#365Gratitude Day 360: The Sneakiest Christmas Ninja

As I've said before, I love my wife.

Part of why I love her is because she's got a deep, loving, giving personality.  Whenever something bad happens in the news, she's right there, deeply feeling sorrow with whomever's at the business end of the tragedy.  But she has this same empathy at the micro level, too.  She wants to do good things for people.  

An opportunity for just such a thing came up, recently.  We've got this neighbor who has a young daughter.  Her husband just moved out, maybe a month before Christmas.  "I just got separated at Christmas, yay!" said no-one, ever.

Missy got this great idea, and totally got me and my sister-in-law Marybeth into it.  We would be Secret Christmas Ninjas.  Missy ordered a doll for the daughter, online.  When it came, Marybeth wrapped it, really nicely.  I went to a local grocery store and got a gift certificate.  Missy wrote "Merry Christmas!" on it and sealed it up in an envelope attached to the present.

Then, Christmas Eve (yesterday), she sneaked it over to their front door, and did a ding-and-dash on their doorbell.

Watch.

After she jetted back from her mission, Missy parked herself in the one part of our house where sound travels through from their house, and could hear their delighted cries of surprise.

But the best confirmation came later that night.  Missy got this text message.

Neighbor: "Were you Santa?"

Missy: "Santa who? Huh?"

Neighbor: "We just had a mystery gift on our doorstep and I'm trying to think of who it could be."

Missy: "No idea! Merry Christmas!"

See?  I LOVE HER.

#365Gratitude Day 359: That look

So we had a very nice Christmas.  Missy and I got Marybeth something she's really, really wanted for a while.  Marybeth got me something I have really, really wanted for a while.  (Hint, it rhymes with Zicrophone Groom.) 

I got some amazing presents, including a custom-cross-stitched shark sweater that's beautiful (from Rachel), and an absolutely adorable BB-8 iPhone-controllable sphere droid.  (It's amazing.)

But the best thing was the look on Missy's face when I surprised her with a very nice necklace and ring.

She was not expecting any such thing.  And she got this wonderful look on her face.

You know the look I'm talking about.  That look of "I'm overwhelmed because someone is doing something so nice for me that I can't even process how much it means to me."

I LOVE THAT LOOK.  Wanna see it on Missy's face?

Who am I kidding?  Of course you do.

I love her so much.

#365Gratitude Day 358: Now I know my ABC's...

So, just before Auntie Squee and I "changed out fetlives", by which I mean announced our relationship to our fetlife friends by changing our profiles, we decided to do a plushie exchange.

Wave hi to the nice readers, Terry!

I sent her one of my sharks, Terry Adorable.

And she in return sent me Broccoli.

No, not like actual vegetable broccoli.  Broccoli is a plushie.  She's really cool.  She's got teensy little arms and legs, and wears a blue checked skirt/dress thing that's cute.  

She told me shortly after she got to my house that if I want to I can call her "Brocs" or even "Brox" for short, when I'm in a hurry.

Here's the ABC Gang, together.

So Missy films me opening my Brox Box from Auntie Squee, which was like this super-tender and wonderful moment together.  Then we cuddle up and go to bed.  As I'm drifting off, I realized something awesome which I told Missy, and I'll tell you now.

Now my three most important plushies are a sort of gang or club.

There's...

Alice - who's my friend.  My mommy Missy got her custom made for me special, because she's the in-person avatar of my imaginary friend.  Alice represents how amazing my life with Missy as my wife and Mommy is to me.  She gets me, and actively takes good care of me, in all sorts of ways.  She often knows what I need before I do, and it shows.  She got me Alice the doll after watching me struggle so hard to explain what Alice looks like, and how important she is to me.  It's a really touching story.

Broccoli - who's my cuddle buddy.  Broccoli belonged to Auntie Squee for a long time, and was her constant companion in all sorts of ways and places.  I have visited with Broccoli over Skype many, many times.  Broccoli does this super important job for my Auntie, and for me.  She's like the local Squee Ambassador in my home, and my life.  She's there for me to cuddle whenever I want and need to.  This is important, because we live hundreds of miles apart.  Auntie Squee and I are constantly fine-tuning the way we connect, and finding little times and ways to be a part of each other's day.  Having Brox here with me, is a big one.  

