Fall 2008

The Shibuya crossroad in Tokyo, Japan. Taken in August 2007.

Wake me up on January 2

It is here, people. The marathon holiday season is upon us, although, in my mind, it started back in October with Halloween and those first brisk nights when I pulled the long johns and the toque (how's that for a little Canadian, eh?) out of storage and started fretting over Christmas lists and the like.

My Christmas shopping is almost done, amen, but that's only because I have a list a mile long and a kilometer wide of miscellaneous other assorted crapola to do in the next four weeks (count 'em, four!) before Christmas.

Now of course, that enormous list is so enormous mostly on account of the fact that, over the holidays, our house will be inhabited by ten people for the better part of a week, by fifteen people on Christmas itself, and by thirty people a few days later. I know, I'm crazy. And believe me, I hesitate to complain about it here because it will only further encourage my mother and mother-in-law to tell me to NOT WORRY and KEEP IT SIMPLE and LET THEM HELP. All of which I'm doing, I swear. But the fact remains that

(10 people x 6 days) + (15 people x 1 day) + (30 people x 1 day) =
lots of (crazy + food + work in preparation)

It doesn't matter how much I don't worry, or how simple I keep it, or how much help I get (and I do have lots of offers of help that I fully intend to take a few of you up on), it is a major organizational and logistical project.

Anyway, the point of telling you all this is really to insinuate ever-so-subtly that I have been and will likely continue to be a little on the intermittent side with the posting over the next month (though I promise I won't completely drop of the face of the internet), and I just wanted to get it out of the way and apologize in advance so that's one less thing for me to think about.

Geek

Ed. note: What follows is a mostly unedited email that I received from J-P earlier today.

Uh, I need to admit something to you. I love Star Wars and Spider-Man. But I am also really really really geeked up about the new Star Trek movie.

While I grew up loving Star Wars and playing with the toys, my dad grew up (in college) with Star Trek and, of course, passed on his Star Trek-o-philia to Cot and me. My dad has practically memorized all the old Trek episodes and I think he's seen pretty much every Trek movie in the theater.

While I can't say the same, I can say that I dig Star Trek and am really looking forward to this movie coming out.

So, baby, I love you, but you married a total dork.

And in other news...

I know I'm a little late with our Halloween wrap-up, but here it is. Halloween was quick and dirty this year -- we didn't have much time for decor or costumes. It still turned out pretty well though, I think. Here's a shot of me as Amy Winehouse, and J-P as a luchedor / Mexican wrestler / Nacho Libre (pick your poison):


And one of Scarlett, who was over-the-top adorable what with the fairy skirt and the butterfly wings:


(By the by, I totally lifted these pics from Sarah and Aaron. Also, in case you were a bit confused, we didn't up and get ourselves a one-year-old, we just borrow her from S&A on occasion and then give her back when she starts to cry.)

So, to back up a little bit, J-P had taken a day off work so he could fly down on Thursday night and be here for Halloween, seeing as it is a high holy day in our household. He spent the afternoon on Friday decorating the house, and we spent the early part of the evening handing out candy to the over 150 kids who came to our door.

As always, the kids were adorable. Some of the littlest ones were freaked out by J-P's mask, but others walked right up to the door (and, in some cases, right in the door). The most creative costume of the night award went to a couple of girls dressed as California maki rolls, and the most popular costume in terms of frequency was definitely Spider-Man, which warmed the cockles of J-P's Spider-Man-loving heart.

But the best moment of the night, which gave us all a good laugh, came after most of the little kids were surely passed out in sugar-induced comas. Two older kids, a girl and a boy, came to the door. The girl had on a mask of some sort, but the boy was just in everyday clothes -- jeans, a polo shirt, and a puffy coat with a fur-lined hood. J-P opened the door (in full Mexican wrestler regalia, mind you) and handed the girl a piece of candy after she said "trick or treat." Then J-P looked expectantly at the boy, hoping at least for the obligatory "trick or treat" or "happy halloween" or some such. The boy just held his bag out, silently, looking somewhat bewildered at J-P's ridiculous get-up. After an awkward silent moment, in the interest of moving things along, the girl finally spoke on the boy's behalf to explain his apparent lack of a costume:

"He's Obama. Trick or treat."

You know what to do

A pre-election moral dilemma

Ever since last night, I've been wrestling with this. It seems that someone I'm very close to is voting for a candidate that I very much do not want to be president. Which would be fine, except for the fact that the reasons this person is voting for this candidate are totally and unequivocally the wrong reasons –- not because of policy or personality, but rather for far more SUPERFICIAL reasons, if you catch my drift. And that just kills me.

Now, it is likely that, if I called this person and had a conversation with her about the election, the candidates, and the issues, I could very likely persuade her to vote the way I would prefer. But it is also quite likely that, if she were to change her vote, she would be doing so more to make me happy than for any other reason. (It is true. I wield this much power, although perhaps only with this one particular person.)

So, here are two premises:

1. It is wrong to influence someone's vote by means such as threat, bribery, or manipulation.

2. It is not wrong to influence someone's vote by means such as discussion, debate, or persuasion.

Given these two premises, if I were to make this phone call and limit my persuasive efforts to only legitimate tactics grounded in the issues, would that be wrong? Even if I know that my persuasive efforts, while legitimate, will likely have a manipulative effect on the listener solely as the result of my relationship with her?

7 1/2 months, minus 7 1/2 weeks

Finally, we've reached the beginning of the end. In about 7 1/2 weeks, if all goes according to the current operational plan, J-P will be back to living in Nashville with me. In the interim, it's getting easier to say goodbye after spending the weekend together because I know that the sooner he leaves, the sooner he comes back for good. And what a glorious day that will be.

When he gets back, it will have been about 7 1/2 months since he left. When he first left, we expected this to be a month-long situation. And oh my god, at the time, one month seemed like an ETERNITY. If only we knew.

The closest thing I can compare this whole experience to is that feeling you get when you're sick and feeling terrible and all you want is to feel NORMAL, and you have this realization that NORMAL -- the absence of whatever miserable illness ails you -- is actually absolute, unmitigated, underappreciated bliss. Because of the time we've spent apart this year, I have such a deeper appreciation of the fact that, when J-P is here -- no matter what we're doing, whether it's chores around the house, napping on the couch, getting on each other's nerves, or just enjoying each other's company -- that is normal, and normal is bliss.

7 1/2 weeks to go.