Day: December 20, 2002

After lo, these many months, the Friday Five seems to be back:

1. What holiday or holidays do you celebrate this time of year? Christmas and New Years, although Christmas is definitely the bigger deal. More likely than not, I’ll be spending New Year’s Eve by myself.

2. What was the best gift you have ever received? The car my parents bought me last year definitely ranks right up there, if only because it’s changed so many things and made so many of them easier. But, above all, I like to be surprised by gifts. I like to be given things I didn’t know I wanted. I don’t like coming up with a list and saying, “this, this, and this.” I mean, I have a wishlist, and my parents did insist I share it with them, but it’s there mostly so I can remember, “hey, these things are cool.”

3. What was the worst gift you’ve ever given? That’s difficult to answer. I know there have been gifts that I’ve returned that I wish I had kept. And while I understand that some relatives don’t know what to get me besides money, there’s just not as much fun to cash in an envelope. But really, the only way to disappoint me with a gift is to put no thought into it whatsoever. I appreciate simple, heartfelt cards just as much as silly gizmos and toys.

Oh wait. The worst gift I’ve ever given someone else? Nah, they’re all good. Or I have very polite friends. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t buy a lot of gifts for other people.

4. Where will you be celebrating the holidays? Are you hosting? Going away? I am headed back to New York, probably on Sunday, for about a week. We’ll go to my grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve like we’ve done all my life, and then I think my parents are hosting Christmas for the rest of the family.

5. If you could spend the holidays with someone who isn’t around, who would it be with? Why? I don’t know. This will be my family’s first Christmas in twelve years without our dog, Duncan, who passed away in late May. In fact, I can’t remember a Christmas without either Duncan or our first dog, Balthazar. It will certainly be a different experience.

There’s this feeling today of waiting for the other shoe to drop, the sort of feeling that I guess always comes right before a big vacation, when we look around and wonder why we’re here. I almost feel like I’m pressing my luck; the rest of the week went quickly enough, but it’s always calmest before the storm. I just want to give my boss his mail, get him to initial my time card and agree that there’s no reason for me to come in to the office on New Year’s Eve. Then I want to go home.

It’s like Wil Wheaton said yesterday:

I am ready for the “sitting around the fire with friends and family while drinking egg nog” part of Christmas to begin.

Are we there yet?

Seven more hours of work seems like an awful lot of time for something unexpected to happen…

For those of you keeping track at home, here’s “Trousers Talk”, take eight (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7):

Do you wear a lot of hats? I know I do. Too many, some might say, although I’ve tried to never let public opinion dictate my behavior. It’s not like I need a special room for all my hats or anything. It’s just easier that way. I was starting to run out of boxes.

I think, all things being equal, the fedora is probably my favorite type of hat. Famous people around the world have worn fedoras, and although I can’t think of any of their names right now, it’s comforting to know that they’re out there. Hiding. In the dark. Probably with knives. Incredibly sharp and comforting knives.

Hats, too, should be comforting, and they should fit snugly atop your head. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way I see it. Whatever else you might say about them or whatever plots you might secretly suspect them of hatching late at night in the closet when you aren’t looking, even if they are just hats fedoras are certainly capable of that much. They can fit easily atop a person’s head, as if they were designed for that very purpose. I don’t know much about the history of hats, or of fedoras in particular, but I’ve seen people wear them and I’ve even worn a few myself. So believe me, I know what I’m talking about here.

You can walk down the street wearing a fedora and people will say, “there goes a man (or a woman) who knows what he (or she) likes, a man (or a woman) for whom comfort is important, a man (or a woman) who even now is wearing a soft felt hat with a fairly low crown, creased lengthwise, and a brim that can be turned up or down, depending upon his (or her) mood.”

And that’s just nice to know.

Also nice is the pith helmet, but I seem to run out of room.

Just for the record, I almost never wear hats.