Balance On a Cold Day

It was sunny but chilly when I headed out this morning for yoga class. The class was fairly full when I just made it in, though not as bad as the last time I was there. We concentrated on Warrior poses, headstands, and balancing. I can do most of the Warrior poses just fine. I still can't balance very well, though.

Headed right back to Oaklyn after class, but made a left onto Newton Avenue instead of going straight home. I ended up at the Oaklyn Library for this week's volunteering session there. There was plenty to do. Some of the DVDs still had labels to remove, and there were lots of kids books and DVDs to shelve and organize.

When I got in, I made Whiting Fillets and Brussels Sprouts in Red Wine Vinegar Sauce with an Escarole-Citrus (escarole and a sectioned blood orange) Salad and ran some of my Classic Disney music collection CDs and the Dreamgirls soundtrack. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon quietly online, playing WebKinz World and doing job research. WebKinz World just started letting people use the "hosts" (the characters in charge of various areas) as friends to complete various challenges. That's good news for me, since I try to avoid friend-ing anyone I don't know. I can finally complete these challenges, some of which have been hanging around for months.

Work was surprisingly quiet, given how busy it's been lately. It was never more than mildly busy during rush hour. By 10PM, it was so dead, I left a few minutes early.

Bad Day Rising

Arrgh! I had a very frustrating day, starting with sleeping late. I got so caught up reading Princess Academy and writing in my journal, it was almost 11 before I started breakfast, and nearly 1 before I made it to the laundromat...and I had to work at 3! Good thing the laundromat was quiet. There were only a few people there besides me and The Days of Our Lives on TV. And of course, when I got outside, I discovered that the wind had blown down my bike, despite it being chained to a pole. I had to set it up and push the basket back on the handlebars.

When I got in, I ran Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase, which I'd started earlier, while folding the laundry. A friend of Daphne's is a student in a science lab where he, a friend, and their professor have created a game revolving around Mystery Inc's adventures. Right before the kids' arrive, the computer that runs the game somehow unleashes a virus into the real world...a virus that can suck the information out of any technology. It also knows how to manipulate the game...and how to zap the kids and Scooby into the thick of the system! The kids find themselves fighting through all ten levels - and meeting what amounts to their original late 60s selves - in order to escape and find out who's behind the virus.

Definitely one of the more interesting earlier Scooby movies. This one goes into not only the changes in technology between 1969 and the 2000s, but the changes in the perception of the kids, too...except for Shaggy and Scooby, who remain hungry slackers in any decade.

I had to gulp down my lunch and throw together something for dinner. I quickly changed out of my clothes and into my work uniform...but I realized just as I locked the door to my apartment that I forgot to put the keys back in after I switched pants! I barely made it to work on time. I called Dad during my break to get my landlord Andrew's number (I forgot to put it on my cell phone), then called Andrew. He said he'd look for the key in the front apartment, then walk up to my place with me to make sure he had the right one.

Thank heavens work went perfectly fine after I got there. It was steady for most of the night, with no really huge problems. I was in and out.

I did meet Andrew in the front of the house. Yes, he did get me into my place, and yes, my keys were on my dresser, where I probably threw them this afternoon. He said he'd make me a spare set of keys to hide downstairs somewhere, since he and his wife and Dad and Jodie aren't always at home.

A Rainy Day In Oaklyn

I slept in this morning. It was sunny when I got up around 9:30. It started clouding up as I was running Sondheim: A Concert At Carnegie Hall and eating breakfast. Much to my annoyance, it just started to rain as I left for this week's Haddon Township Library volunteering session. It got heavier as I rolled into Westmont. I was rather wet when I arrived.

