Haddonfield Trek

Since I got off early last night when the battery died, I ended up finishing Star Trek. James T. Kirk (Christopher Pine) has been a rebel and a troublemaker all his life. When he joins the Starfleet Academy, he's still getting into trouble, and running afoul of the ultra-logical Vulcan Spock (Zachary Quinto). Jim's new buddy Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) sneaks him aboard a major mission to stop a Romulan vessel from the future from wrecking major havoc. Spock gets fed up with Kirk and dumps him on a freezing-cold planet, where he encounters someone very familiar...someone who can explains why the Romulans are there and what they're after.

I'm never going to be a huge Trekkie, and to be honest, this was still a little complicated for my taste. You probably need to at least know something about the original show and movies to have some idea of what was really going on here. That said, it was still a pretty fun ride - Urban was my favorite as the snarky doctor who befriends Kirk.

I finished out the night with two items I picked up on video last week. Santa Bear's First Christmas is the same as my audio cassette version, only with attractive illustrations under the narration. It's not the most necessary Christmas special around, but sweet enough if you ever run into it and love bears like I do.

The 1954 version of A Christmas Carol is genuine TV history. It was the full original broadcast, up to and including the commercials for Chrysler cars. Fredrick March was Scrooge in this musical version of the famous Dickens novella. Basil Rathbone was Jacob Marley. (Interestingly, Rathbone would move up to Scrooge in another musical Christmas Carol on TV released two years later, The Stingiest Man In Town.) This wasn't really much of a musical, but it was apparently extremely popular, according to Musicals 101, enough to be re-ran twice and have a popular soundtrack album. I don't know if it's on DVD (Stingiest Man In Town was just released a few years ago), but it's an interesting curiosity if you love early TV musicals.

The next morning, I ate my breakfast quickly while watching Disney cartoons related to the beginning of fall and fall activities. "Autumn" is a pretty basic early Silly Symphony. Animals dance in time to the music as they out-run the weather and gather the food they'll need for the winter. Mickey Mouse proves Nick Foles has nothing on outlasting the opposition when he plays some pretty tough cats in the black and white short "Touchdown Mickey." Donald has his own problems keeping Chip and Dale off his apple crop in "Donald Applecore."

Ran a few quick errands before heading to Haddonfield. As you can guess, yes, I did get to Staples and bought an adapter. It was $49, but I needed it. After I got it set up, I hurried out to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session there. I had a lot to shelve, and not a lot of room to get it all in. Even the CD and audio books were overloaded. I didn't have a lot of time for it, either. I rushed out at 1:30 to get to Haddonfield for counseling. I didn't even have the time for lunch! (And no, I didn't take anything out this week. I don't think I'll have time for it, and I do still have a couple of videos to dub.)

I got to Mrs. Stahl's office right on time...which turned out to be a moot point. She was late. Her previous client ran overtime. When I did get in, I revealed how frustrated I was with how my day had gone and how my vacation had gone in general. I was hoping to get on more of a trip than just going to the King of Prussia Mall. Mrs. Stahl reminded me that I did do some fun things - I went on two fun bike rides, I found Hoppo and the videos, I got to see a very crazy Eagles game in full with my family.

It's hard for me to think of myself as an adult....but as Mrs. Stahl reminded me, I live alone. I'm very independent, and very proud of it. I pay my own bills. I provide my own transportation, or use public transportation. I makmy own budget and take care of my own household. I don't have people telling me how to do these things. Normally, I prefer it that way...but there are times when, like last night, I wish I had more people around who could help me when something goes wrong.

On one hand, I would like to meet a few more people like me in this area. On the other hand, as a very shy introvert, I'm not sure how to do this. I'm not really good in groups, and I don't know what really interests me. Most of the group events listed at the libraries either don't interest me, make me nervous, or are too late in the day to get to.

Basically, Mrs. Stahl said to try to work on staying positive....and get out and enjoy fall. I have Saturday off again. I'm really looking forward to it. There's going to be a street fair by the pool area in Westmont, a few blocks down from what used to be the Thriftway. I enjoyed that the last time I went there, and it should be fun this time.

Mrs. Stahl mentioned a new Mexican place had opened around the corner from her on Haddon Avenue, a few doors down from Starbucks'. Turns out it was the second location of the same restaurant that opened in Oaklyn across from WaWa, Jalapeno's Grill. This one was in a slightly nicer, if not much larger, location. It was 3 PM by the time I got there. The place was deserted. I ate a tasty (and larger than in Oaklyn) Chicken Quesadilla in silence.

I wanted to find the Haddonfield Goodwill, but I must have missed it. I rode out to Grove Avenue, and kept going, and going. Much to my surprise, I finally ended up in Cherry Hill, right across from the Christmas Tree Shops and Dick's Sports! I hadn't meant to go that far! I did finally make my way home, dodging the traffic on the highway and on the bridge over the Cooper River. past Parkway (Mini) Golf. The view from the bridge was absolutely gorgeous. The beautiful, sunny day was reflected in a placid river. Only the deft strokes of a few rowers from Rutgers on the other side marred the smooth bottle-green surface. If I had to get lost, this was a good day to do it.

Since I was in the area anyway, I stopped at the Pop Shop on my way home to treat myself to a milkshake. I wasn't the only one. A couple of families had taken their kids out for an early dinner. I enjoyed my Very Cherry Milkshake in the cute mason jar while watching the kids' antics.

I cut through an equally lovely Newton River Park going home, then across CVS. By this point, it was past 5. The traffic had gotten bad, which is why I cut through Collingswood and the park in the first place.

I finally made it home around 5:30. After I got settled in, I had leftovers for dinner while watching Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, which is set on the first day of fall. Pooh can't find Christopher Robin one lovely day in early fall. Owl misinterprets a honey-covered letter as being a call for help, so he sends the others after the boy. While Pooh's friends discover they are indeed up to the rigors of the journey, Pooh discovers that even when friends are far away, they're never far from our heart.

A surprisingly touching and bittersweet tale I watch ever late summer/early fall. This has a lot in common with the 2011 Winnie the Pooh - if you have very young kids, you might want to try them on that one before coming here. There's a few scary or sad moments that will require some hand-holding, especially Pooh's heartbreaking song "Wherever You Are."