We're Having a Heat Wave

After my busy day yesterday, I slept until 10 this morning. Brunch With the Beatles wasn't thrilling (the theme was "The Songs of 1964" - I like their later music better), so I opted for records. I tried calling Mom after having pancakes with mini chocolate chips and a half a grapefruit for breakfast. She was on her way out somewhere; I'd have to get her later.

I went for a walk in the park after breakfast. I was hoping to find that blackberry tree Lauren discovered when she visited last year. I did find the tree, but alas, most of the berries weren't ripe yet. I did get enough for a nice little snack, but not to make a cobbler, like we did last Memorial Day. I'll wait a few days.

After that, I went on my laptop. I wanted to go online, but the internet was down. Instead, I went through some of my old disks, both floppy and CD. I have inventories, databases, stories, fragments of stories, chapters of unfinished novels, essays, letters, articles, movie reviews, and projects going as far back as the late 90s. I wanted to see what was worth keeping, what I could get rid of, and what I might be able to continue.

A quick glance at most of the high school and college projects found nothing worth keeping. My writing style has changed a great deal since then, and I considered a few to be embarrassingly bad. (To the point where I wondered why my college newspaper published them.)

On the other hand, I ended up saving all of the random stories and fragments. I might be able to do something with a few of them. I could do some more research and finish the early talkie novel, for instance. Or reset the young adult novel about three pre-teen girls getting involved with local intrigue from the 40s to the 80s, when I actually was a pre-teen. Or finish that short story about the young woman who meets a young man at a party who is just as bored by the party as she is. (My basic opinion on why I'm not into partying.) I don't think I'll be able to finish the fantasy novel, but I might be able to use some ideas from that first chapter.

I'm going to go through the inventories as soon as I finish writing this. I'll continue this throughout the week. Not only will it help to clear out a lot of no-longer-necessary software, but I'll have some writing ideas...and a way to de-stress, given I once again have at least 35 hours this week. I'm just not used to standing for that long.

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday. It was long-lines busy when I came in. By the time I left, it was steady but not unmanageable. The sunny, hot weather and holiday weekend put people in a good mood. I was in and out quickly, and there were no major problems.

I finally got to talk to Mom when I got home. She'd been on her way out to the Cape May County Park and Zoo to meet my sister Rose, her boyfriend Craig, and their one-year-old son Khai there. They wanted to take Khai on his first trip to a zoo, and the County Park Zoo is both much cheaper (free, actually) and easier for a toddler to handle than the Philadelphia Zoo.

We had a short but pleasant chat. She suggested that I take it easy this week, since I still have more hours than usual and a lot of events coming up in the next month. I've decided to take her advice. Whether the Haddon Township Library re-opens this week or not, I'm going to skip it. I'll skip yoga and the Collingswood Library, too. I'll try getting some yoga in at home and getting some walks in. I will volunteer at the Oaklyn Library, since it's the closest to home, and the bathroom and kitchen are too gross to not clean.

I had salmon and a spinach-arugula salad with strawberries for dinner, then put on The Dress Circle. Heard more Irving Berlin in Hollywood this week, including "A Couple of Swells" and "Better Luck Next Time" from Easter Parade, the title song of Alexander's Ragtime Band, "Play A Simple Melody," "A Fella Chases a Girl Until He Catches Her," Marilyn Monroe's version of "Heat Wave," and "A Sailor's Not a Sailor Until He Gets Tattooed" from There's No Business Like Show Business, and "Always," one of Berlin's most beautiful ballads. "Always" was intended for the Marx Brothers' first major Broadway show and movie The Coconuts but was cut.