Balance and the Thunderous Surprise

Started off a lovely, sunny spring day with yoga class. Karin wanted to emphasize leg work and splits and our connection to the ground beneath us on this Earth Day. Trouble is...I can't do splits to save my life. I can't even bend my knee all the way. I'm just not that limber. There were a few other people in the class who couldn't really do it, including two guys, but I felt sheepish. I've been going to yoga class for almost two years now. I should be better at this.

Stopped at the thrift shop next to drop off some video donations. Said "hi" to my friend Erica who works there and browsed. I saw some fabric that might make some doll clothes, but I didn't see anything else I really wanted. I didn't end up getting anything.

Rode two blocks down Haddon Avenue to the Collingswood Library after that for this week's volunteering session there. I put DVDs away, shelved them, and organized them. They really, really needed to be organized, especially the kids' DVDs. They were turned out and piled on top of each other. I turned them around and made sure only two or three were facing frontwards to keep things from getting too cluttered.

Had lunch at GrooveGround, the very hip coffee shop furnter down Haddon Avenue, near Genesis Counseling. I was hungry by then, so I had a huge "GLT" (ie, Turkey Club) pannini and a tiny cup of pasta salad (once again nixing the potato chips). It was quite tasty, just what I needed.

Counseling was my next stop. I told Scott about my busy month - Rose's pregnancy and the birth of Khai, my birthday, the nicer weather we've been having, my improved hours at work. We mostly talked about my difficulty with anxiety and talking to people in authority. I've been wanting to switch to the bakery, but I'm nervous about talking to the manager. I see authority figures and I remember having to go to the principal's office as a child. I know I'm not a child anymore...but that's what I see. I remember a child who felt terrified that she'd done something wrong and wasn't as good as these important people.

I didn't have any plans after that. I stopped at WaWa for water and two mini-York Peppermint Patties. Went next-door to Rite Aid and finally found this year's Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview. I buy that every year. I'm a little disappointed with the cover, though. I'm not nearly as interested in Angelina Jolie as I was in Hugh Jackman and his amazing arms last year.

I rode home through Newton River Park, enjoying the lovely day. There was a small package waiting for me when I got in. I ordered another dress for my Samantha doll on eBay. I'd finally gotten her "Buster Brown" school dress, or as I like to call it, her "Monkee uniform" dress. It has six buttons going down the front with piping above it in a style similar to the Monkees' uniform shirts from their show. It was in perfect condition, though being a flannel outfit, it's a little warm for her to wear now. It'll be her winter outfit.

Spent the rest of the evening inside...and it might be just as well. It was 3:30, about an hour after I tried Sam's new dress on her, when the clouds rolled in. I was working on crocheting me a headband at that point. (Most of mine are really stretched out.) One minute, it was sunny...the next, clouds were on the horizon, and thunder could be heard in the distance. The storm didn't last long. It vanished within 20 minutes.

Other than that, it wasn't a very exciting afternoon. I dusted the apartment (finishing this month's cleaning), made Chicken Pork Sausage patties and green beans for dinner, and watched The Band Wagon.

The Band Wagon is one of my favorite movies. Fred Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a washed-up Hollywood star who comes to Broadway to appear in a musical written for him by his composer/lyracist married friends (Oscar Levant and Nannette Fabray, an odd couple if there ever was one). Trouble is, his friends have also turned to a current Broadway wunderkind to direct and co-star in it, Jeffery Cordova (British musical star Jack Buchanon). Cordova, generally a dramatic director, has very different ideas of how he wants to do this show. The light comedy originally plans somehow evolves into a modern-day Faust, even as Cordova plays devil's advocate. Bringing in a ballerina (Cyd Charisse) and her boyfriend who are at least a decade removed from Hunter doesn't help matters. When the show bombs in try-outs, it's Tony who comes up with the solution...and brings in a wonderful array of musical numbers set to the music of songwriters Dietz and Schwartz, including the memorable "Girl Hunt Ballet" and the new "That's Entertainment."

The delights never stop in this surprisingly insightful look at how Broadway was functioning and changing in the early 50s...and how there was still room for smoothies like Astaire and chew-the-scenery hams like Buchanon. Levant and Fabray may not have gotten along well in real-life, but they have some of the best lines as what's probably the stand-ins for (non-married) songwriting team Betty Comden and Adolph Green.