Man On The Moon Stamp

   In the evening I decided to spend some time applying the stamps to a throwaway page. One of these was an airmail stamp that said 'First man on the moon'. Good or bad, it does make me think of an REM song, called 'Man on the moon'. I liked how there weren't many duplicates from this set I had just found, and I got most of them onto one page- over 40 in all. There are just three envelopes left- and one of these had German stamps on it. Most were American, and three were from Canada. Some of these I have acquired happen to be from E-bay orders. This is due to ordering mostly postcards which are sent in your typical envelope. Some of these I still see at work when there's something like contracts mailed in an envelope that isn't a Fed-Ex package, usually a single contract.
    Some were animated Christmas stamps, a series of four- Santa, then reindeer. Two were of Mary Cassatt paintings, to go with those I had already applied to one of two sheets from earlier. One is a makeup stamp with Father Flanagan of 'Boys Town' fame. Another is of President Harry Truman, and other are of entertainers like Audrey Hepburn and Roy Acuff. There's football player Bronko Nagurski, to go with Ernie Nevers from earlier. Also Houdini the magician, and Claire Chennault of the 1940s 'Flying Tigers'. The theater guy had spoken of Chennault. One is of Stand Watie, and I had just looked at a page advertising Civil War stamps that said he fought on the Confederate side of the war. I don't know much about him.
    The frog stamp makes me think of  'The Simpsons' episode I saw tonight after eating at Genghis Khan Grill with my date, as a 'Frog plague' was what brought Rev. Lovejoy back to the church. Apparently Homer became a deacon despite hating the church, upstaging Flanders. We joined it in progress, missing about half of it. We didn't do much today, reading the paper and walking the dog were notable things along with trying to plan out the summer as best as possible. It helped to look at the St. Paul Saints promotional schedule, but things are subject to change as we haven't bought many event tickets yet.

Kennedy Photo

    I was looking through a box of maps and tourist brochures this morning and found a photo of President Kennedy inside an envelope. I recalled getting it at the state fair a few years back, 2008 as I recall, since it was the night I wanted to see the Brandi Carlile free concert. The envelope said something about the Lincoln/Kennedy parallels, something I've heard about many times before.
    The JFK photo was one of about ten postcards that I decided to get into an album. Many of the others were movie lobby cards, especially the arthouse movies at the Lagoon in Minneapolis like 'Food, Inc.' Another thing I liked finding was more postage stamps. These were from when I handled mail when working in suburban Chicago, already nearly ten years ago now. There are about 30 envelopes, a few are duplicates but not many at first look. One was from Canada. I will have to look at the ones I have already added to some sheets to see if they duplicate them, but again it is probably not too many.  
   I went to see the Civil War exhibit at the state's museum in St. Paul with my date, in the mid- afternoon. I got a book of 30 postcards at one of the gift shops after seeing the exhibit. I had hoped to get one of the museum itself, at the other gift shop, but we ran out of time. I didn't get many pictures there, but one of them was of the Confederate flag that Virginia wants back. It was captured at the Gettysburg battle, and has received media attention already. In the evening we stayed in and watched a video, 'Sweet November', starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves.  

Post Office Grand Opening

    I went to the grand opening event at the post office in downtown St. Paul earlier today. There were some who spoke of the mayor being there by the time I arrived. It didn't surprise me much how the mayor wasn't there for long, likely has a busy schedule. I know that politicians like being part of openings, since it usually means a ribbon cutting ceremony and photo ops. I liked having the cake and punch. There were some free items as well- a newsletter with a word find, and a coloring book. I noticed the copyright date on the coloring book- 2006- and it explained why there were images of postage stamps for 39 cents instead of the current 'forever' stamps. It had 'the largest' of most everything, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the American Bison.
  I hadn't heard of grand openings for post offices before, likely since they are rare. So it was nice to be a part of one. I knew this one happened because it replaced two downtown locations. One closed in February and the other in March. This one is more accessible by the skyway system.
  Memorable was one of the attendees. She was an older woman that recited a rhyme, 'If the husband is cross, then pick up a broom and show you're the boss'. She later spoke of injuring her leg at age 6 when landing on a coffee can, while playing with a cocker spaniel dog named Blackie. She claims it has led to 80 stitches still inside of her.
   I made it to The Turkeys comedy show tonight in Minneapolis, and I did see the skit I am in. I also showed a friend the button I was wearing, saying 'Don't let the turkeys get you down'. He called it 'thematic'.  