Chum - Chum is my alpha plushie.  I've had him for over 12 years now.  He was a gift from my ex, and he's one of the stars of Finding Nemo.  He's a mako shark, and he does this super important job for me.  He's the seat of my insecurities.  He's timid, shy, reserved, and more than a little neurotic.  He stays home safe, while I go out in the world and do big scary things.  Chum is a link to my past, and the avatar of an enormous part of my personality.  I love him, and know him to be an intentionally-made-separate part of myself.  

Together, these three form the ABC Gang.  I love them.  

#365Gratitude Day 357: OK, so I have ONE spoiler.

I've joined that elusive, and ever-dwindling club, Those What Have Seen The Star Wars And What Don't Want to Spoil It For Others.

I have a lot of friends in this club.  Been sharing this ridiculous picture of a car's rear spoiler with the STAR WARS logo on it with them, and each time I do, they laugh.

Besides sharing this little bit of silliness with you, there actually is this sort of semi-serious gratitude related to it.  I have noticed a lot of drama, a lot of sturm und drang on social media over people getting all hot and bothered under the collar about other people spoiling the movie for them.  People say, "Hey, don't you jackasses spoil this movie for me!" or "I'm just warning you, I'm going to not be on twitter/facebook/whatevs for a while to avoid all you spoiler-bitches."

I simultaneously roll my eyes at this, and at the same time, do understand.  I roll my eyes at people's assumption that if they aren't on Facebook for a while it will be really terrible for others.  How vapid!  

(Don't get me wrong, in recent weeks I've come to really enjoy facebook, and get a lot of utility out of it.  I have decided to enjoy it on my own terms.)

But I do understand.  People say this stuff because they're (just like me) frail, fragile imperfect human beings.  They each have their own joys, fears, braveries, insecurities.  My getting upset that people get upset is my own sort of "no-spoiler" pain.  

So I'm grateful for spoilers, and not sharing them.  Look at all the learning I'm doing about others by not telling them things they don't want to know.

#365Gratitude Day 356: Just recently, right here on earth...

So I've been a Star Wars fan since I first saw Episode IV, back when I was six years old, in 1977.  I remember sitting in the movie theater, and trembling a bit when Darth Vader force-choked Admiral Motti.  

Okay, let's be honest.  It scared me, so much so that I actually wet my pants.  But I didn't say anything because I was both a bit ashamed and like really into the movie.

Anyhow, so years go by.  I faithfully watch and absolutely love episodes V and VI.  It all feels so bittersweet when episode VI ends, because, well, that's all folks.

Then, the prequels came out.  I really wanted to like them.  Episode I is, in a word, terrible.  I wish I liked it.  I don't.  It crushed me a little, really.

I'm a fanboy.  It's not a title I wear with even the least bit of shame.  There's even a movie about some Star Wars fanboys on a mission to watch Episode I with their terminally ill friend.  It's a hysterical movie which Spacey and I have watched together, because he's a fanboy too.  (In fact, he is the one who introduced me to the film.)

Episodes II and III are okay.  I don't mind them.  But I don't watch them over and over the way I do the original movies.  They don't speak to me.

When I first heard Episode VII, The Force Awakens was coming out, I had very mixed feelings.  I didn't want to get hoodwinked.  I'd sort of put aside my feelings of being let-down by the prequels, and developed a veneer of careful apathy.

I watched the trailers, but with a careful distance.  

Then Missy, Marybeth and I got tickets to see it.  In IMAX, in 3-D at the Air & Space Museum Extension over by Dulles Airport.  I couldn't maintain my jaded, and let's admit it, artificial ennui anymore.  I was hyped.

So we went.

And it was, in a word, glorious.

I felt like I was six again.  I laughed, cheered, cried, made the appropriate ooh's and ahh's at all the right points.  (No, I didn't wet my pants.  Although if I'd prepared for it ahead of time, I could have done so comfortably.  Maybe I need to get some tickets to see it again.)

I won't spoil any little bit of it for you.  You should go see it.

People were nervous. Heck I was nervous.  J. J. Abrams? Lens flare guy?  I don't know...

But he did a great job.  The movie bridges the franchise, so that a new generation of actors and stories can continue it.  

I never really gave up on Star Wars.  I was here waiting for it to be great again.  And it is.

My friend Shokolada (who has mad google-fu), found this comic for me, which expresses my heartfelt yearning for, and reconnection to Star Wars so well.

It's like a ray of hope.  (Shush.)