November

One morning a few weeks ago my son announced “I hate November. … I’m just saying.” He went on to explain that unlike October, which has the beauty of the changing leaves, Thanksgiving (in Canada) and Halloween, and December, which has Christmas and a break from school, November has nothing going for it. There are no holidays, it tends to be dull, cloudy and/or rainy on a regular basis, and the temperature is at an in-between stage. He complained that if he wore a sweatshirt to class, he was boiling hot, but if he didn’t, he froze. The best he could do was roll up his sleeves so that his arms were freezing while the rest of him was sweating.

It was hard to come up with any defense for November as I drove through the pouring rain that day.

Last Friday, though, I looked out from my workplace window first thing in the morning and although it was dull and cloudy here, way across Lake Ontario the sky was a gorgeous blend of oranges and pinks. It must be the shopping gods, I thought, smiling down on the Black Friday shoppers in the U.S. and guiding them home after their night of spending. As I stood appreciating the beauty of that view, the clouds parted closer to home and the sun’s rays shone down on a small section of the lake. While the rest of the water was a very cold looking, dark, steely blue colour, and the sky a cloudy gray, in that one little area sunbeams danced a brilliant silver on the water. It was magnificent and that spot stood out so much that it seemed as though surely something wonderful was about to happen there. Maybe, I imagined, Atlantis has been hidden under Lake Ontario all this time and finally, FINALLY, is going to rise into the light. Think of the wonder if the Lost City appeared just off our shores! The beauty! The job opportunities! I watched and waited, but nothing happened. I guess it was just a shifting of the clouds.

On Sunday someone backed their car into mine in the grocery store parking lot. On Monday our freezer broke.

Bring on December.

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Poinsettia Time

Every year at this time I enjoy visiting the nursery to pick out a few poinsettias. I start my visit by wandering through the section of evergreen boughs and wreaths, enjoying the wonderful smell of the greenery. Then I explore the gift area, overflowing with Christmas ornaments and other goodies. Finally I reach the flowers. They’re in a huge area – rows and rows of assorted varieties of beautiful, brightly-coloured poinsettias.

It took me a long time last weekend to pick just two flowers. In fact, during the time I dithered over choosing the very best poinsettias in the entire place, other people had taken their nursery purchases home, eaten lunch, gone to the mall and purchased three or four Christmas gifts.

But that’s okay. I was soaking up some of the beauty of the season and in the end, I took two gorgeous plants home. One is pink

 

and the other is a red and white, sort of candy cane-coloured plant. (It was hard to get photos that captured the poinsettias’ true colours without natural light, but the sun is just coming up when I leave for work in the morning and gone when I get home, so there was little to be had.)

 

I published a post about poinsettias last year on November 30th too.

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Customer Service

Every Christmas Sears Canada sells a small, specially designed stuffed toy to raise money for charity. It is usually displayed near all the cashiers. My friend, Mary, visited Sears on the weekend to get a few of the toys for her grandchildren but couldn’t find them near any of the three or four check-outs she tried. Finally, at the fifth desk, she asked the cashier where the toys were located. “Well,” responded the helpful clerk, “they’re in the store somewhere.”

Mary decided it was time to go home.

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Sunday Snapshot – Here It Comes

Yesterday morning we had our first dusting of snow. It didn’t last long – just long enough to remind everyone that Christmas will soon be here. Not that anyone needed more reminders. Canadian retailers have begun copying the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of our southern neighbours, although not to the same extent. On a trip to the local mall on Friday evening, I found many stores with thirty or forty percent off storewide. And on Saturday evening, Mark’s Work Warehouse had twenty percent off everything, including already reduced items, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. When I entered the store around 5:30, the line-up at cash stretched across the front of the store, down the side and more than half way across the back. Note to anyone who hoped I might be picking up something from Mark’s for them for Christmas: it didn’t happen.

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Sunday Snapshots – Anniversary Bouquet

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I Bought it on eBay (2)

While surfing eBay, I found listings for “pre-owned, well worn socks”. If you`re paying to have well-worn socks shipped to your house, I think you should be attending meetings that begin with “Hello, my name is [whatever] and I’m a shopaholic”.

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I Bought it on eBay

Recently we ordered a lovely framed print on eBay. It was by an artist we really like and the price was reasonable so we decided to chance it, despite the fact that the seller was across the continent in California. It’s a long way to ship something with a big sheet of glass, but the seller had excellent approval ratings and claimed to ship with great care.

