Reading Terminal What?

Rainy days and mondays always get me down.  Okay it was a Thursday but it was raining.  I was getting my hair freshly dyed and unfortunately on this day, I got the short end of the stick when attending a hair school:  a new girl.  I could tell by her unconfident snips and the lengthy fixings by the instructor that she was a fresh face on the floor.  After we rinsed out the dye and I sat back down in the chair I tried not to hide the utter shock of red that was now adorning my cranium.  She had prepped me, remarking while rinsing "Wow, that's really red...I don't know what happened, I followed the recipe from your file..." Girl's got a while to go.  My new look included brown with a HINT of red, I think she got it mixed up--mixing up a batch of red with a hint of brown.  Buuummer.  After she blow dried it was more browny purple than RED.  Oh well, I thought, I'll just be a little extra punky for the next little bit.  My biggest worry was Ben: he HATES fake red hair.  He handled it surprisingly well though, I think because he knows it doesn't last forever.  The first time I dyed I would catch him nervously eyeing my locks in the evening.  When I first wrote that sentence, I accidentally wrote "died" as in "the first time I died" which makes me giggle because eyeing my dead-girl locks might be something Ben would do in a state of post-mortem depression.  At least it is what I imagine he would be doing in my steam-punk victorian zombie dream.  Amirite?

After my hair appointment I could do two things: go home to my lonely house with Ben still out of town, or try to make a day of it and explore some more of the city.  To the city!  I went back to the Reading Terminal Market, a favorite of the locals and more hipster types that visit Philly.  I had gone once before when we FIRST moved here and my grandparents were coming through on their cross country road trip with some friends.  My grandparents are the most adventurous seniors I know.  The idea of spending a month on the road makes me want to curl up in bed with my laptop and rewatch LOST--just sayin.  But anywho, as adventurous as they are, the market was a little too rambunctious and not the right flavor on their whirlwind trip, which had more of a historical slant anyway: we lasted 5 minutes.  So I ventured back to really soak in the wonderful noisy foodie squishyness of it all.  Sooooo nice.  And their were Amish people!!  Amish people, people.  I sooo badly wanted to take a picture of them but I kept myself respectful.  And then looking back through my pictures I realized I accidentally got some in my shot.  Whoops.  I spent an hour gazing and smelling, smelling and gazing.  Piano music serenading the hanging sausages.  Lobsters smiling at the red tile floor.  The nice, albeit greasy, granola girl gave me directions to the really good Chinese food but I ended up partaking in some very amazing indian cuisine.  If you attend the market, please visit Aunt Naneen's--it is so choice.  She let me taste all of the dishes before I made my decision on some incredible Chana Masala.  What a fantastical place.

The End of an Era Part II

I've been feeling a little morose lately.  It could be the change in weather, Ben's really long trip to California for work, or my hormones, but you know what I think it really is?  Wings.  I really liked that show.  I'm almost more sad about it being over than Lost.  Crazy, I know.  But you WANTED Lost to end just so you could have a life again.  Wings was a GOOD friend, a friend that meets you at a coffee shop for a quick catch up and leaves you laughing and feeling really good about yourself after 20 minutes.  A low maintenance friend who will be there when you need them whether it be tomorrow or in 3 weeks and they won't be offended.  Lost is like a friend that calls you up at 3am and HAS TO TALK and you are so involved in their drama that you HAVE TO LISTEN just so you can know.  Even though you know this relationship is bad for you and you should just drop them, you make yourself feel better by telling yourself you are such a loyal friend and you know they will go away someday so you just need to hang in there until they are gone.  This friend will also say really dramatic things and then not explain them.

Anyway, since Wings was such a good friend I REALLY miss them.  Now that it's gone I realize I really took it for granted.  And I tried to watch Cheers (same writers), it just wasn't the same.  And now I see things that remind me of Wings all the time.  The other day I went to Burlington to return a belt.  There in the checkout line, this was taunting me:

And this isn't like I saw Wings on DVD, because that's understandable and I would buy it.  This is an intimate secret we share--this is the reason Thomas Hayden Church left the show!  And it just sat there, reminding me of my old friend and the bond that we shared.  Dirty rotten mumble mumble mumble.

Another thing I loved about Wings was the accidental-future-guest stars.  Recognize this guy:

That's right, it's JACK SHEPHERD.  In Season 3, Episode 21 he played a robust and lovable high school baseball player from Joe's alma mater that was about to break Joe's record.  Joe was kind of resentful about it.  This was funny because he was oh so squeaky clean: "Oh you were down in Mexico, huh?  Probably partying with the ladies..." says Joe.  "No I was down there helping rebuild a village with my church group" says Jack Shepherd, all shoulders and smiles.  Good times.

I know all good things must come to an end, but why Wings?  Couldn't they just live and work in that airport terminal forever?  I was feeling sad about it, reminded of the show when I saw that my Proctologist, I mean DOCTOR OF NO SPECIFIC SPECIALTY, was named Lowell (and as much as I loved Lowell on the show, I hoped his dimwittedness was not because of the name.  I also hoped Lowells DID come with small fingers, but I digress).  Anyway, I was oh so sad about my old friend, when I remembered something: an image flashed into my mind from many seasons ago.  It had been a perplexing problem at the time but one I did not fret over because there had been so many episodes still to watch, oh so many episodes.  But once forgotten, it came back to me in full color, like the ghost of a friend reminding you that they are still there and they still love you:

An episode left to watch!  To this day I do not know why that particular episode is on disc only, and I don't care much.  I know that its there and that is what matters.  I found the episode on YouTube in terrible condition, almost pixelated beyond recognition, but I can hear their voices and have the set memorized enough to know where they are and what is going on.  I almost watched it right then and there on my phone, waiting for Ben in the car while he bought a roast for Sunday dinner but then I stopped, realizing I shouldn't squander such a gift from TV afterlife.  And so it waits patiently, comforting me by its very existence.  And someday, perhaps a day thats gray and lonely, I will call up that old friend and we will meet.  I will meet them and it will be just like it was, all shoulders and smiles.

Happy Halloween

If you haven't figured it out, we were Zombie Pride and Prejudice.  Which I have not read, by the way.  I love halloween.  Most of all the costumes.  I used to be really into haunted houses but I got over that after I cried at one last year.  Anyway, I start thinking about my costume (and now Ben's costume) about mid-July.  I had other ideas but this one came to me late one night, the quiet dark telling me I should be asleep, and it was just too good NOT to do.

At the Payne's awesome halloween party, Ben with Monocle.

And you know what will really make you hurt?  These costumes cost us a total of $17.08.  I bought the feather for half price at work (and yes, now it is decorating my workspace), I used my wedding dress (better than just sitting in the closet!), a top hat I've had for years, a vest from the thrift store, a hand-me-down evening coat, a strip of chiffon for Ben's cravat, and I made the monocle out of a key ring, a chain, and a piece of wire.  The most expensive thing was the makeup.  I should be on some Project Runway type show but instead of people sewing things whoever puts together the best costume at the lowest price wins immunity.  Make it work people!

Our pumpkin was inspired by our neices' drawing, pictured below.  Cinduv means "Kind of" (she was drawing different feelings) which we decided was how our pumpkin was feeling.  We also thought it would be ironic and funny.

Hope you had an awesome halloween!