Happy Chkwanmas Solstice!
What's your favorite decoration? How long do you leave it up?
Well if it isn’t my favorite people! Come in, come in!
Some extremely ridiculous things I learned this busy-busy week:
The birth certificate that you get when you have a baby (and protect like it is treasure) isn’t a birth certificate. It is a registration of birth. Different animal.
To get an actual birth certificate you have to go to a City office, request one with a form (pay $10 with a credit card) then go to a different building to have a clerk verify that hot-off-the-City-press document as real (pay $3 cash only) then bring these things to the State Department (in a different building) and get a letter verifying the reality of the other two documents ($35 by credit card). These instructions are handed to you at the first office when your number is up.
It felt ENTIRELY like a scavenger hunt. You get to a place and they give you the next clue! All of the UPS Stores in NYC are not UPS Service Centers (even though the UPS Website says that one of them is. It isn’t.)
There are no holiday windows at the Rockefeller Center Saks Fifth Avenue this year. Just clothes! Tourists are confused and do not know where to look.
also no light show. These lights are just the “typical” lights framing typical products - which points out how over-the-top the windows once were. The Macy’s Windows are also entirely disappointing and bizarre this year. They feature “The Macy’s Buyer” instead of any known holiday character. Not even a Macy’s shopper! The company is featuring its own Corporate Buyer!
The star of the show? A corporate position.
Lastly:
My email spam filters are now so strong that they completely disallow some messages, (they look like they hide viruses?) These messages are not diverted to my spam folder, they simply never arrive.
Some of the messages blocked this week have been: my bank’s online verification code, password reset emails, and the one-time verification code for one email provider from a different email provider (where I was trying to send a new verification code for my bank). While searching for these vital emails (the password reset codes never arrived) I discovered emails in my junk mail folder from my mom and my brothers who I email almost daily and personal Evites to parties I would have liked to attend.
So, what email has made it through into my inbox? Drug offers from Canadian pharma companies.
Truly. This is ridiculous.
In other news, my daughter is back from Oberlin and absolutely a joy to have around. I got to see her sing at a glamorous Trinity Church alumni choir event (20 year reunion of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols) - but mostly she’s off with friends. I also got to see a preview of the new musical Marian (for Marian Anderson) which is fantastic. I hope it comes to Broadway so you get to see it. I watched Amahl and the Night Visitors for the first time in years (this production was by On Site Opera and was set in a soup kitchen. Moving!) I also returned to see Blue Man Group - haven’t seen that one for years, but it’s finally closing, and saw The End, a terrific (and very very weird) movie musical set after an apocalypse in a cave where men raised to be blue bloods continue to be self-important and useless for everything except pontificating, even at the end of time.
Finally, I attended Cookiepocalypse. I have a friend who loves to bake. She made ALL OF THESE COOKIES from scratch, by hand, in her kitchen. The party is legendary and this year was held midway between NYC & Boston (the couple has lived both places) so that friends from each city could attend:
(you can follow my talented friend Anastasia here on her food blog that she never adds to because she’s too busy actually baking and cooking)
Writing:
Come see me!
I’m the featured reader at Richard Jeffrey Newmann’s First Tuesdays Series on January 7th! It’s in Queens! Put it in your book.
I’m also appearing with Paul Jaskunas at the Lithuanian-American Alliance on January 25th - will be reading a short story that’s out of print now!
Neither of these require an RSVP - just show up!
All these gorgeous unique opportunities I’m giving you! Come out and say hello!
Or stay in: you can see me host three excellent authors on this Pen Parentis Holiday Literary Salon without doing more than lifting a finger and clicking this link:
Don’t say that you wouldn’t even lift a finger….
Random Final Thought:
Why does hope stress us out so much? We want things to be lovely and we ruin them by arguing—nominally raising our voices to ensure that things improve. That never makes anything better. Never.
Enjoy your favorite flavor of Winter Holiday! Whatever you celebrate, take a minute to feel how you have transformed over the last year. Life is change.
Now I have to go eat cookies. Every guest was able to bring home a box of cookies, even after gorging for hours and hours. I freaking LOVE this kind of holiday magic!
Have a wonderful Christmas - but remember that each Sunday Mass is even more special!