First Installment of "Things We Hate and Why"

Phone Calls From a Bar

D and I hate it when people call to chat from a bar. It always makes for a weird situation. Let me give you an example:

"Hello!"  says caller.

"Hello?" says me (mind you, thanks to caller ID I'm aware of who's on the other line, but because it's so loud on his or her end of the phone-because he or she is at a bar-I can't hear them and am, therefore, uncertain as to whether it is, in fact, who I think it is or if it's a friend of his or her's who has gotten hold of his/her's phone and is now calling me on it to play a joke).

"Hey. It's me. What're you doing?"

"What?"Ordinarily, this is the moment where I start raising my voice, too.

"WHAT ARE YOU DO-ING?" caller shouts.

"I'm hanging out at home. Going to bed soon."

"WHAT?" 

Now I'm yelling, too, and at this point in my life I've figured out that I can speak using my 'indoor voice' and be heard just fine since there is no background noise coming into the caller's ear from my end to muffle my speech, but I've already forgotten this and have resorted to yelling back. "I'M GO-ING TOOO BED-uh!" (the "be-duh" is for emphasis on the "D")

"Ohhh. I'm at the bar with (insert two familiar names and at least one unfamiliar name here). We're playin..."

Having remembered about the indoor voice I go back to it, "You're playing what?"

"Insert indecipherable word here."

"What? I can't hear you."

"Insert indecipherable word again."

About to give up and now sitting exasperatedly on my bed, "What?"

"POOL!"

Pool! Yes! I know that one. "Pool?"

"Yes, pool."

And so the convo goes. We having a sneaking suspicion everyone hates this, right??? Anyhow, it frustrates me for a variety of reasons. One is the obvious one above. Two is that I, too, would like to be out at a bar somewhere on a Friday night but can't be because I have spent the day running errands or some such foolery and am now too tired to find someone to go to a bar with...plus then I'd need a ride home or to be the DD, plus the friends I have who aren't married would want to leave themselves open to be approached by guys and I don't want to be a wingman (wingwoman?). You get the point. It's just not ideal. Have I mentioned yet that, really, I hate that it sounds like the person calling me is having a really great time while I'm hanging out with my fur-children? See what I mean? Kinda makes my life look a little dull all of a sudden! Those of you who have been in this position (I'd venture a guess it's many of you, right?) know what I'm saying.

But wait...don't confuse this with drunk dialing and leaving messages. My friend Cady leaves the greatest drunk messages ever. They go something like this:

"Neesha. It's Cady (pronounced: Caddie as a joke from Mean Girls, of course). When I woke up this morning my pants were in the kitchen, my shoe was in the bathroom sink, my other was in bed with me and I couldn't find my glasses. Have you seen my glasses? I had them on in the pictures I took from last night, then all of a sudden. Well. They're just not there anymore. I'm glad you didn't answer your phone so I could just tell you this. I miss you. Let me know if you find my glasses. I'm going back to bed."

See what I mean?

She has the system down to a science, too. It's just about formulaic: she calls and leaves the messages either so late that she knows I'm sound asleep and won't answer my phone even if I do hear it or she calls so early that she knows I won't yet be awake. I love them so much I save them in my voicemail so I can listen to them whenever I need a good laugh or just miss Cady-she lives in Pittsburgh :(

To sum up: Loud bar calls where conversation is expected from us if we answer the phone-BAD. Drunk dialed voicemails-INVITED and AWESOME. It makes us (me) feel thought of even when you are a bit tipsy. Sign of true care and friendship, right?

Thanks for reading our first installment of "Things We Hate and Why." Keep an eye out for the next one entitled: Second Installment of "Things We Hate and Why."

Hope your New Year is still going splendidly!

xoxo

N

PS-Cady, if you're reading-it's time for a new message!

New Year, New Adventures

Happy New Year! Last night, my family gathered together to celebrate New Year's Eve together. I should mention that this was the first time we've all spent New Year's Eve together like this since I was about 17 or 18 years old (for those who aren't good at math, like me, that's about eleven years!). When my grandma got sick years ago, my mom and her siblings had different ideas on how she should be cared for. Needless to say, their different opinions got in the way and divided them ever since. They hadn't spoken in about ten years or so when they began again a little over a year ago. I like to remind them that I had faith, despite their stubbornness, but mostly it just makes me happy to see that they no longer need me or anyone else to bridge the gap between them (I used to try to keep in touch with all of them, even though they weren't speaking, to make a resolution easier for them when it finally came about). Now they are close on their own. THey speak daily...all of them. It takes my mom about an hour to get through talking to each of them individually. Maybe more. But the old tradition was for us to go to my uncle's, have a huge dinner, open Christmas presents,  drink champagne and ring in the new year. This year was the first, and possibly the last since my parents are planning to move permanently down south, family new year celebration in a long time. Here is my family:

Papa, Jack, Aunt Patti, Uncle Teddy, Aunt Honey, Aunt Ronnie, John, Mom, Aunt Barbara, Jamey (tall one in the back), Liddy, Me, Uncle John.

