A few years ago, I organized an event with an April Fool theme. There was a guy called Wyrm who volunteered to dress up as the Fool (jester costume). That Christmas, he sent out invitations for "an orphan's Christmas Eve" for people who would not be spending Christmas Eve with their families, and I decided to go. I looked on eBay, and found a really cute jester ornament, and bought it for him, planning to take it to the party with me. But something happened and my payment never got to the seller. One day, I all of a sudden realized that it was only a week until the party, and the woman still had not received my payment, let alone sent the ornament. But it HAD to get to me by Christmas Eve, and she was in Georgia or somewhere.

At the time I had a great job and was making a ridiculous amount of money, and so I got the brilliant idea to FedEx her the check and have her FedEx it back to me, and I'd have it in three days. All worked according to plan, I got the ornament in plenty of time to take it home and wrap it and put it under the tree.

I had a couple of days off, and went to go see Erica (my best friend) out in Merced (2+ hours away). I went shopping on Christmas Eve for something pretty and festive to wear to the party, as I planned to go directly to San Francisco from Merced, rather than backtrack to Redwood City and change into something I already had. As I was gathering up my things and making sure I had everything, I realized I did not have the ornament. Yup, you guessed it. It was still under the tree at my condo in Redwood City.

Now, being as I had spent serious money to get the thing here on time, I wasn't about to show up at the party without it. (Now might also be a good time to mention that I had an enormous crush on the guy and this jester ornament was the perfect "oh, it's just a little something" gift) Having to go home first made me really late for the party, so I missed dinner, but he made sure I had a glass of wine and introduced me around to all his friends, so I'd have people to talk to while he fixed me a plate. He had invited everyone from our medieval group (which was how I knew him) but none of them came, so I didn't know *anyone* else.

I did get there just in time for the gift giving. That was really fun, as he had presents under the tree for everyone, and people were encouraged to bring small unisex gifts (or label the packages as to what sex they were for) and then everyone got to choose presents from under the tree. Each person got like 6 gifts, because not everyone who said they'd be there showed up. The gifts were things like candles, small picture frames, candy, stuff like that. And he opened the gift from me and smiled a big smile, and hung it straight onto the tree.

After presents we all went up to the roof and looked at the lights of the city, and I got a couple of puffs of his really good cigar, and we sat out on the roof talking until we all got too cold, then we went back in for hot coffee and more chatting, then people started drifting out. I was the last to leave, and he walked me out, fended off the homeless man who had fallen asleep really really close to my car, and gave me a looong hug goodnight.

It was a magical night, the guy proved himself to be entirely crushworthy, and a very, very thoughtful person. The little $8 ornament ended up costing me about $50, what with FedEx charges and gas money, but it was totally worth it. Sadly, he moved back to Georgia a few months later...

I always feel weird buying things for myself at the holidays, even if it's something I need (like the shoes I got yesterday), or something I just want but I know no one will buy for me. Like a stocking hanger. When I lived in Merced (Christmas 1998) I bought myself a stocking. My apartment there had no fireplace, so I hung it on a knob on my entertainment center. My condo had a fireplace, but it was a stovepipe fireplace that didn't really have anywhere to hang stockings from, so we hung them on nails in the wall. This year, now that I live in a nice house with not one, but two lovely firplace mantels, I wanted to actually hang my stocking on the fireplace. Not that it'll get filled mind you, but I wanted it hung up properly now that I have a place to do it. So I went to Target for a stocking hanger.

Last year, they had sets that spelled out words, like JOY and NOEL and PEACE. Since there are four people living in the house, I was going to get the 5 piece PEACE set, and hang a brass bell wreath from the extra one. I figured I could use it in years to come, so I'd swallow the cost of it and just share it with whomever I am living with at Christmastime. They didn't have them this year though, they just had individual ones, and at $10 each, I wasn't buying one for everyone in the house. They were figurine style, with Santas and sleighs and trees and snowflakes. I chose a lovely silver angel to hang my stocking from, and then I made a decision to buy another one.

I often say "If I ever get married" because let's face it, we don't know what the future holds. But I was thinking, "If I ever get married, they won't have these hangers, and they won't match." So I made my first ever purchase with a married future in mind, a matched set of silver stocking hangers- an angel for me, and a nutcracker for him. I try not to do stuff like that, because I don't want to jinx myself. A friend once bought a gorgeous handmade baby dress in Argentina (she's Argentinian) for her future daughter to wear. She and her husband never had kids. But in this case I figure it's okay, because even if I never get married, the hanger will get used. Currently my housemate's stocking is hanging from it.

Last night I went through all my weekend purchases, wrapped the gifts, figured out who I still need to shop for, and finished up my Christmas cards. For someone who started really late, I think I have a pretty good grip on things an will actually be ready for Christmas by the time it gets here.

