So Listen to This

Last night, as promised, I called the Nordstrom wedding consultants and discussed the dress I wanted to buy. And guess what?

I bought it.

In fact, I bought four dresses.

Before you have me committed, this is apparently the way they do business, since online has a much wider selection than any of the stores, and if you buy one at a time and return, you're likely to miss the window when the right dress for you is available. I shall return three (if not four, and keep looking) once they arrive and I try them all on. All of them would need some kind of tailoring, especially the long ones, since I want to wear short, just below the knee, and I am myself slightly taller than your typical mushroom.

This navy one is actually three pieces, a skirt, a top, and a jacket. Aside from the shortening, I would want the jacket sleeves made less balloony.




This is the one I really really wanted, but in cocoa. Since I got the last one last night, Nordstrom doesn't even have a picture of it online anymore, and this is the best I can do. It needs to be shortened -- the dress is 62" from shoulder to hem, and I am 62" from top to bottom -- but I like this dress and jacket best, and the cocoa is really a very nice color.




This is the one I kind of expect to end up with, and I ordered two of them; since they didn't have it in large, I ordered a medium and and extra-large to see what I can work with best. I hope it looks a little darker in person, but I like the dress a lot. The jacket would need to be remodeled a little; I don't think a jacket that full will look good over the parts of me that are pretty damn full, too.




On another website, I found this bag, which is made by the same company and matches all their dresses. It comes in every color the dresses come in, and is only $35, cheap for a dressy bag.




And I found these shoes on the Nordstrom website. I think they're kind of silvery gold, which will look good with any of the dresses. Yes, I suppose I will actually wear these shoes. I haven't had heels on since the last wedding I went to, and I took them off after the ceremony and put on flats. (I may have to go with that this time, too; I know I've seen ballet flat in a similar color at DSW.)

In the meantime, my only real concern for the shower is who are the people I get to invite. It's being done by the bridal party, with most of it in K's hands, as the maid of honor. The other five bridesmaids are very scattered: one in Colorado, one in England, one nearby in NJ (Wonderful Niece), one in Staten Island and one in Long Island. I have offered to help K when she needs it, and we're all brainstorming ideas as to location. I've been looking into tearooms, and even bowling alleys. (I think they call them "bowling centers" now.) There's a possibility of a karaoke restaurant, too. I don't make the final decision here (except on cost, since I'm helping out with that), I'm just trying to be helpful.

In other news, there are only six episodes of Lost to go, which is turning out to be a good thing. At this point, it all reminds me of how Saturday Night Live treated the lingering illness and death of Francisco Franco back in the seventies. In other words, endless.

Okay, now let's see if I can send this to the phone and put the pictures in from there, shall we?




-- Post From My iPhone

Catching Up

It's been all go, go, go! here in the land of Chai; forgive me for not writing for several days. (Not really.) I think I didn't write Friday because I went home early from work; as for after that, I have no excuse.

Let's see, what have I been up to. I walked home from school yesterday, as the Hubs and I are now sharing a car. I promised him I would get a ride from someone, but I wanted to walk, so I did. I needed the exercise, and it wasn't really raining, just a heavy mist. I live about a mile away from the school, and I was fine the whole way until about five house down from my house and I thought this was it, I was gonna drop right there in the gutter and no one would hear from me again. But I managed, and even stayed upright so I could get dinner in the oven and then collapse. I made little cornish hens, along with potatoes and brussels sprouts, which we like in our house, but the aroma of the sprouts seems to be still with me somehow.

Some English teachers brought in a guest speaker yesterday, and I offered the library as the venue, and I was delighted to see that she was my college Shakespeare professor. (The teachers had gone to a workshop at the college where the professor did a workshop, and they invited her.) I must have been in one of her first classes, in 1974, and she was as wonderful yesterday as I remember her, very dynamic and full of life. She turned me into a Shakespeare fanatic, which in turn I did to my kids. (The Hubs claims he is "not smart" and doesn't know anything about literature or drama, a total lie on his part, since he is much more adept at quoting Shakespeare than I am.)

I got a small, non-electric water cooler delivered to the library today so that I can continue to drink my seven or eight glasses. I've been good. Now if only I could get someone to deliver a porta-potty to the library, I'd be all set.

