Sunday, February 20, 2000

20 February 2000

I had a lovely, if fairly busy, Saturday. We started out at Staples, buying a new mouse for my computer. The old one had shocked me rather badly Friday when I went to use it, and then stopped working. Matt took it apart, but didn't see any visible damage, but even after rebooting and re-loading the drivers it continued to function wrongly, so we gave up and decided to buy a new one. We debated for a while picking up one of the new optical mouses (don't bother sending me e-mail; I only use the word mice to describe a plurality of small rodents) but decided that we weren't really ready to invest $70 in one just yet, and picked up a basic Microsoft wheelie-mouse. (I'm addicted to my wheel - I'm strong enough to admit it.)

It took us at least three times as long to get rung up at the Staples as it did for us to select the mouse. I wasn't terribly surprised; there are two things that are always true for me at Staples: Any piece of electronics retailing for more than $50 will not be in stock when I want to buy it, and it always takes entirely too long to get through the checkout lines.

After that, we stopped in at the Cube for our weekly comics. As Mark (the owner) says, his shop on the weekends has exactly two states: Completely empty, or full to overflowing. There's never "just a few" people in the shop. (Of course, that perception isn't helped by the fact that the shop is so crammed with merchandise that four people have trouble maneuvering around each other.) At any rate, it was crammed when we got there - mostly with Pokemon kids and their parents.

I cancelled one comic (Kabuki - I keep getting suckered into buying sketch collections and issue re-prints when all I want is the story; I guess I'll just have to wait for the trade paperbacks to be released) and paid for the two comics in my box. Matt poked around a little and bought his stuff, and then we were on the road.

When we got to the mall, we had lunch and then split up for a couple of hours. I don't know what Matt did, but I went shopping for clothes. I wound up buying three shirts that showed off my, um, assets quite nicely. One of them is a real dare for me - I don't usually wear bright colors, especially orange and yellow, but I pulled this lemon-yellow shirt off the rack just for kicks and was astonished when I got it on at how cute it looked. It was on sale, so I took a chance.

I also resisted about six dresses and jumpers that looked great but that I wasn't sure would be comfortable enough or dressy enough for the office. I don't dress up on weekends much, so buying a dress - no matter how attractive - that I'd only wear once every six weeks or so just wasn't in the cards. I did pick up a sexy satin bra, and a new strapless bra (I finally found a place that carries them!) in case I need one for John's wedding.

I swung by a cheap accessories shop and picked up some hair decorations - K.T. and I had discovered them almost two months ago, but my hair is so fine I wasn't sure they'd stay in. But K.T. let me try the ones she bought, and they seemed stable enough, so this time around (yes, I only go to the mall about once every two months or so) I picked up a couple of sets for myself. I wanted about five packs of them, but at six bucks a pop, decided I should confine myself to two until I knew how often I'd be wearing them.

I rounded out my trip with a stop in the Bath and Body Works for some girly-smelling gunk. It tooke me about four tries to get a combination of tubes and bottles and bars that all matched the sale, then picked up another tube of some sparkly stuff that wasn't on sale, and debated very seriously picking up a little makeup tube that was a lip pencil on one end and a tube of shiny gloss on the other. But I hardly ever wear makeup, so I contented myself with using the store's display and paying for my lotions and soaps.

After that, we got back in our car and drove down to the movie theater to see what time Galaxy Quest was showing. By a stroke of incredible luck, it was just starting when we got up to the ticket window, and we bought our tickets and hurried down to the theater, in time to catch most of the previews.

Galaxy Quest wasn't a great movie, but it was hysterically funny, especially for those of us who have been to science-fiction conventions, and encountered people who take their fandom just a little too seriously. It spoofed science-fiction TV quite well, picking up the stereotypes and archetypes beautifully. I especially enjoyed the non-regular crewman, Guy, wailing and bemoaning his imminent death. "I don't have a last name because I'm not important enough to have a last name! I'm the crewman who gets killed before the first commercial break to prove the situation is serious!" I also loved it that for a while, the rest of them bought into it: "We've got to get back to the shuttle before Guy gets killed!"

At any rate, if you like science-fiction television - especially Star Trek - or have ever been to a sci-fi convention, you'll really love this movie. If you don't meet those categories, you can probably give it a miss; most of the humor involved is the inside jokes based on those themes, and without understanding that humor, it would probably be a pretty awful movie.

Of course, Matt and I both loved it. We giggled about various scenes all the way over to K.T. and Kevin's apartment, where we took care of their assorted animals, petted the cats a little, and headed back home to prepare for the Skiffy party.

Matt and I had both been members of Skiffy, which is short for The William and Mary Science-Fiction and Fantasy Club. (So now you know why we call it Skiffy. The was once a motion to change the club's name to Psi Phi, but the fantasy fans objected.) At any rate, the current bunch is slightly better organized than we ever were, and they'd decided to throw a party for the 25th anniversary of the club, inviting as many alumni as they could find. There was supposed to be a general gathering for a couple of hours and then a dance party. (The dance, as we found out, was actually a separate function, held a couple of times a year. Since it happened to coincide with the other party, they decided to combine the two.)

The year I'd come back from graduate school, I actually wrote a newsletter for Skiffy, and I had found that disk just a few days ago while I was looking for my old stories to post on my dencity page. So I printed out copies of each of the newsletters and copied the files onto a fresh disk and donated them all to the club's archives. The current crop of Skiffy members is just as wacky and bizarre as we were, much to my relief - I'd been worried that all this organization bespoke a change in personality as well.

Only five alumni showed up - T, Greg, and Dave (who graduated just last year and who I only barely remember from my last year there) but on their sign-up sheet, we wrote down all the names and e-mail addresses we could think of. I'd taken my camera, but forgot it in the car, so I'm afraid I don't have any pictures.

Which is too bad, because there were many moments worth capturing. Watching T and Greg flirt with all the girls was an entertainment unto itself. And T really hammed it up on the dance floor - actually, I wished I'd had a video camera, because mere still pictures couldn't have done him justice.

I danced some, marvelling at everyone else's boundless energy, ate a little, talked a lot, and had a really great time. It was almost surprising, because I usually don't do well in groups where I don't know at least half. But this was Skiffy, after all, and these people were just crazy enough to relax around. Matt and I are thinking of going to future dance parties, if we can find out when they are.

We left when things were obviously winding down and my feet were starting to really hurt. (I'd done a dumb thing and sat down to rest them, forgetting that like muscles, they need to be cooled while stretching or they'll tighten up.)

So I'm limping a bit today, but feeling quite satisfied with my weekend so far. Today's agenda includes doing the laundry, a trip to the drugstore, a possible trip to Sam's Club, and a possible visit with my parents. Things are pretty much up in the air, but after all the running around we did yesterday, I'm okay with that.

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