Needless to say, the library was very busy today. I once again worked on organizing the kids' DVDs and shelving adult titles. There were only a few foreign and children's titles to weed out of the adult section. I did help some kids find a few DVDs, and tried to figure out how to get more cases into the overloaded shelves. Finally took out four titles for myself - the Miss Spider volume A Cloudy Day In Sunny Patch, Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase, the comedy Julie & Julia (Mrs. Stahl recommended it, as it involves a writer who did a project on something she loved), and the comic adventure O Brother, Where Art Thou? Grabbed books on light desserts, journal writing, and simplyfying all aspects of your life, from your home to your relationships.

Despite the continuing heavy rain, I had a few errands I really couldn't skip. I needed sponges, toothbrushes, vinegar, and raspberry preserves at Dollar Tree. Rite Aid was having a sale on gel to clear out pipes. My bathroom sink has been running really slow again. I also picked up contact lens solution. In between, I stopped at Nick and Joe's Pizzeria for a late cheesesteak and fries lunch.

I was originally going to do the laundry later in the day, but not in heavy rain. I spent the rest of the afternoon at home. Looked over the books while running the rest of the Sondheim concert. The concert put me in a musical mood; I continued it with That's Entertainment Part III

Had just enough time for some Miss Spider and her crew after That's Entertainment ended. Made lamb chops with mushrooms, roasted Brussels sprouts, and banana-chocolate chip bread for dinner during the cartoons.

Despite the title, only one episode, the title one, had anything to do with rainy days. Shimmer is looking forward to her first hatch (birth) day party...until the planned outdoor extravaganza has to be moved inside, due to bad weather. Shimmer's devastated, but her siblings find a way to make her laugh at her troubles. When Spidercus accuses Shimmer of stripping bark off bugs' homes in "Something Stinky In Sunny Patch," Stinky the Stinkbug, Squirt, and Bounce are on the case and determined to find the real thief. Miss Spider discovers that even the best mothers have limits when she hurts herself trying to get to all the kids' events at once in "Eight Is Not Enough." Miss Spider makes the kids a "ground house" as a play house to give the adults time to themselves. When Spidercus encourages Dragon the Dragonfly to make the Ground House more exclusive, Dragon learns that there's a line between making rules and being bossy...and that it's no fun when the rules drive out your club members.

A Hint of Frost In the Air

My President's Day was relatively quiet. Lauren and I took advantage of her rare Monday off and did two long nights in a row. I slept in again. By the time I got up, it was too late to do anything besides watch a couple of DVDs and go for a walk. I had breakfast and ran the That's Entertainment: Treasures From the Vault cut numbers and the half-hour documentary on the producers, musicians, directors, and composers who worked behind the scenes on the musicals at MGM.

It was such a gorgeous day, I had to go for a stroll to WaWa after the DVD ended. The air was still chilly, with that frosty nip it gets in winter, but yesterday's gale-force wind had slowed to a gentle breeze. I had a very pleasant stroll. There were several dog-walkers and packs of kids out and about, enjoying the beautiful weather. It had to be in the lower 40s, perfectly normal for this time of year. Some of the gardens are starting to show the earliest signs of spring, with a few sprouts who were confused by the few warm days we had, and a few people have even put out very early St. Patrick's Day banners. For the most part, the gardens on Manor Avenue remain elegantly bare; most houses sport leftover greenery from Christmas, Valentine's or winter banners, or nothing at all.

When I got in, I put on an episode of Wonder Woman from the World War II-set first season that did involve music. Diana goes undercover at a beauty pageant that's supposed to be a morale-booster for Army camps. The cutthroat competition among the contestants is nothing compared to the Nazi's plot to sabotage a new radar. When Steve and Etta Candy discover that the Nazis have something else up their sleeves, will they get to Diana...and Wonder Woman...in time?

As you can guess on a holiday, work was far busier tonight than it was yesterday. We had tons of customers with huge orders who were using their last Monday off until May to do some major shopping, and not nearly enough people to handle them. Thankfully, it had slowed down so much by 8:30, I spent another productive half-hour doing returns. I was in and out with no problems.

