If I have to play Angels We Have Heard on High ONE more time...

Obligatory apology for not updating the blog: blah blah sorry busy blah blah everybody does this part so blah blah blah

Anyways, so this past few weeks I find myself back in my home, the Rio Grande Valley. Don't worry though, it's only been partially relaxing.

Coming home presents me with a situation that I feel most people will not be able to relate to, but it's my blog so I'm writing about it, hah. Upon arriving back into the valley, my mom lets it be known that my break is not starting quite yet. Oh hoh hoh no, not for a church keyboard player at Christmas time.

So here's the thing about the Valley: it's real Mexican. I mean real Mexican. It's hard to really get that point across, so just imagine your typical American city, but then tint the skin colours brown, take their money and use it to buy beer and Tejano records, give everybody diabetes, and you're golden. And as anybody will tell you, especially if they're as racist as me, is that Mexicans tend to be Catholic. You don't see Buddha, Zeus, or Richard Dawkins painted on the hoods of El Caminos, do you?

So on top of the regular quincineras (that's a sweet sixteen, except our girls are ready to go at 15, since 16 is usually the baby shower), weddings, rosaries, and funerals, I also have to play Christmas carols at the Christmas mass, the Midnight mass, the New Years Day mass, the Feast of Holy-Shit-I'm-So-Hungover mass, and everything in between. Now don't get me wrong, I realize that the Christmas season is about Jesus and his birthday and that church is important, but I had to go to a whole lot of church. Hearing the priest talk about how his panini-maker relates to the gifts of the Holy Spirit once is uplifting, hearing him repeat the story kind of detracts from the magic of the moment.

Not to mention God likes to hold church really early, like before I would naturally wake up. During a break I like to stay up until unnaturally late hours of the night, playing video games and talking to all the other people who share this hobby of mine. This conflicts with the fact that church usually runs at unnaturally early hours, which in my case, means anything before like, 5pm. Did you know that there are hours between 5am and 7am? Was a pretty shocking discovery for me, too.

But all good things must come to an end, and finally the Christmas season was over. Since then, my break has been alright. Been hanging out with lots of old friends from around here, and been enjoying myself enough. Finally been able to do what I really came down here to do: absolutely nothing. Am looking forward to next semester, and all the shenanigans it will bring!