I'm in a wedding etiquette quandary of sorts. I'm not sure who gets invited to the shower. I'm not so much a shower person myself; to me, it's asking people for yet another gift, which I think is tacky. But this is how it's done, so this is what we'll do. I've already decided not to invite the family that lives far away and can't come anyway; that's just asking for a gift. Family is easy, and small: one grandmother, two aunts, two old aunts, three first cousins, and me. (Do we invite the two old aunts? I guess I ask the MIL on that one.) I don't know what to do about non-family, which is to say, friends of mine with whom I am close, and who have been nearby for all of R's growing up years (certainly nearer by than the old aunts): those to whom I refer as the Chum, the Colleague, E, and the Other Chai. Is it greedy to invite them (in which case I don't want to) or is it rude not to? I may ask the Other Chai, whom I see every day, how she feels about it. I know she'll say she wants to be there, so I guess that'll be that.

Other than the spectacularly beautiful weather we had for four days a couple of weeks ago, March has been a most depressing month here weather-wise. We have really only had enough nice weather for people to take a long breath after the water subsided from the basements before the next storm. We've been under almost constant flood watch all month, and it's raining hard again today. Again, the floods don't affect me because I'm on a rise of land and not that close to a river, but soaked ground could lead to water in the basement, and many nearby towns are under, people evacuated and their houses a mess.

Time for a drink.

Not Up to Snuff

Ever get that kind of headache that feels like if you shake your head, or even turn it too fast, you can feel your brain shaking around inside? Um .. okay, it's just me then. Anyway, that kind of headache has always been an indicator for me that it's time to curl up in bed with a cup of tea at hand, so that's the plan. I'm at school now, but I'm taking a half sick day and leaving at the end of this (fourth) period, at 11:15.

I'm just a bit Crohnish, which may be the problem, and I know why, too. It's jelly beans. I must only eat jelly beans in small quantities, but if I have them, I will usually eat them until they're all gone (they're very low in calories, you know), and my gut does not enjoy the experience. I should have the sense not to eat them, but there are so many things I love that I don't allow myself to eat, that I just gave in this time. They're pretty, and they taste good. And I still have more, so I should probably eat them when I already feel like crap, instead of saving them for next week, right?

At least today's rumors about who's getting fired, what's getting cut, and all that are more calming, so I've decided that those are the rumors I'm going to believe. No change to our retirement, no need to retire now. We should hear next week or soon thereafter what the cuts in our district will be. One of my colleagues said today that his wife lost her job last night when the district she teaches in decided to cut out the entire Home Economics program. Stuff like that is going to be happening in lots of places all over the state. Our governor is insane. I could go on.

I have to share this ridiculous ad with you. I just noticed the link on the side of my Gmail page as I was typing the entry. Didgeridoo, indeed. Play the didgeridoo to eliminate snoring and sleep apnea, only a hundred dollars, or some such thing. ANd the craziest part is that we actually have a didgeridoo in the house, a real one, that R brought her father from Australia when she was there some years ago. I can only imagine that it helps you sleep better because you have to bring your lungs up out of your body in order to get any sound out of the damn thing, and then the noise clears your ears and sinuses out so there's nothing left to cause you any problems. Yes, that's just what I need, to learn to play a didgeridoo. I'm sure everyone else in the house will appreciate it.

Looks Like a Really Good Day

What's a really good day for me? Number One: very little pain today. YAY! Either the meds are working -- which it could be, in which case, SUPER YAY! -- or it's just a random pain-free day. And it isn't even raining. (In fact, there a gorgeous blue sky out there and actual sunlight pouring in the library windows. I can't wait to get out and walk around in it.) Also, no hot flashes yet today (although I feel one coming on), because it's been sub-zero here in bookland.

Number Two: There will not be an unusable car sitting in my driveway for the next three years, because I made arrangements for it today, so Go Me. With the last one, it was the Hubs' car that was truly dead, not even drivable, and I decided that it was his problem to solve. It was solved when a man who was walking past our house on the way to a garage sale down the street noticed the car in the driveway and rang our bell to ask if he could buy it for a hundred bucks. He gave us the cash, the Hubs signed it over to him, and he came back a half hour later with a tow truck. This car, formerly my father's, drives and isn't in bad shape, but it needs a catalytic converter and that's not worth it. (It's a 91 Oldsmobile.) And this car is in my name. So I called the Vietnam Veterans of America and we're donating it to them; they're coming to pick it up tomorrow and that also means that it will be off my insurance tomorrow. And it's only been dead in the driveway (since it failed inspection) since the end of February. Of this year.

