holiday vacation wrap up..

Aaahhh, the end of the year… time for reflection, overeating, and slacking off at work…

First of all, my Christmas was pretty good after I finally made it home. Since I’m starting the new j.o.B. I wasn’t sure how much time I would have off or how liberal the leave policy would be so I had to wait until the last minute to buy my plane ticket… At this point, there were no direct tickets available, so I was stuck with a three leg trip into Springfield from Baltimore… Baltimore – Pittsburgh – Chicago – Springfield….. My flights from Baltimore and Pittsburgh were so delayed by the time I got into Chicago around midnight, I had of course missed my connection…

To top it all off, my bag never showed up so I spent the night in Chicago with the same things I had on…. Luckily, I’ve got hoes in Chicago, so it actually was a blessing. The first two flights were sold out, so I didn’t get out of Chicago until around 11 the next day.

Going home at the age of 30 doesn’t allow you the opportunity to just show up and sit on your ass. No matter how hard you try, you end up working and dealing with all of your parents idiosyncrasies that you have some how inherited… although you deny it completely.

For example, on Christmas day I thought I’d go back out to the airport to see if my bag ever showed up (it didn’t), but my dad directed me to get a newspaper on the way back… but he also directed me to the exact gas station he wanted me to buy the newspaper?? As if this gas station gets an extra article or two in THEIR newspapers…

Then there are the bad gifts. I see my parents a few times a year, the rest of my family even less than that. For all they know, I still wear Cross Colours and Z. Cavaricci (don’t front, those tapered MC Hammer jeans w/ 9000 belt buckles were the shit back in the day and you know it!). I told my mother all I really needed was socks and underwear. I didn’t want her to try to buy my clothes or anything so I thought I would be safe.

My mother can’t pick out underwear. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I didn’t think she would mess this one up. 3 of the cotton pairs were cool. But then she also got my 3 pairs of silk boxers. …. That’s right, silk boxers…. I haven’t worn silk boxers since…. High school maybe?? They just allow too much movement, not to mention, the only place you would expect to see them is in the love scene of a 70’s blacksploitation movie. BUT, to make it even worse, one of them had a camouflage print…….. and last but not least, the other pair were royal blue and had a red and yellow superman S on the leg….

Mom…. Where in the hell am I going to wear these??? I don’t know if this is my mother’s way to latch on to some sort of childhood idea of buying me underoos… if she thought she was being funny… or if she genuinely thought I might like them…

My mother also purchased me a laser leveler thingy for hanging pictures. It came in this big ole case and shit. I hang pictures maybe once every 2 years or so?? Did she REALLY think that if I had to hang a picture I would pull out my laser lever and shine some red line all around the room before I start banging holes in the wall? I just don’t get it.

But as crazy as my dad can be, I can always count on him to come through with the best gift. This year, he paid my car insurance…… Big ups to pops on the Christmas gift.

Oh, I found my bag on my way back home. Since I had a layover, I decided to go check on it and in the sea of bags laying out with the other hundreds of bags, there it was… who knows when I would’ve received it if I hadn’t gone and checked for it.

~C

CD of the moment: After Dark NYC – mixed by Jon Cutler & Osunlade