Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

My first pic with my new camera phone,
of The Gryphon, of course

Saturday was a bit more interesting. I hadn't taken any assignments on that day, and my Dad wanted to go out with me and my Mom later to get us some things for Christmas. My cell phone plan was expiring, so he wanted to get me a new phone and pick a new plan. My mom's dryer had gone kerflooey, and even though my parents are divorced, my dad likes splurging on people for Christmas so he'd offered to buy her a new one.

But Dad wouldn't be ready to go until 3 p.m., so The Gryphon and I decided to check out a local town, Bloomsburg, and do a little Christmas shopping. Since some of my family members are in the habit of reading Musings, I won't go into detail about what I got.

I will say that things have changed since I was last in Bloomsburg. There used to be a number of interesting and different stores, such as a New Age/Wiccan book store, a natural foods store, an import goods store and a number of other stores that might appeal to a college crowd, that of Bloomsburg University.

Most of the unusual stores were gone, and we were left with a number of household decorative knick-knack type stores, not something I'm terribly interested in, even as gifts. I prefer to give gifts, even fun ones, people can actually use, unless I happen to know people are actively decorating their place.

The Gryphon and I were finding it a little difficult to stay within the budget we'd been given. There's an agreement this year for everyone but Dad to spend no more than $20 per person for each individual. So The Gryphon and I can each get $20 gifts for our nephew or get him a $40 gift from the two of us.

The reason there is an exception for Dad is that he'd already bought many of his Christmas presents and because he likes to play Santa at Christmastime. It would be hard for him to not do that.

After we found a few gifts in various stores, I suggested stopping at a place called Sal's for pizza, because I used to go there a lot. But The Gryphon reminded me that we were going to be going out to dinner with my family that night, so we ought to be more sensible. Instead, we ate at a new place, which was also an Italian place, where we had some sandwiches. It was very good.

We had a little extra time, so we stopped in Lewisburg at a store where my mom had put in a wish list of art supplies. She's an amateur artist and can always use art supplies. I don't have a problem mentioning this on Musings because we already told her we were stopping there and that she'll need to add more to her wish list if she wants other members in the family to get her art supplies. We bought everything on the list, since the total came to exactly our limit for her.

And we also stopped at a consignment store I used to visit for me to check out the clothing. I got a pair of very nice gray slacks for only $15.

We got back in time to meet up with Dad for the family excursion. First, we all drove to a appliance store where my parents are friends with the owner. Even though the store was closed, the owner had agreed to meet us there to sell us the dryer. The owner already had a good idea of what Mom should get, because he knew what sort of space she was dealing with. He'd been out to her place multiple times to fix the old one.

Even though Mom walked around and looked at some others, as well, she eventually agreed he'd made the right choice. Before we left, he also gave us all some apples, squash and apple cider that came from his orchards and garden.

Mom didn't want to come with us to the mall, which was where we had to take care of the phone. She went home and told us to call when we were ready to meet for dinner.

The mall was pretty crazy, but since we were only going to one store, it didn't seem too bad. I've actually seen it more crowded in the past. It took us a little while to get someone to help us, because there were a lot of people in the store, possibly buying Christmas presents.

The first phone Dad showed me was really complex and included a PDA. But if I'd wanted to use all the options, it would have cost $20 more per month. Since part of the gift is that Dad is paying my monthly charges, I didn't feel good about that, especially since I don't know how much I'd use the added options.

Instead, I chose a Samsung that's about the same size as my previous Motorola but which includes a camera phone. We chose a plan that would allow me to send pictures to people, which sounds like just what I would want.

When we were done, I called Mom from my new cell phone, and we met up at our favorite Italian restaurant. I had the spaghetti puttanesca, which I knew was a pretty sensible thing to get. It gets its taste primarily from vegetables and spices, not from creams or cheeses. I couldn't eat all of it; so I had half of it boxed up. But I did share a cannolli with The Gryphon for dessert.

Then, just because we felt like it, we rented a couple DVDs. I'd suggested going out as a family to see a movie, but it was getting too late for anyone to want to do that. First, we saw The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I'd already seen so I fell asleep near the end.

Then we watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. I'd wanted to see it for awhile, and Dad loves silly movies like that. It was just as funny as I'd heard. There were a few scenes that were awkward to watch with your dad, but otherwise, it was a lot of fun.

More from Thanksgiving 2005:

November 28, 2005 - Turkey Day

November 29, 2005 - FedEx Adventure

December 1, 2005 - Extra Time

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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