My Year of Meaningful (2011)

OK so I'm not in the hoosegow.  But I am chilling.
ahhh.

Right, so last night we had S&M over for dinner with their wee youngling the little 10-week old.  I can see how one Mister Bachelor A. would not have felt like part of the spawning gang, but still, we tried to not talk about baby crap (which bugs the hell out of me too anyway) in an effort to include him, and guess what he tried.... NUTTIN!  Just freakin rude, I tell you.  Not only did he not utter a word the entire night, at one point he just LEFT!  To go agitate Jock (who was being held in time out because of his earlier actions during the day involving Billy and an apparent territorial dispute, but that's a different story all together) and poke around in our room.  Anyway, at one point I met him in the kitchen and said "oh, I didn't know where you went" and he just mutters under his breath "the fuck outta there".  I just ignored this and went on about my hostessing.  But come on.  Maturity factor?

So anyway, rather than bringing myself down to the negative level of SOME grumpy ass grumps here in the hoosegow, I will instead try to make a positive stab at lending a helping hand to anyone with anti-social problems or immaturity syndrome out there in the universe who may be tapping into my brain and awaiting my virtual christmas gift of advice.  Then again they might be too young to be tapping into my aura for knowledge-dropping, but WTF.

10 Easy, Painless Tips on How not to be an Anti-Social Git:

10. If everyone in the room is sitting down, don't STAND in a doorway.
9. If someone asks you a question, answer it clearly (don't mutter) and then ask them one back.
8. If someone is busy in the kitchen all by themselves during a dinner party, offer a hand.
7. When there's an infant in the room, start by maybe asking what it's name is. You don't have to act all fake and sappy, but at least an indication at having a pulse would be a place to start.
6. When meeting new people, don't just ASSUME they are beneath you and idiots based on age or physical appearance or other such nonsense.
5. If you realize halfway through the night that no one is talking to you, do not ASSUME it's because *they* are rude, assume it's because they've given up on you and your dead-fish ways, and do something to mitigate the situation.  Maybe start by making eye contact and asking a question or two, or maybe contributing a sentence to an already-ongoing conversation.
4. If you're going to get a drink for yourself, offer to get someone else one too.
3. If you're in someone else's house, stay out of their bedroom.
2. Mustering a smile doesn't physically hurt.  Don't be afraid.
And finally, should you find yourself in the unfortunate position of only being able to see the tops of people's heads and feeling a chilly wind tussling your hair...
1. Get off your freakin high horse and learn how to talk to people even if they're not 21 year old blonde big bosemed boozers.

God help me tomorrow when we all go over to the Swede's Xmas Eve thing and have to mix and mingle with up to 8 or 10 other people of all age groups and personalities.  God help me xmas day when we have a family of 4 come over for xmas day festivities and we might have to be open minded about each other all over again.

But honestly I suppose I have to just grin and bear it considering that it was my dear brother-from-another-mother in question that saved the life of poor Billy boy yesterday during the unfortunate happenstance on Planet Pup.  ugh.  Grinning.  Bearing.  Wrapping presents.  Getting the rhino skin on for all the cynnicism and muttered netativity and "oh this is so retarded" judgements to be passed.

I seriously need some humour therapy.

Hence the fact that I intend to do nothing all day but watch a Will & Grace marathon, and avoiding food (or, to coin an already borrowed-phrase from bella and then change it up for my own use) through my holiday "Thingineering", and drink white wine.  Screw the houseguest.  I'm sure it will result in me being called "boring", "old" and totally "lame" in the letters back home, but dammit this is my damn holiday and i've had a busy damn year.  Quite frankly, vegetating in a state of semi-trance sounds damn good to me.  I ain't in the entertainment business this holiday.  And I will not be apologizing for it, nor will I apologize for my very decent, very nice, and perfectly acceptable friends.

We've watched some movies over the last couple days, which was nice.  I have so many to catch up on.  Caught "Annie Hall" (classic Woody), and "Diving Bell & the Butterfly"  (meh.)   Other than that, the only other goals we had (Me & the Mr) was to spend a lot of time on line catching up with stuff that has passed us by in the last couple months, like the internet and personal emails and skype phone calls, but of course the power keeps going out meaning there's no internet, and then my stupid cellphone is getting godawful horrible reception up here at the house (not a new thing) so so far none of those efforts have succeeded, but I will persist.  We'll get 'er done somehow.  In the meantime it would be great if I would get some freakin phonecalls on my landline myself!!!  So far our own families haven't even tried to call to say howzit, and WTF is that all about?  Not only did I not get a Thanksgiving phonecall from the big fambly hoo-ha this year, but The Mr. hasn't been getting his bi-weeklies from the farm either?  whatever.  Considering the source(s).

I ordered 2 cases of my favorite 2 white wines from our wine club, so I've got 6 bottles of chardonnay and 6 bottles of chenin blanc to get through.  Awesome.  Yay for summer!