(no subject)
Things are pretty mellow here. I'm mostly just hanging around reading books. My mom only has dial-up internet (!!!) but that frustrates me enough that I'm not willing to spend much time online so it's probably a good thing. Maybe I should look into dial-up for myself... I'd stop wasting so much of my time.
Last night I went to the drive-in theatre with my sister and her boyfriend. It was pretty fun. The cool night air seemed so nice to me, different somehow than the air in Oregon. We saw multiple shooting stars. Sal's boyfriend was for some reason very, very excited to see the Will Farrell race car movie - The Ballad of Bobby Ricky. It wasn't *quite* as bad as I thought it would be, but probably only because I was expecting the worst movie ever. That honor might actually go to the second movie that was showing, Adam's Sandler's Click. Wow. Really awful. The drive in has two theatres and it was driving me crazy that that the other screen was showing two movies I'd actually want to see, Pirates and Cars. I tried using my mp3 player's radio function to tune into those movies and watch them instead, but for some reason that didn't work. Oh well, I sound like a poor-sport here, but I'm mostly just poking fun. I kind of think the experience of a drive in is to see silly dumb movies. So I didn't mind much. We sat in lawn chairs cuddled up under blankets and drank beers and ate popcorn while shooting stars fell around us and Will Farrell danced around in his underwear for the 15th movie in a row. It was fun.
I'm working on a birthday present project for Ephraim's 3rd birthday. I'm trying to assemble a set of books, books I loved when I was a kid. (Except the first one is newer, not from my childhood; I just like the sound of it.) I can't afford to buy them all new though, so I'm trying to pick as many up as I can second hand so I can give him a nice healthy stack of good stuff. Yesterday I found Make Way for Ducklings and The Velveteen Rabbit at a used book store. I think I might go down to Goodwill in a bit and search through their kids books for good ones. They have them used for cheap through Amazon, but with all the separate shipping fees, it wouldn't be worth it when I want so many. So, I'm trying to hunt down what I can by next month. I'm such a book snob, even with kids books. I was disgusted by the selection at the used book store yesterday -- so much fluffy commercial crap. Disney and Arthur and Dora and whatever else the coolest character of the day is. And all cheaply made, with paper covers that tear and wear out and back pages that advertise other books and toys. Just tacky. I like real hardback books with original themes and amazing original artwork in them. I can't imagine someone's childhood being shaped by Dora the Explorer Book #27. Blech.
Separate but related, my dad found a copy of another childhood book of mine Jennifer's Walk. It was about a little girl, who looked very much like me and had my name. Pretty cool. It looks like it's pretty hard to find copies of it these days, used it's $100 and up. Honestly, it's a book I had totally forgotten about until my dad handed it to me. And then *whoosh* I was five years old again, pouring over the pages, especially the inside of both covers which had a map showing all the places Jennifer visited on her walk. My sister started crying when I showed it to here. I wonder if my dad has a scanner. I should scan some of the pages and post to storybookland.
Kid's who grow up without books... So sad.
Sally might perm my hair before I leave. It could be an interesting thing to try. I guess perms are coming back. She's doing quite a few at the upscale salon where she works.
Still debating contacting an ex while I'm here. I have a horrible zit right now, so I'm leaning towards not. Not just because of the zit... but you know, I do want to look good if I accidentally on purpose run into him.
Waterworld is Tuesday. Yay! It's become quite our ritual for my visits here. So fun.
One of my favorite Colorado bands, The Samples, is playing a show tomorrow night. I think I might go check that out, just for fun.
I'm also thinking of visiting the local small-town history museum. I was talking to museofmyself about it recently, and how they had a pioneer exhibit where as kids you could dress up and pretend to be Laura Ingalls churning butter and stuff (that's what I did anyway, in my too-big homespun dress and sun bonnet). It made me think of that museum and miss it. I'm kind of interested in the boring adult stuff now too, the native americans of the area, how the actual fort of Ft Collins was made, the French explorers and trappers who lived here... I'm such a geek now. Anyway, I think tomorrow I'm going to go spend the afternoon there.
So yeah, pretty mellow vacation, but happy. It's so funny how just the different bird calls and crickets sounds that I don't hear in Portland make me so happy here. I love sleeping with my window open and hearing lawn sprinklers (few people water their lawns in Portland in the summer, they just get dry when it doesn't rain -- yet in Colorado where water is more precious everyone keeps a thick green lawn...) Anyway, water waste aside, I love the sound of a sprinkler at 1am.
