Alien Nation
I miss being able to listen to police radio calls. The St. Paul police have changed their radio frequencies and I can't find a current list of them anywhere. Wednesday night when I attempted to go home, I noticed a car parked on the lawn of the house 3 doors away from mine. It looked like it veered off the road and ran up onto the grass. I assumed it was another drunk driver.* I drove to the corner and turned into my alley. Traffic jam! I was able to get 3 houses away from my garage. In the alley were 2 marked police cars and 4 unmarked cars. A group of my neighbors were clustered near a fence so I got out of my car and went over to them. While we talked, another marked car and unmarked car drove up. None of us knew what was going on and of course the police wouldn't say anything. One of the marked cars was from Minneapolis, and the perp was handcuffed in its back seat. Figures that the troublemaker is from the other side of the river! I still have no idea what happened. Maybe we'll learn something at our next block club meeting.
Jupiter was staring out the front window last night like he usually does. I was watching him as I walked up the stairs. Then I saw them: two tiny, glowing beady eyes staring into the window! It couldn't possibly have been Jupiter's reflection - there was no light source illuminating his eyes. I did a double-take and looked again. There they were! The eyes belonged to a kitty who was looking through the window. It's nice that my cats get visitors.
I have never felt as alone in a theater as I did tonight. I had already figured that I wouldn't know anyone at Park Square, which surprisingly turned out to be an incorrect assumption. The two ticket takers are a couple I know from the opera. They're fellow season ticket holders who are retired and are active volunteers in many arts organizations. It was nice to see them. I told them about the Met's HD broadcast of Tristan and they may attend. Now when I go to the theater, I usually go alone, and I've gotten very comfortable doing that because I usually run into people I know or the audiences are, for lack of a better term, my tribe. The Park Square audience is made up primarily of old couples. Lots of them. My multicolored hair stood out in a sea of grey. I was sitting alone amid all these couples and clusters of couples who, judging from their conversations, get together regularly to go out to the theater. And I felt so alone and isolated. (However, it made me glad to hear them talking about going out to the theater and to places like the Dakota.) The last time I had a group of friends who got together regularly was when Melrose Place was still on the air (Hooray for Melrose Mondays!) and I've previously gone on about my perpetual singleness. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm doing something wrong. Should I try to fit in and be more "normal?" I don't think I could do it.
The show I saw at Park Square was called Frozen, and the only reason I attended was that it was an assigned show for my class. I can't recommend it. The story is interesting - it's about the psychology of a serial killer - but the overall production felt kinda meh. The killer was played very well and I found his performance compelling. The script was awkward in a few spots and a moment in the story which should have been extremely tense felt far too casual.
There's a cool exhibit in the Park Square lobby on the history of theater in downtown St. Paul. The exhibit included programs, pictures, maps, and a phone directory. During the 20s, there were several dozen active theaters. Moving pictures brought about the demise of most of these. Damn talkies!
It looks like I'm going to be expanding my exotic animal collection. I am planning to adopt two orphaned chinchillas. I'm hoping that I'll be able to put them and the degus together in one big cage. Their diets are very similar. I have to call a few people to find out the logistics of doing that. Ideally I'd build them a 3'x5' cage maybe 3'-5' tall. That'll give them all a lot of room to run around and nest. Risu's still frazzled by the time change, well, not the time change, per se, but by my coming into his room an hour earlier than usual.
* Several years ago I was almost run over by a drunk driver while mowing my lawn. I was pushing my mower up the hill in front of my house when I heard a loud screech. I looked to my left and saw a car on the sidewalk heading toward me. (My house is 5 houses from the end of the block.) My mind raced through options of how to flee - do I run into the street? No, he might swerve. Run up the hill? No, I might slip. I got it! Dive over the retaining wall - and that's what I did. (My neighbor told me that I looked like a pouncing cat.) I hugged the side of the wall in case the car flew overhead. Seconds later I heard a crash and got up to discover the car on my front steps. The driver got out and was so drunk that he couldn't even stand up. The police told me that this was his 4th DWI and that he had no license nor insurance. Big surprise there. I HATE drunk drivers.
Jupiter was staring out the front window last night like he usually does. I was watching him as I walked up the stairs. Then I saw them: two tiny, glowing beady eyes staring into the window! It couldn't possibly have been Jupiter's reflection - there was no light source illuminating his eyes. I did a double-take and looked again. There they were! The eyes belonged to a kitty who was looking through the window. It's nice that my cats get visitors.
I have never felt as alone in a theater as I did tonight. I had already figured that I wouldn't know anyone at Park Square, which surprisingly turned out to be an incorrect assumption. The two ticket takers are a couple I know from the opera. They're fellow season ticket holders who are retired and are active volunteers in many arts organizations. It was nice to see them. I told them about the Met's HD broadcast of Tristan and they may attend. Now when I go to the theater, I usually go alone, and I've gotten very comfortable doing that because I usually run into people I know or the audiences are, for lack of a better term, my tribe. The Park Square audience is made up primarily of old couples. Lots of them. My multicolored hair stood out in a sea of grey. I was sitting alone amid all these couples and clusters of couples who, judging from their conversations, get together regularly to go out to the theater. And I felt so alone and isolated. (However, it made me glad to hear them talking about going out to the theater and to places like the Dakota.) The last time I had a group of friends who got together regularly was when Melrose Place was still on the air (Hooray for Melrose Mondays!) and I've previously gone on about my perpetual singleness. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm doing something wrong. Should I try to fit in and be more "normal?" I don't think I could do it.
The show I saw at Park Square was called Frozen, and the only reason I attended was that it was an assigned show for my class. I can't recommend it. The story is interesting - it's about the psychology of a serial killer - but the overall production felt kinda meh. The killer was played very well and I found his performance compelling. The script was awkward in a few spots and a moment in the story which should have been extremely tense felt far too casual.
There's a cool exhibit in the Park Square lobby on the history of theater in downtown St. Paul. The exhibit included programs, pictures, maps, and a phone directory. During the 20s, there were several dozen active theaters. Moving pictures brought about the demise of most of these. Damn talkies!
It looks like I'm going to be expanding my exotic animal collection. I am planning to adopt two orphaned chinchillas. I'm hoping that I'll be able to put them and the degus together in one big cage. Their diets are very similar. I have to call a few people to find out the logistics of doing that. Ideally I'd build them a 3'x5' cage maybe 3'-5' tall. That'll give them all a lot of room to run around and nest. Risu's still frazzled by the time change, well, not the time change, per se, but by my coming into his room an hour earlier than usual.
* Several years ago I was almost run over by a drunk driver while mowing my lawn. I was pushing my mower up the hill in front of my house when I heard a loud screech. I looked to my left and saw a car on the sidewalk heading toward me. (My house is 5 houses from the end of the block.) My mind raced through options of how to flee - do I run into the street? No, he might swerve. Run up the hill? No, I might slip. I got it! Dive over the retaining wall - and that's what I did. (My neighbor told me that I looked like a pouncing cat.) I hugged the side of the wall in case the car flew overhead. Seconds later I heard a crash and got up to discover the car on my front steps. The driver got out and was so drunk that he couldn't even stand up. The police told me that this was his 4th DWI and that he had no license nor insurance. Big surprise there. I HATE drunk drivers.