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the first of twennyten; dedicated to my brothers: david ben charlie matt greg andrew patrick; and brothers i have known

with brothers on a hotel bed: a poem

10 things that helped me make it through december.

10. The Twilight Saga

Don’t hate. You know you just don’t want to fall vicitim to the hype and that’s why you’ve formed this negative opinion. If you read the books, well, then you would understand. No, really. You would.

09. Critter Crunch.

Best downloaded game on PS3 so far. (And I REALLY liked zombie apocalypse.) I totally beat the number 1 ranked guy 3 times. (nevermind that he beat me 30 times before that.)

08. My couch.

Thank god for dream-foam, the futon shop’s version of Tempur-pedic.

07. Beer.

I like beer. I like it even better after working 3 consecutive 14-hour days.

06. A M O R E E N A (and then some).

Amoreena never stops texting me even when she knows I’m so exhausted I can barely lift my head let alone a finger to reply more than LOL or Y or N or Meh or Sux or Boo. And that is why she is my BFF. But it was the rest of my friends, too- coming to visit at the shop even knowing there is little chance I can stop to chat, or calling and leaving messages or sending postcards or what have you. When it comes right down to it, you’re all family.

05. Mom-mom and the rest of the fam-fam.

‘Nuff said.

04. Los gatos.

teeny-weeny poopini + the amazing mister mang- best cats EVER.

03. The big ole Love.

His name is Nate, and he’s only third on the list because he isn’t edible. And if you’ve seen me, you know I’m a fan of edible delights. Seriously, though, he put up with a lot of complaining, bullshit, shit-talking, and irritating snores after I’d fallen asleep on the couch. (Then again, I put up with a lot of Modern Warfare… so… it’s not an even trade, but it’s close.)

02. Ramiro + Sons.

Early in the month, plans were made for dinner on December 23rd. Thank you, Brianna, for loving Ramiro + Son’s as much as I do and requesting it for meet-the-new-boyfriend night. You really, truly have no idea how many times I thought of that very moment during the month of December. The moment, by-the-by, completely lived up to it’s potential. But then again, it was Ramiro + Son’s… so… like… duh!

01. Colonial Donuts.

These donut holes are scrumptious. Also, any Saturday begat from donut holes cannot be all bad, no matter what difficulties arise. Am I wrong? (Additional addendum: is it wrong that on Christmas Eve Day, when I put $4 in the tip jar, I was really disappointed that none of the donut shop employees noticed? Like, that’s a lot for me. And I felt like Larry David for a split second, almost pointing it out to them. But I didn’t. I just put cream in my coffee and went to work.)

the lingering ring

A last hurrah

Today marks the last day of my sanity, most likely.

Or at least, if you saw me this weekend, count yourself lucky. Aside from Amoreena’s birthday on the 21st (which I work, but hope to meet up with her later) and Friendsgiving on the 29th, I imagine my social calendar will not be very full for the next six weeks. It’s that time of year again: the holidays.

For many, the holiday season means family get-togethers, great food, lots of parties, presents and celebrations. For me it means lots of stress, long work hours, lots of people (some angry, some kind, some indifferent) to deal with, tons of product to find room for, and an enormous volume of paperwork. I’m not really complaining– I’m warning you.

You’re not really going to see me.

If you invite me over and I say no, don’t take it personally- I’m fucking exhausted. If you invite me out and I say no, don’t take it personally- I’ve gone into hibernation mode. Ask me again on December 26th.

This holiday season is going to be particularly trying because it has so much importance- retail sucked this year. People don’t have money. Or at least, as many people don’t have money. (Obviously people have money- I saw the evidence this weekend- it’s just that they haven’t been spending it…) For retailers big and small, survival hinges on the success of this season- that’s why you’re already seeing (and have been since Labor Day) holiday ads on television and holiday shit in stores. Because it usually proves to be such a lucrative time, retailers are stretching it out as far as they can. We even caved and put out a small selection of holiday stuff in the store on November 3rd. NOVEMBER THIRD. Jesus. The ghosts and spirits barely had time to return to the netherworld before Santa popped his head out of the hole like a deranged groundhog with a beard.

This weekend was my last “weekend” off until January. I’ll have Sundays (unless it gets crazy crazy busy) and Mondays, but Tuesday through Saturday you can find me at the store. Come visit me there and do your Christmas shopping! (I’ll probably only be able to offer a brief wave, especially if it’s a Saturday, but it’s the thought that counts.) Starting after Thanksgiving our hours extend, and I can guarantee I’ll probably be there until at least 7 every night.

But given that it’s the tail-end of my last weekend (and a long one at that, thank goodness) I plan on doing absolutely nothing today. (Aside from laundry, a visit to the grocery store, and balancing my budget.) I’m looking forward to a day of re-charging before the madness. Maybe I’ll even take a bath. You never know.

My point? It’s about to be a rough month and a half. See you on the other side.

xoxo, beffers

i love my amoreena.

and her photoboof.

disappear reappear

just to clarify.

this is my most recent blog.

i’ve attempted this before.

there was the consistent ranting about working at the DA’s office, which you could read and enjoy if you were my friend on myspace.

And then there was runboard.

And blogspot.

And the grand-daddy of them all (or grand-mama), ripped screen door.

Will it ever end?!

vignettes are neat.

The modern day usage of the word vignette evokes a different connotation than the middle-english origin of the word, when it was used architecturally to denote a carved vine. Today, vignettes can be any sort of small, contained scene- in a book, on a street corner. I always think of merchandising in terms of creating vignettes- telling stories with the leaves on the vine, I suppose.

This morning I decided to clean all of my knick-knackery and organize my little curiosities into smaller vignettes. I’ve got this cute cubby that used to be a fixture at work, and I improvised a few risers and levels with broken retablos, old tea light candle holders, and my small collection of vintage postage scales. (I love them. Something about the numbers, the typefaces… I don’t know. I just love them.) Most of my trinkets are things from childhood, or presents from others. It had been a long time since I’d shown any love to the situation, and new things had been added that needed to be incorporated in a much more streamlined way. So when Nate set out to go fish, I set out to get things settled to my liking.

My cubby lives in the kitchen, and one-third of it is used as a spice rack. Even the spices got an upgrade in placement and position- savory, sweet, and used often… all were taken into account. (Some might say this is OCD-ish, but I don’t like to throw that term around. I prefer… organized.)

In the same way that there is no transliteration of tchochke from Slavic to Yiddish to English, there’s no way to explain how much fun I had cleaning and organizing these kickshaws into their own little cubbyholes.