Winds of Winter

Began a sunny but windy and cold Sunday with Brunch With the Beatles. The Beatles' Second Album was in the spotlight. If you've never heard of this one, you're in good company. Until I started listening to this show and doing more research on the Beatles, I hadn't, either. Apparently, Capitol chopped up their first few English albums, rearranged the cuts, and dropped a few. The Second Album mostly seemed to be covers, including "You Really Got a Hold On Me," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Devil In Her Heart," "Money," and "Shout." To make up for the fact that The Second Album is the shortest Beatles record, there was a lot of filler, including John's original demo of the song "Real Love" that would be released with his former bandmates' vocals in the 90s and several live cuts from late 64-early 65.

I went tropical with breakfast. Made Pineapple Honey Pancakes with some of the crushed pineapple leftover from baking. They were delicious, very sweet and tender. Had a blood orange and some Egg Noggin' tea. 

Called Mom as I finished my meal. Mom was on her way into the shower. She was in a good mood. Dad had just gone out for the day, and she planned on spending the rest of the day cleaning  now that he was no longer underfoot. For once, they actually saw more snow than we did this week. The clouds that produced flurries here gave them an inch of wet snow that Mom said was already disappearing. My brother Keefe got his orders; he and two Navy buddies will be moving to a base in upstate New York in early March. And my sister Anny lost her job as a manager at the North Cape May Big Lots. She applied for unemployment and is taking the time away from work to be with her sons. (She's posted many adorable pictures of them on Facebook.)

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Yesterday's American Top 40 inspired me to stay in the late 70s. I ran Barry Manilow, Donna Summer, Earth Wind & Fire, the Bee Gees, the Eagles, and one of my Have a Nice Day: Forgotten Hits of the 70s Rhino CDs. I cleared out a few records and DVDs. I took a good look at that Clara's Kitchen cookbook Linda Young gave me for Christmas. The Pasta With Escarole sounded tasty and a good idea at this time of year, when escarole is often one of the cheaper lettuces. I added some of the leftover Sloppy Joe sauce and made a complete skillet meal out of it.

Work was pretty quiet for most of the night. It was just starting to flurry when I came in. It briefly turned into a blizzard just as I started...for all of five minutes. There was sun on the horizon even when the snow was at its worst. Ultimately, all it did was look pretty. We were so empty after that, I spent almost the entire night doing returns.

Into the Holiday Weekend

Began a sunny morning with the American Top 40. Valentine's Day 1976 broke out the disco, R&B, novelty tunes, and some classic ballads. We heard "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow, "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate, "Evil Woman" by the Electric Light Orchestra (which would be incorporated into the 2007 stage version of Xanadu), Neil Sedaka's slower version of "Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do," "Theme from S.W.A.T" by Rhythm Heritage, "Love Roller Coaster" by the Ohio Players, "Love Machine (Part 1)" by the Miracles, "Love to Love You Baby" by Donna Summer, and the novelty tune on the then-exploding trucker culture, "Convoy." That week's #1 song was one of my favorite Paul Simon hits, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

I finished out the second Avengers: The World's Greatest Superheroes! volume while doing some crocheting. My favorite episodes on the second disc both highlighted the Hulk. "Gamma World" was a very interesting two-parter in which the Hulk's old adversary The Leader, one of the escapees from the Cube, the prison for gamma radiation villains, creates a huge dome of radiation. It eventually expands until it consumes the whole desert and Las Vegas, turning the entire city and most of the Avengers into monsters. The only Avengers who avoid this fate are Thor, who isn't from this world, Hawkeye, who managed to outrun the blast, and Hulk, who's been a gamma monster for ages. The three find themselves working together to try to contain the Leader's scheme...and prove to the Hulk that both of his alter egos have a purpose in the Avengers.

