New Year's Eve and it's hard to believe
another zodiac has gone around.

While you drank yourself high on hoping
and watched the ceiling spin from the ground.

Counting down from ten it's time
to make your annual prayer.

Secret santa in the sky
when will I get my share?

Then you tell yourself
what you want to hear.

Cause you have to believe.

This will be my year.

This will be my year...Semisonic


Go Ahead Punk: E-Mail Little Squaw @ squawpunch@hotmail.com

AIM: gimletgurl7 (Remember when she used to be here?)

Sunday, March 14, 2004

I just woke up from a nap! So if I'm grouchy now you know why.

First thing to note: All produce from Chile stinks. Don't buy it. Even if it's something that's out of season and you're just dieing to have it. The first time I fell for the old Chilean produce trick is when I bought fresh peas a few weeks ago. They were horrid. Yesterday I bought raspberries...with memories from my childhood and of eating them straight off the bush behind our house dancing in my head...they are the most tasteless berries that I have ever consumed.

That would be that.

Now I am sitting at our newly polished dining room table which is currently featuring a centerpiece made up of Michael's crystal "Skittle" bowl filled painted wooden eggs nesting atop that annoying celophane grass which you end up finding everywhere but mostly stuck to your socks or your cat this time of year. (In this case it's iridescent).

The dining room table is my new place of solice for typing. That and the basement stairs. It's wonderful to now have a battery that holds a charge and a house with Wi-Fi.

So what's doing...yesterday I woke up and called the police station about us picking up our new gun cards. We had received a call earlier in the week telling us that they were in. The guy on the phone told me that we could pick them up at anytime between 8AM-4:30PM M-F. After I hung up I said to Gilly, "One more reason for me to be irritated about the bus trick earlier this week. I could have picked mine up that morning."

Then the phone rang again and before I even looked at it I said, "I bet you it's the guy at the police dept." He said something like, "Is this INSERT MY NAME." And you know he knew it was because the cops totally have caller ID...then he says "Oh I am sorry. I didn't realize it was you before." BAH! "You and your husband can come and pick up your cards at your earliest convenience anytime this weekend. Just use the yellow phone outside the station and someone will let you in."

Okay...so we went there at around 11AM and Gilly's like, "You use the phone!" So there I was in the wind trying to get this damn yellow metal box open and it wasn't moving. Mind you we know we're probably being watched because you can't tell us that the cops don't have a camera out there. Because we all know if the people screwing with the yellow phone look dangerous there's no way that they're coming out, rt?

So somehow I manage to get the box open and the receiver almost smashed on the ground because...it was wedged in the box because the plastic cradle is half broken off. Then we couldn't figure out how to get a cop on the other line becasue there were no buttons and the cradle was broken. I took a moment to mash the receiver against the cradle repeatedly and finally the phone rings and a cop said he'd be right out. (He must not have seen our crazy eyes.)

So we got buzzed in (he was still behind glass at this point) and he couldn't find the cards. But he's not the cop who called us. So he called the cop who called us and then told us that he would be there momentarily. Apparently he was out on a "beat."

The guy shows up. And lo and behold it's the one who "visited" us the other day. We go out back (because we need to get one fingerprint addd to the cards)...Gilly's card said that he was BLONDE!!! Now blonde is about as far away from what Gilly's hair is as you can get. So the cop goes to WHITE OUT his BLD to make it BLK. I kid you not. Then he tells Gill if someone gives him any problem they can call them. UGH...So we're waiting for him and I am checking out the pokey. Which is rather small and clean. Though I still stick to the idea that the pokey is no place for me.

After some goofy conversation (on the part of the man in blue) we were on our way.

We were going to the town next to us to check out and I quote Gill, "Some Crap Stores." We went to dinner there Friday night and we noticed a store featuring a lifesize ET dressed in a dress and other misc. retro stuff. So off we went. That particular store didn't open until 12P so we started on the otherside of the street.

We couldn't believe how many antique stores there were. We live pretty close to a town that's known for their antiques but the prices are outrageous. These prices were great...and now for your pleasure I will tell you what we bought and some interesting characters we encountered.