Number Three: It appears that my thyroid is enlarged. This isn't so much good news as it is not bad news, since whatever is wrong with the thyroid they have a fix for. The possible good news is that if I do indeed have low thyroid, then that will explain all kinds of things that have gone without explanation for some time. And maybe I could lose another pound or two.

Here's a strange one: when I came into the library this morning, there was a book left behind on one of the tables, not a library book, but someone's personal book, left, I guess, after I went home yesterday at 3:00 and before the library closed at 5:00. It's a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or, more precisely, Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban. There's no name in it or anything else to identify whose it is, and there are too many native speakers of Spanish in the building to put out an alert. It's on my desk and shall remain there until the end of the school year, waiting for someone to claim it. If not, it will join my home collection of what else? Copies of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban from other countries. I have one in French, and I have both British editions (one for children, one for adults), and something else, I think, but R wasn't able to find one in Spanish for me in Mexico last year. (She brought me El Principito -- The Little Prince -- instead.) An odd coincidence, I think.

Anyway, I have been up and down the stairs here in school at least a half dozen times today for one reason or another (mostly because the bathroom is downstairs) and I have not used the elevator once, so I guess this really is a good day for me pain-wise. I haven't walked up the steps in ages.

I'm still drinking my 60 to 80 ounces of water a day, and let me tell you, it's just so much fun. *eyes roll* I'm only in the middle  of my second bottle-full, so I guess I'd better get on the stick.

The Mother Ship Must Be On Its Way

This morning, my husband declared that he is going to stop eating Cheerios, because the inner bag cannot be recycled. He's only eating foods that come in recyclable packaging now (so he doesn't eat take-out Chinese food anymore either), and he'd rather not use plastic at all, even if it has a number on it.

My Chum asked me the other day if he's working on saving a planet, is it this one, or the one he came from?

Hmmmmm.

Part of his plan, apparently, is to generate less garbage. I don't understand how he's willing to use the kitchen garbage bags I buy, but he is, only not more than one a week. In fact, it takes us a week to fill up one bag. Unfortunately, that means that the garbage is sitting there in the kitchen for the whole week. There's definitely something wrong with this picture, yes? I think I have to get a smaller trash receptacle, and possibly biodegradable bags for it.

It also occurred to me that after 32+ years of marriage, I'll bet that every time we visit his parents and leave at the end and drive off, his mother must turn to his father with a great sigh of relief and say "I still can't believe somebody married him!"

I'm making it sound worse than it is, but truly, he is waaaay up there on the eccentric scale. (But he has many other fine qualities.)

Later.

The buzz hereabouts is all coming from the state legislature in Trenton and that sack of crap who was elected our governor in November. (Yes, New Jersey elects governors in odd-numbered years. *sigh*) Mr. Christie does not seem to care for teachers, firemen, police officers, and any other public employee. We also have a huge budget deficit, originally brought about by our last Republican governor, Christie Todd Whitman. (Remember her?) So the current Christie is getting every penny he can out of the pension fund, and adding all kinds of new rules, and our spineless assemblymen are giving him the votes he needs to do it. I believe that this man would cut off his own arms if it would save his legs five cents.

So, will I retire this year, whether I want to or not? Will my job even exist next year? Tune in next time, folks.

*sigh*

Isn't life strange? (As the Moody Blues were wont to ask.)

Still in school, it's last period, I'm shot. My body has apparently decided that it wants to sleep from about 1 am to about 9 am, which is swell, except that my employment kind of wants me to be here way before 9. So I had a good weekend and now I'm shot. As for pain, I'm noticing that my pain is somewhat better on rainy days. Go figure.

I'm drinking more water than even exists, I'm spending more time in the bathroom than in the library, but my blood pressure is better. I'm seeing the cardiologist this afternoon, and he can sort it all out.

Oy. A very goofy (but sweet) young teacher showed up with his whole class while I was out (in the bathroom, of course) and just took over the library. He said he peeked into the computer lab, but there was already a class there. Yes, there was, because that teacher thought to book it in advance. So now I've got goofy, noisy freshmen all over the place, doing god knows what, because their teacher, sweet as he is, has no classroom management skills. It looks like there are twelve kids using one computer, which seems unlikely, so I'm guessing that some of these kids are not so much working on their biome power points. At the moment, I'm kind of feeling like morphing into Sister Mary Elephant and screaming "SHUT UP!!!!"

Oy. He just found three of them playing games, so that's three kids I just cut off computer privileges from. And now, of course, I need to go to the bathroom again.

