Sunday, October 31, 2010

Awkward. . .

Jilli and I watched "I Love You, Man" last night. Paul Rudd's real trick is that his character Peter is genuinely a lovely, decent guy who is competent and confident around women friends but has zero idea how to navigate men in friendship. It is quite an hysterical study. I highly recommend it for a fun evening. (Advisory: Naughty language and sexual references and one super gross vomit scene.)

Feeling better about not being called to work over the last three days . . .what with Parent/Teacher Conferences Wed/Thurs and an Inservice day Friday. Ner. I'm really going to have to start paying better attention to the district calender. Now the subbing dam should be bursting any minute. . .

Enjoy your Seahawk Sunday!

Friday, October 29, 2010

This time, no news is just no news . . .

I'd like to report that I've not been posting because I've been busy working every day. But no. No calls. Argghhh. The good news is that I've had a chance to fully recover from my lousy cold. Airborne did not head the cold off but it did shave it from the customary 7-10 days down to 5, so that's a win.

I've been spending my time resting, cooking (believe it or not), occasionally bowling, reading, and lots of thinking. I did also get another restaurant resume dropped off. Besides being a bit frustrated about not working, I get annoyed because I just don't understand what's wrong with these people for not hiring me!      I don't believe myself to be delusional, I just have a very strong self concept. But consistent rejection can wear on the most confident of individuals. . . I may need to visit Jessica for some affirmations.

I'm hoping my proximity to the high school will be helpful with the upcoming change in weather. Bring it on!

Tonight     Tomorrow        Sunday          Monday    Tuesday

Rain/Snow  Snow Showers  Snow Showers  Sunny      Snow Showers
High: 40°
Low: 25°
    High: 37°         
    Low: 25°
High: 33°       
Low: 22°
High: 30°
Low: 23°
  High: 32°
  Low: 23°

 
 
 
 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Apparently I was a day late and a dollar short with the Airborne. I do believe, however, that my cold is at about 70% of what it might've been. That being said, I am about to take a giant nap.

But before I do that I have three four five things to report:

1. I got my studded tires installed this morning and it seems to be in the nick of
    time. There is a beautiful layer of snow in them thar hills and the vibe is that
    snow is coming to the basin very shortly.
2. I just landed a sub gig for Nov. 9. Why so far in advance, you ask? Because I
    was requested. That's right. My intro e-mail to South has paid off. Whew!
    Things are looking up.
3. Because I feel kind of poopy, I limited my physical exertion to two games of
    bowling today:
         Game 1: 123
         Game 2: 200
    I'm not even kidding you. Two hundred. I haven't broken two hundred in a 
    couple of decades.
4. I got to see Jeff for a bit today and that was awesome. He had a very productive
    trip to the Seattle area for business and time with friends plus he got to go to
    Sunday's Seahawks game. It's good I waited to see him until today as he just
    started to recover his voice ; )
5. Jilli got home late last night from her Seattle trip to help John Olson celebrate
    his birthday. She had a very good time but was uber tired. She's going to take  
    a giant nap also. THEN we will be in full form for tonight's Rocky Horror
    Picture Show GLEE. Whoo hoo! (And then in bed by 9:00 cuz Imma gonna get
    up at 5:30 just like I have a real job already so that if Madonna from Dimond
    calls me, I will be all over it! I know. It's a good plan.)

Nighty night.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Winter sniffles . . .

Last night, I went downtown to see a show all by myself. Just like a big girl! There is a local improv theatre group called Scared Scriptless that shows the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. It was a little uneven but mostly pretty good. I'm glad I went. And I'm glad I'm sticking with my philosophy of getting out and doing things even if it means that sometimes I'm entirely by myself in new environs. Because I'm pretty social, you may think that's no big deal. But the truth of the matter is, that outside known entities and experiences, I am accompanied by some degree of anxiety. But it wasn't just getting on a plane and transplanting that makes this an adventure, right?

I laid low today as my first winter cold showed itself yesterday and is attempting to harsh my mellow. Airborne, do your thang! Tomorrow it's snow tires and introducing myself to Madonna, the secretary at Dimond High School. Hopefully, I will make an impression sufficient to put my name on her list and get me in the loop there. Cross your fingers.

Good Monday to you all!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Bowlin'

Amy and I went bowling for funsies today: 153, 173, 184, 159. Just sayin'.

And more bowling: I subbed on my friend Smitty's league tonight and established a 152. Now based on my bowling earlier in the day, that should be no problem. Based on the last 25 years, I'm a bit concerned. OR maybe bowling is like my golf game--I'm just getting better. Either way, it was fun getting out and meeting new folks.

