Corina and I rarely hang out one-on-one. She's my eldest daughter and lives next door, the familiarity and ease works because we live such separate lives. Today she joined me as I walked to the mailbox and as we both had mailings to get out decided to go to Santa Cruz Post Office together.
After we mailed, I thought I might find a small Norfolk Pine at Lowe's in EspaƱola. I once went there with my youngest child and bought a dying pine that grew its spindly self into the family tree, one with a few long branches, a family joke. Our personal Charlie Brown tree had served for ten years. Time for a new one.
I have never gotten the hang of a full-tilt right-on tree. As a child we had a Chanukah bush which was the Reform Jews caving into the peer pressure of Christianity that is America. My adult trees for the kids were clumsy and unaesthetic, but I love my children's ornaments and collect hearts and angels.
We found our three foot high tree right away, the exact small Norfolk pine of yore, for $20. It will would surely live on in our greenhouse. Corina had already charmed the check out man who had a shaved head on one side and a poof of curly black hair on the other. He was smiling, as everyone does to the charming and beautiful Corina who flirts with the world. He said, "I won't lie to you," one of my favorite phrases because I never thought he would lie, "but someone always steals my spirit. I get it and then someone just steals it." I said that you get paid to put up with those folks. He said he gets paid to put up with them but not to have them steal his spirit. He said he wouldn't lie to us again. I looked at his name tag as we were leaving the store, JESUS I said, "I didn't know who I was dealing with. We'll send extra spirit your way." He liked that. Corina kept smiling. We loaded the small pine into my Subaru and indeed felt the spirit of the holiday. Wild hair style, smiles, small tree and all.
I won't lie to you.
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