The first Christmas decor I dust off is usually the crop of Charlie Brown trees in the garage, but I thought I’d change it up this year and lead off with the leg lamps. Leg lamp Tie o’ the Day feels proud to be helping with December’s first X-mas decor duties.
The leg lamps gave Mom such a thrill during the holidays that one season I decided to leave them in the living room of my Delta house all year long. She commented on them and laughed about them every time she wandered over, which was daily. She also touched their stockings a bit too much. And she loves the shoes. I love her.
I get a kick out of my 3-D turkey tie. It is bulky, however, which makes it tough to eat safely and cleanly while wearing it, so I chose a pumpkin Bow Tie o’ the Day to wear for our Thanksfeasting. Last year, we tried BAMBARA’s T-giving buffet feast and it was a hit with our palates and tummies, so we made reservations for this year. It might become a tradition.
Suzanne’s parents’ plans to go out of town for Thanksgiving eats got doomed by weather at the last minute, so I called BAMBARA to see if they could fit two more people into our reservation. Fortunately, they were able to juggle things around and found the space for two more feasters. We picked up Suzanne’s parents and drove through the snow to BAMBARA, in SLC, to eat as much as our little bellies desired. As far as I’m concerned, the highlight of the entire spread was the Bacon & Blue Cheese Potato Squash Gratin. Fanciest. Scalloped. Potatoes. Ever.
BTW The cape I’m wearing in some of these post photos is the latest cape creation by Suzanne. Ain’t it cool beyond groovy?!
I told y’all that a bigly wall of bipolar depression fell on me a couple of weeks ago. It kept me from creating posts. I didn’t even spend time in the Tie Room. I wasn’t having fun, that’s for sure. I tell you about what goes on in my life because it’s part of my life, which is where I get my stories–good, bad, ugly, or mythical. Maybe my exploits can aid someone else. It’s all part of the TIE O’ THE DAY project. I don’t do the pity party thing, but I appreciate the concern my readers express when the posts don’t show up. I’d like nothing better than to say TIE O’ THE DAY won’t disappear again, but it will most likely happen from time to time. If you’re a longtime reader, you’ve been through it before. And the world goes on, whether I’m depressed, manic, or level–as it should. I am very well aware that I am not now, nor have I ever been the center of the universe. And thank the heavens for that! Can you imagine the fashion laws I would put into effect?!
Anyhoo…At the beginning of this last round of heavy depression, I was invited to a birthday party for Bishop Travis (really old) and Gracie (6 months). As hard as it is to believe, I did not want to go to a birthday lunch for two of my favorite people-blessings. Our group of partygoers was supposed to meet in Nephi for lunch, and I was thinking of excuses to not show up to the festivities even past the moment I crossed into the Nephi city limits. My heart was not in it. My head was not in it. My depressed spirit hurt too much with an amorphous, morbid heaviness which no one can ever explain. I’ve been down this road many times, and the only trick is to just show up. Just do it. Put on your Bow Tie o’ the Day and walk into the celebration.
We met at Lisa’s Kitchen. My hubby, Gary, and my Sister Who Wishes To Remain Nameless, brought Mom. Bishop Travis and Bishopette Collette brought their wee Grace Anne. We talked, and laughed, and ate, and couldn’t get enough of The Gracie Roadshow.
I’m glad I didn’t stay home alone. I’d like to say the birthday lunch with family restored my soul to high happiness, but that would not be true. Depression doesn’t work like that. I enjoyed myself. I hope others enjoyed me being there. But I know how depression works, and I knew not to expect bigly transformation of my sorry spirits. I did the best I could to be part of my lunch-eating family party. I’m able to appreciate the experience more and more as I gradually improve into my “level” state of mind, my normal.
The day was an incredible treat. Next, I’ll post about two more magical events of the past week.
No, I didn’t forget how much y’all need your neckwear fix, but I’ve been temporarily unable to put together even a simple post. Ralphie Tie o’ the Day is one of my super-fave neckties in my collection, and it is my gift to y’all for being patient with me.