We opened presents, ate three courses of extremely artery clogging food, had drinks, caught up on stories, shared old family stories, watched Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve and toasted in the New Year together. Instead of trying to fully recap, let me show you what a typical holiday with our entire family looks like:

The night began in the kitchen with presents, drinks and appetizer-making.

Aunt Patti and UJ have a super cool kitchen-incase you can't tell. It seriously looks like something straight out of a magazine. Yellow is a warm color and  most of the kitchen is yellow (obviously) with some hints of red here and there. They cook like fiends. So much, in fact, my UJ had a larger deck made so he could have huge barbecues and picnics out there in the summer. It's like nothing you've ever seen!

UJ made the antipasto with Jamey and Mom looking on. It consisted of a layer of lettuce, Genoa salami, prosciutto,  roasted red peppers, tomatoes, olives, hard boiled eggs, provolone cheese, mozzarella, marinated artichoke hearts, olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Aunt Patti made stuffed mushrooms and sausage bread with cheese. We had regular Italian bread and hot Italian peppers...then we moved on to dinner...

Oh...and, of course, there was wine, too!

This was our first course on the right...before we move on.

Dinner consisted of gemelli pasta, sausage, braghioli (braccioli...I can't figure out how to spell it, but it's pig skin stuffed with herbs and egg and stuff...I almost threw it up when my Aunt Honey made my try it), meatballs, pork spare ribs without the bone and beef briskets, bowls of fresh ricotta cheese, escarole with garlic and oil, more wine and bread. Whew! And then it was midnight (yeah, it took that long) so we took a break from eating and had a champagne toast with Dick Clark. 

Uncle John and my dad waiting for the ten second countdown. They have been watching Dick Clark's New Year's Eve since before Ryan Seacrest was even born. Before Dick Clark had his stroke...before, well...before I existed, at the least. One year, the year Dick Clark had his stroke and couldn't host the show, my hilarious Aunt Ronnie got drunk at our house, said she couldn't believe it was going to be a "Dick-less Rockin' Eve," then tried to take an open champagne bottle home with her, but ended up making my Uncle Teddy stop on the highway for her to get sick out the door of the car. She hasn't had a New Year's like that since (thankfully!) and, instead, she was the designated driver last night and NO ONE got sick! Once the toast ended, presents commenced...

To the left, we've got the present openers. Mom, Aunt Honey, Papa, Uncle Teddy and Aunt Barb...

Aunt Honey is the oldest living relative on my Mom's side of the family. She's 76 and sharp as a tack! If you're coming to the wedding, watch out! She will not hold back...and she loves her wine!

Of course we had dessert then...ricotta cheese fried balls rolled in powdered sugar,  chocolate pound cake, rum cake, strawberries (for good measure, of course!), brownies, cheese cake and honey balls...aka Aunt Honey's balls (well, she made 'em! and got a kick out of that joke!). 

Needless to say, we were more full than any other human beings have ever been. Lots of love, drinks, food, jokes, stories and new memories. We missed my sibs (Amit, Seale, Kier and Sar), as well as my niece and nephew, and,  of COURSE, my Fi (who was in Cape with his Mama ringing in 2009, too! Family everywhere!) who I got to speak to exactly as the ball dropped Eastern Standard time and less than a minute after it turned midnight Central time! Even two times didn't make up for us being so far away, but soon we will be back in CoMo bringing you more new and exciting 2009 adventures. We hope you  stick with us!

We had a fabulous time ringing in 2009 and I hope everyone else did, too! Tell us your stories! What was your favorite part??? Tomorrow...Day One of 2009...and the gluttonous indulgence continues.

Happy New Year! We wish you health, happiness and prosperity!

World of Wii Fit! or WWF!

Welcome to the wonderful World of Wii Fit! For our birthdays, my parents and siblings bought Fi and I a Wii complete with the Wii Fit game and accessories. Fi hasn't had an opportunity to play yet, but I managed to get a Wii Fit workout in earlier this evening with my mom and dad looking on. Suffice it to say, my Wii Sports needs some work, but my Wii Fit wasn't so bad.

