Thanks, Hilary. 😉

The instructions are: List ten songs that you are currently digging�it doesn�t matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they�re no good, but they must be songs you�re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they�re listening to.

Here�s my list:

1. Striptease, Hawksley Workman
2. The Luckiest, Ben Folds
3. Cold, Cold Heart, Midge Ure
4. The Last Recidivist, Lowest of the Low
5. Once, Jim Boggia
6. Another Town, Greg Klyma
7. Follow You, Follow Me, Red House Painters (cover)
8. Heroes, Jill Sobule
9. Hollaback Girl, Gwen Stefani
10. Raise the Roof, Carbon Leaf

No tagging this time…I’ll just leave it open to whoever. Post a link if you do this, please! 🙂

One of the school districts I sub for is going to an automated calling system. The system also has a web component where you can search for jobs that have been posted in advance. They held a training session this morning, which was pretty much a colossal waste of my time. I got two handouts which gave me all of the information I needed.

For some people, though, the training was obviously necessary.

There was one woman who I can only imagine must be incredibly resistant to change.

Producer: How would you feel about making a change?
Garth: We fear change.

She asked a question every five seconds, most of them displaying extreme assitudery. When we got to the part where you can press star-1 to have the system wait for you to enter your PIN…in case, for example, someone who is not you answers the phone, I thought she was going to have a coronary.

“Oh, that’s not going to happen in my house. Is there any way you can call the system back?”

Well, no. Not really. So she got all huffy. Because apparently, her family can’t handle pressing buttons.

She also couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that you can only enter one period of unavailabilty at a time…like for a vacation or somesuch…but that you can go BACK and enter another one AFTER that period has passed. Really, is it that hard? Good Lord. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I looked around and saw other people snickering and rolling their eyes every time she opened her mouth. *Sigh*

My classes at the community college started today, and they seemed to go well. The class they added for me is a “foundations” class for people who didn’t test into 101. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be too bad, and I don’t think I have any students with major attitude…but I do have one student who appears to have some sort of disorder. I would guess Tourette Syndrome, as he seemed to be exhibiting some verbal tics, but he also seemed sort of socially impaired. This should be interesting.

Oh, and in happy, happy news…

Yes, the Sept. 13 issue of Woman’s World, which features MY STORY, is out!!!!!

(please note, the above image is NOT the cover of the current issue!)

I’m sensing a change coming for erin-go-blog. The blog, that is…not the author!

I’m thinking that I want to do something that’s less about my day-to-day life and is more about storytelling. Riding in the car yesterday with Jen, we shared silly stories from childhood, from high school, from college….and I kept thinking “this is the kind of stuff I should be writing. Stuff that might actually generate, you know, stories.”

So that’s where I am today. 🙂

Any Buffalo Public School teachers out there?

I had all but given up on the prospect of having full-time work thisschool year, hence my opting to take the 3rd class at the community
college and sub. Not a bad deal, I thought…

Then yesterday, I got a call from the head of the English department for the Buffalo schools. They’re looking to fill a few positions. I met with administrators at one school, a middle school, and this was clearly not the position for me. I was terrified by talks of gangs, drugs and sex in the bathrooms.

One of the assistant principals walked me out, told me not to feel bad
about walking away. “This place isn’t for everybody,” she said. She also advised me that I’d probably be better off with older students, probably juniors and seniors, and told me I could call her to ask for her advice on any positions offered to me.

So I called back, and said that one was a no. There are two high school positions, both one-year appointments for teachers on medical
leaves. Dept. Head wanted to put me in touch with one of the principals, but he/she isn’t in until Monday. I don’t know much about this school.

Meantime, I have a message from the community college about the third class I’d agreed to take. I’ve been told not to feel bad about blowing
them off if I need to, that this sort of thing happens all the time with adjuncts.

I’m freaking out.

