On The Ninth Day

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

Today

On

Day Nine

Anita Marie Wonders

Is It M-all It’s All Cracked Up To Be?

On my very long commute home from work we drove by a Mall surrounded by ice and snow.

It’s a very pretty Mall with an outdoor carousel just across the street in the Park.

It’s awesome, especially at night. 

Seattle Traveler
Photo:Seattle Traveler

But it was day and the snow- which is frozen on the sidewalk and in some places looks like a mini-mountain range- made me wonder:

Would I send my family into uncharted waters, dangerous situations for the gift at the top of my wish list- which in my case is

The Fiji Mermaid:

Hope you get what you really want this Christmas!

“Fifi”

is

:::gift from Cle:::

No.

I wouldn’t-

and my rapaciousness for my very own Monkey/Fish is boundless.

So as I watched Holiday Shoppers- some of them nearly hitting the icy deck with child and gifts in hand I thought:

I’d be oh so very happy to receive some Divinity Cookies or

a Homemade Pumpkin Pie

:::like what Jade Makes:::

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie Prepared from Scratch, Autumn 2007, © Copyright 2007 Jade Leone Blackwater

Or a Collection of Thoughts and Ideas shared

the way Lori- 

a friend from

The Soul Food Cafe

Writers Group

 did

 HERE 

And socks I’d be over the moon for a pair of socks knitted by a woman

called

Shewolf

and if I had a friend

( and I do, fa-la-la-)

Who created a Calender that was designed to showcase the works of her friends?

I mean, who could NOT be very happy with something like that.

And the questions would come to me again-demanding an answer- would I send my friends and family into unsafe places to get me a Fiji Mermaid? Even though my heart will surely break to find that now-after 31+ years of asking my wonderful Monkey / Fish is again out in the world, somewhere without me?

When I think of that Dad stumbling over the ice and snow to get into the Mall with his three year old in tow- and you know if  Dad had slipped he  probably would have broken  BOTH of his arms to keep his child from hitting the deck-

or how I felt when I saw a woman slide and then catch herself against a bench- her head snapping back and her shopping bag clenched protectively to her chest

I think the answer is

HELL NO.

:::However::::

For one thing- for any one thing in the cases or lining the walls of

Ye Olde Curiousity Shoppe in Seattle?

Seattle Municipal Archives

Photo:Seattle Municipal Archives

Well.

There IS  my

birthday to think about.

a.m.

 

 

Day Eight

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

Today

On

Day Eight

Having Dodged The Bullet

I Go In Search Of

Another

cheesy-christmas

We were supposed to have a windstorm

here in Washington State

and some of us  here did.

We were suppose to be sitting here in the cold and dark

and some of us are.

So every time I hit a light switch, or when I sat down to write

my first reaction was to laugh hysterically

and my second was to be grateful.

I mean Churcy Grateful.

Which doesn’t happen often to me

as the Big Guy Upstairs

and I

have had issues this year with each other.

fiji

However.

As I considered my  Fiji Mermaid-less life, my lack of Christmas Spirit and the mindless, thoughtless ” Holiday Greetings” I’ve received from people who don’t bother to find out if I’ve lived or died over the year I’ve concluded that

 I’m so glad I have been  at home,

keeping to myself

with the lousy weather as an excuse to not be out in the world

  for fear that I’ll run into someone ( while shopping…shudder ) and when they ask

 ” So how’s your Christmas Shopping coming along? “

I know that will call what posses me forth and suddenly

 The Christmas Demon in me will appear,

her will spin her head around a few times just like Linda Blair’s in the Exorcist and when she stops she will shriek, ” what do you care, you’re not getting anything anyway.”

I hope it snows some more.

I don’t think I’m ready to face a world full of Christmas.

Yet.

On Day Seven

/ Anita Marie / 10 Comments

fejee 

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day- 

OR 

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?::: 

Today 

On Day Seven 

We Find Out That It Really Sux To Be Me 

Just after Thanksgiving, I start getting 

The Letters. 

By that I mean 

Those Letters 

that tell you what the sender did over the year. 

And what a great year they had. 

Which is wonderful for them. 

My Mom LOVES to get those in Christmas Cards, she used to read them to us and she would even hang them up with the Christmas Cards and pass the news that she found neat on to her friends. 

My Mom is Filipino and she grew up in Hawaii and that means – among other things- she’s into  ‘talking story’ so yeah, she’s into those letters. 

I’m not sure how I feel about them- I actually look forward to one of the Christmas Letters I get from a friend, who honestly doesn’t like the computer and travels. Every year I get these whopping  long letters ( and presents- ) around Christmas. 

