Category Archives: me!

Stuff

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Time for a few stream-of-consciousness ramblings…

Life taken over for the past week or so by end-of-quarter grades. Survived. Also survived report card night fully intact. (Last night, parents could come to school and pick up their child’s report card, and talk to any teachers they wished to talk to. I was VERY nervous, but it was fine.)

Wish we had the whole day off tomorrow instead of a half day, but I’ll get by. 😉

Adam Lambert’s performance at the AMAs? Over the top? Yes. But what do you expect, America, from the guy who cites Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, and Lady Gaga as favorite artists/influences? And how is it any different than anything, oh, say, Madonna has ever done? Seriously. She is literally famous for pulling this sort of thing at awards shows. (Incidentally, apart from the S/M overtones, the whole thing reminded me a lot of Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted” video. Coincidence?)

Just as a general statement to all–the busier I get, the more absent-minded I get. That means I do things like forget to answer my e-mail. If I forgot to answer your email, I humbly apologize. :-/

Still in the market for a smartphone. Currently considering the new Motorola Droid on Verizon…

Got to meet my very first niece (!!) over the weekend. Had a nice visit with David and family, but forgot to bring the camera. Will take pictures over the holiday. If you’ve been following me on facebook, you know that it’s been busy, busy baby time on both sides of the fam. Rand’s nephew had a baby boy, making me (despite my protestations that it’s simply not possible) a great aunt. My cousin Meghan went into labor about two months early and was rushed to Pittsburgh to deliver. Baby Fiona is just over 2 pounds, but I understand she (and mom) are both doing fine. The family appreciates all of your kind words/thoughts/prayers.

I started reading Margaret Atwood’s new book, but lord knows when I’ll find the time to finish it. I’m enjoying it so far.

I finished reading the Ed Brubaker Daredevil Omnibus. Wow, did that one end on a downer.

I’ve made micro improvements at DDR. I’m still playing at the lowest level (thanks for that tip, Linda!), but I’m starting to get the hang of it, I think.

I’m sure I have more to say, but I’m gonna call this a post. Tomorrow, I bake. If I am so motivated, I will post photos. Happy almost-Thanksgiving!

Is this thing on?

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I know, it’s probably hard to remember…I retreated into my little hidey-hole, and I’ve barely even poked my head in this last little bit. And then when I do come around, I can barely think of anything that’s worth posting about. Hrm.

Well, I posted a few photos of OVFF 2009. And when I say “a few,” I really mean it. 😉 Good times were had. Maybe, if I get motivated, I’ll post some more thoughts on that…maybe. No promises.

The college semester is rapidly coming to a close, believe it or not. I was asked to teach again next semester, and I said yes, for several reasons:

1. As busy as I’ve been, I have really, really enjoyed teaching this class.

2. It’s kind of fun to share a workspace with Rand, even if just for a small amount of time.

3. I like being in the city regularly.

4. I figure that accepting the position now will give me a bit of breathing room as far as planning and such that I didn’t have for the current semester. (I’ve been pretty much flying by the seat of my pants, which lends itself to the overall overwhelmedness…)

I’m pretty sure that I had more that I wanted to add to this post, but I got distracted while posting it, and now I don’t remember…ah well. 😉 Happy weekend, everyone!

Mondays and stuff

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If you looked up “things Erin should be doing right now,” I’m guessing blogging wouldn’t be on the list. And yet, here I am.

I overslept this morning. Oversleeping used to be a fairly regular thing for me, but has become less and less frequent in recent years. I overslept once last year, so I’m hoping once a year is it for me.

Part of the problem is that I need a new alarm clock. The one I have works fine, except for the snooze button. I think it got broken one morning when I forgot to turn the alarm off and it woke Rand up while I was in the shower. He didn’t know how to turn it off, which resulted in random flailing until it stopped making noise.

Eh…lately, I’ve been doing well without the snooze, but today, I obviously needed it. I did fine…I wasn’t late to work at all, and except for it being a bad hair day, it really didn’t affect the day much.

Here are some random thoughts, in no particular order:

I bought Dance Dance Revolution for the wii, and I am learning that I really, really suck at it. Maybe someone could give me some pointers?

