Category Archives: Buffalo

Feeling slightly overwhelmed

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I’ve got lots to do today…

There are a couple of jobs that were posted in the Buffalo News that I really ought to apply for.

I have to work on my syllabus for the class that I’m teaching this summer.

I’ve just had kind of a breakthrough on this screenplay I’ve been working on, and I’d like to give it some attention.

I want to finish a short romance that started to manifest itself in my journal last week.

I want to start researching paying markets for nonfiction.

And I feel like I’m forgetting something important that I *need* to do.

Ah, well.

I posted some ramblings about New X-Men over at the places I go.

And Thomas has created a new site called I Believe in Buffalo, with graphics you can post to your site, and a cafe press store. Drop him a line or leave him a comment if you want him to add a link!

Been busy…

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Doing a lot of nothing, apparently. 😛

Saturday was mostly a lazy day. Jen and I went out to see Jackdaw Saturday night, where we were harassed by a certain tattooed accordion player because it had been so long since we’d been out to a show.

Well…er…yeah. Sorry ’bout that.

We also had a lengthy conversation with George while the guys were setting up and sound checking and the like. He asked me when my birthday was, verified that I was a Leo, then proceeded to give me a personal horoscope of sorts, which included telling me that I needed to listen to my father more. (Jen got the same treatment, but I don’t remember what he told her…)

We stayed for one set, they took a break to address some technical difficulties, and at quarter to 12, the break didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. So we left. Hey, we’re old women. 😉

Sunday involved spending some time with Rand’s parents. We watched Madagascar, which Rand’s dad had recorded for his grandson. It was cute. The penguins were the best part.

Monday? I can’t even begin to tell you what I did on Monday. During the day, at least. Monday evening was the Big Brothers/Big Sisters picnic, which I took my little to. After a little kickball mishap (she got hit in the face trying to catch the ball) she had a great time. I thought we stood in line way too long for hot dogs and chex mix, but these things happen. (NOTE to whoever’s planning…next time, secure more than one grill.)

Yesterday…secured a U-haul for moving the last of my stuff. (I could have done it all without renting a truck, if only I knew someone with a pickup. Ah well. In a serendipitous turn of events, Jen and Mark found an apartment and got the KEY yesterday! They asked to split on the truck, we helped move the large furniture items, and they helped us load and unload my crap. Everyone wins. 🙂

Today, I’ve got a meeting about the class I’m teaching this summer, then a bunch of nothin’. I got a call the other day about an interview at a Buffalo charter school, tried to return the call twice, and haven’t heard back from them. (the message said they wanted to set it up for this week…) I also applied for a full-time position at the community college. I meet their required qualifications, but not the “desired” qualifications. (namely, a Ph.D.) But, I figured that the fact that I’ve been teaching there for two years, teaching multiple classes nearly every semester, can’t hurt. So we’ll see…

Oh, and obviously I did not get that other job I interviewed for.  *shrug* I stand by my previous statements. I had a fantastic interview. It’s just a highly competitive district in a highly competitive market…and I have no doubt that people would be willing to jump ship from other schools/districts to take a job in this one. I’ll get by.

🙂

Happy spring?

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Well, at least the sun is shining. 😉

I’m aware that it is only March, and it IS Buffalo and all…but I want to wear cute spring things. My toes are itching to be painted pretty colors and freed from their coverings.

Otherwise new in the world of me…I saw V for Vendetta over the weekend, and I enjoyed it. I don’t have any attachment to the source material, but I saw it with two bona-fide comic book nerds who also liked it.

I love Natalie Portman.

Also, I recently saw Elizabethtown, which was a lot like Garden State, except that it starred Kirsten Dunst (who I also love) as the plucky, slightly crazy but still adorable young woman playing opposite the emotionally vacant young man who’s just lost a parent. I liked it. I also liked Garden State. *shrug*

Hmmm…Natalie Portman and her sassy short hair (result of the head shaving for V) are making me want to take a trip to the salon…

I was going to post a photo, but the site I found is unbearably slow.

Click over here if you want to know what I thought of Stargirl.

A little bit of…

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My weeks get so busy sometimes that I don’t have a chance to write everything I think about writing. And this past week, I’ve been kept *very* busy while subbing. Extra classes and little free time, and so forth. So here are a few random and unconnected things I read about, thought about, saw or heard last week:

1. I’ve not been to the Washington Market downtown, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. However, their dreadful radio commercials make me want to tear my hair out. The copy is bad, the readings are bad, everything about them is BAD.

2. I saw this post at livejournal that really, really struck a chord with me. The basic gist of the post is that we as a culture and women in particular have a tendency to constantly measure our worth against the people around us. I know it’s something I’m guilty of…that instead of taking pride in my own accomplishments, feeling good about where I am and what I’ve done and what I can do, I compare myself to people I know. Friends and acquaintances and relatives and strangers alike. Women, I think, have a strong tendency to do this in terms of time. As in, I’m 30, and I don’t have X, Y and Z. All these other people have X, Y and Z, therefore, there must be something wrong with me.

I’ve gotten way better at this than I used to be, by the way. But every once in a while…

3. Does anyone out there have a teenage daughter? If so, please talk to me about how you deal with the teenage girl fashions. Oh, and by the way, I think I’ve figured out the sandals/flip-flops in winter phenomenon. Someone has failed to tell these children that Buffalo is not, in fact, located in southern California. 😉

I guess that’ll do it for now. Have a good one!

