Holiday Musings

[Something I wrote to a fellow gay-librarian who, like me, is basically unchurched.]

I was one of those odd ducks who was raised agnostic. My parents rebelled from their Southern small-town Methodist upbringing (they were born in 1932 and 1933, respectively) so my brothers and I never went to church except on a very few occasions when visiting relatives and the one summer they made us go to Sunday school (while they stayed home and read the newspaper...)

I converted (Presbyterian) after marrying Janet and belonging to very progressive, inclusive, social justice oriented churches in Ann Arbor and Atlanta was a very good thing. I stopped being a regular churchgoer after I came out, partly because back in those days it was more important to go out on Saturday evening and sleep in Sunday morning, partly because I never found a church that seemed quite right (MCC tends to be Much Too Charismatic for me, mainstream churches -- even those with big gay congregations -- still tend to assume that "you're just like us, marriage and monogamy, right, just 2 guys or 2 girls instead of 1 of each," i.e., they just don't get it...)

Any more I say I'm "Presbyfaerian," half Presbyterian, half Radical Faerie. I don't do dogma; I just know that the Universe, including us, is made out of love, and that love endures forever, and that my consciousness, in some form I can't imagine, will survive my body. (I'm also well aware that this thought system probably arises from my mammalian nature and that if I'd been hatched I'd probably have a very different point of view!)

And, yes, I like the lights.

The Holidays (Part 2)

David and Emily arrived Saturday evening, December 30, about 4-5 hours later than we'd planned owing to weather difficulties somewhere along the way.

By that time we figured it made sense to go somewhere for dinner rather than try to cook. Our first choice, the new Cheesecake Factory at Walden Galleria, was totally packed, with a two-hour wait! (Only in Buffalo do you get incredibly long lines for "new!" chain restaurants; last time I checked it was just about as bad at Panera Bread, of all places.) We ended up at Smokey Bones, yet another chain, but one that serves pretty decent BBQ. Didn't hurt that they have about 20 flat panel television monitors, all with sporting events. So we watched UGA pound Virginia Tech in the Peach Bowl, which was kinda fun (considering we NEVER watch football.)

Sunday evening we had a little New Year's Eve get together at our house; D & E were, as usual, pressed into temporary duty as housebots -- they're so good at it and remarkably uncomplaining! The "do" was very simple, just us and the kids, plus our across the street neighbors (Matt and Anita), one of Naoyuki's colleagues and her husband (Shaneli and Scott), and our in-town friend, Jim. In addition to munching cheese and crackers and nachos and chips and, all washed down with some late harvest Vidal from Konzelmann's in Niagara-on-the-Lake, we played team Trivial Pursuit, until we couldn't take it any more. Shaneli and Scott had to leave early so we all trotted over to Matt's and Anita's house where Anita's mom, Kathy, was watching the kids (Hannah, Erin, and Brennan), and we made LOTS of noise when the big ball finally dropped in Times Square.

Monday we staggered out of bed in time to drive up to Toronto (it takes about 2 hours or a little more, depending on traffic) to see one of the last performances of the Blue Man Group at the Panasonic Theatre on Yonge Street. It was and wasn't what I expected (the percussion, yes, the "fun with paint and twinkies," no) but we enjoyed it, regardless. We got to town early enough to have a quick bite of lunch across the street at Zyng, an Asian noodlery (one of about 20 in about a 4-block stretch of Yonge), which was quite yummy. We'd tentatively planned to stay after for dinner but the show wasn't really that long (about 90 minutes) and when it was over we decided just to head home instead.

What else?

We rented all kinds of movies, most of which I didn't watch. David and Emily and I went to see The Good Shepherd (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and many other big names), which I quite liked even though it was somewhat depressing. All four of us went to see Children of Men, which Naoyuki was thinking would be something like The Producers -- guess what? It isn't! Not remotely! Another great movie but even more depressing than The Good Shepherd. Sort of odd movies to be coming out at that time of the year, if you ask me, but no one does, of course!