I made a quick errand run around the Oaklyn area after the DVD ended. The Oaklyn PNC branch will be closing the 22nd and consolidating with the branch in Collingswood. Next week will be my last day depositing anything there. I wish they were closing the branch in Collingswood instead. That would really make more sense. There's at least three or four other banks on Haddon Avenue alone, but only one other bank in Oaklyn (TD Bank further down the White Horse Pike). I like PNC and intend to stay with them, but I don't want to ride to Collingswood every week to deposit my paycheck.

I never made it to the Oaklyn Library last week. Made up for that with a quick stop there after leaving the bank. The library was the busiest I ever saw it. The children's area was filled with kids making LEGO kingdoms and vehicles and towers. I'd forgotten that today was the library's LEGO Building Club. Oh well, the kids were fun to watch.

I ended up working on the adult DVD section instead. It really needed the organizing. Half the boxes weren't in the right place at all. I also did something I'd been wanting to do forever. The Oaklyn Library probably can't afford to give the DVDs uniform cases and usually just leave them in the case they came in (even when the case is merely a cardboard box or slipcover). This would be all well and fine, if whomever shelved them actually bothered taking off the black and white sticky labels that hold together the tops. Many of them still had parts of the labels on their tops and sides. It looked tacky and unprofessional, not to mention made the cases hard to open. I removed as many of the labels as I could (some of them were covered with the library's scan bar stickers and couldn't be budged), then explained the situation to the librarian on duty. She said she'd leave a note for the other librarians to be more careful with the DVDs.

When I got home, I finished out "Gamma World" and ran a couple of Sailor Moon episodes from the first half the second season during a leftovers lunch, then headed to work. One of the managers had asked me to stay until 8. Having already taken a lot of hours this week, I told her I'd stay until 7, if necessary. (Getting off at 7 made more sense than getting off at 6:30, anyway.) Evidently, the father of one of the college boys had passed away, and he was going to be gone for a while. (Which also explains my late hours later this week.)

It was crazy-busy for most of the afternoon, not helped by the lack of employees. At one point, we even had to call a guy from the bakery to help out up front...and the bakery was even busier than us! February is a big birthday month. I saw at least seven or eight people buying birthday cakes and party trappings today. I thought it was quiet enough by 6:30 for me to leave at the original time, but the managers needed one of the cashiers to help with a display. I was embarrassed when they called me back to stay until the original 7. I thought the other cashier would be coming back!

I did get one important thing done at work today. One of the head managers helped me switch my paycheck from check to direct deposit. I was wary of that when it was first debuted. I would rather have the money right away, in my hand. But then, I started direct-depositing my tax refund money, and then got my temporary disability money last fall through direct deposit, and I realized how convenient it is to have the money right away and not have to run to the bank to put it in there. If nothing else, it'll save me an errand. From now on, I'll just take the money out of the bank that I need for the week on Fridays.

I finally made it to Applebee's after changing into a regular shirt. Needless to say, they were very busy on a Saturday night. My original plan for Christmas Eve was a decent dinner at Applebee's, which is in the parking lot next to the Acme, but I ended up going to Dad's party instead. I just switched it to a late Valentine's Day dinner. The hostess originally said the wait was 10 minutes, but it took less than 5 for them to seat me in a booth near the door.

I had the tasty Napa Chicken and Portobello, which was pretty much grilled chicken with roasted red peppers, onions, mushrooms, and zucchini, topped with Swiss cheese. Some of the zucchini slices hadn't really been cooked through, but they were awfully thick. Everything else was just fine. The chicken was tender and salty. The remaining vegetables were divine. I may have to try something like that at home this week. I enjoyed my meal and watched the Flyers play the Montreal Canadians. (Alas, they ultimately lost, 4-1.)

I heard customers mention a flurry in the middle of the afternoon. It was just cloudy when I got out of work, and at press time doesn't seem to be anything but cold.

Avengers Assemble...In Animation!