Extra! Extra!

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Hey everyone…look for me (and a story about Buffalo bloggers) in the Buffalo News today! 🙂

(BTW…I opted to not link directly to the article, but lots of other people did. Check out Alan, Jen, Jennimi, and David. And thanks, again, to Jennimi for getting me mentioned!

Oh, and anyone happening by because of the article…welcome!

I’m in it!

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How cool…I got this message in my email today from Faces of Buffalo:

You created your face in 2005 which means
You are in the all new 2006 Buffalo
& flower themed mosaics!

I guess I’ll have to be getting one of these. Also makes a good gift… 😉

Weekend wrap-up

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Jen’s got some photos posted from the Arrested Development party. It was a come-in-character party..I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but I went as Lucille II. (Rand was the never-seen Frightened Inmate #2)

Dayna was a most excellent Kitty, and, well, Mark sacrificed his facial hair to the cause to become eerily Tobias-like. 😉

Brian was the hit of the party with his Bluth bananas, which sadly were not captured on film. They were mighty tasty.

Saturday night, Jen, Rachel, Brian and I went to see the Ron Hawkins Acoustic Revue at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum and Library. Buffalo Rising has a post (and slide show) of the event.

Music is one of the truly great things about Buffalo…great local music, of course, but also all of the fantastic music from across the border. I’m so glad Jen brought me to Buffalo so I could experience it for myself!

Despite Ron’s cold, it was a great show! The museum (which I had never been in before) made a wonderful concert spot.

Know what I don’t understand, though? I don’t understand why so many people pay good money to go to a concert and then proceed to talk through the whole thing. There was a guy behind us who I don’t think shut up the whole time we were there.

You can read Jen’s account of the show here.

Entertaining

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Well, considering the weather this weekend, I am very glad that Jen
and I went to see Hamlet on Thursday night! Great show. Paul Todaro
did a fantastic job as the prince of Denmark, as I would have
expected. Ophelia, played by Kate LoConti, was outstanding. In fact, I
thought everyone did a magnificent job. I can’t think of a single
thing to dislike.

(Aside…does anyone know why all the Norway/Fortinbras stuff is in
the play? I haven’t found a completely satisfactory explanation. It
really doesn’t do anything for the story.)

We’re so lucky here in Buffalo, to have such a wonderful free
Shakespeare festival. As I’m sure everyone knows by now, they lost a
pretty good chunk of funding because of Erie County’s budget woes. I
would encourage anyone who values Shakespeare in Delaware Park to send
them a donation…

Friday night, I went to see The Aristocrats. I hadn’t heard much about
it beforehand…I even had to have Rand tell me what the joke
was…but it was great. Really, really funny. I noticed that
Shakespeare got rained out, because the actors who played Laertes,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were at the movie. Kind of funny…I saw
these three guys walk in and thought, “Hmm…they look familiar. How
do I–OH!” Heehee.

I also got to see Kung Fu Hustle over the weekend, which was also very
entertaining.

Anyone have any good movie recommendations for me? 🙂

Hooray for Brian and Rachel

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My friend Brian (who is my friend Rachel’s husband) made his voice heard at the ECC South Budget Hearing.

Also, Rachel wrote an op-ed piece that was published in the Buffalo News.

Yay for them.

Is there hope for the libraries in Erie County? Let’s hope so…

Your smile is fine, and it’s just like mine

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Yes, yes, I’m back. It was a long weekend of way too much food (I think that all I ate on Friday was turkey sandwiches and pie. Mmmm…pie…) So this weekend was the Lowest of the Low concert at Club Infinity. They played two shows, Friday and Saturday. R went with a couple of friends on Friday night…I went with Jen on Saturday. I was kinda bummed that we didn’t get to go to the show together, because I hadn’t seen him since Wednesday. I headed out a little bit ahead of Jen, thinking that I’d meet up with our Canadian friends and get our prime spot near the stage. It was around 9 when I got there, and the second opening act was just finishing up. I wandered around, not seeing any sign of our Low-going friends.

I decided to take a position near the edge of the floor and wait for Jen…I glanced around, still looking for the blonde Canadian us-es (inaccurate, as one of them is no longer blonde, but oh well…). No sign of them, but who should I see…

…but R! Yay!

I walked over to him and hugged him. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t wait to see you,” he said.

Awww… 🙂

The show was lots of fun, of course. A good mix of new stuff and old stuff. They played for about two solid hours. The crowd was energetic, but not as obnoxious as it can be sometimes. There was this one girl, who I think was actually shorter than me, who danced her way in front of us. In fact, she was so close that Jen assumed she was R’s friend’s girlfriend. Nope. She kept getting a little too close to me, and I would inch over a little bit closer to Jen.

“I think I’ve seen her in a Great White video,” R’s friend said. Heh.

Well, at any rate, a good time was had by all.

My one disappointment was that I was denied the extended harmonica jam that had been happening at either the beginning or end of Letter from Bilbao. It’s way cool, and they haven’t done it in quite a while. *wistful sigh*

I need an acoustic revue fix now…