Subway District Manager

      I had a half day at work due to the office closing early for the holiday. I ate lunch near the office, at a Subway. In the booth next to me was an older woman who was eating ice cream. A man came in and said to her he was a district manager and said she needed to order Subway food. With situations like this, I figure it is best to just observe and not get involved. She ended up ordering a salad and a drink. When she got back to the booth she dropped things down hard. I know I've seen people ejected from comedy clubs for heckling and being drunk, but I don't know how often I've seen somebody ejected for loitering. In both cases I am sure they don't enjoy it but will do so if need be. I was nearly finished with my food and drink by then. 
   I found a comedy show to attend tonight, same venue where I was at for New Year's Eve as last year. There was champagne for the countdown to midnight. One fellow comic did a camera phone picture of the two of us, looking forward to seeing it on Facebook. He does the 'Tony the Tiger on downers' joke about how cold it is in winter. Another comic looked like the lead character from the movie 'Anchorman 2' though he said he wasn't going for this look. But he did have the suit and mustache. The one good thing about showing up early was having more time to talk to the comics. With the anchorman look-alike, he said he attended 15 different schools. What I mainly recalled before was how he sometimes liked to wear a Black Flag hat, a music group. Another thing to do was check the TV monitors on the upper level, the Chick-Fil-A (f/k/a Peach) bowl was on, Duke vs. Texas A and M. According to my car radio Texas A and M came from behind to win it.
    I did say what I meant, how there was no other place I'd rather be than with my comedian friends. It did make me think of what I have done previously on New Year's Eve. At work the one I mentioned was attending a Barenaked Ladies concert when I lived in suburban Chicago. It purposely started late so the band would be onstage at midnight. Others would be my final one in Illinois a few years later. Much like four years after it, I had no idea what the year had in store for me. With one it was moving to the Twin Cities, with the other it was starting comedy. I am hopeful that it will be more of the same. I said I may have ended a relationship in August, but I think I will get to move onto bigger and better things soon. The responses I am getting on E-harmony sure suggest this. There may not have been any kisses for me at midnight, but I liked getting handshakes and hugs from a few people. This still works for me.

Brooklyn Football Jersey

      I called the History Book Club and was told I could send back the books just by writing 'Refused' and 'Return to sender' on the box as I hadn't opened it yet. So I did so at the post office near my office. When I was in line I was next to somebody who had a leather NHL organizer. At first I expected the jersey with him to be hockey as well, but found out it was football. He said it was for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the now-defunct AAFC. This league merged with the NFL in the 1950s and some of their teams survived the merger, like the San Francisco 49ers. I briefly got a look at the jersey before I was called and I think the uniform number was 48, it was white with blue letters. He said it had to say 'Brooklyn Football' as the baseball team in Los Angeles didn't allow the 'Dodgers' name to be used on it. This did remind me of how I am familiar with some of the intellectual property laws, or lack thereof. I am familiar with how some songs are basically the same, likely since those intellectual property laws didn't exist then. This includes how 'Green sleeves' and 'What child is this' are the same song, or even 'God save the Queen' and 'My country tis of thee' are also the same song.
    At the comedy club tonight, two comics ran the light, and I didn't have any heartburn about it as I didn't think either of them was funny. The first one was wearing a weird red helmet. I liked how one comic did the IED/IUD joke. The 'Extra murder' comic did the one about the teacher being unable to say 'Washington' correctly. I did say to the neck tattoo comic how I'd like to do the 'Ring of honor' photo soon. He was onstage tonight, but really didn't have the time tonight.