I spent the morning before work taking down the Valentine's decorations and running Avengers: The World's Mightiest Heroes! While this uses some of the same characters as the movie, the main story arc is different, and there's even more superheroes around. Here, S.H.I.E.L.D's four main super villain prisons were breached, and all the bad guys escaped. Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America are more-or-less as they are in the film, except for that here, the Avengers, not S.H.I.E.L.D, find the Captain in the ice when they're looking for Hulk. Hulk has even more problems with joining them, thinking they'll regard him as a monster. (Considering they have a god, a Golden Age of Comics superhero who is literally a man out of time, and a playboy who can't live without a prosthetic heart among their group, I'm not sure what he's worried about.)

What really intrigues me about this cartoon is the use of characters I never even heard of before. Until I got into the X-Men in the spring of 2009, I was really more of a DC Comics girl. I never heard of Ant-Man, the Wasp, or the Black Panther before I saw this show. All three are very much quirky Silver Age characters. Ant-Man is a scientist studying in Africa who gained the power to shrink or grow, as well as control ants. The Wasp is his smart, take-charge girlfriend. Black Panther was apparently the first black superhero, an African tribesman who takes the place of his dead father and leaves his tribe to restore his father's legacy.

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and bright and breezy, when I headed to work. This was reflected in my shift. It was really dead for the first half of the day. It didn't pick up until the evening rush hour, and I once again heard rumblings of snow. It didn't help that there was a full moon today, and we had quite a few demanding or obnoxious customers. I was happy when a manager told me to just shut down, as she would move my relief to a register closer to the front of the store.

I really needed a good-sized grocery trip. Restocked blood oranges, apples, bananas, canned tomato sauce, plastic wrap, tortillas, chocolate chips, frozen stir-fry veggies, chicken cutlets, and yogurt. Found good marjoram and cinnamon sticks on clearance. I hadn't had Brussels sprouts in ages, so I decided to grab a bag of those, too, and I couldn't remember the last time I had lamb.

When I got in, I made Cornmeal-Battered Chicken Cutlets and roasted Brussels sprouts and finished out the Avengers disc.

And mixed feelings on my schedule. Lots of hours, which makes me happy...but four late days in a row late next week, which does not.

"Johnny Fedora Loved Alice Blue Bonnet..."

By far my favorite segment from the Disney Channel Valentine's Special From Disney With Love was this sweet, touching short from the Disney anthology film Make Mine Music, performed by the Andrews Sisters.

Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet

Balance With Love

Spent the morning running Valentine's Day specials and romance-themed cartoons as I finished this month's dusting. Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers is another 70s-80s Looney Tunes special made of bits and pieces from shorts stuffed between a thin story. Bugs follows an Elmer-like Cupid as he tries to stir up love between the 'Toons, despite Bugs pointing out that he's really meddling. The DVD includes two additional shorts, the Tex Avery gag-a-thon "Holiday Happenings" and the Pepe Le Pew-does-the-movies tale "Past Perfumance."

The Disney Winnie the Pooh did two Valentine's stories. A Valentine for You has the 100 Acre Woods crew searching for the "Smitten" bug to try to get a romantic Christopher Robin back to normal. "Un-Valentine's Day" is an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh discovers a jar of honey on his front stoop for Valentine's Day, even though Rabbit  said not to send valentines this year. When word gets around about Pooh's gift, suddenly everyone in the 100 Acre Woods is giving each other some pretty wild valentines.

I dug out a couple of shorts, too. Chip and Dale compete for the affections of cute chipmunk singer Clarice in the classic short "Two Chips and a Miss." The Pink Panther finds a magic wand that enables him to help a poor girl win the rock star of her dreams in "Pink-a-rella." Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ducks into the five-and-dime to get out of the rain, but finds true love instead in the Universal Oswald short "Five and Dime" (based around the song "I Found a Million Dollar Baby In a Five and Ten Cent Store.")

Got one Peanuts love-related special in before I left for work. Charlie Brown falls for a girl he sees for five seconds on TV in a football stadium crowd in Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown. Linus thinks he's crazy, but he becomes determined to find her anyhow.

