They call her Christmas Carol

One of my favorite things to do around Christmas is to SING Christmas songs with my family. Not only do I love sitting in the living room, my mom at the piano, singing "Oh Holy Night" and busting out some beautiful 3-4 part harmony for "FALLLLLL on your KNEEEEES," or even the slightly sillier "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oria" sung with some weird counter melody we've developed throughout the years, but I also love creating our own versions of Christmas songs, or new Christmas songs all together. I must admit my sisters, Emily and Kelly, are WAYYY better at this than I am.

I remember walking through a Pick'n'Save around the holidays singing in a round, Kelly starting, then me... then Emily, approximately 8 years old, right on key, but slightly distracted and silly...

K: Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas
C: Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas
E: I can't believe that it is CREAM FILLED.
followed by perfect three part harmony for "everywhere we gooooo."

We still sing that version to this day. I highly recommend you try it out.

Emily also deserves a blogspot shout out for her cover of a classic Elvis tune. Only Emily unlike Elvis realized, who needs a back up singer to do what you can clearly do yourself with a nice little--

"I'll have a blu WOOOOHOOOOHOOOHOOOHOOOO chris WOOOHOOOOHOOOHOOOHOOO withou WHOOOHOOOHOOOHOOO. WHOOOOHOOOHOOOHOOOHOOO."

She likes to pull that one out regardless of season. and actually the first time she sang it to me she was asking me "Case, what's that song that goes WOOOHOOOHOOOHOOHOO wwwWWWOOOOHOOOHOOOHOOOHOO." That's one of Em's favorite games to play with me. not so much a game... she genuinely doesn't know the answer. not like my dad quizing me on who the guitar player for the Eagles is. Either way.... I still always win. Even when Emily gives me lines from movies or descriptions of actors that contain zero English words. Just facial expressions and mumbling. K. Back to Christmas.

My Holiday claim to fame is a nice version of "Feliz Navidad." Luckily enough for me, this one was caught on tape for everyone to remember. forever. regardless of how hard I try to forget it. All of these other Christmas song stories are so fun and I'm so proud to be a part of. this one i'm actually embarrassed about. anyway. The video starts out with the three of us girls sitting around the piano singing some nice Spanish songs, like every Irish/Welsh/Scottish family of young girls growing up in the suburbs of Milwaukee. Then, i decide to jump out of the group, face directly toward the camera and with a real nice guttural attempt at a belt sing "I WANNA WISH YOU A MErRrRrRrY CHRISTMAS." Emily's doing her own guttural "Merry" in the background, too. It doesn't sound good. And even worse is the way I look. I am approximately 10 years old (I know in the video i announce at least 500 times my age, as I had just turned whatever age it was. But i'm having a hard time remembering if it's 10 or possibly 11). I am wearing a Christmas sweatshirt that belongs to my dad (cus that's a cool person for a young girl to borrow clothes from) RED sweatpants, complete with tight elastic bands at the ankles, and bright yellow socks. Did not know i was being taped? I seem to remember being the one to set up the video camera, but how could this be? I'm also wearing glasses that are too large for my face, and probably weren't hip even in circa 1994 and have a poorly maintained perm. again, i don't remember exactly, but i don't think perms were 'in' in 1994, either. i was a really awesome kid. The Spanish tunes were followed by a relatively unprovoked impromptu version of "We Love You Jesus" sung to the tune of that Bye Bye Birdie Song "We love you Conrad" and some marching.

let's stop talking about that video now.

We also LOVE LOVE LOVE listening to the Oakridge Boys Christmas CD (except maybe my brother, who is 7 years older than am... but he does a very good job of putting up with it). I know.. who are we? but trust me its GREAT. We all sing while we decorate the tree. We make up dances. We call Kelly to sing to her when she's at her in-laws (oh yeah... I'm talking very recently people. this isn't us just being crazy kids). The singing is actually pretty impressive. The dancing... not our best work (clearly our N*sync dance is... but these dances are kind of insulting to our actual talent. but So. Much. Fun). To give you an idea, I'll do the best I can in words... and maybe one day Kelly can pick up where I left off when she has her video blog.

Actual Dance steps:
"Its Christmas" (turn in a circle)
"Its paintin' the town" (pretend like you're painting)
"With red and silver bells" (something similar to the shopping cart. a lot of reaching. pick up your feet a little to make it that much better)
"and laughter all around" (left arm in scooping circle across front of body. repeat with the right).

