My Cardboard Balcony

Here's the thing: Halloween might be my favorite holiday. I may gush about it. But one thing I truly love is the Christmas season. Christmas is #2 on my list of favorite holidays (Thanksgiving is #3), and what makes Christmas so special to me are the little things that come with the twenty-five days I pay attention it (You will not see me celebrate Christmas until December 1st; end of story). Yes, the tree and the lights and the presents and the decorations are all wonderful. To me, they create warmth and spirit and positive feelings overall, regardless of whether or not you're a pagan or Christian. But I want to mention, in quick succession, some of the nuances of the Christmas season that I adore. I love Christmas music; Christmas carols are great, but I'm partial to Celtic music and to Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love advent calendars; the chocolates are not that tasty, but the concept of it is just fun to me. I love being able to put on green a...

Or Maybe They're Just Broke by Belinda Roddie I find out who my real friends are on Christmas.

I'd like to believe that I'm only human, but the truth is, I'm not. And I mean this purely in a literal sense. Not literal in the corrupted, perverted way individuals misuse it in this day and age. I mean actually, truly, purely, I am not only human. You see, I was reconstructed twenty years ago after a freak accident on a military base. I will not say the base's location, or who worked there. All you have to know was that I was an honored captain, and that there were plenty of mad scientists eager to create the first android/human hybrid - because let's face it, Robocop's got nothing on me.