The cool thing about this Wii Fit program is that it keeps track of my progress. I did, however, ask it not to tell me how much I weighed, though it has no problem telling me if my balance is poor or if my performance on a certain event, program or yoga position is "couch potato" level. I named my Wii Fit trainer Claire (you can pick between a woman or a man), and she was pretty encouraging, sometimes. I'll keep you updated on how it goes with Claire and Wii Fit.

I also tried this pretty scrumptious Fage Greek yogurt today with some tasty three berry granola (I know that sounds unappealing to some, but I have to admit, I'm a total sucker for granola and berries-not fruits, mind you-just berries). I'd heard about this Fage yogurt for quite some time from a few of the food blogs I peek in on and am pleased to announce it is as wonderful as everyone says and I highly recommend this delish combo. It's creamy and a little thick and very filling. I had half a cup and put the rest back in the fridge. Perhaps my mom's lasagna (boo-yanya-in baby Dustin's language) filled me up or the excellent Indian veggies I had for lunch that Mom made for my birthday.

Moving on, though, Fi and I hope you all had a spectacular holiday thus far. Mine started out with a twenty-hour drive back to NY in rain, sleet and snow followed by the arrival ofmy siblings: Kiran and Sara with an unexpected cousin's arrival on Christmas Eve (Srinivas or just Sri: pronunciation-Shree).  My family gathers at our house for Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day we head over to my Aunt Ronnie's house-two hours away, but worth the trip.

Here's my family on Christmas Eve from left to right...Uncle Teddy, Mom, Kiran, Sara, Pop, Aunt Barb, my cousin Jamey, and Aunt Ronnie

On Christmas morning, we have another tradition where we open gifts from youngest to oldest. This means little Sara goes first, then me, Kier, Mom and Pop. My favorite part of Christmas is giving gifts I think the people I care about would like. I know that probably sounds totally corny, but true. This year Dustin and I did gifts for our families together-which is also a first-and everyone seemed really excited and happy about what they got. We gave Sara some pj's she wanted, a pair of shoes and Hall and Oates' Greatest Hits. Kier got a giant 93 piece car kit for his new car.We gave Mom some clothes cus she said she needed them terribly. Clothes are tough, but Connie completely dug what we gave her. For Pop there were slippers and sweatsuits (yes, they still actually sell sweatsuits and my dad has gotten VERY into outdoor work since he retired a few years back). We gave Aunt Barb new pants since she doesn't fit into ANY of her hand-me-down ones and, lastly, we gave Sri an iHome for his iPod. Everyone seemed happy, which made me ridiculously happy, too!

Oh, I almost forgot-my fam totally hooked me up, too. I got a new battery for my computer so I'm able to write my blogs whilst sitting on the completely cozy chaise lounge in my parents living room. Kier and Sara gave me a Garmin because Dustin and I travel so much that they thought we needed it-which they were right about. This will make my drive back to Columbia so much easier than trying to read my hand-written directions in the light given off by passing traffic on the highway.

After gifts, I went for a run in some of the new running tights Mom and Pop gave me and it felt fabulous. It'd been way too long since I'd run (about a week, maybe a little less than that, but still!) When I came back, the family had started on breakfast which Kiran made: eggs of all kinds, omelettes, (I had a yummy egg white one with veggies), toast and breakfast meats. I was starving and had some coffee and my omelette before heading to the shower and getting ready to head up to my aunt's house for part two of gift-opening and more eating.

So, we drove the two hours to my aunt's where we snacked on some shrimp, cheeses, crackers and tons of little eats. The  scrumptious scent of browning turkey filled the house. Aunt Ronnie had made my favorite dishes: roasted veggies and broccoli with garlic and pepper. We were preparing to sit down and have dinner after posing for some pics and helping set the table when out of nowhere...disaster struck.

Above is a photo of the women in our family at dinner that night. Mom, Sara, Aunt Ronnie and myself.

