{"id":2862,"date":"2016-12-25T02:08:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-25T07:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2016-12-25T02:08:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T07:08:48","slug":"mattys-white-knuckle-sober-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/mattys-white-knuckle-sober-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Matty&#8217;s White-Knuckle, Sober Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like many adult Americans, I prefer to be intoxicated on Christmas day. Some call this addiction. I call it self-medicating for the benefit of others.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2864\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2864\" data-attachment-id=\"2864\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/mattys-white-knuckle-sober-christmas\/matty_purple\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple.jpg?fit=350%2C249&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"350,249\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"matty_purple\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Purple = sober and confused.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple.jpg?fit=350%2C249&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-2864 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple-300x213.jpg?resize=300%2C213\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple.jpg?resize=300%2C213&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_purple.jpg?w=350&amp;ssl=1 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple = sober and confused.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m not a role model, or a regular person. I&#8217;m alone on Christmas because I&#8217;m belligerent and undiplomatic by nature. I lack the ability to mask contempt or disdain. Just days ago, I told three separate strangers to go kill themselves. I make jokes and draw comics to keep from screaming death threats at people.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and if at all possible, I try to stay high,\u00a0<em>all the time.<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>My parents are dead, and there&#8217;s no children to justify\u00a0decorating the house. There&#8217;s no one to wrap presents for, or trim a tree. Everyone fucked off to be with their families, or whomever. If this sounds sad to you, well, Christmas is sad. It&#8217;s happy for kids\u00a0who have no idea where all the shiny free stuff came from. For the rest of us, it&#8217;s a real pain in the ass, top to bottom.<\/p>\n<p>Why am I even writing about this?\u00a0<em>Because I&#8217;m sober.\u00a0<\/em>Because my plans for holiday cheer got fucked, through no fault of my own. This is the way it goes. I&#8217;m not meant to be happy and cheerful on Christmas. I&#8217;m destined to suck it up and\u00a0<em>pretend to be.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what Christmas is, folks. Shutting the fuck up about your own problems and pretending to be happy, for the benefit of others. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s fine that I&#8217;m sober as a judge. It&#8217;s\u00a0<em>funny.\u00a0<\/em>Me being sober on Christmas while trying to conceal a burning desire to murder every single person on Earth is\u00a0<em>funny<\/em>. Me stoned, and glued to a couch while watching\u00a0<em>Bad Santa<\/em> for the 100th time, is\u00a0<em>not.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Also funny is how, in my brutal desperation to get high, I am resorting to &#8220;carb-hits&#8221; on my favorite pipe. That&#8217;s when you put your thumb over the bowl, and pull the flame through the carb, toasting all the sticky black resin trapped inside the pipe. It works, a little, but it tastes like a melted radial tire. More than once, I have accidentally inhaled superheated coal through the pipe stem. It&#8217;s actually less embarrassing than how we used to get high in jail; by sticking our head in the toilet, to hide the smoke.<\/p>\n<p>I had weed. I <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">sold all of it<\/span> gave it all away, in the spirit of Christmas! Then I had none. It&#8217;s like\u00a0<em>Gift of the Magi<\/em>, except without the satisfying conclusion. It&#8217;s just me, staring at the wall and contemplating\u00a0<em>seppuku.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have rum, my favorite liquor, but nothing to mix it with. I would&#8217;ve bought Coke, but that shit is loaded with caffeine, and without weed, I&#8217;d be wide awake all night. I used to use Diet Coke (the kind without caffeine), but it&#8217;s full of\u00a0<em>aspartame<\/em>, and I don&#8217;t feel like spending the holidays developing multiple sclerosis or Parkinson&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>So instead, I&#8217;m spending it writing this crap. I&#8217;m not alone; Vern is on hand to provide the cheer and mirth that only a dwarf hamster can. We&#8217;ll probably watch Laurel &amp; Hardy in\u00a0<em>March of the Wooden Soldiers<\/em> together, if he doesn&#8217;t fall asleep. Vern is a meatball with fur and feet, and it&#8217;s his first Christmas. We&#8217;re gonna have a blast, even though I already ate the peanuts I bought for his present. (He ate<em> one<\/em>, and got slightly fat!)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PwiGqvnIFqs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, here&#8217;s hoping, as sincerely as I can, that you&#8217;re having a great day (whether you&#8217;re celebrating, angry, or in-between). Remember; Christmas, like sobriety, is only temporary.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2863\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2863\" data-attachment-id=\"2863\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/mattys-white-knuckle-sober-christmas\/matty_vern\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg?fit=224%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"224,400\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"matty_vern\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Happy holidays from Matty &amp;#038; Vern.