — a very matriarchal Italian grandma type, not to be confused with the “grandmotherly” type. She could always be counted on to initiate the family brawls or to continue them when a dull moment rolled around, but even though she was stuck in her hospital bed in the living room, you never forgot for a second that she was there.

She had her feisty spirit up till the end, and well, I inherited it, so I actually enjoyed our holiday fireworks. 🙂 That, and she loved everything about Christmas — she always decorated like a madwoman. She always had the newest and most unique trees, with hundreds of matching ornaments. And she loved topiaries. So today, I have a tall spiral tree and a small fiber optic tree of my own, and the reason I even own them is because, when I saw them in the stores, I knew she would have bought them for herself. She never went half-assed — everything she bought was expensive and classy. She hated dumpy decorations and dumpy people, calling them “Polish churches,” which was her way of saying they looked like shit. And in her spirit, while I am not rich by any standards, I have always bought the best of the best for myself — expensive crystal ornaments, coordinating house decorations for the whole year, etc. And when I see something in a store that has a cardinal, a nest, a birdhouse (all of which had to be sparkly and unique), I admit to shedding a tear, because I just know that she would’ve loved it. This is the time of year that I feel saddest to not have her around — I just wish I could buy her some of those pretty things I see. But Mom has totally picked up her spirit as well, and we always put a Christmas tree on her grave, among other treasures she finds that we know Gram would’ve loved.

If I can venture a second answer to the final question, I’d spend Xmas eve again with MV. Every Xmas eve, I sit in front of my tree, like I did so many years before, and remember the one we spent in mass and driving around Mt. Lebanon and Dormont (in Pgh), admiring the lavishly decorated homes. I remember that giddiness, that excitement, that trepidation that I felt, not knowing what was going to happen with us and where this could possibly have gone. (Unfortunately, it really didn’t go anywhere, but I remember having visions of sugar plums that entire evening. lol). We were young and naive and unsure, and life was very sweet then. Each moment counted — we didn’t wish time away like I seem to do now. I don’t know if it’s that I want MV back, or if I want those moments back, but anyway, what I wouldn’t give to be 22 again. …

The world isn’t right for me today. I have less than $3 to last till payday on Monday, Shan is out of town (so no Benny’s jaunts tonight, which is fine, ’cause I’s po’), and I have no Xmas spirit. At all. And it’s going to rain on Xmas, when I’m planning to drive to Pgh. Argh. Me + driving in rain + (probably) fog = not a happy Dawn. Argh. I was driving through Arlington in the fog last night, which was not pretty for me. But I have to say, I was damn lucky, ’cause when I was on Washington Boulevard, on the way to BN’s and PG’s place, we saw a Krispy Kreme truck all turned around and tilted, and there were like eight cop cars and just as many civilian cars — it looked like the truck had hit them all, just minutes before we drove past. Whew. While I am truly sorry for the people involved, I am just grateful that I wasn’t involved. I couldn’t have handled it. I was nervous on the roads yesterday, anyway, for some reason — perhaps the fact that BN and PG asked to stop at 7-11 for a minute before we took off for their place might have saved our lives. ::Whew::

Got to see MU last night, which was a good thing. It’s amazing how good he and IKEA Boy both look, now that they aren’t together. 🙂 There’s just something about both of them — probably that I’m-on-the-prowl aura — but sadly, I’ve never seen either one look happier. So much for relationships being the utopia that so many of us believe that they are supposed to be. Perhaps I will count among my blessings that I am single. lol.

Speaking of being single, I still never returned G3’s call. If he wants me, he can call back. And if he doesn’t call back, I can rest assured that my “hole mentality” was on the money. What I did not share with you, faithful readers, was that after talking with me, his roommate told me, “You’re the most intelligent one he’s brought home.” In and of itself, it wasn’t bad, but then the roomie asked if I had any aspirin, and I only had Vicodin (I forgot to take it out of my purse from the time I got cracked in the head with a glass serving platter during my Xmas decorating). I told him that I was apprehensive about sharing my prescription, and he said he still wanted it. Then he said, “That’s what I like about (G3) — he always finds the girls with the good drugs.” Argh.

I was thinkin’ about taking a road trip this weekend, but I have less than a half-tank of gas to last till payday. While I do love my job (it’s a no-brainer and definitely NOT a huge time commitment on my part), I’d gladly exchange the Club Med(icated) atmosphere in favor of a decent pay stub. And why the fuck do we have to get paid on the 7th and 22nd of each month? My bill collectors aren’t exactly amused by that, but they do love collecting the finance charges!

At least I’m in good company. Among IKEA Boy, BN, PG, MU and myself, we probably didn’t even have $8. I happened to have a free movie rental for Blockbuster, so last night, we rented “Unfaithful.” The boys weren’t thrilled with it, but I loved it. Although … I kinda had to explain to them the part where Diane Lane had to go take a ‘ho bath in the subway bathroom. 🙂 They need a woman to help them understand these things. lol.

I still have Xmas cards to write. I suppose I should take my $3 and go to Starbucks for awhile and finish those up. AND, I have a coupon for buy-one-get-one. Hmm. Would it be tacky to purchase two drinks at once and then sit there, writing my cards?

Also, I am going to take my ass to the gym today if it kills me, and for as poorly as I’ve been eating and for as frequently as I’ve been smoking, it just might. (*Note to self: put paramedics on speed dial.)