Poke salad and Irish Blessings.

[KB.]

Poke salad and Irish Blessings.

"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."

~Albert Camus

I received my first Christmas present today; Paula Deen and Friends Living it up Southern Style and a bottle of Crystal's hot sauce. A cook book and some hot sauce.

Perfect.

I've already cooked something out of it. Take some crackers, I used the Towne House Toppers (herb and garlic), some fresh grated parmesan cheese, and a pound of bacon. Cut the bacon in half, put the cheese on the crackers, and wrap it in the bacon. Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees, place the crackers on a backing sheet and cook for two hours or until the bacon is done. Make people happy. Tell the vegetarians to stay at home.

It is Christmas, and it has been for fifty five minutes so far. I got to spend Christmas Eve at my favorite local bar with my favorite bartender; local or otherwise. It was nice and quiet. I suppose most normal folks were at home with their families or working. I don't work on Mondays or Tuesdays. I've got more important things to do and more important people to see.

I am for sure not normal.

I sat there and had a turkey sammich with bacon and a side of onion rings. A different place. A different sammich and side. It's just as good as that crispy chicken one with real home made potato chips drowned in, you guessed it, Crystal's hot sauce. I drank a couple of the best Bloody Marys in town and then I switched to just vodka and soda water. It was a different kind of vodka though it was mango and black pepper flavored. Sounds strange I know but it was wonderful. I played a little trivia, talked about eating turtles, The Brothers Karamazov, Ricardo Montalban, the dangers of going to Kroger drunk, poke salad, and superimposing a picture of a guy pissing on the "cheer up smile" sign in one of the pictures from St. Louis.

I thank the good Lord I have a place where I can have conversations like that.

Some good photo opportunities were missed. I got a text message from someone named Sunshine saying, "Shame on you." I came home and cooked for my oldest friend, we've known each other for 23 years now. I cooked his favorite food that my mom makes. Mine was better he said. We had a couple black and tans and talked about the last three years. I gave him a hug when he had to go and made tentative plans to get together tonight after the family thing is done and eat a steak and finish the beer.

Then I cooked some of my mashed potatoes and those bacon crisps to carry to the family dinner later today. At the moment I am having a text message conversation with another friend. I just assume she'd call, but hell what are you going to do?

I took a three hour nap somewhere in there when the vodka finally decided to put me into a nice peaceful sleep. The wonders of fermented potatoes never cease. Vodka is after all the least toxic of all alcoholic spirits.

I still haven't watched It's a Wonderful Life, I'm hoping for company to share the best Christmas movie ever with.

What did you do today?

I got that old feeling a few days ago; right after writing about how long it had been since I had felt it. I was standing at work surrounded by hundreds of impatient shoppers and I felt it closing in on me like a physical force. The air seemed to get thick and it felt like I was moving through molasses. I picked the word molasses just because I adore alliteration.

I can't explain it. I'm a walking contradiction and I speak too fast sometimes.

Imagine that you are in an elevator and you start on the first floor with two or three people standing around you. Now imagine that the building is a hundred stories tall and your destination is at the very top. You frantically hit the button that says "100" on it and you pray that you get there fast. The people on the elevator are looking around like you are crazy and at each floor the elevator stops, the doors open slowly, and more people walk in.

No one gets off.

You keep hitting the button as more and more people crowd into the tiny space allotted to the lift. The space around you is open, no one is pressed against you, but you can feel them there. The elevator lurches and the lights flicker. It stops somewhere a few feet short of that hundredth floor and you look around as the air gets hotter and thicker.

Now take that and throw in the feeling that your teeth are going to burst out of your head. They feel like little cans of coke that have been bounced around until the contents make the container bulge like some over ripe melon.

Enough with the damn metaphors. It's overwhelming.

You look around for a familiar face but every one looks the same. No one recognizes you. You make it through the next few hours and when you get home you write it out a lot differently than you just did. You send it to an old friend and to a new one. For different reasons. You use the word you far too much.

Then four days later you walk into a place, someone recognizes you, and the elevator starts moving again. The lights come back on and when the doors open everyone shuffles out and goes on their way leaving you safe again for a while.

You get a nice Christmas present and you have crazy conversations about everything from little British girls singing Some Where Over the Rainbow to how hard it is to mess up mashed potatoes.

It was a beautiful day and as you finish up a new story you struggle with whether to put the video of the little British girl or the one with the best Christmas movie ever set to a U2 song at the end of it.

Thanks Sunshine.

Merry Christmas to all of you and to your families. Remember to thank God for the people in your life that make things easier, but don't forget to thank those people themselves as well. If you love them tell them so. If you want them around for a long time let them know. If they make just breathing an easier thing to do tell them.

Good night.

Kevin



"May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow. May the soft winds freshen your spirit. May the sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you, and may God enfold you in the mantle of His love."

~Irish Blessing

[RedGlitter]

Merry Christmas, KB. :-6

[911]

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year, Kb!