Sunday, July 19, 1998

        This morning, in a fit of excess energy, I cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned the bathroom, and cleaned out my Netscape bookmarks. I want to upload them to my website so that I can access them from my computer at work in case I need to find some Javascript or something, and they were in pretty sad shape. Well, actually, they were organized pretty well but the list was extremely long, and there were a lot of things in there that I hadn't accessed for years. I did like you're supposed to do when you clean out closets--if you haven't worn it in six months, throw it out.

Do I look like a Highway Patrolman?

        While I was looking through the paper this morning, I saw an ad for Kohl's with some nice looking sandals on sale, so after my cleaning binge I went out there. Pretty much everything in the store was on sale and I ended up buying a pair of sandals, some underwear, new sunglasses (aviators!), a golf shirt and a tie for Bob, and a plastic footstool to sit in front of my patio chair so I can put my feet up. I realized as I was leaving the store that what it really is is the bottom half of a plastic Adirondack chair, the upper half of which was more than I was prepared to spend today, and we really don't have room for another chair out there anyway. I'll try it and see if it works out okay, and if not, I'll take it back.

Pyewacket likes the box.

        I'm feeling a little bit like I used to feel before the first day of school. I always liked that feeling, sort of anxious to get back and get started, a little bit of a sad feeling for the summer ending, but more of a looking forward. I always loved preparing for school, too--taking the mimeographed list of school supplies to the dime store and buying pencils and tablets and glue, rulers, erasers, pencil sharpeners. None of it really exciting stuff, and pretty much the same things from year to year, but it was nice having brand-new things--crayons without their tops colored off, and brand new pink erasers.

        Those thoughts just came to me this weekend while I was putting together the day planner pages, copying phone numbers over from the old one onto the new phone/address sheets, and even more today while I was out buying new underwear and shoes. Weekends are always a little bit like that for me, anyway, getting ready to go back to work after just a couple of days, making lists of things like:

• Fill up aspirin bottle
• Clean out purse
• Put hand lotion in bag
• Stamps!
• Mail bills
• Take checkbook
• Get cash for lunch

        I've always been silly about being completely prepared for things. It's not as though I'm leaving the country, or even going away to school. I'm just driving across town to a new job, but that's a fairly remarkable experience for me. I wonder if Bob would take a picture of me as I drive away . . . Remember those "first day of school" pictures? Mine is a movie--me standing in the driveway, my hair in a ponytail, brushed until it gleamed, wearing a little dress with a full skirt and starchy petticoats so that it stood out on the sides, white socks and black patent leather shoes with a strap across the top.

        I remember arranging everything in one of those cardboard school boxes, like a cigar box but printed with school buses and things like that. I still have one in the basement, I think. It's full of View Master reels now, but I can remember when it was full of pencils and erasers and the various implements of school days. Speaking of View Masters, I really used to love those. I can remember spending hours poring over the lists of available reels that came in the package and making lists of the ones I wanted to buy.

        I remember being particularly enamoured of the ones depicting British scenes. I had one about Madame Tussaud's wax museum that I found especially fascinating. And "Heidi" was another favorite. I hadn't thought about those in years. Maybe I'll go downstairs and dig them out. I imagine the View Master viewers are probably electric by now . . .