| Afternoon, Thursday December 23, 1999 Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing
Ring ting tingle-ing toooo
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you!
Outside the snow is falling
And friends are calling "You Hoooo"
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you!
Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap let's go
Let's look at the snow
We're riding in a wonderland of snow.
Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap it's grand
Just holding your hand
We're gliding along with the song
Of a wintry fairy land.
Our cheeks are nice and rosy
And comfy cozy are we
We're snuggled up together like two
Birds of a feather would be.
Let's take the road before us
And sing a chorus or two
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you
There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray
It'll be the perfect ending of a perfect day
We'll be singing the songs we love to sing without a single stop
At the fireplace while we watch the chestnuts pop
Pop! Pop! Pop!
There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy
When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie
It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives
These wonderful things are the things
We remember all through our lives
-- "Sleigh Ride"
Mitchell Parish, Leroy Anderson 1948
Sleighbells.
Imagine Danger-Boy decked-out in sleighbells.
Imagine Danger-Boy decked-out in sleighbells, singing and humming "Sleigh
Ride".
Non-stop.
For the past six days. 
Last Friday on my way home from welfare I stopped at Parkleigh to pick up a couple more Christmas
cards. As the oldest and trendiest of the trendy shops on Park Ave, Parkleigh is always
just a little bit off kilter. Since I’m also always a little off-kilter, Parkleigh
fits and I shop there fairly frequently. For example, long before non-traditional greeting
cards became trendy, Parkleigh has carried a huge variety of them. I can’t remember
the last time I bought a greeting card anywhere else.
Anyway, I browsed for nearly an hour, which is fairly long considering how small
Parkleigh is, took my three cards to the counter and was delighted to find they were
tossing a handful of jingle-bells into everyone’s bag.
They were mine for all of ten minutes. I got home and wanted to show Jeffrey the cards
I’d purchased. I dumped the cards and the jungle-bells out on the couch.
"Jingle-bells! Gimme!"
And with that, ownership of the jingle-bells changed. He moved a bunch of stuff from
one neck chain to another and strung the bells on the newly emptied chain.
So for the past week, much to my delight, and occasional consternation, Jeffrey’s
whipped out his necklace, jingled his bells and serenaded me with "Sleigh Ride."
Every time he enters the room, at every commercial break when we watch TV, during every
phone call...
And I haven’t let on that "Sleigh Ride"
has always been my favorite Christmas Carol.
They're now in my hot little hands and I'll be catching the next bus to the bank. The state finally
released my Unemployment Insurance checks and three of the four arrived in today's mail.
I made a bit of a stink on Monday when I called to check
the status of the checks. I was initially told the same story, the matter hasn't been
assigned to a worker yet, call back next week. I was polite but firm and explained I
haven't worked since the first week of November, I can't pay my bills, I can't buy
groceries, I am looking but still haven't found employment, I applied for welfare last
week and it's Christmas week. The guy switched me to the supervisor in charge of assigning
these things to the case workers. I got voice-mail.
Again, I politely but firmly explained the situation and
that I'd expected some sort of determination by now. Then I waited. Imagine my
surprise when less than a half-hour later the supervisor called me back. We went through
the whole thing right then and there and she released the checks at the end of our
ten-minute phone call.
I'm off to the bank! |
