This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Be sure to check out the merchandise.

🙂

An open letter to Kansas School Board

BWAH!

I’m in PA this weekend, spending some much-needed quality time with the family. It feels like this is the first weekend in a very long time when I haven’t had anyplace I *had* to be. It’s a strange feeling. 🙂 So I’m taking some time to be mellow, which is much needed.

I have two interviews coming up this week…one on Monday which is for a one-year appointment at an area middle school, seventh grade. The other is for another middle school job, a regular full-time one, but at a school that’s way out in the boonies. Probably at least a 50 minute drive each way. That’s a mighty long time at 6 am. 😉 Anyway, we’ll see how that goes.

The other thing I applied for is a full-time college gig. They’re looking for three full-time writing instructors. That would be awesome…but I don’t know if I have enough experience for them to seriously consider me. The ad was just asking for a master’s degree, since the jobs aren’t tenure track. Again, we’ll see. It would be exciting to just be interviewed for that!

All of this makes me wonder…if I do get a full time job, how smart is it to try and teach TWO classes at the community college? Perfectly do-able when I’m just substitute teaching, but a pretty serious workload with a full-time teaching job. Eep.

I was very happy to learn that Thomas’s son is home from the hospital. What a relief for him and his family…

It finally cooled off a bit around these parts. I actually slept with a *blanket* last night! Hope everyone’s having a fantastic weekend!

Where is the time going…seriously?

Okay, time for the super-condensed recap of stuff I’ve been meaning to blog.

First up, Lowest of the Low!

Jen and I are both listed as “friends” of the Low at MySpace. So when we got to the concert, I wandered over to get a slice of pizza while Jen made a phone call. Who should wander up to get a slice of pizza right next to me but Lawrence! I kind of didn’t recognize him at first. He was wearing sunglasses, and his hair has grown out a bit. It’s a good look. 🙂 He looked over at me, I smiled, and he said, “Are you Erin?” So thanks again, Debbie, for doing such a great job of drawing me!

Great show, of course. Heavy on the new stuff. They played most of Sordid Fiction. Jen and I could not agree on whether or not they played The Sharpest Pain. I said no, she said yes…anyway…three new songs. One of them was very Elvis Costello-y. All of them sounded great. Bring on the new album!

Other things of note from the show…some of which will be later developed for characters in short stories/novels:

The skinny kid in the “need head” t-shirt.

Said skinny kid was very, very drunk and kept almost running into us while drunkenly dancing. He later took off the shirt to become skinny shirtless kid with dancing bear tattoo. He was apparently friends with the girls in front of us who parked in front of the stage at 4 p.m. One of them was hippie-ish with long hair with one beaded braid, Janis Joplin sunglasses, and a halter top. The other was wearing a Low wiener dog tank and was showing way too much tummy…not to mention way too much fuschia panty. They’re called low-rise panties. Victoria’s Secret has them. Look into it.

The girls were there with their moms, one of whom had way-too-bleached-blond hair. Toward the end of the concert, when we started to get annoyed about them pulling everyone they knew in front of us to stand and talk to them, I said, “You have GOT to be kidding me.” One of the moms snipped “We’ve been here since *four*.” Okay lady, maybe you have, but your 27 friends haven’t. Grr. People are just so rude. I hate that.

In other fun, I watched a woman standing next to me snort coke. No joke. She pulled out a teeny-tiny baggie filled with white powder and proceeded to measure it out with a teeny pocketknife. I was floored.

There was a woman behind us dancing who had to be the most rhythmless person I’ve ever seen. It’s called a beat. Find it. 😉

One big pet peeve…quite possibly my favorite Low song performed live is Black Monday. I *hate* when people ruin this experience for me by, say, having a loud conversation throughout the entire song while standing right in front of the stage. If you’re talking through Black Monday, you’re not a real fan.

Ahem.

Okay…Sunday night, then, I went to Nietzsche’s where I saw Greg Klyma perform with Tom Bianchi. Fantastic show. Their ability to improvise and engage in truly funny banter was amazing. Both of them are wildly talented and wildly entertaining. I was just sorry I had to leave a bit early so that I could be up for work in the morning. 🙁 Rand got up and sang with them a couple of times, which is always fun. They performed P.M. Prima Donna(aka the Cher song)…Rand played Greg’s guitar and Greg played the mandolin, which was pretty impressive considering he’d never played it on the mandolin before. I do always enjoy listening to Rand sing. 🙂

At the show, some random older woman in big glasses and a fisherman’s hat stopped in front of me and said, “You are a very beautiful young woman. You have beautiful eyes.”

“Um, thank you,” I said. Because really, what else can one say to that? 😉

So anyone reading out there, do go see Greg and/or Tom if you get the chance. You won’t be sorry!

And speaking of live music in Buffalo…I got a message from this guy named Jon Troast who’s going to be playing at Spot Coffee (Delaware/Chippewa) on Wednesday, August 17 at 8 p.m. He describes himself as being of the folk/rock/pop, singer-songwriter variety. Sounds like it might be worth checking out…anyone care to join me?

I just applied for something that would be a fantastic opportunity, so do keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ack!

That report on the weekend I promised may have to wait. Fun was had by all. The Low show was fantastic. There were many annoying people about, though. Lawrence recognized me from my Ohi doodle! Hee!