Work was actually pretty decent for a holiday. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Almost everyone was in a really good mood. It was steady for most of the afternoon; I left just as the evening rush hour was beginning. What little snow we got last night was melting rapidly in the relatively warm weather, even as I headed to the Acme around 11. By the time I made it out, there wasn't a bit of snow left on the ground, not even in shady places.

I bought myself two Valentine's treats at work. I love York Peppermint Patties, especially when they have fun with shaped patties during holidays. I waited for the candy to go half-price at Christmas...and by the time I got to them, the Yorks were long gone. I wasn't going to repeat that mistake at Valentine's Day. I picked up the candy for $3.50, not that cheap but cheaper than they normally are. The big bags of red and green tortilla chips that the deli was selling for at least $4.50 at Christmas had been put on clearance for $1.59, cheaper than many bags of chips three times smaller. Great! I'd add spices to the Sloppy Joe mix from Tuesday night and have Burnin' Love Nachos for my Valentine's dinner.

When I got in, I put on a couple of Tom and Jerry shorts while I changed into work-out clothes. Even cats and mice can fall in love. Tom becomes smitten with a pretty girl cat, which doesn't sit well with Jerry at all. He finally encourages another cat to chase her as well in "Springtime for Thomas." Tom's jazz concert to that pretty kitty is keeping Jerry awake in "Solid Serenade."

Moved into yoga after the cartoons ended. I knew I wasn't going to have time for yoga classes this week, due to my odd schedule, so I decided I'd do some at home. I worked on the disc that concentrated on the rear and lower body. I kind of wish the DDP Yoga DVDs concentrated on the mind as much as the body, but I did get a good workout in.

After yoga, I swept the piles of sticker balls and twigs off the porch, enjoying the lovely sunset. When I went back in, I slipped on the two Peanuts Valentine's Day specials. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, is from the mid-70s. Linus buys a huge box of candy to show his teacher Miss Othmar how he feels about her. Charlie Brown would just be happy to get any kind of card, or just an acknowledgement that someone cares about him. And Snoopy is putting on very messy and melodramatic "paw-pet" shows.

Be My Valentine has always bothered me. I think it's actually a little too mean to poor Chuck. I've come to prefer the 2002 special A Charlie Brown Valentine. This one is mainly a series of gags revolving around the various unrequited Peanuts love affairs. Chuck loves the Little Red Haired Girl, but is too shy to get within a 100 miles of her. Lucy loves Schroder, who loves his piano. Sally loves Linus, who loves his blanket. Peppermint Patty and Marcie both have crushes on Chuck, who is too busy panting over his red-haired girl to notice either of them. Snoopy...just wants to write Valentine's poetry.

The students of Acme Looniversity have more luck with love in the first season Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Prom-ise Her Anything." While Buster is trying to learn the hot new dance moves and Babs is waiting not-so-patiently for him to ask her to the prom, Elmyra finally gets Montana Max to agree to take her. Monty stands her up...until the rabbits intervene on her behalf.

At any rate, I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! : )

The Weather Games

Yes, I started out today with dusting and The Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Laurence) is a young huntress living with her little sister and widowed mother in "District 12," one of the most rural outlying areas of a ruined futuristic country. Every year, a teen boy and girl from every district is chosen for "The Hunger Games," a very popular event where the kids are dropped in a controlled forest environment and left to survive on their own, against the elements and other, better-trained competitors. It's supposed to be an honor to be chosen, but Katniss' little sister is too delicate for such bloody sport. When she's chosen, Katniss offers herself in her place. She's joined by the strong baker's son Peeta (Josh Hutchinson), who has admired her from afar for years. The two do their best to come out on top, even when the corrupt president (Donald Sutherland) and the slick Seneca try to manipulate the odds to create false "hope" in the people they're brutally controlling.

