Friday, November 23, 2007

Merry Christmas!


Ahh, Gentle Readers, you suspect that Mandy has, in the post-prandial haze of the Big Day, gotten lost in the calendar. True, there was a longish celebration, starting with the pre-holiday kitchen scrub (this is the time of year when I take everything off of the shelves and out of the cupboards so as to start clean, bless my mother for taking off the back of the fridge and vaccuuming that part you're supposed to vaccuum but never do), moving through cranberry sauce, stuffing and apple pies, culminating in broccoli, roast asparagus with parmesan, mushrooms sauteed in merlot, root vegetable salad, vegetarian stuffing (yes, it can be done), mincemeat pie, a vat of gravy and a 22 pound bird, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. All the fun and none of the stress and disappointment of That Other Winter Holiday. Plus, since we typically spend it alone, Husband and I view it as our anniversary and Valentine’s Day wrapped into one. This year there were guests, so I wore a dress with the pearls, heels, and pink gingham apron.

But on to Christmas. Or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, La Posadas, O-Shogatsu, St. Lucia Day, Eid al-Fitr, Yule, whatever you celebrate. Probably not appropriate for Ramadan. The last time I offered a prize it went over so well that I’d like to up the ante a little and send out some holiday gifts. It's also a bit of a commemoration, given that I started writing here on Christmas Day last year...

Inside the gold-wrapped box that doesn’t rattle, light enough to hide in the branches of the tree…the Muse Mix CD. Nifty songs that inspire me, some of which have been quoted or referred to here. Some you will have heard, others will be obscure, some unreleased. There *may* be music from ex-Lover, Folk Rocker, Beautiful Girl, Famous, Man Who Loves Stars, Secret Scientist and/or Hairline Boy (I’ll never tell, you’ll have to guess). Some will make you laugh, others will make you thoughtful, one makes me cry.

Tell us, Mandy, how do we obtain such a prize? And without compromising our privacy?

Email me (see box at right. Your right. The left hand makes an L.) with an address at which you can receive your pressie. Some ideas:

1) I don’t care, send it to my real name at my real address.

2) I’m a little cagy. Send it to a fake name at my real address, or my initials at a friend’s address, or my first initial and last name or vice versa.

3) I’m willing to put in some effort. Send it to General Delivery at the big post office in my city. I’ll either give enough of my real name to show ID when I get it, or I’ll take my chances that they’ll give it to me without ID, especially if Mandy writes on it, “please, no ID needed for pickup”.

4) I’m willing to put in some effort and spend some cash. Send it to a PO Box, or a business like Mail Boxes Etc where I’ve made a deal to get one piece of mail and vanish into the night.

5) I have a better idea. And I’m mentioning it in the comments so that other people can use it, too.

I will, of course, be sending them from a city in which I do not live. Or even live near. Which means the deadline for you to get it in time for the holidays is December 5th. Requests received later will not be honored until January, in which case you may celebrate by opening your trinket on Twelfth Night.

I’m a little uncertain that there may yet be some huge snag I haven’t anticipated, or that Gentle Readers will not want to be contacted in any real way, but hey, it’s worth a shot. No-one has to play unless they want to.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays.

Oh, and around the dinner table? Somehow, “by the way, I’m a whore” never really came up…

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh darling, i DO adore you!!! my thanksgiving was spent, as promised, munching garbanzo beans from the can, though i eschewed the process of trying to find vegetarian spaghetti-o's at 7eleven first. honestly, after the outrageous party my housemate (and thus i) threw last night, the merest idea of being social in any way gave me the hives. i would rather eat a bug.

so alone i sat, cappuccinos and tea and watching the rain glorious rain fall on my tropical-yet-urban environment. a perfect day! *smile*

and my housemate brought home vegetarian stuffing (yes, it exists in many possible permutations) and i had a wee little festive moment at 1am with that and a grilled cheeze sammich. thank goodness for the little pleasures!

my dear, you must try pumpkin nog! though it loses a certain something without the butterscotch schnapps, but still. definitely and holiday treat! (i think your mom would like it... *hic*)

happy turkey day (o how i love thee!!!)... bg

Lipton said...

I was wondering, what's your favourite blog to read? I love yours, who's do you love?

Mandy said...

Oh, Beautiful Girl. I ate mince pie and thought happy thoughts about you with tape over your mouth...

Karin - good question! I regularly read the ones in my sidebar, but I'm getting ready to add a bunch more links, I think, since so many people have linked to me. I find Go Fug Yourself to be consistently funny and I love the cultural references, and I really enjoy Dan Savage's political blog at the bottom of Savage Love's page. But a lot of times it depends on the week - this week I'm really into Brocante Home because I dug a little deeper into her posts and there is a personal story there under the housekeeping and the vintage trinkets that looks a lot like mine. The Provocateur has some amazing writing, but I'm having a hard time reading it right now because it's so close to a lot of things that are hurting in my heart. Tom Paine is nice because I know Tom and C as people in the world and it's nice to stay connected to them as people. I think what I value the most, though, is the dialogue that happens on all good blogs, with people exchanging thoughts and ideas in both supportive and challenging ways.

Chalcedony said...

Reading your blog is a joy as I sit here shivering from a sudden temperature drop in the area and putting off my homework. Oh, college.

Christmas is interesting, to say the least. I'd have no qualms about poking my head meekly into the CD queue, but as I've only come out of the reading lurkerhood recently, I'd think it a bit cheeky of me...

Mandy said...

Autumn - there is no guideline for joining the present list other than "I want one." I'm glad you're here, don't be shy :)