random thoughts – Day 1,307 – (Sunday) – potentially perfect day

This was not the usual Sunday. The annual Bay State Marathon was this morning, with a route perilously close to The BungaLowell and the already limited access out of the ‘hood. Having seen the signs posted along Route 113 (my regular Sunday route to dance class) and encountered the traffic in previous years, I sent my regrets to dance class and made no attempt to leave during the event. That eliminated a lot of stress and opened the morning for coffee, relaxation, and falling into the magical rabbit hole of a troll post on a town discussion group that generated hundreds of responses spanning hours of timestamps. It was the most captivating cyber soap opera I’ve seen in ages. Positively riveting.

I managed to eventually tear myself away from the manufactured drama long enough to visit the gym for a quickie with the treadmill and the massage chair. There was a stop at Family Dollar for birthday cards, a frozen pizza, and a box of the super tasty and convenient BiBiGo Korean steamed dumplings. The marathon signs had disappeared and it felt safe to cross a bridge and move around the city.

After the stunning accomplishment of leaving the house for 90 minutes, there was a hearty brunch of eggs with onions and the remainder of the roasted potatoes and onions. During the lunching I remembered the thing that kept me up very late on Saturday night. Much time had been spent until my eyes balls watered and ached from reading on the tiny phone screen about National Park locations and NPS access passes. As I finally drifted off to sleep, I decided to visit the NPS Visitor Center in Lowell to buy a pass for the upcoming vacation and the potential of visiting some National Parks.

After the eggs, I traded the gym pants for jeans, slapped on some makeup in an attempt to look like I give a crap about appearance and not frightening innocent bystanders, and headed downtown. The police department temporary no parking signs were gone and the only visible remnant of the morning’s marathon was someone on the street wearing a marathon volunteer tee shirt talking to someone in civilian clothes.

National Parks pass.

At the NPS Visitor Center, I was greeted by friendly team members and helped immediately. I was chided for saying I wanted the “old people” pass and told I’m not old. But ummm, let’s be real young NPS Visitor Center staffer, it’s for age 62+ and numbers don’t lie. Finally accepting the reality of my advanced age got me the “Senior Pass” for only $20 for a year and it can later be applied towards a Lifetime Pass that costs $80.

After all the strenuous accomplishments it was time to settle down and watch The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. Each episode is titled after an Edgar Allan  Poe story and it’s a pretty good mind bender of a series. Plus, the classical piano music woven into the soundtrack is great, but I like classical music and may be completely biased on that particular point.

A wee bit charred.

A slice of pizza was warmed in the toaster oven. It tasted like more and a second was heated. After being tossed in olive oil and resting in the refrigerator for a couple days, the acorn squash seeds were finally salted and roasted. After only 10 minutes in the same toaster oven that often requires two cycles to produce toast that is actually toasted and not just stale bread, half the seeds were charred. This may have been because instead of hovering over the toaster oven, I went back to the living room and the creepy show and forgot they were in the oven. They still taste pretty good, charcoal is supposed to be good for digestion, and the house is still standing, so it's all good. 

It was a reasonably productive day interrupted with spells of delightful leisure, laziness, and leftover pizza. A perfect Sunday, really.