Frog Blog

uh, no explanation necessary for my title-- it should be obvious! dad was on a mission last night to upgrade his cell phone and actually suggested that we go to the mall downtown (black friday!) to the cell phone kiosk. i asked him, are you sure? do you know what you're willingly about to do? he was game. unfortunately the kiosk didn't have any models he liked and unfortunately it was still hellishly crowded at the mall even at 6 p.m. when all the shoppers who'd been consuming since 5 a.m. should have been passed out at home. and we had to hear the electric violin xmas tunes which just about made me vomit.

a friend of mine-- he's jewish-- said it's impossible to walk outside in america in december and say, oh, is it christmas? i hadn't noticed. it's been christmas since the day after halloween. did christmas even end from last year? this year i'm not buying in. dad said last night he often feels depressed at this time of year. it's raining all the time, it's dark all the time and everyone is going nuts and shopping frantically and calling 911 because the crowds are too manic at wal-mart. i told him, this year, fuck it, i'm not buying in. i'll get my family and close friends some little presents but that's it. i'm staying out of the malls. i'm not going caroling. it's depressing enough around here in december-- i don't need any group singing to make it worse.

but i've come up with some things that are cool about winter-- things to get me through the january doldrums: how fresh the air is, how it's lovely to wear scarves and boots, b's braised meat dishes, peppermint ice cream and peppermint mochas from starbucks. drinking even more tea than before. breaking out the pea coat. taking brisk walks on the rare sunny day. leftover turkey. getting a massage. hot showers and all the netflix i can handle. until then, wake me up when it's april.