09.12.2001
feeling kinda
i puttered around today, enjoying the fact that there's snow on the ground and that it feels like winter now. i kept looking out the window, and walking over to touch the pane to feel the crisp clean cold that comes with snow. it was a calm, mellow day; i got some chores done, and didn't sweat the rest of them too much. and i mulled over some things i've wanted to write about, and realized i left a huge part out of last night's entry. this is what i get for writing late at night: i forgot all about the kissie bears.
see, when i was still thinking about getting a tree, i debated getting an artificial one. nothing big, just a little something with lights and bows. i looked in the hardware store, and found a half decent one for small change. yeah, it was a little skimpy in the branch department, but i figured once i got the lights and ornaments on, it would look okay. of course, the one i really liked, that looked like a real tree almost, with fullish blue-green branches and realistic needles, was 7 feet tall and way too much money. but i figured i could compromise on a small tree that looked half decent.
then, of course, i started thinking about lights. you can never have enough lights. they had the old-fashioned ones, the bubble lights with the squat bases that you clip on the branches that come in sets of 10. i wanted to get them. which meant, of course, that i'd have to get the big tree, because they'd look silly on the small tree. then i started looking at new blankets to go around the base of the tree, ones with pretty appliquèd designs.
i ducked out of there before i walked off with the entire Winter Wonderland.
i still had some errands to run in the pharmacy, and ended up wandering down the seasonal aisle, looking at tiny table top trees, and deciding they were all far too hokey. i mean... upside down ice cream cones covered in white glitter? ech.
then i spotted The Stocking. i already have my stocking, the one that i've had since i was a kid with my name knitted into the cuff. it's not as if i need one. but this one...
it was a huge, royal purple, crushed velour, that nummy sort of curly velvet that you just want to pet. i wanted it.
but i don't have anyone to do stocking stuff for me this year, so what's the point? ah... the point, i thought, was to get it, hang it up in my cube, and fill it up slowly, day by day, for myself. see, when i go Christmas shopping, i always get suckered in by the little tchotchkes by the register. and i go to all sorts of gifty stores with tons of tiny treats. and i buy them. nominally, i buy them for other people, but somehow i end up with a bunch for me. (all for *me*!!)
so i thought, why not create a stocking for myself? but really, i'm too lazy to wrap all the gifts for myself, and there wouldn't be any surprise, and... well, you see where this is going. i stood there stroking the stocking for a while, and then tried looking for cards.
eh. Hallmark never has really good ones. i was starting to get frustrated and depressed about the whole card thing, and decided to wait until i could go to a stationary store by my office. i had tried that last week, and freaked out because there were too many good choices. but better too many good choices than a few crappy ones, and i just have to bite the bullet. go at lunch, give myself half an hour to choose, and be done.
needless to say, the holiday blues were starting to take a good hold on me at this point. and you're probably wondering where the bears fit in this story, aren't you?
you seen the Hallmark ad on TV, where the guy shows up at the girl's cabin in the Arctic tundra with a humongous teddy bear? she's all happy, and then guy #2 shows up. he holds out one little bear, and she raises her eyebrow. then he holds out another tiny bear, has the two bears face each other, and the bears kiss. needless to say, guy #2 wins on cuteness points.
as i was wandering the aisles of the drug store, feeling all mopey, i found the kissie bears. they are kinda cute. i picked up one, the little girl bear. then i picked up the little boy bear. and then i had them kiss.
they have teeny magnets in their noses! they snick together, all smiley and kissy! i giggled, unstuck them, snicked them together, unstuck them, snicked them together... this was worth about 5 minutes of amusement, and put a smile on my face for the rest of the night.