Pedestrian Student

    I was walking in the skyway in downtown St. Paul and noticed somebody with a people counter near a bank entrance. His nametag said 'Pedestrian Student'. First time I think I've seen this and I've worked downtown for a while. In the morning I am sure he counted me twice, on the way to a food court and on the way back from it. I like reading the 'Community paper' if it's there. Read it, and then leave it behind for the next person. Then there would have been a third time that I was counted today, when I was going to lunch.
   I had two meetings today, which is not typical. Especially when at the start of the day my online calendar had just one on it. But I saw a colleague in the morning and was asked if I was attending a certain meeting, my response was I didn't know there was one. It was the Communications Council, an advisory board I had applied for. I am thrilled that I was finally picked for something again! It was my second attempt to join this organization. This meeting was just before lunchtime. The second was in the afternoon, and lasted much longer at two hours. But it was an 'All-employee meeting' and we don't have these too often. When it wrapped up it was time to leave for the day.
   At lunchtime I noticed how my lunch bag was getting torn so I started ripping it some more, as some of it was made of thin plastic which is easily torn. I had another one given by the company, so there was a simple (read:free) replacement available. It says 'Health coach' on it and gives a toll-free number to call, but I haven't called the number yet.
   From time to time I do order items from E-bay. I bid on a real photo postcard of Emerson Hough School but was outbid. I even bid higher than I typically do for a postcard, to no avail. I then decided to order some other postcards of my hometown, from a series I've been slowly adding to. I haven't bought one of these 'Real photo' postcards before but I know the listings suggest they are often old. For this reason, I would expect that they are more in demand due to being rare. It did prompt me to look at what is on Delcampe, another online auction site, but I've ordered from them just once- when I couldn't find some postcards I wanted when looking for them on E-bay.

Neighborhood of Make Believe

   I went to the Valley Meadows comedy show at Camp Bar in downtown St. Paul tonight. It was a fun show as usual, much of the material covered was on the CD I had bought earlier. There were other performers besides the headliners, and I knew all of them. One did his routine like he was singing the blues. I know him as the one that usually speaks of the venue and day of the week at the start of each set. Another spoke of photo shopping herself into various pictures of famous people. Then there was the show runner from another club, who gave me a shout out and I enjoy them as usual. He made a reference to 'Mr. Rogers Neighborhood' that he had to explain to me after the show. All I know was he said something about a cat when during the shout out, so I continued the bit and meowed. Found out this was from 'The neighborhood of make believe', which I do recall a little. My greatest memory now is seeing a display about the show at the Pittsburgh Airport as the show was produced in Pittsburgh.
  Another thing I liked about this show was seeing and hearing plenty of music in the bar section, the show was in the 'cabaret' section. The music was on the TV monitors. The first was 'Scar' by Missy Higgins, an Australian that I hadn't heard of before. Next was 'What's the frequency Kenneth' by REM, a reminder of being in college. I do have the album it is on, called 'Monster'. After the show it was 'All the right moves' by One Republic. The video was memorable as it showed couples dancing in formal outfits, must have been ballroom dancing.
   In many ways what a college roommate had said before seems to hold true about comedy. I have comedian friends because I come to their shows and laugh. One of the performers after the show said they liked seeing me as some responded to the Facebook invite but didn't show up. Well I said my word means everything to me. So when I say on Facebook that I am attending a show, I usually do. I like getting show invites and it keeps track of the schedule really well for me.
   This morning on the way to work I said 'You'll make it' to a woman in the elevator as she had just sighed. I said I try to encourage people as I would have liked this when I was younger. She seemed to like it, so I liked knowing it was effective on some level.

Hotels.com Loyalty Program

    I decided to look at some information I had on a contest sponsored by Hotels dot-com. There was mention of a loyalty program, so I had to see if I was a part of it already. All I knew was that I needed a password reset on my account. After this was done, it looked like I wasn't a part of the program so I signed up for it. Members get a free night after booking 10 nights. Now it means finding out if there is a membership card as I have one for all of the other loyalty programs.
   I had some popcorn at Candyland at lunchtime. While there I heard the song 'Girl, you'll be a woman soon'. I don't know what version it was but it didn't sound like the one by Urge Overkill, which was in the movie 'Pulp Fiction'. The Wikipedia article said it had been covered multiple times, and was first done by Neil Diamond.
   I did attend the contest at the comedy club tonight. Before I made it to my seat I gave a mailing tube to the show runner as I know he likes having these for his pet hedgehog. Much like last week, I knew some of the comics but not all of them. I knew two of the three that advanced. The rapping comic did not advance, but the show runner said the scores were very close. Many of the jokes were ones I had heard before. After I was at the show I watched a syndicated rerun of 'The Simpsons', it was one that I hadn't seen before. It was where Mr. Burns announced he was dying, then he hides out in Bart's room. It was a parody of 'ET'.  Before the comedy show, 'Big Bang Theory' was about Penny telling Sheldon what a tie on the door meant, as Leonard was playing stringed instruments with Leslie.

'Feel This Moment' Song

    When I was driving back from the comedy club tonight I heard a catchy song on my car radio. It was 'Feel This Moment' by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera. I like the reference to pro football in it, 'Undefeated like Shula', referring to Don Shula, coach of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. It was no surprise to hear a Miami reference, since Pitbull often refers to his hometown. I think he has also mentioned the area code for the city- 305- in his songs as well. Not much different from Eminem referring to the '313', which is Detroit's area code.
   This was a longer drive home than typical, by personal choice. With the winter weather, rain mixed with snow, I didn't want to take chances so it meant staying off the interstate. Another song I heard during this drive was 'This Love' by Maroon 5, a nice reminder of how I've progressed in my life. It was the song I heard shortly after I was laid off from my job in suburban Chicago, and I understood it after a while to be a beginning and not an end.
   I did hear some comics try out jokes about the Boston Marathon. But this is still a subject that I have a hard time laughing about. One of these jokes was about carrying a backpack into a Cracker Barrel restaurant, and another patron asking what was inside. With any big news story, I know well enough to expect to hear some jokes about it. But I prefer to avoid telling those jokes myself, as my routine is usually not about news stories and world events but about my own life.