:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Saturday, September 04, 2004 ::

Augh. I need to update my blog.

Thursday:

After work, I walked downtown to Farmers Market! Three of my wonderful friends were there, and we walked up and down the street and had a wonderful time. I haven't been to Farmers Market in forever, and it was great to see so many people out and about. There was a decidedly political tone to it, though, this time. The SLO Democrats and the SLO Republicans were all out in full force, distributing bumper stickers and pins, and people were literally wearing their political affiliations on their sleeves. I had forgotten how Republican this county is. Sigh. There was even a letter to the editor in today's paper that said something to the extent of "Anyone who isn't a Republican is a traitor." Wow. I don't think this is the America our founding fathers envisioned. I should write something trite like "Dissent is patriotic," but I think we all know that already.

At Farmers Market, we ran into the most enthusiastic, hyper, and peppy person in the world. This short, chubby girl was selling what I presumed to be bootleg perfume and cologne in her backpack, and she walked (more like skipped) towards us on the street, and asked in a sing-songy, upbeat voice, "Get excited! What kind of cologne do you wear?" Because I didn't have much money to buy anything at that moment and also because I already had cologne that I rarely use already, I responded that I don't usually wear cologne, but she still handed me a little pink laminated card with a list of different colognes and perfumes that she was selling. She then pressed the question again, and I finally responded, "I sometimes use Kirra, from PacSun." She replied in such an excited tone: "Get excited! We don't have that, but we do have this brand by Clinique that smells really good!!!" And I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, maybe next time." The peppy young woman then asked, "Get excited!!! What perfume does your girlfriend wear?" And I said, "I don't have a girlfriend. It's tragic." Cologne girl then asked my friends what perfumes they wore, and my friends, probably scared to death by the saleswoman's overwhelming excitement for all things fragrant, didn't really say anything and sort of backed away. Sensing that we weren't going to buy her wares, the young lady then headed off, but not before saying, "Well, thank you, boss women and boss man!" She then bounded across the street to another group to peddle her cologne and perfume collection.

What a cool person! I want to be friends with her. She had such boundless energy and enthusiasm. If only I could have such excitement in my life! If I'm ever down or depressed, I want to visit her so she can tell me to "Get excited!!!" That would certainly cheer me up. What a phrase! She used it as some people would the ubiquitous "Cool!" or "Neat!" Her sales presentation really amused me. I hope I run into her next week if I go to Farmers Market.

Get excited!!!

We headed to *$ (Starbucks), conversed for a bit, and then we went to Barnes and Noble, where we looked through magazines, read from this book of bad doctor jokes, and interpreted our dreams from this book that was intensely Freudian and made everything in your dreams out to be a phallic symbol or some secret sexual desire. It was entertaining... waffles: sexual symbol; meat: sexual symbol; acorns: phallic symbol. Not a very flattering phallic symbol, I might add about the acorn.

After hanging out at Barnes and Noble, we stayed downtown, even though Farmers Market had ended and the streets were quiet, except for the quirky bicyclists who ride through town on the first Thursday night of each month after Farmers Market. We then decided to head over to my friend's house in LO-town, and we ended up watching the movie Mickey Blue Eyes with Hugh Grant. It had humorous moments, and it was nice that there was a happy ending.

I had a great time Thursday night. It was great to hang out and have a carefree time with just my friends again. Cologne girl was really cool, too. Get excited!!!

Friday:

I went to work early this morning, and I got a tip about local Red Cross workers who were going to Florida to help out with Hurricane Frances recovery efforts. I talked to a lot of people and wrote a huge long piece. Then, just moments before my deadline, I received a notice that representatives from another local organization was sending volunteers to Florida, so I had to do all this last-minute reporting and contact people in Florida and then incorporate that into my already-written story. I had to stay a bit overtime, but it was worth finishing this important story.

My sister was in SLO-town to see a movie with friends, so she stopped by The Tribune to pick me up. We went downtown where we met up with her friends, and we had some Pizza Solo. We then headed over to the theater. I wanted to respect my sister's time with her friends, so I decided to watch a different movie in the same theater complex. I watched "Garden State" (finally, after one of my friends has really pushed me to see the film), and my sister and her friends watched "Napoloeon Dynamite," a preview of which was shown before my film began. "Garden State" was a quirky and introspective movie. It had a lot of humorous moments, but it was a different type of humor than I've seen in movies. It was very unique. Natalie Portman's character in "Garden State" actually reminded me a lot of Kate Winslet's character in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Later on this night, I worked on my website The Disneyland Report - Disney News and Secrets for a long time because there was a lot of news about Michael Phelps and Disney's Swim with the Stars tour and news of Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Charley and Walt Disney World damage.

Saturday:

My story was on the front page of the paper today: SLO County helpers on storm duty.

I slept in this morning, and in the afternoon I watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because my parents had rented it earlier this week and were going to return it this evening. I also spent some time online.

Later tonight, I went to visit my friend in Los Osos. We went to visit one of our friends at *$ because she was working there. It was fun as we chatted with our friend as she closed shop and we played the card game "Ziggity" from the makers of the game Cranium.

We later headed back to my friend's house, where we watched DVDs and surfed random sites online. It was good times again. A fun Saturday night "pahty." Let's do it again!

Quote of the Day: "My stock is rising... Flash!"

:: SL 1:45 AM [+] ::
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