You might remember me talking about this sign at a gas station outside my hometown. Although I get horribly offended by people referring to my home state as “Pennsyltucky”, well, how can I argue with this?

So I’m over the little snit I was in last night about losing my not really very long or very important post…here are the highlights.

Yesterday and the day before, I was in an AIS (Academic Intervention Services) classroom. Very small groups. Their assignment? Play Scrabble. Now *that* was a rough couple of days. 😉 I even got to play a game the last period of the day yesterday. There were only three students in the group.

It was kind of nice being in the AIS room…shared with three other teachers. See, ordinarily, substitute teaching is a terribly solitary experience. You spend the day isolated from other teachers. And at lunch, you constantly feel like the new kid. Even if you’re subbing frequently at the same school, chances are, you don’t frequently have the same lunch period. So every day, it’s a new group of faces, all in their own little worlds. I swear, when I have a full time job, I’m going to make it a point to be extra friendly to the subs at lunch. 😉

I went to the temp agency to try and get placed for the summer…so far nothing. I did do very well on the office skills tests. I type 66 WPM. Go, me. 😉

I know I have lots more to say, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to do it now.

I will never learn.

Copy, copy, COPY the post before clicking publish.

Grrr.

Anyway, I said a bunch of crap that wasn’t really important anyway. Been subbing. Busy. Been reading. See my latest entries in the 50 Book Challenge below.

It’s Monday morning and my thoughts are scattered. Please forgive me any incoherence. 😉

I had a lovely weekend, but I have to start with Thursday. We met some friends of Rand’s for dinner at Taste of India. Now, those of you in WNY who frequent these establishments, please chime in on this…Taste of India on Sheridan and India Gate on Elmwood are owned and run by the same people. I’ve eaten at both, and can’t find any distinguishable difference between them. Rand and friends insist that Taste of India’s food is much better. Thoughts? Anyway, it was fantastic as always. I’d always been a fan of the curry, but Rand’s got me hooked on the Chicken Malai. Yummmm…and to think, if it hadn’t been for X, I wouldn’t even know I liked Indian food.

Also on Thursday, Doug (Rand’s friend) gave me an absolutely gorgeous painting, just because I said I liked it. 🙂 It’s a sunset over the ocean…exactly the sort of thing I like to paint.

Friday night, Rand surprised me by taking me to the AAUW’s annual used book sale. Mounds and mounds of books, with no mean crazy book lady to steal them all from me. Hehehe. I found a bunch of paperbacks, all of the “English teacher” persuasion. Good stuff.

We watched some more “Six Feet Under”–Rand bought the Season 3 DVDs. Hurrah! We’re about three episodes in. Lisa just quit her job with the insane woman.

On Saturday, Jen and I traveled to PA for Susan’s shower. On the way down, we listened to the Avenue Q and Spamalot soundtracks. I enjoyed both thoroughly and would love to see them. (I’d absolutely *love* to see Spamalot on Broadway with the original cast…somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen.) The shower was, of course, very nice.

Sunday, Rand and I drove out to his parents’ house where we had a nice dinner and visit with his parents and brother and sister-in-law.

And last night, it was too disgustingly hot to sleep well. Ugh.

I have more to say, but I’m out of time for now. Hope everyone had a most excellent weekend!

This looked like too much fun to pass up…via Eden.

“Pick a band/artist now answer the questions using ONLY song titles from the chosen band/artists�add your answers and repost�let�s see all the different bands and songs�.get creative and.have fun!”

1. artist choice: Bon Jovi (Eden did Fleetwood Mac)

2. are you a male or female: Woman in Love

3. describe yourself: She’s a Mystery

4. how do you feel about yourself: Livin’ on a Prayer

5. describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: You Give Love a Bad Name

6. describe your current boyfriend/girlfriend: Born to Be My Baby

7. describe your current location: Two Story Town

8. describe where you want to be: Someday I’ll be Saturday Night

9. your best friend is: Wild in the Streets

10. your favorite color: Bed of Roses

11. what�s the weather like: Wild is the Wind

12. if your life was a television show what would it be called: It’s My Life

13. what is life to you: Blaze of Glory

14. what is the best advice you have to give: Keep the Faith

15. if you could change your name what would you change it to: Rosie (that one’s a Richie Sambora solo song…)

Glad to see so many joining in. Here are some other lists for you to enjoy!

Eden (Fleetwood Mac)
Jen (Ron Hawkins/Lowest of the Low)
Stephanie (Jackson Browne)
Squeak (Tragically Hip)
Hawk (The Beach Boys)
Ali (Prince)
Michelle (Duran Duran)

If you play along, please post your link! 🙂

Just last week, I was having a conversation with Jen, and I noted that I no longer had an issue with public schools adopting uniforms. She was surprised that I ever did, because she always saw it as a way to avoid problems between rich kids who wear uppity, preppy clothes and the kids who can’t afford those things.

It made me realize that I was fortunate to have not had such problems in high school.

Really, the town where I grew up had two discount department stores. My mom worked for one of them. (Both are no longer in business, and my hometown now sports a Super Wal Mart.) Probably sometime when I was in junior high, a Fashion Bug opened in the plaza. High fashion, we were not.

About a half hour’s drive away was a small “mall” with a Sears and JC Penney. Another hour away and you could get to a typical mall.

But still, I don’t remember it being a big deal to have “Bennetton” or “Gap” on my shirt. I don’t think I could tell you a brand of jeans that I wore. (Jordache? Gitano? Lee?) And in my high school, I was considered a “prep”. Go ahead, laugh. I sure do.

