CarpeAcum

Jerry Springer? Seriously?!?

Did you even realize that Jerry Springer was still around? Still alive? I guess I figured he'd crawled back under his rock some time ago.

Having to share a TV with "the great unwashed" is probably the worst part of having car work done. You're stuck in a room with strangers, some of whom are probably watching the wretched show, trying to read or knit or whatever you do to distract yourself while you're waiting. I assure you, I don't distract myself by watching couples have ridiculously nasty and showy break-ups and break-downs on television. It was horrible. I to not watch, but I couldn't not hear. Blech.

It's the worst of human nature, on steroids.

As one of my bridge partners remarked Friday night, ". . .and these people vote." It's true. The crowd who was chanting on the Jerry Springer show are all old enough and citizen enough to be voters. Let's just hope they haven't figured out how to register or fill out a voting form. They are, more than likely, very excited about who is beating up whom on Jerry Springer, but not so much about exercising their civic rights/duty.

The big question is when did we, as a society, decide that the lowest common denominator was not just okay, but desirable? Why does Jerry Springer have an audience at all? And how do we discourage it?

To top of my little adventure, I dropped my finished boot sock as I left the waiting room. Luckily, someone saw it and brought it into the cashier's room before I left.

In good news, though, I finished the heel and turn on the second sock, and moved on to the gusset. Yay! I have gotten a lot of knitting done on those socks while watching videos in the physics class! Maybe the socks will be smart.

Look! It's our deer. This is most likely the same deer that left hoofprints in the snow. She enjoyed eating leaves off of the trampline--like a buffet!

 

I lost a whole week

I lost a whole week to the sickness that ate my energy! I felt a little under the weather last weekend, but by Monday morning, I couldn't budge off my comfy chair. I had to cancel a sub job that I had taken about a month ago <sigh>. Tuesday was more of the same, which meant that I missed my GS meeting on Monday, and the GS leader meeting on Tuesday. It was just some sort of virus, but it knocked me flat.

On Wednesday, I was so excited to get up out of my chair and do dishes and laundry! Yay!

All of this meant that I got behind on my sewing for $$$, the deadline for which was. . .today. They're very understanding, though, and I have the weekend to get all caught up. It should work fine. I have a GS Thinking Day event tomorrow, and then Punkin has a dance class on Sunday, but the rest of the weekend is mine, all mine! I have 4 of the bags done, and I think there are 4 to go. The hardest part has been attaching the handles. Ugh.

At any rate, I only had to actually cancel one lesson, and postpone another. It's much easier to find another sub to take over a school job than to reschedule my own lessons.

So after however many days in a row of blogging and sewing, I fell off the wagon. But really, I was pushed. Or maybe I just lay in the road with no energy to get up, my head lolling about. It was a weird week. But I'm back!

Not a Sub Job

The Beard's year-old TV went on the fritz last Sunday right in the middle of the playoff game. The game that he found out later was really good. He spent the last 3/4 of the game turning the TV on and off, trying different things with the remote and generally being bummed.

Finally, he called the repair people. And they set it up so that a repair guy would come out today. So I stayed home to be here when he came. I also had a lesson this morning, so it worked.

The repair guy got here a little after lunch. He recognized the problem immediately, although it was not what they had put on his job order. He has to order a part, and he'll come back on Tuesday to install it.

So I stayed home and I got quite a bit done, although not everything that was on my list. I am hoping to have a sub job tomorrow, but if not, then i certainly have plenty of things to do!

I am always interested by the fact that the more things I have to do, the more I get done. When I have a wide-open schedule, I can't seem to get going on anything. If I only have a couple hours to get things done, somehow I fit it all in. I know I'm a deadline junkie, but it seems to be more than that. Maybe it's all related, though. I relished the day of work at home today, probably because I've had some contrast in the past week.

I hope I'll have work tomorrow, but I won't know until I get up and check. So off to bed so I can get up REALLY early.

