I Don't Need Another Coat. I Don't Need Another Coat. I Don't Need Another Coat.

One day last week when I was killing time before my shift at the Customer Service desk I stopped in at an outdoor store close to the mall.  The weather had been frigid and the sun hadn't been out for more than a week, so my first stop was the women's clothing department, where the spring weight fabrics and colors provided a welcome change to the things I've been seeing in my closet since before the holidays.  However, I knew it would be at least a month until I'd be able to wear any of those clothes, so I reluctantly left them on the shelves.

I meandered through the store, looking at things in the Hiking, Shoe, and Cycling departments that reminded me of the new season to come.  After I'd killed enough time I made my way towards the exit. Just to the right of the front door were some clearance racks that held a selection of winter gear. Even though I don't need anything, I stopped just to see what the sales were like.  As I got closer, I heard a bright ruby red jacket hanging at the front of the rack calling to me. It was quilted with curved horizontal lines, and the price tag said it was half price.

I kept telling myself I didn't need it, but I tried it on and was immediately impressed with how comfortable it was.  It was warm, but very lightweight. When I looked at the tag I discovered the jacket was designed to be a midlayer as part of a technical layering system for strenuous exertion.  I don't do a whole lot of strenuous winter exertion, and certainly didn't need a jacket for it.

But the jacket was red, and I hadn't seen the sun for almost a week.

I continued to read the label, and discoved the jacket weighed less than a pound, was wind and water resistant, and had two nice large pockets and hemcords to draw it in at the bottm.  The insulation was compressible, and it could be washed and dried at home.  It had a "lifetime warrenty".

But I already have a closet full of coats.  I didn't need another one.  I took the jacket off, hung it back on the hanger, and walked away.

I almost got to the door before I figured out that thanks to my middle aged heat fluctuations I'm often trying to shed my heavy coat while I'm driving.  If I bought a lighter weight one I wouldn't get overheated as easily; I'd certainly be a safer driver if I wasn't trying to remove my arms from the sleeves at highway speeds.  The jacket's warrenty meant I could wear it for many years.  And did I mention it was half price?

Take a look at my new jacket:

Five years ago today: New Thing #55--My Peeps

Memories

Do you have a song that instantly reminds you of a person? I do. Today at the mall Customer Service desk a tune came over the speakers and I thought about "Mikey", one of the students at the tutoring center for teens I used to run.

Mikey attended the center in 2007. He was a smart kid, but had one of the shortest attention spans I've ever seen. When he wasn't distracting himself, he was looking around the room to see what everyone else was up to.  He tried to get by with doing the minimum, but when I got him to move beyond that, he produced very insightful work.

I allowed the students to use their personal music players while they worked as long as they wore headphones. One day Mikey started singing out loud to the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette, using a horribly fake, squeaky voice:

It's like rain, on your wedding day
It's a free ride, when you've already paid
It's the good advice, that you just didn't take
And who would've thought?
It figures.

It was SO funny, everyone started laughing. The song turned into a standing joke. Every week or so Mikey would break into song again:

It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife

Now I remember Mikey every time the song comes on.



Five years ago today: New Thing #53--Let It Snow!

Ding-Dong!

The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical that in 2011 won nine Tony Awards (including Best Musical).  The play's touring company is in the middle of a stop in St. Louis at The Fabulous Fox Theater.  Today Hubby Tony and I, along with two of the Sons and the Daughter-In-Law, were there for the matinee performance.

DIL Nicole was the organizer for the adventure. She and Son Brian had tried to see the play in New York last year, but it was sold out. A couple of months ago when they were in town for the holidays she convinced us that going to the play here would be a nice family excursion. We checked our calendars, decided on a day, and purchased the tickets.

On my own I probably wouldn't have chosen this show, but when it opened here I started hearing a lot about it and got excited to see if it lived up to the hype.  After lunch we all piled into the car and drove to Grand Center, where the Fox is located, and followed the crowds into the theater.  We found our seats in the Upper Balcony, and didn't have to wait long before the house lights dimmed and the play started.

The Book of Mormon was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the animated television show South Park, and composer and lyricist Robert Lopez.  It's about two mismatched Mormon missionaries (Elder Price and Elder Cunningham) who are assigned to Uganda, where they encounter problems--a village besieged by poverty, disease and despair, disheartened fellow missionaries, and a genocidal warlord.  Despite all the problems, they persevere to a happy ending, accompanied by several big musical numbers.

The show had more than it's fair share of coarse language and raunchiness. (Not surprising, considering the writing team.)  I had trouble understanding some of the lyrics, but that was probably OK.  Quite a few times I found myself laughing at things I'd usually "tsk·tsk" at, but I really enjoyed it.  All too quickly the play was over and the cast was lining up for their curtain call.

