Library Days

Today was far more pleasant than yesterday, beginning with my library volunteering. I did the children's CDs (which badly needed it - they probably hadn't been done since the last time I did them last year) and shelved children's DVDs. I also helped the kids find the DVDs they were looking for. One cute little girl with blond curls wanted Angelina Ballerina. The mother of a little red-headed toddler said "we're a simple family - we like Clifford the Big Red Dog and Sesame Street," so I found two Clifford DVDs for her daughter. A slightly older girl with dark wavy hair asked for Barbie; she chose Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. Little boys and girls alike asked for Thomas the Tank Engine. It was a hectic and enjoyable morning.

I worked on editing the just-finished Monkee Role-Play in the early afternoon before work. Look for it tonight or sometime tomorrow, along with two adult-oriented short stories.

Work was steady-to-quiet and absolutely no problems whatsoever (I spent the last hour doing returns), which was most welcome after yesterday. I think I agree with two of my customers. Yesterday's rude crowd was probably caused by a combination of the heat wave and the full moon. The latter, incidentally, is supposed to break by tomorrow and be gone by later in the week.

Unbalanced

Today did NOT go well. I went to Yogawood this morning for my second class. This class was all Vinyasa, and it did involve some standing on one foot...something I am NOT good at. I keep getting confused about which side to turn to, too - I look at the people on the other side of the room and not at what I'm doing. And I've been hoping to meet people I can talk to, but as usual, everyone knows everyone but me, everyone's been in the area all their lives, everyone has a family or a place to go. Guess who just went straight home after class? It won't stop me from going to a class every week I can make it, but I really wish I could find SOMEONE in this area who is single and living totally alone like me. Maybe I'd feel less like a weird creature.

Work didn't make me feel any better. The computer behaved this time, but the people didn't. EVERYONE seemed to be in a bad mood, culminating in a noisy shouting match between two customers when one stepped back so a man could get the right pack of water and the other and his wife walked right in with ice cream. The wife was so apologetic, but I was about ready to kill the other two and the man whose inability to read signs started the whole thing in the first place. People were rude. People were whiny. People were ignorant. I'm getting SO sick of it. The next person who gives me a hard time over water and ice cream is going to get said items shoved down their gullets.

At least things went well in WebKinz World. A week-long Wacky Zingoz Festival began on Thursday. You can click on the flying Wacky and win a Wacky Zingoz stuffed toy for your pets, and when you play the original (not the Extreme) Wacky Zingoz, if you manage to hit it past the 600 mark, you win a Wacky Zingoz 600 trophy! Not only did I finally win my third Arcade trophy and first Wacky trophy, but I'm up to four Wacky plushies (counting the one I sent to Lauren for her WebKinz). Not to mention I posted my best-ever scores on Triple Strike Solitare, Lilly Padz (which I used to be terrible at), and Hungry Hog (Level 17!).

Girl Power

Work was a farce today. It was four hours and felt much longer. The computers went down for 20 minutes, which resulted in backed-up lines and annoyed people. It took longer to get the credit card/debit card machine up and running. I got lucky. I'd just finished a small order when the computers went down and was waiting for smaller bills to give a customer. Some people lost their computers in the middle of big Sunday orders!

Otherwise, today went very well. I chatted with Mom and Dad this morning. They were on their own - Keefe was babysitting for Anny. Not a whole lot going on over there, other than Mom being annoyed with Anny and Skylar, which is nothing new.

After my lousy day at work, I needed to relax, so I went over to Uncle Ken's and encountered a small party. Apparently Uncle Ken, Dolores, and some of Dolores' adult children are going on a two-week vacation to Malta starting Wednesday and everyone was over to use the pool and say good-bye. I swam with Dolores' grandchildren Blake, Colin, Kristin, and Mercedes, watched Kristin and Mercedes the budding songwriters work on a routine for their "band," and had a "strong woman talk" with Jodie, Kristin, and an upset Mercedes (who had just argued with her brother Colin).

And yes Kristin, it's ok for men to cry. :)

Off To the Farm Market

Pretty quiet day. It was still hot when I woke up and headed for the Farm Market, but it wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, and there was a lovely breeze. I got to the Farm Market a little later than usual. A few things were gone, but I still picked up tomatoes, peaches, blueberries, wildflower honey, sourdough bread, and fresh carrots. I stopped at two yard sales on the way, but found nothing interesting. I spent the rest of the morning editing this month's Monkees Role Play story (which should be up by next week, BTW).

Work wasn't terribly exciting, either. It was steady when I got in, stone-cold-dead when I left. My relief was late, but it was quiet enough that I was able to leave on time.

Crocodile Cutie

Went to the Acme this morning to pick up my paycheck and do a little bit of grocery shopping. I'm glad the store is selling Acme insulated bags. It hit 97 degrees here and was sweltering even as I made my way to the store around quarter of 11. I didn't need much - granola bars, yogurt, olive oil, more (cheap) eye round steak, skim milk. Despite the store being busy, I was out by 11:30 and home by 12.

After I got home and put everything away, I finally decided that yes, I wanted to go to the Deptford Mall. I wanted to hit the end-of-the-summer clothes sales before they were picked over, I needed new cheap sneakers to run errands in, and I wanted to see if the card stores had the new WebKinz yet. (They always get them before the stores around here do.) I invited my stepsister Jessa along for the ride. We hadn't gone out together since the day in March when we went to the Gallery Mall in Philadelphia. I could use the company, and it wouldn't kill her to do something other than sit inside and download music.

