Snow By Starlight

I slept in this morning and watched my first Valentine's specials of the season during breakfast. Disney did several cute holiday specials for Winnie the Pooh in the late 90s, including the Valentine's Day tale A Valentine for You. When the  100 Acres Woods crew sees Christopher Robin making a valentine for a girl, they assume this means he has a new friend he likes more than them. Owl claims he's been bitten by the "Smitten" bug. The others search for the bug in order to get it to bite him again and release him back to his old pals.

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh also did an earlier Valentine's story. Once again, Rabbit cancels a holiday when things don't go right. This time, he wants to call off Valentine's Day because the 100 Acre Woods was flooded with too many Valentines the year before. Everyone agrees to this...until Pooh finds a pot of Valentine's Day honey on his doorstep. Of course, Pooh can't resist giving them a thank-you Valentine...which eventually results in everyone giving everything from flying cakes to a play that doesn't go as planned. But who did give Pooh the original pot of honey? 

The remaining two cartoons on the set were more typical New Adventures fare. "Three Little Piglets" is a short that has the gang telling the title folk tale...with Rabbit as the Big, Bad Rabbit, and everyone getting their own ideas in. "My Hero" is a variation on the "someone rescues someone else and becomes their slave" plot that frequently turns up in the wackier sitcoms. Here, it's Piglet who saves Tigger, and Tigger who drives Piglet crazy serving him. 

I headed to the Acme around 12:30. I needed to pick up my paycheck (and W2) and do my grocery shopping. I was surprised to see that it was steady, but no more or less busy than normal for the time of day. Though it was just cloudy and cold at that point, we were supposed to be getting snow later in the day. I'm glad it wasn't busy when I went in. I had a lot to buy - needed to restock sugar, cream of chicken soup, whole-wheat pasta, wheat germ, cheese, eggs, canned tuna and chicken, and sugar. The Acme was having a huge buck-a-bag sale on bagged vegetables; in addition to the non-bagged apples, bananas, carrots, and oranges that I needed, I ended up with mushrooms, celery, two containers of cherry tomatoes, and a small bottle of pomegranate juice. 

The phone rang less than ten minutes after I walked in the door and dropped my groceries on the counter. The Acme needed me to come in early...at 3. It was quarter of 2, and I hadn't put away my groceries or had lunch yet! I told them 3:30 if possible. I hate it when they put me on the spot. Everyone must have been let out early.

I ran three episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre while making leftovers for lunch. "Rapunzel" and "Rumplestilkskin" are two early stories that both feature producer Shelly Duvall as the damsel in distress. The miller's daughter in "Rumplestiltskin" is a bit more proactive; instead of letting the page search for the little dwarf in the woods, she finds out his name herself. 

"Rapunzel" sticks closer to the original story (more than the 2010 Disney version did, or really could). The title lass is still trapped in a tower by her wicked witch mother (Gena Rowlands with a really crazy perm). A more generic prince (Jeff Bridges) falls for her, but he's pushed out of the tower and blinded after the witch finds out what they've been doing. She's dropped in the desert; he's forced to wander. The ending is a tad anti-climatic...but that's really true to the original story, too.

"The Nightingale" is one of the more unusual episodes. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones makes a rather peculiar acting debut as the Chinese emperor who is fascinated by the title bird and her beautiful song. When he's given a mechanical bird that sings just as well, he loses interest in the real one, and she returns to the forest. The mechanical bird breaks, however, and the Emperor becomes ill. A kindly maid (Barbara Hershey) is determined to return the Nightingale to the court and make the Emperor well again.

It was just starting to flurry as I finally headed to work around 3:20. I was signed in at quarter of 4. By then, it was steady, but no more-or-less than it usually is during rush hour. Apparently, they'd been hit with a suddenly influx of shoppers shortly after I left. This was less of a problem by rush hour; the snow was coming down hard, and would continue to do so for several hours. 

Thankfully, the snow was long-done by 10. Despite being heavily salted, the roads were slippery with ice and slush. I half-walked, half-road my bike home. The ride was really pretty, though. The new-fallen snow shown like huge bottle of glitter had been shaken onto the earth. I felt like I was riding through a jewelry store window filled with nothing but diamonds on a dark navy velvet background. 

I wasn't as happy with my schedule. Though I do have more hours this week and did get Tuesday off for my next counseling session, I'm stuck working until 11:15 on Monday. That means I'll have to beg a ride home from someone. They couldn't find anyone who would trade their hours with me. People either had earlier hours and wouldn't trade, or had off that day for classes or to work a second job. The one person who was willing to take the late hours was in dairy and had no hours to give me. I don't want to lose hours. I just want better ones.