The Weather Outside...

I awoke this morning to a silent and empty house (mildly disturbing in itself), only to find, upon gazing out the window, that the forecast snow had arrived, a possibility which I had come to disbelieve given the relatively mild temperature when I was on my way home several hours before. Now, at the time I was rather pleased; a quiet suburban road swathed in snow is a rather beautiful sight. Now, however, having spent a good portion of the day making my way through this snow, I'm rather less pleased about it.

The reasons for this are myriad. First, there is the fact that when going into college (as I was today), I have to spend at least a couple of hours in transit, sitting on or waiting for buses. Today, thanks to the snow (which caused lesser roads to be slippery and necessitated diversions on some routes) and a large march in the city centre (another topic on which I had a good grumble to myself), that time was drastically increased. In fairness, buses are generally less frequent on a Saturday anyway, and I was relying on a notoriously unreliable route. Still, much annoyance was had.

Even more annoying than the buses were the brats throwing snowballs at them. I was very much hoping that there would be some just before my stop, so I could walk towards them looking threatening in my long black coat. Sadly, the only snowballing brats I came across were in the middle of my route (of course, a scarcity of them is nothing to complain about, in the same way that I was oddly muted about the lack of fireworks – which I despise – this Hallowe'en). I did come across one other snowball fight on my walk from the bus stop to my house, but this one was between two groups of children and actually looked more innocent than aggressive. In fact, it looked so fun that it brought a smile to my face.

I rather thought that if snow arrived, it would make me feel Christmassy. In fact, it just made me feel very cold indeed. I associate snow more with January or February than Christmas (though I've known a couple of white Christmases). Standing at bus stops for an extended period of time did help much with the cold. Then again, it's been very cold for quite some time now, so I can hardly blame that on the snow.

That said, of course, my mood can be easily improved. For one thing, I've written my letter to Santa. Some people were rather surprised at the persistence of this tradition within my family, but it makes perfect sense. This way, we know what to get each other, which is especially valuable given that my siblings and I now live under three separate roofs. I also enjoy myself every year writing an unnecessarily pompous letter. This year, for instance, I said "I am aware that, in your omniscience, you are probably already cognisant of this fact, yet I feel it incumbent upon me to make reference to the fact, lest your godlike perception should be failing" rather than "You probably already know this, but I thought I'd tell you anyway".

Despite all this Scrooging, I should point out that I don't actually hate snow (Dino will back me up). At the very beginning of this year, I walked home from a friend's house through quite a deep snowfall at about three in the morning. The journey was about twenty minutes, and I hardly saw a soul in all that time. It's a simple thing, but it was one of the most peaceful and lovely experiences of my life, and a large part of that was down to the strange silence which the snow somehow emphasised ("Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited."). Even if this cold persists, I can always find ways to improve my mood.



And if all else fails...

[28 days until Christmas!]

The Return of Christmas

Another misleading post title, then. I'm not talking about the return of the Christmas season, which in fact I've covered previously (and will almost certainly cover again), but the return of Christmas to WAKE UP itself (not that it ever really went away). In doing so, I'd like to introduce what's essentially the first ever guest post on WAKE UP, which will take a rather unusual form. It's not so much a post, actually, as a screenplay by my good friend Saoirse; she decided to write a Christmas film, and this is what she came up with. It's rather short, of course, but I prefer to think of it as perfectly-formed; really, you don't need any more than this.

'Holy Shit, Christmas'

By

Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin

1. INT. SANTA'S OFFICE. DAY.

SANTA'S office is lovely. It looks like Christmas exploded and is dripping off the walls. Everything is all...nice. SANTA is checking the naughty-nice list.

SANTA

Oh everyone is so nice! This

makes my job so goddamn easy!

Suddenly, he gasps with horror. His hands shake and he drops the list.

SANTA

No...no...Jesus Christ, NO!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

We see that MRS. CLAUS has been listed as naughty. Holy shit.

 

You may invent your own ending; I rather like the one where Santa initiates divorce proceedings against his wife, and they have heated courtroom battles over who gets custody of the elves.

[ 36 days until Christmas!]

Tales of Woe

The more perceptive among you may notice that the look of this post is rather different. The reason for this is that I'm writing it in a different format to usual. The reason for this in turn is that I'm not writing this on my laptop, which I'm unable to use at the present time, since the charger exploded in my face a few days ago, which was quite a sight. This is also the reason why there hasn't been much activity on the WAKE UP front for a little bit of time now. I haven't forgotten about you all, though; the reason for this post is partly to assure the Internet at large of that.
The other purpose behind this post is to apologise in advance if posting more or less grinds to a halt for a little while, as I'm rather swamped with work at the moment. The only posts I would be able to produce would inevitably be on subjects such as the portrayal of death in the work of Martin McDonagh: fascinating to me, but probably not to the general public. As such, you may have to excuse me from blogging duties for a short while.
Lest I fail to mention it in the next couple of weeks, I shall also be attending the O2, Dublin on the 5th of December, when the Almighty Arcade Fire shall be gracing we humble Dubliners with Their august presence.  It is my earnest hope that all those reading these words shall also better themselves by attending either this great event, or another like it, so as to absorb the splendour of Arcade Fire into their lives.

[44 days until Christmas!]

Correct Priorities

As you may know, over the weekend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held their "Rally for Sanity" in Washington DC. The rally was, by all accounts, a great success, and indeed reasonably sane, which is reassuring. It also provided much in the way of clever satirical signs and placards, which are well worth looking up (here, for instance). The one that caught my eye, though, was this one, for obvious reasons.

I suggest that this gentleman has his priorities right: he can see for what the unequalled power of the office of POTUS should be used. I salute the gentleman in the picture, and suggest that, should his appeal to Mr. Obama fail, he move on to other world leaders. I feel certain that he would be able to start at least a medium-sized protest in France, whether or not the people involved had even heard of Firefly.

 
[54 days until Christmas!]