1. Woman’s World is still not on shelves. Wah. Possibly tomorrow.

2. The community college called to offer me another class. I decided
to take it. I’ll be teaching from 4:30 to 5:45 and 6 to 8:30 every
Tuesday and Thursday. So, I’m like a college professor. Sort of. 😉

3. I have a big pimple on the side of my nose, right where my glasses
sit. That sucks. 🙁

4. The scary grocery store next door to where I’m working has two
tables filled with half-price crap, so I bought a bunch of stuff
yesterday. Woohoo!

5. I also went shopping and spent some of my birthday money. I finally
bought a new bookshelf! And a couple of shirts, and some school
supplies.

And that’s me. Exciting, ain’t it?

Yesterday, I got a big fat check in the mail. Yippee!

And today (I think!) the Sept. 6 issue of Woman’s World, which
features my story, will be out! I checked the Tops next door before I
came in to work, but it wasn’t there yet.

*happy dance*

🙂

I’m not normally judgmental about what other people read, but the woman I’m filling in for at my temp job gets the Sylvia Browne newsletter emailed to her from Barnes and Noble.

Sylvia Browne? Gak.

I’ve read one of her books…recommended to me by someone I worked with back at the evil nonprofit…dealing with death, etc. It was awful. Sylvia Browne is either a hack, off her rocker, or completely high.

In other news, I tore some skin off my upper lip eating a popsicle last night. Go ahead, laugh. I would, if it didn’t freaking hurt so much.

I can’t believe I forgot to write about the weirdest thing that ever happened.

On Monday, when Rand and I were leaving the restaurant, we noticed a
fairly large-ish group of people standing on the corner across the
street. They stood in a circle, holding hands, all speaking loudly and
unintelligably.

I stopped, and sort of stared for a minute.

“What’s going on?” Rand asked. I pointed. “Are they speaking in tongues?”

“I have no idea,” I said.

We turned away and continued walking toward the car, sat there for a
moment or two deciding if we wanted to go get dessert, and then left.
When we pulled out of the parking lot, the people were gone. All of
them. As if they had never been there.

I pointed again. “What the..how did…where did they go?”

“Maybe they got taken up,” Rand said.

Uh, maybe. It was completely bizarre.

I want to go to this:

Party for the Parks

Party for the Parks will transform Hoyt Lake and the Delaware Park Casino into a great party place to be. Live music featuring Buffalo�s own Jackdaw, Trefoyle & Friends and The Ifs are all scheduled to perform on a specially made stage built over the majestic Hoyt Lake.

So one of my favorite bands at one of my very favorite spots in the city…how could I miss this? 🙂

And here’s a blog that’s recently caught my attention:

A Series of Inconsequential Events

Good stuff. 🙂

Did I hear Melissa Ethridge covering Refugee on the radio this
morning? What’s up with that? 🙂

Thank you all again for the bday wishes, and thank you, Jen for
sending your readers my way…I feel very much loved and appreciated!

Rand and I had dinner at Left Bank last night. I’d never been there
before, so that was a treat. I had a cheese tortellini with spinach,
roasted red peppers and mushrooms (ew) in a cream sauce. So, it was a
little bit rich. And I just ate around the mushrooms. 😉 I also had
some tasty chicken and chorizo gumbo. I actually tasted okra! What’s
happening to me? 😉

We were supposed to see Hamlet on Friday night, which got cancelled
because of the rain. 🙁 It’s a curse. On Sunday, I got to meet Rand’s
brother Tim who lives in New York, and he’s great! He’s also a little
bit Rain Man…(kidding, but let me explain.)

He had this Billboard Top 40 book from like 1987, which he apparently
memorized when he was a teenager. Their other brother David pulled out
the book and started quizzing him, giving him an artist and song, and
Tim would tell him the top chart position, year, and number of weeks
on the chart.

Then he started just listing them. He’d be given an artist, say,
Olivia Newton John, and he’d just rattle off the hits. In order. It
was unreal. He could take this on tour, I swear. 🙂

In other news, my stupid temp job is more boring than ever. I’m bored
out of my mind. Blah. I can’t wait until I’m not working here anymore
so I can tell all of my stupid stories. 😉