Yesterday's trip to Salvation Army was deemed successful. Not only did we accomplish our main objective: getting Nick a pair of jeans and a shirt that he can use for his paintball adventure this coming Tuesday (this instead of using clothes he might otherwise wear to school in a month - paintball stains and all), but we hit SA during their once-a-month "Moonlight Madness" sale in which everything in the store was 50% off! Oh joy.
For a thrifter like myself, this meant that I could collect even MORE discarded trinkets with which to fill my house and garage. Alas, we ended up only buying a few items. Aside from the clothes, a DVD/CD player (can never have enough of these), a cool metal latching box for Sam to keep his Nintendo DS and games in, and something else - can't remember. Anyway, the total bill was just shy of $19, or less than lunch for two at Applebees.
The Sad Realization
I recently re-read a few stories on TOYM that I wrote a few years ago, and was not impressed with nar one of them. They're not all bad, just heavy-handed and in need of polishing. Shame, really, as at the time I wrote them, I could have sworn they were at least blog-worthy. Many of these stories were inspired through the creation of 52Stories, which gained modest popularity until the buddy who helped create it and I realized the maintenance of the site was more than either of us could handle at the time. He was starting school again, and my wife was battling cancer which meant my attention had to be refocused on the home instead of personal pursuits. Yes, as far as the quality of the stories goes, it's a bummer to be disappointed by something you put effort into. But isn't this the case with so many things? Given a little time, our perspective shifts and that painting we created looks odd, the song we sang sounds off-key, the story we wrote seems awry. The eternal optimist in me is trying to tell me that, by recognizing the shortcomings in these stories, I'm actualizing my own growth as a writer. Judgement shifts over time with wisdom. Current wisdom says these stories need work, and that, I guess, is okay. Subsequent stories have been a little bit better, but now will require revisiting as well to see what surprises lie for me there. Feel like checking out the questionable ones? You be the judge - but don't say I didn't warn you.
Sunday, and a visit to my mom in Long Beach. She's been in a home for Alzheimer patients for about 14 months now and is doing well. It's funny - she's still a rebel, refuses to follow "the crowd." While all the other ladies in the house (six in total) enjoy sitting in the front room watching television or at least listening to it, my mom prefers the solitude and quietness of her room. She's happier and less anxious in there, which is great. Everyone deserves to be happy and calm as often as possible. That's why I get up an hour before dawn each morning - solitude runs in the family, I guess. Sunday evening is also Movie Night! My dad comes over every Sunday and we have dinner while watching a movie in our family room. Tonight's film, Hopscotch, starring Walter Matthau. Saw this in the theater with my parents when it came out, and don't remember anything about it, but my dad requested it - so be it. :)
Links
Posterous is getting freaky!
HiFiCollector.com - The Best Thrift Store Finds #5 just posted.
Nostalgia Lounge - More coming... I promise.
FaceBook - Ever heard of this site?
No comments:
Post a Comment