No doubt about it, this was a weird one. On one hand, it's a pretty dark movie, and not for everyone. Though the shaky cinematography in the second half tries to hide it, there IS a lot of gore. These kids are quite literally playing for keeps, even tiny, cute little Rue, who briefly befriends Katniss. Some sci-fi fans who have been reading this sort of thing for years may not find it terribly original.

On the other hand, the actors are spot-on. Harrison and Sutherland were particularly good as Katniss' genuinely concerned mentor and the gruff dictator who is determined to keep his impoverished people under control, no matter what. Laurence was fine as the strong-willed hunter who is determined to protect those she loves. And I do love the fact that we have a genuinely tough, proactive heroine here, one not all that far removed from another female archer seen in theaters last year, Merida of Brave.

If nothing else, this should receive plaudits for the sets and costume design alone. The costumes are amazing, from the Kit Kitteredge-esque 30s feed-sack clothes worn by the citizens of the rural districts, to the riot of Technicolor outfits, with wild hair colors that usually can't be seen outside of anime, once the kids arrive at the out-of-touch, wealthy-run Capitol. The sets look like something out of an art deco sci-fi extravaganza of the 30s, with shining halls of curvy-lined, modern furniture.

I have to admit, for all the negatives, I did end up enjoying it. I usually don't go in for teen or sci-fi fandoms. I was largely indifferent to Harry Potter, and have absolutely no interest in Twilight whatsoever. Despite it being a gigantic hit last spring, this one does have its flaws, but intrigued me enough to want to look into the book series and await the next installment with much interest.

Work was a total pain in the rear today. It was just cloudy and relatively warm and windy when I went to work. We were on-and-off busy again for most of the afternoon, to the point where I spent a lot of the time shelving candy.

This ended by the 4PM rush hour. We were really busy, with very long lines. They asked me to stay an extra hour even before the lines got horrible; someone must have called out. It would have been less of a pain if I wasn't already tired. It was still so steady at 8PM, a manager finally came in for me, replacing a college boy who was on break.

I found out why everyone got so crazy when I headed outside. It was raining and snowing at the same time, and doing both heavily. The snow must have just started, since the ground was just wet. It has since stuck to at least my porch. I doubt it'll be around much longer than previous snow storms were. It's supposed to get warmer later in the week.

Winter Woods and Sunny Days

I had a lot planned for my only day off this week, starting with a run to the laundromat. Dad and Jodie are out of town visiting friends, and I had a huge pile of clothes to do, including towels. The laundromat wasn't bad when I came in; the TV wasn't even on. Someone put on Let's Make a Deal and The Price Is Right later. Thankfully, it was quiet enough that I had no problem getting a washer or a drier.

When I got home, I put everything away, then went right back out. This time, I started on Cuthbert Road. Had lunch at the Westmont Bagel Shop. I arrived at 12:30, just in time for the lunch crowd coming from the nearby offices and hospitals. I did find a seat and ordered a BLT on a sesame bagel and cole slaw while watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The BLT was very tasty, and HUGE, loaded with a big stack of bacon.

Next on the schedule was this week's Haddon Township Library volunteering session. Everyone must have taken DVDs out to watch during the so-called "winter storm" this weekend. There were two long rows of them, and plenty of kids' DVDs to put away, too. Pulled quite a few foreign titles, too.

I did end up taking out DVDs this week. I've wanted to see The Hunger Games for a while. I haven't read the books, but I do love the idea of a teen girl heroine who does something besides pine for vampires. After much delay, Disney finally put out the next Tinker Bell movie, The Secret of the Wings, which I've also wanted to see. And I enjoyed the live-action Avengers so much, I thought I'd take a look at Disney's animated TV show version of more-or-less the same story.

It was a gorgeous day for a ride to Haddonfield. The clouds and fog that obscured my vision on yesterday and during my last counseling appointment had been chased away by bright sunshine and relatively warm upper 40-degree temperatures. It was very windy again, which coupled with traffic, caused my trip to take a little longer than it did last time. I still arrived at Shelly Stahl's on-time.

