Laurie:  It’s a rainy night in Manhattan, and I’m tired of wrapping Christmas gifts.  All my addictive reality shows have concluded – a tearful Danny is The Biggest Loser, the blonde couple who always came in first won The Amazing Race, and even Tyra isn’t torturing young skinny girls into becoming top models (although you can almost always find a rerun of America’s Next Top Model somewhere).  What to do?  Looks like it’s time to take pen in hand (or more truthfully finger to keyboard) and write something.

elizabeth: I am not sure where this is going. I am almost afraid to read on. Tyra, crying biggest loser and some dumb race and somehow I am  not filled with the true meaning of Christmas – or any holiday that I can think of. Well, maybe the Eat Till You Drop Day. Okay, I pick one day a year and eat to semi-unconsciousness and then I have visions of Tyra screaming at me and then the biggest loser and I throw her into an open fire pit and we walk because we are too full to race. Am I close?

Yesterday there was a noisy police escort and there must have been 50 – 75 motorcycles operated by some tough looking bikers. I am sure some people thought good for the cops for bringing in the unwashed among us. But these guys were delivering toys to sick kids, poor kids and abused kids. What have we all done lately?  Besides judge. I am all for the Spirit of Christmas Present bitch-slapping us into being merry and bright. And then him telling Santa to leave me a sleigh full of new shoes. Hey, I have been good.

Laurie: Can you believe that I am still debating whether to send out holiday cards?  I start out every year saying “I’m not sending cards this year.”  How hypocritical – suddenly I’m wishing good cheer and happy years to people I haven’t spoken to all year, the postage is so high, the cards are so sappy, blah, blah, blah.  And then the cards roll in from people I haven’t heard from all year and I start to waiver.  Maybe I’ll just respond to those who sent me cards?  And maybe the elderly lady in my mother’s complex…and my favorite boss in the whole wide world…and of course my best friend who proudly says she’s had me longer than she’s had her husband.  And then the list starts growing.  And I’m running buying more cards, standing in a ridiculously long line at the post office to buy stamps, and getting them out just under the deadline.  And friends and family marvel at my uncanny ability to have the cards arrive on Christmas Eve.  Hah.

elizabeth: Wow. This is like a Christmas miracle.  I’ll be decking the halls in my fallout shelter. Those hard hats are a great substitute for a stocking cap and much more practical.

Laurie: Well, the good news is that all the bags of gifts in my bedroom will soon be distributed and taking up room in other people’s houses and apartments.  There goes my excuse for not being able to use the treadmill.  And the bad news is that the spirit of the season will be ebbing away as real life imposes itself on us once again.  Luckily, reality series like the nerve-wracking 24 (I know Jack Bauer isn’t really protecting from all the evil in the world but it seems real), The Biggest Loser Couples, more Dancing with the Stars, and probably Tyra will be waiting in the wings to take us away from our reality with their “reality.”  You gotta love it.

elizabeth: I got to get in touch with Dr. Phil and all the other TV doctors and judges and skin care specialists on HSN and QVC and Santa himself and see if they can do an intervention for you. Girl, you got to get out more, and for the New Year I would like to see your reality based more in reality. Plus we got to go see Tim Burton’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Maybe Tyra can join us?

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night.

© 2009, Coaches on the Edge ™

If you would like to learn more about Laurie, please go to her site: Empowered Life Journeys.

Stop by at elizabeth’s site at: Branching Out Life Coaching

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