New Year's On the Rocks

The day began well. It was sunny, bright, and warm-out-of-the-ordinary for December, in the mid-50s. I had written in my journal and was just finished dressing when I got the dreaded call. Yes, it was the Acme. Could I come in as soon as possible? It was really busy. I told them 1PM. I had to get to the bank, if nothing else.

I did get to the bank, around quarter after 11. It wasn't busy when I was there, but the teller said it had been busy earlier. Simply Soups wasn't busy when I went there, either. I had a quick, small bowl of New England Clam Chowder, quarter of a Coke can, and a breadstick and a half.

I felt a little better when I rode down to Market Street and had a chat with Bob at Abbie Road. He not only slashed prices on a lot of CDs, but he had a pile of records for sale, too. My record finds were:

Olivia Newton-John - Have You Never Been Mellow

Pat Benetar - Tropico and Crimes of Passion

Belinda Carlisle - Heaven On Earth (replacing a cassette copy)


Linda Rondstat - Simple Dreams

Phil Collins - Face Value and But Seriously

The original Broadway cast album for the musical Zorba (never removed from its original plastic)

The CDs were mostly cast albums. I picked up the original casts for Company, Joseph and His Technicolor Dream Coat, and Grand Hotel: The Musical (another cassette replacement), the soundtrack for Til the Clouds Roll By, and Neil Diamond - His 12 Greatest Hits, Vol. II.

Work was a pain in the rear end all day. Yes, we were very busy. There was also a call-out. One of the older women had been sick all week. If people weren't doing their beginning-of-the-month shopping, they were buying vegetable trays and piles of chip bags for parties tonight. At one point, one very noisy man made a fuss because his check wouldn't go through. It hadn't helped that the woman in front of him got upset because he was taking the Lord's name in vain! The man was so obnoxious, even his teenage daughter said he was embarrassing her. I was frustrated, but everyone in the line after him was super-nice and complimented me on how well I handled him.

I went straight home after I finally got out of work. There was a really big package waiting for me when I arrived. My new DVD shelf unit had come! I put my things upstairs, then dragged the heavy box upstairs.

It ended up taking the better part of the night to put the shelf together. The directions weren't the greatest. I couldn't fit the sides to the bottom and top at first. Things went far faster when I finally got the sides standing upright.

It didn't help that I was trying to alternate putting up the unit with making a big New Year's Eve dinner. I eventually had ham with a sauce made from water, drippings, and fruit, steamed green beans, Strawberry Flummery, and sweet potatoes and apples. I ran Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Happy New Year, Charlie Brown, and two Bowery Boys movies while I worked and cooked. And of course, it turns out that the shelves still aren't enough to hold all of my DVDs.

Things weren't even pleasant when I got online. I had another nasty comment from that awful "jmsairforce," whom I assume is also the commenter who used to sign himself as "James" and claimed he was a psychiatrist. Now he's calling me a "creepy freak," just because I enjoy my dolls. You know why I enjoy those dolls? They don't insult me, call me names, or behave like an obnoxious boor. He says I'm a "headcase" and that I'm completely insane! I wish whomever this is would just crawl back under the rock he came from. I never did anything to him. I never called him names or hurt him in any way. He should do likewise and leave me alone.

I  hope all of you have a far better end of 2011 than I did.