RDTRN Archive - RDT Right Now #1767

RDT Right Now #1767

From: admin@torithoughts.org
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 21:07:49 -0800
Subject: RDT Right Now #1767
To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org

Do not hit reply to unsubscribe. To unsub, send a message to: <rdtrn-request@torithoughts.org> with "unsubscribe" in the subject and body. o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o Really Deep Thoughts Right Now Volume 02 : Issue #1767 . o - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - o . o o . o o O "Thoughts right now... O o What will become of me, o o Become of her, become of we?" o . o o . O O O - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - O o . o o o Tori Amos, "Thoughts" In this issue: o-o-o-o-o-o-o Happy holidays [ "Matt Smith" <mattsmith76@ukonline. ] Re: Tori not meeting fans after show [ NuttyBakerGirl <rokzane@dimensional ] Unconditional love *sigh* [ "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> ] *hums Precious Things piano riff* [ Cyndi S Crawford <cyndi.crawford@ju ] Toys for Tots donations [ Cyndi S Crawford <cyndi.crawford@ju ] Long live the Queen [ Brian Cooper <byteme@smartchat.net. ] ERR! [ "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> ] Picture(s) of you and Tori [ "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> ] As for me (about the pictures) [ "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> ] Paradise [ "J. Mathers" <jmathers@westol.com> ] holidays [ Violet <fluffy@annihilist.com> ] [ =======================> In RDT History <======================= ] day off To read more about these items, visit the list archives. [ ================================================================== ] Today's fuzzy ferret assistant: Missed a digest? Pick up a copy at the RDTRN archives: http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn/archives -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 09:36:08 -0000 From: "Matt Smith" <mattsmith76@ukonline.co.uk> To: "RDT Right Now" <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Subject: Happy holidays To all at rdtrn Have a great time, whatever you may be celebrating over the next couple of weeks! I'm off to my parents' tomorrow for the traditional family Christmas. Be well everybody Matt -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 10:57:01 -0700 From: NuttyBakerGirl <rokzane@dimensional.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: Re: Tori not meeting fans after shows mike cowen wrote: "I recently saw Tori in Denver (Dec 5). While the show was great, I was totally bummed when Tori didn't come out after the show. I really wanted my friend to see Tori. When we got to the area by the tour buses, I instantly knew something wasn't right because there was no security fencing to be seen. For anybody who's had the opportunity to see Tori after a show, there's always *some* kind of barrier. After a few minutes security made everyone move back about 20 feet. Then move further back to the sidewalk. Then move even further back to the street. Then they ran everyone off when they announced Tori would not be coming out. WTF?! Apparently this was planned in some way. Is this a new thing for Tori not to meet her fans? Has anyone heard about this at other shows? I'm going to see her again on Dec. 16 in AZ, and hope she does come out after the show." If you had been paying attention, you would have already known about this. Tori isn't meeting fans after shows during the winter. She will only be meeting fans during afternoon meet and greets, between 2 and 5pm. The Denver meet and greet went on around 5pm. Her management released a press statement about this before the tour started. Roxanne -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 13:27:04 -0600 From: "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: Unconditional love *sigh* 12/22/02 1:20 pm Last night I went over to my friend, Derek's house. He also invited Dan to come over. Dan and Derek are these 2 guys that I've known since I was 2 years old and they were 1 year old. We're basically brothers and sister. Anyways, I love them, but sometimes they frustrate the hell out of me when they use words and say things that I hate. A lot of times Dan says something is "gay" meaning, stupid or weak. Or when we were watching the "Beautiful" music video Dan was like, "Ew! There's guys making out there." And I said, "Yeah, there is." and he didn't say anything else. He's not homophobic but he's just uneducated about homosexuality and how there's nothing wrong with being gay or lesbian or bisexual or transexual. As for Derek, well he listens to Eminem music...enough said. I love them both, Dan and Derek, but I just wish Dan understand that being gay isn't gross and that Derek would understand that what Eminem says in many of his songs are some of the most terribly homophobic, hateful lyrics ever and that Eminem is just awful. The thing is, when we don't talk about that subject we have a blast together. Julie H. E-mail & MSN IM: JulieH214@hotmail.com AOL IM: JulieH0214 Yahoo! IM: Juls21487 _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 limited-time offer: Join now and get 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_newmsn8ishere_3 mf -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 15:57:24 -0500 From: Cyndi S Crawford <cyndi.crawford@juno.