Ah, times have changed.

I was in town over the weekend. The big Memorial Day parade (two high school marching bands, scout troops, a bunch of dignitaries in cars and a whole crapload of fire trucks) goes right by my parents’ house. My cousin is in the band, so we all stood out front to watch the parade. I made note of two teenage girls. One of them was wearing one of those silly short-short skirts with the ruffle and a Hollister t-shirt. The other was wearing an Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt. I shook my head. It seems you can’t even escape these things in rural PA anymore.

So today, I subbed at one of the suburban high schools. It amazed me that they either a) do not have a stricter dress code; or b) apparently don’t enforce it.

I saw kids (girls) wearing things that I certainly would have been sent home for wearing. The afore-mentioned super short skirts. Tiny tanks with bra straps showing. Belly shirts. Shorts so short they’d make Daisy Duke blush. Not even kidding. My mother wouldn’t have let me out of the house like that, let alone go to school that way.

I did have to give one little girl some credit…at first, when I saw her walking down the hall in a very Avril-esque outfit, I laughed, but when she got closer, I realized that the outfit actually appeared to have been put together in genuine punk fashion. Vintage pieces, rather than stuff bought at the mall.

A side note to that…I had a 7th grader write me a persuasive essay about how there should be more punk stores…at the mall. Like Hot Topic. Snerk.

And the preppy boys…ah, you could see the preppy boys a mile away,with their gelled hair and polo shirts with upturned collars (really. did this trend *have* to come back?) and shell necklaces. Gak.

I sit back and look, and I think, “Thank God I’m not them.” 😉

In Jen’s post, she requested that I share my experience with Annoying Book Lady. I thought I should do that, but first, I give you Part I: Annoying Library Guy.

Jen and I both have lists of books we want to read…not counting, of course, the piles of books we have started at home…so we decided to head down to Central library Friday afternoon to browse.

We found an excellent parking space, scrounged three quarters between us for the meter, and wandered in.

We met up about half an hour later, piles of books in hand. Jen knew that she needed to either update or get a new card, so I said I’d just get all the books on mine. I went to the new “self checkout” but got this message when I scanned my card:

There is a problem with your card.

So I took my card and pile of books up to the checkout desk and handed Annoying Library Guy my card.

“Your card’s expired,” he said.

“Oh,” I said. “How do I update it?”

“I just need your driver’s license.”

That would all be well and good, except that I don’t have my current address on my driver’s license. My address is updated with the DMV, and I put a sticker with my current address on the back where it says “write new address here.” I never bothered to get a new one.

“Then I need a piece of mail with your current address,” Annoying library guy said.

I dug through my bag, knowing that I had a couple of pay stubs. I handed him one.

“This is no good,” he said. “It has to be within the past month.”

I sighed.

I found something else…the certificate from my defensive driving course. It was dated April 16 (the date of the class), but there was no postmark on it.

No good, Annoying Library Guy told me.

I complained. I groused. The best he could offer me was to hold the books for three days and I could come back and get them.

“Forget it,” I said. “I’m not coming back.”

On Saturday, Jen and I made a quick trip to the Crane branch, the one nearest our apartment. There, we met Nice Helpful Library Guy.

I’d come prepared with a current piece of mail and told the guy that I needed to update. He asked me for my license. When I said I had a new address, he simply turned the license over and began typing my new address into the computer.

“You’ve *got* to be kidding me,” I said to Jen.

We explained Annoying Library Guy from the previous day, and he didn’t seem all that surprised.

Part II: Annoying Book Lady

Jen and I decided to go out and troll the yard sales on Saturday morning. One of my favorite things to do at yard sales is to dig through boxes of people’s old books, looking for things to add to my future-classroom-library collection.

We came upon a big block sale, and the first house we came to had boxes and boxes of books. I was horribly excited. There was another woman there, looking very much like a professional yard-saler…frizzy graying hair, mismatched clothes, the lust for blood in her eyes.

I started to browse through the books as I overheard her talking to the house owners.

“How about if I give you $15 for all of them?”

All of them? As in all of the books?

“She’s taking all of them?” I whimpered.

“Not this one,” she gestured toward a box I had just looked through, which had about 7 books left in it.

I slumped my shoulders in defeat. Jen caught sight of a couple more boxes on the porch and walked toward them.

“Those are mine too,” Annoying Book Lady said.

“Way to spoil all my fun,” I muttered, taking three books I had rescued from her evil clutches. “She didn’t even look at them. She’s probably going to sell them all on eBay.”

Sigh…

For sharing the code for the “currently reading” link now added to my sidebar. Clicks on the Amazon link (and subsequent purchases) from erin-go-blog will benefit Toasted Cheese.

Woohoo!

How have I not been reading Go Fug Yourself?

It is priceless.

This just made me pee a little:

(Kelly Clarkson’s clothes being judged by the American Idol judges. View the post here.

“Sure, you’re doin’ your thing, dawg, but I’m not feelin’ the shirt, man, I’m just not feelin’ it. And dress is pitchy. Butyou know what, man, you did what you do.”

“I have to agree with Randy. Everything you did is what you do. Words came out when you opened your mouth, and your face is like rainbows that dance on the toenails of God. But your light is so dark, here, that maybe God hasn’t gotten his pedicure, because I can’t see the stars that pour out of your soul because of your performing beauty. I’m so very lonely.”

“Paula is a lunatic. Kelly, you look ridiculous. You can do better.”

BWAH!