There I was— just rollin’ along down the road o’ my life a week or so ago, when I suddenly fell into a hellish sinkhole of depression. I kid you not. One minute I’m telling Suzanne a ridiculous tall tale which was mostly true, making her laugh wine out of her nose, and— WHOMP! For no apparent reason, I couldn’t find a reason to make it through the next minute. It was an effort to want to breathe. Why does this happen? Just because. It is one of the most pernicious and terrifying mysteries I have to deal with in my bipolar brain. It is a mystery, for example, how I was able to be part of some incredible events last week, while experiencing such mental anguish. (I’ll update you on the magic events tomorrow.) I take my “right” medication as prescribed. I am blessed to have made for myself a relatively drama-free, stress-free day-to-day life. I need for nothing, material or otherwise. But sometimes extreme depression still hits me from out of nowhere like a bigly, balled-up fist. It’s pretty much in charge of me for a time. Sometimes I can write through it, and sometimes I can’t.
Years ago, I gave up trying to figure out the reason extreme depression shows up in my noggin. To live with/through it, I had to learn to not be afraid of its presence, and I had to learn to be patient until it leaves me. It will always go away. Or at least it has always gone away, so far. What scares me is that there will likely come a day when depression decides to stay with me longer than my hope and patience can fortify me. Bipolar depression is not just an illness: it is often a fatal illness. Nobody likes to think about it like that. I certainly don’t. But the suicide numbers speak for themselves. Anyhoo… I’m back at my laptop.
I’ll catch you up on the miraculous happenings I was part of last week, even as depression was my unwelcome companion everywhere I went.
Tie o’ the Day— our second holiday necktie of 2019— had to be covered in Christmas kitties, to match this morning’s Christmas mutts tie. I’ll have an announcement tomorrow about my wearin’ o’ the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa neckwear. The vote between “to wear ’em all” or “not to wear ’em all” was surprisingly close. Stay tuned.
In this morning’s post, I told you Skitter was having her teeth cleaned at the vet’s at 7:30 AM. I further told you that the skittish Skitter can’t handle being at the vet’s unless she’s under anesthesia, or is otherwise unconscious. She shakes so ferociously the animal hospital nearly crumbles.
I also told you that the vet techs always say I can’t pick up The Skit until 3PM, cuz they wanna watch her recover for a few hours from whatever procedure she’s just had. But they always end up calling me to pick her up much earlier— because they cannot stand to see Skitter shiver in fear for that long. I told y’all I figured I would get a call from the vet to come retrieve her around noon. Guess what time I got the frantic call this morning? It’s a new scared-Skitter-at-the-vet record: 10:46 AM. I had Skitter home and being blatantly miffed at me by 11.
Skitter’s still not quite herself, and I imagine it will take until at least tomorrow before she forgives me for taking her to get her teeth cleaned (and one hideous fang pulled). She’s being kinda whimpery. But it’s really her own fault. If she’d brush her teeth and floss regularly, I wouldn’t have to make major doggie dental appointments for her a couple of times a year.
The year’s first official Holiday Tie o’ the Day was easy for me to choose this morning, cuz I had to deliver Skitter to the vet for her scary teeth-cleaning appointment at 7:30 AM. When I dragged her into the vet office, the vet tech said I will be able to pick Skitter up at 3 PM. It was a new vet tech, who doesn’t know what I know has happened after Skitter’s past fang cleanings. The moment Skitter rouses from her dental procedure sleep, her trembling begins. Her shaking grows and grows and grows, until the vet office begins to vibrate. And although the vet tech told me to pick her up at 3, I can guarantee that around about noon, the same vet tech will give me a call to come and get Skitter ASAP. In a panicky voice, the vet tech will tell me the vet thinks Skitter will be better off recovering at home. Duh!
Holiday Ties o’ the Day reveal they are ready and willing to serve for the duration of this Christmas/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa season. Skitter tells me she’s counted more than 215 neckties here, but she reminded me I bought a few more specimens during some after-Christmas sales last year— which are currently unaccounted for. They’re hiding somewhere in the Tie Room, and I will certainly find them. We probably need to start another holiday necktie storage bin ASAP, as well. I’m off to air out the ho-ho-ho bow ties now.