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: *hums Precious Things piano riff* okay.. I dare you to try and hum the opening piano stuff to Precious Things. rofl.. I need to reply to these more often. I AM NOT A LURKER!!! lol.. anyway, guess what!!!! c'mon.. GUESS!! .... you're not guessing! :P fine, fine.. I found the "WEEEEE" song again! :D so.. ON WITH THE REPLIES! WEEEEEEEEEE!!! Brian said to me in reference to the "nudie bits" in Titanic: "It was tastefully done. I can't remember what it was rated here, but I'd suggest seeing it. I can think of worse ways to waste 3 hours of your life." name five. :D lol I've seen bits and pieces of it anyhow. lol.. Brian on that thing from Rolling Stone: "I was hoping posting that would have generated some more discussion. You and Matt were the only ones that even acknowledged that letter and for that I'm thankful at least. A couple of years ago, people would have been all over that." well, I dunno. I think nobody's jumping all over it because it's so sad and true.. that's MY guess anyway. Brian then said: "The world seems to be holding its collective breath for a new Nirvana, which I can't see happening in the current climate." and don't even bother holding your breath for a new Green Day or Tori or Michael Jackson or Marilyn Manson or.. well, you get the idea. ACTUALLY, I'd kinda like to see a "new" wannabe Manson.. see how well they succeed. lol.. and speaking of Manson.. he couldn't-a said it better. "Rock is deader than dead." it's a dying breed these days.. GOOD MUSIC seems to be that, anyhow.. that's something I'd love to cure.. that's why I'm doing video production and hoping to get into the music video business--I'm out to save MTV before it's too late.. even if it IS too late. Simon said: "...And my sister and her husband arrived safe and sound from the UK Friday night to visit for the holidays. Still got the American accents but lots of British slang and terminology does slip into the conversation ;)< I love British slang/terminology!! :D Winterlion said: "Happy Yule everyone! oh and happy every-holiday-of-this-time-of-year. May you celebrate as many as you can get away with!" Chrisannukwanzyule! let's celebrate that! :D Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah! :) Julie asked: "The thoughts that are posted on this mailing list aren't posted on thedent.com, right? I hope not..." I really don't think they are.. nope. John said: "They did well by George Harrison, too. But they obviously have no interest in or respect for living musicians, only dead ones." yeah. Aaliyah, George, Kurt, Lefteye, Jam Master Jay.. when Tori dies, everybody is going to make her a legend. What's so wrong about that is that everybody should be doing that to her (and to everybody else that they've deemed as a "legend") BEFORE SHE DIES. BUT instead, she's not gonna get the recognition she deserves until that day. blah. it happens every time. Brian said: "Hell, if you'd said to me a year ago I'd be listening to rap I would have said "fuck you", but now it seems to be the only interesting scene." o_O no, no, no, no, NO. all they rap about anymore is money, cars, and pussy--need I say more? They have less to say than the rock scene, and THAT'S BAD! what's worse is I USED TO LOVE RAP!!! loved your Nativity Scene joke, Violet.. rofl.. Bethey said: "I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in Christmas Joy. But I also believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket." hmmmm... we need to fix you. :D Simon said in reply to my "I hate conflicts" etc post: "then be very glad you weren't here in late '98/early '99! One could easily be as unlucky as the unknown crewmember on the Hindenberg who tried sneaking a cigarette break...." ouch.. *is thankful* lol.. yow.. I loathe flamewars. lol.. lol and on that note.. *passes out the flame-retardant suits* :D gonads and strife, gonads and strife, gonads and striiiiife.. WEEEEEE!!!!! lol.. cya! :D Sincerely, Cyndi S. Crawford http://www.platinumcomplication.com/cyndi/ -- http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/368/ciara_blaze.html -- http://learntothink0.tripod.com/learntothinkagain/ -- http://www.geocities.com/keyyooo/ -- http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/store.aspx?storeid=kittitude Tori Amos' response when asked to describe herself in five words: "I. Do. Not. Describe. Myself." ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 23:55:05 -0500 From: Cyndi S Crawford <cyndi.crawford@juno.com> To: ambie19@aol.com, torishima_eve@yahoo.com, cafeatlanta@yahoogroups.com, candi4545@mcloudteleco.com, nothing@cobalty.com, torandnan@juno.com, mirandaanddaniel@cox-internet.com, sonicdissention@hotmail.com, deannamcarthur@hotmail.com, gronok@yahoo.com, acrowd49@aol.com, jcoffman@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us, kwcraw2934@hotmail.com, kimplicity@hotmail.com, lekia_thurman@yahoo.com, mleonard55@cox.net, swts4evr@hotmail.com, raspberryswirl54@cs.com, chelleball32@hotmail.com, mindyboo20@aol.com, mjcentral@hotmail.com, mjfansreunion@yahoogroups.com, mo_ttt@yahoo.com, Spyderchan2@cs.com, rdtrn@torithoughts.org, redhotcherrie@hotmail.com, lyricallacquer@hotmail.com, royha@deepfrost.com, GLPdoug@MSN.com Subject: Toys for Tots donations http://www.excedrin.com/ <--- I just did this myself so it's for real.. go to the url and click on the Toys For Tots logo.. trust me.. it's for real and it's for a good cause. :) -- Cyndi ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 21:56:16 +1100 From: Brian Cooper <byteme@smartchat.net.au> To: Really Deep Thrusts Right Now <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Subject: Long live the Queen In RDTRN #1765, Heidi wrote: >Subject: potential virus alert. > >i fear that an attachment i received with a spam e-mail, but did not open, >may nonetheless have inserted itself into my address book and sent e-mails >to those listed therein. So does this mean you've got a pocket full of horses, trojan and some of them used? Ahem. If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express as a mail client, turn off the preview pane. If it's open and you receive a virus, worm or trojan it will be automatically executed when the mail is previewed. It's my biggest pet hate about Outlook. Turn it off and you won't inadvertently execute it. Did you receive one of those messages from viralcontrol@torithoughts.org saying you have the Klez.H virus? I've been getting a few of those recently, but that's because this particular nasty has been spoofing my e-mail address, which it is wont to do. I double check regardless, but I know it's not me. Over the last week or too I've been receiving them from an AOL user who I think may be on this list and I'm still getting repeated infections after telling them where to find the tools to clean it up. In case there's anyone out there that doesn't know where to find these tools, go to these sites from the advisory e-mail: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/klez.shtml http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99455 Of course, this is only for the Klez worm. Now that we've got the boring, nerdy stuff out of the way... From John on the long live rock thread... >Rolling Stone did exactly what they've been doing for decades now, I don't >expect anything else. Ah! It only confirms what I've been told before by other old-timers that RS was RS even before I started/stopped reading it. >*** I Had This Terrible Dream That Stryper Was Singing We Will Rock You >digest *** AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! You know, I was actually thinking about them when I wrote my last post. It sort of ties in with a direction that I wasn't going to go in, but I will anyway. At least Stryper had the decency to label themselves as a Christian rock band. I wish Creed would finally come out of confessional and admit the same, then they can be banished from real rock radio stations. From Violet in #1766... >Subject: News from the Capitol... An oldie but a goody. Translates well in any country. Estraven in reply to my "definition" of prog rock: > If you're referring to the likes of Depeche Mode and the Cure, I >wouldn't call that stuff rock at all...let's not go there! Good grief, Charlie Brown! I wouldn't classify them as anything other than pop, or pop rock if you like. > Progressive rock, in the US, was a label applied to bands like >Emerson, Lake and Palmer, pre-Downes-and-Horn Yes, Pink Floyd, the Alan >Parsons Project, Boston, and so forth Which is pretty much what I think prog rock means. I've always thought of it as bands you wouldn't call pop but heavily employ the use of keyboards and synths. By your above list, I guess I'm right, but I've never actually read a definition of "progressive rock". It wasn't a term I'd heard until a couple of years ago. >I've never heard of anything from the 80s being called that. Mmmm... yeah. I think I'll take back what I said. I'm scratching my head trying to think of ANY prog rock 80's bands at the moment. Change what I said about the 80's and prog rock to pop and pop-rock. > Not to mention the White Stripes and Ryan Adams, with which I've > been force-fed at work. Bleaghh. I'd rather eat veggie pizza. > And what's so great about Wilco and the Old 97s? The re-emergence of Wilco underlined what I was saying about the world not needing the dinosaurs of music past. It's just a rehash of the same old thing over and over. That goes especially for bands that like to sample 70's and 80's songs and use them as a base for a "new" song. How about doing something original? On a tangent, I'm led to believe there's a website out there that'll refund the ticket price of anyone who shouts out a request for Ryan Adams to play a Bryan Adams song, as Ryan will have you thrown out if you try it. Why doesn't he just get a sense of humour and play Summer Of '69 already? I could have added more bands with "The" in their names to my list, along with the ones you mention, plus the ones that can't spell, like Staind and Puddle Of Mudd. While there are some good songs going around by these current