meetup, new mall, and sales!
Jul. 17th, 2003 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadayesterday, i went to my first meetup. this was a mom's meetup and it was really quite pleasant. it wasn't earth shattering, but it was nice having dinner with a bunch of random, yet friendly people. discussion topics included labor/delivery stories, how many kids/what spacing, and how irritating it is when meetup picks all durham locations :p.
today i had another mini-assignment, but this time with a twist. i could either drive to durham and back twice or hang out for two hours. as the assignment was at The Streets at Southpoint[1] i decided to see if i could waste a few hours. i had heard that this mall was 'different', but i'd figured it was just a 'theme' and at it's heart Southpoint was just another mall, but with kicky streetlamps. when i walked in, there were flagstone tiles and the stores each had individual storefronts which jutted out into the 'street'. that was all nice, as were the streetlamps and the overall classiness of the whole effect. what stunned me is when i asked directions and was directed outside. a large portion of the mall is outdoors. i'm not even sure if it can really be called a mall, but it had a wonderful atmosphere. it reminded me of the effect of downtown gainesville around the hippodrome[2]. one of the storefronts had been turned into a simple stage and a band was warming up as i left. the only downside is the one that malls were created to overcome. what in the world do they do when it rains? the idea of a weather effected mall was odd enough to me that i actually looked for retractable awnings, but could not see them.
after achieving part one of my mission, i looked about to see where i could waste some time, and what did i see, but a 2 story barnes and nobles. the place even has an escalator. i am muy impressed.. i got a new john ringo novel, several cheapy sale books, and 2 books for sylvia. this is getting to be a bad habit. take sylvia to bookshelf, watch sylvia grin and flail her arms and legs about enthusiastically, buy sylvia books. i did make some attempts at economy, but new books are pricey. we got Huggy Buggy Colors(two pages of intensely rich color with a volkswagon bug and the name of the color). and a soft shape book with little bunnies and cats that could be popped out. we resisted the touch and feel series, starring farm animals, wild animals and pets.
one of my sale books ($1) was a book called Versatility, which is actually a game. it involves flipping pages and having friends invent verse on the fly. it looks like a variant on the standard liar game, but with the twist that you have to write poems. it seems like a really fun brainstorming game. now i need to find 2-3 people who like to write poems for fun. the others were a picture book of barns and a double novel by frederick pohl. all for $1 each.
by this point i had wasted nearly an hour and a half and decided to drift over to the cafe that had been tempting me so cruelly. the last time i had a coffee drink from borders, i had been shaking afterwards from the caffeine overload. sylvia doesn't mind a little caffeine, but i decided it would be good to try to moderate things a bit. there was an odd drink listed towards the end called a creme steamer. i asked what was in it and it turns out that it's just steamed milk with flavorings, ideal for my purposes. i had a caramel steamer made out of whole milk, not skim, with whip cream on top. it was absolutely delicious and it was the cheapest hot drink they had. mmmmmm..... then i toddled off with packages, and drink to wander about the 'streets' a bit until i was done wasting time.
it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon and was even worth the 5mph traffic jam from getting stuck in rush hour. sylvia was sleeping and npr was on, who could ask for more?
[1] hmm, mall good, website broken.
[2] for other cities input downtown [your city] and [random hip spot near theatres]
today i had another mini-assignment, but this time with a twist. i could either drive to durham and back twice or hang out for two hours. as the assignment was at The Streets at Southpoint[1] i decided to see if i could waste a few hours. i had heard that this mall was 'different', but i'd figured it was just a 'theme' and at it's heart Southpoint was just another mall, but with kicky streetlamps. when i walked in, there were flagstone tiles and the stores each had individual storefronts which jutted out into the 'street'. that was all nice, as were the streetlamps and the overall classiness of the whole effect. what stunned me is when i asked directions and was directed outside. a large portion of the mall is outdoors. i'm not even sure if it can really be called a mall, but it had a wonderful atmosphere. it reminded me of the effect of downtown gainesville around the hippodrome[2]. one of the storefronts had been turned into a simple stage and a band was warming up as i left. the only downside is the one that malls were created to overcome. what in the world do they do when it rains? the idea of a weather effected mall was odd enough to me that i actually looked for retractable awnings, but could not see them.
after achieving part one of my mission, i looked about to see where i could waste some time, and what did i see, but a 2 story barnes and nobles. the place even has an escalator. i am muy impressed.. i got a new john ringo novel, several cheapy sale books, and 2 books for sylvia. this is getting to be a bad habit. take sylvia to bookshelf, watch sylvia grin and flail her arms and legs about enthusiastically, buy sylvia books. i did make some attempts at economy, but new books are pricey. we got Huggy Buggy Colors(two pages of intensely rich color with a volkswagon bug and the name of the color). and a soft shape book with little bunnies and cats that could be popped out. we resisted the touch and feel series, starring farm animals, wild animals and pets.
one of my sale books ($1) was a book called Versatility, which is actually a game. it involves flipping pages and having friends invent verse on the fly. it looks like a variant on the standard liar game, but with the twist that you have to write poems. it seems like a really fun brainstorming game. now i need to find 2-3 people who like to write poems for fun. the others were a picture book of barns and a double novel by frederick pohl. all for $1 each.
by this point i had wasted nearly an hour and a half and decided to drift over to the cafe that had been tempting me so cruelly. the last time i had a coffee drink from borders, i had been shaking afterwards from the caffeine overload. sylvia doesn't mind a little caffeine, but i decided it would be good to try to moderate things a bit. there was an odd drink listed towards the end called a creme steamer. i asked what was in it and it turns out that it's just steamed milk with flavorings, ideal for my purposes. i had a caramel steamer made out of whole milk, not skim, with whip cream on top. it was absolutely delicious and it was the cheapest hot drink they had. mmmmmm..... then i toddled off with packages, and drink to wander about the 'streets' a bit until i was done wasting time.
it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon and was even worth the 5mph traffic jam from getting stuck in rush hour. sylvia was sleeping and npr was on, who could ask for more?
[1] hmm, mall good, website broken.
[2] for other cities input downtown [your city] and [random hip spot near theatres]
