Streaming from my consciousness

I’m on vacation.

And refreshed. Somehow amid all the chaos today of trying to layout pages and crank out stories for the holiday weekend. But then again, that’s fun for me.

And for a December afternoon in the upper Midwest, the weather couldn’t be more beautiful -- and warmer. … Arriving home to a quiet house, I smiled at every one of the new lot of Christmas cards in the mailbox today. I did a Sudoku puzzle. I cleaned the week-long stack of newspapers from the kitchen table. I talked to Kates, who’s on her way home from having lunch with her best friend in Chi-town.
And now I’m reflecting at the chaos (and random thoughts and experiences) that characterized the last couple weeks …

* * *
Until today, it had been freaking cold. …Some notoriously wrong weathermen had called for another ‘batten-down-the-hatches-pack-the-women-and-children’ snowstorm. But no more snow. Just freaking cold. Ugh.

At least I can laugh about it … Listening again the other day to everybody’s favorite morning show, Eric & Kathy were discussing the fundamentals of joke delivery and having people call in to tell jokes. …One middle-aged woman phoned in with this joke: Sex is like snow. You never know how long it’s going to last or how much you’re going to get. Sure the joke is funny, but the real punch line was that when the woman finished telling the joke, she burst out laughing. And Eric & Kathy had the woman tell the joke like four times! She burst out laughing, almost more hysterical, every time she told the joke. …I’m driving to work and laughing so hard I’m having trouble breathing.

What a great way to start a day. Laughing.

* * *
The other day I had Brian Wilson’s ‘Smile’ playing in my car stereo. And as I pulled up to an intersection, a coach bus was stopped at the light across from me. It’s sign in the windshield -- you know the one that usually gives the destination -- simply read ‘SMILE.’

Now that made me smile.

* * *
Like a page straight out of college apartment journals, Kates and I ordered Chinese delivery two nights in a row to begin this week. It wasn’t so much that we placed the exact same order of Chinese food two nights in row, it was that both orders were made on a whim because we were hungry, too lazy to cook anything and it was late at night …

But would life be without a couple random moments, and good Chinese food, here and there?

* * *
I was driving by myself and flipping through the radio stations (of course!) and stopped, oddly, on Nickelback’s ‘Photograph’ … and I turned it up a little and started wailing.

A few lines into it, I cracked a smile and realized what I was doing. Kates can't stand the song and lets me know it every time we hear it. I can’t deny though, the song is catching on with me. The lyrics are pretty cool, and it’s got a sweet melody. Plus, I can tell you from an interview I did with the gang a couple years ago that Chad Kroeger and the guys are stand-up men.

But seriously, what’s up with the eye-wincing, grainy voice?!

* * *
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.