rock bands, they tend to merge into each other sonically, so I don't know if I'm listening to Default, Staind, Hooberstank or what. Is it only me, or do Puddle Of Mudd sound like Nirvana wannabes? How about Avril Levigne? Does she sound like Alanis on Prozac or what? Her songs aren't as emotionally complicated lyrically and she has a similar voice. I'd like to hurl whenever Avril gets referred to as punk. She's too cute for a start and her songs aren't exactly inciting anarchy. Is it the way she dresses? If dressing like an average teenage girl or boy is punk, then it's well past time we took DNA samples of Sid Vicious' corpse and cloned him. Get pissed, destroy. Brian -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 09:49:26 -0600 From: "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: ERR! 12/23/02 9:40 am I read The Dent News about the San Francisco show that Tori did where she was playing "Gold Dust" and it was a very emotional time, she was almost crying and connecting with the audience when all of a sudden a cruel idiot screamed, "Play 'Silent All These Years'!" I think that is one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard...how could someone interupts a moment like they had. Tori said, "Fuck you!" immediately to this person. Someone said after the show this person was bragging saying, "Tori Amos said 'fuck you' to me...awesome." That's just sick! I hope that didn't ruin the night for Tori or the fans but it probably did. That's just one of the awful stories I've heard... My brother went to a Tori concert a few years ago and when Tori sung the first lines of "Me And A Gun", "5 am, Friday morning, Thursday night" -- a person's cell phone rung. My brother said he almost puked...I probably would've...that's just disgustingly cruel. At the show I went to with my brother and his boyfriend, a drunk person was doing something in the audience during "Hey Jupiter" (Dakota remix) and Tori stopped in the mid-beginning of the song and said, "What are you doing? Just calm down! You're so much better than this. This is non-sense." The person started arguing with Tori about wanting to take pictures or something. Then Tori said, "My friend died this year and I can't find him in "Jupiter" or any other song and he took beautiful pictures so if you wanna take a picture, take a picture." The person started arguing again and Tori said, "This is a lovefest, let me finish this song!" It's sick that these people can go to a concert and not respect the person they came to see! _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=74 74&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_addphotos_3mf -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:56:03 -0600 From: "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: Picture(s) of you and Tori 12/23/02 4:55 pm If you have met Tori before and you have a picture or pictures of you and her please post it on here if this mailing list accepts pictures or e-mail it to me please. I would be very interested in seeing it. Julie H. E-mail & MSN IM: JulieH214@hotmail.com MTV Member: JulieH214 AOL IM: JulieH0214 Yahoo! IM: Juls21487 _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=74 74&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_addphotos_3mf -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 17:00:27 -0600 From: "Julie H." <julieh214@hotmail.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: As for me (about the pictures) 12/23/02 4:59 pm I did meet Tori and it was an amazing experience that I treasure in my heart but unfortunately I did not get a picture with myself and her or my brother or his boyfriend with her, but we did get pictures of just her which is great. Julie H. E-mail & MSN IM: JulieH214@hotmail.com MTV Member: JulieH214 AOL IM: JulieH0214 Yahoo! IM: Juls21487 _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU = http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_smartspamprotec tion_3mf -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 20:05:45 -0500 From: "J. Mathers" <jmathers@westol.com> To: <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Subject: Paradise Paradise dominates our lives. We spend everyday dreaming about someplace better than our pleasant existence. Christmas is here and visions of paradise are upon us. The Christmas season is an exercise in paradise. We spend vast time and resources to create one day of paradise. Each thing we purchase will alter all reality and paradise will be here. But, what is paradise. Hollywood has made efforts to portray a paradise for us. 95% of the time they portray a Hell but every so often they try to portray paradise. Pleasantville was a strange movie if there ever was one. Things and people are black and white and as they undergo a revelation on the meaning of life, turn color. In essence, the movie portrayed the transformation from a 50's paradise to a 90's paradise. As each segment of 50's culture was perverted or enhanced depending on your viewpoint, the object or person turned color. At the end of the movie the entire culture was either perverted or enhanced and every thing was in color. Plan nine for outer space died, kids