I saw The Hangover over the weekend, which was fun, but I didn’t think it was nearly as great as some people seemed to.

I’m getting over the…whatever it was I had last week, but for some lingering sinus congestion.

I tried a new cupcake recipe yesterday, and it ended in disaster. A combo of running out of eggs and trying a substitute I found online and the oven freaking out and running way too hot. They collapsed AND burned. They smelled tasty, though.

Made a small apple crisp today. Made up for the cupcake disaster.

Somehow injured myself in my sleep two nights ago…woke up with an incredibly sore neck and upper back. I’ve been popping ibuprofen, and I’m feeling better (but not 100%) today. Still may need to visit friendly neighborhood chiropractor.

NaNoWriMo is coming up. Now, I am in no way, shape, or form crazy enough to attempt actual participation this year. I am, however, thinking about setting my own much smaller goal–perhaps something like “finish one short story”–and playing along. It would be nice to feel some sense of accomplishment. 😉

Finished watching The Wire over the weekend. Wow. Anyone who has watched can feel free to discuss. (the fifth season was not as emotionally damaging as the fourth, but certainly brought up a lot of interesting ideas.)

Ok, I need to move along now…have a great week!

The last month or so of my life, in pictures

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So yeah…all of those pictures I’ve been talking about are now up on flickr.

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A night out on the town with Luis and Alisa, and Art Baltazar.

We went to this restaurant in Grand Island called the Comic Book Cafe.

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A while back, jennimi came out to visit with us, and we walked around the village.

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Rand and I hosted a Greg Klyma house concert. Here’s Greg, playing in our living room.

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These have been up on flickr for a while, but I also have pix of the Great Big Sea concert Labor Day weekend.

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And I thought I uploaded some pictures of my classroom, but I guess I forgot to send those.

(by the way…new version of iPhoto has a built-in uploader for both flickr and facebook. whoo!)

Things I am behind on

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1. Grading. Always. I need to accept that this is just a normal state of being for an English teacher…especially one who took on an extra class. (I love, love, love teaching my college class. I really do…the class is fun, and they’re a great group of students. But I am exhausted.)

2. TV watching. Watched HIMYM last night, but not Big Bang (yes, I did hear how funny it was…). Almost caught up with Glee (just last week’s ep to watch, which yes, I also heard was awesome, thanks). Some shows I have given up on watching currently and will catch them on DVD (Dollhouse and Castle among them).

3. TC stuff. Must do newsletter for October…I am committing to doing that today, even though I should be grading and/or lesson planning. Sorry ’bout that.

4. Birthdays. My sister-in-law’s birthday was yesterday and I have not mailed her card yet. I did write on her facebook wall, though… (happy birthday, Leslie! I’m sorry!)

Ah…in other news, I am greatly enjoying my new MacBook Pro! I have the most awesome husband ever. 😉

On that note…

5. Moving all of the information and applications I need from the old computer to the new computer. I’ve got all my documents, pictures, and music, and some applications. I need to get all my bookmarks (from firefox) and my address book over to the new computer.

6. Reading. Um, yeah. I did finish Transmetropolitan. Also, Rand has me reading some horrible, overwritten, soap-opera-y comic from the late 70s-early 80s that he read as a teenager. But pages filled with words? Nothing, except the stuff I’m reading for school and my college class (mostly short stories and epic poems. sample: “The Secret Life of Walter Mittty,” “The Necklace,” “The Most Dangerous Game,” “Gift of the Magi,” “Beowulf,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “The Lottery,” “The Things They Carried.” etc.

I need more hours in the day.

—>side note. I’m really tired of freshmen telling me that “they read that story last year.”One of the problems of teaching in a Catholic school, I guess, is that it’s nearly impossible to align the curriculum. Ah well.

Ok, I should get to work on…something. Toodles.

Autumn’s here

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And so a new header to celebrate!

I swear I had something more to say…

Oh, yeah. Homecoming week at school. Today was “dress like a rock star day,” as some of you are aware (those who follow me on facebook, anyway). I decided to try and approximate Pat Benatar. I really should have taken a picture. 😉

And in other news, still busy. Still haven’t uploaded the photos from my camera. Ummm…

Entourage is much more awesome than I ever thought possible.

