Well, one good thing about not getting too excited for Christmas is that you don't get the post-Christmas blues. You know what I'm talking about, right? That malaise you fall into when a special event comes and goes. I used to get it bad as a kid, and it wasn't just for Christmas. Just a standard Sunday evening was a bit on the melancholy side for me. I think that's pretty typical, and it gets even worse when you get old enough to go out drinking Saturday evening. During my single days, there was no lonelier a time than Sunday evening after a night of partying. I don't get that feeling anymore, though. Now, I'm too tired to be sad.
Anyway ...
The big event for S and I on Christmas Eve was watching a movie. But only after a medium-size fight to determine which movie to watch. We don't have Netflix anymore, so our options are iTunes and DirecTV on-demand. There are a lot of movies we can agree on, but they're all newish (Dallas Buyers Club, Bad Grandpa, Nebraska, Her), and so they're unavailable for rental (although some of them you could buy). This led to a lot of back-and-forth over which movie we should watch, and this slowly escalated into a fight when she didn't understand why I was adamantly against buying a movie,* and I didn't understand why she couldn't agree on one of the nearly twenty movies I suggested. But like most our spats, it all blew over in about an hour after some dinner and time apart. It's funny how 99% of our quarrels occur when at least one of us is tired or hungry. Huh. I wonder if there is a connection.
We ended up watching this movie called Once, which was my choice. It was on some "Best Movies of the 2000s" list, and it got really good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, both from the audience and critics, so I thought it would be safe. I was wrong. It was not good. It was painfully slow. It was also a quasi-musical, and I don't really get the allure of movie musicals. (Isn't being there in person basically the whole deal with seeing a musical?) I actually kinda dug the ribbon of story that tied the movie together, but the musical bits were just too plodding. Plus, almost all the songs were John Mayer-y, singer/songwriter stuff, and that's just not my bag, S's neither. So this one goes down in my movie loss column, unfortunately. I tried to protest the decision to S -- "C'mon, it was like my 25th choice! If we would've just watched Scarface like I really wanted to, this wouldn't have happened!" -- but she was having none of it. I have a feeling we will be watching Don Jon in the near future.
On Christmas, we went to our friend's place, which was nice. I had a moment with my friend's grandma of the type Adam Carolla always talks about on his podcast, where you make a connection with somebody you think is uncanny, and they just shrug it off. My friend's grandma lived in Denmark for many years, and when I told her S lived in Denmark too, she just said, "oh", and moved on. Then she told me her late husband was a math Ph. D., and I said, "I'm a math Ph.D!", to which she just nodded, as if 80%-90% of the population has an advanced degree in mathematics. Then she said that he taught at Syracuse, and when I told her S went to Syracuse, she said, "yeah" and asked for more Brussels sprouts. Geez, tough audience. Apparently three coincidences isn't quite up to snuff. If her husband and I were both named Ulysses Simpson Grant**, would I have gotten more than a "that's nice"? Eh ... she's old.
Our friends gave us all Christmas gifts, which was a bit awkward, since we didn't know we were exchanging gifts and thus didn't get them anything. (We did buy their three-year old daughter something, so we weren't completely empty-handed.) S felt bad about it, but I didn't care so much. I've already decided that I want to establish myself as the guy who never gives gifts.*** Once I get that reputation cemented then it won't be weird when I don't bring one. Like my coworker who never eats sweets. Everybody knows this, so it's never awkward when somebody brings in birthday goodies, and he doesn't partake. That's how I want to be with gift-giving. And by the way this doesn't mean that I'm never going to buy people stuff. I don't want to be a cheapskate. I'll happily buy drinks, pick up dinner tabs, pay for cab rides, etc. I'm just not going to give people perfunctory gifts anymore. It's my New Year's resolution.
This afternoon we had some friends come over for lunch. Well, actually they're S's friends -- old coworkers. I basically met them for the first time today. It was cool. They have two kids, a 9-year old boy and a 7-year old girl. The boy has a mild form of autism, which actually makes him kinda fun, because he's not shy like most kids. When he first came in, before he took off his shoes or jacket or said hi or anything, he went straight to Lil' S's toybox and started jamming on his Elmo guitar. Then later he told me all about the TV show Austin and Ally. It's a show on the Disney Channel set in Miami in which Austin, played by Ross Lynch (he actually cited the actor's name), is a singer and Ally is his songwriter companion. Austin's best friend and producer is named Dez, and Dez has an "enemy" named Chuck. They once sang a song called, "I Love Christmas". I swear to you, I'm not looking any of this up; it's entirely from what he told me (maybe I have a bit of autism, since I remembered it all). Later, he told me that the One Direction album was called Midnight Memories, just in case I wanted to buy it. He said that last part a few times, "just in case you want to buy it". So earnest. It was pretty cute.
OK, that's all I got for now. Until next time ...
*I don't really know why either, honestly. It's one of the few things I'm irrational about. I have trouble enjoying something if I feel like I'm getting ripped off, and buying a movie for $10.99 that we only want to watch once is a ripoff to me. S's argument is -- Who cares if we pay $6.00 more, isn't it worth it to get something we both want to see and keep marital harmony? My response is -- It should be, but it's not. I just can't do it. I can't buy a movie we're only going to watch once. Like I said, irrational. Contrary to what my wife might believe, I do have some human emotions. I'm not all robot.
**This commented was inspired by this weird baseball tidbit I stumbled across. There was once a player named Stoney McGlynn and once a player named Lil Stoner, and they both had the real name Ulysses Simpson Grant. Two unrelated players, a Stoney and a Stoner, and they're both named after the same president? That's weird, huh?
***The Christmas gift exchange with my family is the only exception. It got grandfathered in.
Anyway ...
