Monday, December 01, 2008

Already???

Holy cow! Christmas is just around the corner!! Someone mentioned over the weekend that they were already in a funk. Hasn't had the chance to happen with me! I don't think that a lot of people around here are ready for it yet...
  • No winter-like weather yet. After watching football across the country this weekend--in the wind, the cold, the rain, the snow--I realized how nice it was up here. Upper 40s, no snow, sunny days. I like the weather, but it's hard to get geared up for Christmas...
  • No lights up yet. Well, there's some, but I would have expected far more up by this time. I think homeowners have been caught off-guard.
  • Haven't seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas" yet. It's not Christmas until that happens. Sure, I have it on DVD. It's not the same as seeing it on network TV. I checked imdb.com, and they don't have a program listing for it yet.
  • Same with "Grinch". OOH! Monday night, ABC, check your local listings! (I'll be at rehearsal--watch it for me...)
  • There's one less weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. That's what's the problem. I came to the realization that I won't be putting up a tree this year. The earliest I could do it would be less than a week before, and frankly, it's not worth the effort.
  • Christmas music would usually be trick to help, but it started on the radio stations around here on Thanksgiving Day. Too early for me. Mostly country Christmas. For the most part, country Christmas songs are too hokey and un-Christmas-y as they come. I do have my Pandora (try pandora.com if you haven't already!) set for "holiday" music at work.
No, I'm not in a funk. I'm just not "into" it yet. Nothing to worry about though--you'll be sick of my Christmas spirit by the end of it!
One thing Christmastime brings around is the busiest part of the Symphony season. As well as my musical commitments. Between now and Dec. 16th, I will have rehearsals, performances, set-ups, tear-downs, and any combination thereof for all but two or three days. I'm also playing for a local chorale in two concerts for their two perfomances. In essence, I am booked until a week before Christmas. My computer playing will be drastically curtailed!
You might remember my appreciation of "Smilin' Bob" as an ad icon on TV. I now have a new guy. The one who's peddling the ShamWow! No--that's just a roll of paper towels in the picture. That you'll spend hundreds of dollars on in a single year that could be replaced by ordering the ShamWow! right now for $19.95. That's for 2 large ones and 2 small ones. And if you hurry, he'll send you a second set of each, absolutely free!! He's snarky, a wise-ass, and the antithesis of Billy Mays. He's my hero.
My football teams did well again this weekend. Well, technically, only one of them actually played... Next Saturday (while I'm at a rehearsal, and then tear-down) the UM Grizzlies will be hosting the Weber State Wildcats, who gave the Griz their only loss of the season. The Carroll College Fighting Saints will host the Lindenwood University Lions from Missouri in a semi-final game for the NAIA championship. Hopefully I'll still be able to catch the tail end of the games (both will be locally televised). I'm sorry, I've said it before, and I'll say it again--until the bigger schools realize that the playoff system works, and is the way to go, there will never be a legitimate champion, and big-school football will be nothing but the junior varsity to the NFL.
Don't forget the themes coming up this month. I'll make links out of the dates on the top of my sidebar so you can get the details for each. I'll probably have to do that from work...

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