Christmas, home and history

Overall, Christmas was pretty good for Fritschie this year. Having lived the past few years on next-to-bare necessity, my wants are fairly few and far between. About all I really wanted was CSI: Season Five on DVD, and for the first time in years, my mom actually got the exact one I asked for...The past three years she'd gotten me the most recent two-disc Lord of the Rings, even though I told her I wanted the four-disc special edition (because of which she now stresses the importance of gift reciepts). Holy shit, am I really that much of a geek?

There was something screwy with Christmas dinner. Not in the people sitting around the table (I'm used to them) but I was having stomach problems all night. I'm thinking a side dish was to blame, because I felt fine after a leftover sandwich the next day.

I will soon need to have a nice long talk with my sister-in-law. Every time I speak to her, she tells me of someone she knows who is looking for an art director, and every time I have to tell her I'm not interested. It's the same shit my mom had tried to do for years before she accepted that I don't want to move down there. However, now my sister-in-law's got my nieces trying to lay a heavy guilt trip into me for living so far away from my family.

Is my life in Tulsa perfect? No, but it's my home. My parents moved to from my hometown of Fort Smith to Little Rock while I was in college. My brother and sister-in-law moved into the house we grew up in. They kept me a room, but it just wasn't the same. After they had to give up the house, they moved to Little Rock. So, no place really felt like home anymore. So, I had to make my own, and it just happened to be in Tulsa. Sorry, folks, but I have a steady job, lots of friends and lots of people who depend on me. Plus, if I were to even consider moving, it would be back to Northwest Arkansas where I lived last, where I know more than six people, where I can feel a little more at home.

Months ago, at a charity auction, my stepdad won a silent auction on a guided tour of the Clinton Presidential Library. Monday afternoon was the day that all of us were finally able to go. Even Clinton's most hardened critics would stand in awe of how important Clinton was to history. There's even a display covering the impeachment preceedings. It really spoke volumes (no pun intended) about his legacy as president, warts and all.

All throughout the tour, I couldn't help but to imagine what the Dudya library will look like years from now. I have a feeling it won't have the same progressive feel that the Clinton library does. I'm sure it will cover 9/11, the war in Iraq, and all the other problems Bush has faced...howeve it may just gloss over the bad parts, much like the LBJ library has no mention of Vietnam, or the Nixon library talks about Watergate as if was a mere footnote. If they do happen to show the realities of Bush's decisions, I bet you anything they'd have tour guides ready to usher people on to the next exhibit, or at the very least distract the visitors by coughing loudly or faking a seizure.