The lady and her husband who were obviously looking to buy low and sell high...she kept grabbing things and saying, "George, these are HOT NOW!" Though I noticed (after seeing them in a couple of stores) that they didn't buy anything.

The funny thing about antiques is that you don't often bump into someone who's looking for the same thing as you. Meaning I didn't have any dashing about and trying to make sure someone didn't snatch up what I wanted.

For example the lady with the heavy accent who HAD to have the really ugly and dark pineapple cookie jar.

Not that I was looking for anything in particular.

I think that vintage aprons are my thing now. They go against my independent girl about town self image and totally play into the '50's housewife vibe that could easily match our 1953 house.

So this is what we bought:

Two (2) 1/2 aprons (the cutest little things) from the 1940's
One (1) vintage football schedule from a local highschool circa 1965 (a gift for someone)
One (1) pink 1/2 apron estimated from the '50's still with the original tags on it
One (1) white and yellow checkered 1/2 apron with little Dutch people on the bottom
TOTAL $45.00!

Everything was 1/2 off. Yippee!!!

Second Store:
One (1) vintage childrens card with a hanky in it
One (1) tourist map of New Jersey from 1961 (we intend to look it over to see what's still around and what isn't and then we're going to look at it all)
One (1) blue enamel flower pin
TOTAL about $8 bucks

Third Store:
One (1) vintage menu from the Latin Quarter in NYC which features a sketch of three naked burlesque dancers getting prepped to "dance" on the cover...the menu features lots of retro stuff which is very very amusing...I am going to feature it in our dining room for chuckles...
TOTAL $7.95

And Gilly bought a booklet at the St. Judes shop which apparently is a basic primer for interfaith marriages. He thinks that it's got some very amusing and accurate answers to frequently asked Catholic questions...I had to remind him that we were BOTH Catholic but he didn't seem to mind.

We ate lunch at an Irish Pub which true to Irish tradition was cooooollllldddd. Even the Irish Soda Bread (yummy) was cold. But I had fish and chips (a hard desc. between the Shepards Pie double yum)...we'll need to go back so I can have what is rightfully mine. :)

One of the last stores we visited was the store which had caught our attention and let me tell you it made me want to kill someone. You go in and there's crap piled everywhere. Dirty, dusty, abused crap...teetering about and ready to fall on your head. You have to burrow into the store which is really a fire trap and there was a really horrible local college radio station playing where the female DJ sounded like a corpse and kept mumbling about potato guns...it was very annoying. PLUS to add insult to injury all the dirty crap was way overpriced. Dirty, junky and overpriced. There was one guy there (late 40's early 50's) yelling into the phone to someone about what he would and wouldn't buy. For some reason the whole place set me off. I totally got a "cooler than thou" vibe off the guy who was equally dirty, dusty and potentially abused as all his crap. I've no idea how he stays in business and I can bet he'll be one of the first ones to kick and scream as they start to revitalize the area. It was disgusting.

We later came home...then we went to church...then I got Gilly to agree to go to the mall because I needed some grownup clothes and I had gift certificat to the Limited...apparently I got sucked into a time warp which could be more accurately called, "I am too fat...nothing fits...I refuse to pay $70 for a pair of black pants...why does one size shirt fit too snuggly and the next size make me look like I am pregnant? Who wouldn't hate the counter girl who weighs ninety five pounds and is wearing three! shirts layered and yet still remains a size 2?"...well I managed to find a couple of things which will work for me in DC next week, but I am not married to them and may take them back and then on the way out I got sucked into the jewelry counter at Lord and Taylor because some of the faux jewelry was 50% off. And well why should I wear be 'ole diamonds in my ears when I can get a pair of faux (not fake mind you faux) for $10 bucks?

All we did was clean today, nap and putter around...if puttering means four loads of laundry. YIPPEE!!!

And to further this experience...if your in town in soon you might want to check out the following bands who are appearing at the Irish pub in the next couple of weeks...

Joe Finn
Fuzzy Wilson
Flanigans' Taxi
Keith Wilson
Willy Lynch
Tal Patton
Marty McKiernan
Tweed Schade
posted by JustKeepMum on 2:48 PM