Lack Of Balance

I did manage to make it to Yogawood this time for this week's yoga class. It was a really full one, too, with at least 15 women, not counting the teacher, Jill. It was a gorgeous day when I headed out, sunny and bright...but there were clouds on the horizon, and by the time class was finished, the day had turned gloomy. I ran some errands after that. Stopped at the thrift shop to say "hi" to Erica and and found four great books, three of which I'd had as a child. The House Without A Christmas Tree was the first Addie Mills story, based after the 1972 TV movie of the same name. I've always loved the Paddington stories, and I haven't read them since I was little, so I was thrilled to find Paddington Goes To Town. We picked up the picture book The Great Mouse Detective: Basil's Greatest Escapes after seeing the movie on it's first release in 1986.

My favorite find was Disney's Year Book 1983, an odd collection of kid-friendly articles related to the year in question (cats, puppets, video games) and short stories featuring Disney characters who existed at the time. I remembered it the moment I saw Donald Duck going wild over the Atari-style game on the front cover. We actually had several of these from about 1983 to 1985, along with several encyclopedia-style Wonderful World of Reading Disney hardbacks Mom got through mail-order.

I made a quick stop at Walgreens in Westmont after leaving Collingswood to see if they had this month's new batch of WCares Lil'Kinz. Not yet, but I did get myself the last St. Bernard. The rest of the pile was mostly Black Bears, with a few Cows. I did this week's library volunteering, just some quick DVD organizing, then went home for what I thought would be lunch.

Instead, I was called in. One of the customer service managers had called earlier to ask if I wanted to work from 3-7. I got in around quarter of 2 and called her back to see if it was still open. It was, so I ate a very quick lunch, threw together a very quick PB&J on home-made-whole-wheat bread dinner, quickly changed into my uniform, and hurried to work.

To be honest, I was tired when I got in, and I might have turned them down if I'd had more than 20 hours this week. I could understand why they needed the extra help; work was steady-to-busy, with long lines until about a half-hour before I left.

Get'cha Head In The Game

Spent the morning running errands and watching movies. I finally made it to the bank - won't have much money left IN the bank when the rent's paid, but it'll at least be paid. Before hitting Doria's Deli down the street for sugar, eggs, and turkey lunchmeat, I stopped at the tiny Oaklyn Library. Their adult books section isn't much, but they have a fascinating children's section, including several older books that look like they date back to when the library was built in the 50s.

I found two Thanksgiving books and one lovely one on Christmas. I adored Wende and Harry Devlin's Cranberry series as a child. Ms. Morrell, the librarian at Cape May Elementary in the 80s, read Cranberry Thanksgiving and Cranberry Christmas every holiday season. Having grown up around real-life swamps and beaches, my Christmases and Thanksgiving weren't too far removed from Maggie's in some ways...and I knew many sailors and fishermen like crusty, lovable sea dog Mr. Whiskers, including my own stepfather. (And Grandmother's famous Cranberry Bread recipe is genuinely delicious!)

I've read about the Addie Mills series at my friend Linda Young's site. I only have very vague memories of seeing the first two Addie films, The House Without a Christmas Tree and The Thanksgiving Treasure on cable as a small child, but I don't think I've ever read the books. I've looked at them several times, but never took them out, but having enjoyed Linda's page on Addie, I decided to give the novelization of The Thanksgiving Promise a shot. Addie isn't that far from my sisters and I at that age...creative, bossy, and imaginative. (My sisters are even horse-crazy. Not me! Horses sorta scare me.)

I've always loved learning about how holidays are celebrated, not only in other countries, but in other parts of the United States. Christmas In America, by Nancy S. Grant, is a coffee-table collage of gorgeous photos depicting how the holidays are celebrated across the US, from snowy New England to warm Hawaii.

I also took out two DVDs, Felicity: An American Girl, and High School Musical. My teenage adopted sister and her friends can't get enough of High School Musical, but adults seem to be more divided. Some find it to be cute, harmless fluff; others, especially hard-core Broadway musical nuts, consider it dumb and slightly insulting.

I have to admit, I fall into the first category. It's as predictable as you can get. Your basic jock meets a shy science geek girl at karaoke contest, and the two, having discovered they're darn fine singers, try out for the school musical, only to find it's hard breaking through musical cliches and touchy cliques.

For all the fact that you know how the whole thing will end the moment it starts, it's...well, it's so gosh darn adorable, you begin to understand why so many pre-teen girls have fallen in love with it. Like the Grease movies when I was a kid, it's a pre-teen fantasy of what high school may be like...and for teens, what they wish it WAS like.

Speaking of Grease, one of the things I really appreciate is seeing the high school kids played by actual teens with talent, rather than adults playing kids. Disney marketing probably had a hand in it (many of these kids have shown up in other Disney Channel movies and shows), but it does help to ground a very, very unlikely premise in reality. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of the equally fun and energetic Hairspray from last summer (and even shares the same teen heart-throb, Zac Efron).

Work was quiet initially, but picked up considerably once people got off of work. Several obnoxious customers, but I'm getting better at them; I didn't even get upset with that ridiculous woman who didn't read her WIC Check right, then made us wait while half the store chased down a quart of milk instead of just taking her juice and moving on.