My morning was spent performing the necessary evil that is the tax return, which, I’m embarassed to admit, was a first for me. Thanks to TurboTax, which was for the most part a really well-designed and problem-free web program, I took care of everything in a couple of hours. I’m not really sure I did it all correctly, but I’ll wait for someone else to tell me before I do anything about it. I owe some money, and I’m owed some money, but I didn’t really come out even.
After taxes (hah), I headed into town to pick up a few more coffee shack photos and stop by Center Bowl to inquire about photo booths in Anchorage (the verdict: no dice. You know, “kids destroy everything these days,” said the proprietor. Not that they had one and it was destroyed, but the insinuation was there that if he did, they would).
As I drove around town, I listened to a few of the tapes I found in the basement yesterday, and it was a true discovery. An essay on the subject will follow in the next few months, touching on my weird interest in station IDs from Anchorage radio stations, parodies of George Michael songs, Pee-Wee Herman impersonators, bad “morning crew” jokes, and Rick Dees’ Weekly Top 40. It’s a true anthropological find, especially with the recordings of my brother and I playing trumpet duets. Scott sounds the same as he did when I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I can’t stop laughing when I screw up, and I sound like a girl when I laugh. Great.
After thinking I’d gotten to all the new shacks yesterday, I was surprised to find a half dozen more this afternoon. I also paid a visit to the recently renovated REI flagship store with my dividend. It was a tough decision among “useful things for running,” “superfluous synthetic gear,” another piece of REI One clothing, something for biking the Muddy Buddy in June, or “impulse gadget purchase.” Thanks to an added discount for using my dividend, I got one from a couple of categories – some running socks, biking gloves, and a mini Leatherman Squirt. Kind of superfluous, kind of useful – and if there are any doubts as to its utility, ask me the next time Aimee’s bathroom door handle falls off from the inside and leaves me locked in. Just remind me to pack it in my checked luggage when I head to the airport.
On my way home, I stopped off at another Video City location to get a movie for tonight, and I discovered that while it may look the same and have the same name and logo as the other location, my membership from the other location wasn’t good there, and they charge more for their video rentals for the same period of time. Weird. They also do something I’ve never seen at any other store: they have no categories. Every video in their store, besides new releases, is just alphabetized on the shelf, and a printout up front leads you to the right shelf. I guess it worked out for me since I knew exactly what I wanted, but it seems pretty discouraging for browsers.
After I got home, Dad and I headed downtown for a meeting and fundraiser for Tony Knowles. Officially, it was a “Conservationists for Knowles” (not to be confused with “Conservatives”) event at Snow City Café. We came in for the second half of his stump speech, and then talked to people for a bit while eating chicken skewers and salmon cakes. It was a nice event, inspiring and interesting. We talked to Tony afterwards, and it was pretty great to hear him talk about how he admired Dad and how they’d fought a lot of good fights together. We talked about skiing, Massachusetts politics, and what it’s like to follow the ups and downs of national news in the age of political blogs. I’d met him before, a long time ago at the Downtown Deli, but it was nice to meet him again. I can’t imagine what it must be like to mount a campaign for national office, but he seems to have the interest in people and issues and the dedication to the job that it takes. We’ll do our part, and keep our fingers crossed. What a great day that would be.
Out of four nights, I’ve spent three at one “Tooth” or another. We had part of a great pizza at the Moose’s Tooth, and took the rest home for lunch. We started trying to organize some of Dad’s stuff, and I watched The Front Page, another late Wilder film, which features a great performance by Walter Matthau and a terrific cast that was shared heavily by the Muppet Show, I think.
