It was sunny, windy, and cold for the first time in ages when I headed out this morning. I wanted to make my annual post-Christmas shopping trip. Stopped at the PNC Bank in Collingswood first to deposit the 300 dollars from Dad and Jodie. It was about 10:30. I must have gotten there between crowds. They were quiet, and there was no line, although there did seem to be a small one in the drive-through. I was in and out in minutes.
The clouds were returning when I picked up a fairly full train to Philadelphia. I thought of hitting the malls, but I really wanted to take a look at the big FYE on Broad Street, and I was already in Collingswood. There were a lot of families and college kids on the train. I guess they wanted to take in all the holiday displays downtown.
After getting a little turned around on 13th Street, I finally made my way to the Avenue of the Arts and FYE. Unlike the train, they were pretty quiet. I wandered around for an hour, browsing. I went strictly with DVDs this time. I didn't get any movies for Christmas, and I'll be checking out a local record store with Jessa and Joe on Saturday. FYE is still doing the buy one used, get one for a dollar deal. All the talk about Star Wars has put me in a fantasy/sci fi/action adventure mood. I ended up with two childhood favorites, the 1987 fantasy Willow and the delightfully goofy 1993 version of The Three Musketeers, the 1960 musical Can Can, and one of the few 50's and 60's sci-fi movies I really have any interest in, Forbidden Planet.
Doubled back to a pizza parlor on 13th Street for a simple lunch. It was past 1 when I finally made it down there, and Mama Angelina's was very busy. I was finally able to sit down with my slice of plain cheese, slice of white broccoli, and small Diet Pepsi. Yum. I love their pizza. They have the softest crust you ever tasted. So moist and chewy.
My next stop was Macy's. That...was not a good idea. They were mobbed to all get out. I could barely move around. Actually, I was mainly there to use the bathroom. There were people using the ones in Starbucks. I ended up hiking all the way to the third floor, and then I had to use the hard-to-find one in the back because the one for families had a line.
Most people were probably there to show their kids the Dickens Village or the famous Light Show in the main room. I walked around until the show was ready to begin. I couldn't find a place to watch it. The lines were three and four deep! I ended up jammed against a rack of baby pajamas. I still had a good enough view of the show...and the amazed looks on the faces of the tiny children on their parents' shoulders. They oohed and ahhed as clocks tick-tocked, ballerinas pirouetted, snowmen danced, snowflakes fell, cute bear trumpeters tooted their horns, and Santa rode across the display on his train.
Here's a video of the show from last year:
The Macy's Light Show
After the show, I decided that whatever clothes I had in mind could wait. It was just too busy in Macy's to attempt shopping. I went downstairs to Starbucks...but the line was long there, too. I went out to 13th Street and Chestnut, trying to find a less-busy coffee shop. Not only did I not have much luck, but it was starting to rain lightly. I returned to Starbucks. Thankfully, the walk wasn't entirely worthless. The line was much shorter. I had a very spicy Chai Latte and a very tasty Cranberry Bliss Bar, and even managed to get a seat.
I walked down 13th Street to the PATCO station on Locust and, after a brief look at a toy store and kids' activity center, took a half-full train home. My legs were tired from all the standing at Macy's, and the weather wasn't conductive to more wandering around. By that time, the rain had stopped. It was just cloudy and windy when I got back in.
Spent the rest of the evening writing. The kids, Mackie, and Maple find the toys on a conveyor belt, about to be sent into the garbage incinerator. Scott is bound on the conveyor belt as well. Barnaby is using him as a bargaining chip to get Betty to marry him. Maple, Mackie, and the kids won't let that happen!
Around 6 PM, I broke to make a simple but tasty dinner of chicken breasts rubbed with lemon juice and spices, spinach, mushroom, and onions sauteed in olive oil and lemon juice, and leftover sausage stuffing and Cranberry Flummery. It came out very well, especially the chicken breasts. They were so juicy!
Ran Forbidden Planet while I ate. It's the far future, and a group of officers (lead by a young Leslie Nielson) have landed on the moon Altair IV to seek out a colony that had once existed there. When they land, all they find of the colony are scholar Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his lovely daughter Altara (Anne Francis), and their loyal servant, Robby the Robot. Dr. Morbius has been studying the technology left behind by the previous inhabitants of the moon. It seems they found a way to use their minds to control the planet and enlarge their brain capacity. Trouble is, when ordinary men use it, it can overwhelm or even kill them...or control them. As Altara becomes more and more involved with the crew, they discover that there's a huge beast out there that wants to do them all in, and it comes from the least-likely place...
Straight-up sci-fi isn't normally my thing, but I really loved this. For one thing, it's based after my favorite Shakespearean play, The Tempest. Morbius is Prospero, Altara is Miranda, the Commander is Ferdinand, Robby is Ariel, and the monster is Caliban. While some of the backdrops look a bit fakey, most of the other special effects, especially the alien races' technology that covers the entire planet beneath the surface. The monster effects were neat. I like how they slowly played up the monster...and the animation used during his brief appearance.
I did find a lot of the talk about the alien technology itself confusing, and the treatment of Altara, who tends to distract the men quite a bit in her short outfits, is a bit dated. Otherwise, this is one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time, and worth seeing even if you're not a big fan of the genre.
Finished the night with a nice, quiet bath while listening to Vaughn Monroe. I desperately needed it. My legs were so sore after spending a lot of the day walking and standing. It started to rain sometime after dinner, giving me my bath a nice, soothing backdrop.
Life is a lazy river - no matter where you are. Movies, musicals, mysteries, pop culture, and lots of other great stuff.
Showing posts with label Macy's Light Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macy's Light Show. Show all posts
Monday, December 28, 2015
Monday, December 29, 2014
It's Christmastime In the City
I slept in a bit today. I didn't get moving until past 11:30. I wanted to revive my post-Christmas shopping trip. I did it once with Jessa at the Cherry Hill Mall, but I usually prefer to go into Philly. I enjoy the walk, the big Macy's, and the general festive holiday atmosphere. I wasn't the only one who decided to spend the day in the city, either. There were quite a few people, mostly college students or families with kids, taking the train into Philly with me.
Got off at 8th and Market. I briefly checked out Century 21, which took over part of the old Strawbridge and Clothier building. They looked like the same thing as Macy's - a high-end department store. Beautiful and elegantly spare, but nothing I needed (or my wallet could afford). I headed into the Gallery Mall.
Books-A-Million did have the third and fourth Ever After High books, one of the things I really wanted for Christmas, but not the first or the second. FYE was papered over with red and yellow 50-75% off signs. Sounds like they're giving up the ghost. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, especially with the larger Broad Street FYE within walking distance. I've gotten a few good things there over the years, but not as much as at Broad Street. I didn't see anything I wanted and went back out. I was hoping the Toys R Us Express would be open. Nope, it was shuttered. They must have closed after Christmas.
The sidewalks grew more and more crowded as I made my way down to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. What a mess! I'd never seen it so busy. I barely managed to inch my way through the teeming masses looking for a late lunch. I finally found my way to Tootsie's Salad Express in the very back of the Market building. They were basically a miniature version of Old Country Buffet, with a hot foods bar on one side and a salad bar on the other. I've stuffed myself so much over the last week or so that I wasn't really hungry. I just opted for a roll and a small salad. The college girl at the counter was very sweet. She said I looked familiar. Turned out she'd once lived in Audubon and had shopped at the Acme regularly.
Though she recommended some tables in the center dining area, I opted to take my salad and roll outside. It was chilly and windy, but sunny, and really not anything out of the ordinary for late December in Philadelphia. I enjoyed my meal at the sculpture park next to the Marriott hotel, across from Reading Terminal Market, while watching people eat their own lunches or play with their children.
My next stop was the big Macy's a few blocks down. They were even busier than Reading Terminal Market! I took the elevators up to the third floor. Though I'd like to buy some nice clothes eventually, for now, I used the gift card from Lauren to buy two new pairs of winter pajamas. One is a simple mint-green nightshirt with a white snowflake print. The other is a soft flannel berry plaid nightshirt. The green pajamas were about $18; the plaid nightshirt was on a really good sale for $10.50 (it was originally $42!). The 25 dollar gift card from Lauren covered all but five dollars.
I was originally going to watch the Macy's Light Show upstairs. By the time I paid for my pajamas, the crowds around the railings were three and four deep! I dashed to the elevators instead. The crowds were still heavy in the main room, but I at least could see over people's heads. The atmosphere in the room was electric. Even the teenage boy on my right oohed and ahhed under his breath as fairies danced, Santa rode across the top of the lights in his train, clocks tick-tocked, and teddy bears heralded the magical display. I could hear the kids' delight even around the noise of the customers.
Here's a recording of the Macy's Light Show from about three years ago on YouTube.
I ducked out of the stuffy room as soon as I could and over to City Hall. My next stop was the big FYE on Broad Street. There were a few things I wanted, though not as much as last year. The Broad Street FYE had been totally reorganized since my last visit. DVDs were now on the first floor. Anything related to music, including musicals, were moved upstairs. (Video games stayed where they were in one small section of the second floor.)
I really hit the jackpot with music. Moving the music-related media upstairs allowed FYE to greatly expand their record collection. They had a huge selection of used Broadway cast albums. I would have bought the contents of all three shelves if I had a way to bring them home. I saw albums for lesser-known or flop shows I never believed I'd ever have a chance to hear, besides digging around for occasionally pricey and often out-of-print or made-to-order CDs.
I made a rather nice haul there. The movies I picked up were the Back to the Future trilogy in the original DVD set (I've been meaning to get that for a while), the 1936 MGM disaster drama San Francisco with Jeanette MacDonald and Clark Gable, and last summer's version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The records were buy 2, get one for a dollar - everything else was buy 1, get one for a dollar. Which is why I grabbed six original cast albums and soundtracks - Tovarich (with Vivian Leigh), Bloomer Girl (with Celeste Holm), Anne of Green Gables, Two By Two (with Danny Kaye), Goldilocks (with the late Elaine Stritch), and the double soundtrack for the MGM musicals Words and Music and Good News. I also found one of those K-Tel pop collections marked down to a dollar.
(Incidentally, the other dollar items were San Francisco, Two By Two, and the Words and Music/Good News soundtrack. The Turtles were a splurge at $14, but I really did want to see that. I couldn't find the other recent action hit I'm dying to see, Guardians of the Galaxy. I may have to get that one online.)
It was 3:30 when I made my way down Walnut Street, past shoppers looking for big after-holidays sales. I took a few wrong turns, but I finally made it to Rittenhouse Square ten minutes later. I saw quite a few people chatting or playing with their dogs or kids in the park, silhouetted by the hazy gold late afternoon sunshine.
Barnes and Noble was busy too, but I was really just there for the Ever After High books. They only had the first two, The Storybook of Legends and The Unfairest of All, and the fourth book, a collection of short stories featuring the various students. I just bought the first two. I'll pick up the other two either online or at another Barnes and Noble next month or with tax return money in February.
I saw a coffee shop called Peet's Coffee and Tea as I was walking to Barnes and Noble. I stopped there to get off my knees and get a drink on my way home. They were so busy, I literally got the last seat at the counter! They were pretty much the same thing as Starbucks with a different label and more modern-style furniture. I wasn't impressed. My Iced Chai Latte was watery and the lemon iced pound cake was dry as a bone. I was mainly there to sit down and use the bathroom.
Took a surprisingly quiet 4:30 train home. I guess everyone got out early. As the train rumbled over the Ben Franklin Bridge, I was able to take in one of the loveliest sunsets I'd ever seen. Brilliant shades of crimson melded with deep purple in the soft blue sky over the traffic-laden highways and Schuylkill River. It was worth the trip to Philly just to be able to get a good glimpse of that marvelous sunset.
Rose called about a half-hour after I made it home. Though she did take Khai to visit his other set of grandparents and Craig's biological father on and the day after Christmas, she mostly spent the rest of the week sick. She says she only just got over the bronchitis yesterday. She also mentioned that she planned on taking Khai and me down to Cape May County to see that side of the family in late January, after Anny has her baby. She pointed out to me that everyone had to work. We're adults. Adults have to work over holidays sometimes. It's not practical to want to spend Christmas the same way all the time. I have to make new traditions.
On one hand, she's right that I need to not only find other things to do on Christmas, but figure out how to get to them. I'd love to go to the movies, but it would require a bus ride, and most soup kitchens are in Camden - not a good place to go alone, even on a holiday. I really need to work on making my own traditions for major holidays, with or without other people around.
On the other hand...she's missing the point. Unlike Rose, who has a son, a boyfriend, two dogs, and a cat, and can drive and see the rest of the family whenever she can spare the time, I don't have a family or a quick way to see the rest of ours. Christmas is one of the few times I can see most of my family in one place. I really look forward to it. Christmas is very important to me. It hurt me that other people couldn't try to make the effort to get together.
I cheered myself up with leftovers for dinner and Ship Ahoy, another Red Skelton musical I got from Lauren's Christmas box. This time, Eleanor Powell is the girl Skelton's infatuated with. She's a dancer with a troupe that includes Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (and Frank Sinatra) on a boat bound for Puerto Rico. Virginia O'Brian is her best friend; Bert Lahr is Red's. Red is a pulp fiction novelist on the boat for his health. He falls for Eleanor hard, but in a plot pulled from one of his own stories, she turns out to be a spy who is being used to carry an important machine to enemy hands. Things really get crazy when they all land in San Juan and both sides end up pursuing the lovers and that magnetic marvel.
This is somewhat similar to Bathing Beauty, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more. The plot is just as silly, but it's more fun and offers Skelton and Lahr some great comic opportunities. Energetic Powell and dour O'Brian both work a lot better with Skelton than Esther Williams. Powell was coming close to the end of her time as a major MGM star (she would retire about three years after this movie was released), but she does get some decent numbers, including one where she taps out a warning in Morse Code. If you're a fan of the stars, Sinatra, or big band music, this is definitely worth looking for at the Warner Archives.
Got off at 8th and Market. I briefly checked out Century 21, which took over part of the old Strawbridge and Clothier building. They looked like the same thing as Macy's - a high-end department store. Beautiful and elegantly spare, but nothing I needed (or my wallet could afford). I headed into the Gallery Mall.
Books-A-Million did have the third and fourth Ever After High books, one of the things I really wanted for Christmas, but not the first or the second. FYE was papered over with red and yellow 50-75% off signs. Sounds like they're giving up the ghost. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, especially with the larger Broad Street FYE within walking distance. I've gotten a few good things there over the years, but not as much as at Broad Street. I didn't see anything I wanted and went back out. I was hoping the Toys R Us Express would be open. Nope, it was shuttered. They must have closed after Christmas.
The sidewalks grew more and more crowded as I made my way down to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. What a mess! I'd never seen it so busy. I barely managed to inch my way through the teeming masses looking for a late lunch. I finally found my way to Tootsie's Salad Express in the very back of the Market building. They were basically a miniature version of Old Country Buffet, with a hot foods bar on one side and a salad bar on the other. I've stuffed myself so much over the last week or so that I wasn't really hungry. I just opted for a roll and a small salad. The college girl at the counter was very sweet. She said I looked familiar. Turned out she'd once lived in Audubon and had shopped at the Acme regularly.
Though she recommended some tables in the center dining area, I opted to take my salad and roll outside. It was chilly and windy, but sunny, and really not anything out of the ordinary for late December in Philadelphia. I enjoyed my meal at the sculpture park next to the Marriott hotel, across from Reading Terminal Market, while watching people eat their own lunches or play with their children.
My next stop was the big Macy's a few blocks down. They were even busier than Reading Terminal Market! I took the elevators up to the third floor. Though I'd like to buy some nice clothes eventually, for now, I used the gift card from Lauren to buy two new pairs of winter pajamas. One is a simple mint-green nightshirt with a white snowflake print. The other is a soft flannel berry plaid nightshirt. The green pajamas were about $18; the plaid nightshirt was on a really good sale for $10.50 (it was originally $42!). The 25 dollar gift card from Lauren covered all but five dollars.
I was originally going to watch the Macy's Light Show upstairs. By the time I paid for my pajamas, the crowds around the railings were three and four deep! I dashed to the elevators instead. The crowds were still heavy in the main room, but I at least could see over people's heads. The atmosphere in the room was electric. Even the teenage boy on my right oohed and ahhed under his breath as fairies danced, Santa rode across the top of the lights in his train, clocks tick-tocked, and teddy bears heralded the magical display. I could hear the kids' delight even around the noise of the customers.
Here's a recording of the Macy's Light Show from about three years ago on YouTube.
I ducked out of the stuffy room as soon as I could and over to City Hall. My next stop was the big FYE on Broad Street. There were a few things I wanted, though not as much as last year. The Broad Street FYE had been totally reorganized since my last visit. DVDs were now on the first floor. Anything related to music, including musicals, were moved upstairs. (Video games stayed where they were in one small section of the second floor.)
I really hit the jackpot with music. Moving the music-related media upstairs allowed FYE to greatly expand their record collection. They had a huge selection of used Broadway cast albums. I would have bought the contents of all three shelves if I had a way to bring them home. I saw albums for lesser-known or flop shows I never believed I'd ever have a chance to hear, besides digging around for occasionally pricey and often out-of-print or made-to-order CDs.
I made a rather nice haul there. The movies I picked up were the Back to the Future trilogy in the original DVD set (I've been meaning to get that for a while), the 1936 MGM disaster drama San Francisco with Jeanette MacDonald and Clark Gable, and last summer's version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The records were buy 2, get one for a dollar - everything else was buy 1, get one for a dollar. Which is why I grabbed six original cast albums and soundtracks - Tovarich (with Vivian Leigh), Bloomer Girl (with Celeste Holm), Anne of Green Gables, Two By Two (with Danny Kaye), Goldilocks (with the late Elaine Stritch), and the double soundtrack for the MGM musicals Words and Music and Good News. I also found one of those K-Tel pop collections marked down to a dollar.
(Incidentally, the other dollar items were San Francisco, Two By Two, and the Words and Music/Good News soundtrack. The Turtles were a splurge at $14, but I really did want to see that. I couldn't find the other recent action hit I'm dying to see, Guardians of the Galaxy. I may have to get that one online.)
It was 3:30 when I made my way down Walnut Street, past shoppers looking for big after-holidays sales. I took a few wrong turns, but I finally made it to Rittenhouse Square ten minutes later. I saw quite a few people chatting or playing with their dogs or kids in the park, silhouetted by the hazy gold late afternoon sunshine.
Barnes and Noble was busy too, but I was really just there for the Ever After High books. They only had the first two, The Storybook of Legends and The Unfairest of All, and the fourth book, a collection of short stories featuring the various students. I just bought the first two. I'll pick up the other two either online or at another Barnes and Noble next month or with tax return money in February.
I saw a coffee shop called Peet's Coffee and Tea as I was walking to Barnes and Noble. I stopped there to get off my knees and get a drink on my way home. They were so busy, I literally got the last seat at the counter! They were pretty much the same thing as Starbucks with a different label and more modern-style furniture. I wasn't impressed. My Iced Chai Latte was watery and the lemon iced pound cake was dry as a bone. I was mainly there to sit down and use the bathroom.
Took a surprisingly quiet 4:30 train home. I guess everyone got out early. As the train rumbled over the Ben Franklin Bridge, I was able to take in one of the loveliest sunsets I'd ever seen. Brilliant shades of crimson melded with deep purple in the soft blue sky over the traffic-laden highways and Schuylkill River. It was worth the trip to Philly just to be able to get a good glimpse of that marvelous sunset.
Rose called about a half-hour after I made it home. Though she did take Khai to visit his other set of grandparents and Craig's biological father on and the day after Christmas, she mostly spent the rest of the week sick. She says she only just got over the bronchitis yesterday. She also mentioned that she planned on taking Khai and me down to Cape May County to see that side of the family in late January, after Anny has her baby. She pointed out to me that everyone had to work. We're adults. Adults have to work over holidays sometimes. It's not practical to want to spend Christmas the same way all the time. I have to make new traditions.
On one hand, she's right that I need to not only find other things to do on Christmas, but figure out how to get to them. I'd love to go to the movies, but it would require a bus ride, and most soup kitchens are in Camden - not a good place to go alone, even on a holiday. I really need to work on making my own traditions for major holidays, with or without other people around.
On the other hand...she's missing the point. Unlike Rose, who has a son, a boyfriend, two dogs, and a cat, and can drive and see the rest of the family whenever she can spare the time, I don't have a family or a quick way to see the rest of ours. Christmas is one of the few times I can see most of my family in one place. I really look forward to it. Christmas is very important to me. It hurt me that other people couldn't try to make the effort to get together.
I cheered myself up with leftovers for dinner and Ship Ahoy, another Red Skelton musical I got from Lauren's Christmas box. This time, Eleanor Powell is the girl Skelton's infatuated with. She's a dancer with a troupe that includes Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (and Frank Sinatra) on a boat bound for Puerto Rico. Virginia O'Brian is her best friend; Bert Lahr is Red's. Red is a pulp fiction novelist on the boat for his health. He falls for Eleanor hard, but in a plot pulled from one of his own stories, she turns out to be a spy who is being used to carry an important machine to enemy hands. Things really get crazy when they all land in San Juan and both sides end up pursuing the lovers and that magnetic marvel.
This is somewhat similar to Bathing Beauty, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more. The plot is just as silly, but it's more fun and offers Skelton and Lahr some great comic opportunities. Energetic Powell and dour O'Brian both work a lot better with Skelton than Esther Williams. Powell was coming close to the end of her time as a major MGM star (she would retire about three years after this movie was released), but she does get some decent numbers, including one where she taps out a warning in Morse Code. If you're a fan of the stars, Sinatra, or big band music, this is definitely worth looking for at the Warner Archives.
Saturday, December 07, 2013
Christmas In the City of Brotherly Love
I slept in a little more than usual and only got to hear the last half-hour of this week's American Top 40 re-run. We were in early December 1980, as R&B, ballads, country stars, and disco enlivened the first holiday season of the 80s. Hits that week included "Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder, "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen, "More Than I Can Say" by Leo Sayer, and "Woman In Love" by Barbara Streisand. The number #1 was one of the biggest hits of country legend Kenny Rogers, the ballad "Lady."
I finally headed out to the PATCO Station in Collingswood around quarter after 10. I rode around Collingswood for about 10 minutes, just enjoying a chilly, sunny late fall day, before locking my bike and buying my ticket. There were two large, noisy crowds of older people and college students dressed for the holidays in loud sweaters, silly Santa hats, and ridiculous ornament jewelry waiting with me, too. They were so loud and obnoxious on the way to Philly, I wonder if they all hit the eggnog a little early.
This year, I chose to forgo the congestion on Market Street and start on 16th Street, heading down to Rittenhouse Square. Much to my surprise, there was a line of white tents and booths set up on the sidewalks on the side of the Square across from Barnes & Noble. I decided to check out this event instead of going to the bookstore first.
It turned out to be a farm market, smaller but just as nifty as the one at Collingswood. In fact, I recognized some of the booths as Collingswood regulars, including the mushroom sellers, the hand-made soap sellers, and two bakery booths. I bought a Pumpkin Roll from one of the bakeries. It was a slice of very moist roll pumpkin spice cake with a thick cream cheese filling. Ooh, it was so yummy! I must have looked like I enjoyed it, because a father with two kids asked me where I got it - I pointed them back to the farm market.
I finally made it to Barnes & Noble after finishing my treat. I went right to the third floor after a brief peek at this week's Entertainment Weekly's top 10 movies of the year list. I took a look at the area in the back where the film and music books were, and was a bit disappointed when I realized that the meeting area had been cleared, there were shelves where the chairs were, and there were far fewer shelves of media-related books than there used to be.
Had far more luck in the extensive children's section. I listened to a mother read a Christmas story to her daughter as I browsed. I discovered my 7-year-old cousin Faith's gift first. She and her mother Samantha enjoyed the American Girl historical books I gave them last year so much, I decided to get her another one new. American Girl does a "Girl of the Year," a doll with a special collection that can only be bought for one year. This year's girl is Saige Copeland, who lives in New Mexico. Her themes are horseback riding and the importance of the arts in schools and in our lives...something I thought horse-loving Faith and Samantha would appreciate.
Skylar's present was harder to find. It wasn't overwhelming busy, but there were quite a few parents in the kids' section. I had to gingerly step around a mother looking for a Spanish-English dictionary for her child while checking the science and reference books. I finally came up with a small but thick book of science experiments for kids. Skylar loved doing science experiments all summer with Mom.
It was past 12:30 when I left Barnes & Noble. Time for lunch. I wanted something filling, but simple. I remembered the food court in the lower level of the Bellevue, the deluxe hotel/mall on Broad Street. Much to my surprise, despite it being the lunch hour, the food court wasn't busy, and many of the restaurants were closed. I opted for one of the few open, Bain's Deli. Had a delicious, mile-high roast beef sandwich on marble rye bread, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a huge spear pickle.
My next stop was the big FYE on Broad Street, a couple of blocks from the Bellevue. Surprisingly, they also weren't that busy. It also helps that they have more space than most of the stores in the area, with wide aisles and plenty of display room. I quickly found the movie Rose requested for her and her family's Christmas party host gift. It was more difficult to find something appropriate for my best friend Lauren. She can and does buy herself most movies and video games she's interested in as soon as possible. In fact, the item I ended up getting her wasn't a movie or a game, but I think she'll still get a kick out of it. I had a small embarrassing moment when the item I was getting for Lauren didn't seem to have a label and I had to go back for another one. Otherwise, the lines weren't long, and I had no problems getting out.
I opted to go around City Hall and enter Macy's through the Juniper Street doors. That was a mistake. The place was an absolute lunatic asylum. It was a sea of people, people, and more people. The lines were ridiculously long everywhere, and people were grouchy and rude. I was hoping it would have been less busy by quarter of 3. Nope. To make matters worse, for some reason, they're having the Light Show every two hours, instead of every hour. I don't know if it's for traffic control or what, but no one was happy, including me. Because the light show wasn't for over an hour, the line for the Dickens Village was half-way down the kids' section on the third floor. Even the line at the tiny Starbucks was annoyingly long. I ultimately left without anything, even a cup of hot chocolate. I'll see the Light Show the week after Christmas and just do the Dickens Village next year.
I did better on my stroll down 13th Street. I noticed small door that said "Verde," and the lovely jewelry and knit scarves and hats they had on display. When I came in, I discovered a long, narrow old store filled with tables and shelves of knit hats, scarves, and gloves, funky socks, cool accessories, and Philly-related gifts. They even had a selection of elaborate chocolates behind a counter. It looked and felt more like a gift shop in Cape May than in Center City Philadelphia. I fell in love with it right away. Even the heavy crowd seemed to be more cheerful than the one at Macy's. I found a nifty item for my stepsister Jessa, who loves unique socks and accessories. I'll have to go back there after the holidays, when it's less crowded.
I was hot after being in overheated stores all day. I made a quick stop at the frozen yogurt store Sweet Endings for a cup of eggnog yogurt sprinkled with white chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, and my first-ever pomegranate seeds. I liked the sweet-tart seeds better than the too-tart yogurt, which didn't really taste much like eggnog. I took my frozen yogurt on the road, eating it on the way to the 13th Street PATCO station. Thankfully, the 3:30 train was practically empty and quiet. When I got in, I made short stops at WaWa (for a French Vanilla chilled coffee) and CVS (they were out of the Dawn Dish Liquid on sale) before heading home.
Spent the rest of the evening watching Shrek: The Musical, crocheting, and eating baked salmon and broccoli for dinner. This was the Broadway stage version of the blockbuster movie that debuted in 2010. It wasn't a huge hit, but apparently did well enough...which is a shame, because I may have liked it better than the movie. As in the film, the title character is a grouchy but good-hearted ogre (Brian D'Arcy) who travels to the kingdom of Lord Faarquad (Christopher Sieber) to get him to remove the enchanted animals and fairies he's exiled from his swamp. Faarquad agrees...but only if he rescues the lovely Fiona (Sutton Foster) from a tower and a dragon. Along the way, he reluctantly befriends a motor-mouth Donkey (Daniel Breaker) who both helps and hinders his quest...and the trio and Fiona discover that one ogre's "freak" is another's handsome knight and beautiful princess.
I saw the first Shrek film in the theater and liked the second well enough, but wasn't crazy about the third and didn't bother with the fourth or the subsequent holiday specials. This was a surprisingly enjoyable romp with some really wonderful songs. My favorites were "Let Your Freak Flag Fly" for the enchanted characters, Fiona's trio with her younger selves "I Know It's Today," and the hilarious competition duet for Shrek and Fiona, "I Got You Beat." Well worth checking out for fans of the movies or of stage musicals.
I finally headed out to the PATCO Station in Collingswood around quarter after 10. I rode around Collingswood for about 10 minutes, just enjoying a chilly, sunny late fall day, before locking my bike and buying my ticket. There were two large, noisy crowds of older people and college students dressed for the holidays in loud sweaters, silly Santa hats, and ridiculous ornament jewelry waiting with me, too. They were so loud and obnoxious on the way to Philly, I wonder if they all hit the eggnog a little early.
This year, I chose to forgo the congestion on Market Street and start on 16th Street, heading down to Rittenhouse Square. Much to my surprise, there was a line of white tents and booths set up on the sidewalks on the side of the Square across from Barnes & Noble. I decided to check out this event instead of going to the bookstore first.
It turned out to be a farm market, smaller but just as nifty as the one at Collingswood. In fact, I recognized some of the booths as Collingswood regulars, including the mushroom sellers, the hand-made soap sellers, and two bakery booths. I bought a Pumpkin Roll from one of the bakeries. It was a slice of very moist roll pumpkin spice cake with a thick cream cheese filling. Ooh, it was so yummy! I must have looked like I enjoyed it, because a father with two kids asked me where I got it - I pointed them back to the farm market.
I finally made it to Barnes & Noble after finishing my treat. I went right to the third floor after a brief peek at this week's Entertainment Weekly's top 10 movies of the year list. I took a look at the area in the back where the film and music books were, and was a bit disappointed when I realized that the meeting area had been cleared, there were shelves where the chairs were, and there were far fewer shelves of media-related books than there used to be.
Had far more luck in the extensive children's section. I listened to a mother read a Christmas story to her daughter as I browsed. I discovered my 7-year-old cousin Faith's gift first. She and her mother Samantha enjoyed the American Girl historical books I gave them last year so much, I decided to get her another one new. American Girl does a "Girl of the Year," a doll with a special collection that can only be bought for one year. This year's girl is Saige Copeland, who lives in New Mexico. Her themes are horseback riding and the importance of the arts in schools and in our lives...something I thought horse-loving Faith and Samantha would appreciate.
Skylar's present was harder to find. It wasn't overwhelming busy, but there were quite a few parents in the kids' section. I had to gingerly step around a mother looking for a Spanish-English dictionary for her child while checking the science and reference books. I finally came up with a small but thick book of science experiments for kids. Skylar loved doing science experiments all summer with Mom.
It was past 12:30 when I left Barnes & Noble. Time for lunch. I wanted something filling, but simple. I remembered the food court in the lower level of the Bellevue, the deluxe hotel/mall on Broad Street. Much to my surprise, despite it being the lunch hour, the food court wasn't busy, and many of the restaurants were closed. I opted for one of the few open, Bain's Deli. Had a delicious, mile-high roast beef sandwich on marble rye bread, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and a huge spear pickle.
My next stop was the big FYE on Broad Street, a couple of blocks from the Bellevue. Surprisingly, they also weren't that busy. It also helps that they have more space than most of the stores in the area, with wide aisles and plenty of display room. I quickly found the movie Rose requested for her and her family's Christmas party host gift. It was more difficult to find something appropriate for my best friend Lauren. She can and does buy herself most movies and video games she's interested in as soon as possible. In fact, the item I ended up getting her wasn't a movie or a game, but I think she'll still get a kick out of it. I had a small embarrassing moment when the item I was getting for Lauren didn't seem to have a label and I had to go back for another one. Otherwise, the lines weren't long, and I had no problems getting out.
I opted to go around City Hall and enter Macy's through the Juniper Street doors. That was a mistake. The place was an absolute lunatic asylum. It was a sea of people, people, and more people. The lines were ridiculously long everywhere, and people were grouchy and rude. I was hoping it would have been less busy by quarter of 3. Nope. To make matters worse, for some reason, they're having the Light Show every two hours, instead of every hour. I don't know if it's for traffic control or what, but no one was happy, including me. Because the light show wasn't for over an hour, the line for the Dickens Village was half-way down the kids' section on the third floor. Even the line at the tiny Starbucks was annoyingly long. I ultimately left without anything, even a cup of hot chocolate. I'll see the Light Show the week after Christmas and just do the Dickens Village next year.
I did better on my stroll down 13th Street. I noticed small door that said "Verde," and the lovely jewelry and knit scarves and hats they had on display. When I came in, I discovered a long, narrow old store filled with tables and shelves of knit hats, scarves, and gloves, funky socks, cool accessories, and Philly-related gifts. They even had a selection of elaborate chocolates behind a counter. It looked and felt more like a gift shop in Cape May than in Center City Philadelphia. I fell in love with it right away. Even the heavy crowd seemed to be more cheerful than the one at Macy's. I found a nifty item for my stepsister Jessa, who loves unique socks and accessories. I'll have to go back there after the holidays, when it's less crowded.
I was hot after being in overheated stores all day. I made a quick stop at the frozen yogurt store Sweet Endings for a cup of eggnog yogurt sprinkled with white chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, and my first-ever pomegranate seeds. I liked the sweet-tart seeds better than the too-tart yogurt, which didn't really taste much like eggnog. I took my frozen yogurt on the road, eating it on the way to the 13th Street PATCO station. Thankfully, the 3:30 train was practically empty and quiet. When I got in, I made short stops at WaWa (for a French Vanilla chilled coffee) and CVS (they were out of the Dawn Dish Liquid on sale) before heading home.
