Code Red And Green

What is it about the holidays that sends people into a tailspin?

It's people, mostly, and their baggage. If Christmas-celebrating people just stayed away from their families, loved ones, the telephone and all other forms of communication for just the week between Christmas and the New Year, I think the world would be a better place.

Of course if that were the rule, my mother-in-law might have died yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon we headed down to mrguy's mom's place to hang out for Christmas. We'd called to let her know that we were on our way. She hadn't answered the phone, twice, and I was a little worried about that. When we got there, we knocked, heard cries for help and mrguy, the badass, kicked the door in. She'd fallen the day before and couldn't move from the position where she'd landed, face down. So horrible. Distress from a failed romance was a contributing factor to the fall.

The doctor said it's a miracle that she didn't break something. Regardless, the necessity of the hospital visit revealed other conditions that need to be dealt with and she'll be in for the better part of a week.

Now my mother-in-law, the lucky lady, has participated in the holiday tradition of the Christmas emergency room visit. I'm a veteran, and this was my 4th holiday in the hospital. The first three were a result of the obligatory Christmas eve phone call from a mean, drunk aunt to my father. He'd always be shaken after the phone call, and then he'd have some sort of a spell that required treatment. I think that the last of those three visits happened after the aunt died. Did she reach for him from the crypt? And what happened to all of the other people who were there at the ER last night, like the guy who had started drinking at 8am? We'll never know, but I bet it had something to do with family.

So people, for the next week speak with kindness or not at all. Drop your bullshit. Be good to each other, or you might end up in emergency on New Year's.

Ho ho ho