So, Part 1 the End-Of-Year-Holiday-Madness is almost done. Gotten Xmas Eve with the in-laws, Xmas Day with my folks, and today is Boxing Day with Mrs. Grand Poo-Bah’s Canadian cousins. And after New Years next week, we are all officially DONE! We’re soooo close, I can taste it.
I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I’m a COMPLETE Scrooge/Grinch/Dickhead, and that I don’t like Christmas. What I have a problem with is the arbitrary gift exchanging, particularly within a large immediate family such as mine. Mom, Dad, five of us siblings, plus three in-laws equals 9 adult presents to buy for each of us. That’s a lot of dough. Of course, one could say that you just buy less expensive gifts, but that means each of us is getting 9 crappy gifts that we could have just as easily bought for ourselves (we all have jobs, after all). So rather than a stupid crap-exchange, we’ve dispensed with all of it. Except for the young children (grandkids, cousins, nieces, nephews, offspring of friends), because that would make us HORRIBLE people. Actually, they make out like bandits, since we can all now spend more money per rugrat, rather than on each other. So no kids getting stupid-ass socks on our behalf. It’s all copious amounts of electronics and expensive swag for them.
Is it so wrong that I’d rather not have anybody waste their time on crap presents for me, and would prefer nothing aside from their company at the holidays instead? I already have too much useless junk at home that I accumulate all on my lonesome, so I don’t really need assistance there. In fact, I’m pretty much of the mindset that if I never get another present for ANY OCCASION for the rest of my life, I will be perfectly fine with that. Historically, my mom, sister, aunts, as well as Mrs. Grand Poo-Bah, have expressed frustration with me when I answer their query of “whatcha want for Xmas/your birthday?” with “nuthin’.” The more complete answer is, of course, NOT nothing, but the kinds of stuff that I do want tend to be kinda expensive, and I certainly would never ask anyone to buy them for me. Again, I have a job, and if I want a new $3000 tv, I can buy it myself.
Oh, and I also hate crappy Xmas music (not all of it is crappy, but most of it… And what’s with Barbara Streisand singing CHRISTMAS songs? How can she look her rabbi in the eye anymore?), so my relief is palpable when the holidays are over.
Anyway, now that that’s out of my system, on to the the REAL topic of the post: 2009 in review!
2009 begins not with a bang, but a recession: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Our little family metal shop weathered the storm fairly well, all things considered, but it got kinda dicey there for a while. (VERY brief political opinion: Republicans need to stop blaming Obama for this– it was YOUR retarded guy and Alan Greenspan that handed this mess over to him, so STFU. Okay, done now, will never bring it up again). The first six months of the year were completely schitzo, with two bad months, one really good month, another bad month, so on and so forth. Hitting the end of June, things started a steady (though slight) upward climb, and we closed out our fiscal year in November on a positive note, so *whew!*
Got a new sister-in-law: Yep, the Grand Poo-Bah’s baby brother got himself hitched this summer, and right in the middle of Seattle’s record-breaking heatwave no less. I don’t know how many of you out there have ever worn a three-piece tuxedo in the middle of 100° weather, but that’s pretty freaking warm. Seeing as the weather ’round here bottomed out at 18° a couple of weeks ago, I much preferred the ridiculous heat over freezing my balls off. But that’s just me. Oh, and new in-law is cool. We think we’ll keep her.
Took no vacations this year: That was all kinds of suck. Business being slow, we kinda had to take on anything we could to stay out of the red, so that meant a lot of labor-intensive, low profit monkey work. Grand Poo-Bah Sr (aka Dad) made a few trips out to Maui to see my sister, so my and my brother deferred our vacation plans to him. That means that aside from major holidays (good for a 3 or 4 day weekend) were all I really got this year, and it SUCKED HUGE DONKEY BALLS. Been twitching like an electro-shock patient to get the hell out of town for, like, 18 MONTHS. Seriously, last real vacation I took was July of 2008. This will not stand, so I’m definitely getting my ass away next year.
Began the Great Crap Purge with Mrs. Grand Poo-Bah: When a packrat marries a packrat, only disaster can ensue. After years of looking like we just moved in a month ago, our tiny condo became a maze of piles and stacks of junk. So, while she was on summer vacation (the perks of being a teacher), we managed to eliminate about 30-40% of the useless shit around here. It was a very cathartic purging, although in the end it doesn’t really look like we have any more room than we started. Five truckloads to Goodwill/the dump says otherwise, but you’d never know to look at our place. *sigh*. To Be Continued, I suppose…
Reached a definitive conclusion about Santa Cruz, CA: Having been there three times over the past four years for various weddings and other stuff, I’ve finally decided that I don’t really ever need to go back. I think I’ve partaken of Santa Cruz enough for one lifetime, and if I never find myself there ever again, that would be just fine with me. Not that I DIS-like SC or anything. I’ve just had my fill, and am pushing my chair back from the dinner table that is California. “No more Jello for me, Ma. I’m full.” Oh, and I reached this decision completely at random last month. As stated above, I actually haven’t been out of town at all this year. Santa Cruz just arbitrarily popped into my head while I was doing something else, and I felt that no tears would be shed by me if I never went back. So there it is. To any of you Banana Slugs out there, no offense intended toward you or your city. I just have other places to go.
And lastly…
Realized I’m lousy at making regular blog entries: Yeah, just look at that list to the right. Gonna have to work on that, maybe try and get at least one a month… Kinda hard to come up with stuff to talk about while work has been so hectic, and I didn’t want the blog to become a repository for bitching about work (believe my, I have plenty of material like that, but no-one wants to hear that).
Anyhow, that was my 2009. Nothing terribly bad happened, a few bright spots, but no vacations. Could be worse.
See everybody in 2010!