No Free Balance

Started a lovely, sunny morning with yoga. (And I made it on time this week.) The focus of the week was on binding poses and shoulder and arm-joint opening. Roughly translated, we leaned behind us to try to grab our hands behind our backs in various ways. Karin had been watching specials on Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this week and wanted to do something to help represent freedom of mind. Needless to say, I really can't do anything resembling binding. I'm not quite flexible enough yet.

Went straight to the Collingswood Library to volunteer after class. I spent a pleasant hour putting away and shelving a big pile of DVDs. I also organized DVDs. The classics, kids' section, and dramas were especially bad today.

Headed home after I finished the DVDs. Actually, I went upstairs...and decided to go right back out again. It was the perfect day for a nice, long walk. I hadn't had a good one since before Christmas. While cooler than yesterday, it was still warmer than it has been, probably in the mid-30s. Most of the snow leftover from the last few showers is gone. There's some left in shady places and a few piles left on curbs, but for the most part, the streets and sidewalks were completely clear.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at my apartment. I baked Norsk Apple Muffins (a wonderful recipe from a baking cookbook I picked up from the registers at the Wildwood Acme many years ago), ate turkey burgers and roasted Brussels sprouts for lunch, and watched Merry Andrew

Merry Andrew is one of the oddest musicals I've ever seen, and Kaye's strangest vehicle. A British school teacher who wants to be an anthropologist talks his intimidating father into letting him dig for an artifact that's found in a meadow in Northern England. Trouble is, so's an Italian circus and the future site of a dairy farm. Andrew convinces the owner of the dairy to let him and the circus stay for a week. He spends that week doing a lot more than digging when the daughter of the circus' owner introduces him to the delights of performing...and of doing what you love.

I thought it was cute, but far from my favorite of Kaye's vehicles. The music was just ok, and the "do what you love" lesson is spread on a bit thick. Not to mention, the plot gets pretty strange in parts. For major Kaye fans only.

I wish I'd stayed with Merry Andrew. Work was the proverbial pain in the rear end. People around here are total wimps when it comes to weather. Folks, no one in Camden County lives more than five minutes from a food store of some kind. THERE IS NO REASON TO PANIC OVER 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW!!!!! I had long lines with huge orders all night. What kind of forecast are people watching, the one for the North Pole?

My very first customer of the night threw a total fit when she saw that her order came up to about $185, which I thought was pretty sensible for what she bought. Not to her. "I can get that for less at Wal-Mart!" she whined. "But their selection's terrible," I tried to remind her. She didn't listen. She made me void the whole darn order and ended up putting it all away.

(I don't think our Wal-Mart is worth the lower prices on a few items. It's about the size of your average Big Lots, and the selection not only really IS terrible, but the customers are worse - obnoxious and stupid. I refuse to go there anymore. A few cheap items that might not be there anyway aren't worth the hassle.)

There were a few other fun customers, too. At least two customers with very large orders didn't have enough in their credit/debit accounts to cover it and had to put their orders back. We had one of those people who overload their carts with food and then don't have nearly enough money to pay, too. They were all far nicer and more mature about it than the first lady, but they did hold up long lines.

Thank god it had finally slowed down enough by 9:30 that a sympathetic teen manager came in for me. The other cashier was late coming back from break, and she's the only other person staying until the store closes at 11.