Let me be the first one to say it. Can you believe that it is already the first of November?
In a year from now we will be voting for the next President of the United States. Oh how I’m looking forward for that shitshow to come together.
The trend these last few years has been to get through this horrible year.
November 1st of 2020… “I can’t wait to get this year over with!”
November 1st of 2021… “jeez, after last year and Covid, could we just get to 2022?”
November 1st of 2022… “Let’s just get through this year and distance ourselves from the scar that Covid has left behind.”
….And let’s put the needle on the record today.
“Could 2023 and all the war and hate just end?”
I don’t know what the hell it will take to turn things around in 2024. The future doesn’t look very bright right now.
These next two months will bring Christmas Carols and Christmas movies. TurkeyBowls and pecan pie. We will see friends and family and wear ugly sweaters together.
Yesterday I picked up groceries at Aldi and in the fun aisle I found a porcelain Christmas tree. It’s about fifteen inches tall and about eight inches wide at the base. It has ornaments that light up with the aid of three double “a” batteries. It looks like a replica that your grandparents had on their coffee table next to the bowl of Brazilian nuts.
I carefully put my new tree in the back of Betty the Green Blazer and drove home. I carried the fragile decoration up the stairs and set it to the side.
After trick or treat and clean up of the kitchen, I grabbed some batteries from the cupboard and put them in the base of my new Christmas tree. The bulbs had a dim glow and then they didn’t have any glow. It was a $19.95 failure that hopefully doesn’t foreshadow Christmas of 2023.
I’m going to be skeptical next week if Aldi is selling a Menorah. The last thing I want to do is jinx the Festival of Lights. The Jews are having a horrible year and if anyone needs a brighter 2024… it is our Hebrew brothers and sisters.
Whatever shitshow is flinging across the world. Whatever difficult events shadow my doorstep…
I’m still going to listen to George Winston's "December" first thing Thanksgiving morning. I’m still going to go down to Christkindle and drink expensive hot spiced wine. The Shepkids and I will still take our annual trip on the CTA Christmas Train. I’m going to have JumboNog when I put up my Christmas tree. I’m still going to sing “Ave Maria” when I display my Nativity scene and I’m still going to get pissed off when Uncle Billy misplaces the eight thousand bucks.
I will eat a couple pieces of herring on New Years Eve and wish for a good twenty twenty four and be in bed by 10:45pm.
Maybe I should drop some ecstasy on Navy Pier and hangout with Bootsy Collins and George Winston? It worked in 1995 and the rest of the 90’s were incredible. That was the time of my life when I definitely had the funk.
I mean you really got to have that funk! We had the funk!
You gotta have that funk!
You wanna hear about the New Years Eve in the mid nineties?
Let’s just say JumboLove was taking the Lake street CTA train at 3:50 in the morning. I had my arms around white people and black people and we were all singing “Flashlight.”
We didn’t hate each other. We weren’t Republicans and Democrats that morning. We were happy Westsiders wasted away between Pulaski and Ridgeland celebrating the moment.
Maybe we need to celebrate the moment more in 2024?
If you’re in my age group… you’re learning the lesson on how fragile and quick life can be.
2024?
It’s going to be the best WE make it. Let us all enjoy the last two months of 2023 first.
I’m looking for someone to snuggle with and watch “The Bishop’s Wife.” Who wants to get on the Metra and hit the annual Christmas market at Daley Plaza? I’ll buy you a “Tom and Jerry” at Miller’s Pub. Who is organizing the TurkeyBowl or the Scrum and Rucksgiving match?
Let’s blow up the next sixty Days with Joy and Love. Turn off the nightly news and turn on the stereo. Take a walk on a cold December night and look at the lights.
This is the only Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas we will have in 2023. There will not be any do overs. So eat the dry Turkey and be happy with the underwear and socks from your in laws.
Because all I want for Christmas is you……
