Oh, yeah. Fuck Eric. Life lesson for ya, kid. Suck it up.
t / Unsympathetic Primary Teacher Witch Lady
the affirmation should come last so it sticks.
Well, Connie, I know you love him, but in this case he's, ah, in error.
The thing you say first? That's the bit that sticks. The second bit comes across as an after thought, a half-hearted attempt to ameliorate the actual message.
I mean, it sounds a little like maybe he's just being macho and is loath to sound namby pamby with the praise-giving/acknowledgement of success; but if he's claiming that he WANTS the acknowledgement of success to be given priority - well, saying it
after a put down
is not, in fact, the best way to do this. At all.
wrt the Christmas thing - ChezJay we traditionally used to get pressies from Santa at the bottom of the bed/outside the bedroom door, and then pressies from us (and sometimes from Santa/The Cats) under the tree. Santa pressies we open first thing upon waking, Tree pressies we open after Christmas dinner. (Which is at midday, not the evening meal - in the North our meals are referred to as breakfast, dinner, tea, whereas in the South they're referred to as breakfast, lunch, dinner. For some reason.)
Anyhoo, have just returned home from a morning/early afternoon helping the BNH hospital stall at the Ploenchit Fair. This despite the fact that, palpably, I do not work for BNH Hospital, and indeed my actual employers had their own stall - however, our school is in the hospital grounds (and I think BNH sort of owns us, or something), and, more to the point, Angela who works there is friends with my head. And we've met - they let us have a fabulous art display there, and she and I talked a lot about that. And apparently she came to see
A Christmas Carol
and thought "aha! I'll see if I can get Fay to help! She'd stand there with a microphone!" So I did. Moreover, I came dressed in what many people clearly assumed was fancy dress; it was, in fact, pretty much what I'd have been wearing anyway, but the fact that the hat is appropriate was not lost on me. The stall? 'A Day At The Races' - people buy a ticket/tickets, then sit down to watch a video of a horse race and cheer their horse on. It was actually great fun, and we were all screaming and yelling the (pre-recorded) horses on to victory.
This evening I'm going to a vicars and tarts party. I'm rather costume-deficit, but will be going as a vicar. (I'd love to have a priestly coat a la Keanu in the later Matrix movies, but not enough forward planning...)
I have just loved reading about everyone's Christmas traditions. I love having this place where there are so many different experiences and backgrounds. Not everyone has this, and it makes me a little sad for them.
And I'm going to stop there before I get all sappy. No, I'll say one more related thing, but it's not sappy. I shared my new website/blog with a few of my favorite professors (and the ones I thought would be interested). Turns out that one of my professors is VERY interested, as in she is just fascinated by this "new" discourse. I really do forget that not everyone interacts in this way, and most people, in fact, just don't understand it. So, I recommended Allyson's book to her.
It's just interesting to me. I look at it and sometimes study it, but my interest comes as an insider. It's kind of funny when suddenly I find myself trying to explain to an "outsider."
Oh, and Eric TOTALLY deserved that response!
Did anyone else watch the Hogswatch movie?
I recorded it but haven't watched it, yet.
Happy day after Emeline's birthday! And happy December, y'all.
It's the first of the month and I don't have to pay rent. Exciting..
We always left Santa cookies and a beer. And an apple for the reindeer. No CHristmas for any hypothetical kids of mine, of course, except at Grandma's house.
{{Jessica}} Lots of get~well~ma for your grandfather.
So did no one else (that grew up with two parents in the house) get separate presents from each parent?
We did. My mom had the general gift giving duties, making sure everyone got something and getting the practical things or the things she knew we really wanted or whatever, but dad loves to give gifts and would give stuff on his own as well.
And Santa brought stuff for my parents. And filled their stockings. Our stockings always had a tangerine in the toe and a mini box of cereal at the top and whimsical stuff in between. At some point we started trading names and each of us would fill someone else's stocking - that was pretty great.
Fay emceeing a Day at the Races sounds perfect. And Hil telling off Eric, necessary.
Every year our stockings would contain one orange-type citrus fruit (tangerine, clementine, actual orange, whatever) and a penny in the toe, one thing of scotch tape because we always stole my mother's and she kept trying to prevent that, at least one candy food thing, and at least one small toy.
And Santa brought stuff for my parents. And filled their stockings. Our stockings always had a tangerine in the toe and a mini box of cereal at the top and whimsical stuff in between. At some point we started trading names and each of us would fill someone else's stocking - that was pretty great.
I wish I'd gotten tangerines. The Christmas I was eleven, Mom put a book called Almost Twelve in my stocking. Explained sexual reproduction in a factual yet modestly Christian way. I believe I have told this story here before, yet the mortification I felt at the time was strong enough that I need to keep telling it. Also, so not fair for that book which was an extrusion of parental duty to tell me the facts of life to replace some actual fun presents.
Here, the cats get a stocking together - which we fill out of trips to dollar store pet toys. And Daniel and I wrack our brains thinking of stuff to put in each other's stocking. My forays into the dollar-dvd aisle at Walmart yield particularly lame results.
Yeah, we always got oranges in the stockings, too. I wonder where that tradition comes from.
Ouch, Andi. Way to make Christmas morning an excruciating ordeal.
I wonder where that tradition comes from.
A writer/quilter on the subject: [link]
