O! Record Exchange. How much of my babysitting and minimum-wage earnings did I hand over to you during my teen years? I’m so glad you are still here.
Category: All (-ish)
Sign landmarks
My family did the Boise/Portland, Portland/Boise drive many times during my childhood. Nostalgia was the main reason I wanted to drive to Boise for the reunion. And I got pictures of my some of my favorite signs.
Findings on the road. Road collage
I love this space-age sink at one of the rest stops on I-84.
Stopping in Bend, I see that a historic building was once owned by the Woodmen of the World.
I first learned about them last year when Matt and I were on vacation and found one of their distinctive tree-stump gravestones in a cemetery.
Random photos from the road. No looking because I was driving. I just pointed and clicked. I can’t get enough of the high desert. It’s so beautiful.
On my way!
I’m off for my 20-Year High School Reunion. Here’s what I’m bringing.
And here’s the car I rented. I splurged.
And here’s the first round of CDs to keep me company for the drive.
Packing
I’ll make it fit! The kitties are observing my packing from a calm position, having no idea I will soon trap them in their carriers and drag them over to my Aunt’s house.
On the way home from dropping off the cats, I stopped by my mom’s and got an important item for the drive to Boise: Kenny Roger’s 20 Greatest Hits. That was the tape (it was a tape then) that my mother played every single time we made the drive. And 20 songs last a very long time on the road.
Note from the future. I played it and I can report that the word “greatest” is perhaps a bit overstated. Maybe they should have stopped at 10 greatest hits. The “Scarlett Fever” song was particularly hideous. But I did get to sing along to “Lucile,” “The Gambler,” “Ruben James,” and “The Coward of the County.” So who cares if I skipped the last three songs on the disk?
Note from the future. I played it and I can report that the word “greatest” is perhaps a bit overstated. Maybe they should have stopped at 10 greatest hits. The “Scarlett Fever” song was particularly hideous. But I did get to sing along to “Lucile,” “The Gambler,” “Ruben James,” and “The Coward of the County.” So who cares if I skipped the last three songs on the disk?
45RPM: TMBG Birdhouse in Your Soul.
Where I match a song to a specific memory.
Theme from Flood
Birdhouse in Your Soul
There are periods of respite in the high school band schedule. One of them is the point before winter break after the holiday concert is done. It was senior year Drum Corps and we were counting down to the break. In the fall semester, Drum Corps had their own class, separate from the rest of the band, so the drummers could work on their very important drum things. Secretly, I always thought it was because it was easier to work with the rest of the band when the drummers weren’t always rat-a-tat-tating away on their drums, because they never shut up. But no matter! It was nearly break and we had an entire class of nothing to do. We brought in music and played it while we gossiped, did homework and played cards. At one point during the hour, someone changed the music and the glorious intro of Flood played, followed swiftly by the opening notes of the “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” Soon the syncopated rhythms and odd tonal qualities that are They Might Be Giants were filling the room. Our band director paused in what he was doing, and his eyebrows wrinkled together, listening. “Who isthis?” he asked incredulously, befuddled and amused once again at the quirky nature of the adolescents he was charged to shepherd through life. We laughed, delighted to introduce him to the magic of They Might Be Giants.
Crepe finished! It’s a dress!
Things I like: the sweetheart neckline, the back, the fun sleeves, the length, the material, the fact it’s a wrap dress that wraps in the back.
Things I don’t like: it’s a good standing dress, but it gapes when I sit, which I’m not thrilled about. Also, I have miles to go on the fitting thing. The bodice is too loose.
Overall: Very happy with it. It’s so summer!
Sewing the hem.
I’m so very close to finishing. Here, I am trimming the hem.
And here the serger is jamming and causing me to re-thread, even though I only have four inches left to serge. Curse you, serger.
That triple band-aid is covering up a nasty burn from the iron. Still, I soldier on.
The final few stitches.
Blackberries near the Fortress of Solitude
I took the #12 out to my mother’s to finish watching a certain PBS series. The bus stopped near the Fortress of Solitude, which was what Matt and I called our old place. I’d forgotten how the blackberries grow in abundance around there. There will be some good pickin’ come August.
Postcards from Russia and WDC
I love the simple line drawing on this postcard. David sent me a portion of Charles Bukowski’s poem “Consummation of Grief” which is striking and which I have fallen in love with. Thanks David.
This came from one half of my favorite blog: Pike Schemes. We will see each other very soon and she is as excited as I am. Because there’s nothing like a little trans-continental postcard communication when a face-to-face meeting in the hometown is imminent, though still seeming to be very far away. Thanks Sara!
She apparently also was cleaning out her stamp collection.
