Almost a year ago now since I threw out my life boat on the stream.
Pioneer let me see heroes (here and there).
The stream, when calm...is a reflecting pool for me, ya dig?
The stream, when turbulent...is white water rafting at it's finest and funniest and most furious..woohoo!
It's all good, ya know.

Spending close to a year typing your life is strangely cathartic. Flying is as well. I'm not a robot anymore. I feel and breathe and imagine again.

I should say goodbye to my silly little icon now, but I can't. He's been my ideal since I was 7 years old, and I realize that he really does look like me. I think it's the hair.

Love, T

I love really good Christmas music. When I was a kid, it didn't feel like Christmas until I heard the Chipmunks, Elvis Presly, the Supremes, Barbra Streisand, Burl Ives, and Nat King Cole. I'm wearing out this Six Degrees compilation "Reindeer Room Vol 3" right now. It's catchy and cool enough to play anytime.

My top picks for cool Christmas compilations:

STANDARDS AND CLASSIC

"Christmas With the Ratpack"... uh hello...Frank, Deano, and Sammy...how could this one NOT be great?
"Yule B Swingin Too"...this one is upbeat and way cool and adictive...has that fun song by Louis Armstrong
"Ultra Lounge: Christmas Cocktails Vol 1"...choice selections of great divas and crooners from the golden age

REMIXES AND CHILL (these are AWESOME for parties)

"Reindeer Room Vol 1, 2 and 3"...very sophisticated and loyal remixes with some new chill material mixed in. All three volumes are great Christmas ear candy. They come with a bonus DVD of funky animated Christmas scenes too. Very cool.
"Christmas Remixes Vol 1"...the remixes stay pretty faithful and don't mess with the originals too much...but enhance them very nicely. I really enjoy this one. The other volumes in the series aren't as good as volume one.

TWO NEW RELEASES FOR 2006...

"Wintersong" by Sarah McLachlan...fo' real though, run and get this one! Absolutely beautiful...with that voice, what would you expect? She nails some classic Christmas hymns on this one. Just gorgeous.

"Cool Yule" by Bette Midler...damn, huge disappointment...it sounds like she just sorta knocked it off in an afternoon...and that sucks because I love her...but don't waste your time or money on this one.

What holiday albums do you guys love?

We just call him Rex. But he's aka "Rexall Tucker Johnston", "Baby Brother", and "The Messenger".

When Red saunders by with his cane every morning, he always pauses and addresses Rex as "The Mayor". When Rex sees Red coming up the street, he fevorously starts running in place on the hardwood floor, his toenails clickedy clicking on the floor like he's on a treadmill...then he's out the door like a bolt of lightening to greet his buddy at the gate. Mr. Red smiles and shouts "G'mornin' Mayor". Rex loves that.

There should be a sign in the front of every IKEA that states "Check your soul and sanity at the door...and enjoy the meatballs", along with a big barrel of complimentary Xanax.

So anyway...those wacky Swedes emailed me some stylishly minimal propaganda yesterday morning and informed me that they were running wine glasses at 6 for $2.99. Well, of course I was on that like stink-on-shit, forgetting momentarily that I fucking hate going to IKEA.

While I was there, I saw this glass cabinet for 59 bucks. Again, stink-on-shit.



So I grab one of those flat carts that they provide for manipulating self service furniture boxes out of the store. The wheels on the shoddy carts always want to go whatever direction you don't, so it normally takes the manpower of a family of 4 to maneuver these mother fuckers around the aisles.



So I get finally manage to get my cart (which is bucking and weaving like an electronic bull) all the way to the check-out approximately 2 miles away. The lady at the checkout looks like someone just murdered her best friend. She frowned the whole time and only spoke to me to tell me the amount. No "hello", no "thank you"...just a silent "Oh god, please shoot me, just fucking shoot me" air about her. I have never seen a single IKEA employee smile like the one in their propaganda.



When I opened the box that promised to contain the cute glass cabinet, I discovered it held 4 sheets of glass, two squares of particle board, and a big bag of 480 pieces of tiny hardware. Yikes. I'm glad I grabbed a handful of Xanax as I was leaving.

At least the meatballs were good.

I do tend to get sappy and sentimental and gay-as-all-get-out when I post after having a few. Fuk-it-though...I get to exhale a bit right now. Jessica is back tomorrow from Seattle and I get to have a breather for the first half of the day.

I'm remembering that night in the gardens in July 2005 when Marc and I first had the spark of an idea that led to us starting our own business. Yup, I can pin-point it to that one night.

I was working 24/7 and travelling and struggling along with the company I worked for. Downsizing was killing the company and was killing me. I felt responsible as though and behaving as though the company was mine.

Then that night....a warm July Georgia night. I had all my ducks in a row...had worked my ass off for the company...had worked my ass off in the gardens...and now I was gonna sit my ass down in a lawnchair, take my semi-annual hit of a big fatty and chill.

A summer rain had come in that afternoon. The air was ripe like a Georgia night is after a hot Georgia afternoon rain. Mist was rising from the ground at twilight. The moonflowers were slowly opening as the sun set. It was a perfect night for somethin' witchy.

That evening, we sat in our secret garden. Me, Marc, Aretha, Ella, Bette, and Rhonda sang Johnny Mercer's "Skylark" over and over again all night. We were all ears that night. We finally got it.

To me, it has got to be the most stunning song ever written and recorded. Everyone that covers it treats it a little differently, but it always comes out beautiful.

We started writing our business plan that next morning. Nothing has been the same since.