Nostalgia

Decided I'd take a little break from exam writing to put a little update up for my adoring fans.

Yesterday I took a little trip down to Rishikesh, a famous holy city on the Ganga known to the west as the place the Beatles went when they got into their less poppy and more trippy phase. I went with three other teachers, all girls. They primarily wanted to get some good food and massages. I was down with the food but not so much the oily rubdown so I brought along a book. It just so happened that the massage parlour was just upstairs from the cafe we wanted to eat at. So I claimed a table, ordered some masala chai and cheese toast and nestled into early twentieth century Greece with my good buddy Zorba. I waited for the girls for about two hours. We had lunch afterwards which took another two hours. I had ordered spinach and mushroom lasagna and, instead, received spinach and mushroom musaka. By the time we were finished eating we were supposed to meet our driver so we left. I didn't get to see much but it was nice to get away from school for a day.

Anywho, on to what I was really meaning to write about. Thanksgiving is in just a few days and after that the Christmas season is upon us. Well, those of you in the states... it's been upon you for at least a month now. I hadn't really thought much about it until I put my itunes on shuffle and ended up hearing a few Christmas songs. A little Bing, a few from the trans Siberian Orchestra, and some other random artists. The one that always gets me though is Peter Paul and Mary's A Holiday Celebration. And you know what? It's not even a Christmas song that does it. It's Hayo Haya, the one all about Antiochus, the Maccabees and Hannuka. Not so much the material and the music itself and the way it was sung. It's the one that really got to me that first Christmas after mom died. I ended up putting out the lights, lighting a few candles and just listening to that entire cd. Maybe I won't be such a grouch this year around Christmas... who knows?

Then tonight I came across a link to Hallmark's ornaments for this year. We used to get at least one every year so I thought I'd take a gander and see if they had any worthwhile ones. I used to get all the Star Wars ones. The ones this year kinda suck. However, I was looking through various ones and they reminded me of various peoples.

Mike
Charles
Becky
Matt
Kaylee
Mike again
The Old Man
Mrs Maybarry
Mom

If I had the money I'd know where the bulk of my Christmas presents would be coming from. As it is, you can expect me to be rounding them up after school is out and sending them off probably in January or February (whenever I finish up (i.e. start) with the stuffed animals).



Oh, and dad, fair warning. My buddy T said that he was going to be making a trip to the midwest over break and was going to stop by the house to snag your pipes from the attic. So, if a 40 some year old Indian guy stops by the house claiming to know me, that's why.