and the best...

okay...

the other day i went on about the worst christmas present i ever gave. got a lot of personal comments on that and a lot of great responses. thanks to everyone who shared their own frustrating fathers stories. i guess that evoked some memories here and there that weren't really the happiest of holiday memories. sorry 'bout that.

so to correct that and get us all heading in the merry direction again, here's the best gift i ever gave.

slippers.
big fluffy yellow ones.
to my mom.

i think i was about 11 or 12 and had started working mowing lawns and odd jobs that summer and fall and was so proud to be able to spend my own money, that i had earned to buy my family presents for christmas. probably more like 12. of course, dad was that problem--i think that's the year i did get him some kind of wacky tool; a telescoping rod with a magnet on the end to pick up stuff that had fallen down behind the workbench. my brother, probably some toy on his christmas list that was within my (limited) range. and mom...oh, my mom...
my mom was my best friend, especially at that time in my life, me being shy and, y'know, sensitive. she was an incredibly compassionate person and could read me like a book. we communicated very easily--sometimes telepathically--and she had no problem telling me, very simply, that what she would really love from me for christmas were a pair of slippers. her feet were always cold, she told me, and some nice warm slippers would make her feel so good.

so i went hunting, in my then very small town, for the warmest, warmest slippers i could find.
this being the seventies, it wasn't very long before i came upon, in one of the more trendier shops (very conservative town was rhinebeck...), the biggest, fluffiest, yellowest, warmest looking slippers i ever saw. sure, they looked like they had just been amputated from the end of big bird's drumsticks, but they looked so warm.

now, my mom was pretty conservative too--even in her own home where no one would see her--and these were definitely not any kind of slippers that she would pick out for herself. and when she opened them...

...she looked at me and beamed, her face so full of love and appreciation, and she thanked me and kissed me and hugged me and tried them on and hugged me again and she wore those huge freaky (awkward) yellow slippers for years until they fell apart and i was so happy that i had made her so happy. and her feet warm.




"five for friday"
"quotes"

1. who said the infamous words, "we will bury you."?

2. whose last words were "either this wallpaper goes or i do."?

3. in 1994, on weekend update, norm macdonald announced that two actors were in "a heated competition in the Academy's controversial new category: Best Retard." who were the actors and for what movies?

4. "imagination is more important than knowledge."

5. "no matter where you go, there you are."

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd