i admit it, i'm a sucker for christmas carols.
my dad probably owns more christmas music on vinyl than any other type of music and i grew up listening to it at full blast every weekend in december ever since i can remember. he would record hours of christmas-music-only radio onto cassette tapes and label them 'CHRISTMAS' with a little stick-figure tree.
so when i went away to college, i made sure to bring along a couple tapes so i could sing along with Nat King Cole or Karen Carpenter when the season rolled around. I wasn't, however, prepared for my roommate's reaction. now let me start by saying i was lucky to be placed with this girl. she's one of the most kind and thoughtful people i know, but she won't lie and doesn't hesitate to say what's on her mind.
'ugh. I HATE this crap,' was what she probably said when she heard those tapes the first time. i totally thought she was kidding. i mean, c'mon! who doesn't love 'holly jolly christmas,' or 'here come santa claus'?! but no, she really couldn't stand it. but i still played them a bit and tried to ignore her rolling eyes. after awhile, it became a joke and i'd threaten to play them to wake her up. she said she was glad to be rid of my 'damn christmas crap' when we were packing up to go home for winter break. i just shrugged it off.
the next fall, we moved into a dorm room a floor above our old one. when the holiday season was approaching, i went searching through all my stuff for my dad's good old christmas tapes. i could have sworn i had brought them, but let me tell you, there aren't too many hiding places in a single room shared by two people. so i resigned myself to spending that winter humming snippets of 'reindeer on the roof' or 'good king wenceslas,' awfully surprised my roommate wasn't telling me to shut up. i was sad. i thought i lost my tapes. at that time there was no 24-hour christmas station either and i only got to hear 'rockin' around the christmas tree' when i watched 'Home Alone.' it just wasn't the same.
when we were getting ready to move out at the end of the year, i had pulled the bed away from the wall to get some of the stuff that had fallen behind it. i heard something being tossed onto the bed.
'i know. i'm a bitch,' my roommate said.
and there they were; two cassette tapes with little stick christmas trees, that she had stolen while we were moving in and hidden. an act, she claimed, intended to preserve her sanity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
i love caroling. i'm obsessed with it actually.
it's sad...
haha, ah yes, the old steal-the-stuff while the roommate isn't looking trick.
Otis Redding does an incredible version of "White Christmas". And I'm a sucker for Elvis doing "Blue Christmas".
That's messed up on a few levels. One, she stole christmas music. I believe Dr. Seuss made a book about someone who did stuff like that. Two, she waited until move-out day to give it back!
Having also lived with "the girl who hates christmas carols" I must say that I 100% agree with Cadiz-she is one awesome chica on many levels. Nobody's perfect...and it's kinda fun to know that you can actually torture her with this music should the necessity arise! ;) lot's of love, pimp!!
I literally could not LIVE without Christmas decorations being accompanied by Christmas music surrounding you from all sides.
yep, angel, she is definitely one of the best people i know.
i wonder what it was that turned her off to the holiday tunes? overexposure at an early age? i guess we'll never know. but it is hella fun irritating her. hee hee.
Hum? You shoulda SING AND WHISTLE LOUD.
Gosh yes, Dr. Seuss did write a story about someone who stole something.
I love Silent Night, oooh, love it. But I kinda prefer them Jamaican Christmas songs though, man, they got colour!
Preserving her sanity should be considered self defense!
Humbag!
Do you remember "The Snowman" cartoon?
And the song, There's something in the air...
Love it...
i go to malls specifically so I can listen to carols AND be surrounded by fake trees and snow. its so much more important when you're in the tropics.
those tapes are sacred. no doubt your roomie is awesome in other areas, but she must pay for tainting such pure music.
I say all this and I don't even celebrate christmas. take that for christmas spirit.
That was dirty. D-I-R-T-Y. Ah well, I'm a sap when it comes to Christmas songs too. None of this new crap, though. It's the brat pack or nothing.
Correction Cadiz, this occurred our third Xmas together. When we lived in that other dorm across campus, remember? So I had suffered through the cheesy music for TWO years already. You listened to it and sang along ALL the time. Being that we lived in such close quaters, it was torture. Our room was the size of a jail cell, remember? I just couldn’t take another year of it. I was forced to take extreme measures. Everything was fine when we lived in our apartment though. You played your xmas crap, I mean music, in your own room.
For the record, I don’t hate all Xmas music. I can stand instrumental, ala Home Alone….oh and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in small dosages. I did however go Xmas shopping equipped with my iPod so I didn’t have to listen to Xmas music while at the mall. No one in my family is a big fan of it. I think I got my “its crap” attitude from my Dad. Christmas can exist without the cheesy music people. We have a great time without it.
ah, you're right, that was when we lived by the farms.
i'm sorry i tortured you. but it was only out of love. we can still sing along to the golden oldies, though, right?
Post a Comment