Rummaging, Visiting Greg, and Various Other Musings
So, here's what's been happening in my life:
On Thursday, my pal Laurie and I made one of our semi-annual rummage sale pilgrimages, this time to the big fall sale at Christ Church in Winnetka. As usual, it was quite crowded. I'm not really sure how much I spent, but not an inordinate amount. I don't think... The most expensive purchase was two yards of really fine upholstery material with fall leaves on it. I hope there is enough to recover the seats of my dining room chairs. We will see. If not, I can always just make a pile of pillows out of it. I also got a pair of Italian leather loafers, a dress with tiny houndstooth checks, a crocheted sweater, a couple of books, a pile of LPs (for the amusing cover art), a huge ceramic platter in a funky 50s shape and painted with stylized pine cones, a couple of heavy vaseline glass candy dishes, a souvenir cup and saucer from Catskill Game Farm (a place my family used to visit on our way up to visit my dad's sister's family, who lived in Scotia, New York), and what I thought was the grand prize--a huge black soft vinyl (quite leather-like) messenger bag from the Gap... for five bucks!
I've been looking for an outsized black leather bag--hobo-style, messenger-style, big-ass-tote-style--to replace my beloved old leather bookbag satchel that has seen better days. I was really chuffed about finding this bag, until I got it home and discovered it smelled as if it had been languishing in someone's basement--someone's very DAMP basement--for a decade or so. Which is probably exactly where it had been. So, after soliciting advice from a message board I frequent, I turned it inside out, sprayed it liberally with Lysol, and set it out on the balcony where it could bake in the unseasonably warm and bright sun predicted for the weekend.
Then Jeff and I started what we expected to be a two-and-a-half hour drive down to Normal to visit Greg.
A little more than FOUR HOURS later, we pulled into the parking lot of the Bloomington-Normal Holiday Inn Express.
It took us two-and-a-half hours just to travel the 60 miles or so from our door to Joliet, where we stopped for gas and some coffee. The rest of the trip was pretty much a breeze, but damn! There was some construction, but not so much that it should have made the Stevenson Expressway a parking lot at 2:30 in the afternoon. We thought we would avoid the rush hour... but I think the rush hour got moved up a bit due to the alleged three-day weekend (alleged, because we sure as hell never get Columbus Day off--but apparently others do). Sheesh!
Once we got to Normal, we had a lovely time. Greg gave us a tour of his frat house, brought us up to date on how his classes are going and his plans for summer school and/or interships, showed us how to play Guitar Hero (which, by the way, is really not much like playing an actual guitar)... we took him out to eat several times, shopped, and generally relaxed. I actually read more than a hundred pages in the Beatles biography, and I'm now up to the beginning of Beatlemania. Maybe I WILL finish it by the end of the year! Greg was a great host; we had a good time hanging out in the unseasonably nice (well, HOT) weather.
Other musings: Now that I'm reading about the Beatles (and this book is thorough--good grief, is it thorough!), I'm really jonesin' to hear some of the songs and tracks that are discussed. I put my Anthology 1 CDs in the listening queue in the car... and the cuts are very cool. But I also want to SEE the Beatles Anthology documentary as well. I hope it is on DVD... (although we tried to start Volver tonight, and for some reason the DVD player isn't talking to the TV. Merde.) AND I can't wait until Help! is finally available on DVD. I know it's kind of corny, but I have a soft spot for it: "Go to the window!" and "I wouldn't touch you with a plastic one" are old catch-phrases of mine.
Also, the black messenger bag seems much less musty now that it has basked in the Rogers Park sun for a while. It still doesn't smell like roses, but at least it is better. There is hope. Or maybe I should just bite the bullet and find a leathersmith who can copy it in nice, durable leather. 'Cause the beatings I give my carry-ons are truly ruthless.
Back to work in the morning--no Columbus Day, observed or otherwise, for us. Which is probably just as well. No offense to my Italian friends, but that guy wasn't a very nice man, all told. Still. If my employer offered me the day off with pay, I would not say no. So much for the strength of my convictions.
On Thursday, my pal Laurie and I made one of our semi-annual rummage sale pilgrimages, this time to the big fall sale at Christ Church in Winnetka. As usual, it was quite crowded. I'm not really sure how much I spent, but not an inordinate amount. I don't think... The most expensive purchase was two yards of really fine upholstery material with fall leaves on it. I hope there is enough to recover the seats of my dining room chairs. We will see. If not, I can always just make a pile of pillows out of it. I also got a pair of Italian leather loafers, a dress with tiny houndstooth checks, a crocheted sweater, a couple of books, a pile of LPs (for the amusing cover art), a huge ceramic platter in a funky 50s shape and painted with stylized pine cones, a couple of heavy vaseline glass candy dishes, a souvenir cup and saucer from Catskill Game Farm (a place my family used to visit on our way up to visit my dad's sister's family, who lived in Scotia, New York), and what I thought was the grand prize--a huge black soft vinyl (quite leather-like) messenger bag from the Gap... for five bucks!
I've been looking for an outsized black leather bag--hobo-style, messenger-style, big-ass-tote-style--to replace my beloved old leather bookbag satchel that has seen better days. I was really chuffed about finding this bag, until I got it home and discovered it smelled as if it had been languishing in someone's basement--someone's very DAMP basement--for a decade or so. Which is probably exactly where it had been. So, after soliciting advice from a message board I frequent, I turned it inside out, sprayed it liberally with Lysol, and set it out on the balcony where it could bake in the unseasonably warm and bright sun predicted for the weekend.
