Skip to main content

At the Beach

For the last two years my guy and I have thrown away all our previous traditions of celebrating Christmas when it's just the two of us. We've both devoted our entire lives to making other people happy during the holidays, and I have had nothing but horrible luck during mine, so we think we've earned it. This year we went wandering again, did a few interesting things, and ended up walking the beach at Daytona.

It was cold, almost entirely deserted and quiet. The ocean was fairly rough but the sound of the waves crashing was music to my ears. At times I felt as if the world had turned into a giant opal. I took pics with my phone and sent them to my favorite person, who sent back pictures of her island where she was hiking with her boyfriend and his mother.

We came across the Florida version of a snow man, which made us both laugh. Then we decided not to look for a place to eat dinner, came home and ate leftovers from Christmas Eve. Perfect end to what is usually a terrible day for me.

I am trying to keep that promise I made last year, and honestly my lifelong hatred of the holidays is easing up a bit. That's not because of the promise (which, I admit, was along the lines of that promise you make to God to go back to church if God saves your butt.) I really have chosen to take back the holidays from all the awful memories I have of them, and try to make some new, better, happier ones. This year absolutely nothing horrible happened, which is kind of a first for me. So maybe it's working.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make It Yourself

As we head into December, here are ten ideas for easy handmade gifts: Cookie Exchange: If you live close to your friends invite them over for a cookie exchange. Basically everyone bakes a set amount of their favorite cookies, and these are exchanged at the gathering by lottery, sharing a little from each batch with everyone, or however you want to do it. You can also exchange recipes, too. My neighbor did this once and it was wonderful. Favorite Recipe Cookbook : For my favorite person I found a copy of my favorite cookbook from a vintage bookseller (yes, I am that old) and went through it making notes on all the recipes I used, how I tweaked them, etc. Ornament: There are probably a million free tutorials on how to make your own holiday ornaments, so do some research online. I like to make hanging pomanders , which smell heavenly and are biodegradable after the holidays. Mug Rugs: If you sew, making up a set of mug rugs is simple and easy; I add these every year to my ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Glorious. Kinda

Writing up my thoughts on the Chinese drama You are my Glory is going to be one of those head-scratchers; I liked it, it got annoying, I liked it anyway, it got more annoying. In the end I was left feeling like most of the last third of the series was smacking me on the nose for being a romantic and wishing, not for the first time, I was a screenwriter who could get hired to fix this script. Anyway, okay. The premise for this series is actually pretty good: poor but brilliant aerospace engineer Yu Tu (played by the fabulously handsome Yang Yang) crosses paths with fabulously wealth but not-too-bright actress Qiao Jingjing (portrayed by the genuinely pretty Dilraba Dilmurat) who was his high school classmate. He's looking for a new job that pays better; she's in hot water due to an inappropriate product endorsement snafu, and they end up spending a lot of time together. It's a cross between Notting Hill and Apollo Thirteen, sorta kinda. Yu Tu is in a life crisis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fasten Your Seatbelt

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...
Post a Comment
Read more