The Raffle

That was one intense weekend! Friday night was the lighting of our community Christmas Tree in the downtown city plaza. We didn't go for the lighting but walked through the plaza after dinner when the masses had cleared. Then we went to the yearly Erotic Art Show and it was disappointing. I keep attending because there is so much potential for this event but each year seems to offer less than the year before. The first show was exceptional and I was very excited when the second year came around but it didn't quite cut it. The third year was even worse and it's been a downhill slide ever since. I keep going, hoping for the best, wanting to support the arts in general and the erotic arts specifically but this one has been a losing cause so far. I've done nothing to contribute besides attend, it's been a spectator sport for me so far.

After the art show we went back downtown to this unpleasant little pizza place where a band called the Yule Logs was playing. This band gets together only at Christmas time and they do all these funny, funky Christmas songs. Not my thing really but Jerry wanted to go so I tagged along. Besides, this event was being held in honor of Josh Read, a local musician who recently died and the money raised was donated to his music scholarship fund. Jerry bought our tickets and then threw in an extra $10 for raffle tickets. We listened to the music and people watched for about 30 minutes and then the band stopped and the raffle begun. We won 4 out of about 10 prizes. The first prize was a $25 gift certificate for The Naked Lounge, our favorite coffee place. The second prize was a white elephant which I took home and gave to my son. The third prize was two dinners at a downtown Mexican restaurant we enjoy eating at a few times a year. The fourth prize was a $50 dollar gift certificate for the restaurant at Sierra Nevada Brewery. Talk about a good investment on raffle tickets!

I was up at 7:00 Saturday morning and stayed busy until 8:00 that night when my work was done and I settled down to party! I was up washing clothes and dishes and then out of the house doing my mom's weekly grocery shopping by 9:00. Then I was back home picking pink camellias, mandarins and lemons to use as decorations for my friend Gerda's Memorial Service/Celebration of Life. Off to the church to help set up for that (although truthfully I just dropped a few things off and left as I had so much on my plate) and then I met my brother at Starbucks for a soy chai and chat before he went to visit our mom and talk with her about some financial issues I had been avoiding. My son stopped by to show us the "new" car he had bought (with a little loan from me) and then I dropped off my mom's groceries and rushed home to dress for Gerda's service which started with a Catholic mass.

Gerda wanted everyone to wear pink so I found some black and pink and dressed in a fitting outfit. As we were leaving the house Jerry asked if I had something to cover my head. I told him no, and he said, "That's what they do you know?" I was amused that although he was raised Catholic, I knew more about what would be expected of me than he did. Shows you how long it's been since he's been inside a Catholic church. It's not really true that I knew more than him though because he knew all the proper responses to the prayers they were reciting, did the sign of the cross at the appropriate times and offered this little genuflect thing when he passed by the altar. After mass we eat and talked about Gerda, her son showed a slideshow and Jerry's band, Spark and Cinder played.

Home to pack up in a hurry for the AfterBurn party. Bedding, food for dinner and breakfast potlucks, alcohol, PlayaWear, computer with BurningMan slide show, BurningMan photo album, towels for hot tub and sauna. Jerry and I parted ways as he had a gig, a Christmas dance party that I was sorry to miss because everybody who was anybody was going to be there...well, except the ones who were going to be at the party I was off to. Here's a few fun pictures I took. We even burned a man! Nice gathering of friends and Jerry joined up with us later.