Meet Opal May

Word of the Day Challenge: DECORATE

I have zero fashion sense and absolutely no sense of style.

My face is a blank canvas that I try to brighten up with makeup but that has never

worked for me. It’s the same face with splashes of color-expensive splashes of color.

 

When I have to ‘decorate’ myself I look into the mirror, grit my teeth and hope for the

best- the best that I can pull off in five minutes, because that’s all the time I’m willing

to put into it.

 

On the other hand, I used to decorate my home for Halloween and Christmas- and that

is something I really worked on  with a lot of  enthusiasm.

 

I asked for advice about lighting, I shopped for ornaments, I cared about color schemes

and where I should place each of my new found treasures.

In the end, nothing I did ever really came together. I got tired of trying. But I did it

anyway, year after year.

 

Last year I made myself care about decorating for Christmas  because I knew it was

important to try to maintain some

kind of normal so that I wasn’t consumed by our abnormal ‘normal’.  My decorating was

an exercise.   In a word it was uninspired.

 

This year I worked a little harder at it because I wanted to, but I was horrified to find

that after all of these years of trying

I still  have zero fashion sense and absolutly no sense of style and the themes I reached

for  this year were  pathetic looking,  I mean I know what I wanted to show and why I

chose the colors and ornaments I did use, but woof.  It was an epic fail.

 

Sad to say, despite my best efforts my Christmas tree looks like a pile of  blue cat sick

and on top of it all I used  the  wrong kinds of lights and I think it’s crooked too.

 

It’s a shame because this year I   jumped into the festivities because I actually wanted

to celebrate the holidays and have some fun.

 

On the bright side-

Who knows? Maybe that’s my thing, taking a poor little tree and making it look glittery

and unhinged. If my tree were a person she’d be like a waitress in a 1970’s

movie about truckers  and she’d have a name like  Opal May.

 

Now that I think about it, maybe that’s my thing- always missing the Christmas

decorating mark but ending  up with a pile of glittery artistic cat sick that you don’t

want to lookat but you can’t help yourself so you do- it like being drawn to check out a

a car crash at the side of the road.

 

I can live with that because you should see what I do to my Pumpkins at Halloween- I

carve them with big knives, I cover my mistakes with tooth picks, dental floss and

tooth paste and I guess I don’t have to add that I don’t use patterns.

 

After writing this I have to say,  I’m looking forward to what I can do next year- it’s

going to be a challenge to  outdo Opal May.

I should probably get to work on that.

 

The Air Pirates

RDP Monday: BREATHLESS

Karl Hubbuch, “They Live in the Same House”

I ride the train with this clutch of ladies who love to talk and chit chat- they say it in jest, but they “invite”  people who make them laugh or say amusing things to ‘ride with them’.

If you’re invited to ride with them that means you can sit in their area up front and laugh and talk and sort of spark the car to life. In fact, they make it so lively and sparky that people who are trying to talk on their phones or have conversations outside of  ” Golden Girls Club ” as they were nicknamed by the conductor,  have to walk to the next car.

I could do, but I have a wonky knee so on some days I like to use the ramp ( this is the ADA car ) so moving to another car is a hassle, plus if I ride this car when we get to the stop I can get to the crossing and my Jeep faster.

Most of the time, I don’t care how loud they are or how obnoxious they are when they think they’re being funny. When I’m not amused I just kick back and use  what they say or how they act  for plot lines and base characters on them for my horror stories. It passes the time.

I also sit at the other end of the car and as far away from them as possible.

Last Friday one of the Golden Girls ( anyone can be a Golden Girl, even guys ) asked where a couple of the other Golden Girls were and I heard that  two of them tested positive for Covid.

I guess running at the mouth isn’t such a good when you have no idea what can be coming out of it.

And if you’re curious that ride was uncharacteristically  quiet that day.

The Kneeling Santa and The Rebel Jesus

I haven’t listened to this song posted below for ages, but recently it’s popped into my head because of a picture that’s been showing up in my newsfeed:

That’s Santa Claus kneeling at the cross. I’m going to say straight up- I just don’t get it.  I mean, I understand it’s a way to hammer home the message that Christmas is about Christ by having a fictional character Christmas character  kneel at the cross.

It’s about  branding, I get it.

That’s why I’m posting this song- I think that it’s a good reminder that Christmas  may mean one or two things  to some poeple and how it means other things to other people.

That’s the thing about stories, they grow legs and walk their own way. That with each person who tells the story,  that the story is bound to change. The problems happen  when we forget they are just stories and we forget to just enjoy them.

” Rebel Jesus “

Performed by Jackson Browne and The Chieftains 

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants’ windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
While the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God’s graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by ‘the Prince of Peace’
And they call him by ‘the Savior’
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they’ve turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber’s den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

Now pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I’ve no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There’s a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

Songwriters: Jackson Browne