Christmas Eve

Here is another one of my favorite Holiday songs:

I remember watching this when it orginally aired on TV and thinking: "Wow, what an odd pair but very cool at the same time."

Who would ever have thought you would see Bing Crosby and David Bowie on the same stage together?

Sadly Bing Crosby died one month after recording this song and it has gone on to be a timeless classic.




Peace everyone

Room service

I am staying at a hotel tonight so I don't have to commute the 96 miles to get to the new job.

Dive - I salute you. I don't know how you do it man. The only thing you have got going is that you can fall asleep on the train and drool on one of your fellow passengers. If I fall asleep at the wheel (and I think I've done it a few times) you'll be reading about it on the evening news!!!

The hotel is in Bethlehem, PA. Kind of fitting dontcha think?

Christmas time?

Bethlehem?

Get it?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh nevermind.

What can I tell you about Bethlehem, PA. Nothing really. I've never been here before today and what I've seen so far is just a small glimmer of Route 22 and I don't think it's Bethlehem's best side!

I can copy and paste this information from Wikipedia though:

The Christmas Star
On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony, Mrs. Marion Brown Grace pulled a large switch to light the new Christmas street lights and a large wooden star. Mrs. Grace was the daughter of a former South Bethlehem burgess, Charles F. Brown and wife of Eugene Grace, President of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Hundreds of Bethlehem’s leading citizens attended the ceremony and thousands more listened to the speeches and musical performances on the radio. The switch for the lights was located in the ballroom of the Hotel Bethlehem. This was the first year that Mayor Robert Pfeifle and the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce adopted the nickname "Christmas City, USA" for Bethlehem. Donations from the community were raised for the street decorations. The Bethlehem Globe-Times underwrote the expense of the large wooden star on the top of South Mountain, at a cost of $460.


The star of Bethlehem viewed from Main Street at night The star was attached to two wooden poles and was smaller than the current star. The star was created with four wooden planks, overlapped to create an eight point star. The dimensions were 60’ high, 51’ wide lit by 150 bulbs, 50 watts each. The installation of the star was done by PP&L and Bethlehem Water Department. The star was erected on the top of South Mountain, on property owned by the Water Department, located in Lower Saucon Township. The lighting ceremony, in the Hotel Bethlehem, was an appropriate location. This was the site of the first building in Bethlehem, a two room log house. On Christmas Eve in 1741, the original settlers were conducting their evening worship in this building. As their benefactor, Count Zinzendorf, observed the farm animals that shared the space and listened to the words of the hymn they sang, “Not Jerusalem, But Lowly Bethlehem.” he proclaimed the name of the settlement to be Bethlehem. The people gathered at the 1937 ceremony also heard those same words when the Bach Choir, under the direction of Dr. T. Edgar Shields, sang the old German hymn “Jesu, Rufe Mich (Jesus, Call Thou Me),” by Adam Drese. Malcolm Gross, the Mayor of Allentown, Joseph Morrison, Easton’s Chief Executive, Bethlehem School administrators, and prominent church officials were also there to celebrate. In 1939 the wooden star was replaced with a star made of Bethlehem steel, at a cost of $5000. It had eight rays with the main horizontal ray extended eighty-one feet and the main vertical ray was fifty-three feet long. In 1967, the star was redesigned, and Plexiglas was installed to protect the 250 light bulbs, 50 watts each. It was installed on the old steel frame which was ninety-one feet high and twenty-five feet wide at the base with a depth of five feet, set in concrete. In the summer of 2006, the city attended to some much needed repairs of the base. Rust was scraped off the steel base then it was primed and painted at a cost of $25,000. This is the star we see today. The star is surrounded by a 9-foot chain link fence topped with razor wire. A crew of municipal electricians changes the bulbs every two years. It can be a dangerous job so the crew wears safety gear and they avoid bad weather. Beginning in the mid-'90s, the star was lit from 4:30 p.m. until midnight, every day of the year. This schedule continues today. However during World War II, from 1941 to 1945, none of the Christmas decorations in Bethlehem were lit. At the time, Bethlehem officials explained that the lit star made "too good of an air raid target" and “during the global strife it didn't seem right for the lights to be all lit up when our boys were out in the darkness fighting for us." When lit, the star can be seen from as far as Wind Gap, 20 miles away. The star has become an important symbol for Bethlehem. Blue-and-white signs surround the city and direct tourists to "Follow the Star to Bethlehem.

So, there you have it.

My Dad tells me he vaguely recalls taking a car ride down here when he was a wee lad to see the big star.

I am at the Best Western and I have to tell you it's a really nice place to stay! The rooms are clean, the staff is friendly and I've had one of THE best dinners I've had in a long time. It was chicken something and something. Grilled chicken with mozzarella cheese and grilled vegetables and a bit of balsamic and some kind of potato something or other (because you know an Irish lass needs her potatoes).

