The Sword of Damocles
December 16th, 2007
Next week is Christmas! CHRISTMAS! And Hanukkah is over! And once again, another year has passed where I failed to get any shopping done ahead of time and spent the better part of this weekend at various shopping outlets, including the mall, which was about as you’d expect: fucking madness, with an extra dose frustration entirely centered around the food court. I don’t know why we ate at the food court, I don’t know. It was just that we headed out before having lunch and decided that Charley’s Steaks (which are more like Steak-Umms) was the best we could muster … it was a desperate, foolish move I regret to this moment. It was … it was a wall of people packed with strollers, angry senior citizens and more than a few screaming children who were so sick of being dragged around the mall by their overzealous parents. Certainly I sympathized most with the children, but mostly, I was jealous, because I, too, wanted to burst into tears while being pushed around in a recliner.
But we’re done — except for each other — and that’s what matters most. Adam’s family does all of their annual gift-giving at Thanksgiving, in a secular nod to Hanukkah, which leaves only my family to shop for at the holiday season. And as for each other … is it horribly un-romantic to admit that we haven’t gotten each other gifts for the last three holidays, except for a camera on my birthday five months after the fact? It makes me sad, when I really think about it, because it’s like we stopped trying, but on the other hand, the truth is that we’re horribly, horribly spoiled in that if we want or need something, we simply buy it. Spoiled, spoiled brats, we are. But we’ve promised each other that this year will be different.
And I’m not much of a luxury person, so that’s out: I wouldn’t know what to do with nice jewelry other than lose it, and I have no interest in anything grotesquely out of my price range. I’m not saying this condescendingly, like I am above such things (don’t you want to punch those people? It’s like the non-television watching people who claim to never have heard of Jennifer Aniston, like they NEVER SHOP AT A GROCERY STORE), for I actually find it quite pathetic and lowbrow of me. Mostly, I’d like a couple of gift cards (free shopping!) and some high-endish bath products and candles, which makes me a cheap, cheesy giftee, because I get free high-endish bath products and candles from one of my freelance jobs, so … so it’s really even sadder.
Rapidly shifting gears (what else?) I caught The Lord of the Rings trilogy on television this weekend, and is it super-geeky to admit that they are three of my favorite movies, ever? I mean, I’m not about to show up in costume at a convention or anything, though remind me to tell you of my short stint in high school in the cast of a midnight re-enactment of The Rocky Horror Picture Show(I was … well, I alternated between Columbia and Magenta, if you must know), but every time the elves show up at Helm’s Deep, I cry. And I mean, EVERY TIME, for TNT had it on repeat the last two days, and both times, I made sure to be present when they arrived in their little blue cloaks and I got choked up both damn times.
(I also need to tell you that I am enough of a Tolkien geek, having read the trilogy multiple times, and ah, I took a class on the books, that I knew that this was a departure from the novel and was at first outraged, but later touched.) (HA! As if you needed further proof of my deep-down geekiness after reading about Rocky Horror.)
(Also, I had a huge crush on Richard O’Brien, which is so utterly disgusting to me now, I can’t believe I’m admitting it. Apparently there was a time when I found Riff Raff sexy.)
Anyway! I’m sure there was more I intended to write, though heaven knows what that actually was (I honestly never know, ergo the non-sensical stream-of-consciousness you’re forced to endure), but I need to start at least trying to sleep, because on Sunday nights, I simply can’t. You know Sunday-night syndrome? I’ve got it in spades, and I like my job — I can’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t. But on Sunday nights, I wake up every hour on the hour, my pajamas drenched in a pool of anxious sweat, so I have to go to bed super-early. And besides, Eowyn is about to beat the pants off of the Nazgul, and it’s my favorite part. (And later? THE EAGLES ARE COMING.)
Happy Monday! I sincerely hope you didn’t spend the night drenched in anxious sweat.
*Rocky! Big, dumb Rocky in the Lab, from the Rocky Horror soundtrack. GEEK.
Entry Filed under: Nuttin'
21 Comments Add your own
1. Haley-O | December 16th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Ooo you make me want to embrace my inner geek and rent the LOTR trilogy and watch it all in one shot!
2. metalia | December 16th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
I need the full story behind your Rocky Horror Picture Show past, STAT!!
3. Orange Peacock | December 16th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Ooh, yay, RHPS! It’ll forever be cemented in my stash of memories from college, for *many* reasons. If there are pictures, we must see them!
I have the same Sunday Night Syndrome. I get it *bad* too. I don’t sleep much Sunday nights if there’s work on Monday. My job isn’t horrible, either. Sometimes I like it an awful lot. I don’t know why I face it with such panic – I have about 45 minutes on the commuter train every morning, and I routinely spend Monday mornings gripping the seat in front of me trying not to hurl from terror.