No fooling it’s awesome and don’t think I don’t put a lot of thought into what I’m going to write back. 

HOWEVER 

Call it me getting Grinchlike in my advancing years but if  someone has  had a hellaciously bad year 

( Some people do, so I’ve heard ) 

you may want to use some common sense before sending out your 

“Snow-Are You Newsletter ” 

First off: 

Would you give details about your kid’s lives- where they work, go to school, where they can be found during the day, WHAT KIND OF CAR THEY DRIVE, even a picture of them to a perfect stranger? 

Of course not. 

So why share that happy news with ‘dear friends’ who wouldn’t know your kids unless your kids walked up to them and stuck a sprig of Holly into their left eye? 

In addition 

you may want to consider who gets your ” Happy New(s)Year ” post which always contains a travel intineray. 

Myself I didn’t go on trips that would be the kind of news I could share back ( not that those kinds of letters actually invite conversation ) 

for example, this year I went  to a Funeral ( only one, what can I say, in my book it was a good year ) and I mourned the death of my friend who shot himself in the head just after Thanksgiving over 25 years ago- and the place I go to in my Soul when I reflect on that time in my life isn’t going to be showing up on the Travel Channel anytime soon- let alone in a ” Holly -Are- You Newsletter “. 

And as to the cool things the letter writer did over the year- 

if the receiver  had no idea that your life’s goal was to swim with the Dolphins and what it took for you to get to that point where you actually go to a place so that you could, indeed, swim with the Dolphins-  they’re not going to understand why oh why you’re sharing that bit of glad news six months after the fact. 

Rule of thumb: 

If your co-worker whom you hate -and the person you sit next to on the bus or train or the person in the check out line ( the slow one ) knows  more about what is going on in  your life then your Season’s Greet-ees, you may want to consider putting that news into a letter, encased in a Christmas Card  and sending it off to ” All “. 

Besides. 

Christmas Cards are not intended to be suck -up ( gee I’m sorry I spent the year not thinking about you) gifts. 

– Things like flowers and wine and 

FIJI MERMAIDS 

are suck up gifts. 

In case you missed that. 

During the Holiday Season I run into a lot of friends from my past- they’re in town visiting family, sometimes they give their old friends a call and sometimes all we do is talk outside in the snow, or we might toddle off for a drink or meet up for a little while for a bite to eat. 

And that’s when we talk about what’s been going on in our lives. 

Those times are pretty wonderful and when they happen I feel lighter, do you know what I mean? 

Sending a letter to eveyone in your address book to say how wonderful things are for you is a bit like playing Chicken in Santa’s Sled with a drunken elf at the reins, if you don’t care how the person at the other of of your letter is really feeling and how they could take your letter….. 

you may want to consider nixing the letter and instead add an extra line at the bottom of your card that says something real like: 

Thinking Of You. 

Christmas Story-A Fansite

Photo:Christmas Story-A Fansite

 

:::and now for a Christmas Song That I really do enjoy sharing::: 

 

Once In A Christmas Song

/ Anita Marie / 1 Comment

tso-piano

It was just before Christmas when I heard the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the first time.

 My Mom had told me about a video for a Christmas Song and how it was about a little girl and her kitten who escape into a snowstorm take over an Orchestra in the woods and how even though you saw all these images about how the world was a conflicted place, for that one night the girl, her cat and her Orchestra win.

I wasn’t sure what she meant.

And then my Mom said, ” it reminded me of your stories Marie. “

Thanks Mom.

For Getting It.

Marie

chl1

CHRISTMAS EVE/SARAJEVO 12/24

(Instrumental)

As He flew over the countryside
He was still listening
When from a little church below
He heard a voice begin to sing

Christmas Canon

THIS NIGHT
WE PRAY
OUR LIVES WILL SHOW

THIS DREAM HE HAD
EACH CHILD
STILL KNOWS

WE ARE WAITING
WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN

ON THIS NIGHT
ON THIS NIGHT
ON THIS NIGHT
ON THIS VERY CHRISTMAS NIGHT

OFFICIAL TRANSIBERIAN ORCHESTRA SITE

HERE

Do You Know What Today Is?

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

Today

On Day Six

Anita Marie Asks…

Do you know what today is?

Before I tell you let me tell you about my day.

Today it snowed.

I baked.

I played with my cats and wondered if

I was stranded in my car on the side of the road in this snow storm

would I care about what I wanted for Christmas?

If the power went out like it did last year, and it went back on across the street two days before the power was restored on my side of the street and I had to sit in my dark house and watch the Christmas Lights on my neighbors house go on in the evening and cast little rays of  happy  lights on their  plastic Christmas yard ornaments would getting a Monkey Fish seem like something I would be thinking about?

That I should be thinking about?

You bet I would-and I DID- because I think it’s those wild dreams that give us the strength to deal with the world when things get absolutely unbearable.

I’ve made it my mission in life to see those dreams of mine come true…

and sometimes they do

and when they do it is always so worth the effort it took to keep them alive.

Now here’s the answer to the question.

Today

::It’s Christmas In Heaven That’s What Today Is:::

That’s Right, It’s Snowing

/ animar / 7 Comments

Here in Washington State we just don’t have regular old snow-  HELL NO

We have Thundersnow

Trap us on the Freeway here in Washington?

Oh.

I think not.

In this image from a Department of Transportation traffic camera, a driver who apparently abandoned their vehicle walks down State Route 520 Thursday morning.

In this image from a Department of Transportation traffic camera, a driver who apparently abandoned their vehicle walks down State Route 520 Thursday morning.

What you don’t see here is that a few minutes after this picture was taken cars started to turn around and drive the wrong way down the Shoulder ( behind this pedestrian ) so that they could get off of the freeway.

fyi

you can click the pictures to get to the orginal news stories.

And if you think that here in Snohomish County we just build snowmen or ride sleds down one of our many hills or drive to the Malls and spend all day there eating Salted Pretzels and drinking Coffee with fancy French and Italian names because school was cancelled and we couldn’t get to work so we stayed home

HA HA ON YOU!

We do stuff like this:::

Jayden trying to sit in the snow filled chair as long as he can.

Snow Dare: Jayden trying to sit in the snow filled chair as long as he can.

Now for the best part of Snow Days

The Comics!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Stay Warm Everybody and if you ARE warm remember- to much Sun is bad for your skin.

Ha.

a.m.

Day Five

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

 

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

Today

On Day Five

Anita Marie Concludes That:

Diamonds maybe a Girl’s Best Friend

But a Fiji Mermaid will never fall off the back of your toilet

and  into the toilet bowl and end up costing  you hundres of dollars in Plumbers fees.

 blue-mermaid

 

It snowed today here in Snohomish County

which was pretty wonderful.

My husband picked me up from work, which was even better because I didn’t have to take the bus home- and instead of enjoying the snowfall from the freeway on a bus which was sure to smell like Lattes and wet wool I got to enjoy it from my own kitchen which smelled like Quiche and warmed up eggnog with PLENTY of nutmeg.

It also meant that we watched some TV earlier in the day then unusual and I’m not sure if it’s always like this but there were lots and lots of commercials and wouldn’t you know it- they were all about buying really expensive presents…get this

FOR THE WOMEN IN YOUR LIFE.

And all of the gifts were jewelry related.

Hurray!

That Fiji Mermaid is as good as mine.

First up this guy is waving a diamond ring under his girlfriend’s sleeping nose.

It’ wasn’t a diamond chip on a delicate silver band in the shape of a heart or something- oh no, this thing was big. I’ll bet the band was platinum too.

I pointed it out to my husband and said:

“Hey. Do you think that’s one of those blood diamonds?”

He waited for me to continue- you know after 20 years together he knew there was more.

” Aren’t you glad that I’m not asking for one of those? WOW look at the size of that thing- and what are they sleeping on? Is that a futon? I’ll bet she makes him sleep on the side that slopes down more- you know on the drafty side of the room.”

He took the remote and turned the channel and …

some guy bought a diamond bracelet for his deaf girlfriend and when he signed the line that was designed to bring a tear to the eye I said:

” He’s bought her a diamond bracelet and he’s only just learned to sign ” Merry Christmas? ” How long have those two been together? A week? What a sap. But when you think about it,  if a man has been with a woman for say twenty years or something like that don’t you think she would deserve maybe two bracelets? Perhaps even earrings and a necklace to match?”

” I suppose. “

“So, like, you’d get me jewelry is I asked for it?”

Actually, after spending the last week asking for Pickled Punks and Fiji Mermaids the look on my husband’s face was saying- no I take that back,

It was crying out:

 ” God I wish you would.”

“Good thing I’m not shallow, right? “

He agreed.

My husband was also watching me the same way my dogs watch me when I come up  to  them with their Flea Drops hidden behind my back.

” Yeah. I’m into the Spirit of the season- you know doing heart felt things for other people and all. Like bringing a little joy into their life and recognizing their uniqueness”

By the time I was done pointing out that it was okay to get strange presents for strange people there was another commercial on and in this one an entire family was presenting a Mom with a necklace set with the birthstones of her children.

