I’m starting a yahoo group to discuss Lost, since it seems like I know a lot of people who are obsessed, like me. 🙂 If you want to join the group, leave a comment or send me an email. 🙂

I had a fantastic weekend in PA at Mary’s wedding. I don’t get to see this group of college friends nearly enough, and I love and miss them dearly. Here’s a photo:

That’s me, Jen, Mary, Holly and Karen. Aren’t we cute? 🙂

As soon as I figure out how to work flickr, I’ll get the whole lot of them posted there so everyone can have a look. In the meantime, here’s a cute one of me and Rand as well:

Also, a very happy birthday to Dayna, Anita, and happy anniversary wishes to Paul and Trisha! 🙂

Who am I? What day is this?

Ack…needless to say, life has been busy. But as I’ve said, the life of a substitute teacher is good for my reading. Not to mention my grading for my evening classes. It’s kind of cool having things to grade while I’m subbing. It makes me feel like a real teacher. 😉

Last week, I subbed for the first time in a district that has three high schools; North, South, and East. I’ve now been in both North and East, and East is the weirdest school I’ve ever seen. It has no walls.

Of course, it has outside walls…but the classrooms have no walls or doors closing them off from the rest of the school. Partial dividing walls kind of create the space, and some teachers use filing cabinets, shelves and cupboards as partial walls as well. There are no real “hallways”, so to speak. I was subbing for a science teacher, and there were two classes that were lab periods. Since their regular teacher was out, they didn’t have lab. And I learned that when they don’t have lab (or whenever they finish their labs) they can just go wherever they want. This is information a sub really should have at the *beginning* of the day, wouldn’t you think?

Weird.

I’ve also subbed a couple of days in the Shangri-La of all WNY high schools. Oh my GOD. The school is beautiful, the kids are polite and well-behaved. I was in teacher heaven. Of course, it also got me to thinking about how unfair it is…these kids, by luck of birth, have parents who can afford to buy expensive houses in an affluent suburb and want for nothing, while other kids go to overcrowded schools that barely have money for supplies. I don’t know what the answer is, but there has to be one.

Vaughn is NOT DEAD. He’s not.

I hate this show. But of course I’ll keep watching.

Damn you, JJ.

What a week.

I subbed 4 out of 5 days last week, which was very, very good. I’m pretty sure I could have worked the other day, but I had a doctor’s appointment. Two days, I was in for the same teacher. Most of the classes were fine, but there was one that gave me some trouble…playing a little game of “break the sub”, I’m sure. Gah.

Friday was my first day in a new school. It went very well, but I was pretty much just giving tests all day. The kids were SO good, I couldn’t believe it. I really hate the first day in a new place, though, because there are things that no one tells you…like where the bathroom is, and that you need a key to get into the faculty restroom. Oh, and this…at lunchtime, I needed some utensils. The room I was in was right across the hall from a small cafeteria, so I figured I could just pop in over there. I walked in, got a strange look from a cafeteria aide, and poked my head into the serving line. I asked a student to hand me a fork and knife. I got a spork. No kidding. A spork.

I walked back into the office where I was having my lunch, and decided to go back and see if there were some chips, or some fruit or something. The same cafeteria aide again looked at me strangely.

“You’re better off going to the staff cafeteria,” she said. It seemed as if she was annoyed with me for being there.

“Um, okay. Where is that?”

“You’re looking for a fork, right? They don’t give the kids forks.”

Okay, but see…no one told me there was a staff cafeteria. So you really don’t need to be all annoyed with me. Just tell me where it is, for crying out loud. And what’s the deal with the sporks? Were they having problems with the forks? Was there a freak fork accident? *Grumble*

Over the weekend, Rand and I traveled to St. Marys for my friend Kim’s wedding. It was very nice, and good to see everyone. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures.

I’ve gotten a bit behind on my email, so I apologize to anyone I haven’t responded to, or haven’t been in as much contact with lately. My schedule is making it a lot harder to keep in touch, especially since I can’t check email while I’m working during the day. Feel free to keep in touch with me via comments. 🙂

I want to be the sub every time this teacher is out. I subbed for him a couple of times last year, and he always has meticulous plans that involve me doing very little. On more than one occasion, it has meant the guidance counselor coming to talk to several of the classes for the entire period.

Nothing is worse than subbing when there are no (or poor) plans. It is chaos.

While I’m on the subject, the thing that probably bugs me the most about substitute teaching is how utterly solitary it is. People are usually nice, yes, but you’re constantly the new kid in school. Especially at lunch. And even in a school where you sub frequently.

See, you get your lunch when the teacher has his lunch. Since you’re always a different teacher, it’s always a different lunch. Every day in the lunchroom, new people. And as in any workplace, lunchroom groups bond and form. Teachers talk about people you don’t know and things you’re not a part of. And as nice as they are to you, you’re never part of the group. And you do this day after day after day. Sometimes I read a book, but I don’t want to appear aloof…after all, you want these people to know and like you. You want to be on their minds when they need a sub. You want them to tell administrators how much they like you, should a full-time job become available. It’s exhausting.

