Journal

My transmission is out on my car. Again, within 18 months of me having it rebuilt. And, sometime last night, my furnace stopped blowing hot air and is now blowing cold air. So I have a service call into the heating and cooling guys to check it out. I’ll be completely out of money, and I haven’t finished my Xmas shopping, so some people are not getting presents this year.
So far, this is the unhappiest Xmas I’ve had in 10 years.

My cars is in the shop, so I’m driving a rental. I’m deeply stressed about that, so I’m not going to go into detail. I spent the weekend taking care of that, doing some Xmas shopping, getting out the Xmas decor, and putting lights on the tree. I got to spend a lot of time with Kathy, which was nice. She helped me clean and repair the window in the foyer where the tree is sitting, so the tree can be seen through the window, which is cool. The only decorating thing I have left is putting ornaments on the tree. I got most of my Xmas cards done, too. If I can get the tree decorated tonight, I can start wrapping presents, and for the first time, I’ll be ahead of the game at Xmas. That’s cool.

Stars shining bright above you,
Night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you”;
Birds singin’ in the sycamore tree;
Dream a little dream of me…
Say “nighty-night” and kiss me,
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me;
While I’m alone and blue as can be,
Dream a little dream of me…
Stars fading, but I linger on, dear,
Still craving your kiss;
I’m longing to linger til dawn, dear,
Just saying this:
Sweet dreams til sun beams find you,
Sweet dreams that leave our worries behind you;
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me
I had a really wonderful evening last night.

Thanksgiving was really great. I went to Iowa with my brother Todd and his wife Denise and stayed at my Grandparents house. Saw the aunts, uncles, cousins, ate way too much food, went shopping and generally had a good time. I missed Spike the whole time, though. He stayed at Dan and Doug’s house. I think he had a really fun time. He was really happy I was home though. We spent all Saturday evening cuddling on the couch.
I had a really great date with Kathy last night. 🙂 We saw the movie “Solaris” which was supposed to be a really romantic movie (?) but was really a space movie instead. Then we went to Shaffer’s fondue place. It was fun, but not my favorite restaurant. The company was great, though. 🙂

When I was in college I had friends who lived in this house in Muncie. The friends were these three women (who we called ‘the gorgon sisters’ behind their backs, but that’s another story) and we used to go to their house and play cards all the time, because it was one of those houses with plently of room to play cards around the kitchen table. It was kind of an old house, and it had a really wierd basement. In one corner of the basement, there was a staircase that went to nowhere. The opening at the top of the stairs was blocked off. It was really creepy.
Also, there was a mirror in the basement, that everyone said was haunted. By a ghost named Vincent. Apparently Vincent would come out an night and cause trouble and make noise in the house. I have no idea how they knew the name of the ghost. But it is a cool old mirror; square, with a beveled edge, in a wooden frame. Somehow or other, I ended up with the mirror. I don’t know exactly why they gave it to me. I think there was probably alcohol involved. Like I was probably drunk and they said, “Hey, take this haunted mirror home to your house, cause we’re afraid of the ghost here.” And I probably said, “Sure, why not?”
So anyway, I’ve had this mirror ever since. Sort of. I took it with me when I moved back home to my mom’s house, and left it in the basement when I moved to an apartment. My sister adopted it somewhere along the line, and decorated it and had it in her apartment when she was in college. Then she went to England, and Vincent came back to my house. Then she came back, and he went back to her. Then she moved back to England, and he’s been in my house for the last few months. I haven’t settled on the right place to hang it, so it’s propped up against the wall on the floor in the foyer.
The reason I’m explaining all this is because Spike discovered the mirror the other day. At first he was afraid of the little doggie on the other side, and he kept running away and hiding. But then he realized the doggie on the other side was cute, and he’s been trying to play with him. He keeps trying to get the doggie to come out of the mirror into the room… he’ll run away from the mirror, with his head turned around looking at it, like he’s saying, “come on, come into the kitchen with me.” And Spike will toss his head in the direction of the kitchen, to indicate where he wants the doggie on the other side to go. And when the doggie won’t do what he wants, he’ll run up to the mirror and try to lick the doggie. This morning he was trying to walk around the side of the mirror to get the doggie from behind.
I think Vincent’s going to get hung at doggie-eye level, so he can have a friend.