Yesterday, I was fidgety at work for the entire 9 hour shift. It was Christmas Eve and I was helping Last-Minute Lorie find her son a Packers jersey or a Jets hat or "anything with the Blues, besides this hat". Which we DO NOT HAVE by the way. My boss Brent, graciously let us leave without properly recovering apparel as is normally done. I was glad to be gone. I had packed my car full of luggage, gifts and crafts (requiring a proper craft room) that morning, so I popped in my sing-along CD and hopped on I-70.
A speedy two hours later I am honking the horn as I pull down our long gravel driveway. I burst through the door and am greeted by a hungry family, waiting for me to start dinner. Strangely enough, our Christmas Eve tradition is fondue. There are three courses to this meal, including: cheese dip--with veggies and bread, oil--with chicken, steak and crab leg, and chocolate dip--with strawberries, cheesecake, kiwi, marshmallows and angle food cake. It's absolutely glorious and actually quite filling. We took a break between the oil and chocolate dip to do gifts among siblings and to parents. After the food and gifts were done, we settled down to watch Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World...first fondue, and now this un-Christmasy movie? What kind of shindig are those Roweton's putting on?!
I woke Christmas morning to Sam crawling into my bed. He can only stand to snuggle for a minute before he shakes me and says, "Alright, let's do presents." Ten minutes later, I'm on the couch demanding coffee. Stockings are always my favorite part. What's not to love about a bunch of little gifts? It's glorious: body spray, lip gloss, eyeshadow, hair accessories, CHOCOLATE TURTLES, nail polish, a tumbler and panties. The big gifts are great too of course. I finally got my new kicks that I have been anxiously awaiting since I bought them a month ago and sold them back to mom to give to me. I'm psyched about my blazzzzer. I know I'm late in getting one, but I'm in on the style now so please notice how fly I look when I wear in on New Year's Eve. Power and Light won't know what hit 'em. Also a new watch, a lovely lace dress, skrilla (it means money, it's a new thing I'm trying) among other things. But it's not the gifts that make Christmas so special, it's the time spent with family...which is why I'm huddled up alone in my room right now.
After we do the Christmas thing here, we go to Grandma's and do it all over again with significantly more people in a significantly smaller space. The food was delicious as usual and the conversation was good, as always, with the Morgan boys and Tyler. After eating, we all loaded up and went to take a family picture in front of the Court House. If you were one of the cars passing by at one today, I imagine your thoughts were something like: For God's sake, those Roweton's think they run this town showing up here on Christmas for everyone to see and taking their picture in front of the [insert foul language here] courthouse of Bolivar like they own the place. And yes, that IS how we feel about it.
We returned to grandma's house and then headed back to our home shortly after. It was at this point that the family split to do their own Christmas celebrating in the form of excessive television/movie viewing. I have decided to take on David Lynch tonight in watching Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. Both have required a THOROUGH Wikipedia reading after watching. I do not understand these movies...but I watch them...and pretend to be cooler than I am. Of the three I have seen, Mulholland Drive is my preferred David Lynch film (that's the best way to sound like a pompous asshole by the way, calling them "films" instead of "movies"). I watched it in my Film Studies class last year and even got a second viewing out of the deal in order to write a paper on the symbolism present in the film.
My final rankings are as follows:
Mulholland Drive ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
It's the most normal of the list, which isn't saying a lot, and I am even able to make a few unstable connections between ideas throughout the film. I like the story (even with the lesbianism) and found it very entertaining.
Blue Velvet ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Weird, but doable. I didn't like it as much as Mulholland Drive, but perhaps with a classroom of film majors and a knowledgeable professor, I might find it more interesting.
Eraserhead ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
No. No. No. Get out of here. This movie was WHACK. My brain hurts from having watched it and I haven't even read the Wikipedia page about it. You couldn't pay me to watch this movie again (that is a lie, I am cheap as hell and you could pay me very little to do most things).
Needless to say, it has been another strange Roweton Christmas. But that's how we roll. It's the little things like singing grungy-rock songs about grandma's house, being the only family to pose in the funny picture, coordinating our outfits according to the J. Crew color scheme this season, failing to fondue-fry crab legs and resorting to the microwave and appeasing mom when she wants to read aloud about John Cusack from Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs. We kind of love each other I guess and I kind of miss being around them when I'm off in Columbia.
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