Then Jeff and I started what we expected to be a two-and-a-half hour drive down to Normal to visit Greg.
A little more than FOUR HOURS later, we pulled into the parking lot of the Bloomington-Normal Holiday Inn Express.
It took us two-and-a-half hours just to travel the 60 miles or so from our door to Joliet, where we stopped for gas and some coffee. The rest of the trip was pretty much a breeze, but damn! There was some construction, but not so much that it should have made the Stevenson Expressway a parking lot at 2:30 in the afternoon. We thought we would avoid the rush hour... but I think the rush hour got moved up a bit due to the alleged three-day weekend (alleged, because we sure as hell never get Columbus Day off--but apparently others do). Sheesh!
Once we got to Normal, we had a lovely time. Greg gave us a tour of his frat house, brought us up to date on how his classes are going and his plans for summer school and/or interships, showed us how to play Guitar Hero (which, by the way, is really not much like playing an actual guitar)... we took him out to eat several times, shopped, and generally relaxed. I actually read more than a hundred pages in the Beatles biography, and I'm now up to the beginning of Beatlemania. Maybe I WILL finish it by the end of the year! Greg was a great host; we had a good time hanging out in the unseasonably nice (well, HOT) weather.
Other musings: Now that I'm reading about the Beatles (and this book is thorough--good grief, is it thorough!), I'm really jonesin' to hear some of the songs and tracks that are discussed. I put my Anthology 1 CDs in the listening queue in the car... and the cuts are very cool. But I also want to SEE the Beatles Anthology documentary as well. I hope it is on DVD... (although we tried to start Volver tonight, and for some reason the DVD player isn't talking to the TV. Merde.) AND I can't wait until Help! is finally available on DVD. I know it's kind of corny, but I have a soft spot for it: "Go to the window!" and "I wouldn't touch you with a plastic one" are old catch-phrases of mine.
Also, the black messenger bag seems much less musty now that it has basked in the Rogers Park sun for a while. It still doesn't smell like roses, but at least it is better. There is hope. Or maybe I should just bite the bullet and find a leathersmith who can copy it in nice, durable leather. 'Cause the beatings I give my carry-ons are truly ruthless.
Back to work in the morning--no Columbus Day, observed or otherwise, for us. Which is probably just as well. No offense to my Italian friends, but that guy wasn't a very nice man, all told. Still. If my employer offered me the day off with pay, I would not say no. So much for the strength of my convictions.
Labels: Beatles, Chicago, Greg, Normal, Rummage sales, traffic woes
posted by Cathy VanPatten at 7:26 PM
5 Comments:
Hee hee hee! I DO have Columbus Day off, one of the very few perks of being a federal employee. Of course, come Tuesday we'll have to work twice as hard to catch up, but, well, them's the breaks.
Lysol & UV--a couple of applications--should make the bag tolerable.
So...Fall Foliage Festival in 90 deg. weather: what's yer battle plan? I'm taking Fri. off and am currently debating coming to the 'boro that afternoon or waiting till Sat. morning. What's your schedule like?
Do I need to go back to that message board (assuming it's the one I used to frequent, too) once in a while? Not that I could have helped you with the smelly-leather-bag issue. My message boards keep fracturing into further message boards, and I'm tired of all the trotting between boards... *sigh* Are things better over there (all those annoying technical problems)?
Sounds like you found some amazing buys at that sale! I keep meaning to find cool sales like that. We drove by a church on Saturday that had a fall festival and craft show going on, and I would have liked to stop, but we had a schedule to keep.
I have that Beatles Anthology album. I have to confess that I don't really *get* it. Was I born too late? (That's really not meant to be an obnoxious question!)
Hey, GW and ewok!
GW--I'll be coming into the big W late on Thursday (weather and airline scheduling willing), and I don't have any firm plans for the art show yet... so whatever works for you! According to weather.com, the weekend should be more seasonal (in the 60s). So at least we won't have to fight heat exhaustion as well as crowds!
ewok--My pal Laurie is the rummage sale maven. She turned me on to the two big Winnetka sales (fall and spring) when I first moved to Chicago, and we've been trying to make them ever since. We have a pretty good track record! The great thing about the Winnetka sales is that the community is quite affluent, so there are real treasures lurking in the merchandise.
The bugs on the message board seem to be worked out (or maybe I've just gotten so used to them that I don't notice anymore...). They do seem to go down for maintenance a fair amount still, but not as much as at the beginning of the "pluck" era. It looks as if sig has been banned, though, and there's been no sign of Vulcat for weeks. That has brought the general tone of MBS and GD boards up a bit, although without the attendant controversies, the boards are slower as well. Please do drop by! We'd love to have you back!
Oh, and regarding the Beatles--it might be a "born at the right moment" thing, although my stepkids are both Beatles fans (but not the raging Beatles fan that I and several of my compatriots through the years are).
My guess is that the Anthology collections are best for those of us with chronic Beatlemania. The *original* albums are probably your best bet for general listening. My faves (all British releases, although I'm not sure if the U.S. releases were ever put out on CD) are A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver... although back in the day I found Magical Mystery Tour to be wondrously groovy, man. And, aside from the music, there was the sheer attraction of, well, THEM. Swoon.
Speaking of the Beatles, check this out:
All the Beatles' UK albums sped up 800% into a 1 hour MP3
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