random thoughts - Day 2,040 (Friday) - shakin' it up

The day had a fun shakeup. Instead of sitting around all morning drinking coffee and goofing off,  I went shopping with a friend. The first plan was to visit a fabric store, which has the potential of turning out similar to unattended toddlers going wild in a toy store. Due to the fact we have no specific current fabric needs and would be deliberately placing ourselves in the face of temptation to just check it out, we shifted gears and went to Old Navy for a specific purpose instead. It was fun. The only thing I bought was a pack of gum at a gas station convenience store, but my friend accomplished her mission. 

Motivation required to shop.

On the way back to my house, I stopped at Ocean State Job Lot because it was a location I hadn't visited. Most of the space in front of the store is a construction zone with diggers and pipes. A piece of plywood with "walkway" in orange spray paint noted the dirt path fenced off around the worksite. It required some motivation to get into the store but I had already made my choice when I parked the car and I was going in. 

Once inside, no cart or hand basket was taken (deliberately). If I could carry it, I could buy it, otherwise, tough luck. It wasn't long before I was at maximum capacity with a bottle of olive oil, large jar of chopped garlic, box of hearts of palm pasta, a greeting card, and two bottles of nail polish. The shopping was done. 

Roadside scenery while in traffic.

There was traffic on Route 2A due to a train stopped across the road. Several cars bailed out of the line to turn back and I had the chance to take a side street and backtrack towards Aldi, but I've been there too much lately and chose to wait it out. There were colored leaves along the roadside and across whatever body of water was to the right. The end of the train was visible through the trees. After about eight minutes, the train resumed its passage through the crossing, the lights stopped flashing, the gates raised up and we were free. 

The afternoon was occupied with revising the Halloween dance costume chosen yesterday after waking up today with "pirate" on the brain. There was a search for the skull and bones bandana, mesh sleeves printed like tattoos, and the stripey shirt. The sleeves were not located and the idea shifted again. It could shift again tomorrow. So far, it's been several hours of mental labor on a costume for a 15 minute performance, but mostly because work expands to fill the time allotted.

We had a rehearsal tonight and it was good. We shimmied, marked placements, checked costumes, and we are set for tomorrow.  It was a nice change to the usual schedule.  On Sunday, we begin work to polish the November 2 showcase performance. My niece arrives tomorrow for a visit, so the next few weeks will have some fun family time.