Mary’s party was lots of fun. I had to leave the show at Nietzsche’s a bit early, but it was also lots of fun.

So why does the update have to wait? Uh, let’s see…in addition to working today, I also have to get the Toasted Cheese newsletter out, apply for a job I just found in the Sunday listings (which means preparing some things I don’t exactly have prepared), not to mention spend some quality time with my sweetie. I’m a little swamped!

I heard about my most recent interview…no Catholic school ELA/part time technology job for me. Not as if it was my dream job, but still…a rejection is a rejection. 🙁 I’m fairly certain I didn’t get it because the principal got the sense that I wouldn’t be in for the long haul. She did, however, ask me an illegal question, which I only thought about in recounting the story to Jen. Not going to fuss about it though. It’s not worth it. Ah well…

No, silly, not the wizard.

The LOW!

Concert tonight, much driving to follow…Jen and I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Maryland, where we will be celebrating our dear friend Mary’s upcoming nuptials.

If anyone’s looking for something to do on Sunday evening, Greg Klyma will be performing at Nietzsche’s at 8 p.m. It’ll be fun!

This means, of course, I won’t be around until Monday. Don’t miss me too much. Check back then for details…

🙂

As a chronic sufferer of allergies and sinus congestion, I use a lot of Sudafed. Actually, I use a lot of store-brand generic pseudoephedrine.

Lately, a number of stores have begun hiding the Sudafed (and generics) behind the pharmacy counter. Why? Because it’s being used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Here’s an article about stores that have jumped on the behind-the-counter bandwagon.

When I purchased some at Target, not only did I have to go to the pharmacy counter to get it, but I had to pay for it there as well. Because clearly, there could be some illegal activity between the pharmacy counter and the front checkout. Sigh.

I understand the reasoning behind this, I really do…but I hate feeling so dirty just buying sinus medication. And I wonder, is it really stopping or reducing the manufacture of meth?

I notice that Sudafed is marketing a new product…my mom had some last time I was home…I took some, but I didn’t seem to think it worked as well. Has anyone else tried this?

Yesterday, Jen, Jen and I (along with another sorority sister who lives in Buffalo) volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House 5K Run. We were at the volunteer tent, which basically meant checking names off a list and handing out t-shirts. The Ronald McDonald House is Alpha Delta Pi’s national philanthropy, and corny as it may be, it felt good to a little something to help out. There was some talk about putting a team together and walking (not running!) next year.

While we were there, we got to participate in the Faces of Buffalo public art project. So our faces will be featured in the next mosaic! Basically how it works is this…you draw your self portrait, and all of the faces are used to form an image of, say, a Buffalo, or city hall, and so on. How cool is that?

Go here to find out more about Brian Nesline and how his story began. Yay for Brian, I say. 🙂

So I decided to dump backblog. And ask for my money back. We shall see.

There are a couple of recent comments that I am going to re-post. Since you have to sign in to Blogger or post anonymously, I would very much appreciate it if you non-Blogger users would sign a name to your comments. I like to know who’s talking to me. Thanks!

Oh, and does anyone have any idea why, even though I clicked “show comments in a popup window”, they’re not being shown in a popup window? I don’t like them this way. 🙁

So Rand and I went to Cleveland over the weekend. Neither of us had ever been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so we made a trip of it. We spent pretty much all of Saturday wandering about the various halls and exhibits. Rand was especially excited about the Tommy exhibit. (I didn’t previously know much about Tommy. I knew some of the songs, of course, but that was about all.)

Some of the highlights…

The Tommy documentary, which I thought was very interesting and well done.

The little clip show of the induction ceremonies. I cried every time they showed someone who’s died since their induction. And why, oh why, do they not produce and sell an induction ceremony/concert DVD?

One little wall display of Bon Jovi memorabilia. Hee! 🙂

The John Lennon memorabilia, which featured a bunch of things from Julian’s private collection. *sniff*

The collection of various costumes worn by performers over the years.

One big disappointment…the “multimedia presentation” featuring the inductees. Let me see if I can adequately describe this. You waited for the presentation in a little room where the clip show was showing on continuous loop. This would lead one to believe that the presentation would feature some bits from the induction ceremonies and concerts, right? But no…the presentation, on three big screens, was just video clips (with sound, of course) of each inductee. I suppose the three screens and big floating words were what made it “ultimedia”? Eh. It could have been a lot better.

One discussion topic…looking at the list of inductees, Rand pointed out that most of the “great” bands are British, while the US seems to produce more singer/songwriter/performers. Thoughts?

I’ve been thinking about dumping backblog for a while now, and I think the weird thing that happened yesterday about solidifies it.

I’ve been told by several people that they frequently are unable to access my comments at all. Then yesterday, I had two comments up and disappear on me.

I have the “pro” account, which means all comments are emailed to me. I also have the ability to delete comments, but I’ve only ever deleted comments of a nasty/abusive nature.

I saw the two comments in question in my email. I never went to look at them on the blog itself, but I know that a couple of other people saw them. When I checked later, they were gone. Poof.

So do I dump backblog? If I dump backblog, do I just use blogger comments? And do I write to backblog asking for my $10 back? (the cost of a backblog pro subscription for a year…)