rain, rain, go away

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Thursday, December 14, 2006
I love this lamp

It is raining. A lot. Not the gentle, almost ignorable rain that makes up much of the Oregon winter, but windy, driving, relentlessly spirit-crushing water falling out of the sky. I've been so crabby lately that if I give into it and start bitching, I fear I will never stop, so further consideration of the weather and a list of christmas songs/commercials (Ross! Kay Jewelers!) that trigger my robot rage are Right Out. (for today -- next sunny day those tennis bracelet peddlers get a piece of my mind!)

here are some of my recent bad weather/bad mood busters:

Fountain Pen: I have ink all over my fingers from addressing holiday cards. I have to say, I kind of dig it! I should start writing with a pen more often -- I hardly ever do, despite having a deep and abiding affection for office/school supplies. Maybe I can bring my handwriting back from the illegibility brink. (I said maybe!) I went to the PSU bookstore for the first time in forever and was reminded of what truly excellent and odd-ball supplies they have. (there was graph paper for... polar ice caps!! I almost fainted.)

Lunatic Quiz: Which historical lunatic are you? I am (apparently) Charles the Mad of France! Highlights include the following: Passing briefly into erratic genius, you believed yourself to be made of glass and demanded iron rods in your attire to prevent you breaking. It seems like a reasonable demand to me, if you truly believe yourself to be made of glass. History can be so unkind...

Christmas music: okay, this is sort of a trick category, because so many christmas songs have been the opposite of joyful spirit-lifting for me this season. For example, Heidi Klum singing a snippet of Santa Baby while dressed in some marabou santa thing for Victoria's Secret is one of the most joyless, dispiriting moments I've seen in a while -- despite having no inherent dislike for the song, marabou, sexy santa or Heidi Klum. I'm not going to make a huge long list all at once, but here are a couple of non-secular Christmas songs I like. These particular songs are ones that I had to sing in choir when I was a kid. I'm not a singer myself (choir was compulsory), but I love being in a room with lots of people singing.
O Holy Night -- I prefer softer, gentler versions of this song rather than the "see how long I can hold this note" versions. (sufjan vs. whitney) But what I like best is this line " a thrill of hope, the weary world (soul) rejoices." Hope is a delicate, ephemeral yet resilient mystery of the human psyche, but the pleasure I get here is from thinking of "a thrill" as a unit of measure. "I'll take a gallon of milk, a thrill of hope -- no, make that two thrills of hope and a pack of gum, please."
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear -- I know this is really old fashioned, but it has always been one of my favorites. I like the image of angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold (are they really stretchy or hovering or what?), but I particularly like the sentiment of "peace on the earth, good will toward men, all heaven and nature sing." It seems incredibly naive especially in the current global environment, but in these matters I'd rather be incredibly naive than the alternative. (I am clutching on to my thrill of hope with both hands.)

favorite Italian artist's name to say (today): Amadeo Modigliani. Come on! It's practically perfect in every way.

The Lost Room-- This mini-series ended last night, but Sci-Fi will be running a marathon of it this weekend. I liked it so much! It was not heavy on the mysterious atmospherics that I usually respond to in this kind of story (Twin Peaks, Carnivale Season 1, Lost (sometimes), Millennium), but its very premise is plenty mysterious and it has a refreshing zinginess. They established the world they were operating in pretty quickly, but still left room for surprises. Even more refreshingly, they did not assume everyone watching was an idiot. It was more puzzle oriented than I generally care about, but they made it work for me. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this ends up being a regular series.

A Dress A Day -- right now is a good time to be reading Dress a Day. (I think any time is a good time, but now is an especially good time.) Erin has been doing drabbles (100 word pieces) in the spirit of her Secret Lives of Dresses series. These are so fun! The reason she's doing it is fun too -- her readers have surpassed a charitable fundraising goal for Heifer International by more than 150%! But this post really made me smile today. Roller skating, digital camo, and the encouragement to do something that scares you a little bit, as it is often a "soul-enlarging activity."

I feel better already.

(but it is still raining.)
5 comments on "rain, rain, go away"
  1. This has got to stop! Just guess which historical lunatic I am. Guess! It does explain a lot about my fondness for wigs and the day I posed as Tom Clancy at Wordstock, though.

    Your Christmas song choices are nice. Over all, I like the older, traditional ones best. There's a whole "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" genre that I really hate. "The Christmas Song" also can send me to a very un-Christmasy place (roast this!). I was not so into Christmas songs at all this year until I stumbled on an old Oxford Camerata cd. Combined with some other older arrangements and my new found love of that German "Christmas Everywhere" cd, I think I am zeroing in on a suitable holiday soundtrack for this year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hee hee! maybe the link allows only for one answer! Maybe Charles the Mad is the only lunatic in history (although somehow I doubt it.)

    There are a lot of secular Christmas songs that I LOVE, but that's another list for another day. I'm glad you've got yourself a soundtrack for the holiday that you're enjoying. I think I'm still feeling a little too bah humbuggy to create one myself. Plus -- Christmas is only a week away! I have to say, I'm just not feeling it, but I'm going to do some decorating and see if that helps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's not so much that I don't like secular Christmas songs (there are a number of which I am very fond). There are just certain ones that bug me. I'm not quite able to put my finger on what the line is - I hate anything about kissing Santa Claus, am not a big fan of the whole Rudolph/Frosty ilk, but there are others that are a-ok. (My objection to the Christmas Song is a different sort - it just bores me.) This year I am into medieval carols, so it's not a good time for me to be objective, since the arrangements are so very different from anything more modern. On the up side, now knowing my affinity for the mad king, I feel less compelled to worry about it. I'm sure he would have had some unreasonable carol demands as well!

    Anyway, I'm happy with my mix, which is almost done. We're not doing decorations this year, which is fine by me. We're also not (at home) exchanging gifts. I think we're just going to have a shopping day after the holiday. New clothes, here I come!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Okay this is getting odd(er), for I, too, am Charles the Mad (tho I prefer to be addressed by my other sobriquet, Charles the Beloved).

    Thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  5. well, there are a few obvious things that spring to mind. I will list them in order of decreasing liklihood:

    1. We are all but figments of Charles the Mad's (or Beloved's, if you insist) lunatic imagination

    2. freaks flock together

    3. the quiz is broken (but this seems so unlikely, especially in the face of the almost certainty of #1. Also, I don't remember where I got the link to the quiz, but I do remember people discussing lunatics other than CtM/B.)

    ReplyDelete

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