Spent the rest of the evening watching Shrek: The Musical, crocheting, and eating baked salmon and broccoli for dinner. This was the Broadway stage version of the blockbuster movie that debuted in 2010. It wasn't a huge hit, but apparently did well enough...which is a shame, because I may have liked it better than the movie. As in the film, the title character is a grouchy but good-hearted ogre (Brian D'Arcy) who travels to the kingdom of Lord Faarquad (Christopher Sieber) to get him to remove the enchanted animals and fairies he's exiled from his swamp. Faarquad agrees...but only if he rescues the lovely Fiona (Sutton Foster) from a tower and a dragon. Along the way, he reluctantly befriends a motor-mouth Donkey (Daniel Breaker) who both helps and hinders his quest...and the trio and Fiona discover that one ogre's "freak" is another's handsome knight and beautiful princess.
I saw the first Shrek film in the theater and liked the second well enough, but wasn't crazy about the third and didn't bother with the fourth or the subsequent holiday specials. This was a surprisingly enjoyable romp with some really wonderful songs. My favorites were "Let Your Freak Flag Fly" for the enchanted characters, Fiona's trio with her younger selves "I Know It's Today," and the hilarious competition duet for Shrek and Fiona, "I Got You Beat." Well worth checking out for fans of the movies or of stage musicals.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Snow Daze In Philadelphia
Jessa and I headed out for Philly around 10:30. I'd spent the morning before that watching more public domain cartoons. Among the interesting shorts this time around were two more Fleischer Brothers Superman adventures ("Billion Dollar Limited" and "The Bulleteers") and a 60s educational TV short called The Adventures of Captain Nemo. The latter involved the captain and two kids helping to rescue a dolphin from a group of hungry sharks. Billie Mae Richards, the long-time voice of the Rankin-Bass Rudolph, was the voice of the girl and boy in this short.
It had started to snow while I was waiting for Jessa. The snow was coming down in big, fat flakes, but as I suspected, it wasn't sticking to the street or sidewalk. We had no problems driving to the PATCO station in Collingswood.
The trip to Philadelphia was sort of weird. The snow was coming down so hard by this point, you couldn't see much of anything - not the city, not the sky. It was all pearly gray, even the Schuylkill River. You couldn't really see much of anything out the window, including the skyline.
Jessa attends college at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. As a commuter (she still lives at Dad's house), she knows the PATCO and SEPTA train lines well. She lead me through the underground maze of white and orange SEPTA stations. The kid knows her onions. We finally came out on Broad Street, a block from FYE.
FYE had a couple of different sales going on. Jessa didn't get anything, but I found a few interesting items. There was a buy 1, get one for a dollar used sale. I found the original full series release for one of my favorite childhood shows, Faeirie Tale Theatre, for a pricy-but-worth-it $41. The $1 set was the first season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I caught a few episodes while babysitting during the mid-90s and enjoyed them, and Superman has long been one of my favorite DC superheroes. Christmas movies and specials were half-off; I was rather amused to find an Ice Age Christmas special. (Christmas? In the ice age? Oohhkayy.) It ended up being $4 new.
WebKinz put out a series of music-themed "Rockerz" stuffed animals starting last summer. Most of them are really rather ugly, but there's been a few that were kind of cute. Though the hippie cow with the flower was tempting, I ultimately went with the "punk princess" pink-and-black-striped cat who had a bow on her ear and wore a checkered tie. How could I resist a pink cat in a checkered tie? FYE's been getting rid of its WebKinz products for ages; I got the cat for $4.94. I thought the name Cyndi, for Cyndi Lauper, was rather appropriate for her.
By the time we left FYE, it was considerably warmer. The snow had turned into rain, and would remain rain for the rest of the afternoon. We hiked in the rain around City Hall and past the lunch-time traffic to Macy's. I wanted to use the gift card I got from Lauren.
We ducked past the crowd waiting for the next showing of the Macy's Light Show and into the elevators going up to the third level. I needed new socks and underthings. I know, not that exciting, but the drier at the laundromat ate half of my last pair of white socks months ago. I bought a pack of Gold Toe white socks that were on sale. The underthings were buy 2, get 2 free...but I only needed one. I ended up spending the gift card, plus $21 of my own money, but I really needed these.
Instead of braving the crowds, we stayed on the third floor and watched the Light Show from there. I'm so glad I can see this every year. It's so cute. Macy's has a curtain of lights representing various Christmas characters - Rudolph, Frosty, Santa in a train, snowflakes, Clara and the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy, ballerinas, clocks, candy canes - that blink and glitter and glow in time to the music and Julie Andrews' narration. There's a beautiful tree with a glowing star. I love the cute bear trumpeters who open and close the show.
Here's a recording of the Macy's Light Show from last year.
Jessa and I were going to have lunch at Starbucks', but they were busy, and the small Starbucks at Macy's didn't sell sandwiches. We headed out instead. I was hoping to find a cafe or something on the way to Rustic Music, but we didn't see anything we could afford. It didn't help that the rain was still coming down pretty hard, and though it wasn't as cold as it had been earlier, it was still wet and gloomy.
We were dripping wet when we finally made it to Rustic Music. While neither of us saw anything we liked, I was just happy to introduce Jessa to a really cool little store. She said she'd passed it before, but had never gone in.
Jessa was the one who finally found us somewhere to eat. The Bellevue Hotel is one of the fanciest places to stay in downtown Philly, and so big, it has its own upscale mall and food court. Jess says she eats at the food court all the time. It's near her school. Alas, we got there so late, most of the court restaurants were closed. We finally opted for Chinese food. Jess had General Pao's Chicken. I went with the less-spicy Chicken and Broccoli. I had hot tea; she had Sprite. We both had vegetable fried rice. I ate all my broccoli and chicken, but Jessa couldn't get anywhere on hers. We both ended up taking ours home.
Though the rain was slowing down by quarter of 3, we'd both had enough walking. Jessa lead us back into the subterranean labyrinths of the underground train stations. We finally hopped on a half-full train back to Collingswood. The sky remained gray, but it was warmer, and the rain was down to a fine mist. When we stepped out of the train station, even that was gone.
Jessa gave me a small present from our Aunt Jayne on the ride home. She gave me a cute little Christmas snow globe with my name on it. When you flip a switch on the side, it lights up and changes colors. Very nice. It'll look great on my kitchen table.
I spent the rest of the evening at home. I made muffins and had leftovers while watching the Faeirie Tale Theatre episode "Cinderella" and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. "Cinderella" is one of Faerie Tale Theatre's more straightforward adaptations. Jennifer Beals (just after Flashdance) is the put-upon young lady. Matthew Broderick is her prince. Jean Stapleton, in the second of two roles on the show, is her slightly daffy fairy godmother. Eve Arden is the obnoxious stepmother, and Edie McClurg is one of her sisters.
A Game of Shadows picks up right where the first film left off. Watson (Jude Law) is about to get married. His long-time best friend Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) isn't happy about it. He's even less happy with the fact that his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) has been killing off wealthy tycoons and buying their properties. Holmes finally bands together with a gypsy girl (Noomi Rapace) who is looking for her brother to stop his rival from causing a rift of global proportions.
As much as I enjoyed the first one, I think I liked this even more. For one thing, Harris' Moriarty is a far better villain, and the plot makes a lot more sense. The movie also has a hilarious Stephan Fry as Holmes' equally intelligent older brother Mycroft. Some unnecessary special effects sequences slow things down, but otherwise, if you liked the first one and are willing to try a less traditional version of the tales of the World's Greatest Detective, this is highly recommended.
Jessa and I headed out for Philly around 10:30. I'd spent the morning before that watching more public domain cartoons. Among the interesting shorts this time around were two more Fleischer Brothers Superman adventures ("Billion Dollar Limited" and "The Bulleteers") and a 60s educational TV short called The Adventures of Captain Nemo. The latter involved the captain and two kids helping to rescue a dolphin from a group of hungry sharks. Billie Mae Richards, the long-time voice of the Rankin-Bass Rudolph, was the voice of the girl and boy in this short.
It had started to snow while I was waiting for Jessa. The snow was coming down in big, fat flakes, but as I suspected, it wasn't sticking to the street or sidewalk. We had no problems driving to the PATCO station in Collingswood.
The trip to Philadelphia was sort of weird. The snow was coming down so hard by this point, you couldn't see much of anything - not the city, not the sky. It was all pearly gray, even the Schuylkill River. You couldn't really see much of anything out the window, including the skyline.
Jessa attends college at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. As a commuter (she still lives at Dad's house), she knows the PATCO and SEPTA train lines well. She lead me through the underground maze of white and orange SEPTA stations. The kid knows her onions. We finally came out on Broad Street, a block from FYE.
FYE had a couple of different sales going on. Jessa didn't get anything, but I found a few interesting items. There was a buy 1, get one for a dollar used sale. I found the original full series release for one of my favorite childhood shows, Faeirie Tale Theatre, for a pricy-but-worth-it $41. The $1 set was the first season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I caught a few episodes while babysitting during the mid-90s and enjoyed them, and Superman has long been one of my favorite DC superheroes. Christmas movies and specials were half-off; I was rather amused to find an Ice Age Christmas special. (Christmas? In the ice age? Oohhkayy.) It ended up being $4 new.
WebKinz put out a series of music-themed "Rockerz" stuffed animals starting last summer. Most of them are really rather ugly, but there's been a few that were kind of cute. Though the hippie cow with the flower was tempting, I ultimately went with the "punk princess" pink-and-black-striped cat who had a bow on her ear and wore a checkered tie. How could I resist a pink cat in a checkered tie? FYE's been getting rid of its WebKinz products for ages; I got the cat for $4.94. I thought the name Cyndi, for Cyndi Lauper, was rather appropriate for her.
By the time we left FYE, it was considerably warmer. The snow had turned into rain, and would remain rain for the rest of the afternoon. We hiked in the rain around City Hall and past the lunch-time traffic to Macy's. I wanted to use the gift card I got from Lauren.
We ducked past the crowd waiting for the next showing of the Macy's Light Show and into the elevators going up to the third level. I needed new socks and underthings. I know, not that exciting, but the drier at the laundromat ate half of my last pair of white socks months ago. I bought a pack of Gold Toe white socks that were on sale. The underthings were buy 2, get 2 free...but I only needed one. I ended up spending the gift card, plus $21 of my own money, but I really needed these.
Instead of braving the crowds, we stayed on the third floor and watched the Light Show from there. I'm so glad I can see this every year. It's so cute. Macy's has a curtain of lights representing various Christmas characters - Rudolph, Frosty, Santa in a train, snowflakes, Clara and the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy, ballerinas, clocks, candy canes - that blink and glitter and glow in time to the music and Julie Andrews' narration. There's a beautiful tree with a glowing star. I love the cute bear trumpeters who open and close the show.
Here's a recording of the Macy's Light Show from last year.
Jessa and I were going to have lunch at Starbucks', but they were busy, and the small Starbucks at Macy's didn't sell sandwiches. We headed out instead. I was hoping to find a cafe or something on the way to Rustic Music, but we didn't see anything we could afford. It didn't help that the rain was still coming down pretty hard, and though it wasn't as cold as it had been earlier, it was still wet and gloomy.
We were dripping wet when we finally made it to Rustic Music. While neither of us saw anything we liked, I was just happy to introduce Jessa to a really cool little store. She said she'd passed it before, but had never gone in.
Jessa was the one who finally found us somewhere to eat. The Bellevue Hotel is one of the fanciest places to stay in downtown Philly, and so big, it has its own upscale mall and food court. Jess says she eats at the food court all the time. It's near her school. Alas, we got there so late, most of the court restaurants were closed. We finally opted for Chinese food. Jess had General Pao's Chicken. I went with the less-spicy Chicken and Broccoli. I had hot tea; she had Sprite. We both had vegetable fried rice. I ate all my broccoli and chicken, but Jessa couldn't get anywhere on hers. We both ended up taking ours home.
