Good Things About Christmas Day

Most people feel like once the gift giving is done with on Christmas Day, the rest of the day is boring. I decided to write a list of reasons I love Christmas Day, POST-gifts in the morning.

1) Always the most important - GOOD FOOD. None of these meatless meals that Polish people have to observe on Christmas Eve Day, but meat with all the trimmings. Let's not forget dessert either.
2) Drinking eggnog for the last time before they stop carrying it in the stores.
3) Watching Irving Berlin's White Christmas with the family.
4) Taking an afternoon nap - a luxury I can hardly afford anymore - like the kind you took in college when you got back from class at 1:30pm.
5) The late night walk around the neighborhood admiring the lights before everyone tears them down the next day, to be stored until next Halloween or whenever people start putting up lights these days.
6) Calling friends to catch up after your nap because you know they're not doing anything better at that moment either.
7) Leaving the mess of torn-up wrapping paper near the tree all day long, validating this mess by saying it looks "festive".
8) The pressure of the gifts is off. After spending 1.5 months agonizing over what to get whom, you can rest-assured that it is over and done with until next year.
9) Second-helpings of Christmas lunch at 9pm, and it's ok because the diet doesn't start until Monday.
10) Finally listening to "Sleigh Ride" for the last (and millionth time) this season before the "All Holiday Music Stations" on the radio return to normal music.

Merry Christmas Y'all :)

Iron Stomach

I dicsovered that this week, one of my co-workers, Craig (who is the reigning closet-alcoholic, sometimes more out of the closet than in) did a Ranch-Bomb at a work Happy Hour.

Me: "Ranch-Bomb"?
Travis: Yeah, you know, like a Jager-Bomb but with ranch.
Me: The salad dressing??

Apparently, for 2 free pitchers of beer, Craig will mix most anything in beer and drink it. In order to follow in the "bomb" structure of the drink, they filled a shot-glass full of ranch dressing leftover from their buffalo wings and droppped in ceremoniously in Craig's beer. Two large gulps and he ran for the men's room.

I literally do not think I would be able to even stomach this as an audience member.

Amazing to me what you find out about these people.

The term "Doggie Bag" is just not P.C.

So today I'm getting up from a particularly animated lunch with a few female co-workers after a very satisfying lunch at Niko-Niko's (I live for Greek food some days), when I am surprised by a gentleman who asks if we are done with our meal. I look at him concerned, wondering if we were supposed to bus our own table - I had been under the impression that we could leave our plates on the table like other patrons had done. I look at him confused, and say "yes" as I hesitate, misunderstanding the situation, and move back towards the table. He responds "Oh OK, I was just making sure because I was wanting to have some." The man then promptly walks around the table, surveying our leftovers, and takes a plate of uneaten roasted potatoes and the remainder of my gyros plate and starts to eat from them. I was already in a hurry since, as usual, I was half an hour late to return to the office, and I was confused on whether this was appropriate behavior. Maybe I should have had the leftovers boxed for the gentlemen to take else where so he could eat it without the remnants of 4 plates in front of him in the restaurant?

This scene has both puzzled me and saddened me for the rest of this afternoon. I keep wondering how I was supposed to react in that situation - hopefully next time with more compassion. I mean, it is the Christmas season and all, right? Bah Humbug.

Confessions of a Tabloid Junkie

Ok, I'll admit it. While standing in line at the grocery store, I do parouse the magazine racks, ocassionally picking up "the paper" (as one of my dear friend's grandmothers endearingly calls "Star" magazine) in order to find out the latest hollywood gossip. Really, I like to consider myself more of a "People" or "Us Weekly" type, because I really don't actually believe stories until they re-appear in these all-so-reliable sources. I know I'm not the only person who does this because I also happen to have several friends who are "E-online" junkies. (That is SO much more embarrassing, right?)

So I must admit after all the craziness that has gone in my life in the past 2 weeks, I am STILL in shock over the Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey breakup. How is it possible??? I have no idea why this trivial bit of news is so significant in my life. After all, it's not as if either of them has ever batted an eye at any drama in my life, so why should I give a crap? For some reason, the idea that a couple who made millions of dollars off the exploitation of their marriage, could get divorced is bothering me. They were selling the innocent idea of a perfect couple, the perfect marriage in a place (Hollywood) where this seems absolutely impossible to achieve. There was the show, Newlyweds, which none of us will admit to, but it was completely addicting (like watching a train wreck, but with big bouncy boobs thrown in for the boys to pay attention to). Not to mention Jessica's wedding guide, I Do: Achieving Your Dream Wedding, and countless duets of love songs performed by the couple (Ahem, Where you are?). I feel like I was personally lied to by Jessica and Nick. I realize how completely ridiculous this sounds, I mean, HELLO? it's Hollywood, they make a fortune misleading the public, it's what they're supposed to do. For some reason, I thought was under the impression that for a couple who made such a big deal out of their marriage and it's purity, they would actually HAVE to stick it out together, if nothing else, for the sake of keeping their word. And I'll admit again, that I had some what bought into the fact that they would be together for a long time, if not forever.

I know, I know, I should have paid more attention to the signs. She was WAY too hot for him, her career was out of control booming while his was stale-mate and he definitely had ego issues. There was definite reason for conflict.

But I still don't know the reason why the 2 broke up officially (from a REASONABLE source) because I can't seem to get all the way through an article in the grocery store express line before it's my turn check out.

I either need to take a speed reading class or start standing in the long line at the Randalls, because I will definitely NOT be actually buying "the paper" as an admission of the complete lack of depth I would have at that very moment.