I don’t celebrate, so this is about as close as I got to a Christmas tree this year.
The office reception area has these frosted glass panels in the back, and I often admire the American flag that sits off to one side behind the reception desk through it. The frosted glass makes everything on the other side milky and murky, veiled, and enfogged* colors look fabulous,** especially when Adox Color Implosion is around…
Anyway, here it is, Christmas Eve. What better time to sit under the tree and think about Christmases past, and Christmases to come, perhaps.
Or maybe think about that favorite gift that you got that year, that your brother or aunt or cousin broke within minutes of its unwrapping.
And don’t worry, in just 2 days we’ll all be as far away from Christmas as we can possibly be, as far away from the endless SALE SALE SALEs and KLUV transitioning to an all XMAS music lineup since Halloween and the crass commercialism and crowds as possible, a full 10 months, at least. Alhamdulillah.
I’m not quite so anti-Christmas as I sound here. Sure, I’m a Muslim, and we have two holidays of our own and so don’t celebrate this one. But I grew up with Christmas, so I know all the songs and like many of them, and I do enjoy driving through lit-up neighborhoods with a hot chocolate (or chocolate shake; it can get hot in Texas in December).*** I’m just ready for the season to be past again.
*Yes, “enfogged” really is a word, albeit a rarely used and excellent one.
** For example…
*** My darling, adorable wife and I took a couple of such drives (one with shakes, and one without), and I tried (and failed) to capture some lights. Most of the failures were just that, but this one was pretty cool…
And when I came to a complete stop, rolled the window all the way down , and braced myself, the shots came out decent enough, if a little bit spooky. Maybe next year I’ll try this again, with some faster, color film. The Foma 200 is good, but 200 isn’t near fast enough to handhold at night.
