2004-12-18 - 2:26 a.m.

If you build it, they will come.

Unless it's a Superbowl party not involving the Patriots and it's negative two and sleety outside and there's like thirty things going on anyway, many of which are better superbowl parties, and the rest taking place even though it's a Sunday and it�s negative two. Ah, my most humbling moment, and a great night too.

Tomorrow is Holly Jolly Christmas, and it's going to be fun. I'm going to get to see a ton of people I don't usually get to see, and there'll be music, and the naughty yankee swap as always, and I'm really looking forward to it.

This has been in the works for a long time, and I also come here to mourn planning for a party. I mean, the Roommate and I have done so many little things to the place to "get it ready," when really they were just awesome things to do. We should always have something to "get ready for" (but a GOOD, not nuclear-related thing). Seriously.

I think I stumbled onto something.

Every morning I wake up to an existential crisis (I'm serious) and wonder what I'm DOING with my life. But then I remember that I have to go to work, and then I'm drinking my coffee, and then I want to read the sports guy, and all of a sudden the day's done and I'm at home drinking a pabst and listening to my guided by voices album.

But what really helps is having something concrete and immediate to look forward to. Christmas Party is a good example of a good motivator.

Christmas Party just got my fridge cleaned. It got the Roommate's laundry done. It got all of the floors washed in each of the rooms, and the living room closet organized, which was formerly not a closet but more like a garage or an attic.

And it got the Roommate to put up some pictures in her room. It got me to install rope lights in the living room nearly a month ago.

And it got the Roommate to graphically design a really, really nice invitation. And it got me to learn and make my own four different Christmas songs.

And it got little things picked up. And put into a big pile of little things. And put into a lot of smaller piles of little things. And put away in their right places. And the ones left over got placed into a little pile of little things. Which will go somewhere by tomorrow.

We spent a lot of time and money "on the Christmas Party." But it's not like that's all going away (well, the food, beer, and wine is) once the party is over. We'll get memories, sure, but we'll also get a damn good iTunes mix and all the dishes done out of it too.

And obviously that's great.

Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm looking for an excuse to slave drive me and mine. I LOVE Christmas, and the whole point of the party is that we can provide a space for awesome people who I just saw yesterday or who I haven't seen in a long time or who I have never met to meet up for the first time or after a long time or arrive together, so that we can all enjoy a few hours of the holiday in good company. Seriously--that is the point.

But if I also, for whatever reason, also feel the need to completely reorganize the silverware drawer in hopes of somehow facilitating Christmas magic for all, well, then that's a darned good side affect.

What we need is something to do after (I'm roping New Year's in with Christmas).

Like two months after. What's to plan for? What's going to be a good excuse for cleaning the microwave and getting it done NOW!, or for inviting people over and really hoping they'll come?

I don't know. All I know is that it's NOT the Superbowl.