Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Spontaneous Mall Adventure

Started out the morning with Sailor Moon as I ate breakfast. Usagi is determined to accompany Rei and Ami on a trip on a romantic cruise. They aren't as eager to have her around, so she and Luna end up stowing away in disguise. Usagi discovers there's a lot more to this cruise than love when it turns out Jadeite and a Negaverse monster are using the ship to gather energy from lovers.

I spent most of the morning doing things on the computer. The trouble with trying to write is I get so caught up in reading things online, I often run out of writing time. I just have such a hard time focusing when I can tap on an icon and bring up distractions! It's part of why I haven't been able to do much writing in years. I get so into the reading, listening, and watching, I don't get to the writing.

I finally got fed up with sitting down around noon. I ate the last of the leftover tuna casserole while doing more Sailor Moon.  Jadeite's failed one too many times, and now Queen Beryl is going to put him to an eternal sleep unless he can stop Sailor Moon. He lures the trio to Tokyo's airport, where his powers set airplanes chasing after them. He also seems to kill off Tuxedo Mask...or does he? The girls finally get sick of being chased and turn things around by turning Jadeite's powers on him.

I was bored. I'd wasn't planning on having three days off in a row this week. After I finished lunch, I hurried down to Oaklyn's City Hall and hopped on the bus to the Voorhees Town Center. I also wasn't expecting the bus to be so darn full! It was 1 PM; a lot of people must have been going to or from lunch hour. Thankfully, most people got off on the White Horse Pike. There were only a few left by the time we made it to Voorhees.

I did browse in Boscov's for a while, looking at sandals and shorts, but I was really there more to do something than to shop. I wandered around the toy department, too. The only Ever After High dolls they had were one Holly/Poppy 2-pack (I guess they really weren't that popular - too bad, they're cute dolls) and two of the Briar Beauty Thronecoming playset. Bought myself a huge chocolate chip sandwich cookie at the cookie booth in the middle of the mall's first floor.

After I left the cookie booth, I strolled up and down Restaurant Row. This is the first time I've been able to check it out in decent weather. In fact, it ended up being a very nice day, mid-60's and sunny, though very windy. Though it also features a beauty school, "Restaurant Row" is, as the name implies, a line of eateries on the bottom floors of the Town Center's condos. Most of them are steakhouses and breweries that were too pricey for me, and I ate out enough last week. I could see people setting up what looked like a carnival in the parking lot. Alas, the rides weren't even half-done. They probably wouldn't be ready until I was long gone.

Ended up spending an hour or so across the street at the Voorhees Library. They were quiet as could be, especially upstairs in the nonfiction section. I first took a look at this year's Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview, then found a really interesting book on lost silent movies I enjoyed for a while.

I was going to pick up the bus at the Library, but I got tired of waiting. I ended up in Macy's for a while, looking at shorts, before I got on at the Lens Crafters entrance where the bus stops. Thankfully, though it was the middle of rush hour, the traffic was going in the opposite direction. I had no trouble getting home, or stopping at WaWa for a Sparkling Ice Cherry Limeaide and a soft pretzel.

When I finally got in, I ate more leftovers while watching the next Sailor Moon episodes. Arrogant Nephrite replaces Jadeite as the girls' main villain for the rest of this set. Unlike Jadeite, he has a regular alter-ego - a suave playboy. He first appears in this guise at a tennis club, where he seems to want to help a close friend of Naru's. What he's really doing is increasing her energy, so he can claim it for the Negaverse. One of Usagi's teachers is the victim in the next episode. Rei and Usagi both want to make the wedding dress of their dreams in order to win a contest...but when the teacher shows up controlled by the Negaverse, she really takes the wedding cake!

Switched to Remember WENN as I cleaned up from dinner. "Sight Unseen" is the first episode to appear after the original four were run. It's also the first of three episodes during the series' run to deal with the treatment of minorities and the disabled. The latter gets spotlighted here when a young blind woman named Angela (Molly Ringwauld) appears at the station, asking to see Mackie Bloom. He plays her favorite character, the suave "Vagabond." Trouble is, Mackie is really short, balding, middle-aged, and about as far from his concept of a "Vagabond" as you can get. Angela finally reminds him that she can't see what he looks like...but she can hear his kind, intense voice, and that's really what matters.

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