I'm just crazy 'bout horses.

My hair is falling out. I'm getting hives. And my skin has some bad-ass acne. Welcome to the holidays! I have to bake cookies (not that i mind this), I have to wrap about 40 thousand presents. I'm giving up on even attempting to decorate my apartment. I have to somehow assure my mother that I still love her, despite blowing her off for her Christmas eve dinner. I have to go to my husband's this year. What a RIOT. Seriously.

In another marvellously pleasant world, I live by myself, have a little tree that smells deliciously piney (decorated with little lights and sparkly hanging things), have Nat King Cole's "Christas Song" playing, or maybe Vince Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown Christmas." Or some Ella Fitzgerald?? Undecided. I have some cinnamon tea brewing, not to drink, but to smell. I have all the lights out, except for the christmas lights, which glow brightly in oranges and reds and blues and greens, casting all sorts of tree-shadows on the walls and ceiling. I sit on the floor and unwrap ONE gift I bought for MYSELF (wow! a donation to Doctors Without Borders! how on earth did you KNOW?).. and then I pop open a bottle of chilled champagne that cost in the area of $50 and thoroughly enjoy the sounds of other people not being there. Ahhhh. Peace.

So, these days, it seems the closest I can get to this feeling is shuffling off to Starbucks, where they have been raging with the Christmas music since last month and have a delightful selection of holiday coffees and such. I have been a slave to the egg nog latte since a boy I know recommended it a few weeks back. Mmmmm. It is here, actually, that I started to feel the Christmas spirit, and found myself smiling with the holidays in mind for the first time this year.

So yesterday, I pulled out the Christmas tunes selection and began to play them. I was able to focus on work for the first time in weeks. The tightness in my chest went away. I didn't need to take any Exedrine for the headache that usually starts two hours after I get up in the morning. And I was smiling. By golly I was. Thank you Ella. Thank you Vince. Thank you Nat. Did you know what magic you would be recording?

Ahhhh. Nostalgia.