JEEBUS FRIES!

Okay, now for a semi-real update!

Charles is still at my house...I'll take him back to P-Town tomorrow. I guess that means I'll have to get back to doing "real" stuff, like looking for a job and cleaning the apartment. Boo. Oh well.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had opened most of my presents as they arrived, so I only had a few to open on the day itself, which was fine. Chaz and I have spent most of the time watching Supernatural on DVD and playing MarioKart Wii. And eating. Omigod the eating.

On Thursday, I roasted a chicken and in the bottom of the pan, I put potatoes, sweet potatoes, and fresh beets. It turned out REALLY well! I'll definitely do that again!

I'm making pizza from scratch tonight. Hope it turns out okay.

When I picked up Chaz on Tuesday, I had to drive all the way to Portland. Normally, I would have picked him up in Sherwood, which is about halfway between Portland and Mac. But as he waited for the 12 bus in Portland to pick him up and take him to Sherwood, it drove right by. And so did the next bus and the one after that. They were all packed. So he called me and I headed in to pick him up.

A drive that would normally have taken 2 and a half hours, round trip, took 4 and a half. Oregon is not prepared for snow, apparently. At all. I've only seen 2 or 3 plows here since it started snowing, and they're not actually plows at all; they're dumptrucks with plows on the front. The slush on the roads had frozen into random bumpy ridges. I didn't get above 30mph the entire trip. But I found Charley and we got home safe so it was all fine.

Anyway, we're heading towards the new year. 2008 wasn't horrible for me as it was for so many others, but I hope 2009 is an awesome year for you all!

Photos of Christmas and presents are forthcoming!

This evening is the annual tree-lighting ceremony in town. We've been advertising it on the radio for a couple days. In addition to the cider and cookies, Santa Claus would be riding the fire truck. The announcement said "Listen for the sirens!" I assumed it just meant he was going to be riding around town (which is about 15 miles from mom's house, where I am right now).

An hour or so ago, mom came out of the back room and went onto the porch, trying to decide if she was hearing sirens or dogs howling. It was quite obviously a siren, but it kept stopping and starting up again, and seemed to be coming from some stationary place on the other side of the block. It took us a ridiculously long amount of time to figure out what it probably was.

A couple minutes after we'd come back inside, I thought it sounded like it was getting closer so I went back out on the deck and the siren was indeed approaching and there was a reddish glow slowly brightening up the street in front of the house.

"MOM!" I shouted. "THEY'RE COMIN' DOWN OUR STREET!"

She came sprinting out of the back room just as the fire truck rolled into view, wrapped in hundreds of Christmas lights, with Santa Claus himself, standing on top and waving and shouting "HO HO HO!"

The truck stopped in the street in front of mom's, because her across-the-street neighbors, Mike and Jennifer and little Ethan, were in their yard. After a couple minutes, the truck drove slowly off and peace was restored to our neighborhood.

But now I'm smiling for no reason at all, but for seeing Santa riding a light-bedecked fire truck.

How to sing Christmas carols like my family:

"Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Panda hippo gnu deer!"

Okay, I appreciate that it's quirky and everything, and obviously they have a right to do whatever they want in their own yard, even if it is really disturbing. But this is sort of a springboard for something that's really been bothering me lately.

It's not a new topic or anything, but what happened to the concept of religious freedom? I've been hearing all these stories lately about cashiers or customer service people saying, "Happy holidays" to a customer, and the customer jumping down their throat, saying things like, "There's only one true holy day in this month, and one day everyone will realize it!"

It's kind of scaring me. I know that most people are fairly sane when it comes to this sort of thing, but what if it's not a phase? This country was founded because the pilgrims fled England to get away from religious persecution. So what if it builds up to that point again? If we don't make some changes, I think that's actually possible in 50-100 years. So where will we go? Back to England? Mexico? Outer space?

It's entirely possible that this little blurb made absolutely no sense. I'm not bashing Christians. Some of my best friends are Christian. I'm speaking out against extremists. Maybe nothing I've said seems too extreme to anyone else, but it just strikes me as ridiculous when I hear about people getting all bent out of shape over something like Christmas. So people give gifts and like Santa Claus. SO THE HELL WHAT? It's a free country, people can celebrate how they like. So someone says "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Are they supposed to magically discern which people are Christian, which are Jewish, who celebrates Yuletide and who celebrates Kwanzaa? Makes no sense.

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