I think you get the idea. If you don't, no worries. I'll be happy to demonstrate.


however. nothing. i repeat NOTHING. can top our original Christmas song. Here's how it came to be.

While visiting family in Butler, PA, Kelly, Emily and I wondered off from the rest of the fam and found a antique/craft/record store. and luckily so. one of these records happened to be "Christmas Eve with Colonial Sanders." Clearly you don't pass something like that up. I don't care if you don't have a record player (which we didn't), or if you find out he doesn't sing any of the songs (which he doesn't). It Colonial Sanders. And he's sleeping in front of a fireplace on the album cover. You give the clerk whatever amount of money he's asking, and you leave the store knowing you just made the best purchase of your life. And then you hope your older sister is as cool as mine to write the following song.


KENTUCKY FRIED CHRISTMAS by the Wright Family (mostly kelly, but I'm giving us all credit.)


The verses, being completely improvisational, vary from time to time. However it was something along the lines of...

Santa Claus came over put a reindeer on his lap
and fed that reindeer some Chicken
that reindeer well he had no hands
but licked his lips 'n said it's good comma finger lickin'

OOOOHHHHH

CHORUS (always the same. I come in with some harmony. There's knee slapping involved)
Kentucky Fried Christmas, its the only way to go
even though i live in missoura
You might wonder, why i say missoura
but its not missouri its missoura.


Don't you wish you got to spend Christmas at my house???

oh no. now i'm homesick. :(

train.

Yesterday on my way to Carrie's after work (an offer of vodka won out over painting, sleeping and cooking)I was listening to my ipod loud enough to avoid everything else going on in the world. duh. I started watching a woman, and as much as I feel rude eavesdropping, I decided to see how much sign language i remembered from the 4 years of ASL i took in college. Turns out, she wasn't signing at all, she was just Italian. And probably from Long Island. But it took me a good 5 minutes to figure that out. and then i watched her about 10 minutes later convinced that no one could talk with their hands THAT much and I must be really rusty... but nope. she wasn't deaf. nor was she hard of hearing. nor were the people she was with.

also, i don't know if i look exceptionally good yesterday, or exceptionally bad (such a fine line between the two) but there were at least 6 different old creepy men hard core staring at me in my 45 minute commute.

also, i don't understand the V train. why does it even exist? does it ever leave the 2nd ave stop? I saw 2 F trains go by, and the V was still sitting there.

if its gonna be at all its gonna be with you

That title will probably have nothing to do with my actual blog. i just like that song. I'm feeling slightly ADD today. and like i'm coming down with some sort of cold. or maybe its just because my room was pretty cold last night (damn no control of the heat in my apartment and a wall of windows in my bedroom) and i usually wake up with a sore throat if that happens. On second thought... its probably ADHD.

Too ADHD for paragraphs. or even complete sentences. so list it is...

