On This July 4th…

Posted by my friend Michael:

"Sweet America, I am not unpatriotic, I am an American. I was born in this county and I grew up in this county, I feel privileged to do so. I have never lived in any other county. I love the fact that I live in diversity in a County of immigrants, though I do deeply weep for the fate of our beautiful Native Americans. I wish history could be re-written. So, why the flag in distress? Because I grieve each day for the current condition of our sweet home. I have no respect for our leader or his pack of lying hate-mongers. I hang my head in shame for what our face in the world has become. I cry for the families destroyed, lives senselessly ended and people of color and diversity miserably repressed by an old worn-out "White is Might" pack of fools with nothing but hate in their hearts. I pray that this regime of madness is short and that the damage caused heals quickly. I am not unpatriotic, I am an American." ~ @monster.poodle on Instagram

Quote Of The Day

It's a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what's changed is you." ~ Eric Roth

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Once again this year Ben and I debated whether or not to go to the trouble of putting up the tree. We blew it off completely last year, as neither one of us was particularly in the holiday spirit for a variety of reasons. It's a little better this year, but based on the absolute lack of cards we've received it's not a sentiment shared by many of our friends. Either that or people just don't send holiday cards any more; a distinct possibility. (Even we cut our list way down this year.)

What pushed it over the edge for me this year was twofold. We were planning  a last minute holiday potluck and you can't have a holiday gathering without a tree and I'd also purchased a TARDIS tree topper (which, as you ca see, is way too big for the size of our tree) and really didn't want it to just languish in its box for another year. Additionally, a friend of ours had given us a string of Weeping Angel lights last year that had never seen the light of day. So Friday evening I bit the bullet and hauled it all out.

While decorating the tree, I kept hearing my Mom's very disapproving voice playing in my head. Mom was, shall we say…meticulous…in the way she decorated a Christmas tree. (Dad usually handled the lights and Mom did everything else until my sister and I were old enough to take over those duties ourselves, and even then she wielded complete control over the process.) Certain ornaments had to go in certain locations, and the whole procedure of laying on the decorations was very methodical. If she were alive today she'd be aghast that I have large ornaments at the top of the tree and tiny ones at the base.

I think it turned out lovely, in any case. My only regret as an adult (holiday-wise at least) is that about ten years ago I gave my half of the family ornaments back to my sister, thinking at the time that I would never put up another tree. Yeah, now I wish I'd held onto them and I suppose I could ask for them back, but at the same time—with only a few exceptions—I don't remember exactly which ones were mine and I don't want to have to deal with the resulting drama from dividing them up again.