To the left is a photo of my Uncle Teddy and one of his and Aunt Ronnie's dog's: Cash. Cash is just a little over a year old. He's a purebred shepherd from Germany, but not well socialized. Above is also a picture of the kitchen where Cash and Sara were when the incident occurred. As a matter of fact, we were all in the kitchen getting ready to sit down for dinner when Sara bent down to Cash's level and began to pet his face with her little hands (Sara is maybe 95 pounds, 5'2.5" and, as you can see, very small overall). No sooner did she say, "See, Cash, you don't have to be afraid. I'm not scary," than Cash barked and bit her right in the face. Poor Sara is unlike anyone else I know and instead of sounding an alarm or yelling, crying, anything, she gets silent when she's badly hurt. Reactions were slow motion, but as she stood, I ran across the room in time to see blood pour out of her chin, forehead and lower lip. My dad and mom rushed her into the bathroom and I washed off her hands which were covered in blood and icy to the touch. She cried quietly while my parents cleaned her up and put bandaids on to keep the skin as close together as possible while they drove twenty minutes to the ER of the hospital my dad used to see patients in once in a while.

The left is Sara heading to the ER and on the right is her return to Christmas dinner. She may be tiny, but she is completely tough and what a trooper! She had my mom text us from the ER to let us know she was hungry and planned to eat when she arrived back at my aunt's house. They used derma-bond to close up the gashes on her forehead and chin and she was back in less than two and a half hours.

We were thrilled to have her back and she told me, later, in confidence that she didn't want Christmas to be ruined since it had already been hard enough on the family without my Grandma around. In some regards, my little one saved Christmas. Sara was always kind of mine. Sure, she's my parents daughter, but somehow she was always my responsibility which made her mine in some way so it felt wrong for me to not go with her, but too many is too many and it was definitely my parents place to be there.

After more gifts and food, we headed home. The next day we began my 29th birthday celebration! Kier, Sri and Sar made Kiran's famous Gumbo for dinner and the next night Mom and Sri made Indian food with Sara's help. Then we had a wonderful cake complete with candles and presents from my family. Besides all the awesome Wii stuff, Kiran gave me a GPS watch to keep mileage when I run so I don't have to jump in my car and drive around like crazy keeping track of the odometer.

While the celebrations have been wonderful, today Kiran was the last to go. Sara and Sri took off yesterday after a fancy Sunday brunch (complete with mimosas) and I'll be home through the New Year. It's never the same when they leave. Before Kier departed, we celebrated my birthday for the third night in a row last night by going to see the movie Gran Tarino with Clint Eastwood (very sad...and everyone, including Fi, said the same thing: Why does Clint Eastwood make all these sad/serious movies all the time now?). Usually, we celebrate my birthday for days and, thanks to Kiran saying he couldn't imagine celebrating for just one day, we did it again this year. Can you imagine what next year will be like?

Today, I spent two hours in the DMV renewing my dad's registration for his car and had way more close proximity to people than I feel comfortable with (they were all touchy and unaware of how much they'd invade personal space by hitting into me or rubbing their hand against my hair...etc.). Hated it.  Then I went to the jewelry store to try and pick up my wedding ring (it's my mom's, but way too small for my enormous fingers so it had to be adjusted), but it's closed on Mondays...then back to my Wii Fit extravaganza. We've come full circle now, my loves, and I promise my next blog won't be so long to get through OR so full of stuff!

Hope your holiday has been wonderful and unforgettable. Tell us your favorite holiday stories or gifts! We can't call you all individually...please, please share with us cus, really, we miss you! :)

xoxo

N

P.S.-Mrs. A. Parker...if you're reading...Thanks for liking our blog! We hope you keep reading!

Gossip Girl Update

Gossip Girl here. Your one and only source with news on Tate Hall/Columbia, Missouri's elite.

Spotted: UTH's (Upper Tate Hall) very own A. Parker floating on stage, dolled up in a satin black gown and matching mortar board to retrieve his Masters degree with his family (need I mention they're as devastatingly attractive as he is?) proudly looking on. There's no question where he gets his fab fashion sense from when he you see him in the presence of his family. Makes you want to change your last name to "Parker!" Word on the street is that A is heading back to Kentucky and breaking all the UTH-ers hearts in the process. Don't go, A! What will UTH be without you? (Sniff. Sob!)

Not to be outdone, running man Lance B. waltzed across the stage just a few rows behind A. to snag his diploma, as well, while his family and main squeeze, Emily, looked on. Rumor has it things are pretty serious on the E and L front as they've passed the seven month mark and are about to have their first Christmas as a couple! No word yet on gift-exchange, but you can bet on it being thoughtful and sweet-just like the two of them. Aww. So sweet I feel as though I've overdosed on sugar.

Also in attendance: Lil B with her new beau Eli. Not much 411 on the Eli front yet, though he was spotted at Lil B's Cookie Making Party, Dustineesha's Christmas Party a few days later (see pic below) and now Graduation. Did Lil B find someone to keep her warm during this frigid holiday season? Only time will tell.

