I Can Help

I overslept and didn't get moving until 10. Ran an episode of the Backyardigans while eating breakfast. Uniqua, Tyrone, and Tasha discover strange tracks and raisins dropped around the yard. Uniqua thinks it's "The Yeti," a strange monster of the Frozen North. Tasha is equally insistent that the Yeti is fictional. Tyrone doesn't know what to think, except they should keep following those tracks. It's really just Pablo being cute and trying to get them all to his igloo so he can get snow on them.

Finally volunteered at Studio LuLoo this afternoon. Studio LuLoo is the closest thing in this area to a community center. They hold events and open mic night for kids and teenagers, after school programs, and some classes for adults. They're between Phillies Phatties and Leo's Yum Yum on West Clinton Avenue, a few blocks down from me. I brought them a bag of paper hearts as a donation. I bought them last year to do something for the apartment, but I decided they were too thin and never did it. I thought they could let the kids make valentines or put them on their windows.

My first job was to tidy up their kids' play area. It's a very small room off to your right as you enter. The place is crammed to the gills with toys of every kind and description, including a Cinderella-themed kitchen set and not one, but two doll houses. (One was a castle and sat on a shelf.) The shelves overflowed with books and containers of toys - baby toys, action figures, ratty Barbies. It really needed to be sorted out, but for the time being, I picked up everything off the floor, got it as neatly as I could on the shelves, put the furniture in the larger doll house, and found some folding fabric containers for toys that didn't have a place.

Spent the rest of my time doing dishes in the industrial-sized sink in the bathroom. From the white and tan gloppy stuff on the plates and knife in the huge tub of dishes, I suspect they may have had a birthday party yesterday or today. I did tell them that they need to be quicker about getting the dishes done after a party, or at least rinsing them off. Not only was the leftover gunk gross, but they don't need to be attracting mice, rats, and other pests.

(I'm going to try to volunteer here every Wednesday or Thursday late morning-early afternoon when I can. I really enjoyed helping them, and do they ever need it! The books need to be organized, the bins are a mess, and things are thrown into any old shelf. I think they could really use my help. I'll see if I can donate more things to them, too.)

Made a quick run to WaWa for lunch after I finished at Studio LuLoo. They were busy, but that wasn't surprising, seeing how it was almost 1 PM. I ended up with a roast beef and provolone hoagie and my favorite Sparkling Ice Cherry Limeade.

Did another Backyardigans episode while I ate lunch. Tyrone, Pablo, and Uniqua are back, this time on a "Secret Mission." They have to bring a strange object to its owner in the museum without getting caught by traps and alarms. This is no easy task, as the kids dodge the perils of falling cages and limbo their way under laser beams. Tyrone just hopes he'll be able to use his Spy Maple Syrup somehow.

Brr! It had been cold and windy earlier, and it was just getting colder as I went to work. I wish I'd stayed home. Work was a pain for a lot of the afternoon. I had a lot of annoying or just plain rude people. I got so flustered over one woman's WIC checks, they had to be refunded. I hope I don't get into trouble for that. (I've been worried about getting into trouble again ever since the suspension in December.) I suddenly got three huge orders in my line 15 minutes before I was supposed to be done. I felt bad that I had to call a manger to finish them.