That was the worst Christmas ever!

Aww, poor Droolycat! No, I have not forgotten you.

I know it is only the beginning of November! But let's be honest. People are Christmas shopping. I'm thinking about Christmas shopping. Which I will do mostly online because I refuse to get caught up in the maddening crowds this time of year. Who likes being stuck in traffic in a parking lot for an hour?

(Helpful random sidenote: "Cyber Monday" is something I never knew existed until it was too late last year...it's like the Black Friday of the internet, post-Black Friday.)

First of all, I generally dislike November. I think the only highlight may be Thanksgiving, for obvious reasons. If you think about it, it would make more sense for Thanksgiving to happen in October, at the end of the fall harvest. However, we've already got Halloween in October, November needs some action, therefore, Thanksgiving in November. Otherwise, it is a chilly month where the nights creep in earlier and earlier and all the beautiful leaves from October are shed away and turned into brown street mush.

Anyway, what does this have to do with music?

Sufjan!

I confess, I've started listening to Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music in my car. I started, like, a week or two ago. Yeah, they are Christmas songs. Yeah, they sound like Christmas songs. But they also sound like great Sufjan tunes, and I can't think of a better person (Andrew Bird?) for making spiritually minded wintery songs that translate all season long. Especially when listening to an album of songs versus a few songs on a mix, because they blend together and create more of a mood/environment. (AKA. If you pop a few of those Sufjan Christmas songs into mixes, you reach them and it's like, wait, what? Christmas? Why am I listening to this? They stand out more.)

So, I was born in December, a so-called Winter Baby, but even so, I have grown to hate the cold (but I do love the holidays!). I commute every day in my car and lately the sun has not been shining, and if you're like me and need a break from this, try on Sufjan's Christmas collection just for fun...if only for the banjo action! Banjos are soooo November, in my opinion.

Also, he is coming to Boston this week and I could not be more dismayed that I won't be going. The tickets are too expensive, even though I've been listening to Sufjan for what feels like forever and it would be worth it. It is also not general admission and I hate concerts like that, where you are forced into a seat and you never know what the view or sound will be like until you get there. It isn't fair! But, cheers to whoever is going this week, he's got two shows, Thursday and Friday.