george washington impersonator

 i was back at the church for another event, after hearing about a George Washington impersonator, an event held after the day's worship services, which i did not attend. it was mainly about Washington's farewell address, and highlights of it. the presenter said it is about 23 pages, so definitely nothing like Lincoln's Gettysburg address in terms of brevity. i had seen some presidential impersonators before, so this was right up my alley. i asked a question near the end of Q and A about movies, and the answer was there were many more about Lincoln, and i guess he hadn't seen many about Washington. i had lunch at Jersey Mike's, then went to mall of America and saw the america-250 exhibit in the rotunda. good thing i had went to the comedy show two days prior, as this is how i found out about it. there was a fashion show, and i liked reading the displays there. one of them was about the bicentennial celebration of 1976, and two artifacts were on display. one was a lunchbox, the other was a beer can from Schell's. i had seen this brewery do commemorative cans before, celebrating the St. Paul winter carnival. i had some pizza at home, then went to a performance venue but found out no show for the day. it led to me contacting the show runner, and i said it was time to give out my phone number as i am fine with text messages. i check my phone more than Facebook anyway. i said i don't give it out much, but this is somebody i trust. there was another 'a to z' series on a local radio station, 89.3 the current. i liked hearing some songs from first aid kit, the two sisters from Sweden. same series where i discovered this band two years ago, the song was 'fireworks'. this time it was 'out of my head' and 'tender offerings'. 

carillon bell concert

there were three events booked for the day. the first was a picnic through meetup, in south Minneapolis. the venue looked familiar, and i think we had a picnic at the same park a year earlier. i did see my friend there eventually, the retired postal worker. sent a text after i had eaten and i heard 'on the way'. we drank beer together, both of us had a miller genuine draft as he had some in the back of his car. i stayed longer than expected for this reason, as it was the first in-person visit with this dude this calendar year after some cancellations. there was one dude, who had a shaved head, that i enjoyed chatting with before my friend showed up. i brought a box of twinkies. i had to stop at an ATM on the way so i could pay the fee to attend. there are five picnics in the series this year, only one i have attended so far. and good chance it will stay that way. next one is in Stillwater, not going to that one. and the one on Labor Day weekend doesn't have a venue yet. next event was the carillon bell concert, at a presbyterian church on summit avenue in St. Paul. i heard about that event due to searching online. i got out my lawn chair, in the back of my car. i don't use it much. i decided to move fairly early on as a young lady was playing some Taylor Swift songs on some kind of device and it was harder to hear the carillon for that reason. i ended up moving across the street, closer to the church. two songs i recognized were 'wonderful world' by Louis Armstrong, and 'over the rainbow' from 'wizard of oz'. the church had run out of programs by the time i got there, so i did not have a song list. then it was on to the St. Paul Saints baseball game, my sixth of the season. saints beat buffalo, 6-5, and as usual there was plenty of the long ball. there was a rain delay, then the game was called about 30 minutes later. minimum is five innings to be declared an 'official game', and six innings were played, so it met that standard. there were fireworks, after the rain tapered off. two notable songs during the show were 'America the beautiful'- the patriotic song- as well as 'ragged old flag' by johnny cash. don't know what version i had heard of the former, but it is likely that a ton of performers have done it. many of the songs played were familiar from earlier fireworks shows that the team had done, but i don't think i had heard cash's song done that often before. 

groceries after show

 i had heard about a friend doing a comedy show this evening, and at first i balked at attending. my first reaction was that it was my grocery shopping night. i am thankful i changed my mind because i had a great time at the show. it was cul-de-sac and mason city performing, the latter being the headliner. i didn't know who the MC was. i got in free and when i was leaving i found out my food and drink was comped as well. i laughed a lot, some of the stories i had heard before but not all of them. i said i was inspired to go back to performing more than once a week. i hadn't seen either one in a while, added motivation to go there. then i went grocery shopping after the show, good thing some stores are open late. i picked up another magazine with the america-250 theme, this one by people. at work i had two tickets opened. one was for a maintenance kit on a printer, the other was about getting the wrong kind of toner cartridge for a printer. since it was kind of a slow day, i had more time to get it done. i also submitted the mid-year evaluation, which was due soon. the tax specialist spoke of holiday plans, a BBQ at his mom's house. there was just one Marshall file, nothing late in the day. i made it to Walgreen in the morning, that store was open. while walking through the skyway i noticed many others were not. i got some pictures of the closed signs. i did send another instant message to a former coworker, it had been a little over a month since the most recent one. this time i did ask about lunching sometime soon as it can get boring to be lunching by myself on most days. this led to me saying to vacation replacement how there aren't many people that i am comfortable with opening up to at work. some are on the same team as me, but not all of them. i can think of just five where i have shared much of anything about my personal life. 

