I ended up seeing it because I wanted to use a code I had for a free redbox rental. After grocery shopping, I thought it would be super-easy to just check out a movie on the way out the door. Well, it was kind of a fiasco than I thought it would be. First of all, my nearest grocery store has one redbox kiosk and it's inside the entrance to the store. This is fine and really nice in wintertime, but it's kind of cramped when you've got a grocery cart full of your purchases, plus there is already somebody standing at the kiosk using the machine with their own grocery bags at their feet, and then somebody else shows up to return a movie at the kiosk. Not to mention the flow of people in and out of the store around you. Plus, a woman who decided she would force her way out of the automated entrance door and spent a moment or two grunting and shoving the door open despite the other one willingly flinging itself open for her just across the little banister. But, she had committed to shoving her way through the entrance door and, by God, she was going to do it. I tried not to stare. I was also trying not to stare at the dude picking his movie in case he thought I was looking over his shoulder or something and judging his selection. I was running out of places to look, so I just sort of stared at my coupon code in my hand for a bit. I had tried to be prepared for my selection, but between the pre-grocery trip perusal of movies available and the post-grocery trip actual checking at the kiosk, the movie I had planned to get was already rented. So, whilst people bustled around me and my grocery cart, and people waited behind me for the kiosk, I hastily tried to find something else to use my coupon on. Finally, I just picked one and it turned out to be a great thing. I love it when hasty decisions work out in your favor.
Over the weekend I did a lot of yard work and put in that birdbath I had mentioned earlier. Plus several hostas and some fresh mulch. It looks really nice. I'm pretty pleased with it. It works with the house pretty well.
It took me a long time to get the bush out of the flower bed. There was also a baby-ish tree that had decided to grow in there. Getting the tree out was almost worse than the bush. All the early morning joggers were jogging by as I was attacking the flower bed but I kept my cussing to a minimum and I only nearly fell over a few times while trying to hop on the top of the shovel to get it into the ground. All in all, it was yet another homeowner learning experience, but ended up being really great. Not only do I like the end result, but during the day of yard work, I got to meet a couple of my neighbors whom I hadn't met yet. I've been living here almost three years and got to know several of my neighbors, but over the last six months they've all moved away. So, we were all outside doing yard work or tinkering on Saturday and it felt like a nice neighborhood work day. My dad helped me to clean out a really overgrown area in the back of my house and, after hauling away three truckloads of yard waste, it looks a little more manageable now, too. Another yard tidbit: my Asiatic lilies that I love so much are blooming. I actually planted those, I didn't inherit them, so I'm extra proud of them. They've survived a lot. The first year I had them, somebody threw my whole flower pot off the wall and into the street. I thought they'd not survive that at all, but they did. Then last year they bloomed and someone came and pulled all the heads off of them, which made me mad except that I imagine it was someone who liked them so much that they put them in their hair or something. They didn't just pull the flowers off and dump them on the ground, they took them. So, I didn't get to enjoy them very long last year. This year, they've lasted a few days so far without anybody messing with them. Fingers crossed! I took a picture though, just in case:
Today was the first weekday of summer vacation at Mizzou. It was really nice at work. It felt like we all were kind of enjoying a break, even though we were at work and nothing was really different. It was a really calm vibe all over campus. I like this time on campus. I like the hustle and bustle of semester-time too, but when all the thousands of students go away for a while, it's really relaxing and nice. It's got everybody thinking about vacations of our own. Summertime roadtrips!
