Friday Christmas Shopping

I have only ventured out once for Black Friday. And it was enough keep me from every doing it again. I mass chaos that I witnessed, being shoved so that someone could get to a shelf and of course the disorganized piles of "goods" sent me running for my car. I didn't feel any sort of savings was worth this travesty. I don't understand what would cause people to act so uncivilized. I understand that times are tough, that we have to save every penny earned for a rainy day. But really? Trample someone so that you could get the perfect present for a few dollars less? And it isn't like any of us really need that HDTV or that tablet computer. What happened to the simplicity of Christmas being about hanging out with family and friends. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is midnight mass at church, seeing everyone dressed up, smiling because a friend or relative is in town, someone they want to spend time with. The choir singing and the bells tolling. I'm hoping these after Thanksgiving shopping sprees are just a faze, that we'll get back to what the holidays are really about...and that is thanks that the first pilgrim families survived and were able to celebrate with a meal and the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I Do and I Haven't

This month and back to back, two of my relatives are getting married. One cousin from my father's side of the family and another from my mother's side of the family. And although I love being around my family, it can also be mentally exhausting. The catching up with each every uncle and aunt. I have to modify certain life stories, censor them if you will, to fit their expectations and their convervative views of the way life should be. I have a great bunch of cousins. Whenever we get together, for whatever occasion it may be, we always tend to have a good time. Sometimes the fun is exacerbated by alcohol, sometimes it's laughter brought upon by recalling the last reunion. But it is fun. Most of all it's because there is no DRAMA. I realize that when families get together, there tends to be some sort of tension. I use to believe there was, but that was probably just my imagination. As I have matured, I realize it's just because we love one another and interfere in one another's lives because that is what we do as relatives. Of course there is the most dreaded asked questions, "when are you getting married"? And I have no answer. I'm not currently dating anyone. I still have to fall in love. I still have to find the one person who makes my heart skp a beat, the person I can't live without and that hasn't happened yet. But I have faith that it will. When I'm not actively looking. So one wedding down. Congrats to my very loved cousin and a new family member. One more to go. Happy Thanksgiving!

Being Missed

There is a mix of emotions that gets stirred when someone says "I miss you". It's that same nostalgic, happy feeling that you get when you walk into a room of old friends you haven't seen in awhile. So when Jay Noel sent me a FB message saying that he gave me a shout out in the blog world, I was curious. Knowing that I hadn't stepped foot in the realm for a while, I wanted to know what he had said. Was it a critique of my last post? A post that was written many months ago maybe even a year ago, with a topic that was most likely irrelevant today? Jay wrote about bloggers that he met, bloggers that he would miss and mentioned what he liked about being blogger. Reading through his post, I recognized blogger friends (and I put no quotations around the word friend, because to me, these fellow bloggers have become friends) we had in common. It made me realize that the written word--whether in short emails, messages sent using social media, or even here in the blogosphere can create friendships. It can also create a sense of belonging, knowing my emotions and reactions was a commonality and not just isolated incidents. I got a sense of belonging, but yet one of individualism. I originally started blogging as a way to keep in touch with friends. I didn't like social media. I don't even think there was that many out there yet. But I do remember not caring for the ones that had been established back then. Although I had loved writing letters to my friends, it got tedious after awhile. I most certainly did not like to write the mass emails. Mass emails were less personal. So a friend suggested I start a blog. I don't have an excuse for stopping. I really never should have. I still do have things to write about. I just needed that little nudge. Thanks Jay!