Right Hand Glove

   I went to a friend's comedy show tonight and decided to take the light rail into Minneapolis for it. After the show I lucked out how the train was stopped waiting for another operator. I saw two empty juice bottles to throw out at my stop. I also saw a right- hand glove on the floor, but I didn't pick it up. All I thought was somebody probably misses it, especially on a subzero night like this. It was a good show, I got a seat in 'The front row', said it just like the old Miller Lite commercials with Bob Uecker. It was The Turkeys, plenty of new material, though the 'Leon' skit was not new, where my 'Bestie' was shot at the end, like the movie 'Old Yeller'.
  I tried watching pro football today but fell asleep near the end of the Vikings-Lions game, the final one in the Metrodome. This also happened with the later game, Bears-Packers, Bears lost 33-28. I got my laundry done in the morning before the games started.
   Another notable thing was plenty of activity with the Internet dating. I am trying to get some more dates set up soon. I guess since the holidays are winding down people are less busy. One of these was truly addition by subtraction. I got a profuse apology from one match, hearing 'I'm sorry' twice- through the Internet dating website, not my phone- for not returning my call. I was told it was fine to call when working, but I really don't want to call someone at work as I wouldn't want them to call me while I am working. I got voicemail a third time and said I'm no longer interested as I could tell how I'm not high enough on this match's priority list. I know there will be others, so I don't shed any tears for those who fall victim to 'Lack of effort'. I prefer waiting to decide until I meet matches in person, but this isn't the first time where I got tired of hearing excuses before an in-person meeting.  

Olympic Hockey Warmup

    This afternoon I went to the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul and saw a hockey game, it was a warm-up for the Olympic Games. It was my first-ever women's hockey game, the US team was playing the Canada team. The US team won, but it went to a shootout, with the US getting the only goal in the shootout.  The US team had a goal midway through the first, and at the end of the second. The Canada team tied it 2-2 with goals about a minute apart midway through the third. It was shortly after a coincidental minor penalty happened, and then the tying goal was on a power play. I bought a program during the first intermission, after asking another fan where they found one. The team picture had all of the players in uniform, but the individual pictures had them in street clothes. Just under half of them were wearing dresses or skirts. I guess this kind proves that sex sells, even in hockey.
    There was some errand running to do before and after the game. I went to the Best Buy in Roseville to pay on my account, since they billed me for Anti-Virus protection on my laptop, It is
the only thing now billed on the card annually. While there I looked at DVDs and got two, along with a Bart Simpson magnet. One of the DVDs was also Simpsons- Christmas episodes, first edition, five episodes. I recently got the second edition, four episodes, from Blockbuster. While there I saw the grouchy woman from the bus, but didn't talk to her. She had her fold-up grocery cart with her. Also near me was some people saying they wanted R. Kelly music.
   Before I left to handle this errand I saw a box waiting for me. It was from the History Book Club, and I said I didn't order any books. I did send a message online to them later on, asking them to cancel my account. Usually I respond to their email saying not to send their selections, but for some reason I was taken off their email list. It proves it was too hard to keep up with them, especially when I hadn't ordered any books in a while. I hadn't even included it as one of my memberships when recently taking inventory in my record book. I thought of it as an inactive one, since there was no fee to be paid. I will have to figure out what to do with the books, if I need to pay postage to send them back. But I haven't opened the box just yet.
    After the game I went to the Blockbuster Video liquidation sale. I bought two new videos, it was 'Shrek 2' and the Johnny Cash biopic 'Walk The Line'. I also got two Butterfinger candy bars. When I got back I checked my phone and there was a message waiting, we spoke for a while as it was an online match. We are planning on having dinner next weekend.       

Old McDonald Had A Farm

      When I was riding the bus home from work there was some kids sitting near me. At first one of the girls said 'Merry Christmas' but after a while she kept saying 'Old McDonald had a farm'. The adults spoke in a foreign language. They were possibly from India, so I'm not sure about how they felt about the kid saying something about Christmas as it probably wasn't their religion. 
   At the comedy club tonight there was a no-show early on. The 'Extra murder' comic said he had been performing across town tonight in front of a much bigger crowd than this one. One comic just ranted about birthdays, and said his golden birthday will be on New Year's Eve. It does remind me of how I haven't picked a New Year's Eve show to attend just yet. There are six Facebook invites, plenty to choose from.
   Two E-bay orders arrived, both were postcards from the Chicago World's Fair, so now I have 37. I added an interior view of Fort Dearborn, to go with an exterior view. The other was from the Sanford Ink exhibit. In my searches I found a Montgomery Ward postcard from a World's Fair, Omaha 1898 if I'm not mistaken, but it was expensive. It did lead to me finding a first day cover from 1972, honoring a century of mail-order businesses, which Wards was the first. I have just one Wards postcard and I am pleased there is a first day cover stamp available as well. It of course means more to me when I started working for a Wards business, and we were bought out less than a year later.