went at it on the first date, and the poor husband did not get his supper returning from work. Worst still he may be replaced in the family with someone who is better in bed. Before the conversion, there was no sin, everyone was happy, but a massive amount of pleasure was withheld. Newsweek has a lead story on virginity where the conclusion is that if we never experience the pleasure of going at it we will not miss it. This sure sounds like the original Pleasantville. Is paradise somewhere where pleasure is withheld for fear we cannot walk away from it and the are unable to live with the consequences? In paradise is there an all-powerful knowledge that guarantees happiness? Is a controlled society paradise? In the movie Slaughterhouse Five a main character undergoes a detachment in time. His life is paradise and he can move to any point in time in his life and relive it. He exists on a moon of Jupiter and spends his time reliving parallel parts of his life. There was a very sad true story told on A&E last week. A mother locked her little girl in a bedroom for the girl's whole life. She killed the child and buried it in the back yard. For 30 years the mother was never caught. Two days before the mother died, the police found her and she confessed. This little girl never had a life except misery. Detachment in time would be meaningless for her. There are so many people that life never offered happiness. Is detachment in time paradise? In the movie Artificial Intelligence, the robot boy David outlives all mankind. He has everlasting life but has outlived everything and everyone he knows and loves. In one of the sadness moments ever portrayed in the movies David goes into dreams facing an eternity without any of the community that he spent his existence trying to create. Is everlasting life without pain or aging paradise? In literature Carl Sagan calls the garden of paradise a time of man's prehistoric past before he evolved to a point where he could conceive the future. If you cannot conceive the future, you cannot have anxiety. Our prehistoric ancestors lived day by day on instincts and in a sense lived in a paradise. Modern war veterans went through a process where they shut down there processing of the future. The only way they could survive battle was to revert to the existence of our prehistoric ancestors where the future did not exist. To many of these veterans, their war experiences were paradise. Life after battle has been a bore. Are animal living in paradise and us humans with our advanced mental processes doomed to a world of anxiety? Is a world without anxiety paradise? The fundamental question is what is paradise. What is vastly better than what we have now? What can we look forward to after life or what can a perfect society create for us here on earth? The whole issue of paradise divides our whole human race. The Communists want to create a paradise on earth. The Muslims will die for an ultimate existential paradise and going to paradise controls their daily lives. Christians believe in an existential heaven with God where the bible provided the rules to get there. Most Americans consider themselves already in a paradise and until they are near death really could care less about an existential paradise. Every society is driven by some sort of paradise. When Christmas day is over, there is that moment of reality when we realize that we did not create paradise. Are we a failure? Were we doomed chasing an illusion that does not exist? Or were we successful but our expectations were beyond the reality? Is life what you make it? Are we in paradise and do not realize it? Have collective worst case scenarios through the media destroyed paradise? A time traveler from even 50 years ago would consider our present age paradise. Christmas is whet you made. It is all in the mind. The ultimate question is whether there is that existential paradise. Is it really an illusion or is there a heaven where paradises exist beyond our wildness comprehension? Only when we get off this train we call life, will we find out. Such are the rules of life. There are so many questions without answers. Have a merry Christmas. Have to end. Jim Mathers jmathers@westol.com -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o [top] Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 19:49:27 -0800 From: Violet <fluffy@annihilist.com> To: rdtrn@torithoughts.org Subject: holidays There are so many people from so many different backgrounds and countries here on RDT, and everyone has their own traditions. I love hearing how different people celebrate the holidays. What do you guys do? My friend Constance (an athiest who was raised Catholic) spends all holidays feeding and cleaning up for the rabbits at a local rabbit shelter because no other volunteers are available on Thanksgiving and Christmas and she doesn't want the bunnies to go unloved those days. Another friend, Erin, will be spending Christmas Eve with her boyfriend's family, but she's looking forward to staying home in her jammies on Christmas Day. She likes to sit in front of the fire and look at the lights on her Christmas tree and just relax. Sounds