Blah.

I’m nearing completion of The Unbearable Lightness of Being…I would venture to guess that I will be finished with it today. I am enjoying it, although I’m enjoying the social/political stuff more than the sex stuff. (Yes, yes…the sex stuff is a *metaphor* for the political stuff. I get it. But it’s depressing.)

I was stuffed so full of food yesterday that I thought I was going to explode. Lunch at Rand’s parents’ house (yummy chicken marinaded in this mojito sauce from the Dinosaur. I miss that place…plus like a million side dishes), and dinner at Rand’s friend Chris’s. Chris made a Santa-Fe style chicken stew, and the chicken was simply heavenly. Served over perfectly prepared Basmati rice. My favorite part of the meal, quite possibly, was the little slices of bread with a garlic/parsley/walnut pesto spread. I would have eaten the whole tray, had there been room in my stomach. 😉 Chris has promised me the recipe, and I understand it’s waiting in my (uncheckable) email as I type.

Chris and his wife have a new baby girl, who was utterly adorable. Even more adorable was the sight of Rand holding her and softly singing “Don’t Worry Baby” to her. (somewhere, far off in the distance, erin-go-blog hears the faint ticking of a clock…heehee…) I got to hold her for a bit myself and she fell asleep on my shoulder, gnawing contentedly on my t-shirt.

Awww…

Working again today. I left this morning without my purse, which is kind of annoying considering that my phone is in it. grr. At least I don’t need any money.

Also, while I am able to get online at this school (I can’t at all of them) they do block all web-based email. So no communication with the outside world for me until after 2:15.

I had a good weekend, which I will elaborate on more later. 🙂

Hey, everyone…I’m working today! And Monday! Woohoo!

What I love about pre-planned absences is that they’re so…planned. Four sections of English 12, going to the library today for instruction and then to work on either a paper or a reading assignment, and they’re meeting with a guidance counselor on Monday.

One section of English 9, taking an essay test both days.

I do have a Mass Media class with no plans, apparently. That should be interesting. And one study hall…study halls can be horribly painful with middle school students, but high school kids usually aren’t too bad.

This room is horribly hot, and I can’t seem to get the windows open. Blah.

Yesterday…

Ups:

Finding three skirts and a top on the clearance racks at Kaufmanns THEN finding out if I use my Kaufmann’s charge, I get an extra 20% off. Total for all items, with tax, $23. Woohoo!

Downs:

Seeing the front page headline on the Buffalo News: Brown Trounces Gaughan.

Trounces? I have to wonder about the selection of the word “trounces”. It was as if there was glee in it. Bah.

No subbing work yet, which doesn’t really surprise me…it is, after all, only the second week of school. But how much longer can I do this? I wonder if maybe it was foolish of me to leave the stupid temp job.

But there is some (possible) good news on the job front…that college position I applied for (writing lecturer) is still open. They sent me a letter letting me know that they had to push back the hiring date untill January, and to get back to them with a statement/references if I was still interested. So who knows…

And here’s a little tidbit for anyone who’s not donated to Katrina relief yet…The Onion is matching donations made through their website up to $100,000.

Read more here.

On my way to the community college, I pass a fire hall-type place which has a sign out front that reads “Congratulations Jeff and Gina!”

Anyone who went to high school with me will know why that’s amusing. And it reminds me of a story.

When I was dating J, he was good friends with this guy Jeff. Jeff was dating Gina, a girl I’ve known practically since birth. Jeff and Gina are pretty much the reason I started dating J at all. Gee, I should thank them. *cough*

Anyway, this isn’t a story about how completely messed up my relationship was, or how dreadful those years of my life were. I don’t have all day. 😉 No, this is a funny story.

One day, I was at Gina’s, and I saw a piece of paper stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet. On it, scrawled in Jeff’s handwriting, was this:

It’s like having a dream
Where nobody has a heart
It’s like having it all
And watching it fall apart
And I would wait till the end
Of time for you
And do it again, it’s true
I can’t measure my love
There’s nothing to compare it to

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s a poem Jeff wrote for me.”

“Really?” I said. “It sounds sort of familiar…”

Ah…very quickly, I figured out that Jeff had cribbed song lyrics and passed them off as his own. By cleverly not including the chorus

(If I could fly, I’d pick you up
I’d take you into the night
And show you love like you’ve never seen…)

he was able to temporarily get away with it. But then I came along with my brain for remembering even the crappiest of crappy song lyrics and ruined it all for him. 😉

And what the heck is up with this song, anyway? It should be illegal. The first line of the song is “She’s just sixteen years old, leave her alone they say.” And the singer is clearly an adult, not a seventeen-year-old. Creepy.

*shudder*