the king’s pain is your gainDecember 22nd, 2006 @ 7:26 am
isabel thinks i don’t talk about my feelings. so, to add some cheer to your holiday, here’s how i’m feeling:
christmas just isn’t christmas unless you’ve heard (and you have to actually “hear” it and not just read it) at least some of david sedaris’ ’santaland diaries’. if you’ve heard david read from his memoirs as a Macy’s department store elf, you know what i mean. if you haven’t, you should. tune in to NPR at some point in the next couple of days and eventually you will be treated to what david believes ‘away in a manger’ would sound like if sung by billie hoilday. it makes me feel true christmas feelings. (You can also listen to it online.)
waiting is a huge drag. whether waiting in traffic, in line at the urban outfitters, or waiting for that job that you interviewed at now several times to call you back, it all sucks. children everywhere are waiting for santa claus, or hanukkah claus or kwaanza claus or whatever (that’s me trying to be more sensitive and politically correct, which is one of isabel’s christmas wishes) and many of them are so overcome by the anticipation that they dont realize that waiting blows. it makes me feel frustrated.
my mom taught me how to ride a bike when we lived in california. i must have been like 5 years old at best. we lived across the street from an elementary school in california that was basically all paved. she took the training wheels off of my bike, and ran behind me, holding the seat for hours in the sun. i can still remember hearing her voice (true story) behind me and knowing that she hadn’t let go. i’m not big on pain, so having that hand on my seat was comforting. i can also remember looking back and seeing her running 10 feet behind me when i finally got it figured out. i know how she must have felt letting go of that seat, and i’m not sure i’ll be as strong when the time comes for me to do the same for my kid. i’ll probably just let him learn to ride a bike in college. my mom’s about to go through some tough times, and it makes me feel scared and heartbroken.
so enough of that stuff anyway. i’m sitting here realizing why i dont talk about my feelings much. it make me feel like a wuss.
so happy holidays and stuff. we’ll have a christmas gift swap next week where everyone can pick from everyone else’s gifts that they are going to return anyway. its a win win. you get rid of a gift you dont want, and get one you do in return.
-k
They're just my family · The King

Bunny
said,
December 22, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Merry Christmas, King!
Carrisa
said,
December 22, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Let me just say that your blog is finally fixed. I swear there was some major issues in last fridays post that messed up your blog for a whole week for me. Glad it’s back to normal.
Merry Christmas you guys!
Lisa B
said,
December 22, 2006 at 9:21 pm
That Christmas swap thing is a pretty good idea. Am STILL crossing my fingers hoping you get that job…
MK
said,
December 22, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Merry Christmas K! I will check it out online!
Nap Queen
said,
December 23, 2006 at 12:24 am
Merry Christmas! I remember that same feeling when I saw that my dad had let go of the bike, but in my story, I ran into a parked truck cause I got really scared.
I hope your mom is okay.
HollowSquirrel
said,
December 23, 2006 at 5:52 pm
You’re so not a wuss for talking about your feelings. It’s awesome, and even though it may feel awkward at first, I hope you feel some comfort in getting them “out.”
angela
said,
December 23, 2006 at 8:06 pm
I was so afraid to learn to ride my bike for the first time sans training wheels. It didn’t go well and I didn’t want to get back on and keep trying. One day a little boy was on the playground and had a wee little tiny bike without training wheels and I thought I’d give that one a shot. (I did ask first — I didn’t just steal it.) It was so much lower to the ground that I wasn’t really as afraid, and I rode that thing all over the playground like a pro. Then my mom found out I was riding someone else’s bike and I got in trouble. So um, there’s probably a moral to the story, and that is to first buy Babboo a little bitty bike for him to learn on instead of a regular-sized one. You don’t want him turning to a life of crime as a preschooler!
Jen
said,
December 24, 2006 at 3:14 am
That was a whole lotta feelings for a single post! I have a similar memory about learning to ride a bike. My mom promised she wasn’t going to let go of the seat, and I finally looked back and realized I was riding by myself! Instead of being excited that I was riding a big girl bike, I was totally pissed that my mom let go of the seat. SHE LIED! I let her know that my trust in her was broken and would be very difficult to rebuild.
I was a fun kid, can you tell? I will probably just let my kid wear the training wheels forever. So what if kids make fun of him when he’s riding a bike with training wheels in 8th grade? he’ll learn an important lesson about how to ignore bullies and gossip.