I’m still receiving votes about whether y’all want me to wear/display ALL of my holiday neckwear during the season, or would you rather I select just one or two pieces per day to wear. Vote on. You Facebook readers aren’t voting a lot in the comments, but I have received quite a few IM’s from you. Readers on the website are chiming in, as usual. So far— if the vote holds its current course— I’ll be wearing each and every piece o’ Christmas neckwear in my collection once again this year. It makes my neck and shoulders hurt, just thinking about the tie weight I’ll be carrying.
Or maybe I just need to figure out how much holiday neckwear am I going to say YES to, and when should I begin to say YES to it. Headlamp Bow Tie o’ the Day is assisting me in planning out our 2019 holiday neckwear game plan.
For those of you who have not been TIE O’ THE DAY readers through a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa season, I need to clue you in. In past years, I have taken on the task of wearing EVERY SINGLE festive piece of neckwear I own, during the course of the season. Last year, I had to begin donning my ho-ho-ho neck apparel sometime before Thanksgiving, and I still had to wear more than one piece at a time, in order to be sure to show them all before January 2. There were some days I had to wear dozens at a time for post photos. Last year, the tie tally ended up at 107 holiday bow ties, and 217 seasonal neckties. Folks, it’s tough to wear that much neckwear over the holiday season. I’m thinking I might wanna slow it down this year— maybe select and wear fewer pieces, and then I won’t have to begin displaying the highlights of my collection until December. If I’m gonna wear ’em all, I gotta start immediately.
But TIE O’ THE DAY is not all about me: I don’t want to hurt any ties’ feelings by not showing off the gamut of ’em. I don’t want the pieces I choose not to wear to feel like they aren’t up to snuff. I hate it when my tie critters feel bad. And I don’t want y’all to not see the ridiculous amount of holiday neckwear I have collected.
So I’m cogitating about what I can do to keep everyone jolly. Let me know what you want me to do. I’m giddy to show off every bit of the ho-ho-ho neckwear if that’s what y’all want. And I’m giddy to wear fewer, but select, ties o’ Christmas. What’s your preference to see, if you have one?
When last I posted, on Halloween, I showed you Skitter in her french fry costume. I fully intended to post later on Trick or Treat day, showing you my costume. But I made the mistake of saying to myself, “Self, while I’m waiting for the short ghouls and superheroes to knock on my front door in search of goodies, I’m going to fetch the Christmas neckwear out of storage, cuz I need to start wearing it ASAP if I’m going to wear every piece.”
There isn’t room in the Tie Room for the ghastly amount of Christmas neckwear to have year-round residence in there, so it all lives in a storage bin apartment complex in the garage— in the space where my car should park, but can’t. Oh, I made it into the garage to retrieve the bins containing X-mas neckties and bow ties, but after I moved all those bins into the Tie Room, I somehow got overwhelmed and confused. I lost my way out of the Tie Room. Yup, I have spent the last few days mountaineering my way through the maze o’ neckwear which is my decades-long collection.
Aside from being very dehydrated from my lostness, I emerged from the Tie Room relatively unscathed. I drank a mini-keg of water, and promptly sat down to write this. So here are some photos of me in my costume for Halloween. Bow Tie o’ the Day displays a dandy cast o’ sugar skulls, which complements my Suzanne-made Day of the Dead cape. But what am I?
I love the frightening and fantastical costumes Halloween gives us, but when it comes to dressing up myself, I gravitate toward the obscure, clever, or punny things to be. For example, in the fall of 1994, when Major League Baseball went on strike, I donned a white sheet and an Orioles baseball cap and became the Ghost of the Baseball Season. And when “the war in Iraq” was the most repeated phrase on the news, I stuffed my bra to overflowing with plastic toy soldiers and went to Halloween events as “The War in My Rack.” It’s who I be.
Anyhoo… When Miss Tiffany was last cuttin’ my hairs, I saw the idea in the mirror: my hair took the shape of a comma! How cool is that, since I’m a writer? Punctuation is part of everything I create, and the comma is my fave-rave punctuation mark! With my cape, I just had to be a superhero called Comma Woman. In fact, I am more than just plain old Comma Woman— I am Oxford Comma Woman!
