Friends

Gee, somebody wants to be my friend on Facebook.  That makes me feel good, even though I rarely look at Facebook.  I should be into it, as I specialize in superficial relationships.  But whenever I look at it, news streams by about people who are totally marginal in my life.  I did get contacted by an old college friend.  I do love when that happens.  Then I ran into an old high school friend at yoga.  Now we are getting really far afield.  I didn't even recognize her.

Finished an audiobook of Here lies the librarian, by Richard Peck, read by Lara Everly.  I had trouble paying attention to it at first, but then I got into it.  It starts out with a tornado, making me think that maybe I had gotten the discs messed up.  But no, it was disc number one.  Of course, I picked it up at the Vineland Public Library (AUD CD YA FIC Peck Richard) because I love anything to do with libraries or librarians.  Actually, the librarian referred to is already dead and buried at the beginning of this book, but there is a continuing library theme.  Pewee is a tomboy and Jake is her brother.  They seem to be orphans and run an auto mechanic business.  Some lovely young ladies tour through town to look at the tornado damage and they become acquainted.  The young women are students of library science.  They end up getting hired to reopen the town library (from which Peewee has been banned for life at the age of 10 for bad language).  There is also an automobile race, a wicked family of rival auto mechanics and a possibly budding romance between one or more of the girls and Peewee's brother. This all takes place in Indiana in the early years of the 1900's.  It is a delightful listen.

Taxes, taxes, taxes...I really should get help with my taxes but am reluctant.  Should I get someone I KNOW or someone I DON'T know?  Life gets more complicated every year and especially last year simce I retired in the middle of the year.  And it is already almost MARCH.  Yikes.  I am about to panic.  I dutifully try and read the booklets cover to cover and it is very time consuming.  The federal booklet isn't even available yet!  I know once I do it online, I will never get a booklet again.  Thus, my stubborn desire to continue doing it by hand.

Neighbors, the good and the bad

I am about to get new neighbors.  It is an adjustment.  I do love my peace and quiet, although currently I may have TOO much of it.  The houses on either side and across the street from me are empty.  Now, people are moving in downstairs and I can hear EVERY sound....the door opening and closing, footsteps, the  murmur of voices.  Sometimes I hear conversations that I DON'T want to hear.
I don't think I make much noise...only my television, my radio and my shredder.  (No, I don't do any vacuuming).

Driving around yesterday I was disgusted with the amount of TRASH all along the roadsides.  We are The United States of Trash, or is it just New Jersey, or is it just Cumberland County?  February is depressing enough without having to see that.  I wouldn't mind picking some of it up if the weather was nicer, but it is an overwhelming task.

Finished a book: Major Pettigrew's last stand, by Helen Simonson.  I like the title and greatly enjoyed the book.  Major Pettigrew is an older British guy who becomes interested in a woman from another country (Pakistan).  Despite the local prejudices, he follows his heart where she is concerned.  There is also a story of the family guns and Major Pettigrew's relatives, which include an adult son and his girlfriend.  I picked this book up at the Vineland Public Library book sale.

I picked up another book, The London train, by Tessa Hadley.  I read a story by her in the New Yorker which caused me to search for her at the Vineland Public Library (FIC HADLEY TESSA).
Another story taking place in England.  It almost seemed like two unrelated short stories, but I think the two  characters meet on the London train.  About a man, his ex-wife, his current wife and his daughter from the first marriage, who leaves school and gets pregnant and lives with a Russian couple.  The second part is about a woman and her situation.

Who are all these people who are tweeting?

Well, the Pope has started and stopped and I haven't even started yet.  I only know one person who tweets and she is an author.  According to the popular press, EVERYONE is tweeting.  Not sure what I am missing.  One of the blogs I read now is just her tweets and they seemed really BORING.

Got a late start today.  Remembered my exercise instructor is away, so I didn't jump out of bed to make it to the class at 8 AM.  Instead I lolled about until 9:15.  By the time I got organized to leave the house and get to McDonald's and talk to a friend who just happened to be there, it was 11 AM before I got started on my computer chores.  After about two hours, the wireless starts acting up here so then I will be off to the health club.  I decided it is better to go during the day.  It is just too crowded and crazy at night.  Guess I could say that about a lot of things, including the libraries.  So, I guess I will just have to go home and stay there in the upcoming rain and READ.  I shouldn't be out driving around in the dark and the rain anyway.

Have a busy week coming up.  Today, not so busy.  NO events on the calendar.

