Return to Balance

With my ankle better and my finances improving, I thought today would be a good time to return to yoga classes. I think I can save up for them now, especially since I'm not doing the gym anymore. This is one of the few ways I really have to meet people. It's expensive, but it's worth it.

I picked the right day to start my practice again. Today was the Thursday morning teacher Karin's last day before she goes on maternity leave. She'd announced her pregnancy just a few weeks before I got hurt! It's hard to believe it was that long ago. Needless to say, given her current condition, we didn't do a lot of jumping around. We mainly concentrated on inversions and balance poses. I did ok, considering how out of shape I am, but I'm very glad I got to say good-bye to Karin. She's been so nice to me.

Didn't have as much luck at the Collingswood Library. I probably could have returned to volunteering for them last month when I went back to the other two. The Collingswood Library is very different from the ones at Oaklyn and Haddon Township, though. Collingswood emphasizes community events and arts more than any other local town. The library is quite popular. They had a whole platoon of young college students organizing and shelving DVDs downstairs, and nothing to shelve upstairs. I hung around for a half-hour before I finally went home.

I may just drop volunteering at the Collingswood Library all together. Even when I go there on other days, they never seem to have all that much for me to do. Despite what my friend FA who works the counter says, I really don't think they need me there like they need me at the other two libraries.

Spent the rest of the afternoon indoors. I watched Thumbelina as I ate leftovers, flounder fillets, and a romaine salad for lunch. Don Bluth was known for making some pretty strange animated films in the 80s and 90s. This is the closest he ever really came to imitating Disney, even more than with Anastasia. This is a very straightforward adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. The title lass longs to meet someone as tiny as she is. She's thrilled when she encounters a fairy prince, but a series of increasingly unsuitable animals woo her and steal her away from him. In the end, she discovers that, no matter what your size, anyone can find their heart's desire...may it be large or small.

This charming musical was a victim of the same glut of animated fairy tales in the mid-late 90s that doomed The Swan Princess at the box office. I know a lot of girls who grew up during that time period have a soft spot for this one. I thought it was cute and lively, but that wasn't enough to overcome quite a few liabilities. Except for a lovely number when Thumbelina meets her prince in the beginning, the animation has dated rather badly - the CGI work is painfully obvious. The songs are very far from Barry Manilow's best work, and the characters are either bland (Thumbelina, her prince, and most of the fairies), grating (the majority of the animals), or just plain weird (a Hispanic frog voiced by Charro?). In addition to the number I mentioned, the other stand-out was the touching song for Thumbelina's mother (voice of Broadway star Barbara Cook) as she laments her lost daughter. A great voice cast (John Hurt, Gilbert Gottfried, Jodi Benson, and Carol Channing in addition to Cook and Charro) do what they can with the material.

For all that, it's harmless enough that this might be a good starter princess story for the very youngest royal girls. Fans of Bluth or young women who grew up seeing this on TV or video in the 90s and have fond memories may want to look it up as well.

After Thumbelina ended and while it was on, I did things around the apartment. I did some work online. I vacuumed everything I could. I did some vacuuming when I took the tree down last week, but it was really quick. This time, I not only re-did the music area and kitchen, but did the entertainment area and bedroom, too. I haven't really cleaned since late November, and the dust is appalling  It got to my sinuses. I've been sneezing like crazy all day.

Work was steady to busy for most of the night. We were short on help; most of the front end was putting up the tags for the new sales that start tomorrow. It just slowed down enough by 8 that I was able to leave without a relief.