Daydream Believers

Began a thankfully sunny morning with breakfast and To Tell the Truth. The contestants on the second half of the show were three women who wrote a book on a subject near and dear to my heart - conservation of our oceans. Everyone said the lady was the gentle-but-firm #2...and they were all right. She may have been tiny, but she apparently managed to organize a 51-country summit to discuss regulating water pollution and cleaning up our oceans. Growing up next to the beach, with both my father and stepfather working on the ocean, keeping our seas clean were a major concern during my childhood. (Especially after medical waste did wash up on the Jersey Shore in the late 80's-early 90's.)

What's My Line? featured the youngest contestant I'd ever seen on a game show - the little fellow was only four. The panel didn't get close to guessing what he did. He and his 9 and 10-year-old brothers were stunt drivers in mini-cars. Poor kid looked too terrified to say much besides "yes" or "no." His brothers proved to be far chattier, discussing their act and their dreams for the future.

Work went far better than it did yesterday. We were dead all morning. I did have to take registers briefly, but other than that, I spent the day doing returns or outside with the carts. It may have been just as well. The day was cold and gusty, but it was also much sunnier than it has been, and the sun felt nice when you could get into it.

Changed and had a quick lunch as soon as I got home. Finished out Sailor Moon Super S as I ate. The Guardians finally make it to Nehelania in "When the Crystal Shines: The Beautiful Power of Dreams." They don't do well against her dark magic, until the Amazoness Quartet replace the Golden Crystal with a pineapple. That gives Sailor Chibi-Moon the chance to call on all dreamers to save their planet and the power to keep on dreamin'.

We get Nehelania's backstory in "Dreams Forever: Fill the Heavens With Light." Sailor Moon pursues the evil dark queen as she flees with Chibi-Moon back to her shattered mirror. She'd once been the queen of an asteroid, adored for her beauty by her fawning servants. One day, when she looked into her mirror, it showed her what she would become - a broken down, wrinkled crone like Zirconia. Horrified, she consumed all of her subjects' dream mirrors to stay young, turning them into her monsters. Hoping to destroy Sailor Moon's dreams for the future, she throws Chibi-Usa off the crumbling circus tent...but nothing can stop a pair of beautifully dreaming Guardians.

(Incidentally, this is my second-favorite season of the original show. A lot of fans prefer the third season because of Sailor Neptune and Uranus, but this one is a lot of fun, has some interesting discussions on the importance of dreams in our lives, and I frankly like Nehelania and the creepy members of the Dead Moon Circus better as villains than the bickering Doombusters. I will add, however, that this isn't for those who are new to Sailor Moon's world. Newcomers and casual viewers will want to start with the first or second seasons to get a better idea of the characters and their relationships. For those of you who have seen the rest of the series, this season is one of the better ones.)

Headed out to run errands right after the cartoon ended. The park remains bleak, all yellow and mud-brown, even as gardens begin to show signs of spring. The wind must have blown most people home. I saw a couple of folks out for a walk and a few ducks and Canadian Geese by the entrance and not much else.

It got a little busier at the Haddon Township Library. Their adult DVD shelves continue to overflow. I could only get about half the titles in. I did take out movies this week for the first time in a while. I've wanted to see Toy Story 4 and Abominable for a while now. The biopic With a Song In My Heart is for review on my Musical Dreams blog next week.

Stopped at Target first on the way home. I badly needed laundry detergent, but their containers were too large and expensive. I ended up grabbing a tiny bottle of Tide from Dollar Tree. I'll pick up a larger bottle on Saturday or next week.

Went straight into writing as soon as I got home. Malade grabs Richard and begins to drain his energy. Charles plays his lute to distract her again, but she orders her trolls to destroy it and end the music. Brett tries to escape the guard-turned-troll, but her stepmother blasts her, too.

Broke at 6:30 for dinner. Nothing seemed to go right on Match Game tonight. They aired stars in the wrong places during the intro, and the "magic toaster" that holds Gene's questions refused to stay upright. Charles helped him retrieve the questions for round 1, but one of the contestants had to hold onto it to keep it from falling back down. The lady champion didn't do much better on Sale of the Century. Even with buying no bargains, she still got her rear end handed to her by a younger man who bought two out of three of them. He too opted to return for that London trip.

Finished the night after a shower with the 2007 theatrical version of Hairspray. I go further into this bubbly take on the John Waters comedy at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Hairspray (2007)