Smashing

Inspirational song: All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)

Remember a couple days ago when I mentioned that we were super nerdy LARPers? With the particular organization to which we belonged, we traveled a whole lot, meeting up with different chapters of the club, in giant geekout campouts. Mr S-P is not known for having fancy cars. He's notorious for having the worst kind of beaters, the held together with baling wire and chewing gum running on wishes and started by an old Coke can arcing between the frame and battery kind of crap cars. It became a running joke among our peers, that unless we had some sort of catastrophic automotive incident, the weekend was going to be a disaster for everyone. That's a lot of pressure to put on two 20-somethings, but the one time we pulled into our big summer camp out at the Great Sand Dunes national monument on time, with no breakdowns or gear left at home, other campers complained about the people drumming late at night  (not even actual members of our club) and they got us kicked out of the site for all time. We had to pack up and leave late at night, and because of construction on the road, one girl rolled her little compact car, ejecting the passenger in the back (he was okay) and fracturing her jaw. From then on, at least a dozen club members would demand a full accounting of our trips, wanting to hear something that went wrong. We kind of got used to travel screw ups, and accepted them as our personal burden.

Flash forward to our "of a certain age" years, and we still travel this way. We always leave late, leave key things behind (today it was dog food), and there is ALWAYS a story to tell once we arrive. Today was extra special. We were supposed to be on the road by about one or one-thirty. We weren't too far behind. I was loading up the last of the food and feeding the cats, when the man came in with angry face. He had opened the gate to the back yard and led all three dogs to the truck, to go to the grandparents' cabin. The tailgate was down on the truck, and he assumed the two able-bodied dogs would jump in. Instead, they saw the open door of the cab and gleefully leapt into the seats with muddy feet. When the man yelled and pointed at the ground for them to leave, they just climbed further in on our luggage and bags of food and presents. At this point, as one of our friends called it, "Hulk smash." He slammed the door so hard, the back side window shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. It took us an extra hour to get the glass cleaned up and to buy tape and thick plastic from Lowe's so we could just get on the road. Sometime after the holiday, we can stop and think about replacing the window. For now, I am referring to my favorite philosophy, gleaned from that brilliant story, The World According to Garp. This trip to see my parents will be wonderful. It has been pre-disastered.

I couldn't muster up any holiday joy to speak of last year. I was lonely and the weather wasn't cooperating, and it just wasn't there for me. This year, I have what I wanted most. Mr S-P is here, and we are with my family and it finally feels like the holidays. Sure, a couple inches of snow would make it better, but this is good for right now. There's onlyone more sleep until Christmas, and I am about to get it. Good night, friends. I hope Santa is very good to you.