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Star Trek Again
Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,
When I give I give myself.
-- Walt Whitman
Friday, December 18, 1998
One year ago: Holiday Feasting
As a team morale-building exercise, we all went to see Star Trek: Insurrection today. I'd already seen it, of course, but I decided to go again. I was pleased that the group and our agencies made it possible for contractors to see it, too! It's not so great for morale to send out mail like, "All who want to see the movie, step forward...not so fast, Ms. Rowland!" Do you remember that old joke?
I rode with a tester who works on the same project as me, and two other guys. The vehicle was a Range Rover, which made me think of Liralen and John's collection of rovers. We drove over to the Redmond Town Center, which I seem to be visiting often these days. I saw that they have a Lane Bryant there, which is convenient. I'd rather shop there than at Bellevue Square Mall!
There was a bit of a glitch when we arrived at the theater. We were supposed to get free refreshments as well, but the admin with the coupons hadn't arrived yet. Folks went in and sat down. So when the coupons did arrive, there was immediately a big line! At first we thought that we were only entitled to free popcorn, but when it became clear that all refreshments were included, a few smart folks, me among them, walked over to the candy bins and filled up those little bags with our chosen mixtures.
Warning: spoilers for Star Trek: Insurrection. To skip over, click here.
This time I succumbed, and actually watched the Star Wars trailer. It did look pretty good. But I already wish I'd closed my eyes again. Just knowing what some things look like takes away from the novelty and surprises in store. Seeing the Trek movie again gave me a chance to think about it a bit more (when my mind wasn't drifting off and fantasizing about this or that). There certainly wasn't much strategy or scheming involved in this so-called insurrection. Only the scruples of the admiral saved the day. although he was working with the bad guys. If the Federation hadn't been involved, even covertly, wouldn't the bad guys have just exterminated the good guys, and not bothered with trying to move them off the planet?
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I did stop at my local service station on the way home, and asked them to check my radiator fluid for anti-freeze levels, per Jack's advice. "You're good to 30 below zero!" the guy said, which is good to know. I parked and took the bus downtown, not even going inside my building, because I wanted to get to the dance jam.
I probably led about half the time today, which shows that knowning both parts is a good thing! Like being bisexual, it doubles your chances. Dan told me that having the power outlet available to plug in the music made a difference in how he feels about the event; it's more fun with the good sound! This way he doesn't have to remember to bring batteries, and avoids the expense too. I lent him my "Yule be Swingin" cd.
Most of our music today came from Dan's laptop, in the form of mp3 files that he organizes into playlists. Winamp plays them, piping the sound through the boombox. Very handy!
* * * * * * * *
Instead of continuing on to Friday Night Practice and the dance at the Russian Center, I decided to poke around and shop downtown for a while. My first idea was to buy myself a warm polarfleece hat. It's going to be cold this weekend! But I didn't find anything that especially appealed to me, at a price I liked, so I decided to put this purchase off for a few days. I have the Mrs Santa hat I made myself for In-santa-cide last year, which I can even wear for the next few days, since it's seasonal!
I continued shopping, but with a different goal. I knew there was a Ross discount store downtown, because it's in the same block as the bus stop, but I hadn't been inside yet. I decided to check out the clothes there. A lucky find: a gift item that I'd had in the back of my mind. I also bought, for myself, some nice new outfits for relaxing at home in. Do you make an effort to remove the price tags on gifts? I do, and when I tried to take the price tag off the gift I bought tonight, the box got all goobered up. So I took it out of the box, so there! and I'll devise some other nice way of wrapping it.
All this dancing then walking around did tire me out! So I took a hot bath, then put on -- not one of my new outfits (they aren't intended to be worn when one is alone) -- but an old tshirt, warm socks, and old velour pants.
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