Friday during the day, I put my nose to the grindstone and got my work inbox from over 260 emails to under 30. I felt like confetti should have rained from the sky. Alas, it did not.
Friday after work my friend Gina and I went to a Paint & Sip at a local art shop that is located in the same space as our new bookstore. Gina accidentally drank the paint water and I accidentally painted my water bottle, but we made it out alive.
Now, neither of us are artists. We are lovely human beings and we have a lot of strengths, including being great humans to a dog and a cat, holding big girl jobs, and paying taxes. But I will send out a delightful prize (to be determined) to the first person who correctly identifies who or what exactly we painted here in the comments.
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Yes, I hope everyone notices that I'm wearing LAYERS and REAL SHOES because that is the bullshit that is living in Wisconsin. The next weekend I'm home I'm going to have to put away my summer dresses and bring out my stupid cold weather wardrobe.
Moving on. Saturday my husband went to visit a sick friend who lives in Madison. While he did that, I went to Sephora and World Market. I don't remember the last time I meandered around a store without a specific mission - maybe when Joann's was going out of business? Well, here's what I do. I look at an item, come up with a price for what I would pay for it in my mind, and then when the price tag says anywhere from twice to five times that price, I immediately laugh at myself for thinking this is 2002 and leave the store without buying anything.
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The popcorn advent calendar was $45. Forty-five American dollars, yo. No, thank you.
Then we went to Costco, but the less said about that the better. I wish it were closer so we could go on a non-Saturday. (We can't go on Sunday because the pharmacy isn't open on Sunday.)
Sunday I packed my bags and Dr. BB drove me to the airport. Now I'm in Philadelphia, which is a real city, yo. I guess in my mind all the cities in Pennsylvania are like Pittsburgh, which more of a large town. ANYWAY. I managed to get myself from the airport to the hotel on the train and didn't make a single wrong turn getting to my hotel. Then I went out to dinner and meandered around for a bit before heading back to the hotel because, friends, fall HAS not hit Philly yet and I was dressed for 60s and rainy (what it was when I left Madison) and it was almost 80 here. I was sweating like a stadium beer is what I'm saying.
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| Mural on the train station exit. |
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| Not a bad view from my hotel room. |
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| Public art! |
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| I'm pretty sure my camera lens was messed up. Will try again for a crisper photo tomorrow night. |
Just a quick reminder that you should vote for the next CBBC book if you have not done so already. Just fill out this Google form. At first, there was such a runaway winner that I ordered one of the books from the bookstore, but it's a really tight race now. The scores are 39, 40, and 41, which is SHOCKINGLY close. The form will close on Thursday or whenever I get around to looking at the results when I get back into town.
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Okay, who or what did Gina and I paint? There is a great prize at stake here. Have you ever been to Philly? Why wasn't I aware of the fact that it's a real city?
The clothes they are a’changin.
ReplyDeleteOof. I've had to wear jeans a few days, but not long sleeves.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Philly! I've never been there, but it's on my list.
I'm going to guess a lemur.
ReplyDeleteMy guess was also a lemur or, strangely, an owl. The owl is less likely because it seems like there are tails involved, but your friend's seemed owl-like.
ReplyDeleteI love a paint and sip but I'm always the worst painter in our group!
OMG Costco on a Saturday. Thoughts and prayers.
Um. Hmmmm! Is it a cat wearing a crown, sunglasses and a necklace? Just so you know, if I had been there my painting would have looked worse than yours.
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing in stores! I think about how much I would pay for an item, then look at the price tag and laugh. And, i have been to Philadelphia but it was a LONG time ago. I remember it as being a really great city. I hope you're enjoying it!
PRINCESS DONUT!!! :)
ReplyDeleteYESSSS!!! You did it! Send me your contact info and I'll send you a great prize. dominique100@hotmail.com
DeleteOops anonymous - to my princess donut
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a cat of some kind. Or an OwlCat? I have never, ever heard of Princess Donut. (Also, I really hate when the word Doughnut is spelled Donut. I am a picky English teacher; what can I say?)
ReplyDeleteUnlike you, I am thrilled and excited that we are lucky to see 70 this week here in NEO. I am heartily sick of heat, humidity, shorts and seeing other people's feet all the time. Today, I am airing out the house and wearing a sweatshirt and leggings (HOORAY!).
Do yourself a little favour and download the Applause app. It is exactly what it sounds like: the app simply plays a nice round of applause at the touch of an icon. This way, you can show yourself some great appreciation when you Do Something Wonderful. I play it when Rick and I are doing a jigsaw puzzle, and one of us finds a really ornery piece.
So every time I think it would be cool to have an Advent Calendar, I think but why would I pay $50 for $5 worth of chocolate? (Or Legos, or jam, or what not.). I can just buy 24 things myself and dole them out. But then I never do. So…..
ReplyDeleteI think Philly is a great city! I worked for the opera there one spring maybe ten years ago. I loved the museums and the food markets.
I have been to Philly a few times, but the most recent of those was decades ago, so it's time to start thinking about going again. I want to take my kiddo there to learn about some US history and, like, see the liberty bell.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what you painted, but it's cute and I giggled about your/your friend's accidents during the session. Drinking the paint water sounds unpleasant.
Advent calendars are bonkers. First of all, I take issue with the use of "Advent" when really they are more like "December countdown calendars," but whatever. I'm not religious, so it doesn't really matter to me. I have a shopping style you might enjoy: I see a thing that I want, I put it in my cart, and then I drive it around the store with me until I have come up with enough reasons to put it back.
I went to Costco in the past week and the total I spent was disgusting. My aim in life is to go to Costco as infrequently as possible, but that means I end up spending outrageous sums of money every time I set foot in there.
I love seeing your pictures of Philly! Ben Franklin at the top of city hall! Back in the day there was an agreement to not have any building higher than the top of his hat, but that day is in the long ago distant past.
ReplyDeletePhilly is definitely a big city. We moved there from San Francisco and I thought SF was big at the time. Philly has some amazing art museums (Barnes Foundation and the Philly Museum of Art) if you have time and interest. Also so much history. I loved the hot pretzels they sold on campus at Penn too. Yum. We lived there for 2 years from ‘94-‘96 and I love / hated it. The people were rude, but we got used to it and then when we came back to California we thought, ‘why are people saying hello to us? What do they want?’. HA!
I mean, isn't that Princess Donut? I have never been to Philly, but knew it was a city because my Mr's has business traveled there quite a bit. Hope you enjoy the not-quite-so-fall-feelling Philly fall!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping it was Jimothy but that felt like a longshot, regardless of any lack of artistic skills. Clearly, that was not a raccoon. Oh, well...a fella can dream.
ReplyDeleteWe let our Costco membership lapse because Sun Prairie is such a haul, but they just opened a new one in Oconomowoc...which is about 10 minutes closer. Honestly, that makes enough of a difference for us to start shopping there again.
Enjoy Philly; it's a great city!
I was also hoping it was Jimothy, but it didn’t look like a raccoon at all… and I didn’t know what to make of the crown. I have not heard of Princess Donut (had to go google it).
ReplyDelete$45 for a popcorn advent calendar. What??? Do they really think someone will buy that?
By the way, I’ve been to our Costco on a Saturday a few times now and it has always been slightly empty… what is going on?? Should I be concerned?
Have fun in Philly (I’ve never been).
It could be princess donut (DCC) or the meme cat I've seen lately.
ReplyDeleteI lived outside of Philly in my high school days - it has some charm. Just don't try driving along the Schuylkill river at at point in the afternoon - it's a madhouse.