Well, if we haven't been suffering the trials of a low-hanging Alberta Clipper, I wish we were - just because I like saying the words: Alberta Clipper. The phrase has been repeating itself over and over in my brain - ever since Matt brought it up during our smoke break out by the campus dumpsters. Also, a real Alberta Clipper would give me an excuse to be less mobile. I've added these to my holiday wish list (note: MUST be hand sewn!). I am both exhausted and liberated by shivering. I am powerful because I am tightly monitoring the thermostat (it does NOT go up over 70). I wish we had put plastic on these windows. My boy's not here tonight to build a fire. He's at his girlfriend's farm house gathering fresh hickies.

This is just me taking a well-deserved minute. I probably shouldn't. But, the tree is up. We even strung tacky blue lights over the fireplace mantel. I even scrubbed some spots up off the carpet (which showed themselves once we moved the couch over). The old lights that Grandad gave us threw a breaker and almost started a fire at the outlet. Sadly, I made Ash toss them. I hung my twiggy, pagan star over the television and stuck the head of Santa into the middle of it. I hung a Reindeer Crossing sign over the toilet. I warmed up leftover dirty rice for supper.

My plans for the weekend are to finish my writing project, edit my nonfiction, get rollin' on my blog research, start pouring through CRT submissions, re-edit my syllabus, actually read the Norton Field Guide for Writing, re-read The Old Man and The Sea for higher purposes, get caught up on laundry, etc. etc. I'll get started tomorrow; I'm dead tired. I took my carbamazepine too early. My lips are kinda' numb. That always happens. The midnight coffee isn't helping much. It's just reminding me of how much I miss my Maxwell House.

Received a food stamp card today in the mail ('Aint life grand? she asked, smilin' and doin' the Chaplan eyebrow dance, wishin' she had a fat cigar in her mouth instead of a Pall Mall). I think, for X-mas, I'll be buying all of the family hams. The kids will be getting two-liters of Pepsi and lotso' chocolate. I'm not totally kidding.

It's getting late. The elegantly obscure Extenze commercials have started rolling, but I'm determined to finish watching Gremlins. Is it just me, or is Stripe kinda' sexy?

I realize, now, why I haven't been writing.