* I filmed until 1am on Friday, and still decided it was a good idea to head into the city to meet up with some friends. i was right. it was a good idea. i like my friends.
* On Saturday morning i took a shower at Gregs place when i showed up to set. i thought that was funny. I generally shower before i get somewhere, but i realized why wake up any earlier than i have to when i can just show up and shower while Greg and Jeff are setting up the shoot for the day?!?
* During filming on Saturday I fell asleep no less than 3 times. we got done at about 9, so i had a drink with Greg and Jeff, then bridget told me to come downstairs for a drink since she lives in the same building. so i went downstairs to say hi with my hair all gelled back, no make up on, and sweatpants, and then found out that she was having a party at her place. i felt like an idiot. but clearly don't really care. I ended up just borrowing clothes from her and doing my makeup and hair on her kitchen counter before heading out to Danielle's bday party.
* Drag Queens love me.
* Gay strippers also love me.
* Gay men in general seem to think i'm pretty fabulous.
* I will write more about filming at some point. just waiting for some uploadable pictures from the photographer.
* I appreciate honesty. i think its really really important.
* Yesterday, Roger and I were both in the kitchen, me baking cookies, him washing dishes, when he found a container that they had used for gravy on Thanksgiving that hadn't been rinsed out... or even emptied. He poured it in the sink, and we both had to pretty much leave the room because the smell was so atrocious. rancid animal fat. horrendous.Thank God for Matt who came over and cleaned it out of the drain. I feel like in this situation, most people, especially girls, would be really upset about something like that... but i thought it was really funny. it made me like my roommates more. to all be standing in the kitchen gagging and laughing... there's really nothing like that. I was a little worried that it would taint (haha. taint) my cookies. but they didn't taste at all like rotten gravy. they were just a little overcooked... i'll have to find someway to blame that on the boys, but have yet to figure out how.
* In the past 2 weeks, both of the male doctors i work for have asked me for advice on women. The 2 women in my office talk with me about boys and dating and relationships and babies on a pretty regular basis. But the boys in the office are finally starting to realize what a relationship guru i am (please don't laugh too hard at that last statement). Actually with both of them, i've said something along the lines of "i don't know, that sounds like one of those 'stupid girl' things to do. i have no idea what i would do if i had to put up with that." or "I dont know why women do that. i've never done anything like that, so i can't really help you out." To which my boss replied "you're more of a guy, arent you." i wasn't really sure what to say to that. yes???
* the first even semi-smooth transition of stories to happen in this blog post is about to happen.
* after a long conversation with matt on saturday night, he asked me "do you ever feel like one of the guys other than [realizes what he's saying]...everyday?" nope. pretty much just everyday.
* I'm glad I'm not a stupid girl. i think i'm a girlie girl in all the cool ways... i like shoes. i cry at sappy movies but don't let them dictate my expectations of love. i bake cookies for my friends' birthdays. i go shopping with the gays and pick out outfits for them. but, it seems like all the stupid girls have boyfriends, and i don't. do i need to be a stupid girl to ever actually have a boyfriend? i would like to think not. i would like to think that any guy that i choose to date would be cool enough to not want to date a stupid girl anyway.
* I'm a little sleep deprived (if you couldn't tell). On saturday night, i was talking to my friend Madalyn and had to stop mid sentence maybe a half dozen times to figure out what i was talking about because i had no recollection of what words had just come out of my mouth or what happened next in the story i was telling. insane.
* Despite the crazy loopyness of being so overtired these days, all i wanted to do last night was paint my apartment. if i found my roller... i probably would have.
* I'm supposed to be doing holiday postcards right now for work. i think that sounds really boring. also, a little bit of a waste of my college degree.
* My new goal is to have enough paying acting jobs to quit my day job. even though i really like my day job. how sweet would it be to JUST be an actor. or a trophy wife. but who are we kidding, i'm not really socially acceptable enough for that.
* "I don't even know what good anymore" -Andy Warhol's character in the movie "Basquiat"
* For some reason "Warhol" is a recognized word in my spell check's dictionary. but the possessive form is not.
* I don't understand skim milk.
* I don't know how much sushi is an acceptable to eat for lunch for someone of my size and stature.
* I really want to see the move "Brothers." Who would like to join me?
* I'm gonna try to start using the phrase "You betcha" more when people ask me really serious questions. its really never an appropriate response. I also want to start telling people to "grow up" more. always, always funny.
* Last night that AT&T commercial with Luke Wilson came on TV and I said in utter shock "WOW did he get fat!!!" and Matt looked at me and said "that's what you said yesterday when we watched it." I knew i had never seen that commercial, so I said very matter-of-factly "No i didn't." And Roger looked at me and said "yeah you did. when you were watching Glee." matt said "you even said it in the exact same way." who knew?
* I'm proud of myself for out-crazy-stream-of-consciousnessing Katie Della Mora.
* Just found out filming for tonight is canceled. so do i pick up a paint roller on my way home? or do i cook a nice dinner for myself then play the piano? or go straight to bed before i become anymore crazy than i am right now. I'm also really broke, and if i start painting one wall, i'm gonna wanna get more paint to redo my kitchen and bathroom too. can't.decide. wish i had a corporate sponsor for my life. hmmm... Tune in tomorrow to find out what i decided to do.

just re-read about half of this. its clearly not anything anyone will ever care about, nor is it even all that funny. Katie's blogging rule is she has to laugh at what she wrote at least once when she re-reads it. I"m probably just going to post it cus i'm too lazy to spend time rereading it.

peace out y'all.

DTW

As I was sitting at the Detroit Airport for 5 hours cus Delta sucks... this is the announcement I listened to repeatedly:

"Detroit, Michigan is in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. For the correct time, please check a clock."

Thank you random announcement voice guy. Whatever would i do without you.