We mainly discussed my difficult childhood and how it's still impacting me today, including getting a decent job. Shelly says I'm far from the only person who has complained to her about hating grocery store work. It doesn't at all match my personality, either. I want to help people, not be their slave. I want to write for them and make them happy, not listen to them carp and complain about how much they hate shopping. It's hard to stay positive when I'm forever hearing people fussing and giving orders and being general pains.

The trouble is, first of all, it is very hard for me to stay positive. I give up very easily. Second, I'm still overcoming a difficult childhood, specifically the period of about 1988 to 1991, when my whole world seemed to collapse on me - I entered puberty at age 9, my parents' marital problems and my problems with the kids at school came to a head, we moved to yet another house in 1990. I preferred to cling to food, Star Wars, and reading rather than deal with my crumbling reality.

I initially believed that my early puberty was caused by the stress from all my problems. While stress may have been a factor, I now suspect it was the result of hormones added to milk and other foods during this time period. I don't know why chemists can't leave well enough alone. If a food wasn't meant to sit on a shelf, it wasn't meant to sit on a shelf, and that's that. Some things aren't supposed to last forever.

Considering how busy February is in general, Mrs. Stahl and I both came to the conclusion that it would be too difficult for us to try to get together again this month. I'll be going back to her in the first week of March. Until then, she wants me to make a list of all the negative things that come up when I get angry at myself, and positive things I can counteract them with.

I made a quick stop at the tiny candy store for more of those wonderful chocolate Smarties, then went a block down to the CVS on the shopping district. I was going to stop at the Dollar Tree on the way home and buy toothbrushes and sponges. I bought them at CVS instead - the sponges were on sale. I decided to get milk, since I was there and it was a good price, and I've been meaning to buy allergy medicine anyway.

I got lost in the twisting back roads of Haddon Township riding home. When I finally made it into Westmont, I avoided the worst of Cuthbert Road at rush hour and rode home across a bustling Newton River Park. It was getting chillier and windier at that point, but I still saw lots of people out and about, strolling or walking dogs or jogging.

When I finally got home, I finished out the Popeye shorts first. The majority of the cartoons on the second disc had a wartime edge, even homefront-themed stories like "Ration for the Duration" (a wartime "Jack and the Beanstalk," with a giant hoarding things people needed to collect for their fighting men) and "A Jolly Good Furlough" (which turns out to be anything but when Olive and Popeye's nephews run him ragged). "The Hungry Goat" was just about the strangest Popeye short I'd ever seen. First of all, it featured a Warner-style wise-guy anthropomorphic goat in a series that usually shunned such characters. Second, it used self-referential humor to an even greater degree than Warners; the head of Popeye's ship discovers that the goat is eating his battle cruiser by watching the very cartoon he's appearing in!

My favorite cartoon on the second disc also made use of metaphysical humor. Popeye himself takes a shot at making a short in "Cartoons Ain't Human." Popeye's stick-figure melodrama is a hilarious spoof of the usual "Popeye rescues Olive" stories. The gags and the story here are so funny, maybe Popeye should have kept writing his own shorts.

Switched to Secret of the Wings, and more recent animation, while making Sloppy Joes and defrosted green beans and almonds for dinner. Tinker Bell is in inexplicably drawn to the Winter Woods, which is off-limits for spring fairies. Anyone who has seen the previous fairy movies knows that Tink is naturally curious. When she steps into the Winter Woods, she discovers a world very different, but very beautiful...and an equally curious frost fairy named Perriwinkle who has a lot in common with her. Can these two ever bring their two seasons...and the two sets of fairies...together?

I enjoyed the first three films in this series, and this one was worth the wait. It's fun to see Tink and Perrie frolic and play in the dazzling winter landscapes, and learn a small lesson in working together and how over-protectiveness can cause harm, even when people mean to keep others safe. If you or your daughter like the other Tinker Bell movies or the Disney Fairies book series, you'll probably want to see this one, too.