(no subject)

[stormdog]

I spent Christmas Day with my partner, family, and family friends in Kenosha. I've been feeling a bit isolated in general, and that's made the fact that we (Danae and I) don't really do anything for Christmas feel more like a disconnection from something familiar. (She doesn't celebrate Christmas because she is Jewish, and me because who would I do something with or for?)

There was lots of tasty food, socializing, and board games. I wore one of my new tops with bell sleeves. In the evening, Danae and I watched the second two Die Hard movies with my dad before driving home. It was a good day and I am grateful to have such good people in my life.

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Last week, I turned up a Sony 300-disc carousel CD changer at one of the slightly grungier thrift stores in northern Chicago. Testing with a random CD, I found that the disc was bumping into something as it spun on the carousel, but it was too dark to see what. The door wasn't clear enough to let light from my phone through while operating. Thinking about it, I got a bright white screen up on my phone, then set it on the carousel with a loaded disc and started it up. By the phonelight, I could see the disc I'd loaded was bumping into another disc stuck where it shouldn't be. I thought I could see a few more in various places too.

I ended up pulling about 15 discs out of the changer. I think someone probably tried to move it when it was loaded and stuff fell all over. With all the discs out, it seemed to work just fine, so I bought it as a replacement for my 100-disc changer. The bigger one even has a keyboard port to plug in a standard PS/2 keyboard and enter disc titles. As I carried it to the front of the store, though, it was making a noise like stuff was still stuck in it, sliding around. I thought I'd taken everything out so I was worried that something had broken. But I figured I'd check it over again at home.

I drove to where I was going to pick Danae up and tried to text her, but I couldn't find my phone. You probably see where this is going. After getting really anxious about having possibly lost my phone out of my coat pocket while I was lying down on the thrift store floor in front of the CD changer, I remembered how I'd managed to see inside of it. I went to the back of the car and opened the machine's door and there was my phone.

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We thought we were out of the woods with the bed bugs after the last treatment, but a few days ago Danae found more bites. The news was difficult to take, but we will deal with it and have people out for another round. I really hate these things.

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's possible to be Jewish and claim Christmas as Chanukah is around to confirm that it isn't a cop out.

One friend on here has a Christmas tree covered with Jewish symbols and that I like! :o)

[stormdog]

It's definitely possible, but it doesn't work for Danae. When we talked about it a few years ago, I expressed that I'd always thought of Christmas as a pretty secular holiday. She feels that's easy to say for someone whose family is more-or-less Christian. Christmas makes her uncomfortable and I respect that.

[cmcmck]

As a Gentile with Jewish relatives who were victims of the Sho'ah can you imagine how hard that makes this time of year, especially as someone who practices? I'm a Quaker.

So I really do understand about Christmas being uncomfortable.