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Showing posts from December, 2013

The Decembrist

I have songs for almost every month. Songs that I hear and take me back to a very specific time of the year. Songs that I play in my iPod when I'm walking outside and feel like going back. I have January songs (e.g., "Jump" by Van Halen). March -- "Mr. Roboto" -- and April -- "While You See a Chance" by Steve Winwood. Not just '80s songs either: September harkens "Rush" by Big Audio Dynamite II and "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies. I have a hunch the recent "Safe and Sound" will be an October song for years to come. But here's the odd thing: I don't have December songs. Any hits of Decembers past seem to meld into the memory of the winter afterward or the November before. In today's day and age, I could blame it on the nonstop bombardment of Christmas music on the radio, but in the '80s, when holiday songs weren't as prevalent, I know I was listening to Top 40 in December. So I'm puzzled tha

December 25, Eve

This has been the craziest December of my life. That's saying something, considering Michael was born in a December and we traveled to Texas last December. Life has been so busy. So has work. Then the weather turned cold and polluted for two weeks. Then I caught a bad cold, exacerbated by the inversion-fueled smog, that I still haven't shaken. And here we are: Dec. 24. We never got Christmas lights up outside. We got all the shopping done (thankfully, most of it was completed earlier in the month), but that kind of kept us from taking in the holiday vibe in the city (the smog and illness did, too). This morning, Lori woke up to discover a gutter hanging off the front of the house. Yet, I'm still feeling festive enough. The Christmas Eve family Mass at church this afternoon was nice. All the presents are wrapped and ready to be opened, and I'm typing with a view of our Christmas tree all lit up and "A Christmas Story" on the TV. I had been listening to holi