Though the rain was slowing down by quarter of 3, we'd both had enough walking. Jessa lead us back into the subterranean labyrinths of the underground train stations. We finally hopped on a half-full train back to Collingswood. The sky remained gray, but it was warmer, and the rain was down to a fine mist. When we stepped out of the train station, even that was gone.
Jessa gave me a small present from our Aunt Jayne on the ride home. She gave me a cute little Christmas snow globe with my name on it. When you flip a switch on the side, it lights up and changes colors. Very nice. It'll look great on my kitchen table.
I spent the rest of the evening at home. I made muffins and had leftovers while watching the Faeirie Tale Theatre episode "Cinderella" and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. "Cinderella" is one of Faerie Tale Theatre's more straightforward adaptations. Jennifer Beals (just after Flashdance) is the put-upon young lady. Matthew Broderick is her prince. Jean Stapleton, in the second of two roles on the show, is her slightly daffy fairy godmother. Eve Arden is the obnoxious stepmother, and Edie McClurg is one of her sisters.
A Game of Shadows picks up right where the first film left off. Watson (Jude Law) is about to get married. His long-time best friend Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) isn't happy about it. He's even less happy with the fact that his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) has been killing off wealthy tycoons and buying their properties. Holmes finally bands together with a gypsy girl (Noomi Rapace) who is looking for her brother to stop his rival from causing a rift of global proportions.
As much as I enjoyed the first one, I think I liked this even more. For one thing, Harris' Moriarty is a far better villain, and the plot makes a lot more sense. The movie also has a hilarious Stephan Fry as Holmes' equally intelligent older brother Mycroft. Some unnecessary special effects sequences slow things down, but otherwise, if you liked the first one and are willing to try a less traditional version of the tales of the World's Greatest Detective, this is highly recommended.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Balance and a Philadelphia Christmas
It was still cloudy when I rushed out the door this morning for yoga class. I barely made it on time, but it was worth it. I needed it after all the trouble yesterday! Class went fairly well. We concentrated on inversions and working our shoulders and stomachs. Not my best moves, but I did get a nice stretch in my hamstrings.
There wasn't much to do at the Collingswood Library when I arrived after class, which was probably just as well. I had other things I wanted to get done today. I shelved a few DVDs and did a quick organizing job. I also donated records I didn't want or had accidentally bought extras of from yard sales, which I've been meaning to do for months now.
After I left the library, I rode right over to the PATCO train station. By this time, the clouds had vanished, and it was a brisk, sunny day (though not quite as cold as I thought it would be, probably in the mid to upper 40s). It was the perfect day for Christmas shopping in the city. I hopped a half-full train into Philadelphia around 11:30.
After running into huge crowds at Macy's and on Market Street during the lunch hour last year at Christmas, I learned my lesson. This time, I got off at 12th Street and started with lunch at Mama Angelina's, a basic pizza parlor about a block from the train entrance. I had a slice of cheese, a slice of vegetable, and a very small Diet Pepsi.
Mama Angelina's is a block from the Avenue of the Arts. I was at the FYE near City Hall in no time. It took me a while, but I did find the things I wanted to here. I picked up my sister Rose's present, and something Mom told me my stepdad wanted. I couldn't find anything I thought he'd like for almost an hour and a half...until I happened to look at a display in front of the upstairs DVD section and see the perfect thing.
I spent the next half-hour wandering around Philadelphia. I wanted to go to the Shops at Liberty Place, but I got lost. When I finally did find the building, the Toys R Us and book store that were there last year were gone. The only stores Liberty Place had were clothing stores. There was absolutely nothing of interest anymore, so I moved on in annoyance.
Headed down to City Hall and made a right turn onto Market Street. This time, Macy's was busy, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was able to buy my presents for Jessa with no wait in line. There was a short line for the Dickens Village, but it wasn't going half-way across the building. This year, they had people in Victorian costumes greeting guests as they passed through the lines. I thought it was a nice touch.
The "Dickens Village" is an Audio-Animatronic-style display that shows scenes and snippets from A Christmas Carol. It's really cool to see all the little details they add, like references to other Charles Dickens novels (such as the Pickwick Club or Mr. Micawber being the seller of the prize goose). Kids love the black-light room you walk through right before the end, after Scrooge has been shown his future.
Got downstairs just in time to catch most of the Macy's Light Show. I always enjoyed seeing footage of this Philadelphia holiday tradition on Channel 6 as a child. I'm so thrilled to really be able to see it in person! Everyone in the enormous main floor oohed and ahhed as sugar plum fairies danced, snowmen waved their arms, clocks ticked in time to the music, and the fabulous tree glowed with hundreds of glittering LED lights. Julie Andrews does the narration.
Here's an older version of the show sans the tree.
Left Macy's as soon as the show ended. I made my way back to Market Street, then down to the Gallery Mall. I still had to shop for most of the kids on my list, including my two older nephews. I got incredibly lucky. One of the first things I saw after entering the Gallery Mall was a huge Toys R Us Express. It's the only one I've seen so far this year. They didn't rent a store in Audubon again. Despite the crowds, I was easily able to find presents for my nephew Collyn, my younger cousin CJ, and my two pre-teen and young teen cousins Ethan and Matt.
I had one kid left on my list. I stopped at Books-a-Million to find a book on space for my nephew Skylar, who apparently loves space and space exploration. It took me a while, but I finally found a short book that was simple enough for a 7-year-old.
The Books-a-Million in the Gallery Mall is actually pretty close to the entrance to the 8th Street PATCO. It was around 4PM when I hopped on a standing-room-only train back to Collingswood. I'm surprised at how little time it took to shop this year. I don't think it was even four hours. I'll remember to start at 12th Street instead of 8th Street next year, too, especially if I take the train later in the day.
When I got in, I spent a couple of hours wrapping presents. I had a late dinner of leftovers and honey-glazed carrots while running one of my favorite Rankin-Bass specials, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and baked banana bread as it finished. A tired Santa opts to take a year off when it seems like no one cares about Christmas. His wife, two elves, and a little boy from a town in the American Deep South are determined to prove otherwise, come heck or interference from the Miser Brothers, who control heat and cold and are constantly at war with each other and anyone who seems to support one brother over the other!
I get a kick out of this one. It's a tad campy, with the Miser Brothers' numbers looking like something out of an early TV variety show, but not as bizarre as some later Rankin-Bass specials. I especially like Shirley Booth as Mrs. Claus.
It was still cloudy when I rushed out the door this morning for yoga class. I barely made it on time, but it was worth it. I needed it after all the trouble yesterday! Class went fairly well. We concentrated on inversions and working our shoulders and stomachs. Not my best moves, but I did get a nice stretch in my hamstrings.
There wasn't much to do at the Collingswood Library when I arrived after class, which was probably just as well. I had other things I wanted to get done today. I shelved a few DVDs and did a quick organizing job. I also donated records I didn't want or had accidentally bought extras of from yard sales, which I've been meaning to do for months now.
After I left the library, I rode right over to the PATCO train station. By this time, the clouds had vanished, and it was a brisk, sunny day (though not quite as cold as I thought it would be, probably in the mid to upper 40s). It was the perfect day for Christmas shopping in the city. I hopped a half-full train into Philadelphia around 11:30.
After running into huge crowds at Macy's and on Market Street during the lunch hour last year at Christmas, I learned my lesson. This time, I got off at 12th Street and started with lunch at Mama Angelina's, a basic pizza parlor about a block from the train entrance. I had a slice of cheese, a slice of vegetable, and a very small Diet Pepsi.
Mama Angelina's is a block from the Avenue of the Arts. I was at the FYE near City Hall in no time. It took me a while, but I did find the things I wanted to here. I picked up my sister Rose's present, and something Mom told me my stepdad wanted. I couldn't find anything I thought he'd like for almost an hour and a half...until I happened to look at a display in front of the upstairs DVD section and see the perfect thing.
I spent the next half-hour wandering around Philadelphia. I wanted to go to the Shops at Liberty Place, but I got lost. When I finally did find the building, the Toys R Us and book store that were there last year were gone. The only stores Liberty Place had were clothing stores. There was absolutely nothing of interest anymore, so I moved on in annoyance.
Headed down to City Hall and made a right turn onto Market Street. This time, Macy's was busy, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was able to buy my presents for Jessa with no wait in line. There was a short line for the Dickens Village, but it wasn't going half-way across the building. This year, they had people in Victorian costumes greeting guests as they passed through the lines. I thought it was a nice touch.
The "Dickens Village" is an Audio-Animatronic-style display that shows scenes and snippets from A Christmas Carol. It's really cool to see all the little details they add, like references to other Charles Dickens novels (such as the Pickwick Club or Mr. Micawber being the seller of the prize goose). Kids love the black-light room you walk through right before the end, after Scrooge has been shown his future.
Got downstairs just in time to catch most of the Macy's Light Show. I always enjoyed seeing footage of this Philadelphia holiday tradition on Channel 6 as a child. I'm so thrilled to really be able to see it in person! Everyone in the enormous main floor oohed and ahhed as sugar plum fairies danced, snowmen waved their arms, clocks ticked in time to the music, and the fabulous tree glowed with hundreds of glittering LED lights. Julie Andrews does the narration.
Here's an older version of the show sans the tree.
Left Macy's as soon as the show ended. I made my way back to Market Street, then down to the Gallery Mall. I still had to shop for most of the kids on my list, including my two older nephews. I got incredibly lucky. One of the first things I saw after entering the Gallery Mall was a huge Toys R Us Express. It's the only one I've seen so far this year. They didn't rent a store in Audubon again. Despite the crowds, I was easily able to find presents for my nephew Collyn, my younger cousin CJ, and my two pre-teen and young teen cousins Ethan and Matt.
I had one kid left on my list. I stopped at Books-a-Million to find a book on space for my nephew Skylar, who apparently loves space and space exploration. It took me a while, but I finally found a short book that was simple enough for a 7-year-old.
The Books-a-Million in the Gallery Mall is actually pretty close to the entrance to the 8th Street PATCO. It was around 4PM when I hopped on a standing-room-only train back to Collingswood. I'm surprised at how little time it took to shop this year. I don't think it was even four hours. I'll remember to start at 12th Street instead of 8th Street next year, too, especially if I take the train later in the day.
When I got in, I spent a couple of hours wrapping presents. I had a late dinner of leftovers and honey-glazed carrots while running one of my favorite Rankin-Bass specials, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and baked banana bread as it finished. A tired Santa opts to take a year off when it seems like no one cares about Christmas. His wife, two elves, and a little boy from a town in the American Deep South are determined to prove otherwise, come heck or interference from the Miser Brothers, who control heat and cold and are constantly at war with each other and anyone who seems to support one brother over the other!
I get a kick out of this one. It's a tad campy, with the Miser Brothers' numbers looking like something out of an early TV variety show, but not as bizarre as some later Rankin-Bass specials. I especially like Shirley Booth as Mrs. Claus.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
"It's Christmastime In the City..."
And I've had a very long day. I don't remember Philly being this crazy when I went shopping last year. The PATCO was full when I stepped on the Philadelphia Local around 10:30 this morning. I was very glad to be able to find a seat. Perhaps people were taking advantage of the decent weather. It was still very cold, about 35 degrees, but the clouds were gone and it wasn't nearly as windy as it has been.
I made a wrong turn at the PATCO station and ended up at the Mellon Center instead of the Gallery Mall. That was ok. I took a quick peek at the toys at Ross Dress For Less, then just headed out the Market Street entrance and went down the block to the mall.
