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Adventures at Target

Shelly

I had to make a Target run, and since I’m cat sitting and have to do that right after work, my usual shopping time slot was taken up. Instead, I went at 8pm. I am a morning shopper, not a nighttime one, so it was an interesting experience, because it was an entirely different sort of crowd.

First, there was a group of teenage boys milling about in the tampon aisle (guess what was at the top of my shopping list?). WTF? I kept checking back periodically–even if I’d wanted to wade through them to get to the Tampax, I couldn’t have because they were blocking the whole aisle–but 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes later, they were still there. Again, WTF?!

So I did my other shopping while I was waiting for the boys to move along. I kept crossing paths with a mother and young boy. In the ice cream aisle, she patiently explained to him that no, they couldn’t buy any treats, because she didn’t have enough money, but she would in TWO DAYS, so he’d have to wait until then. He put the box of ice cream sandwiches back and followed his mom into another aisle. I felt badly for them both. Being poor sucks.

I met up with them again in another part of the store, and he was asking over and over and over and over again, with the same intonation every time, “Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this?” Each time, he picked up something different. Mom totally ignored him. And you know what, sometimes ignoring your kid is the right thing to do. He wasn’t misbehaving in any way. He just wanted a something, which he couldn’t have. What else are you going to do, as a parent? Press the issue and turn his obsessive request-O-rama into a temper tantrum?

Finally, after I finished all my other shopping, the boys had vacated the tampon aisle. I went to get my Tampax and saw that the condom display was next to the pads. Ah! That’s what they were doing. Good for them!

At the checkout, I was behind the mother and boy. While she was paying, he was over at the cold drink case, asking “Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this? Mom can I get this?” After she paid, she called him and they left. The cashier turned and looked at me, a little bug-eyed. Imagine how the kid’s mom felt!

Crankypantsing, My Garden, Photography

Making Lemonade

Shelly

2IMG_2272

Some assberet stole some of the flower pots off my patio late last night. That would have been annoying enough, but he also dumped the dirt out of them and made an unholy mess. There are piles of dirt everywhere. One of the plants had become pot-bound though, and the dirt came out in one large chunk, complete with a tracery of roots around the outer edges. It’s kind of pretty.

The thief pretty much has to be someone from this apartment complex, because my patio can’t be seen from the street or sidewalk. The only people who would have known there were flower pots there would have been people who live here, because the only foot traffic along the back of the buildings is from residents walking their dogs. Nice to know that one of my neighbors is not only a thief but a slob, too. The least he could have done was dump the dirt under the tree or in the thicket, instead of throwing it all over my patio.

Art

The Cardinal’s Portrait

Shelly

The Cardinal's Portrait
The Cardinal’s Portrait (1896), by Toby Rosenthal

I grew up with this print. I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t in my family. My mom gave it to me a few years back, but I’ve never really had a good place to hang it, so it’s been sitting in the back of my studio closet. I finally decided I didn’t care if it went with anything else in my apartment. I dug it out of the closet and hung it in the living room. Now I just need to polish the frame, because it’s in pretty sad shape.

As I was looking online for any additional info on the original (there isn’t much), I kept running into message board posts from people who said they had the original. They’d been given it, inherited it, or had found it at a yard sale. I’m pretty sure there’s just one version of the painting and that what those folks have are prints. Logic, people! When I worked at the art museum, there was a steady stream of folks who had found some “treasure” and wanted to know if it was a long-lost original SOMETHING.

Genealogy, Photography

Grandma and Grandpa

Shelly

Negative-88

This photo was a bit of a salvage effort. The negative is pitch black, and even when I held it up to a bright light, I couldn’t tell if there was actually an image on it. I scanned it anyway, but the scan was black, too. I was able to bring up the image in Photoshop, but I had to make such extreme adjustments that the image quality suffered. Sometimes a bad photo is better than no photo at all, though, and I think this is one of those times. I love the way grandma is leaning over and rubbing grandpa’s head.

This was taken on their honeymoon, I believe.