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xmas 2009: culture/food/shopping


Sometimes I think to myself that I should take more time to expand my cultural horizons by going to the museum or theater or whatever in Hamburg. But then I think to myself that it's not really necessary, because I make up for all of it whenever I come to visit Frosty & C.Dub or whenever one of them comes to visit me. Even before I arrived, there were multiple telephone discussions back and forth (me & C.Dub, C.Dub & Frosty, then me & Frosty and then Frosty & C.Dub) regarding which theatrical pieces we wanted to see and when. We settled on two (for the curious/lit nerds, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Peer Gynt). This way, I feel like I get in the rest of my theater quota for the year. It's not nearly as high as C.Dub's or Frosty's, but it's enough to keep my conscience feeling clear.

We reserved our tickets before Christmas and planned to pick up the tickets while we were out finishing up our Christmas shopping and buying the ingredients for our very special, very vegan Christmas dinner.

But before we could go buy anything, we had to decide on the actual menu for the 24th. C.Dub was anxious about the food. Particularly, when she found out that hummus was not a main dish, but rather a dip. (I guess I should also mention that Frosty and I decided quite awhile back that whatever ended up cooking, hummus had to go with it. I <3 hummus C.Dub was anxious, because despite being a teeny, tiny little woman, she is a damn eating machine! And hummus dip did not even remotely sound like something that would appease her hunger. So she grilled us about the complete Christmas Eve menu. And when she wasn't satisfied by our answer, she just said "Fine! On the 24th, I'll just make a pizza!"

It was at that point we decided on falafel for Christmas Eve...and the ball was officially rolling.

Next up, was grocery and Christmas shopping. First, if you're at all familiar with me, then you know that I fucking hate shopping. It doesn't matter what it's for. I hate it. I especially hate going shopping with other people. Again, whatever it is that we've set out to buy is of no consequence.

Second, I have an almost obsessive/compulsive tick with regards to the order in which I perform errands. I have to start at the furthest stop on my to-do list and work my way back home...so that it's almost circular and backtracking drives me absolutely nuts. Any kind of comparison shopping should be done before I leave the house and if I forget to get something at one place, then it better be at the next place, because I won't go back.

Third, if you've REALLY been paying attention, then you also know that the few major fights that Frosty and I have ever had all involve shopping (grocery shopping, in particular). It's really beyond me why we still continue to go shopping together. I mean I love him and all...but sometimes the urge to severly beat him with fresh produce is almost overpowering. To me, it seems like Frosty just likes to wander around almost aimlessly from place to place without regard to any kind of order.

So I suggested that at some point we should split up...because I didn't want to kill him before the holidays (or, at all, for that matter).

It ended up being a great idea. Right around the point where I was getting extremely agitated from going around from store to store and where Frosty was becoming almost unbearable in his indecisiveness about which place to hit up next...we just went separate ways for about an hour and then re-grouped. And neither of us suffered any mental or physical trauma.

Later that evening, C.Dub read my blog for the first time, paying particular attention to my post from December 14th. Frosty and I met up with Conni & FQ at this bar that has a bunch of board games. When we got back, C.Dub asked us to tell her what the word "fornication" meant.

Then, before she went to bed that night, she told us to "have fun" before bursting into laughter...

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