It was DAMN tasty.

AND - they gave me 20% off the bill because they didn't have the wine I wanted.

How freakin' cool is that?

So hear I am...in a hotel room,

all by myself,

blogging about some little town in butt-fuck Pennsylvania

eating and drinking all by my little lonesome.




How freakin' sad is that?

ugh.

:::sigh:::

Whatever...it's Christmas! It's Happy Happy Joy Joy!!! Both of my kids will be here on Christmas morning and we'll have a nice big breakfast and then good ol' semi-conductor will be here for Christmas Dinner and then somewhere on the weekend I'll meet with Neetzy and her family and we'll have a gay ol' time!

Wooooo Hooooo!

(fuckin' holidays)

Back to the favorite Holiday songs for 2008. I'm going a little off script because this isn't really a favorite of mine, but sitting here in a hotel room by myself I thought it to be the better pick. (can you tell I'm feeling a bit lonely tonight?)

I'm popping my ambien and inserting my earplugs and heading off to laa laa land and I will leave you with this!

Happy Freakin' Holidays Y'all!



Peace!

First Day

It was good. Kind of boring. A lot of folks are out on account of the holidays, but I absorbed enough.

I'm really too tired to post much today so I'll just leave you with another one of my favorite holiday songs.

This song deserves a better intro, but I really am exhausted.

Just enjoy!

Happy Chanukah

M and I drove all around North Eastern Pennsylvania today looking at sublets for me for the month of January while I train at the new job. I could commute, but I really don't want to and when you way out the gas, tolls and wear and tear on my car it almost comes out to be the same amount of money.

The first place we visited was a house that was about 300 years old. Beautiful stone on the outside, gorgeous exposed beams on the inside and a fireplace that just invites you to site by with a good book. I would be renting the whole 3rd floor. Have my own bathroom and just share the common areas: living room, kitchen. The woman that lives there is an artist/writer just a few years older than I am and has two border collie mixed dogs and a cat.

Loved it!

The second place is a converted garage made into a small apartment. Very cozy, all the modern accouterments. Nice.

It was very nice. Really.

But I think I was sold on the old house from the minute I walked in. It was just gorgeous.

There was a third one we had scheduled to see as well but it was $400 more and further away. So I called them and told them we weren't interested.

M sold me on the idea of commuting this week or at least tomorrow and see how it goes. It would be about a 2 hour drive one way, but only for 3 days and then I can stay over for the following week. This gives me some time to pack, kind of get settled into the job first and then work my way into sharing a residence with a complete stranger. (she gave off a friendly vibe though)

It will be very weird to be with out M for 4 days a week. (I'll come home for "conjugal" visits!) We've spent time apart when I've traveled before, but this is for such a long period of time. I'll miss her but she's already decided that while I'm away she'll get caught up on the horror movies she wants to see that I won't watch!

ugh...I just had a moment of complete exhaustion come over me so I am going to end this post.

Not without wishing a very Happy Hanukkah to all of those of the Jewish faith.

Shalom!

Getting there

We got the tree up yesterday and we also managed to decorate it!

A few years ago we bought a fake tree. I prefer real trees, but the mess of the needles kind of drives me nuts. Months after Christmas is over I still find pine needles popping up in the carpet or working their way out of the furniture.

M is getting into the holiday spirit this year which is great and she wanted a live tree - so that's what we got! A few weekends ago we went on a spending spree and bought all new ornaments to replace some of the older balls that were starting to fade. We went with more the "decorator" look and bought ornaments that were in the same color scheme. The really remarkable part was that we both agreed on which ones we liked!

It looks very pretty, but there is a part of me that misses the ornaments that I've had for years. The ones the kids made for me when they were little. The two "baby's first Christmas" ornaments that are now well over 20 years old. My Mom even gave me some of the ornaments we used to hang on our tree when I was little. Unwrapping them each year is like opening a photo album - the memories just flood back.

I'll find places for them around the house somewhere. There's always a plant that needs a little holiday flair added to it!

Right now the house is a complete mess. I have about 6 tubs filled with holiday decorations that I have to find places for. They are all opened and sitting in my dining room with some of the contents pulled out and strewn about the floor. Some on the dining room table, coffee table, kitchen table - basically any available space. Today we'll put of the rest of the house decorations and try to clean up the place a bit.

Driving to get my coffee today one of my favorite Christmas songs came on the radio. Heirlooms by Amy Grant.

Here are some of the lyrics:

Up in the attic,
Down on my knees.
Lifetimes of boxes,
Timeless to me.
Letters and photographs,
Yellowed with years,
Some bringing laughter,
Some bringing tears.