We had a lovely afternoon. I showed her the bus to take and the bus route, and she saw the bus just as it pulled up to the station curb. She helped me decide between the WebKinz Crocodile and Toucan (went with the crocodile, BTW), and found some great pants. She ended up with a stuffed Lightning McQueen (from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars) for our cousin CJ, two cards (for Dad and for CJ), and three pairs of patterned socks, two with Lightning McQueen on them. I bought three pairs of pants (denim capris and two bermuda shorts) and a new white t-shirt (my old one is hanging off me) from JcPenny's massive 60-75% off all summer clothes sale, a yellow-orange tank top from Avenue, the WebKinz crocodile and three cards for CJ, Dad, and my nephew Skylar from Carlton Cards, a new pair of cheap sneakers from Payless Shoes, and the last two Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater DVDs I didn't have from KB Toys.

Dad picked us up after we finally got in. I spent the evening chatting and eating mushroom pizza with him, Jodie, Mark, and Vanessa, and getting to talk to Rose before she goes to Costa Rica on Sunday. Rose suggested a hair salon in Haddon Heights that did a great job on her hair; I may look them up next week or when I have the money. She also said she'd be willing to give me some of her old clothes that were now too small for her and would take some of my winter clothes that are too big. (I donated a lot of clothes to the thrift shop, too.)

Oh, and meet Everglades the Crocodile! The goofiest reptile north of Florida, Everglades comes with a "Rockin' Croc Storage" container that can be put in a yard and allows him to be my first WebKinz to live entirely outdoors. He lives in a quiet swamp, surrounded by palm trees, flowers, and crumbling ruins.

Hot Day, Cold Pleasures

Today was extremely hot and humid. Weather or no weather, though, I had to go to counseling and to the thrift shop. I dropped my donations and broused around the store. Despite the fact that I didn't have much money, I still managed to score two Banana Republic Large tank tops for a $1.00 each and an unused, cloth-bound journal with a pretty sunflower print for $.75. God, I love thrift shops.

I had a quick lunch of sparkling juice and quesedilas at the GrooveGround Cafe two blocks from Genesis Counseling, then headed down the street for this week's session. Mostly told Scott about my past two weeks, including Mom's frustration with Keefe and Anny, Skylar's seizure, Rose going to Costa Rica, and my weight loss.

It was too hot to do much of anything after I got out of counseling, and really, I was too broke. I went straight home, stopping only at the mailbox to get my bus tickets for New England in September before heading over to Uncle Ken's for this week's laundry and swim session. It was pretty busy over there today. Jodie's father and one of her nieces were in the pool, and Mark's daughter Faith and her fiancee and his toddler daughter came by, too. No wonder. The pool felt great, at least 85 degrees.

After small eye round steaks and a pasta salad for dinner, I decided I felt like ice cream for dessert. I dredged up enough money to head down the block to Leo's Yum-Yms for Only 8 Banana Soft-Serve Yogurt. I'm not a big ice cream fan and I don't often buy ice cream from a grocery store or an ice cream parlor, but the rare times I do bring back a lot of memories. As I walked past kids playing catch in their front yards and couples strolling down the block, I found myself recalling my own childhood.

When my family lived on Maryland Avenue on the northern end of Cape May near the Coast Guard Base in the mid-80s, Mom and Dad would occasionally take us three girls down Texas Avenue to DryDock for a summer treat. DryDock is this big, barn-shaped ice cream parlor on the end of Texas Avenue, next to the WaWa and a few blocks from the C-View Inn. While the view was far from the best in Cape May (Texas Avenue in front, reeds and swamp to the right, WaWa to the left), the prices were reasonable and the portions were amazing. We'd sit at the plastic tables, eating sundaes the size of buckets and gulping massive milkshakes three times bigger than a movie theater soda. Even to this day, no milkshake has ever matched the Colossal DryDock Chocolate Shake. There's a picture of my sisters and I from the time period right after a trip to DryDock. I'm about 8 and Rose is maybe 7, and we're on either side of 2 or 3-year-old Anny, slurping normal-sized milkshakes. Anny is in the middle, trying to take gulps of Dad's chocolate shake, which is easily as big as our shakes put together both up and around.

(As far as I know, DryDock is still on Texas Avenue in Cape May next to the WaWa, though I haven't been to that part of Cape May in ages. No word on whether or not they still have those massive shakes, though. And incidentally, I ended up with a far smaller Banana Soft-Serve Frozen Yogurt cup. A 95-degree-day is no time for cones.)

Seeking Balance

I finally took a yoga class today, like I've been telling my counselor I would for the past two months or so. I ended up enjoying it. It was a Yin/Vinyasa class, meaning a combination of long-held seating poses that are supposed to work on your joints and standing poses that work on flexibility, balance, and coordination...all of which I desperately need to work on. I also need to work on focusing, something I've discussed with Scott. It's hard to filter out all the things that go on in my mind and concentrate on the present time. I got the moves the wrong way twice because my mind was elsewhere and not on what it was supposed to be doing. Jill, my instructor, was very sweet and helpful, though, and I wasn't the only person who was new to the class (though I was the only person who got confused about which way to turn).

I went for a short walk in Collingswood after the class. I dropped into the thrift shop to say "hi" to Erica and checked the Collingswood Variety Store to see if they have any of the new WebKinz. (Nope.) The rest of the day was comparatively quiet. I worked on editing the Monkees Role Play for the rest of the morning after getting back from Collingswood. Work was so quiet, I spent the second half of my two-hour-shift returning items.