kind of nice, but I don't think I could do it, even though that's my idea of heaven most other holidays. Christmas is a day that I really look forward to being with family. I usually head over to my mom's a day or two before Christmas. We do last minute wrapping and try to get in a few drives to look at Christmas lights. (That's one of my BIG passions at the holidays.) On Christmas Eve, my mom, brother, and I go over to Kim's parents' in Danville (an hour drive) for a crab feast dinner. Kim's mom has done it every year since Kim was a kid. It's always a wonderful evening, with lots of wine and cheese and crackers and candles and a roaring fire. We open the presents we've gotten for each other -- the ones Kim's family has gotten for us and the ones we've gotten for them. We head back to the coast in time to go to the 11pm Christmas Eve service at church. Just my mom and I. My brother doesn't go. It's always a beautiful service and my mom and I usually end up crying and hugging each other. Nancy (the pastor) usually asks my mom to do a scripture reading during the service, and this Christmas Eve is no different. My mom always gets frantic about being back over there in time, and the she runs in and throws on the first robe she finds, often one that doesn't belong to her and is way too long, and the she promptly trips on it and falls. I'll have to keep a particularly close eye on her this time because she's already unsteady enough on her feet even after five months of recovery from her double-knee replacement surgery. As most of you know, I've been going over to stay with her most of the week during this time, and whenever I come back home for a couple of days, I nearly always get some message from her about how she nearly fell down rushing to do something. Eesh. So mom will be tottering up to the podium like, well ... I don't know like what. Oh, <heh>, like a Weeble, I guess. 'Cept she does fall down. Sometimes we go out and look at lights after the service, before heading home. Depends how tired we are. On Christmas, we get up and make coffee first thing. As everyone who knows me can tell you, I pretty much drink coffee 24 hours a day. Whenever I'm out with friends and order coffee, they go, "She's mainlining again." Yep, just hook me up and I'm fine. Peet's, please. My mom always buys stollen for Christmas morning -- a family tradition of sorts -- and as we slice it we make lame jokes about "Who's stolen the stollen?" That's one of my dad's traditions that we carry on in memory of him. There are always a lot of memories of my dad on Christmas, because he always made sure Christmas was extra special. We never had an unhappy Christmas. A lot of other days were hard, but Christmas was always happy. We listen to the Chipmunks Christmas album. This is my tradition with my brother. It started when we were kids... My parents bought the album for me when I was three and I listened to it virtually non-stop every year. When I got older, into my teens, and my brother was still little and was excited to run out and see what Santa brought, I would stall him with the Chipmunks album. I knew that my parents had been up until 4:00 or 4:30 the night before, because they were always up that late on Christmas Eve, and my brother would wake up at 6:00, bouncing off the walls. I used to be that way when I was younger, but at some point I became "grown up" enough to imagine what it must be like for my parents to only get two hours of sleep. I also knew how hard my dad was to wake up when he hadn't had much sleep. So Alvin, Simon, and Theodore helped me stalled my brother pretty well. Sometimes I could get him to listen to it three times through before I couldn't hold him back any longer. So now we wake up and listen to as a way to prolong the excitement still. We have our coffee and chat and yawn and try to wake up. Then at some point, one of us will say, "Well, I guess we're not going to have Christmas this year." This is code for, "Are we ever going to open presents or what?" My brother and I pass the presents out. We always get a ton of stuff for each other. Way too much stuff. But we love it. We open gifts one by one, one of us at a time. We count them up and decide who will go first. The reason we count them isn't to keep "score." It's so we can all get down to the same number of gifts so that we can all finish at the same time in the end. So whoever has the most has to open a few until we're all down to the same number. When we all have the same amount, then we start opening in turns, one at a time. We do this because when we were kids, after we passed out presents we used to all jump in and open our own presents all at once and we were always missing seeing the other people open the gifts we'd gotten for them. So we devised the one-at-a-time method so that everyone could focus on each person opening all of their gifts and we'd each get the gratification of seeing how they liked it (if it was a gift we gave) or seeing what all they got (if it was a gift from someone else). It's always fun to see what everyone gets. Then we each get to be surprised ... even if a gift isn't for us, it's still fun. Doing