The Weirdest Christmas

Well, we're gonna have a white one tomorrow, but I don't think folks on the shut-down turnpike are nearly as jazzed about it as ol' Bing was.

For the last twenty years or so, I've spent every Christmas Eve (except for a couple in Korea) at my wife's birthday party. She was unfortunate enough to be born on Christmas Eve, but fortunate enough to have a mom who kept her birthday separate from Christmas. So every Christmas Eve without fail, Kim had a party. It's a tradition.

This year, she decided to end the tradition, even before the weather turned to shit. But the weather means that my first winter without a wife party finds me with nowhere to go and nothing else to do. I've got to wrap a present or two still, but otherwise, I'm just listening to old radio programs, sipping (very cheap) whiskey and debating whether to cut my hair or not. I bought new clipper guides, but I haven't gotten up the courage to use 'em yet. Maybe it'll seem like a better idea once I've had some more to drink.

I did sew myself a new pocket for my leather jacket; cut the cloth pieces out of one of my old brown Army T-shirts. It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it did turn out better than I'd feared. Now I've got to do the pocket on the other side. But maybe not tonight. I don't know.

Eventually I plan to modify the jacket for a costume piece. The zipper is shot, so I'll probably pull that out and put in buttons or snaps--something more retro. The jacket fits pretty loosely, so I should have the room to put those in and still close it. Maybe add some patches and reinforcements at the shoulders and elbow to make it look more combat-ready or something. I have some old wallets and an old black boot with no mate that I can cut into scraps and attach. I just need to figure out what I want it to look like. I had thought to tear the whole thing apart and rebuild it from scratch, but sewing one pocket was enough trouble to put the kibosh on that idea.

But I'm pretty jazzed to have that new pocket. The pockets have been torn out of that jacket for a few years now, so it's cool to have one intact.

I wore a tie to the OSFW Christmas party on Saturday. First time I'd worn a tie in years. Tuesday night, I decided to wear another one, just because it had been nice to look sharp for a night, and I figured, why wait for another special occasion. Plus, I've been watching those old serials from the 40's when everybody wore a tie as a matter of course.

I didn't just go retro with the tie, though. The slacks and shoes were bought in the mid-80's, back in my clubbing days. I also shaved with mug soap and a brush I'd bought at the drugstore, did my hair up with Brylcreem and used some bay rum aftershave I picked up from Sally Beauty Supply. Figured if I was going to go retro, I'd go really retro.

I'll do the same thing tomorrow for Christmas at the wife's, with one addition. I'm going to wear my new hat, which is really an old hat--a vintage fedora I bought off of eBay.

So you see what I mean by the weirdest Christmas. No two Christmases are ever alike, but I don't know if I've ever done everything differently at once like this.