dianaschnuth

Last weekend, Aaron and I had an agenda. We were going to peruse the monthly flea market at the Wood County Fairgrounds in Bowling Green, hit the BG Goodwill while we were in town, and drive through downtown to see what’s left of our old familiar haunts. After that, I thought maybe we’d hit Levis Commons (one of those outdoor malls) in Perrysburg on the way home.

We decided to eat lunch in BG, which went well; we tried the Old Town Buffet, a newer Chinese buffet on N. Main Street. They had different food than we were used to getting at a Chinese buffet, which was good — kept things interesting. Plus, they had good (if tame) sushi, and were reasonably priced. And I was good and only ate one plate of food, plus a little dessert. Score one for our BG trip.

The flea market was at least something to do, and someplace to walk around. There wasn’t anything we were interested in actually buying, but some of the stuff was fun to look at. That, plus it’s always interesting to people-watch at the flea market. Our trip around the booths was short and sweet, and we were fairly ambivalent about it. Didn’t suck, but wasn’t great.

Same with Goodwill. Looked around everything except the clothes (which take up most of the newly renovated and expanded store). Noticed some overpriced video games and systems that we didn’t want. Left after our brief spin through the aisles.

After Goodwill, I let Aaron take me to that bastion of evildoing in retail, Wal-Mart, so he could see if they had any HD-DVDs on clearance. (Aaron, being the consumer of many dead media formats already, waited until HD-DVD was officially dead to purchase the HD add-on for his Xbox 360, thereby getting both the player and the movies at blowout prices.)

Of course, they didn’t have any.

Our BG trip was getting more and more dismal. No Madhatter to visit, no interest in book-shopping or coffee-drinking at Grounds, no interest in just walking around campus. On our way out of town, we drove past campus and ogled at the not-really-new wider streets and the quasi-new street signs and all the corporateness that has sprung up around campus (Starbucks, Chipotle, and the like). Then we hit the highway and headed toward home, by way of Perrysburg.

It was still a little chilly to be walking around outside, but we made the best of it. Sort of. We went into Lane Bryant first, and left without buying one item. All of their “spring fashions” looked like the 70s and the 80s had a fat baby — the blouses all flaunted the worst patterns possible, and I couldn’t find much of anything I would wear. Then we walked to Maggie Moo’s, the ice cream place, since we’d never been there — and, for once, we realized that ice cream really wasn’t calling to us. Then we stopped into J. Jill, just because I’d never been there before. At first, I thought I’d finally come home, because all the clothes looked like something I would wear; then I looked at the price tag on a particularly stylish skirt, and I promptly headed for the door after reading the $100 price tag. Somehow, we even managed to not really enjoy the bookstore: neither of us really had an agenda, and none of the magazines or manga or anything really caught our eye. So we just went home.

Well, that sucked.

Surprisingly enough, Sunday was a completely different story.

Aaron had heard that the Value City Department Store in Maumee was having a closing sale, and that the whole store was some ridiculous percentage off. He heard right, and we had a great time just browing the aisles for cheap awesomeness. We left Value City with a non-stick pan (from the collection of Rachael Ray), a decorative basket, a new purse for me, a pair of very thirsty and soft microfiber dishtowels, and three very awesome pairs of shoes for me, of which this is but one:

Our cashier was a character, and she topped off the whole experience by talking about how she’d heard about cooking cabbage and noodles for the first time that weekend, when someone else had bought a non-stick pan and told her that was what they were planning to make in said pan. This woman was an absolute hoot.

But the day kept going! After that, we swung past a gelato place for our first-ever taste of gelato (and, boy, was it yummy), followed by a trip two doors down to Avenue, where I bought myself the clothes I had been hoping to find at Lane Bryant the day before. I now have two more pairs of work/dress pants, a knit sweater, and a hooded spring jacket. Oh, and a nice lady in line behind me gave me a couple of coupons that saved me $17. Score!

So, last weekend was quite the odd dichotomy of suck and awesome. All in all, though, I think the awesome outweighed the suck.

Dear Joseph,

After having had some time to consider our random encounter this afternoon, I feel compelled to let you know that I’ll be standing you up on your fifty-second birthday (April 11). I will also make a point of staying away from the meeting spot you designated when my birthday rolls around (April 22). Please allow me to explain why.

Firstly: starting a conversation with, “You’re a pretty girl…” is generally considered creepy by girls everywhere, pretty or no. However, I was willing to engage in conversation with you simply because I’m not good at being rude and ignoring people. Plus, after your comment about how you’d like to grow your hair long like mine and bleach it blond, I thought our conversation would be harmless, brief, and amusing.

Secondly: handshakes are acceptable, even impressive. But please let go after said handshake. Talking at length whilst still holding the hand, then pulling the handshakee into a hug is generally considered improper when both parties are complete strangers. Above all, attempting to kiss a complete stranger on the mouth is highly improper, and attempting to tongue-kiss a stranger after she pushes away from your on-the-mouth kiss is grounds for a knee in the crotch. You should consider yourself ultimately lucky that all I did was give an emphatic “no” and push away.

Thirdly: Smelling like beer is not a good way to get to know a professional who happens to be on her lunch break, even if she has admitted to you that she likes to drink on occasion.

Fourthly: Declaring that you need a girlfriend and then asking your new acquaintance if she is single is not a particularly suave move. Upon her assertion that she is in fact NOT single, it is equally unsuave to answer that your new acquaintance’s significant other “doesn’t need to know.”

So, Joseph, I do apologize if I led you on, but I won’t be meeting you for either of our birthdays. In fact, I will likely take an alternate walking route on both of those days. If you ever attempt to touch me again, please be forewarned that I’ve promised my husband that I’ll call the cops on you.

Best of luck to you, and I hope your Mom and her new boyfriend are doing well.

Most Sincerely,
Diana (the girl with the long hair and the knit kitty hat)

There are things that must be done. I made myself dinner, and I have to wash the dinner dishes. I need to assemble tomorrow’s lunch. I really should look for the 401(k) rollover form from Sky Bank, since I’ll be taxed a jillion dollars or something if they end up cutting me a check directly.

Besides those things, though, I have no intention of being productive tonight. That includes blogging about my Chicago trip.

My brain won’t stop thinking about the server error message I got just before I left work today. I don’t know how I broke the dev server, and I don’t know how to fix it. I’m usually so good at not bringing work home with me; but tonight, it just won’t be denied.

I shouldn’t feel like I need a vacation already. Should I?