(The New) Black Friday

It's over!  I've slain another Thanksgiving--though it was trying at times.  And it's pretty apparent that I'm becoming a bona fide weirdo when the Holidays strike.  Plans fell through with my ex, because, well, she's my ex, and after that I didn't feel like participating.  And the fucked up reality is: it was far more trying not to play along.  I don't mean some emotional fuck-fest where I required some familial company or anything, but my roommate had her family over (for 12 hours; I can't do anything for 12 hours, much less have a handful of company in my small condo) and despite my efforts to vacate, they remained, for a long, long time.  I took off, a rebel without a crew, to get stoned and see some films (Mlk, and Slumdog Millionaire), had some sushi, snuck a large delirium Noel in the theater--and they remained.  I return, 7 hours after they had just arrived, and they were AT the fucking dinner table.  This is certainly their right, but in my sociopathic need to not participate I'm relegated to weirdo in his room for like another five hours before they left.  Along the way I flaked on about 4-5 other offers, and I should've taken one.  I'm broke, had to work all day wednesday, didn't have time to shop or cook really.

It was so much more of an effort to not play.  But I remain firm.

There were others: there's this slob that comes into my restaurant, the bar really, this is a frightening 40-something restaurant-lifer who lives with his parents in the burbs (i told you it was scary) and on wednesday, when everyone repeatedly asks, "Hey!  What are you doing tomorrow?" his reply was, "to be as invisible as possible."  This makes me sure I'm doing something right.  Now don't get me wrong--if you're going to a friend's family, girlfriend/boyfriend, whatever--it's one thing to be a guest and mingle with folks you may never see (or want to see) again, but to see you're family and have that angst-laden of a response, if you're goddamn forties?  Buddy!  I have some news for you: don't fucking go!  Don't do it!  No one has a gun to your head, imploring you, violently, to play along.  To think, someone at this age, doesn't have the wherewithal to plan an alternate route of escape exposes the dichotomy of people who do this shit year after year.  

Be with friends, hell anyone, where you can muster the least bit of credulity, some venue offering tangible camaraderie and brotherhood, and if it causes those numbers, those gatherings to shrink: GREAT!

Quality over Quantity.  And if it appears--I know it does--that I'm being sanctimonious I feel I've the right to be, because this shit is waggled in front of me, brandished like a battle-ax in a slew of questions from friends, co-workers, strangers, and for such a hot commodity it seems like a vast majority of people are missing the point.

Whew!  Yeah, but in much more life-affirming issues I got my first pair of adult snow boots!  They're from Hunter, a UK based outfit, and they slide all the way to my knee, waterproof and all.  Bring on the snow, I'm totally ready.  When I see that first accumulation I'm going to let out a mighty battle cry and stuff my skinny jeans inside.

In the news: Terrorist attacks have devastated Mumbai, India.  Ironically I just saw Slumdog Millionaire, and a peaceful Mumbai, yesterday.  So far 125+ people have been killed...

Apartment Hunting has been dormant most of the week, to resume over the weekend.  I see these gaps and gaping holes in my attentiveness to this project and others like it, and I can't really answer 'why?', the days just pile up.  It's all very boring really.