The 'Incredible' Ara Topouzian

This Halloween

I started this little project, My December Challenge, on December 1^st.  The challenge is to write a blog post every day this month.  It is kind of a bloggy advent calendar.  With this post, I am nineteen days into it.

At the onset of this project, I had two concerns.  First, I was a bit concerned that I would be able to actually live up to my own challenge.  In this regard, I worried about two things:  Would I be able to find enough topics to write about and would I have the time and discipline to write every day?  My second concern wouldn’t actually stop me from completing the project, but it would be something I probably would have to deal with at some point.  Simply stated, I was wondering when and how Ara Topouzian would start giving me grief about this.

Notice that I didn’t say “if Ara Topouzian would start giving me grief.”  That he would do this was a given from the get go.

Ara and I have a history of playful banter on FaceBook.  We basically bust each other’s chops as often as we can.  The goal is to be an irritating nuisance to the other.  If we can do it subtly and deftly enough to get a rise out of the other… well that is how you win at this game.  Over the years, we have had some real fun with this.  Mutual friends and acquaintances have inquired to either or both of us if we even like each other.  Before proceeding, allow me to state unequivocally that we do in fact like each other.  We are good friends.  Our families have been friends for two, going on three generations.  We actually find this ludicrous game we play amusing.  Yes, you might have guessed it.  We are idiots.  We are morons.  We are basically ten-year old goofballs. And, I do not see this slowing down in the least.

The last time I penned a post like this was on August 18, 2013.  The post, The Wily Ara Topouzian, was about him changing tactics and trying to get under my skin by being what I called “furtively sincere.”  He is basically up to his old tricks again, this time regarding my December challenge. 

Case in point, I posted a photo of our house all lit up for the holidays.  A friend Andrew from Philadelphia and I had the following exchange:

 

The exchange went on and Ara jumped in:

 

Ara began slowly and has been making such comments with greater frequency.  I know what he is doing, and I know he knows I know.  This is how this works.

Part of this “thing” we do includes a Halloween tradition that I started several years ago.  I would carve a pumpkin in a most traditional and mundane way.  I would put the jack-o-lantern next to a photo of Ara and claim it was my aim to carve a pumpkin in the image of Ara.  To sum up how well I believed I did it, I would include the catch phrase for this idiotic tradition, “Nailed it!”

 

After a few years, Ara jumped in and started posting similar photos.  This year, Ara took it to a new level this year.  He involved his children.  It was awesome:

So, I made a little video:

      To close, I have to thank Ara for the topic of this blog.  Whew, it is getting more challenging to find fresh ideas thirty-one days in a row.  In the spirit of complete disclosure, I have started do the preliminary research and creating outlines and storyboards in case I am so desperate for topics that I actually have to write the blog that Ara suggested:  Outside Warmers, A Retrospective.