My final accomplishment for the evening is that I was up for several hours after I got home and managed not to eat any junk before going to bed. I'm even a little bit hungry but I'm reminding myself that just as tears are gifts during grief (did you know that? They don't always seem like a gift but they totally are. . .), so are hunger pangs when one is attempting to lose weight.

Too many deep thoughts. . . must      sleep     now.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Half caff is still too much caff after 7:00pm

The rest of y'all probably already knew that. I became acutely aware of it at 2:15 this morning. That's when I almost started to get tired. The good news is that the Jill, Amy, and I are all caught up on Project Runway and Glee. OH NO! Except that our DVR did not record last night's Rocky Horror episode and it is not carried on our On Demand server. Woe is us.


I was fixin to head out for a walk this morning but instead exercised some professional discipline. Yesterday, I e-mailed each member of the Dimond High School English and Social Studies staff with an introductory e-mail. (Dimond is within walking distance, so that would definitely be my preferred site--especially during inclement weather.) Today, I sent the same intro to the folks at South High (about a 15min drive). I'm hoping that this will improve the sub request flow. Somethin's gotta give. If not opened floodgates, a trickle would be nice.

I did get a couple of server resumes dropped off yesterday. I was thinking about applying at Spenard Roadhouse. They have a shift that includes weekend brunches. That is right up my alley but I have started attending the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and really think I have found a place in that community. I'd hate to have to cross it off the list because I work every Sunday.  Hmm, gainful employment or spiritual and social connectedness? Seriously, this is a tough one. Maslow's hierarchy of needs would suggest employment but tending to my spiritual and social well-being in a new place is pretty big stuff. Maybe I'll get some other gig and it'll be a moo point.

I gave you this picture because it makes me feel happy to look at it. I believe it is one of my better pensive poses. Plus, John Olson's birthday is coming up so my gift to him long distance is at least the memory of fun times with his Jilli and the Momma.


Happy Birthday John!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Still no gig, still gotta play . . .

Whenever I click on Sub Positions Available it says no jobs. I find myself obsessive/compulsively standing over the enter button with a "how 'bout now . . .how 'bout now. . . how 'bout now, infinity kind of behavior. That ain't no good. So I called the District Sub Dispatch number. Got voicemail and no response yet again on how a sistah can hook up (and no, I didn't ask it like that). Aargh. But I did get my waitress resume shined up so I'm going to hit the bricks again tomorrow.

Now about yesterday's bowling. I was incensed and insulted when Smitty asked if I wanted to take advantage of Monday's senior rate. . .right up until I found out that meant one buck per game. Heck yeah! So I put a crisp fiver on the counter and bowled as follows: 116, 166, 131, 115, 193. I'm not even kidding.        I know, I'm quite something aren't I? My bowling scores could often be used as good practice in a math or stats class studying mean, median, and mode.

Now as for the Sound of Music singalong event: Totally fun! It was pretty funny when Julie Andrews started singing "the hills are alive." I think we collectively realized that we could not come close to her vocal prowess but a few brave souls warbled along while many others giggled. After that, we got to sing with the Von Trapp children so theater voices grew stronger and less tentative. Sometimes it was fun to sing along, other times it was very cool just to quietly listen to all the other voices. I'm quite sure I never saw the movie on the big screen before, just in VHS format on my then huge 19 inch TV. With digital remastering of color and sound and on the big screen, it was fantastic. And it really is quite timeless in its subject matter, humor, and charm. If you have a chance to attend a singalong Sound of Music, you should totally do it.

Relatively mild temperatures here. It looks like y'all are in for some halfway decent weather for the next couple of days. Get out and play in it if you can. If you can't go out and play, you should totally youtube Bjork, Triumph of a Heart video. Honest to Pete. Goodness gracious. For the love of Kelly. That whacky Icelander will make you smile at least once. (P.S. We believe her faceplant to be the real deal. It was awesome.)

Monday, October 18, 2010

Since I don't have a gig today, I may as well play . . .

There's gotta be a better way to access sub jobs. Arghh.

Silver lining: it is a beautiful day. So I'mma (Jill speak for "I'm going to" as near as I can tell) walk to the bowling alley, bowl four games (when you bowl four games in a row, by yourself, you can actually get your heart rate up . . . if you're not in great shape) and then stroll home. Good job me.

I will however, continue work on my electronic resume when I get home so I can more easily respond to the server gigs that present themselves. Tonight, I'mma hit the Beartooth for a $3 movie: Life During Wartime. I think the wartime in question is family stuff. But it has been fairly well reviewed and has Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, and Paul Reubens. I will report later.

Super exciting news: Tomorrow night there is a Sound of Music SING ALONG EVENT! I know, right?! If were any more excited I would just pooh! Hopefully, I will be enjoying it after having worked somewhere. . .

