Xmas stress

It happens every year. I have the greatest of intentions when it comes to Xmas and as soon as I see the cheesy decorations up in the stores....the paralysis sets in. All good ideas for presents evacuate and I am left with gift card purchasing. I used to Craft out, and I am not talking about crocheted chatchkes but groovy things like spices I brought back from India and packaged in hip little containers and embroidered things. I can barely summon up the energy to open cards let alone send them out. It is getting worse every year and I am sure there is some deep psychological reason for it but I don't feel like soul-mining presently so I am just avoiding it all. I have turned down 3 party invitations. A couple nice meals with the family and I am ready to move on to 2008.

The small amount of soul mining I have done has given me a little insomnia lately and I have ended up on some strange web sites in the middle of the night. Did you know that the Dalai Lama has a My Space page? And it's really good. And I also ended up on a "FREE" movie site. They had "No Country For Old Men" and it was free. HOWEVER, it was a copy of the film that was taped by some guy who went to an early screening and snuck in a video camera. The screen goes dark a couple times and he actually says "Down in front". You can hear people eating popcorn and taking off their jackets. It's pretty funny. I watched part of "The Secret" in Hebrew with English subtitles. Here's a secret: it may be a life philosophy but it is a bad movie.

So in further avoidance of all things Holiday, and indulging one of my favorite things to do, I went to a matinee today. Elizabeth, the Golden Age. The heater was broken and it was like watching it in someone's garage. To get even with the Heat Miser, I stuck around and slipped into another movie, "The Kingdom". It was escapism, if nothing else. Except that there was something else. There were only about 4 of us in the entire theater and the guy sitting 4 seats away was getting twitchy. He started speaking out loud and was mildly annoying. The movie is about Saudi Arabia and murder. This guy clearly had some issues with the Muslim world or the Armed Forces or something. He got more and more agitated and then gave me a looooooooooooong stare that scared the Hell out of me. I would have left but he was blocking my aisle and I was afraid he would stab me or something. Never sneak into the second movie, this was my lesson. Even though I almost got shivved in a bad movie, it was better than going to Mall at Christmas.