Christmas in the City

As though shopping for a large family isn’t sufficient to keep me busy, I am also coordinating our department charity drive at work, where we have adopted a family almost as large as my own. So, I had a busy Saturday of errands, shopping, and stuff.

7:30 am Realize I need to get up to start the day.
8;30 am Turn on Sharpe’s Rifles so that Cate will stop pestering me to be more supportive of her boyfriend (wink). Clean the house while watching.
10:30 am Drop film off at Sav-On. Curse fates that I have no digital camera and the CD-maker is broken. I will have to pay Kinko’s big cash to scan the pictures I owe people. Drat.
11:00 am Get that Christmas wax at the salon. Yay. Oi. Pain. But necessary.
12:30 pm Drop car off at mall for it Christmas cleaning.
12:45 pm Nearly kiss random guy who tells me about big Disney Story sale.
1:45 pm Laugh when the following is announced over the PA system: “White Mustang, Silver Cadillac, Black BMW, Silver Audi SUV. Ready for pickup. Little brown Nissan. Would the owner of the Little Brown Nissan please come and claim the car?” My poor baby car. That’s a lot of humiliation for one Christmas present.
2:30 pm Roomie calls to remind me that we have to leave at 3:30 for our night out.
3:00 pm Roomie reminds me as I walk in the door that I have 30 minutes. Give silent thanks for years of vanity that have taught me to do a quick up-do.
4:00 pm Stop at Ikea for Christmas decorations. When I see a sign advertising “Swedish cinnamon rolls” that look and smell exactly like store-bought cinnamon rolls, I realize that Ikea is the Swedish version of Wal-Mart, made cool only by adding the word Swedish to everything. Shrug. Buy decorations anyway.
4:45 pm Eat at Chevy’s. Tortillas are yummy.
6:00 pm Leave for Hollywood. Decide that since we have tons of time, we will explore Glendale on our way to the 101. Find cool back roads with lots of Christmas lights.
6:45 pm Starbucks hot chocolate. I get mine made with soy milk and no whipped cream.
7:15 pm Arrive at The Pantages theater to see White Christmas.
7:30 pm Roomie runs into some old friends. Because we bought our tickets late, Roomie and I weren’t sitting together. One of the tickets was near her friends. I sit apart and text Cate while waiting.
8:00 pm Curtain time. Roomie spots 2 empty seats in our section. We decide to move there. Totally anal usher makes example of us by yelling over the orchestration that we couldn’t sit there and escorting us with flashlight blazing to our respective seats. I seethe as I watch seats sit empty all performance.
9:15 pm Intermission. As always happens, vast majority of theatergoers in the lousy seats move to fill in the empty mezzanine. Anal usher escorts every one back to their own seat with a scathing reprimand. We start ridiculing the situation. “We cannot mix with their kind,” I say in my Igor voice. “We will contaminate them, creating monstrosities of unparalleled proportions.” The group around me laughs.
10:30 pm Rejoice that car parked in Hollywood is still parked in Hollywood.
11:00 pm Watch Twister. Don’t know why.
1:00 am Go to bed. Not tired. Think about novel I wrote for NaNoMo. Decide will blog on it next week instead of today.