Also, Glee! I am not up-to-date, but they are saved on the TiVo. Awesome. 🙂 I’ll catch up  one of these days, and then we can talk..

Week in review, part 2

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Okay, here’s where things get *really* crazy.

If you recall, at the beginning of this week, I had zero jobs. Oh, I’d taken steps to make sure I had work–getting my name on the sub lists of the schools where I’d been working and such. I also had an interview scheduled for a long-term sub job which would have started mid-September.

On Wednesday, Rand called me to let me know there was a sudden opening for an adjunct at his school…someone backed out at the last minute, leaving an intro English section without an instructor and the department head freaking out. We talked about it a bit, and I decided that it would be a good thing for me to do. Since classes start Monday, I had to jump right away to get paperwork in and such. (And also get to work on my syllabus, which is, um, not finished.)

So, one! One job! Ah-ah-ah.

Then, yesterday, I got a call from the principal at a school where I interviewed earlier this summer. It was a great interview, and while I was the #2 candidate, they did select someone else for the position. Well, that person took another job this week, and the department chair (who wanted to hire me in the first place) suggested that the principal call me to see if I was still available. And lo, I was indeed!

This position is another 1-year job, but rumor has it that this one has an excellent chance of becoming permanent. I’ll be teaching 9th and 12 grade English (Regents). I’ve taught much of the 9th grade material and some of the 12th grade material before.

Two! Two jobs! Ah-ah-ah.

This is my life. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to freaking out just a little bit about all of this, but I’m very excited too. I visited my classroom yesterday (I met with dept. chair to pick up some materials), and for the first time ever, I’ve got a completely blank slate. I can do whatever I want, and make it totally mine.

So, if anyone knows where I can get some free or cheap classroom decorations (posters and such) please let me know! 😉

Week in review, part 1

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Wow, it’s been kinda crazy around here this week. I spent the early part of the week mostly recovering from the wild weekend of two weddings. Wedding #1 was in Syracuse–we drove out Friday night and hung out with my family. There was a Tully’s right across the street from the hotel, so we spent a lot of time there, eating and drinking way too much.

I wasn’t in a great position to get decent pictures at the ceremony or the reception, but my dad got some good ones. He’s been uploading them to facebook, so perhaps I will snag some of them there.

I did get to wear my awesome vintage dress:

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(looking at these pics, I really need a haircut.)

We left the reception at around 10 to head home to Buffalo so that we could get some sleep before waking up early Sunday morning to drive to Cleveland for wedding #2!

We made it there in good time, and enjoyed our first Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony. The bride, as she had always promised, walked down the aisle to an arrangement of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” played on the organ. Most of my pictures are up at flickr (except for some reception pics that I didn’t edit yet).

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Stephanie looked fabulous in her RED wedding gown! I had a great time catching up with some people I hadn’t seen in quite a while. And even though we were exhausted, I stuck it out until the very end of the reception and the ceremonial playing of “American Pie” (it’s a sorority thing). I’m glad I did–even though that song seems so much longer than it used to!

Oh, and Stephanie’s reception had a photo booth. Way cool, and lots of fun. 🙂

Congratulations and best wishes Niki and Josh, and Stephanie and Brent!

Awesome spoof, or horrifying ignorance?

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So, the internet has been all abuzz with speculation about this video on YouTube:

Is it for real? Or is it a well-done satire?

I’m in the satire camp. Evidence for satire:

1. Apparently, although they’ve been removed, the video originally included the tags Poe’s law and Henry Fielding.

2. I’m not sure the Indian girl’s accent is real. (It seems to slip in and out a bit…especially in the newer video “Going Green for God.”)

3. I don’t think these girls are as young as they’re pretending to be.

4. They’re trying not to crack up at the end.

5. Molly’s comments. Some examples:

“No, the reaction I got was nothing less than superb.”

LadyMurasaki2: >Poe’s Law

You’re the greatest. 10/10

Molly: [Thank You in Japanese]—thanks, Babelfish!

“You are so mean, calling my friend irregular, omg.”

What do you think?