Last night I went to the drive-in theatre with my sister and her boyfriend. It was pretty fun. The cool night air seemed so nice to me, different somehow than the air in Oregon. We saw multiple shooting stars. Sal's boyfriend was for some reason very, very excited to see the Will Farrell race car movie - The Ballad of Bobby Ricky. It wasn't *quite* as bad as I thought it would be, but probably only because I was expecting the worst movie ever. That honor might actually go to the second movie that was showing, Adam's Sandler's Click. Wow. Really awful. The drive in has two theatres and it was driving me crazy that that the other screen was showing two movies I'd actually want to see, Pirates and Cars. I tried using my mp3 player's radio function to tune into those movies and watch them instead, but for some reason that didn't work. Oh well, I sound like a poor-sport here, but I'm mostly just poking fun. I kind of think the experience of a drive in is to see silly dumb movies. So I didn't mind much. We sat in lawn chairs cuddled up under blankets and drank beers and ate popcorn while shooting stars fell around us and Will Farrell danced around in his underwear for the 15th movie in a row. It was fun.
I'm working on a birthday present project for Ephraim's 3rd birthday. I'm trying to assemble a set of books, books I loved when I was a kid. (Except the first one is newer, not from my childhood; I just like the sound of it.) I can't afford to buy them all new though, so I'm trying to pick as many up as I can second hand so I can give him a nice healthy stack of good stuff. Yesterday I found Make Way for Ducklings and The Velveteen Rabbit at a used book store. I think I might go down to Goodwill in a bit and search through their kids books for good ones. They have them used for cheap through Amazon, but with all the separate shipping fees, it wouldn't be worth it when I want so many. So, I'm trying to hunt down what I can by next month. I'm such a book snob, even with kids books. I was disgusted by the selection at the used book store yesterday -- so much fluffy commercial crap. Disney and Arthur and Dora and whatever else the coolest character of the day is. And all cheaply made, with paper covers that tear and wear out and back pages that advertise other books and toys. Just tacky. I like real hardback books with original themes and amazing original artwork in them. I can't imagine someone's childhood being shaped by Dora the Explorer Book #27. Blech.
Separate but related, my dad found a copy of another childhood book of mine Jennifer's Walk. It was about a little girl, who looked very much like me and had my name. Pretty cool. It looks like it's pretty hard to find copies of it these days, used it's $100 and up. Honestly, it's a book I had totally forgotten about until my dad handed it to me. And then *whoosh* I was five years old again, pouring over the pages, especially the inside of both covers which had a map showing all the places Jennifer visited on her walk. My sister started crying when I showed it to here. I wonder if my dad has a scanner. I should scan some of the pages and post to storybookland.
Kid's who grow up without books... So sad.
Sally might perm my hair before I leave. It could be an interesting thing to try. I guess perms are coming back. She's doing quite a few at the upscale salon where she works.
Still debating contacting an ex while I'm here. I have a horrible zit right now, so I'm leaning towards not. Not just because of the zit... but you know, I do want to look good if I accidentally on purpose run into him.
Waterworld is Tuesday. Yay! It's become quite our ritual for my visits here. So fun.
One of my favorite Colorado bands, The Samples, is playing a show tomorrow night. I think I might go check that out, just for fun.
I'm also thinking of visiting the local small-town history museum. I was talking to museofmyself about it recently, and how they had a pioneer exhibit where as kids you could dress up and pretend to be Laura Ingalls churning butter and stuff (that's what I did anyway, in my too-big homespun dress and sun bonnet). It made me think of that museum and miss it. I'm kind of interested in the boring adult stuff now too, the native americans of the area, how the actual fort of Ft Collins was made, the French explorers and trappers who lived here... I'm such a geek now. Anyway, I think tomorrow I'm going to go spend the afternoon there.
So yeah, pretty mellow vacation, but happy. It's so funny how just the different bird calls and crickets sounds that I don't hear in Portland make me so happy here. I love sleeping with my window open and hearing lawn sprinklers (few people water their lawns in Portland in the summer, they just get dry when it doesn't rain -- yet in Colorado where water is more precious everyone keeps a thick green lawn...) Anyway, water waste aside, I love the sound of a sprinkler at 1am.