Just like my birthday snuck up on me, so have the holidays. I think what threw me (and a lot of other people) was that Thanksgiving came so late. When Thanksgiving weekend was over, me and Joyce realized we needed to hurry up and get her house decorated.
We started with the outside, and we got more ambitious with it this year, now that Joyce has me to get up on the big ladder and help with the lights. It’s not like we got a manger scene for the front lawn or anything (I saw some real nice reindeer – no, not the junky plastic kind – that I thought would look awesome…but Joyce didn’t want to go that far), we have lights running all along the eaves of the house and down the sides facing the street, and in all the trees and bushes out front. I couldn’t get Joyce to agree with me that colored lights are better, but she did say that we could pick up some more red and green ones like we got last year to go with the white lights she already has. So the whole front of the house is very lit up, and, if I do say so myself, looks awesome. Joyce is real pleased too: we tall boyfriends have our practical uses.
The crafting room is coming along great, if a little slowly with all the detailed work I’m doing in some of the drawers. Joyce is a little annoyed that her crafting room is now the dining room, but I’m sure she’s going to be pleased when she sees the final result. This is only my second Christmas with Joyce, so I didn’t know that she likes to change her whole tree design every few years, and that this was supposed to be a new tree year. As it is, she repeated her design from last year, with all the bows. It looks spectacular (just like it did last year); I don’t know why she’d want to change it.
Having Keaton in the building next door had a big fringe benefit: me, him and Joyce all went to the Christmas tree lot together and each picked out our trees and piled them in the back of his truck. We even got a discount for buying 3 trees at the same time. So tall boyfriends’ even taller best friends have their practical uses too lol.
Keaton’s new apartment isn’t as nicely decorated as his was last year, but he’s got all those fuckin boxes in the way. I told y’all that he hung some lights on the boxes he hasn’t unpacked yet, and then Joyce suggested we make a “fireplace” out of some of the others. Me and Keaton got some thick Sharpies and drew “bricks” on the sides of the boxes, and Joyce happened to have one of those fake fires in the garage (it’s kinda like the fire they have in Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, only a lot smaller.) So Keaton stuck his stocking up in front of that. I just don’t know what Santa will make of it lol.
His tree with the Pier 1 animal ornaments managed to look great even with all the mess. He didn’t have time to go get any new ornaments this year, but I think he could still use a few. He said the tree was already starting to look a little gayass. I don’t know what he’s talking about. He should see Adam and Allan’s tree. That looks spectacular (me and Joyce were at their Christmas party again this year), but, dang, does it look gayass too lol.
My tree is smaller than the ones Joyce and Keaton got, but I only have the 2 dozen baseball ornaments Joyce made for me last year and colored lights. I did get a couple strings of bead garland this year, since I thought the tree looked a little unfinished last year. I think I was right. Y’all can probably guess that Keaton said I’d made my super cool baseball tree into something gayass, but Joyce approved. She almost never comes to my apartment, but I wanted her to see the tree. She got to see Keaton’s tree this year too (and brought him a poinsettia as a housewarming present.)
We even have some outdoor decorations at our buildings. Juan Diego hangs lights from the upstairs terraces of the buildings and has these fuglyass plastic light-up snowmen for the garden. I don’t think he intended them to be a joke, but they kind of are. (What do Mexicans know about snowmen lol?) Keaton thinks they’re hilarious (he actually said they’re too ugly to be gay) and has given them names: Cody, Corey and Claytona. If you drive by our buildings, you’ll need to know that Claytona is the chick snowman. Keaton hasn’t forgiven him for giving up those three homers lol.
So we’re all ready for Christmas. I’ll be done with the crafting room with a week to spare, which will give plenty of time for the varnish and paint to dry. Joyce wanted Adam and Allan’s painters to come back and finish up once I was done, but, with everything I’ve built and done there’s not that much blank wall to paint anyway. I can handle a paint roller well enough, and it turns out that Keaton worked as a part-time painter in Fairbanks, so he lent a hand. It would have been a waste of Joyce’s money to have paid the painters to come for what would probably have been less than an hour’s work.)
I want to wish y’all a very Merry Christmas. And a great 2020. 2019’s been a pretty good year for me, but I know a lot of people for who it’s really sucked. So I wish them especially a much better and much happier new year.
Hunter Block's Blog 