December 25, 2008

• 25 Years of Christmas Cards & The Year in Pictures

  If you’re reading this because you just got my Christmas Card in the mail, then welcome!  If you didn’t get a Christmas card from me in the mail this year, there are several possible reasons why:

  • I see you, email you, IM you, talk on the phone with you, write on your Facebook Wall, Skype you, or you check my Twitter, my Yelp, my Swurl, my Picasa(s), my YouTube, my Flickr, my Vimeo, my imeem, or you read my blog…regularly.  (You see where I’m going with this?)
    
  • You weren’t on my first Christmas Card list 25 years ago, and therefore not “grandfathered in”.
  • You’re well entrenched in the 21st Century and won’t mind an email or, if you’re lucky, a gift!
  • I don’t like you any more.  LOL.

  
  If you read my blog last year at this time, you read about my Christmas Card conundrum.  As someone who despises paper, and despises paper mail, even more, I have to reconcile with the fact that I need to check my mailbox in December and deal with all of the paper.  Don’t get me wrong, I love getting Christmas cards.  I especially like getting pictures of my friend’s kids who I rarely, if ever see.  I love seeing kids I used to babysit for in college sending me pictures of their kids now.  Increasingly though, even those people are at least on Facebook (or in some cases, their kids are.  Hi Chris, Nicole & Collin!).  Let’s face it, it’s the 21st Century, and I document my entire life in pictures and words every other day.  My life is an open book for all to see; and as such, I have begun to whittle down my Christmas Card list from a pre-Internet high of 275 to a far more manageable number.  I don’t have kids.  I don’t even have Oreo anymore.  Most people who want to know what’s going on in my life come here or go to Facebook.  So, my Christmas card list is really shrinking.  It used to be quite a production:

  

  I know it’s hard for you “young’ins” to imagine a time before email, but believe it or not it’s only been in general use about 14 years.  Even before computers and the Internet, I was always very organized regarding my Christmas cards.  In the height of my traveling in the early 90′s my Christmas card list topped 250.  I kept meticulous records (and still do) about who I sent cards to and who I received cards from.  There are some people I’ve been sending cards to since 1983 (Happy 25 year anniversary!).  Some of my friends and family may even be able to recognize themselves in these photos!  The hand written lists go back to 1983 the year I started college.  Back then, I kept the list in a yearly planner.  Starting in 1991 the more countries I visited, the more people I sent cards to.  There are 5 people on this year’s list that I’ve only met once in my life.

    

  Another tradition I’ve had since 1988, is that my best friend Daniel has always drawn a picture of Oreo to put in my cards. For example, the year Oreo was shot, Dan drew a picture of Santa going up the chimney and leaving Oreo a bullet-proof vest. 

  

  After Oreo died (many years after the shooting), the drawings became the template for my annual Christmas message. 

   

  So last weekend I hunkered down and sent out cards to “the list”.  After that, I tackled a pile of mail, some of which had been sitting, unopened since March of this year.  Here’s the good news, I found 7 checks in the mail, totaling $5056.21.  The bad news is that a couple of them may have expired, LOL.  Two of the checks were from Farmer’s Insurance for the robbery they finally made good on.  Two were expense checks from work.  One was from the Honda of Hollywood nightmare that I had actually opened but forgot to cash.  The last two were from American Express and Pacificare and I have no idea why they sent them.  (They’re the ones that are more than six months old and may not be able to be cashed!)  Have I learned my lesson?  Will I open my mail more often?  I doubt it.  I’ll try to scan it better for checks though!  (Update: I just came back from the bank and they cashed all the checks!  Time for some last minute Christmas shopping!)

  
  The checks I found are on the top right.  The middle stack is all going back in the mailbox marked “Return to Sender, email only! (I’m buying a rubber stamp!!)  The left pile is unopened statements and more crap.  The pile on the right I’ll get to next week….maybe. 

  For those of you who are new to this blog or haven’t kept up with it regularly this year, here are my archives, and here are some links to my most popular posts this year:

  All is Quiet on New Year’s Day
  Kanye Fried Chicken
  Heath Ledger is now in Hell! Praise Be To God!
  ‘Twas the Night Before Oscar
  And the Academy Award for Best Over Acting Goes To…
  Making History (Herstory?)
  Superbad Needles & Pins
  Cubing With “The Luckiest Kid in the World…”
  Daylights, Sunsets, Midnights & Cups of Coffee
  American Idol – The After Party…And So It Ends…
  Iraqi Waterparks – A Discourse on This American Life
  The Prettiest City in America
  Culture Shock, Idols & Puppies
  Got Crabs?
  California Kids
  A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics
  Texting Greatness & Meryl, Eat Your Heart Out!
  President Obama & The Beauty Queen
  The (Hollywood) Hills Are Alive…
  The Spruce Moose & Other Political Observations
  Scary Times & Simpler Times
  The Gandhi of Dogs
  I Was Shot 12 Times Tonight!!
  Happy Days Are Here Again
  Can You See It If You Open Your Heart?
  A Fresh Coat of Hate – “Faggots”, “Niggers” & the Paradox of the Christian Right
  The Acrid Smell of Smoke and Stench of Greed
  Customer Service Xangaversary
  An African Christmas in a Similarly Different Time

  

  Darlene and I just got home from Christmas Eve at my aunt & uncles.  I’ll stay here tonight and the kids will come in the morning to open presents and we’ll have brunch.  Then I’ll head home to meet Claudio (as Ryan is in Missouri) and well go see Benjamin Button (and maybe Doubt).  Chazz gets neutered Friday morning and next week I’ll head up to San Francisco for our New Year’s extravaganza.  Oh, and one more thing…the brakes went out on the Honda today, and guess where I spent the afternoon?  I don’t want to talk about that now though!  Here are a few photos from tonight.  I’ll post more after Friday.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

   

  I’ll end with a slideshow of my favorite images from the past year or so.  (377 of the 13,632 photos I’ve taken this year, to date!)  Be sure to check back next week as our New Year’s Eve “GLY” group will be celebrating New Year’s on the coast in Pacifica.  It always proves to be a beautiful setting to end the year.  Happy Holidays!  Peace, Carey

  
  

  Finally, sorry to end on a sad note, but there’s tragic news from the North Pole.  Sorry to say, I told you so!!

  

  
  ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
  “The holiday spirit is infectious. That guy who threw the shoes at President Bush? Today, he was throwing fruitcakes.” — David Letterman

  • 2:59 am
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