First Light madness

PHEW... spent the morning bleaching the kitchen, sweeping and vaccuuming the whole apartment, cleaning the toilet, tidying in general. Don't I have a project to work on? Oh silly me, I meant TWO projects simultaneaously. Does anyone else love that word as much as I do? Simultaneaously. It's fantastic.

Tonight! It should be interesting. I know, I know Mr. Brunsen (my 12th grade English teacher), interesting is a meaningless word. There are a couple of conflicting expectations for tonight, however, and so I cannot say, "Tonight will be loads of fun," or "Tonight will be a circus of horrors."

Tonight there is a First Light Festival in Brookline. For those of you who don't live in Brookline, or do live in Brookline but don't know about it, First Light is a celebration of consumerism with a general nod of support for small businesses. It is also the night that the town of Brookline first turns on their Winter Holiday lights (snowflakes shapes, of course, because anything else would offend somebody).

By the way, that's just dandy with me. I like thinking of some 4 yr old saying to himself, "Look, they lit up the Christmas lights," while another little kid says to herself, "Look, they lit up the Channukah lights!"

First Light was fun last year. K-Dawg and I cruised about and collected free cupcakes here and free cider there and watched youth choruses and cringed at out-of-tune violin quartets. Yes, all of these things, and more, can be found at the First Light Festival.

I have two concerns, however, for this night of nights.

1. H-Bomb's mom is flying in to stay for the weekend. H thinks that this festival is the perfect way to welcome her mom to Brookline. That's generally okay with me. I won't necessarily have to keep up my end of a conversation. Instead, I can say, "Oh, gee, we'd better get down to the flower shop before all of the free roses run out." I don't think it will be THAT easy, though. H-Bomb's mom, I should mention, does not like the following things: jazz music, museums, cultural enrichment in general. (She voted for Bush.)

2. I have been SO GOOD at avoiding crowds of people, and tonight I will thrust myself into the center of the throng. Not a delicious thought. I should see lots of people from the preschool, too, and they're sure to ask me what I'm doing and I'm sure to fake-smile them to death and lie through my teeth about how fabulous life has been as they lie throught THEIR teeth and tell me how great I look. And God help me if I forget a child's name!

I will also miss K-Dawg a lot and try not to pout.

Wish me luck!