seasonal misgivings

Holiday update, or the blog equivalent of the family christmas letter:

I cheated and made reservations at the McMenamin's Oregon Hotel in McMinnville for Thanksgiving. See previous posts to understand that this may qualify for the eighth deadly sin. The food was traditionally soft and alternately sweet and savory and thus addictive. We invited Kurt's mother and Nicole came along. It was kind of fun, but I think I'll go back to cooking next year. The reason for the cheat was that nobody was going to be available, or able to show up, so it would just be the two of us and I couldn't see going to all the headache. Besides, who eats all the leftovers? Me. Layers of fat and salt topped with pumpkin pie and whipping cream. Roll me

Tomorrow we will attend the annual tree-lighting ceremony in Yamhill where the mayor will read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, or A Visit From St. Nick. The mayor. I can't wait.

I have been decorating the place I work for a week. I can't stop. Now I'm trying to decorate the house, and I can't figure it out. Open-concept living is interesting. There are fewer walls, thus fewer opportunities for hanging shit up. I manage. I shopped many many stores today and came home empty-handed. Either I've lost my touch, or I have all I need. I'm thinking the latter.

Wow. Just got word that Ted Nugent wants all gun owners to get out their guns and cleanse the world of liberal democrats. We are truly in a standoff in this country. I keep thinking, naw. There can't really be that many people who would kill us all for what they believe. Shit. I believe a good deal of what they believe from a garden-variety Christian perspective, but it comes out so different when I believe it.

Two mass shootings last week, and the talking heads are madly trying to identify one of them them as "terrorist" and thus somehow worse. I remember when mass shootings stunned me. I remember standing in the lobby of a crappy hotel when Columbine happened. I was in disbelief. Now I hear the news and I think, "shit." And cook dinner.

And Donald Trump is still actually running for president. That can't happen, right? Not in the real world, right? Maybe Ted Nugent could be his running mate.

I'm not suicidal, but I don't want to live in a world like that.