well, except for a couple

Reason #759 to keep a journal:

You never know when you’re going to stick in someone’s head.

Yesterday morning I got an email from Athena. She wanted to know if I was serious about looking for a Playstation 2. Turns out she had been on a couple of waiting lists and just yesterday morning another one had come in for her. She’s already bought one. She called a couple of friends, but they didn’t need one anymore. She said if I wanted it, she’d go and pick it up, meet me halfway between my house and hers in San Diego, and deliver a Playstation 2 in time for Christmas.

How cool is that, I ask you?

Eric got home from rehearsal right when Athena and I had finished making plans to meet in an hour. I told him it was time to go pick up his gift. All he knew was that it was being purchased in San Diego and driven to the pick-up point. I could see his mind racing, wondering what I had bought on eBay, or who could be meeting us near Disneyland. When I pulled into a Krispy Kreme donut shop, he probably thought I had lost my mind.

I didn’t tell him what he was getting so that Athena could see the look on his face when she handed it to him. She deserved to see all of the joy and surprise. She was our Santa. She had also brought a bottle of wine for the two of us, since we were home alone for Christmas.

Seriously. Some people make you feel good about the world. Christmas Eve Eve and she drives an hour out of her way to deliver a gift for someone she’s never met before.

Thanks, Athena.

We went straight to Best Buy, figuring that since the Playstation 2 was hard to get, there should be plenty of games. Ha! They only made two games per machine, you see. We ended up with Tekken and some mission/spy game thing that Eric always loves. Oh, and we got the fishing game, if only to make Ray really happy.

See, Ray’s going to need something to cheer him up.

Someone robbed our porch yesterday. They stole the lounge sign that Shelley had been coveting, and they took all of the liquor we had on our outdoor bar. That’s a lot of Ray’s Jack Daniels. That was all of Tyson’s whiskey. All of it is gone. They left everything else that was on the porch. Even a camera that was out there was just knocked off the wall, but still there. They unplugged the sign, and took the bar.

I’d like to think that somewhere someone is now having a great Christmas, and all they wanted to do was get drunk and pretend they were in a bar. I’d like to think that someone needed that liquor and not just some drunk punks thought our porch looked cool and wanted our shit. I’d like to think that the spirit of Christmas led someone who was down and out and lonely and just wanted to bring all of his homeless friends a little warm booze for Christmas, and wanted to sing and dance by the light of the sign. I’d like to think it made someone’s Christmas.

But I can’t help but notice that the porch looks completely different now and I want to put curtains up all over the place so people can’t look in anymore.

We went to Blockbuster this morning and rented more games and tons of movies. More packages arrived this afternoon. I have a stack of presents to open, hours of games and movies, and a fridge full of food ready to cook. I’m very lucky that I’m here with someone I love, with someone who loves me, in a warm home. I’m lucky that there are people calling and writing, sending love and thoughts. I’m very lucky that I will have food tomorrow. For a test drive, I made some cookies tonight. I burned them. It almost sounds understandable until I tell you that they were pre-made cookies in a tube. Not even in a tube, y’all. It was those cookies that are pre-cut into squares. All you do is put them on a sheet and put that sheet in an oven. I didn’t even have to pull out a bowl or break an egg. Burned them.

So, once my hands aren’t cramping anymore from the games (and the recapping), I’ll have to drive down to Target and pick Ray up a new Lounge sign. I can’t find one on the website.

While driving to feed stee’s cat (yeah, I’m doing my own good deed this holiday) we noticed just how dead it is around here. Quiet. Last night it was really quite noisy out on the strip. Tonight there’s hardly anyone around. I’ve never seen Hollywood and Vine so dead. We’re like, the only people around here right now.

Well, it’s time to watch The Filth and the Fury. Because if we’re going to have guests for Christmas 2000, it really should be Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten.

Happy holidays to all of you.