September 15, 2012- The Turtleback Zoo- Part 2

   I should have gone back to the swans. I don’t think that the 3 photos that I took of them came out that great. I also took a few of the animal shaped shrubs but not of the elephant one which I really regret.

   We took some pictures of the signs too. I had suggested this. I did forget a few though, like the turtles. I should have taken more than 3 of the 2 kinds of these

   I’m not sure how many photos I ended up taking. I went kind of bonkers with the sheep and horses. I probably will put them onto the computer on Monday. I can’t wait to tell Sharon about the zoo. She likes going to zoos also. I wish that she could have been with us today.

   The horse in the stable was another photo that I didn’t take. I was going to do so after seeing the goat but my stupid side said that I didn’t need that shot for I had taken 2 of it when it was outside. But I really wanted this; it was the prettiest horse there.

   Mike bought his lunch at a café type place. He got the burger and fries. I had packed a sandwich and a multi-grain bar so I just had to buy a soda. The grilled chicken did look good; maybe I’ll get that next time, which probably will be late April. That seems so far away.

   There were a lot of nice postcards in the gift shop; it was hard choosing just a few. I got the wolf for mom, a red panda for me and a fox for Sharon. I should have gotten one for Mommie 2. Mike said that we should get Dad the eagle which we did.

    Dad collects eagle stuff. I used to collect raccoons. Mom is a cardinal, cow and tiger collector; she used to be a koala one. We both get cocker spaniels too. Mike has a collection of the Star Wars and Star Trek pewter figures.

   I wish that I had bought myself the snow leopard and prairie dog postcards too. I really wanted to but my brother said that I should only get 4 of them like he was doing. I shouldn't have listened to him.

   As much as I would love to go back to this zoo, I really don’t think that I can handle driving there again. I wonder if there is a bus stop nearby. I will have to look into this. I sure hope that there is.

 

 

Swans

 

Our Collectibles

 

 

July 22, 2015- My Brother- Part 2

  

 

Mike hit me in the face with his Tonka Jeep accidentally which knocked out my baby tooth. I liked playing with that jeep and other toys of his like the Big Wheel from Grandma at the farm, Lincoln Logs and his action figures.

   He didn’t have that many- a few each of “Battlestar Galactica”, Star Trek -The Motion Picture, and Star Wars. Missy had a whole Darth Vader head case full of the latter; we were always jealous of our cousin for this.

   I’d look at his “Star Trek” slides on my View Master which I still have. He got rid of his but kept the slides which is kind of strange. The “Yogi Bear/Huckleberry Hound” and Scenic Wonders of America are both of ours. I have Sleeping Beauty, The Rescuers and the Muppets.

   We both had the Rescuers lunch boxes, after that it was Tupperware ones. We were really into the Disney movies when we were kids. Mom said that they took us to see many of these films at Ed and Aunt Joan’s theaters. I only remember a few like The Jungle Book, The Rescuers and Sleeping Beauty.

   We still have 3 Disney records- It’s a Small World, The Best of Disney (2 album set) and Mary Poppins. I remember some of the words to “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”. Dad played “Chim- Chim -Cheree “on his violin once.

   That’s the only time that we’ve ever heard him play. I don’t know why he gave it up- he was good. Mom said that he had taken lessons for a long time.

    Dad signed Mike up for the higher amount of judo lessons which he wasn’t too happy about. Even Mom had told Dad to go for the lower amount. My brother eventually quick going to them, but I forget how far into this he did so. He was in one competition in which he earned a yellow belt.

   We liked going to that Sears in Watchung with our parents; it was like a mini adventure for us. That town is about 25 minutes away but it seemed much further. Isn’t that the case about a lot of places when you are a kid? - Possibly not for everyone though.

   My brother would sometimes wander off in that and other department stores which was annoying and a bit worrisome. We would have an employee page him to meet up with us when we were unable to find him.

   He does the same thing these days occasionally which is still irritating. I don’t have him paged though. Sometimes I think about doing so.

   Were we weird kids for having fun when we went to such places as a furniture store like Huffman Koos and to home improvement stores – Channel and Rickel. I loved looking at the paint colors and sometimes took those sample card things home. I also liked the smell of the lumber there.  All 3 places are no longer in business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                            

 
Note- Photos from internet- stores, violin, action figures, jeep, lunch boxes, Lincoln Logs, and Big Wheel.

                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comic Con NYC 2019

This is the first time that my brother and I ever attended this event. It was fun but very crowded. We only saw about half of the vendors; my brother didn't feel like going back to that area after I got an autograph. Now he is wishing that we had, of course.

I didn't take that many photos because I was feeling overwhelmed by the huge crowd. You aren't supposed to take any of the stars, but I am sure that some people did anyway. You can pay for table photo ops or professional ones with them.