Five years ago today: New Thing #52--Where Do You Sweat?

'My Favorite Things' (AARP Version)

Sent to me by a friend.  It's especially funny if you sing it out loud:

Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,

Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,

Bundles of magazines tied up in string,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,

Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,

Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,

These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,

When the knees go bad,

I simply remember my favorite things,

And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,

No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,

Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin',

Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',

And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,

When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break,

When the eyes grow dim,

Then I remember the great life I've had,

And then I don't feel so bad.

Five years ago today: New Thing #51--My Heroes

Adopt A Cardinal

I suspect everyone reading this knows that Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Roman Catholic church, is leaving the papal office. On February 11th he announced his resignation, which was effective today.

The process of electing a new pope is quite detailed.  Any member of the College of Cardinals under the age of 80 years old is eligible to take part in a papal conclave and vote for the new leader. The Cardinals are sequestered in Vatican City so they have no contact with the outside world, and they can't leave until their job is done.  If things go well, there should be a new Pope by Easter.

That sounds like a daunting job, so when a friend sent me a link to the Website Adopt a Cardinal, which lets you register to pray for a specific Cardinal as he goes through the conclave process, I had to check it out and adopt a Cardinal of my own.  The process was easy-I just had to fill out my name, email address, and captcha. A few seconds later I learned I was praying for Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany.

When I first looked at the Website this morning almost 100,000 people have registered, but several hours later the number was closer to 130,000.  That's a lot of prayer!

Five years ago today: New Thing #49--Belly Up To The Bar

A Medicine Cabinet In A Bottle

Earlier in the summer I had a burning sensation between two of the toes on my right foot. I couldn't see anything, but it sure felt like athlete's foot. When I researched natural remedies, tea tree oil was on many of the lists.  I decided to give it a try; several years ago I used a shampoo that contained the ingredient, and liked its eucalyptus smell and the tingly sensation it left on my scalp.   The next time I was at Whole Foods I bought a tiny brown bottle of tea tree essential oil. I applied a drop on the painful places between my toes twice a day. It took about a week, but eventually the problem went away.

Tea tree oil is a nearly colorless essential oil that has antiviral and antibacterial properties. The aboriginal people of Australia have used the oil and leaves of tea trees for centuries. Now, it's touted as a remedy for all types of bacterial and fungal skin ailments.  After my foot healed I had most of the bottle left, so I started dabbing a little tea tree oil on cuts, scrapes, and the occasional pimple.  It seemed like it worked at least as well as other first aid products.

Last Saturday night I noticed the middle of my upper lip was puffy and tingling, and I suspected I was getting a cold sore. Sure enough, when I woke up Sunday morning I had a cluster of three tiny blisters right in the middle of my lip which were surrounded by a red swollen area.

I decided to try tea tree oil, applying it to the outbreak every few hours. When I woke up on Monday the blisters seemed to be drying up and my lip was less puffy. Encouraged, I took the bottle to work with me and continued to dab it on the area.   By bedtime the only evidence of blisters was a patch of dry skin.  Today my lip still felt a little strange, but it looked completely normal.  The only negative side effect was that the tea tree oil dried out my lips.  Applications of lip balm took care of that.

I think the last time I had a cold sore it took more than a week to heal.  This one took two days.  Tea tree oil is amazing!

Five years ago today: New Thing #46--Can You Reconcile That?

What Do You Call A Group Of...?

Pickles

Yesterday's Post-Dispatch newspaper had an interesting article about crow levels returning to normal after a big die-off from West Nile virus.  Not everyone is happy about it, though. Halfway down the page I read:

Few people are crowing about the return of crows. The birds have an image problem. A flock of jays is called a “party,” a group of sparrows is a “host.” But a flock of crows is a “murder.”

I've heard of herds, prides, and flocks to describe groups of animals. ;But parties, hosts, and murders? Quite curious. I decided to do some research to see if there were any other unusual animal assemblages. It didn't take me long to find an awesome Website from the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center that had a very thorough list naming animal congregations, which were divided into Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Invertebrates.

Some of them are really offbeat. Did you know that groups of:

• Cockroaches are intrusions
• Flies are businesses
• Eagles are convocations
• Ferrets are businesses
• Frogs are armies and toads are knots
• Giraffes are towers
• Hippopotami are bloats
• Kangaroos are troops
• Kittens can be litters, kindles, or intrigues, but adult cats are clowders or pounces.
• Moles are labors
• Otters are romps
• Peacocks are musters or ostentations

Five years ago today: New Thing #44--Nice to Meet You

Truly Trivial

Earlier in the week Kay at Musings (who lives in Hawaii) had a post about the University of Hawaii sports teams, the Rainbow Warriors.  Several years ago they changed their athletic logo and let each team pick its own team name.  This summer they're renaming teams again; all the men's squads will have one name and all the women's another.