Also:

Another evening (Wednesday? Thursday? I forget now) we had ALL the Weppners over again, this time for spaghetti, hanging out with the kids, etc. Brennan and I watched Finding Nemo (he's seen it about 3000 times, which is pretty good since he's celebrating his 4th birthday tomorrow!) while Hannah and Erin were completely fascinated by our travel photos. :-)

Soon enough it was time to take 'em back to the airport. Not sure when the next visits will be; David has spring break in March, Emily has spring break in early April, and then I'll be down in Atlanta for her high school graduation Memorial Day weekend.

Holiday Happenings (Part 1)

For Christmas weekend Naoyuki and I went to Niagara Falls, Ontario, mostly figuring most things in Buffalo would be closed and, well, why not?

Naoyuki found (as usual) an enormously good deal on a hotel room, this time at the Sheraton on the Falls, which has a stunning view of the American Falls and the Rainbow Bridge, plus it is attached to several attractions, including Casino Niagara and the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark, which is a scarily gigantic six-story dome-covered attraction built, believe it or not, on top of a parking deck!

Not that we did anything that exciting. Our activities included an exquisite Saturday afternoon lunch at Peller Estates in Niagara-on-the-Lake; jam shopping at another NOTL favorite, Kurtz Orchards; a quick trip up to Burlington, ON to check out IKEA for the first time in a long, long time; a peek at the Royal Botanical Gardens, also in Burlington, where we found a couple of deeply-discounted framed prints of (all things!) palm trees; and dinner at Yukiguni, reputedly the best sushi restaurant in Niagara Falls and certainly the best we've found this side of Toronto. We also spent some time dithering around Fallsview Casino, including Christmas Eve dinner at Asian Pearl (I regret to report that they were horribly understaffed and even if the food had been more than just so-so I still would have had a hissy-tanty. As it was, I walked out telling the people lined up to get in, "you don't want to eat here!") Quite dismaying, really.

Christmas Day we headed back to Buffalo, where we had some lunch at the home of our friends Matt and Anita and their three young children (Hannah, Erin, and Brennan.) Then home to touch base with the kids and their mom and various grandparents (more about THAT another time...)

Unfortunately, I came down with a cold the very next day, nothing really icky but tiring, nonetheless. I worked at GCC on Friday, December 29th, even though I was still feeling a bit under the weather. My guess was that it would be about the slowest day of the year -- and I was right!

David and Emily arrived the next day. (See Part II)

Busy weekend

We usually don't run out of things to do but we're rarely as social (in at least some sense of the word) as we were this past weekend.

Thursday night was Naoyuki's department's holiday party at the Saturn Club in downtown Buffalo. It's a cool place, in a "how many of these places are left?" kind of way. As usual, great beef on weck, free liquor, and more beef on weck for dessert. Naoyuki's colleagues are charming and gracious and as is always the case when I'm not actually acting as host my preferred location was holding up the wall and watching.

Friday night we made our second foray to the Studio Arena Theatre, this time to see The Fourth Wiseman, a re-telling of the Christmas story. I was hoping for something a bit more challenging but the cast and crew did a great job (I especially enjoyed the puppets.) And Paolo Andino, who played the lead, was really just topnotch (and way hunky!) Naturally I googled him as soon as I got home and while there are many references to him (and at least one to his mom, or so it would appear!) he doesn't seem to have a personal website of his own. Sigh!

Saturday afternoon we travelled to Rochester for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's annual holiday concert. I thought it was quite good as holiday concerts go and the high school chorus was very nice. Mostly, though, I was blown away by the Eastman Theatre, which is just simply spectacular. I figured it would be pretty grand but it is really quite over the top in a 1920s, gilded age sort of way! Afterwards we stopped by Alexandria's Mediterranean Cuisine for a very late lunch and/or very early supper. Very good food and cute waiters -- what more could I want?

Sunday morning we joined my chat friend, Jim Cooper, at Betty's in downtown Buffalo, on Virginia right off of Elmwood. The food was very yummy -- I had amazing French Toast Anglaise with blueberry compote! The company was good, too. It was the first time we'd had to meet Jim, another native Buffalonian and a long-time resident of the West Side.

That afternoon we managed to decorate three of the remaining four Christmas trees (the live one, the aluminum tinsel one, and the tiny tabletop tree with the handcrafted wooden ornaments Naoyuki bought on a trip to Germany) -- he had already taken care of the fiber optic tree in the living room.

It's looking festive!