Friday January 20, 2017
I happened to ask a coworker who had
just gotten back from lunch how the weather was. He said, “Gray and
dreary. The whole world is sad.” I don’t
think he was just referring to the weather, if you know what I mean. All I know
is the sun actually came out during my lunch hour, so I went outside and took a
walk. That and being a Friday meant I was in a good mood in spite of events
going on in Washington.
In
the evening my husband and I attended a play at a local high school. It was
called “Geek” and was very much aimed at a niche audience – specifically fans
of anime and cosplay. What is anime and cosplay you ask? Anime is the art of
Japanese Animation. Cosplay is Costume Play, which is just one of the many
events at a “con” (convention) in which fanboys (and sometimes girls) dress up
like their favorite anime characters and sometimes stage a faux duel. Often
points are awarded for best costume. As someone who has attended Ohiocon
(Columbus’ annual Anime convention held every January) on at least a couple
occasions, I can tell you people take this very seriously, and I would even go
so far as to say it’s an obsession to some (like my husband perhaps, who
watches at least a half hour of anime most days). I enjoy Anime too, but
dedicate slightly less time to it than my hubby.
Anyway,
the play revolves around two girls – Danya and Honey who are determined to get
into their local convention (originally set in Cleveland, but for the sake of
the local audience, it was moved to Columbus) to meet their idol Joto Samagashi and give him the dvd they, along with Honey’s (recently
deceased) sister made where they reenacted scenes from Samagashi’s Anime. They
don’t have tickets due to a complication, so their first obstacle is how to
even get into the convention. After that it’s confrontations with a myriad of
staff and other attendees that keep delaying them. Suffice it to say it does
have a happy ending, which is a relief after all the obstacles they have to
overcome to meet their idol.
Kudos to the two actresses who played Danya and Honey. Though I haven’t
seen the off Broadway version to compare, I think these ladies could have
easily held their own in the Big Apple. I also liked the young man who donned
the costume of “Squeaker” and kudos to whomever created the costume. It’s
pretty close (and better if you ask me) to the one I saw pictured in the NYC
version.
Suffice it to say we both enjoyed it very much (as much as one can enjoy
something that evolves around a tragedy – that being the death of Honey’s
sister). Although it was only a meager audience (mostly friends and family I
suspect), the kids didn’t let that dampen their spirits and gave their all and
it showed. Another winner at Hilliard Davidson H.S.
Saturday January 21, 2017
A good day for several reasons:
1)
I managed to offload our four bags of Styrofoam from when we cleaned out
our crawl space over NY’s weekend. I also met a nice older lady who was the one
who volunteered to take our Styrofoam for recycling, after which she planned on
stopping at a bakery in the nearby vicinity. She told me that was her ‘ulterior
motive.’ Either way, I was glad to be rid of the Styrofoam because of all the
space it was taking up in our garage, and it’s at least three months until the
next Styrofoam collection locally. It was nice to meet you Sandy and I hope our
paths cross again!
2)
My ‘Change Oil’ light came on and I was able to get an appointment at my dealer
on a moment’s notice and use the coupon they sent me which saved me $50.
Woohoo! The downside is it took them two hours to do since I also had to have
an airbag replaced due to a recall in 2016. At least I was able to have lunch
at a nearby restaurant and get quite a lot of emails sorted and filed on my
laptop.
3)
It was pretty warm with temperatures in the high 50s, low 60s, so it was
quite pleasant to be outdoors (at least until a late afternoon shower). Hence,
I tidied up a few things in our garage and vacuumed out the inside of my car,
which I probably wouldn’t have done if it had been a normal cold winter day.
4)
Earlier in the day when I was at the grocery store I saw a coupon someone
had left on the counter for $5 off a $50 purchase. Because I had already swiped
my credit card, the checkout girl told me to take my receipt with the coupon to
the Customer Service counter where they proceeded to give me $5 and some change
as a refund. Thanks to whomever left the coupon. Hope I can pay it forward
sometime!
5)
We went out to dinner. I had wanted sushi, so we stopped in at Daruma, a
local Hibachi Grill that also serves Sushi. However, being a Saturday night
it was pretty noisy and somewhat crowded. I could tell from the sour look on
my husband’s face that he wasn’t very
happy, so we left and went out for Mexican instead at the much quieter Lunada
(a favorite we had been to on one other occasion), which was just across the
way.
Sunday January 22, 2017
Another gorgeous mostly sunny day. I tried to take advantage of the nice
weather by spending as much time outside as I could by picking up more twigs
strewn about the yard, replacing one of the brass caps which had blown off our
gate (actually my husband did this), and just sitting in a lawn chair reading one
of the books from my husband’s Calvin & Hobbes boxed set. Our cat seemed to
enjoy herself too spending quite a lot of time in the back corner of the garden
(where all the catnip grows). She was happier today since there were no run-ins
with our neighbor’s cat, Izzy, who had come by for a couple visits on Saturday.
About midafternoon my husband and I took a walk along the Scioto River
(the stretch near our neighborhood that starts in UA and runs into Columbus).
We weren’t alone as we saw lots of people walking, running, playing, walking
dogs, etc. Saw the new Gregory S. Lashutka event center that was built on the
east side of the road due to open in May. We also walked down to check out the
waterfall further down that is the source of our local drinking water. After
seeing the yellowish/brownish color of the foaming water, my husband said he wasn’t
feeling too good about our water supply. You could hardly blame him since the
swirling, frothing, water closely resembled the brown peaks on the mashed
potatoes we top our Cottage Pudding with. Actually, I should probably not make
that association for fear it puts me off of Cottage Pie, or at least the
topping. At least we haven’t had any more warnings about algae blooms or
whatever in our water supply.
When we got home I decided there was time to go through at least one box
of stowed away items from down off the shelf in the basement. I selected a box
of ceramic items containing several teacups, saucers, bowls, a mug, and some
other misc. items. I carefully unwrapped each item before making two piles –
Keep and Donate/Sell. After checking with my husband I ended up with about two
somewhat even piles. The good news is I managed to pretty much fit all my ‘Keep’
items in the two kitchen cupboards where our excess china is currently stored.
This way I can enjoy it more than when everything was wrapped up and stowed
away. This is a huge plus of paring down (though I know it feels kind of sad
when you don’t have enough storage room for everything you want to keep).
Still
trying to decide whether or not to keep my four ivy Corelle canisters.
Although I’m not sure canisters are still in vogue or not, my husband reminded
me my sister has a set she uses, so I might try experimenting with some
different locations around the kitchen and see if I can work/fit them in. That’s
my decluttering lesson for the weekend. Not sure which items I’ll tackle next
weekend, but I plan to continue my quest of getting rid of excess stuff until I
am down to a more manageable amount of items I can enjoy.
Have a good week everyone!
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