Quiet Christmas

It’s about 7 p.m. on Christmas and I’m relaxing with a nice big glass of merlot. We just finished a dinner of ham, mashed rosemary potatoes, corn, fresh fruit salad, whole wheat rolls, and key lime cheesecake. Delish. The dessert is a little non-traditional, I realize, but who the hell says I have to follow someone else’s traditions? Bruce will eat whatever whenever so tradition means little around here. And most of the time, I don’t mind that. When I do mind, I follow whatever tradition I need. It works.

Talking to my daughters was a delight today. Of course, I wish I could see them in the flesh but I do, just at a different time of the year. And if I pause long enough to stop mental whining and think about it, that means I have Christmases at those other times. The visits—here or there—are always gifts for me. I haven’t yet talked to my stepdaughters, but I’m guessing they’ll call tonight.

Tomorrow I’ll really have to apply myself to my editing. I’m at a point that I really dislike: I have to make all the tapes that I’ve already edited down from their original 30 min. recording time into 55-minute episodes that include a 45-second break, and wind up with an even number of episodes, if at all possible. So I experimented a bit with “deleting silence” in them, but I don’t know enough about the settings so that resulted in silences between sentences being eliminated, but not necessarily those betweeen phrases. Aargh. So I’m listening to the last tape ( I fervently hope) that I have to add silences to. (And I want NO snotty thoughts about the difficulty of adding silences to Carla. Clear?) Listening to myself is eternally boring (this means I’m learning what YOU have lived through all these years; you have my deepest sympathy!) but it’s absolutely necessary. And I guess it’s not such a bad idea to listen to the episodes before I turn them in, something I haven’t done in the past; I’ve managed to catch at least 5 places where I’d somehow left in the “read again” comment I make when I know I’ve made an error. So while it’s very tedious, the process means I’ll get a quality product, one I really will be proud of.

Christmas was kind of a non-event here this year. I decorated and we have a tree and all, but my seasonal cheer was at probably an all-time low. I don’t think I’m depressed or anything. I just had to hear canned Christmas music for far too long. And the stint at Borders left me by myself in the calendar kiosk: no one to make snide cracks to or to hear about their college life from. I don’t think I’ll do Borders next year and I’m guessing I’ll feel a lot more like Christmas.

But I received some nice gifts, and I do have the love of my family and friends. I hope your Christmas was as good as mine.