Tie A Finger 'Round Your String: Look Around You

Who cares why; celebrate! Don't forget to have fun. Don't forget! Don't forget to stay in the moment, to be yourself, to accept change, and to live in the now. Don't forget...but don't stress. For Holiday 09 is officially the Holiday To Forgive Yourself.

Says who? Says me, Miss Emergency. And if a thirty-two year old emergency says to lighten up a little, then surely you too can find the release-button, down there in between the voice recorder, the sushi take out boxes, and the snowboots, down there way under the ignition key.

It's a state of emergency here in Maryland, my home town of Wheaton is going on 17 straight hours of 20-40 mph winds and snow. Governor O'Malley has declared a state of emergency for Maryland. That allows the state to activate the National Guard. Lt. Col. Charles Kohler says the adjutant general has authorized up to 200 soldiers to be called on state active duty.

Last night, I had a couple of glasses of champagne to celebrate my mother's good health. Then I drove to the grocery store to buy popcorn and cranberries. Sure, it took me 20 minutes of crazy-book-lady giggling to find the right aisle, (when I drink champagne, I think saying things like "peepcorn" instead of "popcorn" is like the funniest genius ever.) But overall it was an in-and-out errand.

I love the Aspen Hill, Maryland Giant grocery store. White people usually make up 10-20% of the population, which is how the world was until I went to college. The beautiful people who shop at my hometown grocery store remind me of the greedy variety of female beauty I grew up on, like, to take just a few: 1) my mom, who has the eyes of an emerald caught in a hurricane; 2) my Aunt Phyllis, who never feels the need to smile in photos, and whose cheeks slope down into her mouth like a cheetah's; 3) my cousins Winter and Hunter, whose cupid's bow lips are carved in constant attention to the pathetically hilarious about life's tragedies; 3) Tatiana Abbundi, whose eyes and mouth never needed make-up because there's already make up in them somehow; 4) Min Soo Pak's mom, Mrs. Pak, the evenest skin tone and cheeks that are simultaneously baby fat and regal; 5) Thomas Williams's mom, whose cafe americano face undulates like a petunia in the breeze when she smiles.

But before you think Aspen Hill Giant overlooks caucasia, just so you know, among the Vietnamese, Korean, Goya and Kosher sections, there is a flag that hails Irish, with real Irish imports. Batchelor's canned peas are distinct from Green Giant, apparently.

The traffic up here in the D.C. may be certifiably suicidal, and my thesis calendar may indicate that I need to crank out thirty pages a week over break to graduate, but I won't let that creep me out this year. It's almost 2010, and I've decided to slow.the.fuck.down.

This year, the first in ten years, Miss Emergency will have a Christmas tree! Due to philosophical accidents and bad family memories, we've skirted yuletide for the past decade. This year we have a six (and a half!) foot Frasier fir standing in the front living room.

My prescription: go see Up in the Air, ye uncles and aunties of little emergencies. Or listen to this like 20 times, or any of its many versions.

To send you off with my best go well wishes, I invoke Ramsey Lewis! Dolly Parton! Johnny Mathis!'s names when I say,

Peace

Photo credit: me, taking a picture of my friend Kristin's birthday cake. Celebrate!

P.S. My essay is online at Front Porch!

http://www.frontporchjournal.com/