Holiday Hats and Good Cheer

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

It’s Christmas Day as I finish this blog. We ran around a bit more than I intended yesterday. Have you ever been to Costco on Christmas Eve? Never do that, okay? After that ill-advised sojourn, my back decided it had enough. It didn’t respond well to the computer chair last night. I’m much better today, fear not. And no without further ado, the very late blog.

Not A Creature Was Stirring

It’s Christmas Eve. Jon and Gabriel are watching Speed Racer(a not so secret nor guilty pleasure for us). The hole in the bathroom has been nicely re-plastered. My big meats have been roasted. The side dishes will be underway soon. Life is pretty good. I won’t complain about the inordinately cold weather. My East Coast buds have skewered me about my wimpiness. I know you can’t shovel rain, and with wind chill, it’s 25 below in Ohio. But a high of 48 in Los Angeles has made the Doppler-gangers completely insane. And it made my nose hurt coming home at night. So I admit to some whining. Maybe a lot of whining.

Now, when last I posted, I was exhausted from Saturday night. Mind you, I didn’t actually create the one sheet. That was Jon. But last weekend felt like riding the most twisty-turny roller coaster ride ten times in a row without a break. I had nothing left for the blog. I barely got my cookies packed to be shipped – late – on Monday. Nothing is wrong. In fact, we’ve been in much more dire positions at times like this. This time, we were prepared with an image and a plan. It’s just that we’ve been doing so much along with this. The time crunch was jarring. However, everything is going well, and we understand the urgency of the last weekend. It was valid and necessary, but this hurry up then wait is very tiring. We’re taking a hiatus from everything until Friday, when I expect the paperwork frenzy for the films will continue. I just want to cook, eat and watch films we missed in the theater this summer. Tonight is the 15th anniversary of Jon and I getting together (I harassed him at a company Christmas party and he stuck around). We’ll be celebrating that as well.

Glad Tidings

Before our celebration was interrupted, we were having a small, but lovely dinner with two of our hard working actors. I’ll speak about their work and that of all the actors we had the pleasure of filming in 2008 next week in the year-end wrap up. Last week, was about spending some personal down time with as many actors as we could gather before everyone took off for holidays with their families. We could only get Matty Ferarro and Jennifer Sparks, but they are a party waiting to happen. As I have said earlier, good actors are just bursting with personality. They lift your spirits just being with them. Jennifer and Matty are so much fun before they get to work, that we want to find ways of having them in everything we do. There are other actors we feel that way about, and they will be in almost everything we do. They also call at holidays and make me crazy, but that’s for another blog or not. Some of what was shared isn’t for mixed company. Matty and Jennifer were great holiday company, and they were great sports about wering the Happy holiday Hat. Interestingly, Travis Willingham has adroitly avoiding the Happy Holiday Hat for two years. That will have to change. Vic Mignonga was not so lucky. But he looked pretty cute. Low budget filming is hectic and stressed. There isn’t time for amenities and moments of connection, so we seek them out and value them . We all enjoyed some time eating great food and having great beer and a lot of laughs. It made the roller coaster easier to tolerate. Working with these talented guys and gals is what drives us. It’s good fun to acknowledge that even on a small scale. Though it was interrupted, the dinner was a nice Christmas present. It looks like we’ll have a lot of such presents coming in 2009.

Joyeaux Noel
An article in Monday’s Los Angeles Times’ Health Section cited a study that suggests Nostalgic feelings during holidays is therapeutic. That’s good to hear, because I can’t help but be nostalgic during these times. Though we are approaching geezer-hood, I still think fondly of my childhood holidays. It wasn’t just that the hauls were sweet (and they were). The fond memories are of hanging out with my cousins and playing with our new, cool stuff together. We were lucky to have a bunch of cousins close by who were close in age to us. Thus, Christmas fun came in waves during the day. First we opened our presents, then we’d get one set of cousins and then another. We weren’t bored. And, of course, Mom made piles of great food that we ate all day. Even the inevitable family dust ups were entertaining. There would be the odd aunt or uncle from out of town. And by odd, I mean actually odd. There were good reasons these folks weren’t typically invited to family gatherings. Yes, watching adults melt down could be great holiday fun. I enjoy these memories. They make me feel close to hearth and home though we’re on the other side of the country. The nostalgia isn’t melancholy though. We’ve had some great Christmases here. Nothing beats Craig and the rest of the Border’s alum (Phil and Marie to name a few) for the holidays. And then, there are the actors like Garett Maggart whom are anything but reverent. And not being in 5 degree weather or trudging through snow is a big bonus.

We soggy, but happy and well this Christmas day. I must be off to work on my side dishes. Happy Holidays!