Time never changes,
The memories, the faces
Of loved ones, who bring to me,
All that I come from,
And all that I live for,
And all that I'm going to be.
My precious family
Is more than an heirloom to me.

I think many people get very nostalgic around the holidays. You remember Christmases when you were a kid or when your own children were little and that wonder that came along with the season.

The commercialism of the holidays drives me insane. Seeing Christmas decorations up in the stores the day after Halloween is just maddening. Radio station that go all holiday music from Thanksgiving through New Years also drives me nuts. It's kind of killed the anticipation and the special feeling I used to get around the holidays.

Maybe I'm just old and crotchety now - that could very well be, but the holidays have lost a lot of meaning to me. And not just because of my lack of any religious convictions either. I am agnostic leaning more towards the atheist side of things but I had a time where religion did play an important part of my life. Now I'm just skeptical and grumpy.

I do like Christmas though and I still get mushy inside when I unwrap my manger set that my parents brought me from Ireland. I used to love to play with my parents manger set when I was a kid and looked at that little baby Jesus and wonder just who the heck was he and how did he go from a little baby to a man on the cross in just a few months?

Obviously I didn't realize that they skipped that whole middle part of his life in the bible. I still wonder what he was like when he was a kid though. Was he a bratty little 2 year old? A defiant 3 year old? What was he like as a teenager? Did he go out and drink with his buddies? Have wild camel races in the desert?

My mind obviously has some really odd thoughts going around in it!

Still - I think about it. I know I can't be the only one.

Well, back to the business of finishing up the decorating and then cleaning up the mess I've made.

I'll put my Christmas music on and my little Santa hat and let my mind wonder through all of the years of Christmas past: "Some bringing laughter, some bringing tears".

Peace all!

Hooray for holiday weekends!

It's Labor Day weekend here in the states. The unofficial end of the summer!

GOOD BYE TOURISTS!

Thanks for your money though!

Kids are going back to school, the days are getting shorter...and a bit cooler.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh...I love it!

Last night I took a walk down to the river to watch the end of the season fireworks display. Our town puts on concerts every week during the summer and once a month, during June, July and August they have a fireworks display. Unfortunately, they've been cancelled for various reasons so they were advertising a Fireworks Extravaganza for last night.

Well, it wasn't well planned out but there were a lot of them.

They definitely shot off the full load!

I think I had more fun watching the kids run around.

There is a little park down at the end of our development which runs right along the Metedeconk River. At one time there was a little beach there too, but the geese have kind of taken over that. You can't walk too far without stepping in goose poop unfortunately.

A lot of families were out to watch the fireworks which was supposed to start around 9:00 pm. I got there just after nine, found a good seat and just stared out at the water. (more staring...what's up with that?)

A group of kids were running around like...well...like kids! It was past their bed times...they were all hyper and excited to see the fireworks and the parents were clumped together in small groups chatting away and getting caught up.

I sat right in front of the swing set. Two kids - a boy and a girl, were having a "I can go higher than you contest" that lasted about 5 minutes. The boy gave up. The girl however continued to swing for nearly 30 minutes!

She was in a zone.

She was singing these little made up songs like:

"I'm sooooooo exciiiiiiiited to seeeeee the firewooooooorrrks...I caaaaaaan't waaaaait until they staaaaaaaaart."

There there was the song:

"Melissaaaaaaaaaaa iiissss my very best friend in the wooooooooorrrrllld.......yeeeessssss...Melissaaaaaaa is my verrrrrry beeeesst frieeeeeeenddddd....laa laaa laaaaa"

She went on to sing about growing up and getting married and how much she loves to swing.

If you ever saw Gilda Radner do her Judy Miller routine...this little girl was exactly like that!

Oh...to be a little kid again and just swing on a swing for 30 minutes singing your little heart out and not caring at all who was listening.

If I tried that now...first I would probably get sick from being on the swing...the motion makes me nauseous and second...I'd probably be taken away to the funny farm or arrested as a potential pedo!

Anyway...for the inner child in me I wanted to post a song that just puts me in a silly mood every time.

Back in the 70's a movie came out that instantly became a cult classic.

It's the story of Brad and Janet and how a flat tire leads them to the weird and wacky world of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

They meet the incestuous Riff Raff and Magenta, ditzy Columbia and Bad Boy Eddie and of course...Rocky.

I was a Rocky Horror Picture show follower. Saw it 23 times in the theatre where I brought my toilet paper, toast, water pistol, deck of cards, and lighter...and dressed up in costume (I was sort of a Magenta character).

I acted out the parts, sang all the songs and of course...I did the Time Warp!

So....farewell to summer and remember:

It's just a jump to the left:




Happy Weekend all! Enjoy!

Peace