And, of course, Dustineesha. Are they making anyone else sick yet? N was spotted having a minor freak out in the middle of Graduation after A. and L. walked. In the know-ers claim it was over her camera not taking clear pictures and her stomach growling from hunger. Didn't anyone tell her missing a meal wouldn't kill her? Gawd, N, how unbecoming of a UTH-er. And D, as usual, remained cool, calm and collected. Ying and yang, anyone? I hear they're spending this holiday season apart: stay tuned for sadness and boredom without news on our love-hate relationship with this sappy couple.

Congratulations, Graduates!

Like every holiday season, I'm looking forward to all the gossip that occurs over break. With traveling, family gathering, friends reconnecting and others out of touch for a while, there's sure to be some tantalizing morsels upon our return.

So in the holiday spirit, Happy Holidays.

You know you love me.

xoxo

Gossip Girl

Sledding

Oh, my achin' head.



Dustin here. There've been a couple of happenings we keep meaning to write about but haven't gotten around to yet, namely sledding and the Magic Tree. I got dibs on sledding.


Neesha claims she's fairly new to this, but she's a natural. We got to Stephen's Lake Park near downtown Columbia around 11 Wednesday morning, as the last sputterings of the night before's wintery mix drifted down. There wasn't much snow, but there was enough. Neesh snapped this pic. The batteries died before it was her turn.



There were clues that sledders had been there before us, evidenced by the broken S. William's Street sign we found (and kept). That's typical. Clearly, nobody read my blog about how you need to get a sled before there's snow or you'll end up scooting around on a cafeteria tray or a broken street sign, or on the hood of a car like the geniuses in this video my friends Trickey and Jesse shot a few years ago back in the Cape.





(If it doesn't play, click here)

Geniuses aside, Trickey got some wicked air on that first jump.


To Neesha, sledding doesn't make any sense at all. It's cold, for one thing -- a fatal flaw when it comes to activities Neesha potentially can enjoy. And it's too simple. Sitting in a molded piece of plastic and riding it down a slick inclined plane, then hiking back up and doing it again seems to Neesha like something on the level of insect behavior -- a primative, ingrained, repetitious tic left over from an age before the animal brain developed the capacity for enjoying more advanced kinds of stimulation like Gossip Girl. She does not like sledding, but she put up with it for a while so that I could go.

That was cool of her.

He asked for a 13, but they drew a 31

You should all know, first of all, that I'm totally wasted. So wasted in fact that I was trying to write "Dustin here" like I normally do when I make the bloggings but it kept coming out Dusitin. Like the butt cream. No bueno.

Today is my birthday. Thank you, thank you. I feel every bit of 31.

Yesterday I actually searched the closets for my great grandfather's cane. No kidding. I need it because I hurt myself trying to stretch. Something's not right in my left leg, high up, a little left of my groin. Chances are I pulled a muscle, but it's been years since I pulled a muscle stretching and I don't remember it feeling this bad. I'm hobbling around like a crotchety old geezer and I could use a cane. This is what 31 is like, kiddos.

Other than the constant muscle, joint, and tendon pain, the reduced recovery time, the decrease in athletic performance despite an increase in effort, the weight gain, the slowing metabolism, and the wiry silver hairs that sprout from my head twice as fast as their soft, brown neighbors, 31 is turning out to be okay so far. I got up early and went to the rec center to swim laps and sit in the hot tub, which was awesome -- a little preview of what being retired in Florida must be like. Then there was this birthday brunch bash held by Stephanie. Terrific food with outstanding people in her warm home. That's her on the left, Neesh middle, Alexis right. Not pictured: Anthony Connolly, Brandon and Niya Bond, and me. We love these people. They make hours feel like moments. They make our English department feel like home.

Later, while Neesha made a final exam for her kiddies, I had a glass of bubbly and took a nice long nap this afternoon, savoring the fact that I didn't even have to remove a set of dentures first.

Then there's this:

(Brief Neesha comment here: in my defense, there was music playing in the background and I didn't realize he was filming. I thought he was still trying to figure out what setting he wanted the camera on!)

I know. Hilarious!

Neesha took me out to dinner at Jina Yoo's Asian Bistro. That was seriously amazing. Great sushi. Neesha said it best: The flavors explode in the mouth.

At Jina Yoo's, Neesh ordered me a shot that was on fire! That's how one's supposed to drink it, too. I got about half of it down before the straw melted.

