Insane for the Holidays

The holidays are a crazy time of year, but for me they are crazy in a mostly nice way - even nicer this year thanks to online Christmas shopping. Making time to get together with friends is one of the nicest parts of the season.

This weekend I saw my friends Brenda and Mark and Barbi for dim sum on Saturday. There's few things I've experienced better than dim sum - if I could alternate sushi and dim sum for the rest of my meals on this big marble I'd be happy forever. And I would need to be equipped with one of those special sirens for when I back up because I'd be fat as a house. Brenda and Mark gave me a bag of presents the size of my ass, which is HUGE. Turned out to be an appetizer grill (complete with Sterno! I smell madcap high jinks!) and this cool toy for my kitties which through the miracle of technology and 3 "AA" batteries, dangles and drags around a fuzzy mouse for their amusement. So far they are both completely fascinated with it. Barb had previously trounced us all right after Thanksgiving by giving us champagne glasses that she and her husband MADE and champagne to go with. I gave them bags full o Lush Fresh Handmade cosmetic goodies and hope they love them.

Sunday I saw my friends Cheryl and Scott, who have the cutest Great Dane (Kona) and who are rockstar cooks. They dished up salad, bruschetta, salmon wrapped in phyllo, asparagus, and warm potato salad. If we weren't already stuffed after that, Cheryl then brought out this divine lime mousse cheesecake. As I hate cheesecake (it feels like school paste on my tongue) I was a little hesitant but upon tasting this - oh my gentle Jesus. Light, creamy, rich - essentially love, sunlight, and the salvation of mankind in cheesecake form. Cheryl noted the next day that she had forgotten to send some home with us, to which I retorted:

"Uh, please, if that’d been me who made that cheesecake, after my first bite I’d have grabbed the plates back from all of you and shoved you out the door. You’d have found me in a few months, 100 pounds heavier and with a Gollum-like complexion, huddled in the corner petting some graham-cracker crumbs and calling them “my precious”." No joke, that's how good this thing was.

We also test-drove their home theater setup in the basement which Scott finished with his own two hands. Granted, we did it by watching The Matrix Revolutions, which, if I had never seen the first two installments of the Matrix franchise, I would have titled "A Very Special Episode of Transformers." Still, good effects, and Scott's home theater setup makes any movie better. (Well, in most cases - nothing would make Jeepers Creepers better other than jumping into a time machine and going back to that idyllic era where you had never wasted 2 hours of your life on this movie) Those dirty monkeys also gave us lovely gift baskets (I got champagne with mimosa mix and really cool champagne glasses - good thing too as I suddenly have a lot of champagne on my hands) I only had a tiny bag o Lush for them but am already shopping for their Martin Luther King day present.

Well, tomorrow I get to see John and LK, their friends Sean and Niki, and my favorite gay men in the whole world, Jasen and Michael. (Actually, they're two of my favorite people, period, gay men or no) So during this crazy holiday season, try to stop and make time for friends, because friends make the holidays (and life in general) much better.

Peace,
Donna