I’m Not Moldy; I Showered!

Oh dear, time passes quickly when you have to be somewhere at 6:30.  Of course this is not always the case.  Sometimes I sit here, stare at the clock and think, “Dammit, can’t it be time for rehearsal now?  I’m going to be tired at 6:30!”  Well, I guess I can say that today, but in fact I have been tired most of the day.  Maybe I had too much fun over the weekend.  We’ll go with that, because it makes me look like a wild child, not an moldy oldie.

I was late getting home today, because I made a couple of stops.  I am searching for costume pieces and props for both Steel Magnolias and Rubbed Out at Ruby’s.  I met with no success.  The Dollar Store (I think it is actually Family Dollar; they’re all Dollar Stores to me, but this is the one near Wal-Mart in Herkimer, and everything really is a dollar.  My favorite kind of dollar store)… I’d better start that sentence over; I got a little lost in my parenthetical comment.  The Dollar Store, I was saying, did not even have any play money.  I thought they always had play money!  They’re toy aisle was shortened.  Of all things!

I also went to the Arc Thrift Store next door.  I tried on two red evening gowns (I’m Ruby).  One fit, but I felt my flab was too lovingly detailed.  It was definitely not a 20’s outline.  The other one I couldn’t even get on.  I mean, maybe I was too fat, maybe I wasn’t.  The fact was, I couldn’t get myself into the damn thing.  It was a lined sheath, and I could not seem to get myself into both parts at the same time.  I would have laughed had I not felt so frustrated.  I caught sight of myself in the mirror after I had given up but before I had put my own clothes back on, and I said, “Damn.”  I positively must eat less.

When I got back home I was too tired to make the guacamole I had intended for my flat bread sandwich tomorrow (on a whole wheat tortilla, by the way).  So I’m afraid it’s Cotto Salami.  I’m sure that’s more fattening, but I comfort myself with the thought that it is better than crap out of the vending machine or deep-fried yumminess from the cafeteria (why is my computer underlining “yumminess”?  Isn’t that a word?  I’ll be damned!).

So that is my Monday Mental Meanderings for the week.  Did anybody notice that I did not whine about not being able to make a blog post today?  Can I get a brownie point for that ?  Mmmm…. brownies.  No wonder I’m fat!

 

A Christmas Present I Once Bought

Yesterday I wrote about how I could not seem to write about a Christmas memory, because I got all bogged down in talking about how broke I was. Today I cut out all that stuff as well as a couple of paragraphs about some other presents I bought that year. Here is my story about a Christmas present I once bought.

So there I was with not much money to purchase Christmas presents. It was the early ’80s, later than five-and-dime stores but before Dollar Stores were ubiquitous. I was walking through Riverside Mall in North Utica with my sister Diane. I lacked a present for my sister Cheryl. A housewares place had a display of odd lot silverware out front, 50 cents a piece.

“I’ll get Cheryl a fork,” I said, just only kidding. Cheryl had just moved into an apartment of her own.

“That would be a good present,” Diane said, “because when I ate over there we used plastic forks.”

Of course my parents got Cheryl a full set of silverware, so I felt I had been properly cast into the shade. However, Cheryl was quite pleased with her gift. As she left our parents’ house Christmas evening, she said, “I’m going to go home and eat something with my new fork.”

I wonder if she still has it.