[originally an email to the morgueatlarge list, sent December 2003]
I used to make my own Christmas cards, the infamous Why Be Normal series that emerged each December (and often on birthdays, too). The pinnacle of these, in ’98, involved musing on which was better, real or fake Christmas Trees, and working it out by putting them both in a wrestling ring and
letting them fight it out. I don’t think I’ll ever be funnier than that. So I don’t do those cards any more.
It’s snowing today, big white cornflakes drifting down. Cal’s first snow. It’ll be our first Christmas together. And since this is my second Christmas in the northern hemisphere, I get to be all knowledgeable about
things and touched by how excited Cal gets at the snow. (Of course, anyone who saw the video I sent homewards will know quite how excited I got at the snow last year.)
It’s looking to be fun. Old friends Julian and Yuuki are heading up from London to warm our hearth on the day itself, and we’ll also be joined by new friend Kathleen, one of the many Christmas orphans in Edinburgh. I know of a couple other orphan-gatherings and with luck we’ll find a way to crash all of them by the end of the night. (With luck no carols though.)
Then the famed Edinburgh Hogmanay. Again, my second one of these, this time mustering a fair roster of folk instead of just-me-and-Blair like last year. (Hi Blair!) We all have to sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight and everyone’s getting a water bottle with the words on so we can all learn it. I intend to just grunt drunkenly instead of worrying about proper type words. Should be magic.
I’ve now been resident in Edinburgh for over a year. That’s sorta shocking to me. Time flying and all that. I’m still in the same place and job I’ve been in since March – Broomhouse (little Bosnia to the locals, apparently) and Queen Margaret University College, still doing the same nonsense, still six foot four and a half. Cal is well settled now also, and I’m finally getting used to having someone else around 24/7, after so many months of random solitude and independence. I loved living alone, but I think I like hugs-on-tap a bit more.
Slowly getting momentum back on writing stuff. The New Novel is stirring once again in my cerebellum or my occipital lobe or my camille paglia or whatever the neurojargon is. Various short bits are waiting in the wings also. Bit disappointed that I haven’t achieved professional publication yet but I think my lack of actually submitting stuff might have something to do with it. Complicated business, what what.
Lots of energy has been going into eternal time-sink of roleplaying games, but with good cause. The Ottakar’s Roleplaying Club that I willed into being six months ago is thriving and building a new generation of collaborative-creative minds whose enthusiasm and damn good ideas keep surprising me week after week. I’ve also had the privilege of leading a game called ‘Providence Summer’ which was about kids and teens in 1961 Providence dealing with the failures of their parents and the hard choices of finding new futures. The five players delivered wild plot twists, deep and engaging characters and heartrending emotional arcs. Every contention I have had, that roleplaying can produce experiences as powerful and real as any other fiction medium, has been borne out in this game.
Speaking of which, it was a great thing to see Return of the King on the big screen. The local connection, of course, but also the message that this is sending to the mass-marketed creative sphere, in tandem with Harry Potter – story is everything. Lord of the Rings will be making money on DVD for decades. Who the hell will be watching Matrix Revolutions in two years’ time? Every hope I had for these movies, back when I first heard that Mighty Joe Young and Godzilla were forcing Peter Jackson to put Kong on the backburner and Rings was announced as the new project, has been fulfilled. We’re looking at the defining pop-cultural moment of the new, er, 25 years or so, just as Star Wars was key for the last one.
I am a happy morgue.
I miss home, a bit. Mostly I wish I could be having all these new experiences without leaving all my friends and family on the other side of the world and out of my life (endless stream of welcome visitors excepted). Looking forward to seeing all your faces again.
Take care, everyone. Compliments of the season.
Peace and love and, seriously, goodwill to all.
~`morgue
Why Be Normal?