Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Bargains
January 2, 2005
When we were in Florida, Mr. Karen and I made a stop at the thrift shop the church runs–two stops, actually, because we weren’t sure when they were open and missed by five minutes the first time. We don’t make it to the shop every time we visit, since they’re not open every day or for long hours on the days they are, but I like to fit it in when we can because I might just find something nifty. One time, I got some fabric for quilts. Another, we got some plates, including my favorite white diner-style ones with the green trim that I wish there’d been more than two of. This time, it was quilting books (and one crochet pamplet from 1939 I just couldn’t resist even though I haven’t crocheted in years and years and don’t need to make more potholders anyway) and CDs.
Even if I never make anything from the quilting books, I’ll have gotten my money’s worth (one dollar for the hardcover, ten cents each for the smaller softcovers) just leafing through them and seeing how far the craft has come since the quilting revival in the U.S. that started around the time of the bicentennial. Based on the pictures, the majority of fabrics available back then were garish prints or muddy calicos. I have so many more choices today, though perhaps in another thirty years I’ll look at the prints I’m using now and think “ug-leeee”. I also have better tools at my disposal–no wooden yardsticks or scissors to cut strips for me.
I started listening to the CDs Friday morning on my way to work. First, I put in one of the three volumes of the Vienna Master Series (I’m just going to have to live with not having the other 118 volumes, I suppose)–Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, since starting on Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier which comprises the other two volumes seemed like too much of a commitment. I got only a little way into Mahler before I decided I needed something more upbeat to contrast with the grey and rainy weather outside the car, so I moved on.
Into the player went Oro Salsero. That’s more like it. I did have some doubt about salsa from a group where one of the guys is named Hansel. Raul, yeah, that’s fine, but Hansel? Surely that’s his real name, since if one were choosing a salsa stage name “Hansel” would not be high on the list. I guess I need to let go of my stereotypes–why shouldn’t a Hansel or a Gunther be good at salsa? I’ve made tacos and my name’s not Lupe. (They weren’t good tacos, but that’s not my name’s fault.) Hansel y Raul did good, though, and I bopped along the rest of the way to work trying to remember more of my high school Spanish so I could understand the lyrics. (I’m pretty sure that one song isn’t about a Caramello candy bar, but what it is about, I do not yet know).
The salsa is a 2-CD set (cleverly placed in one jewel box so I didn’t notice what a commitment I was making when I popped the first one in), but I skipped over the second one when the first one ended on my drive home Friday night. I’ll save that for another morning when I need cheering up. I slid REM’s Green in next. Yes, I know everyone else bought this years ago, but that’s okay.
Yesterday when I was working on the photo album (from 2003–making my goal of being caught up by the end of April is not looking very likely) I listened to the Mahler and the first of the Bach. Today I’ll probably finish up the Bach while I do more pages in the album because the last CD I bought deserves my undivided attention: Nichelle Nichols’s Out of This World. What could be better than the musical stylings of Uhura? Lots of things, I suspect, but I’ll just have to wait and see.
Have I done an entry on January 2nd before? No.