The big event for S and I on Christmas Eve was watching a movie. But only after a medium-size fight to determine which movie to watch. We don't have Netflix anymore, so our options are iTunes and DirecTV on-demand. There are a lot of movies we can agree on, but they're all newish (Dallas Buyers Club, Bad Grandpa, Nebraska, Her), and so they're unavailable for rental (although some of them you could buy). This led to a lot of back-and-forth over which movie we should watch, and this slowly escalated into a fight when she didn't understand why I was adamantly against buying a movie,* and I didn't understand why she couldn't agree on one of the nearly twenty movies I suggested. But like most our spats, it all blew over in about an hour after some dinner and time apart. It's funny how 99% of our quarrels occur when at least one of us is tired or hungry. Huh. I wonder if there is a connection.
We ended up watching this movie called Once, which was my choice. It was on some "Best Movies of the 2000s" list, and it got really good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, both from the audience and critics, so I thought it would be safe. I was wrong. It was not good. It was painfully slow. It was also a quasi-musical, and I don't really get the allure of movie musicals. (Isn't being there in person basically the whole deal with seeing a musical?) I actually kinda dug the ribbon of story that tied the movie together, but the musical bits were just too plodding. Plus, almost all the songs were John Mayer-y, singer/songwriter stuff, and that's just not my bag, S's neither. So this one goes down in my movie loss column, unfortunately. I tried to protest the decision to S -- "C'mon, it was like my 25th choice! If we would've just watched Scarface like I really wanted to, this wouldn't have happened!" -- but she was having none of it. I have a feeling we will be watching Don Jon in the near future.
On Christmas, we went to our friend's place, which was nice. I had a moment with my friend's grandma of the type Adam Carolla always talks about on his podcast, where you make a connection with somebody you think is uncanny, and they just shrug it off. My friend's grandma lived in Denmark for many years, and when I told her S lived in Denmark too, she just said, "oh", and moved on. Then she told me her late husband was a math Ph. D., and I said, "I'm a math Ph.D!", to which she just nodded, as if 80%-90% of the population has an advanced degree in mathematics. Then she said that he taught at Syracuse, and when I told her S went to Syracuse, she said, "yeah" and asked for more Brussels sprouts. Geez, tough audience. Apparently three coincidences isn't quite up to snuff. If her husband and I were both named Ulysses Simpson Grant**, would I have gotten more than a "that's nice"? Eh ... she's old.
Our friends gave us all Christmas gifts, which was a bit awkward, since we didn't know we were exchanging gifts and thus didn't get them anything. (We did buy their three-year old daughter something, so we weren't completely empty-handed.) S felt bad about it, but I didn't care so much. I've already decided that I want to establish myself as the guy who never gives gifts.*** Once I get that reputation cemented then it won't be weird when I don't bring one. Like my coworker who never eats sweets. Everybody knows this, so it's never awkward when somebody brings in birthday goodies, and he doesn't partake. That's how I want to be with gift-giving. And by the way this doesn't mean that I'm never going to buy people stuff. I don't want to be a cheapskate. I'll happily buy drinks, pick up dinner tabs, pay for cab rides, etc. I'm just not going to give people perfunctory gifts anymore. It's my New Year's resolution.
This afternoon we had some friends come over for lunch. Well, actually they're S's friends -- old coworkers. I basically met them for the first time today. It was cool. They have two kids, a 9-year old boy and a 7-year old girl. The boy has a mild form of autism, which actually makes him kinda fun, because he's not shy like most kids. When he first came in, before he took off his shoes or jacket or said hi or anything, he went straight to Lil' S's toybox and started jamming on his Elmo guitar. Then later he told me all about the TV show Austin and Ally. It's a show on the Disney Channel set in Miami in which Austin, played by Ross Lynch (he actually cited the actor's name), is a singer and Ally is his songwriter companion. Austin's best friend and producer is named Dez, and Dez has an "enemy" named Chuck. They once sang a song called, "I Love Christmas". I swear to you, I'm not looking any of this up; it's entirely from what he told me (maybe I have a bit of autism, since I remembered it all). Later, he told me that the One Direction album was called Midnight Memories, just in case I wanted to buy it. He said that last part a few times, "just in case you want to buy it". So earnest. It was pretty cute.
OK, that's all I got for now. Until next time ...
*I don't really know why either, honestly. It's one of the few things I'm irrational about. I have trouble enjoying something if I feel like I'm getting ripped off, and buying a movie for $10.99 that we only want to watch once is a ripoff to me. S's argument is -- Who cares if we pay $6.00 more, isn't it worth it to get something we both want to see and keep marital harmony? My response is -- It should be, but it's not. I just can't do it. I can't buy a movie we're only going to watch once. Like I said, irrational. Contrary to what my wife might believe, I do have some human emotions. I'm not all robot.
**This commented was inspired by this weird baseball tidbit I stumbled across. There was once a player named Stoney McGlynn and once a player named Lil Stoner, and they both had the real name Ulysses Simpson Grant. Two unrelated players, a Stoney and a Stoner, and they're both named after the same president? That's weird, huh?
***The Christmas gift exchange with my family is the only exception. It got grandfathered in.
Your new motto: "I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested." Fuj and I have often remarked how you and Sheldon Cooper share a few traits. Have you seen the episode "Bath Item Gift Hypothesis?" If not, you need to immediately. (I will reimburse you the $1.99). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P7BQQS?SubscriptionId=0SMVYTEJQZQ0MFNMXQ02&tag=clickermedia-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B002P7BQQS
ReplyDeleteHaha ... Yes, I've already seen that episode, and yes, Sheldon does have a very good point when it comes to gift giving. But here are three ways I'm not like Sheldon.
ReplyDelete1. Never loved studying physics
2. Think comic books are for nerds
3. Not asexual