except i did

 i needed to do a rebuttal at work in reference to the manager in Marshall claiming i didn't notify the shared box if something went into the UPS box after pick-up time. except i did, and i shared a screen snip in my response. i also said that no shared boxes were in the original message, so why should i be the one that has to add it? i definitely didn't care for two senior leaders being copied on the response. all the more reason to send my rebuttal. i said if i need to copy five people each time, then i will. i didn't want to be convicted in a kangaroo court. i let the manager that likes karaoke know that i got the reservations done, and she spoke of needing to go on a trip soon. i spoke of how i have cut spending across the board, and i take fewer trips now. i heard from the same colleague as the previous day, but thankful it was before crunch time. it meant i had more time to do the researching. i had the name of who had sent the UPS label a week earlier and this made it easier to find in the deleted items in the shared box. it was five checks going to a judge's office in St. Paul. a payroll check was picked up, and i closed the door kind of quickly as it was late in the day, just as i was hearing 'have a good weekend'. not thrilled with how the popcorn event was canceled this month, but this happened a year ago as well, too close to the holiday. 

supply order must wait

 i found the time to place the supply order for the month, got a little too busy the previous day. then i saw an out of office reply from the colleague who handles it for me, so it must wait. hard to say how long, but with it being close to a holiday it might be a few days. there were two checks for the manager that likes karaoke, but not in the same i-pay file. i spoke of needing to make some travel reservations and this helped me get it done in the evening. i also spoke of the lady i had met at a meetup event where i sang karaoke, and so did she, but not the same song. a colleague asked me to do some researching in the afternoon during 'crunch time', from the Cincinnati file. wanted to see where some checks were sent. because i was busier compared to other times of the day, i had to admit that and the colleague spoke of needing to do some more research. i also put some test checks in the MICR ruler for the boss, four in all. they seemed to fit just fine to me. 

leading zeroes on checks

 the lady that places supply orders for me sent a message asking about a check. i said i would like to see a copy to see if it was one that i print. when i saw some leading zeroes on the check number, i am thinking it is not likely. i do print some of those, but not many. it is one file in particular, and the number of zeroes is three instead of the two given by my colleague. the boss is working remotely this week and called me. i saw a screen snip and said that it's a Fargo check. something about being unable to find the contacts for that business line, then said, 'never mind' and found them. in the morning there was a facility manager meeting, but it was a brief one, about ten minutes. there was a question about how many people would be in the office on Friday, as it is just before the holiday, i said i would be. something about the facility manager office would be closed that day. i had questions about overnighting a check to Great Britain. i said if anyone wants a check overnighted, then email me which one so i can respond with the tracking number when it is available. there was a one-check file, 'return to business line', but it was awaiting approval for a while. i said i could print it once approved, then i was asked about it. i said i don't know who the approvers are. something about their boss being out of the office for the day. it got approved though, and i was able to get it in the UPS box just before pick-up time. 

paris, texas, movie

 in the evening i went to a movie in Edina, a special screening of 'Paris, Texas'. i recognized Dean Stockwell in it. i liked what i had read about the movie in advance, how it had influenced some musicians. this included U2's album, 'Joshua Tree', as well as the name of the band 'Travis'. i have seen both in concert. since it was about two brothers traveling by car across the desert, it did leave me wondering if it inspired a later movie, 'rain man'. this was a bittersweet story, but i am thankful i saw it. i got a small popcorn there and a bottle of vitamin water, and the bottle was still half full when i took it home with me. i saw a chalkboard when i was leaving and wrote on it. i said i was thankful this venue was showing it before the Trylon, which has it this summer as part of their 'road movie' series. now i don't have to wait two months to see it. i liked the feeling i had when driving home, much like after other movies i have seen. it was a combination of factors, including how it was the evening. seeing a sign on the road saying, 'you're not a firework, don't drive while lit' along with the Leonard Cohen song, 'everybody knows', on the radio. there's another screening of a classic at this venue that interests me, in a month from now. at work, i am trying to get used to alternate plans on getting to work as the blue line is unavailable. i am taking two buses to get there. the tax specialist changed plans, wanted checks sent by courier, but the courier was even later than on Friday. there was an inquiry about a Canadian check for just over 2 million, i said i had it and it was picked up in person by a lady i hadn't seen before. i did tell the manager that likes karaoke about what i did over the weekend and it led me to researching 'animal clubs' some more. i found out there were some Eagles clubs in Iowa, my native state, just not in my hometown. i let vacation replacement know about going through returned checks, 22 of them are PDF so those were set aside. an ACH request from payroll was in the shared box, i let my colleague handle it. kind of funny what i saw in response to it, quick statements such as 'that's old' and 'screw it, i will print it'. after i got home from the movie, i did the dishes. it was time as it was a day later than typical. too tired from what i was doing on Sunday that i fell asleep and i should have known that would happen.