Christmas Eve:
Bob worked. I had dinner in Niles at the Omega Restaurant with friends. When I got home, Bob called and said that in the course of his job (in the restaurant industry) he’d been forced into a physical confrontation. Sadly as a result, Bob was in the emergency room on Christmas Eve from 8:30p to 3:00a. Emergency rooms are busy on Saturday nights and they’re also busy on Christmas Eves, but they’re busiest on Saturday nights that are Christmas Eves. It was awful. He just sat there for hours while more serious cases went ahead of him. But the x-rays were inconclusive, so it’s more pain meds for him.
The other Christmas Eve drama was that Ozzie broke into a plastic Ziploc container of homemade gingerbread cookies and ate all of them. I know Ozzie has gotten very good at pulling things off counters and opening them, so this was my fault. I should have put that box in the fridge before leaving to have dinner (he only does this stuff when we’re not home). So it was a good Christmas Eve for him! He was in a good mood when I got home.
Fortunately, there were only about eight cookies in there, not dozens, and they didn’t have chocolate in them, which is toxic to dogs. I told him, “I hope you enjoyed your Christmas treat because those were the last cookies you’re going to see for a long time.”
Christmas Day:
Bob worked. I MC-ed a Christmas luncheon for Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly. It went very well and I had a great time. I told jokes and stories, riffed, ad libbed, involved the attendees and later my friend Ceece (who’s development director for LBFE) said they liked me.
It turns out that the jokes that don’t amuse me, were the ones they liked. The jokes that I laughed at when I first heard them, they didn’t like as much. This taught me that I must have West Coast humor that is quite different from Midwest humor or maybe it’s a generational difference. Anyway, Bob’s joke about a talking bird went over BIG. They loved it. My joke about drinking and driving bombed. They also liked this one a lot:Why does Santa like to garden?
Because he likes to ho ho ho.
This one didn’t get much of a reaction, although I thought it was very funny:
Before I judge a man, I’ll walk a mile in his shoes. That way if he gets mad, he’ll be a mile away and have no shoes on.
Lesson #1: do not trust my sense of humor. If I do a gig like that again I’m going to ask MY HUSBAND for jokes. Ceece confirmed that the elders prefer simpler jokes. If I do this again I’ll definitely use more Bob jokes.
I was in charge of making announcements, introducing the guitarist/singer, running the raffle and leading the sparkling cider toast. The Christmas toast was challenging since I don’t believe in God or family or hope or anything. In fact, I forgot to write the toast, and came up with this in the minutes before the party began:
“No matter what we’ve each been through in the past year, no matter what happened or didn’t happen, here’s to the things for which we are grateful and to the truth that if you think long enough, you can always find something in the past year that got better.”It worked.
Lesson #2: Keep moving. I like serving food or MC-ing but not sitting around. Being on my feet feels great because I spend so much time sitting at my regular job.
On Christmas night, Ceece and I drove out to the suburbs and took Ozzie for a walk in a brightly decorated area. Being a dog, he ignored the beautiful lights and kept his nose to the ground, fascinated by foreign (to him) soil. He peed on many lawns, but did not poop, which I thought was very respectful of him.
I hope everyone had at least as pleasant a Christmas as me and Ozzie, even though I know that’s impossible. And yes, Bob is feeling a bit better today than on the day of his adventure.
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