Team by Lorde

     I was driving over to the comedy club tonight after printing some event tickets at the library. I heard one song on my car radio and wondered if it was by Lorde, since the voice sounded familiar. I wrote down the lyrics 'I'm kind of over' and 'So there'- found out it was Lorde, the song is called 'Team'. I liked finding the video on Youtube, as she raises her hands and arms up to her shoulders at one point. This seemed familiar to me, in some ways I see it as a mind exercise, keeping focused while busy. Her big hit 'Royals' was catchy, I like knowing she has some other good songs out there. It was a good comedy show as usual, though not typical. It was at a bar that had two stages- and the other was for karaoke. I haven't done karaoke, they alternated it with the comedy performers. I was one of the comedy performers, and one of the jokes I did was about how I spent my Christmas.
   I watched two episodes of 'Big Bang Theory' tonight. The syndicated rerun was when Raj got an honor from People magazine, and he takes Penny as his guest since he gets arrogant and alienates his colleagues at the university. The prime time episode was when the gang plays Dungeons and Dragons, after Amy is put on the no-fly list. Originally the girls planned on going to Las Vegas. Raj bowed out of the game after getting a date with Lucy. This is one storyline that I am annoyed by: because Lucy keeps bailing on Raj. It's too much like Lucy pulling the football away in the 'Charlie Brown' specials.
   I made the most of my day off, reading some back issues of the paper from the month of May. I also made it over to one place to see about a Charlie Brown and Snoopy statue lead. It did lead to finding one, though not at the same place, still in the West Metro. Somehow I stumbled onto one, after the directions I was given, it may have been the same one. Hard to say if I will find more, as I already was low on ideas. It meant something to get one if at all possible this month, but entering the new year I am wondering if it's worthwhile to continue when I've already found more than expected. I've found over 170, and expected to run out of ideas before reaching 100.
   An E-bay order arrived, another Chicago World's Fair postcard, this one was Thompson Restaurant. So now I have 35 from this fair. There was two other postcards thrown in, I know the listing said to expect it. One was of the Ford Bronco from the 1970s and the other was a hotel in Milwaukee. I know at times there are other items added to what was ordered, sometimes these extras are fun to have, especially the postcards.

Charlie Brown Flash Mob

      This evening I still watched some of 'The Fly Show' as one of the teasers was about a Charlie Brown flash mob in New York City, acting out the Christmas special. It was a nice touch, having somebody play piano as well as string bass, then somebody showed up in a Snoopy costume. After the first half I switched over to 'Yule Log' on Channel 45. I like hearing all of the music on it, though I just shut it off as I was about to hear 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' again. I could tell some of the songs were repeated, and I didn't even watch much of it at a time. I did like hearing some Johnny Cash songs of course.
  It was kind of nice to stay in today and have very little to do. I watched two DVDs, first was 'Christmas Vacation'. With any movie one can notice things about it the more they watch it. I recall seeing it at the theater. When I was going through my list of movies to see if there were any other holiday movies I hadn't seen lately I ran across one I hadn't recalled seeing since buying it. This was 'My Sassy Girl', based on a Korean movie. It didn't take long where I was getting annoyed with it, which isn't good. The girl kept driving the guy crazy, and he still stays with her for a while. Then at the end she states why she did all of this. Since I didn't enjoy this movie much, I destroyed the disc and found another disc to put into the case. Thankfully this is rare where I didn't like a movie I had bought. This is why I prefer to rent them or get them on loan from the library, in case I didn't like them. It tends to be cheaper than owning and then I don't need to find storage space either.
   After this I watched two editions of 'Jeopardy' back to back. I like to watch it when I have a day off. In fact I didn't go outside until evening, as I wanted to take a walk around the neighborhood and I
needed the exercise. I wanted to check to see what businesses were open, not many as expected. A few restaurants, a bar, a convenience store/gas station, and an animal hospital. I also saw two cop cars- parking enforcement- as the snow ordinance will be going into effect tonight. This means there was enough snow last night to declare a 'Snow Emergency'. It worked well on getting to the grocery store yesterday so I didn't have to go to a convenience store for meals. I had a Michelina's chicken and pasta meal at midday, then a small frozen pizza in the evening.