You're the Top

I was jolted awake this morning by the phone. It was Rose. She and her family had apparently gone down to Cape May County yesterday. Mom is clearing out most of her linens and furniture. They won't fit into her new, much smaller house. Did I want anything? Sure! I'll check out the furniture after they get it sorted out, but she'd be willing to bring the linens they didn't want to Dad and Jodie's to see if I needed any of it.

As soon as I got off with Rose, I went right back to sleep. I was online late with Lauren last night. Read Return of the Jedi for a while after I got up for good, then wrote in my journal and had breakfast. This is the first time in weeks I've actually been able to have my Sunday pancakes on Sunday morning, and I enjoyed every bit of my blueberry-chocolate chip concoctions. They were slightly burnt, but not to the point that they weren't edible.

Listened to the soundtrack from the TV show Smash while eating breakfast, and later while getting organized and going through old photos and journals in the back room. I had this on because Smash was a two-season series that revolved around the creation of a musical about Marilyn Monroe, and the final chapters of Moviola revolved around Monroe and her tragic life. I haven't seen the show yet, but if it's as good as the music on this CD, I'm going to have to look for it. There's some absolute gems here. "At Your Feet" is a nice number for young Norma Jeane and her mother (Bernadette Peters) as she encourages her daughter to fit her feet into the prints at Grauman's Chinese Theater and dream of stardom. "History Was Made at Night" is a lovely ballad for Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio during their courtship.

My favorite number from this is the touching "Second Hand White Baby Grand." Marilyn recalls how playing the piano was one of the few times she ever really connected with her mother. She cherished those memories so much, she tracked down the actual piano later and brought it with her wherever she lived. Her sad memories and the gentle, bluesy song always makes me cry.

Bored and tired of sitting around, I headed out after the CD ended. My first stop was The House of Fun. They were as overloaded with action figures, DVDs, and pop culture paraphernalia as usual. The arcade games were even on. Street Fighter vs X-Men and Xaxxon accompanied me as I browsed. I finally ended up with a loose Poe Dameron Funko Pop figure to finish out my Force Awakens Funko Pop group. The guy behind the counter tried to contact his boss for ten minutes to see how much he was (he wasn't labeled) before finally giving him to me for five dollars.

My next stop was originally going to be Dollar General for sugar and a drink...but they were dark and quiet. The sign on the door claimed they were closed due to "electrical problems." An old lady arrived at the same time I did, and she wasn't any happier about it. Oh well. I moved down the road to CVS. Their sugar was too expensive, but I did buy a Cherry Bubly sparkling water.

Rose called as I was setting Poe with the other Star Wars Funko Pops. She and her kids were at Dad and Jodie's. Did I want to join them in the pool? Sure! I just had to have a quick leftovers lunch and change into my bathing suit. Listened to my 1962 off-Broadway original cast LP of Anything Goes while I got organized. Like the TV version, this one includes several songs from other Porter shows, including "Friendship" and "It's DeLovely." Unlike the version I watched yesterday, it also uses the original plot, with Reno and ingenue Hope Harcourt as two separate characters, and keeps the 30's setting.

When I pulled in, Rose immediately took me to her car. Evidently, she couldn't use two towels, one a lighter sage green than mine, one coral red, a beautiful summer-weight quilt in white and soft blues, beiges, and pastels, a green floral comforter and pillowcases, and a huge neon and black pillowcase that can be filled with five pillows. I took everything but the green comforter and pillowcases. Not only is the green kind of ugly, but I don't need another comforter. I do need a new summer weight quilt, and had actually been thinking that when Rose called this morning. The one I bought at a yard sale years ago was really made for a child and is much too small. I've had my towels since college, probably for almost 20 years now. They're due for replacements. (I may not keep the pillowcase. The neon is a bit much.)

Finley and Khai were already in the pool when we were checking out the linens. Rose joined us shortly after I climbed in. Finley's such a good swimmer! She can swim quite well on her own now, with little help from her mother. (As long as she wears her inflatable arm floats!) Rose tossed her into the air, and we splashed each other and shot each other with water guns and squeezable Bubble Guppy toys. (For some reason, Finley kept putting her mouth on the brick patio around the pool. Either she was that bored, or brick tastes good.)

We headed inside to get the kids a snack. Finley had a (little bit) of pizza; Khai had pasta with butter. Finley and I watched an episode of Team Umizoomi while her mother and grandmother talked and her brother played with his mother's phone.  This cute toddler show has two tiny beings and their mini-robot and car helping out by using math and geometry to get around obstacles and solve puzzles. Today, they were helping their Umi Car, whose birthday present was stolen by a pair of mischievous troublemakers and their gray truck. They have to build a gorilla from shapes to eat giant bananas and dodge an increasing number of rolling garbage cans.

As soon as I got home, I changed and put my new quilt on the bed. It took a few minutes to get to lay right, but when I did, it looked nice. The colors were perfect for my room; in fact, they really brightened the dull whitewashed walls and thin gray carpet.

I wasn't up to cooking and just opted to go around the corner for dinner. Phillies Phatties wasn't busy at all, despite it being 6 PM and the dinner hour. I enjoyed a tomato-basil-mozzarella ("margarita") pizza and mushroom pizza with a can of Wild Cherry Pepsi while watching the Red Sox play the Dodgers on ESPN. (The Dodgers killed the Sox, by the way, 7-4.)

Went straight into the bathtub when I got home. Ahhh. I hadn't had one in ages. My side is really sore, along with my elbow and middle finger on my left hand. I must have pulled muscles. I soaked while reading books about Broadway musicals. I'll see if I can get an Icy Hot patch tomorrow.

Ended the night with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. I had to look up how to get the last pieces  in "Retake Theed Palace" and "Jedi Destiny." The latter involves having a high-jumper leap onto the upper ledge over where the Jedi raise each other, then running along the ledge until you get to the piece. With "Destiny," I forgot you have to use a bounty hunter's bomb to blow up the walls before you can get the piece. "Bounty Hunter Pursuit" is more complicated. You have to shoot ten long rainbow-colored tubes to get one, then shoot certain areas in the second holding area to get the other.

Since I had plenty of time, I also completed the remaining bonus rounds. The original version of "Gunship Calvary" was a lot easier with all the extras, allowing me to finish the round in less than ten minutes. "Lego City" and "New Town" don't use extras. They involve knocking down buildings or building items or flowers in a regular Lego city set. I got them both in around a half-hour, pretty long but better than my last try at "Lego City." "Bounty Hunter Pursuit" gave me enough money to buy the x10 extra, the last one I didn't have. Tomorrow, I'll do the bonus rounds for the specific movie titles.