The box arrived with the unmistakable rattle of glass shattered into hundreds of pieces. It was in perfect condition so we knew before even opening the box that the problem was with the packing. Sure enough, a roughly one-inch thick picture was packed in a 5-inch thick box with only one layer of bubble wrap, a couple of sheets of crumpled paper and a handful (literally) of styrofoam peanuts to protect it. The painting wouldn’t have made it across town unscathed, never mind across the country. Worst of all, the print was destroyed by the glass scratching it in several places.

I e-mailed the vendor and told him that the picture was ruined because it hadn’t been packed properly and he responded with “What do you mean it wasn’t packed properly?”

Well, it’s advisable to provide some padding when you’re shipping something breakable – perhaps several layers of bubble wrap to start, then enough paper and/or other filler to prevent the object from bouncing around the box like a pinball in a high scoring game. It should be more like a commuter in rush hour crammed into a subway car so tightly he can’t even raise an arm to scratch his nose. Or like batteries so snug in a compartment that you struggle for five minutes to get them out to change them and finally have to search for a paperclip or something to use to dig the first one out. Or like a newborn baby in the hands of a capable maternity nurse who can take a little blanket and, in a matter of seconds, wrap the baby so securely it can’t move a muscle and it actually likes it (but will have to learn to live without because the new parents can never fully master the art of baby wrapping).

That’s what I mean.

P.S. Upon receipt of photos, the seller promptly refunded all money, including the shipping costs.

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Really?

Yesterday I bought a lighted pocket magnifier at The Source for $4.99. Although it’s a handy little item, I only got it because it cost so little. When I took it to the counter, the salesperson tried to sell me three years of insurance for it.

Uh, no.

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Sunday Snapshots – The Birds

Some bird photos, just because I happened across them and they’re so darn cute.

Parrot Bathing, by Cesar Badilla

 

Puffin, by Kate Ali

Curious Duck, by Tilly Meijer

Check out the wonderful selection of photos at National Geographic’s site.

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Wicked – The Understudy

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Wicked for the second time on stage in Toronto. The first production was four years ago and starred Shoshana Bean as Elphaba, the wicked witch, and Megan Hilty as Glinda, the good witch. They were both excellent and I really enjoyed the show.

I haven’t read Gregory Maguire’s novel on which the stage musical is based. I read one of his books, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, many years ago and enjoyed it enough to move on to Mirror Mirror. After two books, though, I found that his unique retellings of well-known fairytales wore thin with me and I couldn’t get into Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Consequently, I don’t know how closely Wicked the musical follows the book, but it certainly makes for a fun and entertaining evening at the theatre. Although there is a serious “it isn’t easy being green” theme and some touching moments between assorted characters, this is a funny musical with witty one-liners that make me laugh out loud.

The current production stars Jackie Burns as Elphaba and Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda. As soon as we were seated, however, we opened our programs and a slip of paper fell out announcing that the role of Elphaba would be played by Carla Stickler. Since I’ve never seen Jackie Burns perform, I had no issue with the understudy playing the role. The man who arrived shortly thereafter and sat behind me with his young daughter and her friends sure did though.

“Oh no,” he moaned loudly as soon as he opened his program, “I hate it when this happens!”

“What happened?” asked his daughter.

“We get the understudy,” he whined. “I paid so much money for these seats and we get the understudy. I bet she’s lousy.”

He went on, loudly, for a minute or so, eventually saying to his young guests “Let’s bet on whether she’ll be any good or not. What do you think? Will she be good or bad … you think good? I bet she’ll be bad.”

Frankly, if I purchased tickets months ahead of a show date and paid top price for front-of-the-theatre seats to see a favourite performer and then found that she was off, I’d be upset and very disappointed. But stars do get sick and my disappointment wouldn’t be aimed at the understudy – I’d be hoping she was great. That didn’t appear to be the issue with this man anyway. He never mentioned Jackie Burns by name; he just seemed to be offended by being stuck with an understudy. What a way to act in front of his daughter! I bet she and her friends were really excited about going to the show. They did have excellent seats, and he did pay a lot of money for them, so why not be positive? Why not assure the young ones that the understudy would do a great job rather than worry them? The kids probably wouldn’t have known if the understudy was slightly less than stellar anyway.

As it turned out, Carla did do a great job. She acted well and has a lovely voice. The big song in Wicked is Defying Gravity and Carla absolutely nailed it to end the first act with the audience cheering and applauding enthusiastically. I’d love to know how many people, besides me, were tempted at that point to ask the loudmouth “What do you think of the understudy now?”

We did get to enjoy a laugh at his expense. Just before the show started he looked up at the huge dragon figure mounted on the front of the stage and exclaimed “Girls! Look at the big bat!”

And parents wonder why their kids don’t want to be seen with them.

Carla Stickler as Elphaba. Photo by The Western Sky, on Flickr.

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