Mission accomplished
OK, so I haven't finished that catch-up entry I started last night. But I did finish my Christmas shopping, at least! Walking stick and clay sculpture stuff for Gryphon, paper-making kit and mythology book for Duncan, scarf and hematite bear pin for my mom, and yes, cell phone for my sister. I am now so overdrawn it isn't even funny. But the more I thought about the cell phone thing, the more I felt really sure that she should have it. I don't know if that's some kind of premonition of trouble in which she'll need it or what, but I decided I'd rather spend a bit too much and deal with the consequences of that than later find out she had car trouble and got stranded on the highway at night and had no way to call people.
Who, me overprotective? Hey, just because I ended up anxiously nagging elixxir to look up symptoms of alcohol poisoning on the net when one of her party guests (who shall remain nameless) who had overindulged considerably in Amaretto passed out in the bathtub... :-)
Side note: when I was first getting to know said nameless individual, and he discovered that the two forms of alcohol I most disliked were beer and Amaretto, he used to tease me by rhapsodizing about the pleasures of some vile concoction one could make by mixing them together until I was nearly physically ill from the description. And I must confess that in between bouts of worrying about whether he'd done himself in with the stuff at the party, the distinctly uncharitable thought crossed my mind that "Hey, I bet he won't be going on about that any more..."
Hmmm. Maybe the reason I'm compulsively protective of friends and family is that underneath I'm completely evil? :-)
Returning to the topic of Christmas shopping, I got many interesting comments whilst carrying the walking stick home. It's basically a big twisty tree branch, albeit with a shiny finish, and it was particularly eye-catching given that I'd had them gift-wrap it at the store (I didn't trust my own ability to wrap something that weirdly shaped), so it was all done up on gold paper with a big gold bow on it. A cashier in the food court started to give me the usual holiday greeting, then stopped, staring at the walking stick, and said "I was going to say Merry Christmas, but now I'm scared. You gonna make light come out of that thing?" And later a homeless guy who was holding the subway door open said "I give up, don't beat me!" I should carry strange golden staffs around more often.
And I found something very nice for ladyjane but of course I'm not going to say what that is here... :-)
Who, me overprotective? Hey, just because I ended up anxiously nagging elixxir to look up symptoms of alcohol poisoning on the net when one of her party guests (who shall remain nameless) who had overindulged considerably in Amaretto passed out in the bathtub... :-)
Side note: when I was first getting to know said nameless individual, and he discovered that the two forms of alcohol I most disliked were beer and Amaretto, he used to tease me by rhapsodizing about the pleasures of some vile concoction one could make by mixing them together until I was nearly physically ill from the description. And I must confess that in between bouts of worrying about whether he'd done himself in with the stuff at the party, the distinctly uncharitable thought crossed my mind that "Hey, I bet he won't be going on about that any more..."
Hmmm. Maybe the reason I'm compulsively protective of friends and family is that underneath I'm completely evil? :-)
Returning to the topic of Christmas shopping, I got many interesting comments whilst carrying the walking stick home. It's basically a big twisty tree branch, albeit with a shiny finish, and it was particularly eye-catching given that I'd had them gift-wrap it at the store (I didn't trust my own ability to wrap something that weirdly shaped), so it was all done up on gold paper with a big gold bow on it. A cashier in the food court started to give me the usual holiday greeting, then stopped, staring at the walking stick, and said "I was going to say Merry Christmas, but now I'm scared. You gonna make light come out of that thing?" And later a homeless guy who was holding the subway door open said "I give up, don't beat me!" I should carry strange golden staffs around more often.
And I found something very nice for ladyjane but of course I'm not going to say what that is here... :-)