Wordy for a Friday Night

I was in Danvers recently (hello, Savers) and learned something exciting: there's going to be a Container Store opening there next month! I love the Container Store, with all its neat organizer-y-things, and the nearest one to me until now has been in Chestnut Hill, which isn't really that convenient. I don't live in or right near Danvers, but it's closer, and that makes me happy. Container Store added to the proximate grouping of Savers, the Used Book Superstore, and Ocean State Job Lot can only be more fun.

Speaking of next month, that would be October, and you know what that means: Apple Festival and Rhinebeck. Yay! Remember back in January (of course you do), when I realized that Apple Festival and Rhinebeck have a buffer weekend this year? Well, now that I am in another new job, and have limited vacation time again, I'm even happier about that than I was. I am going to take one day off for the Fest weekend*, and maybe I'll come in to work later on that Monday morning after Rhinebeck (another hour or two of sleep could make a big difference), but it's the peaceful weekend in between that will help the most. I've put a big note on my calendar: MAKE NO PLANS. Not that I won't do anything at all, but mental health requires that I schedule very very little.
*But man, I wish I got Columbus Day as a holiday. It's been a few years since I worked for a company that gave that one.

While I was at the calendar, I noticed something left over from that last job: the late-night coverage schedule. Wow, I don't miss THAT. (I bet you don't miss me complaining about it, either.)

And speaking of complaining, get ready for a big one. Those of you who aren't hockey fans may not be aware that the NHL is verging on another lockout. The third in less than 20 years! Ridiculous. If the two sides don't come to an accord by Saturday, September 15th, then all bets are off as to when play will resume. Later this calendar year? Later this season? Maybe, maybe not. And the odds of them reaching agreement before then are roughly the same as that of the ice cube in your drink starting the next ice age.

The prospect is, as you might imagine, very painful for me to face. Just today, looking at my calendar, I deleted the note about the Bruins rookie camp that was supposed to start next weekend. I couldn't bring myself to delete the reminder for full camp a week later; even though I'm pretty certain it will go, it isn't official yet, and removing it now seems like giving up hope, even if it's hope I don't really have. Nonsensical, I know.

And whose fault is it? Honestly, I hate and blame both sides in this. Millionaires and multimillionaires squabbling over who gets the bigger share of the pie, grandstanding and firing salvos in the media instead of seriously sitting down and working things out. Everyone knew this deadline was coming, has known for years (since the last lockout, duh), and there has been plenty of time to work it out. Leaving it to the final week (even were they to get it done then) is childish.

And who really suffers? While I admit the possibility that lower-paid fringe players could suffer, and players in other leagues who lose their jobs to roving NHL players could certainly suffer (not something I'd thought about before reading this article), and maybe even owners in weaker markets (though don't they claim they're losing money anyway?), it's all the people on the periphery of the game that I really feel for. The front-office staff and scouts (some of whom will lose their jobs); the announcers and their behind-the-scenes people; the people who work in the stadiums, ushers and concessionaires and security; anyone with a restaurant or bar near a stadium. The ripples go out all over: want to bet some equipment manufacturers aren't going to have layoffs, down the line? That's a lot of sticks that won't be breaking, a lot of pucks that won't fly up into the crowd. I'm going to be very unhappy, don't get me wrong, and will be whining and moaning about it, and more so the longer we go without hockey, but in my more rational moments, it isn't me I'm the most sorry for: it isn't affecting my livelihood.

On the plus side (I'm reaching here), no hockey to watch will leave me with a lot of free time. I've been working on getting rid of some (though not all) of my videocassettes, having realized recently that I have a lot of movies on video that, while they're good movies, are not movies I ever seem to want to watch, and honestly they take up a fair bit of space that I could use better. I don't want to get rid of the VCR, I'm not there yet, but I can get rid of some of the shelf-stealing tapes. I probably took the first baby step toward this a few years back, when I replaced my 6-tape set of the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series with the 2-DVD set. Do that a few times, and it adds up. I recently had a 50-dollar gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and I got no less than six DVDs that I really wanted.

A rather random assortment, eh? Some I hadn't owned on tape, some I had, including a much better replacement for Persuasion. I still remember getting the video (it's on the left in the photo below) and thinking for a moment that I'd gotten the wrong one, because who is that on the cover? Who are those people? They're not in the movie I wanted!

And actually, they're not. For some reason, the company thought it would sell better that way, I guess, though it's really misleading. And I'd hate to hear what Anne Elliot thought of that décolletage! The photo on the DVD cover is by far the most risque moment of the movie, and there's no plunging neckline or neck nibbling involved. Whew.

Speaking of Jane Austen, by the way, I was reading a report at work recently that was talking about how a new drug, if launched, will impact the market, and I finally realized what it was reminding me of: in Pride and Prejudice, where Lady Catherine speaks complacently about how her daughter would have been a proficient musician, if she had learned.

Beyond movies to fill my time, there's Doctor Who. I'm finally catching up again, and am now watching the Matt Smith years for the first time. Like the way I reacted to David Tennant, I didn't much like Matt Smith to begin with, basically because he's different (you've probably picked up on the fact that I'm almost never happy about change). And did they have to change the music and look of the intro at the same time? Ugh. Now that I'm getting used to him, I like him better, but I don't think Christopher Eccleston will be dethroned from my Preferred Doctor list any time soon. I do like Amy, and Rory, though it's challenging to avoid current-day news that is a spoiler to me (since I'm a few years behind). Thanks to the library, I'll get caught up in a while.

All right! I think that's all for tonight. I'd say it's enough, wouldn't you? Happy weekend!