I read the post, moved on to the next item in my reader, and didn't think anything about it. Tonight the information came in handy.  We were at a Trivia Night at church.  One of the categories was Team Names; the MC read the name of a school and we had to come up with the name of the team.  My table was amazed when I knew the answer to the first question...the University of Hawaii.

(Don't know what a trivia night is?  Urban Dictionary describes it this way:

A trivia night is a large group event, usually staged to benefit a charitable cause or organization.

During a trivia night, a master of ceremonies reads trivia questions split up into different categories or rounds. The questions are then answered by different groups of people in an audience. These groups, also known as "teams" or "tables," typically consist of six to 12 people who have paid an admission fee to participate. At the end of each round, a representative from each team turns in its answers to a panel of judges who then calculate the scores for each team. The teams compete against one another with the top two or three teams receiving prizes.)

Thanks, Kay!

Five years ago today: New Thing #43--Make Mine Manga

Winter Weather Assault

National Weather Service

In weather speak, the symbols mean:

Continuous fall of snowflakes (heavy)

Ice pellets (sleet)

Rain, freezing, slight

The winter weather they've been predicting since Monday-a mixture of snow, sleet, and freezing rain-made its way into the area today.  I was ready.

This morning I had to be at work at 9:30 (which means leaving the house at 8:50).  The snow was supposed to start about 9:00. Based on what I'd heard, it was going to be a rough commute home, and I decided to make the morning commute easy on myself.  I spent less time in blogland after breakfast and got on the road a half hour earlier than usual in case the storm started sooner than predicted.

There was absolutely no precipitation on my drive to the mall, and I pulled into the parking lot a little bit before 9.  I decided to ignore the rule that says employees are supposed to park on the top level of the garage or on the far corners of the surface lot.  Instead, I left my car in the covered section of the parking garage; I didn't think there'd be too many customers coming out in this weather and jockeying for the spaces

To pass the time, I locked my coat and purse in the Customer Service desk office, then walked the mall until it was time to clock in.  After I set everything up at the desk (which took 10 minutes), I spent another 15 minutes walking.  On the last leg I went past a doorway and saw the first fluffy white flakes coming down.  The desk lights went on right at 10 when the mall opened, and I waited for the customers I didn't think would come.

Over the course of my five hour shift there weren't many customers.  However, I was very busy.  Every few minutes the phone rang and the person on the other end wanted to know if (A) the mall was open or (B) if the mall was closing early.   The calls were evenly mixed between customers and store employees wanting to know if they should come into work.

When I'm at the desk I can't see the outside world, so I had to go on the information that was coming to me.   One caller told me the roads "were turning into parking lots".  Another said cars were going off the road "everywhere".  I tend to take comments like these with a grain of salt, so I wasn't overly concerned.  My standard answer to the closing early question was that I didn't know, but if the management office decided they'd post a notification on the mall Website.

My shift was over at 2:30.  After my replacement clocked in I clocked out, and got ready for the journey home by using the restroom. The first driving challenge happened just a block from the mall, when I encountered cars sliding on the highway entrance ramp.  I managed to drive around them and get on the highway but then sat, barely moving, for a half hour.  When I heard the highway was closed several miles up ahead because of stalled vehicles I took the next exit.  So did a lot of other cars.  It took 10 minutes to get to the end of the exit ramp, and then another 20 minutes to get through a stoplight less than a mile away.  However, once I got past the light there wasn't much traffic, and  I pulled into my driveway a little over two hours after I left the mall, happy to be home.

It's supposed to get above freezing tomorrow afternoon.  Between the snowplows and the warmer weather I hope the roads are in good shape before the next time I have to leave the house.

Five years ago today: New Thing #41--Can You Teach a Cat a Trick?

Are You Ready?

I'm tired of cold weather and SO ready for winter to be over, but it's determined not to leave just yet. For the past few days the weather forecasters have been forecasting (with a gleam in their eye) a big storm heading our way. Tomorrow we're supposed to get snow, sleet, or freezing rain. Maybe all three.  Since we've had very little inclement weather this winter, it's all anyone wants to talk about.

In advance of the nasty stuff, the temperature's plummeted.  On Monday I wore a light jacket.  When I woke up this morning it was 19°F, with a wind chill that made it feel even colder. It would have been easy to stay inside until I had to leave for work at 11:30, but after breakfast I made myself go to the gym. My body won't get in shape by lazing around the house!  I was lucky enough to get a parking space close to the gym door, so I left my coat in the car and hustled into the building.  Even with the short trip I was cold by time I got inside.

At the back of the gym there's a white board where one of the trainers writes inspirational notes. Before I got on my treadmill I went to use the bathroom and took a look at the board as I walked by.  It said:

97 days to swimsuit season

I can't wait!