Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Advent Calendar 2005 :: Leslie Harpold

I'm not big in to christmas.

I'm not really sure why; it started to happen when I was in my teens. I used to love singing carols in the cathedral, and very much liked the frankinsencey whiff of tradition around the festivities.

But... I don't know. Maybe it was just growing up, and growing out of the avaricious fervour of a kid waiting for santa.

This christmas is particularly odd. Last year I was in the death-throws of a relationship - it actually ended on the day after boxing day, and only got through christmas by drinking myself stupid. The memories are still raw, and combined with my now-regular burst of midwinter depression have proved to be a difficult storm to weather.

The nice thing, of course, is my new relationship; too soon, not what I expected, but nonetheless good. We've got work to do, yes: I need to stop being so reserved, uptight, offhand and cautious, he needs to wash his own socks occasionally; you know, the ususal domestic stuff. But it's... good. Working. Solid. Nice. Not the most exciting set of words to use about it, but to be honest, they're words I set great stock by, and think are much underrated.

So, this christmas will be a change; a new start, a going forward. And for once, it's almost worth celebrating.

Aaaaany-way. This long digression is a preamble to pointing to a small christmas celebration put together by the redoubtable Ms. Harpold, to which I've contributed a memory of a christmas past.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I can relate. It sounds like we've been on parallel tracks.

Last year, I had just ended a tumultuous two-year relationship. Much of the time we had spent living together and finding convenient things to throw in each other's general direction. Luckily we had lousy aim, especially when it came to sharp objects.

Finally, enough was enough, and just a week before Christmas, I moved her to San Francisco. I returned to Washington and a suddenly quiet apartment only to turn around and leave for Dallas the next day to spend Christmas with my brother and his family in suburban Texas. Never fun even under the best of circumstances.

Now, I find myself in another country, in a relatively new relationship. I can agree. Working. Solid. Stable. Well, and a bit exciting. Usually, my relationships are high on drama, low on bliss. Fortunately, this one is inverse of my normal formula.

I hope your 2006 is off to a good start.

kim said...

...and yours too, Kevin!

The move to SF sounds a whole lot more involved than a move down the road to wandsworth...