I got reviewed by David at The Southern Lad. Check it out the review if you want to, but you should definitely pay him a visit, he's got a good site.

I have been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks. It could be the same cold that gave me a week off, or it's two different colds, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that it's from working too hard and not sleeping enough. As excited as I was about Secret Garden, I'm ready for the run to end. I'm ready to have my weekends back.

Keegan and I went to the grocery store the other night, because I needed cold medicine. We wandered the aisles for a while, and I just had to laugh at myself - I bought a box of cold pills, two boxes of Celestial Seasonings tea (buy one, get one free baby), two boxes of Kleenex, a bag of throat lozenges, and a 4-pack of Red Bull.

One of the boxes of tea was Apple Cinnamon. It smells like cinnamon. It tastes like hot bananas.

My parents are funny people. Try as I might, I can't get them off of dialup AOL. They each have their own screenname, and they also have one they share. The shared one is on my AIM buddy list, and generally I ignore them being there, because they're not big IMers. Following is a conversation I just had with my dad.

judy: is this mom or dad?
ParentName: dad
judy: hi dad
ParentName: Hi kid, what do you want?
judy: nothing, just saying hi
ParentName: OK talk to you later. Signing off instant message

Sometimes my mom will talk to me on IM, and today I was hoping it was my mom because I saw something at Target I thought my dad might like for Christmas and I wanted to ask her about it. My dad though, won't talk on IM. It unnerves him when the window pops up, and he's not quite sure what to do with it. They have an iMac that they got a few years ago, but up until then, my dad's computer needs were served by an Atari word processor (a keyboard and a 5" floppy drive) and a dot matrix printer. Like, from the time I was in fifth grade ('86) til about 2001. It freaks him out a little that I can make a window pop up on his screen, and he doesn't like it. I think it's kinda cute that my dad, who stayed up with me when I was sick and protected me from bullies, is afraid of the IM.

Caryn threatened me!

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
- Judy
- Juliana
- Judykins

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
- Judiknyght
- GodsChickyn
- LadyHastings

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
- my eyes
- I am a good friend
- my conviction

Why is it I have so much to say until I sit down to blog? I've been mentally composing posts for days. My work computer crashed spectacularly last week, and our IT guy couldn't find any explanation for what it was doing- no virus, no spyware, nothing. But he had to wipe it and completely start over. It's been interesting trying to get my settings back where I like them, and find all my bookmarks again. I backed them up, but the backup got corrupted. Don't you just hate when that happens?

In other news, my housemates are actually very sweet when they're not being psycho. Chris and Leo are used to me running through the house in the morning, trying to get out of the house on time. They're also used to me not wearing a sweater or jacket when I walk out becasue its always in the car. It was raining when I left for work this morning, and as usual, my coat was in the car. Leo seemed very concerned that I would catch cold between the back door and the driveway. He said he had an umbrella in his truck and he wanted me to use it. He was in his bathrobe, which can't have been any warmer than my slacks and long sleeved shirt...

Unfortunately, by the time I got home, they were back to psycho...

(I tried to keep it upbeat but it still came out kinda sad- you might need a tissue)

Once, when I was in college, I worked for a campus program called SPARK. Mostly it was about alcohol and drug prevention, but it was a program run by the campus health center so we also did some safer sex stuff. December 1 was a Friday that year (1994). The theater I worked at was having a benefit performance of the show that was currently running. And on campus we did a whole bunch of stuff in partnership with the San Mateo County AIDS Project (SMCAP)- we had a table in the student center with AIDS awareness information, did some street outreach, and on Friday, World AIDS Day, we brought in a speaker to tell students what it was like to live with AIDS.

It was a day that changed my life profoundly. The speaker's name was Jim, and we never got to hear his story. He started to tell us about himself, and about his life, and then he trailed off, seeming to have lost his train of thought. Then in front of an assembly of 100 or so students, Jim had a seizure and lost conciousness. He had not regained conciousness by the time the ambulance arrived. I visited him once in the hospital, Angel (our contact at the SMCAP) on one side of him, and I on the other, each of us holding a hand of the unconcious man in the bed. Angel told me that he had come out of it a few times, but for the most part stayed in his coma. After ten days or so, he stopped waking up and stayed in a coma for two more weeks, and then he died- on Christmas Eve. I wrote a piece on it for the student newspaper, that I'd post here if I could find it.

I was passionate about the cause back then. I put a lot of time and energy into AIDS related programs. I volunteered at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the SMCAP. I did AIDS Walk San Francisco every year and volunteered with them from May to July. I worked hard and gave of my time and energy because, as a college student, it was all I had. Now, I give money, because I have more of that than time. But sometimes I feel like giving my time was somehow doing more. I take this opportunity to remember those people I've known who have died- most especially Scott Williams, Michael Callen and Jim- to treasure those in my life fighting it (who know who they are), and to thank all those who work hard for the cause.