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Jack Handy ain't got nothin' on Jessica

Sometimes a daily affirmation is helpful. I have hired Jessica to share her pearls  of wisdom. (Jill has advised me that when something is underlined and in color it means it will take you directly to a link. She was mildly condescending when she advised that simply making it blue is not sufficient in reference to my very first ever blog post. I hope she sees this link so that she can learn from Jessica, too.)

You're welcome.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Hi my name is Mary and I'm a first time blogger.

Yep. There's a lot of pressure to trying things for the first time. While blogging may not be a Twelve Step Program, I think it will help me manage my time and communication better. I miss all my peeps back home but I'm also busy enjoying the kids and making new peeps up here. A girl only has so much time! So I'm going to leach, I mean learn, from following Jill's blogspot example. (Though I find that kind of intimidating because I think that she is very clever and hilarious.) That way y'all can keep up with my general goings on. So I thought I'd start by taking a page from Jilli's url: averychillywinter.blogspot. com. I'm old and my bones are creaky so I thought I'd just leap straight to dangnabitscold.blogspot. com for my url.  I know, I'm like a genius, only different. (Thus concludes my lengthy preamble.)

So here's my moderately recent haps: Night before last, Jill, Amy, and I walked up to the park on Jewel Lake to watch more of the filming of Everybody Loves Whales. (Check it out on IMDB.com) It has been interesting watching Hollywood turn our little lake into a scene from the Arctic. It was a beautiful evening for a stroll. Apparently, the meese (plural for moose, duh) agreed. We were a block away from home when we saw a juvenile moose between us and the house. Then on the other side of the street we saw its momma. Conventional wisdom says "Never get between a momma moose and her mouse (mouse is to moose as fawn is to deer, duh). And these two were going nowhere. So we called Renee and she got in the car to drive an entire block away to pick us up. It is actually true that a fairly common reason for being late to work in Anchorage is "I can't come in yet, there's a moose between me and my car." (This actually happened to Jill once last winter. It only made her about five minutes late, though.)

Speaking of work, I had my very first sub gig yesterday. Yay! Gainful employment makes me feel waaay better. I am so very good at goofing off. I was worried I would forget how to work. Also, I had not yet fired up my maximum brain capacity since the big IQ dump of 2010 (I lose 12-20 points the day after school is out every year). Normally, I recover most of them by mid-August when I start thinking school-like thoughts again but I'm late this year and it has been a bit scary.  Yesterday, in the middle of a fairly lofty explication on job security in the AP Economics class I was teaching, I found myself struggling for just the right word when explaining how rather than working for just one company for 30+ years and then retiring, their generation is likely to work for 8-10 different companies, even wthin the same, uh, uh, the word, what is the word?--don't worry a student filled it in for me: field. I know, right?!

But I digress. I believe that after one day in the classroom, I have already recovered two of the aforementioned lost IQ points. The day went very well (though my teacher taught all six classes with no prep and the day ended with a PE class! What?! I've never supervised PE!), my sub report ranged from excellent all the way down to very good, and as is consistent with my motto, "No one was injured and some learning occurred." I'm very glad to have the first one under my belt. I had a wicked case of night before insomnia, waking at 1:49--thank you digital precision : ( and did not get back to sleep 'til 4:30. Boo. No matter how old or experienced I get generally, I always have some measure of anxiety when approaching new experiences and it typically presents in my sleep patterns (or lack thereof). I trust next time shouldn't be as big a deal.

As it happens, there is a beautiful golf course offering late season rates right on my way home from Chugiak H.S. The weather has been very cold but very beautiful this last week. So I decided to take advantage of one last opportunity for a round of golf. Smitty, the nice fella who works the desk at Jewel Lake Bowl (where I substitute on leagues) is also a golfer, of sorts, so he joined me for the round. In the interest of daylight we decided to do a scramble format (where we both hit but then take the next shot from the best of the two). We finished the front with a very respectable 42 and the back with a lyin', cheatin' 46. It was great fun. As I left the course, the sun was just dipping into the horizon and the temperature was 26 degrees. Yep. I'm pretty sure that's it for golf this year.

Stayed up late last night with Jilli getting caught up on the first season of Glee (thanks to the good people at Netflix). So with today being a teacher prep day,
I am having a pajama day which is the very reason you are being blessed with this rather lengthy update. My future blog postings will be of varied length and will most certainly not appear daily (it has taken me much of the day just to decide whether or not it is really appropriate to bathe on a pajama day. . . I admit I'm having some gumption issues).  So tune in here from time to time. And if you want to talk to me, call me up! (There's a 94% chance I'll call you back but only 37% that it'll be in a timely manner. . .) Also, once I figure out how to take and or get pictures and make them be here, I will. (I know, my use of technological jargon is quite impressive.)

I love and miss you all and hope that you are well.