Autumn Blue and Gold

Began the day with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Katerina and O and their mother and uncle stay with Daniel and his family when they're hit by "A Storm In the Neighborhood." The kids are nervous about the weather, but their parents encourage them to follow the plan and stay with the adults so they'll be safe. The entire community gathers to remove a tree that fell in front of the Clock Factory "After the Neighborhood Storm."

Dawn hit traffic coming up here and was about 10 minutes late arriving. We finally started out at quarter of 9. Thankfully, the traffic wasn't as bad going to Westville. She stopped at Abilities Solutions for a few minutes to talk to someone and make copies of my resume before we went on our way.

It was past 9 when Dawn pulled in at the big parking lot at Rowan University next to their Engineering Hall. Dawn caught the little jitney going to the job fair just in time. He even had two seats left for us. I shivered as the jitney picked up speed and I held on. It was a beautiful day, sunny and windy, but also much cooler than it has been. It wasn't even in the 50's at 9 AM!

At least it was warmer in the gym. It was the same job fair I went to at Rowan last spring and fall. They were equally busy, and nearly impossible to get around in. To my disappointment, I saw almost nothing of interest. The Emerson Group wanted office workers with more experience. I don't know anything about Word or Excel or anything that costs extra to use, and I haven't done a real job in years. I did see Shop Rite, Goodwill, and a lot of police and safety tables, but that was it. Everything else was either industrial or health care. 

I wish New Jersey wasn't so obsessed with health care! No Comcast, no newspapers, not even Walgreens. It was extremely disappointing. Dawn talked to the Jewish Federation of Cherry Hill and even said we could apply there, but I checked their site later, and their jobs were all teaching or placing families. I don't know anything about that. I'll put in the application, but I don't think anything will come of it.

We finally took the jitney back around 11. Dawn returned briefly to give someone her business card, then we were on our way. The traffic was much worse going home than it had been going to Rowan, especially on the highway. Everyone must have been heading home for lunch. It was past 11:30 when she finally pulled up at the curb.

Put on The Monkees when I got home and had the two muffins I snitched from the refreshment tables for lunch. In addition to doing the four horror-themed episodes for Halloween, I'm going to re-watch the show from the beginning, starting with "Royal Flush." Davy saves a pretty girl from drowning, but she turns out to be far more important than he believes when her Uncle Otto reveals her to be the Princess of Harmonica and threatens them both. He recruits the other three to help him find out what Uncle Otto's plot is and save the princess from certain doom at the hands of her greedy uncle and his chauffeur henchman.

Switched to mildly bizarre episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as I made my grocery list. Pooh and his friends wander up to the attic on a stormy afternoon, looking for something to do. They want to play chess, but some of the pieces are missing. Terrified Piglet becomes "A Knight to Remember" when he imagines himself as a chess knight who has to fight a not-so-scary dragon. It's "Rock-a-Bye Pooh Bear" when Piglet has a nightmare about losing his friends in a storm. The others try to prove that nightmares don't come true and aren't anything to be afraid of.

Headed out shortly after the cartoon ended. I had grocery shopping to do today, starting with Sprouts. Had online coupons for Cascadian Farms granola bars and Nixie probiotic soda. Found bakery chocolate chip cookies with clearance tags. Scooped dried cranberries into one bag, salted vegetable chips into another.

After Sprouts, I ducked past the library and Haddon Township High School to the Acme. Mainly needed to restock yogurt, apples, Kind bars, and bagels (and I almost forgot the last-named). Had online coupons for Choboni yogurt, the Kind bars, Poppi soda, and Always pads. In fact, I found ultra-thin pads that were already half-off and got them for even cheaper. Grabbed a Propel Peach for the ride home.

And the ride home was gorgeous. Newton Lake sparkled like a million jade stones as I rode past. The fountains shot tiny diamonds into the radiant blue sky. The trees here are just starting to turn shades of scarlet, gold, and yellow that makes the rainbow look pale. I dodged people out for leisurely strolls, finally pushing my bike over the hill and past the Environmental Center.

Let The Price Is Right run in the background as I went through my records and books to see if there was anything I wanted to get rid of. Truth be told...not really. I've been better about thinning out my collection since I moved. I do need to clear out some stuffed animals, and I definitely have too many clothes.

Finally switched to adding my newest finds to the inventories. Television's Greatest Hits Vol. II went with the soundtracks. Kinky Boots, the Hugh Jackman Music Man, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Little Women were added to the cast albums. Magic Bus: The Who On Tour and The Ballad of Tom Joad went in with the rock and pop albums. 

I also got my schedule online at this point. In good news, not quite so many hours on Wednesday...or at all. They dropped me right back to the four days off I had during the summer. I'm glad that I won't have to deal with more 8 1/2 hour days and will have the chance to rest this week, but I could have used a few more hours than this. We are coming up on the holidays.

Watched Match Game '77 while eating dinner. Dick Martin, Fannie Flagg, and Conny Van Dyke joined in for these episodes. Conny argues for Gene kissing her, while the others try to figure out "__ Cooper" in the Audience Match.

Finished the night with Who's That Girl. Tax attorney Loudon Trott (Grififth Dunne) has be tasked with bringing a rare cougar to an animal fan, and then he has to get recently-paroled Nikki Finn (Madonna) on the bus home to Philadelphia after a stint in jail. Nikki has absolutely no desire to go home. She wants to find out who killed her previous boyfriend (as depicted in the opening cartoon sequence), handed her a key, and sent her up the river. Believing her innocent, Loudon ends up joining her as she runs all over New York looking for the real murders, even though he's getting married to Wendy Worthington (Haviland Morris) the next day and her father Simon (John McMartin) is his boss and the one who wanted Nikki out of town in the first place. 

Though the movie was a flop in 1987, I have fond memories of it anyway. The title song and "Causing a Commotion" were huge hits in late summer and early fall that year. When the movie hit home video and cable, it became the choice for pre-teen and young teen girls like me and my friends to watch at slumber parties and girl get-togethers. On one hand, Madonna always was pretty funny, Dunne does his best as the bamboozled lawyer caught up in her schemes, and yeah, the soundtrack is good. 

The movie is also very much of its time. The plot is likely supposed to be the 80's idea of a screwball comedy, but it's really all over the place. Nikki is an annoying idiot whose idea of fun is swiping cassettes from a music store. Some of the gags - like what happens to the bridesmaids and who Wendy eventually ends up with - are just too dumb. 

I'm going to say this is cute, but unless you're a massive Madonna fan or you share my fond memories of watching this with your own friends at slumber parties, you're better off digging up the soundtrack album and skipping the film.