christmas in my...

dallas had never so looked than the day winter had it's way. i was living on lower greenville at the time in an one bedroom duplex with a smu girl i didn't really know. the plan was that we would share a bedroom but come moving day i couldn't bring myself to sleep in the same room with leopard printed sheets. so every evening i converted the couch into my bed. like many of the other older houses in that part of dallas- our duplex didn't have central air or heat. and it was the dead of winter. there with me in the living room was the main furnace, a prehistoric giant of his day, with only one level to keep the gas light: full throttle. i slept with a wooly mammoth of a blanket that was so warm on most nights i didn't need the heater, but then their were those nights where even my blanket from antartica, as warm as it was, couldn't fit the bill; those are the nights we would light the furnace and all of the M streets would have to turn of their heaters in fear of global warming. in order i didn't wake up roasted i would fully open one of the windows directly behind my head. this mixture of freezing cold air meeting the mouth of hell stabilized the temperature in the living room at a quite comfortable level. albeit, it wasn't very safe but then again, as i saw it, neither was passing out from dehydration in my sleep. this one particular night, while i layed sleeping, something magical was happening; a sweet song was being played on every blade of grass, on every forgotten fallen leaf, on every roof shingle, and on every street from highland park to knox/henderson to lakewood to me on lower greenville. i woke up that morning to an array of unusual pecularities. for starters, the morning glow that was typically bright and brassy was sweet and celestial; the sound of passing cars was replaced with silence, silence that gave way to soft crackles and slow dripping water. i raised myself from the embrace of comfort and looked out the foggy window in curiosity...it was snowing, and it had been for quite some time. not knowing exactly why but instantly a shrill of joy shot through me at this sight. i jumped from my bed and dashed to the cd player. the day before i had been listening to el gato's (at that time) new single, 'christmas in my city'. there was no need to rethink the mornings music selection-i hit the play button and returned to my wooly mammoth. i spent quite some time that morning just gazing out that window towards the white covered street. i had never seen anything so beautiful or magical before- where the snow covered trees met along the street to greet eachother above- making a make believe tunnel for my make believe carriages to take my make believe families into my makers winter wonderland.

years have gone by since then without a single snow storm to challenge that memory. and while the snow laid last night has been tainted with morning rain, having jon wake me up in the middle of the night to show me the winter wonderland outside, is sure having me re-evalute first place.