it this way, it can take us hours to open everything. We really do like to draw it out. In fact, we used to have a family tradition specifically taylored to draw it out.... My father used to tell us how when he was a kid he'd look forward to Christmas all year long. He'd get so excited in the weeks before Christmas that he could hardly sleep (as we did, too), and then he said it always made him so sad that when Christmas Day actually got here, it was over so quickly. So when we were were children, we celebrated the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was something his own father's family had celebrated back in Switzerland, but that he couldn't afford to do here in America during the Depression years with four kids of his own. But my dad remembered his father talking about it and decided to take up the tradition for us. For twelve days after Christmas, my brother and I each got one gift every day. The gifts were numbered, and the one with a "12" on it was always the last and was the biggest, most special thing. For me, it was often a nice new coat, which was something I loved to get as a little girl because back then fake fur coats were the thing and each time I got a new one I always felt like I was in Doctor Zhivago or something. It was very "princess-y" luxurious for me. My brother usually got a really great toy that he wanted a lot. For the other days leading up to the 12th, the gifts were smaller, but always fun. One day I might get bubble bath, then the next day some perfume, then a puzzle, then a new Barbie outfit, then a board game I really wanted, then a jewelry box that played a favorite song, etc, etc. It was always a surprise. And our friends were always jealous that we got to open presents for so long after Christmas. We didn't actually get *more* gifts, though. It's just that the gifts were divided up to last that long. One year, when we were older, my parents asked us if we wanted to continue the Twelve Days or if we'd rather open all our gifts on Christmas. We decided we'd rather do them all on Christmas. We were both old enough to handle the idea of Christmas being over in just one day; we had matured enough to understand that the enjoyment of Christmas begins at Thanksgiving and lasts until after New Year's, so it no longer felt like "just one day" the way it often feels to young kids who find it hard to appreciate the excitement of the entire season in general. But when we were kids, it was so wonderful. We were very lucky to have a father who cared so much about not wanting us to feel disappointed. Even the years when things were tight, and there were a lot of those, it always felt like we had a lot. So we still take a lot of time opening our gifts and we like to drag it out. At some point we finally finish and then we start getting ready for dinner. Some years we go to have dinner with Kim's family, if we didn't see them on Christmas Eve. If we already saw them the night before, then we have dinner on the coast. We usually go to the Moss Beach Distillery. http://www.mossbeachdistillery.com/ This is just a few minutes up the coast from my mom. Whenever I'm over visiting my mom, this is where I often go to watch sunsets or to look at the full moon setting over the ocean. It's always nice there, but we have a particularly good time at Christmas being that that's the day we actually go *inside* instead of just sitting on the edge of the cliffs looking out at the ocean. In the wind. And the cold. So inside is a whole other treat. ;) Last year there was a really obnoxious drunk woman at the next table. Her poor family was acting like she wasn't there, and management finally came over and told her to control herself. I hope there's entertainment again this year. So I'm frantically packing up to go over to HMB now. The last few days have been completely frantic. I went over to Beth's to exchange gifts this afternoon, and she eventually had to kick me out because once I sat down, I couldn't get up. Urgh. But I'm finally just about packed and heading off. I think this is the most I've written here in ... how long? (I did not write it all in one sitting.) Merry merry, everybody! Violet xoxox o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o o-o-o *** "The Klez That Wouldn't Die" digest *** To POST messages to this list: <rdtrn@torithoughts.org> Can't figure out how to SUB, UNSUB, or CHANGE ADDRESSES? Send a message to <rdtrn-request@torithoughts.org> with "help" as the subject. Digest PROBLEMS or QUESTIONS? Contact: <admin@torithoughts.org> Want your BIRTHDAY announced on RDTRN in 2002? Visit the registration form located at http://www.torithoughts.org/RDTRN/birthday.html RDTRN SITE AND ARCHIVES: http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn RDTRN'S SUBLIMINAL THOUGHTS (you can't see this): http://www.torithoughts.org/rdtrn/subliminal/ For information on joining the TORITOUR list: Send a blank message to <tour@torithoughts.org> and you'll receive an instruction file. Any self-respecting Toriphile is on The Registry. (That means you!) http://thedent.developium.com/ _ . /\ , _ _ ( _ )_ {Oo\{o\ .=. 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