First, on Saturday, there was the annual Christmas parade. It started at 10 am, so at about 9:55 we drove over to Ridgecrest Boulevard and parked on the street, oh, maybe half a block from the parade route, and pushed the twins in their stroller over to where we could watch. Couldn't have done that anywhere else I've ever lived in my entire life. There were about 50 entries in the parade (an entry meaning, e.g., the Burroughs High School Marching Band), so it went on and on for what seemed like hours, and we got pretty tired of it. But all in all it was a nice parade. No particularly special floats or anything like that, but lots of smiling people, some of whom gave the twins candy.
Second, also on Saturday, I freecycled a whole bunch of stuff. When we lived in Boulder, if we wanted to get rid of something, we just put it out in front of the house. We lived on a very well-traveled street, and most of what we put out vanished quickly. Rocket Boy used to put out just dreadful pieces of junk and I would get mad at him and say "NO ONE would ever want that!" and then look outside and it'd be gone. And better stuff we'd sell on Craigslist. Anyway, we don't live on a well-traveled street in Ridgecrest, and there's no Ridgecrest Craigslist unfortunately, so we've taken to using Freecycle.
I find Freecycle annoying, to be honest. Sometimes I post things on the website and no one responds, or else they say they want it, but then don't show up to pick it up. But sometimes it works.
I had a ton of outgrown winter clothing to move, plus some electronic toys that the boys received last Christmas that I didn't want them to have, plus some other stuff, so I posted 8 different groups of things and managed to get rid of 7 of them, which is pretty good. The electronic toys went like lightning -- I must have had 10 requests for them within 15 minutes. Everybody wanted to use them as Christmas presents. The clothes went a little more slowly but almost all of them went. One person said she could use them but didn't have a car, so I offered to drop them off. Oh, such a pathetically awful little hovel of an apartment she lived in. And she was so young. It upset me that a little baby was growing up there. Another person who came and picked up a box of clothes looked pretty desperate and thanked me profusely.
That's the other thing about Freecycle -- some pretty desperate people use it. I know that giving stuff to people is supposed to make you happy, but it often has the opposite effect on me. If I didn't freecycle stuff I wouldn't interact with these pretty desperate people -- I would think that everyone was as comfortable and secure as I am. So is that a plus or a minus... I'll let you decide.
Third, Winnie-go-house has lost its mind. Not only has the Wicked Witch on the roof acquired a red cloak, the Winged Monkey in the tree is now wearing Santa pants and has exchanged his monkey head for a man's head -- but what man? He doesn't look like Santa, he looks sort of like Ken (of Barbie and Ken). But he still has wings. Next to him, there's a Mrs. Claus sitting in a swing. It's all very odd.
We continue to visit Winnie-go-house every day, and I try to make sense of it. They now have set up a large TV in front of it and they show the Wizard of Oz movie every night, so we always stop by on the way home from daycare and watch for a few minutes. I've noticed other cars doing the same thing.
Fourth, tonight was the tortoise club party and it went well, very nice evening, though the twins were, shall we say, DISTRACTING? I kept reminding myself that no one else offered to have the party at their house, so this was better than nothing, but hmmmmmmmmmm. I don't think we'll offer to host a salon here, as we had considered doing. But such pleasant people are in the tortoise club. I'm glad we are part of that.
Earlier today I stopped by the toy store in town to pick up a box of See's chocolate for the party. I remember when we first moved here and I saw the sign in the parking lot saying "See's" and I thought "Ridgecrest has a See's? That's amazing!" Then I found out what it really meant: the Kiwanis club sells See's chocolate out of the toy store as a fundraiser. Stupid Ridgecrest, can't do anything right, was how I interpreted that. But this year I saw it in a different light: how convenient for the Kiwanis club to sell See's chocolate at the toy store. You see, I really am starting to fit in here. Sort of.
Fifth, Thursday is Jesus' birthday party at daycare. Oh sigh. Welcome to Ridgecrest.
Still haven't written a single Christmas card. Maybe tomorrow.
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