 Five cast members of Angel was there; it's the 20th anniversary of that show. I can't believe that it has been that long. I originally was just going to get James Marsters autograph but then later decided to also get Charisma Carpenter's. I felt less nervous talking to her and said more too.

My brother also got her autograph. At first, he hadn't planned on it but I convinced him to do so which he seems glad about. We both got Nichelle Nichols autograph. I used to like "Star Trek" when I was a kid. My brother still enjoys it.

We saw Felicia Day at the book signing area. We had missed out on her panel because Nichelle was running late. Maybe the line was long and we wouldn't have been able to get into it anyhow.

I had wanted to buy her book earlier but my brother talked me out of it, saying that he wants her autograph on a photo from "Supernatural" and not a book. I wish that I hadn't listened to him. Now he is regretting this decision and said "You shouldn't have listened to me".

We saw Christopher Eccleston from "Doctor Who". The price of his autograph wasn't in our budget. Mike has autographs of Doctors 5, 6, and 7- Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. He also saw the 12th, Peter Capaldi. He has been to 4 or 5 "Doctor Who" conventions.

Mike would have gotten a photo op with Charisma if it was $20.00 and not $40.00. The former was the price of Marsters' when purchasing his autograph at $40.00. I had thought about doing so but talked myself out of it which I am sort of regretting.

I don't normally like being in photos but should have made an exception this time. My brother is more into getting such photo ops and some professional ones too. I only have one table op that I paid $15.00 for and 4 from before the stars were even charging for them.

We didn't get to see Billy Dee Williams. He wasn't at his table for the 6:00 p.m. signing when we went back to the area. We couldn't see him at his other time because we were on line for autographs.

Tom Hiddleston was there too but there was no way that we could even see him with the way that they had his table and line set up. They also had a metal detector in that area- no other star had this. The price of his autograph was way, way beyond what I could afford- $250.00.

Mike and I bought the same style Supernatural t-shirt. The vendor had a lot of cool shirts to choose from. He would have gotten a Star Trek one too but he didn't have his size.

I was going to scan my autographs like I have done with others in the past but felt too nervous to take them out of the binder.

My Sci-Fi Story Idea - February 2014

My “friend” Sam hasn’t teleported me to the holodeck in a few days. He also hasn’t been doing so as often as he used to which is disappointing. I wish that he would come for me tonight. I have a lot of good memories of my time there. There are some unpleasant ones too but even those don’t seem as bad as what I have to deal with here.

   I can’t tell anybody about any of this because they might think that I am crazy. I’m not making any of it up, it’s all true. I have been abducted by this alien many times over the past 13 years. Sam has been observing me, reading my thoughts and memories so he knows my likes, interests and fears. Some people might be creeped out by this but it didn’t really bother me.

  The stars of the storylines that he created for me include music performers (often Duran Duran and Bon Jovi), actors, actresses, tennis stars, family, my doggies (I love getting to be with them again in this way), former friends and classmates.

  There are times that the plot will suddenly change partway through which can be frustrating because I want to know how the story ends. The same is true when it is a complete scenario. I wake up and I’m in my own bed again wondering what might have happened next.

  I almost always look younger as does everyone else. I’m not entirely sure if the people that I am with are holograms, shape shifting aliens or maybe a mixture of both. I also don’t know if I’m in a holodeck on their ship like in “Star Trek” world or maybe even one on his planet. Perhaps this race has the power to simply recreate any setting there. 

    I am happy when I am transform me into a pretty or even semi pretty girl. I wonder how this is done. I am also usually smarter, more confident, and less anxious in this fantasy world.

   Sam can communicate with me telepathically. I have only met him once though, but he had shape shifted into the form of another guy.  He knows how depressed that I am and wants to make me feel better. He feels alone and like an outsider just as I do.

   There has been some nightmare like situations that I have been stuck into also which is very upsetting. There are some mean aliens that hack into his programs to torment him and me. He tries his best to get me out of these. They make it difficult. He always apologizes for not being able to do so sooner.

   When I am returned to Earth, it is as if no time has passed by. Sometimes, I have items that were a part of the programs like photographs that I have taken which is cool.

   I’m wondering if Sam is taking me less because he got in trouble for having me in the holodeck. He told me that a majority of his race don’t really want humans to be there. Or maybe he just feels that we both need to try to fit into our worlds and not feel like freaks anymore.

 

Note- I gave up on even trying to do this a while ago. I don't have enough talent to write such a book plus I am sure that something similar has been done before.

 

More TV

My brother was talking about Battlestar Galactica yesterday, not the new one but the cheesy one from the 70s. I did used to watch this and Buck Rogers with him back then. He likes the former more. We liked watching Star Trek together too- he was more into it than I was. I remember when it was on at 6:00 on Saturdays and we would watch this after Mission Impossible at 5:00.