I would say maybe our bodies are trying to tell us something, but I haven’t got the foggiest idea what that IS.
4. Suebob | December 16th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
“And I’m not much of a luxury person, so that’s out: I wouldn’t know what to do with nice jewelry other than lose it,”
I love you. The exMrStapler would often buy me fine, tasteful jewelry (i.e., nothing I would ever pick out for myself) and my first thought was always “Oh, I am going to feel rotten when I lose this (or otherwise screw it up).”
5. Kara | December 17th, 2007 at 1:03 am
We are not as unromantic as you, we still give gifts. BUT we make very specific and limited wishlists for eachother so no one is dissapointed
And its not as impersonal as, go buy it for yourself. Granted DH only had two things to pick from on my wish list but hey at least I’ll be happy.
6. mar | December 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am
yesterday my bf called to ask me what else i wanted for christmas. as if i know what the other thing he bought me is. i’m not in terrible want for anything (other than bill payments). i’m just so antsy wanting him to open his presents, now! NOW! even though i just bought him a shirt & a dvd. then again, we’ve only been together for a year.
7. Lawyerish | December 17th, 2007 at 10:10 am
So, uh…I’ve never seen “Rocky Horror” OR any of the Lord of the Rings movies.
I hope this won’t affect our friendship.
Also, I had the Sunday night sweats so bad last night; I think I maybe got five minutes of shut-eye the whole night. Urf.
8. Allison | December 17th, 2007 at 11:07 am
I watched LOTR both times it was on this weekend. Makes for excellent background noise while wrapping presents. I so tuned in for the Elves’ arrival at Helms’ Deep as well!
I have a hard time not resenting my daughter for her cushy stroller ride while I am forced to slog around and actually push her in it.
9. lightspeed | December 17th, 2007 at 11:07 am
I dunno… there are so many outstandingly yummy, sweaty, long-haired guys in LOTR. I had trouble choosing which one to obsess over… Viggo…Karl Urban….Viggo…Karl Urban…
10. Leah | December 17th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I actually had a hard time sleeping last night because I was having a totally intense Lord of the Rings-style dream–I was Bilbo, and yet myself, both at the same time, and I was on a quest, a quest to save life as we know it. I’m not making this up.
11. cassidy | December 17th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I can never sleep on Sunday nights and it drives me INSANE!
12. Swistle | December 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Oh, hi. Do you want to do a post on scented candles sometime? Because I would read it with GREAT INTEREST. My sister-in-law likes them, and I don’t know what kind to buy for her, and I don’t even know where to START.
13. claire | December 17th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
This right here? “(Also, I had a huge crush on Richard O’Brien, which is so utterly disgusting to me now, I can’t believe I’m admitting it. Apparently there was a time when I found Riff Raff sexy.)” makes me love you just a little bit more. That totally cracked me up. It takes guts to admit you had a crush on disfigured hunchback.
I love RHPS and somewhere in my teen-aged heart, am a little jealous that you used to be in it. Not that i ever would have been physically able to get myself on a stage, mind you. No no. But i think it’s awesome that you did.
14. Claire | December 17th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
In the summer between high school and college, we went to an RHPS showing every Saturday. I never did any stage acting for it but going that much was enough. Yes, I admit I was a huge geek too.
15. Jennifer | December 18th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
My gosh, I could have written the geeky part of this post. So hey, you really should buy the LOTR DVD triology (order it online); I saw a portion of the version they showed on TV last week and they are already starting to cut big chunks out of it for the TV audience (to cram in more commercials, natch). And I have been something of a Rocky Horror groupie, although I couldn’t ever pull off any of the costumes. My true Rocky Horror dream is to learn to play the ragtime-ish piano part to “Time Warp.” How great would it be if you could stroll into a party and commandeer the piano and play/sing that? Anyway I asked for the RHPC DVD for Christmas but I doubt I’ll get it… my husband hates it!!!
At least I have the soundtrack already – yay.
16. Andrea | December 19th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Then how geeky am I that I OWN the LOTR trilogy, though I haven’t watched it in ages because the orcs scare the man-child in our house. It’s got some pretty scary imagery in it that I hadn’t thought of when we popped the disc into the DVD player. I miss it.
17. She Likes Purple | December 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Nothing really to contribute you really do just crack me right the hell up.
18. She Likes Purple | December 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
*I missed a “but” there, sort of necessary for that sentence. My apologies!
19. Jade | June 30th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I just thought i’d let you know, that i also had a slight crush on riff raff Haha
I thought i was the only one
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