Made my first find of the day at the big FYE at the Gallery Mall. I was looking for an action DVD for my stepdad I thought he might like at the FYE in Audubon, but I couldn't find it there. I was able to pick it up for a good price in Philly. Peeked at the Gallery Mall's Toys R Us Express for something for my cousin Samantha's 5-year-old daughter Faith (the only kid left on my list) before heading out.
My next stop was Rite Aid for allergy medicine. Then, it was onto Macy's to see the Light Show, the Dickens Village, and pick up something for my stepsister Jessa. BIIIIGGGG mistake. By this point, it was past 12, and Macy's was a total mob scene. There were piles of kids waiting to watch the Light Show, and a line going half-way across the third floor to get into the Dickens Village! It took me twenty minutes to find a short line in the housing department so I could buy my present for Jessa. I never did get to see the Village.
I did get to see the Light Show, though. As always, it was worth it. Thousands of tiny LED lights cascade from the Grand Hall, telling condensed versions of several holiday stories through colorful images, Julie Andrews' narration, and a gorgeous, fully-lit Christmas tree (re-added a few years ago). No wonder this has been a Philadelphia holiday tradition for at least 40 years. It had every single child in the entire building spellbound. The bears with the trumpets are still my favorites.
Here's the older version of the show, sans the tree.
I was so happy to get out in the cold air after all the warm bodies in Macy's! I doubled back and headed to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. Had a Chicken gyro from that same Mediterranean booth Lauren and I ate at in June and I ate at alone on my birthday. They're cheap, and they make good food. I also treated myself to a butter almond cookie from The 4th Avenue Cookie Company booth near the entrance.
After I finished lunch, I went through City Hall and onto the Avenue of the Arts to visit the big FYE and Borders there. No luck at FYE, but I did get Uncle Ken his present at Borders. It was almost 4 by the time I got out of Borders. Neither store was anything resembling as busy as Macy's had been, but I did a lot of browsing, especially at FYE.
Headed down Chestnut Street for my last stop of the day at the Liberty Place Mall. Turns out that they, too had a Toys R Us Express. Compared to the ones I'd seen at the Gallery Mall and in Audubon, this one was HUGE! I did see some doll clothes, which was my original idea for Faith...but then I noticed more areas even further in the back. I finally found Disney Princess Magnetic Paper Dolls, which I thought she'd get even more of a kick out of.
It was past 4:30 when I finally made my way down to 15th Street, after making a quick stop at CVS on Chestnut for pads. I was lucky to be able to hop on a rather surprisingly not-full PATCO home. Other than being cold, my ride home was no problem at all.
I spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents. I didn't quite finish. I think I still have five left to do. Plus, I never did find what I wanted for Rose in Philly. I finally just ordered her present from Amazon.com, which I consider to be a last resort. Online shopping may be a great option for people who don't have the patience for it, but I really do enjoy shopping. I love browsing, seeing the people, getting out, enjoying my finds.
On the other hand, I don't enjoy long lines, grouchy sales clerks, or tripping over everyone and their grandmother. I think next year, I'll try to avoid the crowds by starting my trip at the Liberty Place Mall and the Avenue of the Arts and ending it at Macy's and the Gallery Mall. Hopefully, the latter will be less crowded in the late afternoon.
Oh, and my box from Linda and James Young came today. There were a few wrapped presents that looked like books. I didn't open them; I'll save them for Christmas Day. There was also a stack of DVDs with copies of a series of mystery TV movies Linda likes, McBride. I'm a fan of John Larroquette, so I'm definitely willing to check these out.
Here's Linda's fan site with more information.
And I've had a very long day. I don't remember Philly being this crazy when I went shopping last year. The PATCO was full when I stepped on the Philadelphia Local around 10:30 this morning. I was very glad to be able to find a seat. Perhaps people were taking advantage of the decent weather. It was still very cold, about 35 degrees, but the clouds were gone and it wasn't nearly as windy as it has been.
I made a wrong turn at the PATCO station and ended up at the Mellon Center instead of the Gallery Mall. That was ok. I took a quick peek at the toys at Ross Dress For Less, then just headed out the Market Street entrance and went down the block to the mall.
Made my first find of the day at the big FYE at the Gallery Mall. I was looking for an action DVD for my stepdad I thought he might like at the FYE in Audubon, but I couldn't find it there. I was able to pick it up for a good price in Philly. Peeked at the Gallery Mall's Toys R Us Express for something for my cousin Samantha's 5-year-old daughter Faith (the only kid left on my list) before heading out.
My next stop was Rite Aid for allergy medicine. Then, it was onto Macy's to see the Light Show, the Dickens Village, and pick up something for my stepsister Jessa. BIIIIGGGG mistake. By this point, it was past 12, and Macy's was a total mob scene. There were piles of kids waiting to watch the Light Show, and a line going half-way across the third floor to get into the Dickens Village! It took me twenty minutes to find a short line in the housing department so I could buy my present for Jessa. I never did get to see the Village.
I did get to see the Light Show, though. As always, it was worth it. Thousands of tiny LED lights cascade from the Grand Hall, telling condensed versions of several holiday stories through colorful images, Julie Andrews' narration, and a gorgeous, fully-lit Christmas tree (re-added a few years ago). No wonder this has been a Philadelphia holiday tradition for at least 40 years. It had every single child in the entire building spellbound. The bears with the trumpets are still my favorites.
Here's the older version of the show, sans the tree.
I was so happy to get out in the cold air after all the warm bodies in Macy's! I doubled back and headed to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. Had a Chicken gyro from that same Mediterranean booth Lauren and I ate at in June and I ate at alone on my birthday. They're cheap, and they make good food. I also treated myself to a butter almond cookie from The 4th Avenue Cookie Company booth near the entrance.
After I finished lunch, I went through City Hall and onto the Avenue of the Arts to visit the big FYE and Borders there. No luck at FYE, but I did get Uncle Ken his present at Borders. It was almost 4 by the time I got out of Borders. Neither store was anything resembling as busy as Macy's had been, but I did a lot of browsing, especially at FYE.
Headed down Chestnut Street for my last stop of the day at the Liberty Place Mall. Turns out that they, too had a Toys R Us Express. Compared to the ones I'd seen at the Gallery Mall and in Audubon, this one was HUGE! I did see some doll clothes, which was my original idea for Faith...but then I noticed more areas even further in the back. I finally found Disney Princess Magnetic Paper Dolls, which I thought she'd get even more of a kick out of.
It was past 4:30 when I finally made my way down to 15th Street, after making a quick stop at CVS on Chestnut for pads. I was lucky to be able to hop on a rather surprisingly not-full PATCO home. Other than being cold, my ride home was no problem at all.
I spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents. I didn't quite finish. I think I still have five left to do. Plus, I never did find what I wanted for Rose in Philly. I finally just ordered her present from Amazon.com, which I consider to be a last resort. Online shopping may be a great option for people who don't have the patience for it, but I really do enjoy shopping. I love browsing, seeing the people, getting out, enjoying my finds.
On the other hand, I don't enjoy long lines, grouchy sales clerks, or tripping over everyone and their grandmother. I think next year, I'll try to avoid the crowds by starting my trip at the Liberty Place Mall and the Avenue of the Arts and ending it at Macy's and the Gallery Mall. Hopefully, the latter will be less crowded in the late afternoon.
Oh, and my box from Linda and James Young came today. There were a few wrapped presents that looked like books. I didn't open them; I'll save them for Christmas Day. There was also a stack of DVDs with copies of a series of mystery TV movies Linda likes, McBride. I'm a fan of John Larroquette, so I'm definitely willing to check these out.
Here's Linda's fan site with more information.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Christmas In Philadelphia
Started a sunny, 50-degree day with a run to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session there. I just put DVDs and kids' books away. The kids' books took longer than usual. They just enlarged and completely rearranged the kids' section, so I had to figure out where everything goes again.
I rode straight over to the Collingswood PATCO after leaving the library around 12:30 and hopped a train to 8th and Market Street. I loved my December trips into Center City Philadelphia last year and decided to repeat them.
The Gallery Mall was my first stop. I was dismayed to discover the little Suncoast Video store I'd just bought Plains, Trains, and Automobiles on DVD from last month is shutting down after the holidays. I hope this doesn't mean FYE is shuttering all the remaining Suncoast stores; I'll miss this one, and I'd miss the big one at the Hamilton Mall even more. I have a lot of history with Suncoast. I bought some of the first videos I got with my own money from them in high school, not to mention almost all of my MacDonald/Eddy movies but Maytime and The Girl of the Golden West. When I entered college, I often bought videos there cheap that I couldn't find anywhere else, including Summer Magic, Annie Get Your Gun, The Black Cauldron, and That's Entertainment Part III.
I browsed in Suncoast and the FYE in the mall for a little while (which, BTW, most definitely is not shutting down), but decided there wasn't anything I wanted and headed out to 10th and Market Street. I hiked a few blocks down to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It was about 1:30 by then, and the Market was still really crowded (if not quite as bad as the height of lunch time). I bought a chicken salad wrap from the Down Home Diner and a snickerdoodle from the cookie shop.
Hit Macy's next. I was there just in time to catch the 2PM showing of Macy's Light Show. I saw it last year, and I loved it. Julie Andrews narrates this holiday spectacular in which strings of lights that recreate favorite holiday characters move and dance in time to music and the huge organ housed in the building. The kids and their parents around me were eating it up, and I had a great time. It's not the fanciest effects around, but it still looks awesome with that huge ceiling. I especially love the adorable teddy bear guards and their horns that begin the festivities.
Here's a video of the show on YouTube.
I also decided to try something else this year that I didn't check out last year. I took two escalators to the third floor and made my way through the surprising crowds (on a Tuesday?) to the Holiday Lane Christmas section and the Dickens Village. All of Macy's Christmas items were 50% off, so I bought two adorable gingerbread people who were $2.25 each.
The Dickens' Village is an elaborate walk-through recreation of A Christmas Carol. You get in line and first go past a tree and drawings of Victorian Londan...if you can get past the parents trying to take pictures of their offspring in front of the picture-perfect tree.
You see Charles Dickens next, an Audio-Animatronic-style moving figurine, narrating his classic novella with the very words from the beginning of the book. After you leave Mr. Dickens, you move through recreations of the book done with the same moving figurines and detailed building fronts. While not quite on a level with a Disney theme park, it's still enjoyable to look at and nicely done. The guys in front of me loved the glow-in-the-dark effects with the Ghost of Christmas Future.
I did some actual Christmas shopping after I left the Dickens Village. Headed to the kids' section to find something for my nephew Collyn, who will be turning 1 on Thursday. I wish I'd seen the kids' section last year. It's awesome. Kids' clothes are so cute, especially the girls' stuff. I ended up buying Collyn some bibs; babies always need bibs. I hope they aren't too small for him.
My next stop were my two favorite stores on the Avenue of the Arts section of Broad Street, the huge FYE and Borders across from each other and a block from City Hall. Hit FYE briefly to look at some of the WebKinz items, but I didn't see anything I wanted (and I'll probably be getting WebKinz for Christmas anyway), so I went across the street to Borders. Did much better there; bought a My Little Pony book and a Princess and the Frog Golden Book for my 4-year-old cousin Faith, Transformers and Berenstein Bears books for my 5-year-old nephew Skylar, and a book of party appetizer recipes for Uncle Ken. Stopped at the coffee shop of the second floor for a gingerbread latte...and just to take a load off my tired feet.
