Friday, December 22, 2006

Bell in my belfry

From my lovely Maggie , the word for the day is bell.

I immediately thought of a woman who used to work in the same building. Starting the day after Thanksgiving, she would sport a Santa hat and wear bells on her shoes so that she would have music wherever she went. And we would have jingling bells wherever she went too. She went a lot of places.

I would be at my desk, and the ominous sound of bells would begin ringing faintly in the distance, coming closer, closer. At the sound of the clatter heads would appear around cubicle walls to see what was the matter and then pull back in like turtle heads with a disgusted shake.

By the time it was Christmas i wanted to strangle her. I would have had lots of help.

29 comments:

AC said...

My lucky Christmas earrings are long beaded things with bells. When my daughter was in middle school, they drove her just this crazy. Of course, I thought it delightful to wear them. I liked the tinkly music in my ear and, okay, enjoyed a little bugging her.

Thanks for the visit today.

Bob said...

we had a pocket-change jingler. everywhere he went, his hand would be in his pocket, jingling his change. AAARGH. Yeah, I'd helped you too.

SUEB0B said...

Life among the highly-sensitive people! Other people don't even seem to hear the bells, the whistling, the 2 kinds of music making an off-key disharmony...while I slowly lose my mind.

Sonia Wetzel Photography said...

Heh.

karmic said...

Distraction of a different sensory kind at work. For 3 weeks in a row they have pie/sweets/baking goodies coming in at work made by coworkers. We have some great dessert makers here. But the e-mails about them, stop them already, we get it!

BTW did you resort to headphones n music to deal with the jingling bells?

Antonia Cornwell said...

I would have been tempted to set up a tripwire in her path, with little bells hanging on it.

I used to work in a particularly serious, bookish department in a law firm among people who hated Christmas. The ladies in the typing pool next door would always hang their room generously with tinsel and Santas and all that crap, and always berated us for being a miserable bunch of sods without any decorations. So I made a string of silver letters that said "Go away! We're trying to read" and put fake green fuzzy pinetree stuff on it between each word and the next. Totally festive and hostile all at once. Everyone was happy.

Lynnea said...

Much as I love Christmas bells, this kind of person in the office is totally annoying after awhile. Especially because they are also the type to say things like, "Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays."

Everything in moderation.

Merry Christmas Meno!

Unknown said...

'To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.'

(Come on, someone had to quote it. Best it's me.)

urban-urchin said...

I am a Christmas freak to the point that everything is decorated the day after Thanksgiving- not because I want to be first on the block, but because I want to enjoy it for as long as possible. That said the bells would drive me nuts"The Bells Esmerelda, The Bells!". I love my christmas but a 'quieter- gentler' Christmas.

Melessa Gregg said...

LOL! I have known a few people like that in my time. You would have had a lot of help.

Ian said...

I use to know a hippy who always wore bells. Damned annoying, but thankfully you could always hear them coming and run away. Stopped them from catching birds too, I dare say. Rum things, hippies. And bells.

Anonymous said...

Hee hee, how mad is that?! Sounds wonderful and deeply annoying all at once. Well done for not pinning her down and cutting them all off...

Anonymous said...

I used to put jingle bells on my sneakers during the holiday season when I was in high school. It wasn't annoying to me then, but I'm not going to suggest that my own daughters do it...

meno said...

ac, lucky Christmas earrings indeed! What could be more fun than annoying your daughter?

bob, and that's no even seasonal. Argh. Maybe it was a substitute for playing with his balls? Just wondering.

suebob, I am pretty sensitive to lots of noise, i can't really function too well amidst it. A disco is my idea of hell.

sanjay, when i retired, i lost 5 pounds without doing anything different except for not eating the crap that was constantly around. I did used to wear headphones, without them being actually attached to anything.

antonia, you are a bloodthirsty thing! I like that in a person. I love your Christmas sign. Any pictures of it?

maggie, It was really just plain rude. And if someone tells me i am grumpy, it instantly becomes true.

nancy, it had to be you! Thanks, i think.

u-u, you have cranberries instead of ovaries huh?

melessa, i think no jury would have convicted me either.

ian, kind of like the how the smell of patchouli lets you know to vacate the area immediately.

platypus, bells ringing are fun for the ringer and annoying for everyone else.

Me said...

Those tinkly, happy bell people are the sort I'm strangely fascinated by and slightly jealous of. They drive me mental but I so want to know the secret to their cheerfullness.

Girlplustwo said...

little tinkly bells make me happy. others not so much..but the big church ones are smashing in their own sort of way.

QT said...

Yes - one day of wearing bells would have been quite sufficient!

Hope you are having a good one meno!

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas!

Ortizzle said...

Christmas lights on her feet might have been a better choice: a shorter leash, and... silence!

Merry Christmas to you and yours, Meno!

egan said...

Happy holidays Meno. I hope you haven't strangled anyone other than said co-worker. You're not missing any windstorms back here. Take care.

Mother of Invention said...

Even I'd have a problem with that and I'm pretty festive...but that's way too early!

Have a great Christmas! Festing anf feasting!

Bob said...

I hope you and Em and The Mister have a Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas, Meno.

Antonia Cornwell said...

Back again for a quick Christmas Day visit. Hope you're having a lovely day: thanks for your company in blogland this year. I'm glad to have met you (in Internet terms, at least). Merry Christmas Meno!

Bored Housewife said...

Hope you're having a fantastic holiday!!

Travel safely. :)

Anonymous said...

All the best to you and yours Meno. Thank you for the laughs, the insight and the food for thought!

Lisa @ The Plain-Spoken Pen said...

I'm all for Christmas cheer, but wearing bells *everywhere* seems to be a bit much.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Dick said...

I couldn't think of something related to bells to write about but I sure did have a lot better Christmas this year than I did last year. I hope yours went well and that you have a safe and not too complex return trip.

Anonymous said...

I don't wear bells...anymore...but up until this year, I DID wear a santa hat from the 1st, thru Christmas day. This year, for some reason it occurred to me that it may not be the most mature thing to do at 39...? so, I put my collection of hats away. I only missed them a little bit.