We would watch some of the old shows with our parents. The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Munsters and The Honeymooners. Sometimes we'd watch the Addams Family but I always liked The Munsters more. Now I'm not really into any of these classic shows.

Why did we ever watch Gilligan's Island- Gilligan is so annoying. We liked The Brady Bunch then, don't know if I'd want to watch it now though. Definitely wouldn't watch Three's Company or The Facts of Life. I guess at the time we were into that sort of show. We did watch Little House on the Prarie but I liked the books much better.

Mom used to tell people a story about me that really embarrased me. She said that when I was a little girl that sometimes I used to dance around during the opening of I Dream of Jeannie trying to imitate how the cartoon image of her did so. We watched Bewitched also but I always liked the former better. I really did not care for Darren #2 and Tabitha.

Dad, Mark and I used to watch wrestling in the 80s. I remember many of the wrestlers- The Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Jessie "The Body" Ventura, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Hillbilly Jim, George "The Animal" Steel, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Andre The Giant and more. Captain Lou the manager just died last year. I can't believe that I used to be into this. Dad even had a record with the stars of wrestling singing. I remember Hillbilly Jim doing Don't Go Messin' With a Country Boy.

We liked Happy Days but mostly just the first couple of years before it became mainly The Fonzie show. A relative got me a necklace with him on the charm. My grade school classmate said that she liked it. I still have the charm but not the chain.

I love Hanna Barbera cartoons, especially Scooby Doo. Other favourites- Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, Hong Kong Phooey, Ricochet Rabbit, Auggie Doggie and Dastardly and Muttley. We watched The Jetsons and The Flinstones but didn't care for them as much. Same with Tom and Jerry. Jonny Quest was good too. We weren't as into Bugs and the Warner Brothers cartoons. Loved The Pink Panther, Spiderman and Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Godzilla (with Godzuki), The Superfriends and the Hall of Justice and The Fantastic Four as well

In the 80's we did watch The Smurfs. I'm kind of embarrased to admit that. Sometimes I wished that Gargamel would capture them though which is pretty mean. I liked the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. We watched Inspector Gadget and He-Man also. I think there were a couple of others but I can't remember them right now.

Were The Blue Falcon and Space Ghost Hanna Barbera? Probably. We did watch Rocky and Bullwinkle sometimes but I don't remember much about that. I did have a sweatshirt with them on it when I was a little girl. Nowadays I do have T-Shirts with Scooby Doo and the Pink Panther on them. I don't care that Stacey and Clinton on What Not to Wear say that this is childish and you shouldn't be wearing such shirts.

I think that I forgot to mention The Family Feud on my list of favourite game shows yesterday. A friend of ours had that board game and we'd play it sometimes. Now I'm thinking about the toys and games that I had in my childhood. I still have some of them but not many. That's a topic for another day, however. I've said enough for today.

Dreams

I used to have alot of vivid dreams up until about 3 years ago. I do miss this. Many of my dreams are alien abduction ones. Most of the time they are friendly aliens but sometimes they aren't. I'm usually on their ship in a holodeck like in Star Trek or on their planet which they make to look like Earth. There are holograms and or shape shifting aliens as the people. I get to see the stars that I like and/or family members. I've seen Duran Duran and Bon Jovi many times this way. I would write down most of these dreams the next morning in my journal. I didn't keep a seperate dream journal until a few years ago. I did recopy most of the others into it before throwing out those journals. I'm mad that I wasn't more careful and missed some of them. It's always disappointing when I wake up before a dream is over and I wish that there could be a Part 2 to it. Sometimes my nightmares seem less scary then things in my real life, like my anxiety problems and other issues. I'm sure that other people must keep a dream journal. Maybe some people would think this is strange but I enjoy it.

Movies 2

I loved the drive-in movies and wish that they still had one in our area. I don't even know if any are left in New Jersey. There probably aren't many left in the country. Besides seeing Jaws when I was a kid, I remember my cousins taking my brother, their sister Mary and I to see The Black Hole, Roller Boogie and I think The Black Stallion. Mary and I saw Star Trek 3 at the Quakerbridge Mall theater with her brother's girlfriend Sue. My brother is really into Star Trek and I kind of like it too so we've seen most of them together in the theater except for the first 2 which we saw on TV and the last 2. He has yet to see the last one. The only movies that I've ever seen twice in the theater are Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and The Last Crusade and Spiderman 3. Mary went with me the second time to the former and Mark to the latter. The last movie that I saw was Terminator 4. We never saw the other 3 in the theater. I never even saw the first 2 until the late 90s on TV. I wish that we had seen them on the big screen. There are alot of movies that I'd like to see that way, even the classics. I did see the re-release of the 3 Star Wars movies in the late 90's so technically I have seen Star Wars in a theater but it's not the same as seeing it when it first came out. What were my parents thinking? They took us to the scary Jaws but not to Star Wars. It's kind of funny, I guess.