WIFI

This morning I find myself at the office for orientation at a camp in central Florida. You may be asking yourself what does an office at orientation actually look like? Well the 2010 office at camp consists of a laptop, and a picnice table nestled close to the camp manager's house to catch a wifi signal. I head here about once a day to check emails and then wak back up toward the block of rooms where everyone stays. I like the fact that the wifi around here has to be earned. I don't automatically wake up and open my laptop. I have to be intentional about walking down the road to the house to check email. The camp life definitely has its perks!

A love letter

Dear Aldi,

I hate to cross reference my facebook statuses and my blogideas. Tonight I went to the gym for an hour or so and then I felt too lazy to drive across town to my regular store, Aldi's. Instead I drove a block from the gym to Dominick's. I've been doing my shopping at Aldi's for about 10 months. I used to go to Food 4 Less (yes it's a number 4 instead of the word, and yes that type of thing does bother me. But then the management at F4L changed the layout of the store and I really couldn't take it any longer.) 2 blocks south of Aldi's. But one day, I just decided I'd be super frugal gal (notice gal is actually in the word frugal!) and swallow my pride and see what was new with Aldi's.
I'm actually quite familiar with Aldi's. We've gone there a lot for orientations and such. I also went to the store down in Sterling when I was growing up. I tended to feel pretty embarassed about shopping there but I couldn't really figure out why it was like that. Now as an actual adult, I tend to shop at Aldi's once a week. Yes they don't have every single vegetable, but they definitely have the basics I need (potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, red/green/yellow peppers, mushrooms). Their little wine section rivals the $2 chuck from Trader Joe's. My fave of the month is Winking Owl's Chardonnay.

So anyway, as I was strolling the extra wide aisles of Dominick's tonight with the really sad bastasrd music playing in the background, I realized I missed Aldi's. I missed using my quarter to get an extra clean cart from the section near the door. I missed the quietude of my store. Barry Manilow serenading me in Dominick's just about made me choke up in the ethnic section. I told myself that using my shiny little Dominick's savers card would make up the difference, but in the end I still spent $18 more than my weekly trip to Aldi's.

So in the end, you won my heart and debit card back, Aldi's. I'll see you in a few weeks, with my shiny quarter in hand.

Love,

callie

PS I won't forget my giant ikea bag in my car this time. I promise.

Guitars and such.

Have you wanted to make yourself small again? When I play the guitar when no one is around, I play it with my ear resting on the body. I can hear all the vibrations of the strings together. I can imagine that's what Beethoven did just to feel the vibrations when he was growing deaf. Whenever I hear Sweet Lorraine by Patty Griffin, I can almost feel each strum and rhythm,as if I was a little enough camp inside the guitar!

2010. This decade's gonna be great.

Did you notice that I didn't finish the Best 09 blog-month-thing? I love not having to follow through with every little minute (my-newt) thing!