The last person on my list was my sister Jessa. I never know what to get a 19-year-old girl for Christmas, so I usually just buy her funky socks, which she loves. I decided to go with a variation on this after hitting the Bath and Body Works at the upscale Liberty Place Mall. I found sleeper socks in nifty colors that are supposed to soothe chapped toes; I just hope they keep her feet warm in cold dorm rooms. I also bought a collapsible tote bag that can be carried in a purse for myself to replace the one that got a hole in it last spring. It's kind of flimsy and I don't know how long it'll last, but the colors are cool.
It was about quarter of 5 by then. I hadn't wanted to be in Philly late this time and get caught in the rush-hour crush, so I just made my way to the 16th and Locust PATCO stop and, for once, took an only partially full train home.
I don't know if I'm just run down or if I've been around too many sick people at work lately, but I've had a massive headache since I've hit the PATCO. I hope it doesn't lead to anything serious. I literally cannot afford to be sick right now or at this time of year.
The weather isn't helping. The clouds had increased all day, though it thankfully didn't get any colder. It's supposed to pour late tonight and early this morning, possibly mixed with rain.
Started a sunny, 50-degree day with a run to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteering session there. I just put DVDs and kids' books away. The kids' books took longer than usual. They just enlarged and completely rearranged the kids' section, so I had to figure out where everything goes again.
I rode straight over to the Collingswood PATCO after leaving the library around 12:30 and hopped a train to 8th and Market Street. I loved my December trips into Center City Philadelphia last year and decided to repeat them.
The Gallery Mall was my first stop. I was dismayed to discover the little Suncoast Video store I'd just bought Plains, Trains, and Automobiles on DVD from last month is shutting down after the holidays. I hope this doesn't mean FYE is shuttering all the remaining Suncoast stores; I'll miss this one, and I'd miss the big one at the Hamilton Mall even more. I have a lot of history with Suncoast. I bought some of the first videos I got with my own money from them in high school, not to mention almost all of my MacDonald/Eddy movies but Maytime and The Girl of the Golden West. When I entered college, I often bought videos there cheap that I couldn't find anywhere else, including Summer Magic, Annie Get Your Gun, The Black Cauldron, and That's Entertainment Part III.
I browsed in Suncoast and the FYE in the mall for a little while (which, BTW, most definitely is not shutting down), but decided there wasn't anything I wanted and headed out to 10th and Market Street. I hiked a few blocks down to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It was about 1:30 by then, and the Market was still really crowded (if not quite as bad as the height of lunch time). I bought a chicken salad wrap from the Down Home Diner and a snickerdoodle from the cookie shop.
Hit Macy's next. I was there just in time to catch the 2PM showing of Macy's Light Show. I saw it last year, and I loved it. Julie Andrews narrates this holiday spectacular in which strings of lights that recreate favorite holiday characters move and dance in time to music and the huge organ housed in the building. The kids and their parents around me were eating it up, and I had a great time. It's not the fanciest effects around, but it still looks awesome with that huge ceiling. I especially love the adorable teddy bear guards and their horns that begin the festivities.
Here's a video of the show on YouTube.
I also decided to try something else this year that I didn't check out last year. I took two escalators to the third floor and made my way through the surprising crowds (on a Tuesday?) to the Holiday Lane Christmas section and the Dickens Village. All of Macy's Christmas items were 50% off, so I bought two adorable gingerbread people who were $2.25 each.
The Dickens' Village is an elaborate walk-through recreation of A Christmas Carol. You get in line and first go past a tree and drawings of Victorian Londan...if you can get past the parents trying to take pictures of their offspring in front of the picture-perfect tree.
You see Charles Dickens next, an Audio-Animatronic-style moving figurine, narrating his classic novella with the very words from the beginning of the book. After you leave Mr. Dickens, you move through recreations of the book done with the same moving figurines and detailed building fronts. While not quite on a level with a Disney theme park, it's still enjoyable to look at and nicely done. The guys in front of me loved the glow-in-the-dark effects with the Ghost of Christmas Future.
I did some actual Christmas shopping after I left the Dickens Village. Headed to the kids' section to find something for my nephew Collyn, who will be turning 1 on Thursday. I wish I'd seen the kids' section last year. It's awesome. Kids' clothes are so cute, especially the girls' stuff. I ended up buying Collyn some bibs; babies always need bibs. I hope they aren't too small for him.
My next stop were my two favorite stores on the Avenue of the Arts section of Broad Street, the huge FYE and Borders across from each other and a block from City Hall. Hit FYE briefly to look at some of the WebKinz items, but I didn't see anything I wanted (and I'll probably be getting WebKinz for Christmas anyway), so I went across the street to Borders. Did much better there; bought a My Little Pony book and a Princess and the Frog Golden Book for my 4-year-old cousin Faith, Transformers and Berenstein Bears books for my 5-year-old nephew Skylar, and a book of party appetizer recipes for Uncle Ken. Stopped at the coffee shop of the second floor for a gingerbread latte...and just to take a load off my tired feet.
The last person on my list was my sister Jessa. I never know what to get a 19-year-old girl for Christmas, so I usually just buy her funky socks, which she loves. I decided to go with a variation on this after hitting the Bath and Body Works at the upscale Liberty Place Mall. I found sleeper socks in nifty colors that are supposed to soothe chapped toes; I just hope they keep her feet warm in cold dorm rooms. I also bought a collapsible tote bag that can be carried in a purse for myself to replace the one that got a hole in it last spring. It's kind of flimsy and I don't know how long it'll last, but the colors are cool.
It was about quarter of 5 by then. I hadn't wanted to be in Philly late this time and get caught in the rush-hour crush, so I just made my way to the 16th and Locust PATCO stop and, for once, took an only partially full train home.
I don't know if I'm just run down or if I've been around too many sick people at work lately, but I've had a massive headache since I've hit the PATCO. I hope it doesn't lead to anything serious. I literally cannot afford to be sick right now or at this time of year.
The weather isn't helping. The clouds had increased all day, though it thankfully didn't get any colder. It's supposed to pour late tonight and early this morning, possibly mixed with rain.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New Year's Eve With the Girls
My stepsister Jessa, her best friend Brittany, and I celebrated the end of 2008 with a shopping spree in downtown Philadelphia. Brittany's mother's boyfriend (and Uncle Ken's oldest son) Mark drove us to the PATCO station. We took the Speedline to the Gallery Mall, where we began our trip. The girls were chomping at the bit to check out the Suncoast Video, and I wanted to go back there, too. I figured it would be the only place I'd be able to find one of the things I really wanted today, and I did find what I was looking for, the only DVD set I bought today - The Chronological Donald, Vol 4! It's the last of the four Walt Disney Treasures Donald Duck shorts set and includes, among other great cartoons, "Trick or Treat," "Chips Ahoy," "Working for Peanuts" (which was originally in 3-D, but apparently this couldn't be recreated here), and the classic "Donald in Mathmagic Land" and "How to Have An Accident..." series!
After a brief stop at Borders Express (I bought a Tom and Jerry Calender for my room), we next went to FYE. The girls looked at posters while I went next-door to Modell's Sports Equipment and bought new New Balance sneakers. Both my good work sneakers and my cheap "errands-running" sneakers are done. The backs have been rubbed to death, and there's cracks in the cheap ones. (And I've only had the cheap ones since July! The New Balances lasted much longer. I think I got them in either 2004 or 2005.)
After I got my sneakers (on sale for $40), we decided we wanted some air...and got quite a surprise when snow greeted us as we exited at 10th Street. It was much colder than that morning, and far windier. Jess and Britt were so excited about the snow! They were more like 7-year-olds than teenagers as we made our way down 10th Street to Russkoff's Used Books and Records. It was really cute.
Cramped and musty as it was, Russkoff's seemed warm and inviting after the blizzard outside! I went through the crates of records on the floor, while the girls checked out the collection of old posters up front. I bought three records (Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band, one of Who member Roger Daltrey's solo albums, and the original Broadway cast album for Camelot) and a Garfield comic book I didn't have. Jessa didn't find anything, but Brittany bought two posters, one for George Harrison and one for Nirvana.
We went back the way we came down 10th Street to Market...but this time, instead of heading for the Gallery Mall, we went a few blocks down to Reading Terminal Market. The girls wanted Asian for lunch. Jessa spotted a Japanese food booth. She had Shrimp Tempura. Brittany had Chicken Lo Mein. I had a tasty Grilled Shrimp Teryaki with rice, vegetables, and bean sprouts. It was a bit messy (they need to give you something other than a flimsy paper plate for all the food they ladle onto it), but we all enjoyed it, and it felt great to have a warm lunch after the wind and cold.
By this time, the snow was long gone (much to the dismay of the girls), but the wind had grown even stronger. We had to fight our way through the freezing gale to the huge Macy's on the end of Market Street near City Hall. I don't think any of us were ever so happy to see a Macy's in our entire lives! We walked around the store, admiring the Light Show and the Grand Court. The girls didn't get anything, but I bought a much-needed pair of jeans.
After leaving Macy's, I lead the girls through City Hall (which I figured would be a lot less windy than going around it) to South Broad Street. We browsed through the big FYE and Borders on the Avenue of the Arts. Jessa bought a movie at the big FYE and a chai latte at Borders. I bought an Indiana Jones paperback and a slice of Pumpkin Spice Bread at Borders.
We were all tired out after walking around all day, and I'd told the girls' parents I'd get them home by 4:30. We'd debated going back to the Gallery Mall, but it was quarter after 4 by that point, and I figured we'd had enough. We just went to the 12th Street and Locust PATCO station and took a very full train home, where Mark awaited us.
I spent the rest of my New Year's Eve at home, watching Donald Duck cartoons, eating the last of the chili Jodie gave me on Friday, and beginning the next Monkees role-play story with Lauren. (Incidentally, our next story, this year's alt-universe "round robin" story, is a bit involved and may take a while - look for it towards the end of January.) I suddenly heard booms over the river as we chatted. I opened my window...and saw a burst of pink and green glitter sparkling across the dark waters of the river.
Happy New Year to all! Here's hoping everyone has a sparkling 2009!
My stepsister Jessa, her best friend Brittany, and I celebrated the end of 2008 with a shopping spree in downtown Philadelphia. Brittany's mother's boyfriend (and Uncle Ken's oldest son) Mark drove us to the PATCO station. We took the Speedline to the Gallery Mall, where we began our trip. The girls were chomping at the bit to check out the Suncoast Video, and I wanted to go back there, too. I figured it would be the only place I'd be able to find one of the things I really wanted today, and I did find what I was looking for, the only DVD set I bought today - The Chronological Donald, Vol 4! It's the last of the four Walt Disney Treasures Donald Duck shorts set and includes, among other great cartoons, "Trick or Treat," "Chips Ahoy," "Working for Peanuts" (which was originally in 3-D, but apparently this couldn't be recreated here), and the classic "Donald in Mathmagic Land" and "How to Have An Accident..." series!
After a brief stop at Borders Express (I bought a Tom and Jerry Calender for my room), we next went to FYE. The girls looked at posters while I went next-door to Modell's Sports Equipment and bought new New Balance sneakers. Both my good work sneakers and my cheap "errands-running" sneakers are done. The backs have been rubbed to death, and there's cracks in the cheap ones. (And I've only had the cheap ones since July! The New Balances lasted much longer. I think I got them in either 2004 or 2005.)
After I got my sneakers (on sale for $40), we decided we wanted some air...and got quite a surprise when snow greeted us as we exited at 10th Street. It was much colder than that morning, and far windier. Jess and Britt were so excited about the snow! They were more like 7-year-olds than teenagers as we made our way down 10th Street to Russkoff's Used Books and Records. It was really cute.
