random thoughts – Day 1,641 – (Saturday) – big day, big hair

Dance performance day at the Hubbardston Lion’s Club Field Day dawned with a forecast of sunny and 80+ degrees by noon. Last year when we danced at this event it was cloudy, chilly, extra breezy, and I wore several layers. Today, my strategy was definitely fewer layers than last year – no leggings under the giant skirt and just a cropped top underneath the top with the big paillettes. 

Zills = portable music makers.

My hair is usually worn down, but there was no way I wanted to deal with hair stuck to my sweaty neck, and it was put up in a bun. It was an architectural feat guided by two online instruction videos and requiring smoke, mirrors, magic, a couple prayers, and purple and black fabric flowers. It looked good and didn’t fall out, so that was a big success on the big hairdo. I was out the door by 9:50 a.m.

We met in a building next to the event to get ready. We took some pictures. When it was close to our noon scheduled time, we made our way to the field. After our introduction, we made our entrance and set our formation. The first number started and not too far into it, the music stopped. The same thing happened during the same dance at the same event last year. Last year, we kept going and the music came back after a pause. Today, that music didn’t come back on. We did the dance with no music, and just our zills (finger cymbals) to keep the beat. Thank goodness we are our own percussion section on that dance.

Big hair updo.

It turned out the power to the amplifier had blown. After a few minutes of technical work, a solution was found and we were able to dance our next three dances with the music. Thank goodness, because we can roll though the first one with no music, but we can’t do the rest of the show without music.

After the dancing, we changed back to our street clothes and scattered to the winds. My winds took me to the shopping highlights of Gardner. First, it was the magical Timpany Plaza with Tractor Supply, Five Below, Gardner Cinema, Aldi, Big Lots and more. That shopping plaza is enough to make me want to move to Gardner.

It was Aldi for groceries including this summer’s addiction, green grapes. Then it was a quick stop at Big Lots to check out the half-off summer shoes there. Not only were the sandals different than in the Fitchburg store, the furniture selection is significantly better. In Fitchburg practically everything was gray, but Gardner had a gorgeous pale pink love seat and a cool mustard side chair and everything seemed fresher.

The next stop was Ocean State Job Lot on the quest for the 2025 date book with the flap with a magnet. I’ve been buying these for eight or nine years after it became impossible to find the spiral bound books I used for a bunch of years. There were none to be found in Leominster yesterday, but the Gardner store had it in the full range of colors – orange, red, green, and blue. I bought the last blue one, because this year’s is orange, last year’s is red, and, well, it was the last blue one so it felt more valued than the green.  Sometimes that is how I roll.

Unwinding.

It was 3:30 when I finally landed back home and all I’d eaten all day was a granola bar before I left. Groceries were put away and things rolled pretty quickly into food prep. Rice was started. Onions and broccoli were sauteed and then simmered with the rice in the Tikka Masala sauce bought yesterday. So yummy. 

The day wound down with a glass of wine and the bag of Milano cookies. Yes, the whole bag, but that wasn't the intent, just the result of taking the whole bag into the living room.