Shopping at Easton...

Last night my husband and I went to Easton Town Centre to attend a performance of “Woodstock: Back to the Garden” being put on by the Shadowbox Cabaret.

I love shopping at Easton Town Centre, but as we don’t go there very often, I sometimes feel like a bit of a country hick looking around in awe at all the new and fabulous stores that seem to crop up in between visits.

Stores like Tiffany’s, Burberry, or Yves Delorme give me a major case of the “Pretty Woman” nerves. You remember the scene don’t you? Julia Roberts shyly walks into a couple high street stores with the intention of buying a beautiful dress with all the cash Edward gave her before leaving for the office. The sales ladies take one look at her in her skimpy off-the-rack not so classy outfit and refuse to give her the time of the day. Since jeans and a comfortable t-shirt or sweatshirt is my usual choice of wardrobe on the weekends, I feel under dressed if I should ever dare set foot in one of these shrines to capitalism. I can sometimes summon the courage if the store is already busy with other shoppers, but I’ll rarely go in if I am the only shopper.

The stores at Easton are all about Customer Service. If no one comes up to you and asks how you are or if you need any help, it must either be Christmas or five minutes before closing, because they’re trained like vultures to quickly flock to entering customers. In most sizeable stores I don’t mind, but fail to see the point of having like 10 sales people milling around when the store is like 500 square feet or less. I think I can find my way around thank you very much. If not, I’m sure I can ask the next sales associate standing only three feet away from you. Are you listening Lego store?

My goal in the usually one hour or less I am given to shop, is to find something not too expensive to bring home, and I usually succeed. Some of these purchases include a couple little wooden boxes shaped like acorns, a journal, and a couple bras. I also like the designer bags every store gives you so you can strut around with your purchases acting as a status symbol. It’s even better if the bags are the reusable type like the orange drawstring bag I got from VSX (Victoria Secret Sports Clothing). It’s a bit too traffic cone orange and crinkly for my liking, but at least easy to carry around since it doubles as a backpack.

Once again, didn’t have time to get to Crate and Barrel or The Container Store, but maybe on my next visit!

My Life in Book Titles

Someone in the Flickr Books Group came up with this idea, so I thought I'd add my own answers.

1) Describe Yourself: Growing Up Small: A Handbook for Short People by Kate Gilbert Phifer

2) How do you feel: Bored to death by Jay Williams

3) Describe where you currently live: In Buckeye Country: Photos and Essays of Ohio Life by John Moor

4) If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Anywhere but Here by Mona Simpson

5) Your favorite form of transportation: The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe

6) Your best friend is: Double Fudge by Judy Blume

7) You and your friends are: The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume

8) What’s the weather like: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judith Barrett

9) Favorite time of day: Afternoons in Mid-America by Erskine Caldwell and Virginia M. Caldwell

10) You wish your life was: A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir by Baby Halder

11) What is life to you: The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams & John Lloyd

12) Your fear: Suddenly Single!: A Lifeline for Anyone Who Has Lost a Love by Hal Larson and Susan Larson

13) What is the best advice you have to give: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and it’s all Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

14) Thought for the Day: If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits by Erma Bombeck

15) How you would like to die: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (poem by Dylan Thomas)

the Passing of Patrick Swayze

Another light went out in Hollywood last night with the passing of Patrick Swayze. Like fellow actor, Farrah Fawcett who died earlier this summer, he had been ill for quite some time and the prognosis didn’t look good. From the few news headlines I read, he fought the good fight, but didn’t manage to beat it.

Although not a huge fan, I very much enjoyed his performance in “Ghost,” and can recall seeing him in “Dirty Dancing,” “Roadhouse,” “Point Break,” “The Outsiders,” and “Donny Darko.” As just another fan, it would be hard to capture in words what he meant to the world, but film critic, Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote a beautiful tribute in this morning’s edition.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-swayzeappreciation15-2009sep15,0,7448371.story

Patrick, you may be gone, but you’ll definitely not be forgotten.

discussing "Cocoon" and its sequel

This past weekend I sat down to watch an old film – well, it was actually only made in the 80’s (1985 to be exact, and the sequel in 1988), but as that decade was over 20 years ago, that makes it old to me! Plus, I’m sure it would feel like an old movie to my very young nieces and nephews.

Anyway, the film I was watching was “Cocoon,” followed a couple days later by the sequel (I always feel compelled to watch the sequel no matter how much I might dislike the original, but didn’t really dislike this one). It was one of the few movies that somehow escaped my notice back then (I was probably too busy watching “Back to the Future” and “Karate Kid” over and over again). It’s my understanding that it’s based on a book, and I’m curious how closely adapted it was. To be honest, I didn’t think it was that well-written a movie, so I hope it’s the case that Hollywood changed the story since I always hate to criticize authors.

However, the movie is certainly thought-provoking as I’m sure everyone who sees it asks themselves, would you be willing to be whisked away to another planet if it meant you’d never be sick and that you’d live forever? Personally, I would rather stay behind, but might consider leaving if all my friends and family could come with me.

What’s also kind of sad and maybe a little ironic, when you think about it, is how almost none of the elderly members of the cast are still alive. It’s just Wilford Brimley as the lone survivor, so I wonder if any of them would have chosen that option in real life if that were a possibility. At any rate, I’m very glad they made a sequel, and in many ways, I think I liked it more than the original and provided some much needed closure.

Watching the movie made me feel a certain nostalgia for the 80’s and made me kind of miss my grandparents seeing all these great vaudeville and classic actors strut their stuff. May they rest in peace.

Favorite T-Shirt Quotes

I was just looking through a stack of catalogs that have been accumulating on my counter since arriving back from vacation, and found these little gems throughout the pages.

Don’t listen to my sister. I am the favorite.

Some people have a way with words, others not have way.

I googled myself and found nothing.

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…
What the @#$% happened?!?

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened.

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

It is – What – it is.

Irish Diplomacy – The art of telling someone to go to hell,
and having them look forward to the trip.

Be careful or you will end up in my NOVEL.
(especially appropriate for me since everything is noteworthy!)

Catfud giver person

Cats humor us because they know their ancestors ate ours.

I’m so busy I don’t know if I found a rope or lost my horse.

I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I’m not sure if Life is passing me by or trying to Run me over.

There are two ways to live your life. One, as though nothing is a miracle. The other, as though everything is.
-- Albert Einstein

If you liked PMS, you’ll love menopause.

My hobby is collecting dust.

[The way this week has been going I especially love these last two - ]

Let me drop everything and work on your problem.

Everyone brings joy to this office. Some when they enter. Some when they leave.