Cramped and musty as it was, Russkoff's seemed warm and inviting after the blizzard outside! I went through the crates of records on the floor, while the girls checked out the collection of old posters up front. I bought three records (Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band, one of Who member Roger Daltrey's solo albums, and the original Broadway cast album for Camelot) and a Garfield comic book I didn't have. Jessa didn't find anything, but Brittany bought two posters, one for George Harrison and one for Nirvana.
We went back the way we came down 10th Street to Market...but this time, instead of heading for the Gallery Mall, we went a few blocks down to Reading Terminal Market. The girls wanted Asian for lunch. Jessa spotted a Japanese food booth. She had Shrimp Tempura. Brittany had Chicken Lo Mein. I had a tasty Grilled Shrimp Teryaki with rice, vegetables, and bean sprouts. It was a bit messy (they need to give you something other than a flimsy paper plate for all the food they ladle onto it), but we all enjoyed it, and it felt great to have a warm lunch after the wind and cold.
By this time, the snow was long gone (much to the dismay of the girls), but the wind had grown even stronger. We had to fight our way through the freezing gale to the huge Macy's on the end of Market Street near City Hall. I don't think any of us were ever so happy to see a Macy's in our entire lives! We walked around the store, admiring the Light Show and the Grand Court. The girls didn't get anything, but I bought a much-needed pair of jeans.
After leaving Macy's, I lead the girls through City Hall (which I figured would be a lot less windy than going around it) to South Broad Street. We browsed through the big FYE and Borders on the Avenue of the Arts. Jessa bought a movie at the big FYE and a chai latte at Borders. I bought an Indiana Jones paperback and a slice of Pumpkin Spice Bread at Borders.
We were all tired out after walking around all day, and I'd told the girls' parents I'd get them home by 4:30. We'd debated going back to the Gallery Mall, but it was quarter after 4 by that point, and I figured we'd had enough. We just went to the 12th Street and Locust PATCO station and took a very full train home, where Mark awaited us.
I spent the rest of my New Year's Eve at home, watching Donald Duck cartoons, eating the last of the chili Jodie gave me on Friday, and beginning the next Monkees role-play story with Lauren. (Incidentally, our next story, this year's alt-universe "round robin" story, is a bit involved and may take a while - look for it towards the end of January.) I suddenly heard booms over the river as we chatted. I opened my window...and saw a burst of pink and green glitter sparkling across the dark waters of the river.
Happy New Year to all! Here's hoping everyone has a sparkling 2009!
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Christmas In the City of Brotherly Love
Yawn. I've had a long but generally enjoyable day. Work was very early today; my shift started at 7AM, and I picked up an extra hour because two of the teenagers were fired and, of course, one of them was supposed to be my relief. (Finally fired - one's been a pain in the rear end since he was hired. Frankly, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.) I had a few cranky people, too, including one idiot who threw a fit when I asked him about under his cart. It's just a question!
I went straight home when I finally got off of work. After a quick lunch, I grabbed my bike and headed for the bank. I deposited my paycheck in the ATM machine and rode over to the PATCO station in Collingswood to head into Philadelphia for my first real Christmas shopping of the year.
My first stop was The Gallery Mall on Market Street in Philadelphia. It was packed with people, even this early in the season. I looked for a book for my 3-year-old cousin Faith and a movie for my brother Keefe at Suncoast, FYE, and Borders Express. I had more luck at the stuffed-full KB Toys, where I picked up a pack of the "Robot Heroes" lines of Transformers for my 4-year-old nephew Skylar. I also had luck on my next stop, picking up a present for a friend at Bath and Body Works.
Tired of the stuffy mall and wanting to see what the rest of the city looked like during Christmas, I headed out after I left Bath and Body Works. It was cloudy, windy, and cold when I hit the streets of Center City Philadelphia, but everyone seemed to be in a good mood, and the crowds were at least somewhat bearable. As I walked down Market Street, I remembered another popular holiday attraction a few blocks from The Gallery that I'd always wanted to see. I made my way across the street and over to Macy's, formerly (and still in my mind) Wanamaker's.
This store is HUGE. And I mean, massive. It's all marble and fancy cornices and architectural details, and it's been downtown Philadelphia's premiere shopping destination for at least a century. It looked a little like one of those old-time movie "palaces," and I suppose it was the same concept - a palace for shopping. Though I made the excuse to myself that I was in there looking for socks for my sister Jessa, I knew why I was really there. I made my way to the Grand Court and caught the last five minutes or so of one of the most famous holiday sights in Philadelphia.
I've always wanted to see the Wanamaker's Light Show (now the Macy's Light Show). Every year, the big old Wanamaker's Building hangs hundreds of lights in their "Grand Court" area and plays the huge old pipe organ (the world's largest) and keeps it as a display from late November through New Year's Eve. Even though I only got to see the last five minutes or so, it was still a treat that really buoyed my holiday spirits. The light show is really cool, with all those colors and those nifty little characters made entirely by lights.
Here's a taping of the show on YouTube.
(Note the "Wanamaker's." I don't care who owns it, that building will always be "Wanamaker's" to me. I remember seeing the Wanamaker's commercials and seeing the building on TV as a kid and thinking how glamorous and elegant it looked. And I wish I'd known about the Dickens Village on the third floor. I would have gone to see that, too.)
I walked around Macy's/Wanamaker's, just drinking in how posh it all was, before deciding I wasn't going to find anything for Jessa there and heading out again. The crowds were still fairly heavy, even as I made a few twists and turns and headed for the Chestnut Street Shopping District, on my way to the big Borders and FYE on the Avenue of the Arts near City Hall. Borders turned out to be busy but navigable. I found a really cute picture book for about Marie, the sassy female kitten from Disney's The Aristocats, going on a trip around Paris with her mouse friend Roquefort Jr, for my 3-year-old cousin Faith. I also made a brief stop on the second floor for some Vanilla Soda and a slice of pumpkin bread.
A brief stop at FYE yielded nothing of interest. It had been growing more and more cloudy since I left Macy's/Wanamaker's, but I hadn't really thought much of it, until I left FYE and it felt like it was raining. The street lamps and headlights on the cars I passed while crossing Broad Street told me otherwise. It wasn't raining. It was snowing...and pretty heavily, too. Nothing was sticking, but it looked lovely with all the lights and decorations. Between my presents and the bedecked streets and buildings, it really felt like Christmas as I made my way to the PATCO station on 13th Street and Locust.
I assumed it was only in Philly and would be gone by the time I made it home, but this proved to be far from the case. It was still coming down when I got off the train and out of the station in Collingswood. I had a lovely, if cold, ride home in the snow, admiring all the fancy displays in various neighborhoods in the area. I even went past Newton River Park and got to see it in the snow. The snow was just starting to stick to the sidewalks and ground as I made it home. The snow has since stopped, but there's a nice layer on my porch.
(The other big event in Philadelphia tonight was the Army-Navy football game. I couldn't figure out why there were so many people in uniform roaming the streets of downtown Philly until I remembered the game tonight. Incidentally, Navy won their 7th straight over the Army, which should make my mother happy. She always roots for the Navy. She has relatives in the Navy.)
Yawn. I've had a long but generally enjoyable day. Work was very early today; my shift started at 7AM, and I picked up an extra hour because two of the teenagers were fired and, of course, one of them was supposed to be my relief. (Finally fired - one's been a pain in the rear end since he was hired. Frankly, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.) I had a few cranky people, too, including one idiot who threw a fit when I asked him about under his cart. It's just a question!
I went straight home when I finally got off of work. After a quick lunch, I grabbed my bike and headed for the bank. I deposited my paycheck in the ATM machine and rode over to the PATCO station in Collingswood to head into Philadelphia for my first real Christmas shopping of the year.
My first stop was The Gallery Mall on Market Street in Philadelphia. It was packed with people, even this early in the season. I looked for a book for my 3-year-old cousin Faith and a movie for my brother Keefe at Suncoast, FYE, and Borders Express. I had more luck at the stuffed-full KB Toys, where I picked up a pack of the "Robot Heroes" lines of Transformers for my 4-year-old nephew Skylar. I also had luck on my next stop, picking up a present for a friend at Bath and Body Works.
Tired of the stuffy mall and wanting to see what the rest of the city looked like during Christmas, I headed out after I left Bath and Body Works. It was cloudy, windy, and cold when I hit the streets of Center City Philadelphia, but everyone seemed to be in a good mood, and the crowds were at least somewhat bearable. As I walked down Market Street, I remembered another popular holiday attraction a few blocks from The Gallery that I'd always wanted to see. I made my way across the street and over to Macy's, formerly (and still in my mind) Wanamaker's.
This store is HUGE. And I mean, massive. It's all marble and fancy cornices and architectural details, and it's been downtown Philadelphia's premiere shopping destination for at least a century. It looked a little like one of those old-time movie "palaces," and I suppose it was the same concept - a palace for shopping. Though I made the excuse to myself that I was in there looking for socks for my sister Jessa, I knew why I was really there. I made my way to the Grand Court and caught the last five minutes or so of one of the most famous holiday sights in Philadelphia.
I've always wanted to see the Wanamaker's Light Show (now the Macy's Light Show). Every year, the big old Wanamaker's Building hangs hundreds of lights in their "Grand Court" area and plays the huge old pipe organ (the world's largest) and keeps it as a display from late November through New Year's Eve. Even though I only got to see the last five minutes or so, it was still a treat that really buoyed my holiday spirits. The light show is really cool, with all those colors and those nifty little characters made entirely by lights.
Here's a taping of the show on YouTube.
(Note the "Wanamaker's." I don't care who owns it, that building will always be "Wanamaker's" to me. I remember seeing the Wanamaker's commercials and seeing the building on TV as a kid and thinking how glamorous and elegant it looked. And I wish I'd known about the Dickens Village on the third floor. I would have gone to see that, too.)
I walked around Macy's/Wanamaker's, just drinking in how posh it all was, before deciding I wasn't going to find anything for Jessa there and heading out again. The crowds were still fairly heavy, even as I made a few twists and turns and headed for the Chestnut Street Shopping District, on my way to the big Borders and FYE on the Avenue of the Arts near City Hall. Borders turned out to be busy but navigable. I found a really cute picture book for about Marie, the sassy female kitten from Disney's The Aristocats, going on a trip around Paris with her mouse friend Roquefort Jr, for my 3-year-old cousin Faith. I also made a brief stop on the second floor for some Vanilla Soda and a slice of pumpkin bread.
A brief stop at FYE yielded nothing of interest. It had been growing more and more cloudy since I left Macy's/Wanamaker's, but I hadn't really thought much of it, until I left FYE and it felt like it was raining. The street lamps and headlights on the cars I passed while crossing Broad Street told me otherwise. It wasn't raining. It was snowing...and pretty heavily, too. Nothing was sticking, but it looked lovely with all the lights and decorations. Between my presents and the bedecked streets and buildings, it really felt like Christmas as I made my way to the PATCO station on 13th Street and Locust.
I assumed it was only in Philly and would be gone by the time I made it home, but this proved to be far from the case. It was still coming down when I got off the train and out of the station in Collingswood. I had a lovely, if cold, ride home in the snow, admiring all the fancy displays in various neighborhoods in the area. I even went past Newton River Park and got to see it in the snow. The snow was just starting to stick to the sidewalks and ground as I made it home. The snow has since stopped, but there's a nice layer on my porch.
(The other big event in Philadelphia tonight was the Army-Navy football game. I couldn't figure out why there were so many people in uniform roaming the streets of downtown Philly until I remembered the game tonight. Incidentally, Navy won their 7th straight over the Army, which should make my mother happy. She always roots for the Navy. She has relatives in the Navy.)
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