First Substitute Job

I have been getting up early all week at 6:00 to try and find a substitute teaching job, but I thought that maybe it wasn't early enough. So on Friday, I got up at 5:30 and headed for the computer. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. The Beard got up and got ready for work. I drove him to the bus stop at 7, since I was up anyway. I came back and started planning what else I was going to get done during the day, and about 7:40, a job showed up at the local HS. I checked into it, and it is the choir teacher! I nabbed it really quick before someone else could and jumped into the shower. School starts at 7:20, and it wasn't even listed until 7:40--they wanted someone there NOW. So I was hurrying through the shower when I realized that it was Friday, and Friday's a late start day, which is why Punkin was still in bed. That helped me relax a little. I got myself ready and grabbed something for lunch. I woke Punkin up and told her she was on her own, just like our test run last Friday. I took my guitar, since the listing said that there were 2 periods of guitar. I didn't really use it, but I think it gave me a little credibility with the guitar students.

First period planning, then a guitar class, then a weird class period where the students filled out a sample job application--kind of surreal. Then girls' choir, where I actually got to rehearse the group, and lunch. I got to have lunch with my sister-in-law, so that was nice. I also got to meet some of her fellow teachers, so maybe that will mean that I get requested sometime.

After lunch, there was another guitar class, and then two more select choirs. I got to rehearse with them, but mostly they ran sectionals and tried to run each other :-). I think they got a little bit done, though. Probably the most fun I had all day was playing the piano accompaniment for the select girls' choir on a number they had already performed. So I played nand they sang in a circle around me. Then the bell rang and I was done. Woot!

I have already made a list of things I need to bring with me in a ready-to-go-tote bag: white board pens and eraser, a portable knitting project, a book, pen/pencil, lunch, a water bottle, hand sanitizer (!), a clipboard etc. I made the list for myself while I was teaching on Friday afternoon so I wouldn't forget.

All in all, it wasn't horrible. It was pretty easy money, really. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe my local HS is pretty unusual. I have done about the same thing volunteering, so it will be nice to get paid for it eventually.

Computer fixed!

And not in the pet sense.

The regular, semi-fast computer is back with us (thank goodness!), so I can carry on with my life.

Still no sub jobs. Well, there was a science job open, but I don't want to be in a science classroom with beakers and chemicals and expensive equipment along with a bunch of kids who don't know me and who want to see how much they can get away with. Nope. I'd be happy to be in a room full of expensive band or orchestra instruments--at least I know what I'm doing there.

Maybe tomorrow. There's a 3 days weekend coming. Surely someone will be "sick."

Miep Gies

Miep Gies died yesterday at the age of 100. I was listening to a radio news program today, and she was quoted as saying:

How does it feel to be a hero?
I don't want to be considered a hero. Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.

I hope the occasion never arises, but if it does, I hope I can be "ordinary" like Miep Gies. She is an example "doing what is right, not what is easy."

Why did you take on the responsibility of hiding the Franks?
My decision to help Otto was because I saw no alternative. I could foresee many sleepless nights and an unhappy life if I refused. And that was not the kind of failure I wanted for myself. Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

Rest in peace, Miep. Job well done.

One Step Forward, Two Rows Back

I went to get new tires for my car on Friday. I had to get them on before driving up the freeway to the dentist (My dentist is about 20 miles north of me, but that's a different story). I took my Philosopher's Wool sweater with me to work on. It is in a great big basket, but I figured I would be at the tire place long enough to work on it.

Instead, I started taking balls of yarn out of the basket and untangling them--the cats had discovered the sweater last week sometime. I took out several balls and wound them up, and then came to the balls hanging off the sleeve. I thought I would start working on the sleeve so I could release the yarn ends to another use, and realized that I had used the wrong color. For 2 rows. Well, 2 and a half. So I spent the entire time I was waiting at the tire place tinking back two rows of color work. I have no idea how I messed up the colors. I could tell just by looking that the bright orange color on the sleeve was no where on the chart.

