Maria rarely, if ever buys herself anything new. She mentioned a week ago that she had seen some earrings in the N.V. Consignment Store on Main Street in Cambridge, she wouldn’t tell me any of the details because she wanted to buy them for herself. That is unusual.

Maria considers purchases like this, even in consignment shops. She spends nothing on herself, but always manages to look both beautiful and original. She wears her artistry sometimes. I came with her today, I never in my life feel frumpier or uglier than I do when I am in one of those stories with her, maybe that’s because there are too many mirrors.

These two earrings had small oval black stones set in them, they were $15 dollars and I love the photo shot that captured Maria, her image and me behind her. She bought them, I asked if I could get them for her as a gift, but she said no.

Our Star Wars tiff continues, an odd one for us, since I am convinced it isn’t about the movie. She keeps telling me how she won’t like it and didn’t like the others, I keep telling her she doesn’t need to come. And she doesn’t. We haven’t quite gotten to the core of it yet, but we will. We usually do. Something deeper.

As of now, she says she wants to come see the movie with me, and we have agreed to shut up about it (unlikely) and we will each either like it or not. I have some ideas about what is happening with both of us, but we’ll have to talk it out first.

Beyond the movie, I think Christmas and the holidays make both of us tense. I am thinking more and more that Christmas is the Mother Of Nostalgia, and how nostalgia is intrinsically about loss and memory. More later.