My favorite Christmas

My cousin, upon hearing this story asked, what did I get. I got the memory.

I used to have this personal some people called The Eel Man. Weird guy, he'd come to town and pay me to let him ride around in the cab while I ran other rides. For some reason, he always wanted to tip the dispatchers too. Usually it was 1/2 gallon of vodka for Big T, and a case of bergie bocks for Curley. The other posts that refer to him, are the first 2 rides I ever did for him, and he was never less than weird, be it good or bad. I think he was a con artist, but I never asked.

He was The Eel Man because when we'd dine in the sushi place, he'd throw down $60-$70 bucks worth of eel. For those of you who never had sushi, eel is cooked, tastes just like walleye, and is usually one of the most expensive items on the menu. I was kind of partial to the spicy tuna which is raw, and the steak in a sushi place is really good. Of course when we ate out, it was his treat.

I had a weird SO back then who had a son who didn't like me. The first time he brought Glow over with him I thought, wow, she fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. I was told they really loved each other and she was real good for him, which is true, they're still together, and their son is in high school.

The second time they visited they disclosed that Glow was pregnant, and she told me she was going to go down and get on ADFC in a few days. "Ah, wait a second. Are you sure you want to do that? If you get on ADFC, your kid isn't your kid anymore, but rather a ward of the court, and if you wanted to visit a friend in Chicago, legally, you'd need to get someone to give you permission in writing to leave the state." What I really didn't want to see happen was for ADFC to screw up the fathers life, which it would have, and the out come of that be that instead of a happy family of three living in a little house in the woods and racing go carts on the weekend, the kid would have no father today. Glow was kind of taken aback, and asked where she was supposed to get the funds to have a baby. "Gee, Glow, you're Ms. Natural anyway right? Why don't you have a midwife do it, and have the baby in your own apartment?" She'd never considered that but she liked the idea, did I know where she could find one. Turns out a couple of drivers used them, Hammer's wife to be, and a really fine lady named Nora. I got Nora's phone number for her, and that's the way little Joe came into the world.

Since I had an opportunity to have a real family Christmas, I told Glow that I'd buy a tree, and decorations, if she'd be willing to have it at her place. I told her she got to keep the decorations, which were mostly quantity 1 fancy ornaments, which came from a trendy little shop on Monroe st. I like Christmas trees a lot. The tree came from a cut your own place in Middleton, a perfect Frazier Fir. Phil's gift was to be a CD player, boom box, what 18 year old can go with out his tunes? Glow's gift was a really nice pair of hiking boots, which she said were the best Christmas gift she'd ever gotten, they were waterproof, light and well insulated.

When we had Christmas at Phil and Glow's it was perfect. The tree was perfect, the gifts were perfect, it was simply the best ever Christmas of my life. The greatest gift I gave that Christmas was to the unborn baby, I gave him a really happy family to grow up in, just blind luck.

So how does the Eel Man come into this story? He came to town one night in December, and after we'd dined at the sushi place, he told me to come shopping with him. He was paying me by the hour, so what the hell. We went into a music store, and he said that if I wanted anything to put it in the basket. I got kind of embarrassed at around $125.00, and said we had enough CD's. The CD's were mostly chosen by one of the kids who worked in the store. I told him they were to be the first CD's for Phil's new CD boom box, Phil agreed with his taste, said they were great.