Still Not a Christmas Song. Also, Not Really a Solstice Song.

Update: my headache is gone and furthermore, The Child informed me yesterday afternoon that we didn't have to go to the Advent Concert because the 8th grade wasn't singing. Whoo to the hoo!

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I wanted to play something that had particular meaning on this, the anniversary of the day The Spouse asked me to marry him. Sure, for your pagans and Celts this is the winter solstice and you're all watching the live streaming feed from Newgrange to see the ancient tomb fill with light as it does only on this day every year (actually, guess you already watched it if you were going to). But for me, while the poetry of bare branches and the promise that is inherent in this, the shortest day, have some sway, it's mostly about the fact that this is the anniversay of The Spouse deciding I was a catch. And sure, it could have been the beer talking, but he followed through and married me 9 months later so it was obviously sincere.

I love my Spouse. I really do. We've been through a bit of a patch lately, with our worries and such. We both have a tendency to get into our own heads when that happens and not talk to each other so much. Or if we talk it's because I want to but he doesn't really and, well, that never goes particularly well. Especially because my talking often takes the form of "processing", as it does with women, wherein I'm saying a lot of different things to try and come to a place of clarity and he, being a guy, doesn't really do that and finds it annoying.

But somewhere along the way we've come out of it and we're again laughing at each other's jokes and speaking kindly and not flying off the handle at the least little provocation, which is so much more pleasant.

Marriage, "they" say, is hard work. "They" weren't kidding. It can be very difficult, when you live side by side, day in and day out, to keep things fresh, to have conversations about things other than kids and money and stuff that needs to be done to the house and what should be on the menu this week. It's easy to start acting more like room-mates than lovers. But if you stop long enough to think about why you asked that "will you" question in the first place, or why you said "OK", you can usually find your way back to the lovers side of the equation. Which is a very good thing.

I was going to play "Heroes" but I couldn't. So instead I'm going to play the exact opposite, an angry little ditty, more appropriate to my experience before The Spouse.

Rumor has it that the record company didn't spend a lot of money on this video because they didn't think the song would go anywhere. Boy, were they wrong about that.

Alanis Morisette "You Oughta Know"