Into the Holiday Weekend

Began a sunny morning with the American Top 40. Valentine's Day 1976 broke out the disco, R&B, novelty tunes, and some classic ballads. We heard "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow, "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate, "Evil Woman" by the Electric Light Orchestra (which would be incorporated into the 2007 stage version of Xanadu), Neil Sedaka's slower version of "Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do," "Theme from S.W.A.T" by Rhythm Heritage, "Love Roller Coaster" by the Ohio Players, "Love Machine (Part 1)" by the Miracles, "Love to Love You Baby" by Donna Summer, and the novelty tune on the then-exploding trucker culture, "Convoy." That week's #1 song was one of my favorite Paul Simon hits, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

I finished out the second Avengers: The World's Greatest Superheroes! volume while doing some crocheting. My favorite episodes on the second disc both highlighted the Hulk. "Gamma World" was a very interesting two-parter in which the Hulk's old adversary The Leader, one of the escapees from the Cube, the prison for gamma radiation villains, creates a huge dome of radiation. It eventually expands until it consumes the whole desert and Las Vegas, turning the entire city and most of the Avengers into monsters. The only Avengers who avoid this fate are Thor, who isn't from this world, Hawkeye, who managed to outrun the blast, and Hulk, who's been a gamma monster for ages. The three find themselves working together to try to contain the Leader's scheme...and prove to the Hulk that both of his alter egos have a purpose in the Avengers.

I made a quick errand run around the Oaklyn area after the DVD ended. The Oaklyn PNC branch will be closing the 22nd and consolidating with the branch in Collingswood. Next week will be my last day depositing anything there. I wish they were closing the branch in Collingswood instead. That would really make more sense. There's at least three or four other banks on Haddon Avenue alone, but only one other bank in Oaklyn (TD Bank further down the White Horse Pike). I like PNC and intend to stay with them, but I don't want to ride to Collingswood every week to deposit my paycheck.

I never made it to the Oaklyn Library last week. Made up for that with a quick stop there after leaving the bank. The library was the busiest I ever saw it. The children's area was filled with kids making LEGO kingdoms and vehicles and towers. I'd forgotten that today was the library's LEGO Building Club. Oh well, the kids were fun to watch.

I ended up working on the adult DVD section instead. It really needed the organizing. Half the boxes weren't in the right place at all. I also did something I'd been wanting to do forever. The Oaklyn Library probably can't afford to give the DVDs uniform cases and usually just leave them in the case they came in (even when the case is merely a cardboard box or slipcover). This would be all well and fine, if whomever shelved them actually bothered taking off the black and white sticky labels that hold together the tops. Many of them still had parts of the labels on their tops and sides. It looked tacky and unprofessional, not to mention made the cases hard to open. I removed as many of the labels as I could (some of them were covered with the library's scan bar stickers and couldn't be budged), then explained the situation to the librarian on duty. She said she'd leave a note for the other librarians to be more careful with the DVDs.

When I got home, I finished out "Gamma World" and ran a couple of Sailor Moon episodes from the first half the second season during a leftovers lunch, then headed to work. One of the managers had asked me to stay until 8. Having already taken a lot of hours this week, I told her I'd stay until 7, if necessary. (Getting off at 7 made more sense than getting off at 6:30, anyway.) Evidently, the father of one of the college boys had passed away, and he was going to be gone for a while. (Which also explains my late hours later this week.)

It was crazy-busy for most of the afternoon, not helped by the lack of employees. At one point, we even had to call a guy from the bakery to help out up front...and the bakery was even busier than us! February is a big birthday month. I saw at least seven or eight people buying birthday cakes and party trappings today. I thought it was quiet enough by 6:30 for me to leave at the original time, but the managers needed one of the cashiers to help with a display. I was embarrassed when they called me back to stay until the original 7. I thought the other cashier would be coming back!

I did get one important thing done at work today. One of the head managers helped me switch my paycheck from check to direct deposit. I was wary of that when it was first debuted. I would rather have the money right away, in my hand. But then, I started direct-depositing my tax refund money, and then got my temporary disability money last fall through direct deposit, and I realized how convenient it is to have the money right away and not have to run to the bank to put it in there. If nothing else, it'll save me an errand. From now on, I'll just take the money out of the bank that I need for the week on Fridays.

I finally made it to Applebee's after changing into a regular shirt. Needless to say, they were very busy on a Saturday night. My original plan for Christmas Eve was a decent dinner at Applebee's, which is in the parking lot next to the Acme, but I ended up going to Dad's party instead. I just switched it to a late Valentine's Day dinner. The hostess originally said the wait was 10 minutes, but it took less than 5 for them to seat me in a booth near the door.

I had the tasty Napa Chicken and Portobello, which was pretty much grilled chicken with roasted red peppers, onions, mushrooms, and zucchini, topped with Swiss cheese. Some of the zucchini slices hadn't really been cooked through, but they were awfully thick. Everything else was just fine. The chicken was tender and salty. The remaining vegetables were divine. I may have to try something like that at home this week. I enjoyed my meal and watched the Flyers play the Montreal Canadians. (Alas, they ultimately lost, 4-1.)

I heard customers mention a flurry in the middle of the afternoon. It was just cloudy when I got out of work, and at press time doesn't seem to be anything but cold.