22.12.05 - 11:40 a.m.

this weekend i won't be sitting in a line of cars, parking lights on per signs' instructions, watching lit-up nativity scenes, animatronic reindeer grazing on lawns, inflatable santa clauses by the dozens. i won't return home to watch the news report on how those lights may spur rolling black-outs. i won't wind up at someone's house on christmas eve playing nintendo, waiting to go to punkrock denny's. it will be cold where i am, and windy. not still, foggy weather for a light jacket. friends might stop by later, after dinnertime, with plates of cookies tied with curling ribbon, but they're not my friends.