So instead of making progress, I regressed. And although I got 2 new tires, I need some repair on the back hub assembly. One step forward, two back. Sigh.

Punkin is growing up

Yesterday, I posed a challenge to Punkin. I challenged her to get herself out of bed with her own alarm (no mom-alarm-clock), get herself dressed, fed and out the door with a lunch on time to make it to the bus. All without help from me. This is all in preparation for the event that I have a subbing job on the day that she gets to sleep in.

I have to say that she passed with flying colors. Just knowing that she was going to have to be responsible for herself made it all come together. She even scrambled herself an egg!

As we continually tell her, it's one step closer to a cell phone!

Traffic Court

Back in November (or was it October?), I got my first traffic ticket. Ever. The officer who issued it suggested that an appearance at court might reduce the fee or something, so I sent my ticket off to the court, and waited to hear back. Several weeks later, I got a notice saying that my court date was January 6. That was way in the future, so I promptly filed it in the back of my brain and went along with my life. Somehow, I had this vision of being alone in the court, without a lawyer, pleading my case before the judge. The reality was quite different.

I arrived at 8:00 a.m. for my 8:45 court time--I did NOT want to be late to court. Better to sit and finish my book than be late. When I got there, I thought I would go in and sit for a while, maybe use the bathroom. The court building doesn't open until 8:30. Sigh. So I went back to my car and read there. At 8:30, I headed for the door. ACK! By 8:30, there were about 30 people in line to go through the security gate. I had totally forgotten about security, being as how I didn't have a gun and all. (I am, however, not complaining. I am COMPLETELY thrilled that they do security at the courthouses. Happy to stand in line in order to make everyone safe [especially The Beard, who works in a courthouse]). The line was not moving at all, and I was beginning to be convinced that I was going to be LATE after working so hard not to be. Then the line started moving, and we all filed in. There was no time before my court time to use the bathroom, but the door didn't open until several minutes after the time on my summons. Rats.

There were about 30 of us in the courtroom together. A big group court experience. With strangers. Strangers who have also broken the law. The judge explained what was going on. For several of us, it was our first (my only!) experience being in court in the hot seat. Her first offer was for a deferred penalty: pay the court costs ($26 more than my ticket), get no tickets for a year, and the ticket is erased from my record. Score! I was hoping to pay less, but I figured I was stuck with the ticket on my driving record. So as soon as I could, I raised my hand to try for the deferred penalty option. By the time she got to me, she had already handed out about 5 of them, 1 to a woman about my age, with about the same ticket as I had. It was quick and easy, and I have 30 days to pay the fine. Zip. Zap. Zoop!

Now all I have to do is repeat my perfect driving record from the past --ahem-- years, and I'm golden.

Never mind that I almost ran right into a county sheriff tonight. That wouldn't have been a very good start.

Appendicitis?

Nope.

But we had to check it out with the doc to be sure.

Punkin came into my room last night with a sharp pain right by her right hipbone. Then there was crying and she came to sleep by me. No one slept. She went back to her own bed and fell asleep. When I checked on her later, I figured that if it really was appendicitis, no way would she be asleep. (I've never actually had appendicitis, but I had all the symptoms. They thought it was appendicitis, but when I woke up I had a really long scar. They took my appendix, too, for good measure. My surgeon threatened me with dire consequences if I ever told anyone that was my appendix scar --g--) Anyway, no way could I have slept through that pain.

We all slept in, since we had been up and about at 1:00 a.m. When I woke Punkin up, she still had some pain, so I kept her home from school. About 12:30, I called the nurse advice line at the doctor's office. When she called back, she agreed that it would be good for Punkin to be seen (and poked. And prodded. And told to jump up and down.) so we went in and got the okey-dokey from a medical professional.

Punkin and I both relaxed quite a bit after that.

She's been taking it easy today, eating "safe" food and watching movies. Hopefully, she'll be back at it tomorrow.