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg?fit=224%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2863\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg?resize=224%2C400\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg?w=224&amp;ssl=1 224w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/matty_vern.jpg?resize=168%2C300&amp;ssl=1 168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Happy holidays from Matty &amp; Vern.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many adult Americans, I prefer to be intoxicated on Christmas day. Some call this addiction. I call it self-medicating for the benefit of others. I&#8217;m not a role model, or a regular person. I&#8217;m alone on Christmas because I&#8217;m &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/mattys-white-knuckle-sober-christmas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5,8,72,1,77],"tags":[1646,1430,668,139,1493,18,29,28,62,25,2334,1566,24],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-influences","category-dont-care","category-idiots-delight","category-late-to-the-party","category-uncategorized","category-worst-of-all","tag-1646","tag-alcohol","tag-bad-santa","tag-christmas","tag-coke","tag-comedy","tag-depression","tag-despair","tag-hamsters","tag-laughter","tag-laurel-hardy","tag-marijuana","tag-suicide"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p53HmY-Ka","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6319,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/year-of-the-grinch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2862,"position":0},"title":"Year of the Grinch","author":"MattyBoy","date":"12\/13\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"For this Christmas, and probably every Christmas afterward, I have made a command decision to be brutally honest with myself, and everyone else. I would say that I hope others can accept my choice, but this is personal. I won't even ask you to bear with me. I have chosen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bad Influences&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Grinch1.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Grinch1.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Grinch1.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/four-songs-that-fudged-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":2862,"position":1},"title":"Four Songs That Fudged Christmas","author":"MattyBoy","date":"12\/20\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Behold, I softened the strip's headline in a way that doesn't make me want to puke (one could argue it's a 'topical reference'), but also won't scare off potential sharing visitors. Of course, when they read the strip itself, then they want to puke. As long as you share, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bad Influences&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"4songsXmas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/4songsXmas.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/4songsXmas.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/4songsXmas.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5921,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/a-card-from-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":2862,"position":2},"title":"A Card From 2021","author":"MattyBoy","date":"12\/25\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy holidays everyone, have a wonderful Christmas, and I'll see you in 2022! https:\/\/youtu.be\/SVfWFKRYmRg","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Idiot's Delight&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Idiot's Delight","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/idiots-delight\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/SVfWFKRYmRg\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5170,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-the-old-you-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":2862,"position":3},"title":"All I Want For Christmas Is The Old You Back","author":"MattyBoy","date":"12\/14\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"What is a cartoonist? The dictionary definition is this: noun An artist who draws cartoons.noun One skilled in drawing cartoons. Pretty simple, yeah? I am an artist who draws cartoons; ergo, I am a cartoonist. One could even argue that I am skilled in drawing cartoons (your mileage may vary).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bad Influences&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/SantaClaus1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2619,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/mad-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":2862,"position":4},"title":"Mad Season","author":"MattyBoy","date":"11\/04\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Threading the needle. That was Seattle music in 1994. A desperate, futile gambit to save what few musicians remained from Lady Heroin's clutches. 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Even if you've read everything on this site (good lord), there will still be stuff that's new to you in the magazines.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comix Classic &amp; Current&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comix Classic &amp; Current","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/classic-comix\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/afternoon_playground.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/afternoon_playground.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/afternoon_playground.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2865,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/2865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}