Like that fetching sweater? Birthday present from Neesha. And that handsome button down under it? Birthday present from Neesha. And the very rock star pair of black Sketchers (not pictured)? You bet your sweet butt. Neesha hooked me up this birthday.

On a birthday when he was a tad younger than I, the famous explorer Captain Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clarke) journaled that his life was pretty much halfway over and he hadn't done enough to advance humankind or his nation. He therefore pledged, on his birthday (I think it was his 30th), to stop screwing around and get on with doing something important. And not long after that he was appointed, through a byzantine, old-old boys' club channel, to co-head the Corps of Discovery and find a water route across the U.S. to the Pacific Ocean.

I, Dustin Michael, hereby make no such pledge, and I'll tell you why. First off, considering that 10 years ago, when I turned 21, I awoke the following morning to discover I'd passed out early and been dressed up in my pal Rob's sister's prom dress, fitted with a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, and posed and photographed with the various people who had attended my birthday party, I'd say I've come quite a way in a mere decade.

Also, the illustrious Capt. Lewis, unable to keep a relationship going or outshine his glory days as a trailblazing icon of the American frontier, took his own life in some dark Kentucky backwater just a few years after he decided on paper to do something awesome with his life.

So look for more of the same from yours truly -- slow, steady professional advancement coupled with nonstop romance-department fireworks.


And look for me to complain about a headache if I do a blog tomorrow. Still, waking up with a headache is better than waking up in drag. For real.


I seriously love you guys.

Neesha, I love you.

Hipsters and Stuff White People Like

A Parker has turned us onto the website stuffwhitepeoplelike.com so Fi and I have been sitting home by the fire with the tree lights on and the snow falling outside of our windows looking at this website and laughing. Not long ago, and sporadically throughout the year, really, we have been accosted with criticism from people we don't know either very well or at all. Beyond that, we have also recently heard that we are not in the "hipster" group and it's been suggested that that group does not like us because we are not "hipsters."

This is perplexing to me. I didn't know what a "hipster" was until Fi had me google it online just ten minutes ago. It was then that I learned, from multiple sources, that hipsters are not cool, though they seem to think they are. But, moreso, they deny being hipsters, take up causes or interests without actually caring for or about (or maybe not even knowing) what the actual reason for those causes or interests are (in other words, the heart and soul of them); they desire to be seen as environmentally friendly, vegan/vegetarian, indie-loving, culturally aware, fashion-saavy intellectual do-it-yourself-ers. (Dustin would like to add, by way of illustration, that he is now wearing flannel-lined cargo pants and a Mizzou hoodie-neither of which are worn in an ironic way. AKA-not hipster attire.) However, according to the websites we read (since, need I remind you, we aren't hipsters so we NEED these websites to educate us), hipsters also have a tendency to be on the middle-upper class side yet give the outward appearance of being more on the 'independent', middle-just-getting-by class. In other words, they dress the part, but don't actually live it the way organic farmers and their indie-band singing children do, for example. Those are the real indies whilst "hipsters" are the wannabes, it turns out.

Dustin: Basically, these are people who will put down a shitload of wine and hummus while using terms from their critical theory anthologies to explain why your favorite band sucks. 

The question we're dealing with here is one A. Parker brought up at our Christmas party, which is whether or not the "white people" described on the Stuff White People Like" blog are hipsters. It's like an ACT question: True or false -- All hipsters are white people, and all white people are hipsters.

I'm going with false. I've never seen one of those tight jeans-wearing, indie-music-loving, movie-I've-never-even-heard-of-quoting assholes (A. Parker excluded, of course) wear outdoor performance gear, for instance, and that's an entry on Stuff White People Like. 

(I totally love Gortech)

And while the Wikipedia entry on hipsters cites them as interested in brewing their own beer, and I've certainly heard local hipster types talk about this, I've also heard it from aging boomers in the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran back in Cape Girardeau -- about as far from hipsterish as one can go.

Have we done a Chistmas song in a while, Neesh? No? Okay. Let's do a Christmas song.

Dustin's Pick: "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

His Reason: "Makes me cry sometimes on the line, "The hopes and fears of all the years/Are met in thee tonight." That's a lot to put on a baby. And don't get me wrong, it's not like "O Holy Night," which makes me cry every time, but still, not too shabby. 

Neesha's Pick!: Well. Mine is actually in the same vein as Fi's. "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"

Reason: It's just super pretty and, perhaps, a nod to my future number one pick!