A satisfactory spread

I only watched the end of the Academy awards and, of course, I was only rooting for the films I had SEEN, such as Silver linings playbook (twice), Amour and Lincoln.  I liked the fact that it wasn't a sweep by any one film.  That always makes me feel bad for the losers.  Seth McFarland and Kristen Chenowith sang a song "To the losers" as the closing credits went by.  I'd like to watch that again on Youtube?  Was happy about Daniel Day Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence wins.  (I'm in love with her and he is AMAZING)

Missed the first part of the awards as I went to a comedy show with a friend from work.  Paula Poundstone did not disappoint.  There was a good audience which always helps.  You never know when you live in Cumberland County.  We have TOO MANY VENUES right now, a lot of competition in the performing arts.  She was hilarious from start to finish and it totally seemed like ad-libbing, with a lot of audience interaction, especially the front row (but she didn't get down to us)  She talked about being bad with computers.  She likes the laptop cause "you can go door-to-door begging for help".

Audiobook review: Hand of evil, by J.A. Jance, read by Karen Ziemba.  This was a browsng choice as I never read J. A. Jance before.  Not sure if I will again.  There were two stories going, an interaction with an old friend who is acting weird and a runaway teen daughter of another friend.  The runaway was highly annoying and I found myself getting frustrated with a lot of the behavior of the characters and their lies and just not saying what was really going on.  Also a lot of saying one thing and doing another.  I got this audiobook at the Bridgeton Public Library (AUDB M JANCE)

Squidoo

This is a really cool website that I discovered today while trying to investigate the soundtrack of the movie Identify thief.  You can get a list of all the songs from the soundtrack AND the original songs and listen to snippets of them on Amazon.  Now I am going over to playlist.com to see if I can capture the songs.  There was a lot of music with which I was not familiar.  Good intent by Kimbra....Right thurr by Chingy....I eat boys like you by Ida Maria, to name a few.  So far, having pretty good luck with it.

Identity thief was kind of good movie, in spots.  Melissa McCarthy has quite a range and is good with physical comedy, which is somewhat amazing, considering her size. She is alternately cute, scary, funny and sad.   All the other movies playing at the theater are too gory or too horrifying.  I can't deal with that!
Guess I am going to have to resign myself to DRIVING AN HOUR to see arty films with lots of conversation instead of killing.

The weather is so grim today.  My life is so predictable today.  Unfortunately, I had several calendar malfunctions.  My massage appointment was YESTERDAY, as it turns out.  My date with my girlfriend also was YESTERDAY, I was dismayed to realize.  I need some ART or some LOVE or some FOOD or some PALM TREES or some SUNSHINE.  Instead I am having some COMPUTER and some EXERCISE.  Ho hum.  Alright, the MUSIC was unanticipated and is making me happy and preventing me from hearing the bleed-through from the other computer patrons headphones.

Playing Sorry

Had a great night a few days ago hanging with two 6 year old twins.  They are very loving and within 5 minutes of seeing me, they are kissing me and saying "I love you".  We watched a really fun movie, the old Disney Swiss family Robinson.  Then I tried to entertain them during dinner preperations by playing Sorry with them.  It was somewhat of a struggle.  They thought they knew the rules, but they couldn't read the info on the cards and they had trouble counting the squares.  The other problem was that if anything bad happened to one of them he cried in frustration.  This did have somewhat of an inhibitory effect on my ability to play.  But we got through it.  I think it is a difficult age for games (losing).

Another cold and windy day.  I am SICK of it.

Went shoe shopping.  I really needed some Easy Spirit shoes.  They only had white in my size.  Oh well.  All the shoes seemed to be "on sale" but I think it is a racket.  An effective racket, at that.  I feel much better buying something if I think it is on sale, no matter what the actual price is.  I bought some other shoes, which I am not sure are really appropriate for someone 65 years old, but just for something different.  Now I need to go home and get rid of THREE pairs of shoes, all in the interest of cllutter control.  Plus, my women's group is recycling shoes.

Shoes or groceries?

I have some personal spending rules in order to be able to afford retirement.  I try to curtail my daily spending in a certain way.  So each day I have to decide, "Shoes or groceries today?"  I am desperately in need of some Easy spirit shoes of a certain kind.  I used to have four colors of this shoe.  Now I only have blue.  The black ones were accidentally left in a motel in Berkely, CA, the white ones are too awful to wear and the tan ones just came unglued so are also due for the trash.  I thought of going down to the outlets in AC tomorrow, but just found out that all of the "brick and mortar" stores in my area have closed.  Guess I will have to go online and try to find a deal.  I am too afraid to buy stuff online with which I am not familiar because I am not very good with the mailing back part of the equation.

Too much drama, not enough time - article about why some people are leaving Facebook.  So, I am feeling better about the fact that I cannot really get into it.  I do have the time ( not the skills) , but I don't like a lot of drama. 

Another lazy day - I seem to be sleeping later and later.  This is the problem with retirementl  If you can do NOTHING, you might do nothing.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that)