She was crying.

Her kids were crying.

My husband was almost crying.

” Boy. I mean thats’ exactly what I’d want- my kids hanging from around my neck- what an efficient way to do it- this way they could do it all at once and from a distance. Now that gift took some thought. Don’t you think?”

My husband turned the TV off and now I’m writing and I think he’s talking to my sister.

That’s it guys.

She’s out there waiting for you to bring her home.

Happy Fishing.

a.m.

Day Four

/ animar / 8 Comments

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

And Now For A Seasonal Greeting-

Hey!

Merry Cursemas Everybody!

I figure if I put some effort into giving really unique gifts for Christmas that in turn will inspire my nearest and dearest to cough up the gift I would dearly love to receive on Christmas morning..

museum-mermaid

To recap- I’ve been asking for a Fiji Mermaid for 30+ years and my family have NOT been giving me one for 30+ years.

It’s a weird tradition.

Anyway this year I think I’m making progress  – I think it’s dawning on my husband and sister that I’m serious about my mermaid.

So as to not be coy or vague about what I want for Christmas I’ve designed a full out campaign and this is phase one-

I call this phase:::

 Gifts that keep on giving-

 mostly giving what you want.

For my cats I’ve chosen the following- okay they don’t give presents but maybe if people see I’m willing to do this  give this gift to to creatures that I dearly love…well…

catbox

For my nieces- all of them- I’m going to send them this clip- with the suggestion that they share it with their parents often- in fact, I’m also going to get them versions of this song and CD and DVD just so they can really stick it I mean share the experience on a 24/7 basis.

Oh yes, there’s an empty shelf in my office and it’s the perfect place for the ultimate Christmas gift.

I can hardly wait for Christmas Morning.

Day Three

/ Anita Marie / 17 Comments

:::: A Twelve Day Journey To Christmas Day-

OR

Will Anita Marie Get Her Fiji Mermaid THIS Year?:::

It's A Cryptid World
Photo: It’s A Cryptid World

Today

On Day Three

Readers Want To Know

Is that your Christmas Present

or

Did Something Die

Under Your House Again?

 

I enjoy Politics.

I enjoy being part of the process and I really enjoy the psychology of it all- I mean- after I’ve been to meetings or talked to Politicians or Politicos I can sit down and knock out three solid horror stories one after the other.

Most of the times on  those twisted ones I get comments like-

” What kind of mind can make you feel sorry for twisted demonic creatures who ride the  bus home from work and spray paint death threats on walls? Yours I guess “

-yeah well-

 the sad thing is there is no real cross over room for my writing and for my activism, so while I’m doing one I’m not involved with the other.

So the Anita Marie that wonders and then writes about what a cannibal is thinking while making pies out of her victims or what happens when a perfect marriage is ruined when a vampire wife turns human and has to leave her undead husband behind is not the same Anita Marie who understands why and must deal with the Political Machine and why it does what it does to friend and foe alike.

It’s not all grim un-fun work though.

I’m not going to downplay it- sometimes celebrities show up at events and that is very very cool.

One year I saw Richard Dreyfuss at the DNC is Boston and he gave this great speech at a breakfast meeting for the delegates. Michael Moore was seated as a Delegate at the same convention and I actually watched Wolf Blitzer interview Everclear’s Art Alexakis.

That aside though there aren’t many things that feed my creative spirit to be found in the political world.

And then today I found this picture

david-tennant-kitten

and this thread:

We’re huge fans of the new Doctor Who. David Tennant is not a bad looking fellow.

See evidence below:

NUP_102225_0224.JPG

I found these pictures at The Democratic Underground

and at the Democratic Underground- they’re asking:

Anyway… we’ve engaged in a debate. Is David straight, gay, or bi? Does anyone know for sure?

:::thread HERE:::

I mean,  can think of one person who visits here that will probably take that thread and …well…she won’t be happy…but I am because I had no idea anyone involved with Politics cares about David Tennant, having totally pointless fun or wondering about something other then Stupid Sarah Palin and that dork Governor in Illinois.

Now.

I’m off to collect some info about how to make my own Fiji Mermaid.

I figure once those body parts start showing up AT MY MOM’S HOUSE ( like I’d let UPS leave stuff like that on my front door step where anybody could walk off with it ) my family will be all over this Fiji Mermaid thing.

Besides- how could you not have fun looking for a Fiji Mermaid?

Exactly.

And fun is just what the Doctor ordered.

a.m.

Now For Your Holiday Enjoyment
Christmas On Mars.
Really.

It’s a movie:::