things to do in Madison, NJ if you are me
Dec. 23rd, 2011 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI got up around 11:30, thus satisfying my parents' general assumption that mornings are for getting up and doing things and afternoons are NOT FOR SLEEPING (except naps, after one has gotten up around 7am, blecch).
Around 1pm, Mom, the dog, and I walked down to the car repair shop where my parents' good minivan was in for service. It turns out that there's a leak in the power steering fluid system, but the new hose will not be delivered until Tuesday. So the shop owner topped up the fluid, gave my parents a bottle to continue topping it up as it leaks out, and we're good for local driving (though obviously not anything major, like, say, driving to Ithaca). So we loaded the dog into her crate and drove back up the hill.
I immediately stole the car and set out on what became an epic library quest. In hopes of writing a particular Yuletide treat, I realized I needed a particular book for reference. I tried to find it yesterday in Ithaca, but while there are 8 copies in the county system, not a single one is at my local library. So no dice. Today I tried to find it at the Madison library... which was closed. Then I tried the Chatham library (enduring the drive east along Main St. through central Chatham, which easily counts as one of the lesser circles of hell), and discovered someone had just checked it out. (I did find a mystery my mom wanted, though, and picked that up.) So then I drove back west along Main St. and out to the Florham Park library. Finally, success!
Tangentially, that drive reminded me how different Ithaca and Madison are geographically. Ithaca is bigger (~30 thousand people vs. ~15 thousand), but it's in the middle of rural nowhere. Madison is bang in the heart of the giant suburban sprawl that forms the greater NYC metro area; each town blends indistinguishably into the next, to the point that I am still not quite sure where half of the border between Madison and Chatham actually runs, and don't even ask about the border between the borough of Chatham and Chatham Township.
Since returning from the library, I have been folding laundry and desultorily helping Mom bake Christmas cookies. So far we have done chocolate chip cookies, molasses spice cookies, good cookies, and peanut blossoms. Yum.
And in about 30 minutes I will walk down the hill into town and meet Susan for dinner at Poor Herbie's, after which we will walk a block and a half to the movie theater and see the new Sherlock Holmes film. (Films are chosen partly on the basis of what Susan has already seen, partly on what will be easiest for her to persuade various other friends and family members to see with her after I leave, and partly on the basis of what I am actually interested in seeing. You can tell which one of us watches a lot more movies than the other. *grin* This tends to default toward action movies, which is more than fine by me. Explosions and chases are Good Things in my book. *bigger grin*)
Around 1pm, Mom, the dog, and I walked down to the car repair shop where my parents' good minivan was in for service. It turns out that there's a leak in the power steering fluid system, but the new hose will not be delivered until Tuesday. So the shop owner topped up the fluid, gave my parents a bottle to continue topping it up as it leaks out, and we're good for local driving (though obviously not anything major, like, say, driving to Ithaca). So we loaded the dog into her crate and drove back up the hill.
I immediately stole the car and set out on what became an epic library quest. In hopes of writing a particular Yuletide treat, I realized I needed a particular book for reference. I tried to find it yesterday in Ithaca, but while there are 8 copies in the county system, not a single one is at my local library. So no dice. Today I tried to find it at the Madison library... which was closed. Then I tried the Chatham library (enduring the drive east along Main St. through central Chatham, which easily counts as one of the lesser circles of hell), and discovered someone had just checked it out. (I did find a mystery my mom wanted, though, and picked that up.) So then I drove back west along Main St. and out to the Florham Park library. Finally, success!
Tangentially, that drive reminded me how different Ithaca and Madison are geographically. Ithaca is bigger (~30 thousand people vs. ~15 thousand), but it's in the middle of rural nowhere. Madison is bang in the heart of the giant suburban sprawl that forms the greater NYC metro area; each town blends indistinguishably into the next, to the point that I am still not quite sure where half of the border between Madison and Chatham actually runs, and don't even ask about the border between the borough of Chatham and Chatham Township.
Since returning from the library, I have been folding laundry and desultorily helping Mom bake Christmas cookies. So far we have done chocolate chip cookies, molasses spice cookies, good cookies, and peanut blossoms. Yum.
And in about 30 minutes I will walk down the hill into town and meet Susan for dinner at Poor Herbie's, after which we will walk a block and a half to the movie theater and see the new Sherlock Holmes film. (Films are chosen partly on the basis of what Susan has already seen, partly on what will be easiest for her to persuade various other friends and family members to see with her after I leave, and partly on the basis of what I am actually interested in seeing. You can tell which one of us watches a lot more movies than the other. *grin* This tends to default toward action movies, which is more than fine by me. Explosions and chases are Good Things in my book. *bigger grin*)
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Date: 2011-12-23 11:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-24 06:13 pm (UTC)