Ready For the Holidays

Today was counseling day. I slept in and browsed around Collingswood for a while before my session. Said "hi" to Erica at the thrift shop and finally found a copy of the Mikhail Barishnikov version of The Nutcracker, which I watched every Christmas when I worked at the Stockton Media Center in college. I've wanted to get it on DVD, but it's mega-expensive.

I wasn't really hungry, so I just had a few cookies, a soda, and half a blueberry muffin at GrooveGround before heading over to Genesis Counseling for my first session in over two months. We mostly discussed my vacation, my frustration with Mom last week, my desire to get my girlfriends to visit me, and my ideas for finding a job. I do want to look into substitute teaching, and maybe volunteering for school libraries. I think it would be a great way for me to get my foot in the door and see if I want to do this...and if it would be worth spending more money on education.

I made a couple of quick stops in the area after my session ended. I went to the Walgreens on Cuthbert Road to see if they had any of the new WCares WebKinz; they didn't, just Black Bears and Cows. I next stopped at the small Dollar Discount Plus store, a small local dollar store next door to the Westmont Acme. They have a wonderful selection of holiday decorations. While I didn't end up getting any decorations there, I did find something even better. They had a table stacked with what looked like the overflow of children's Christmas DVDs from the Acme next-door. In addition to titles from Barney, Bob the Builder, Veggietales, and Dora the Explorer, they had the 60s Rankin Bass specials Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, and the Universal set with Holiday Inn and Going My Way. I had all but Going My Way on video and had been wanting to replace them (and clear out space on my video and DVD shelves) for years. The Little Drummer Boy was a dollar; the others were $2.50 each. I also grabbed a bag for my friend Amanda's birthday present and cards for Amanda and Lauren (whose birthday is in two weeks).

The Haddon Township Library is down the street from the Westmont Plaza, so I went there next for this week's library session. It was quiet in the library, and given it was also fairly late by then, it may have been just as well that there wasn't much to do. I put away the DVDs and organized some of the CDs. I peeked at AC Moore, Super Fresh, Dollar Tree, and Halloween Adventure after I left the library, but only bought a pack of on-sale pens from Super Fresh for work.

It was a great day for running around, too. It started out cloudy and a little cool, but by the time I went in for my counseling session, it was sunny, bright, windless, and 75 degrees.