I hope my dinner comes out better tonight than the last time I made chicken/hockey pucks in the crock pot. I got everything ready last night and this morning I put in the chicken and dumped everything else over it. At least I won't have much to do when I get home from the cardiologist, except, of course, get to the bathroom.

Ten minutes.

Raining today, so that'll be more flooding in nearby places, although not so much just where I am. The last four days were the most perfect weather days of the year, just like real spring. I don't think we're going back to winter -- not that it might not snow again -- but we are going back to early spring, cold and rainy.

And now the freshmen are escaping the library. Three girls are reciting a cheer as they go. I wonder how many of them will actually be back int heir classroom when the teacher gets there? I can still hear them from down the hall.

Oy.

Today's Organ Recital

To my surprise, I actually feel very ... okay ... today. I took a couple of Tylenol with my morning meds, and maybe thatg made a difference. Yesterday was not so good, and I made an appointment for a neck/shoulder massage after school today; of course, today I feel much better. It may be that I don't actually need treatment, and all I need to do is keep making various appointments, after which my pain will go away, making the appointment unnecessary. I think it's worth a shot.

My dear doctor -- the internist -- is not the brightest bulb, and I believe I shall have to look elsewhere. After telling me for three years to lose weight, she now says that my weight loss is responsible for my lowered blood pressure, and I MUST get that blood pressure up! She changed that med, and put me on something that does not have a diuretic in it. First day, I gained a half pound. Second day, I gained another half pound. If I gain yet another tomorrow, I am putting myself back on the old med. (I'm seeing the cardiologist Tuesday, so I'm not in any actual danger.) Correct my if I'm wrong, but isn't lower blood pressure one of the reasons they tell us to lose weight? Don't they have a plan for when/if it happens?

So, massage after school, and dinner with the retirees tonight, although I haven't yet heard from the Chum or E, and if they're not going, I may skip it as well.

After the horror of last weekend's weather, today may actually be one of the most beautiful days of the year. It's clear and crisp, there's a beautiful blue sky punctuated by fluffy white clouds, and it's 68 degrees. Yes, I believe it's still March, which has now turned from a pack of lions into a whole herd of lambs. It's absolutely magnificent out there, and is expected to improve over the next few days. This may even get me outside for a little while.

Rant. Rant.

I would like to rant now, maybe just a little.

We got our census form yesterday, and of course we will fill it out and send it in ASAP because we understand why it's important, etc. etc. Even though I am personally offended by the census form as is.

Of course, they want to know your "race." Well, of course, my race is human, but I know what they mean. There are many many choices offered as indication of race. There is African-American, and Asian-American, and many flavors of Latino- and Native American. One example given was, I believe, a group of people indigenous to Samoa, a word I'd never heard before. All good.

And then there is "white."

First of all, I am not white, and neither are you, or anybody. There is variety in skin tone among all humans and within all of the so-called "racial" groupings. Even albinos (of any race) show the faintest indication of blood beneath the skin, so they are not actually "white."

Next, how come it's important to know the sub-grouping of nearly everybody, but not of the biggest group, which would certainly have to have as much diversity -- if not more -- than the smaller groups?

Finally, okay, I get it that they don't want to know my particular ethnicity, or yours, unless we fall into one of the other groups. But here's the bottom line: if the other groups are not designated at black, brown, yellow, red -- and they're not, because that's horrible -- why is it still okay to lump everyone else together and call them "white?" The answer: it's not.

I'm perfectly okay with people being African-, Asian-, Latino-, and Native Americans. It's a country made up entirely of immigrants -- even the "native" Americans came from Asia -- and if we all want to self-identify that way, fine. Then instead of "white" and certainly instead of "Caucasian," which is also terrible (we don't say Negroid anymore either), then can I at least self-identify as a European-American? I'd prefer to go by sub-grouping, but I'm also perfectly willing to be categorized as European-American; all four of my grandparents came from Europe, and their ancestors were presumably there since the Jewish people were scattered away from Jerusalem some time around 500 A.D., or some time way back.

I'm just saying. I still have to fill out the damn form. I'll let you know what I decided to report myself as.

Weather of an Apocalyptic Nature

So, we had some freakish weather here over the last few days. My school is open, of course, but we're about the only system in the county that is. There are trees down everywhere, many torn up by their roots, and many that cracked in half. On Saturday, there were hurricane force winds here and there. Something like 150,000 people are without power in this county; it's expected to be restored Wednesday or Thursday.

Chez Chai is fine, no damage to people or property. The Sibs, however, has been without power since Saturday night, which is when a really big tree across the street from here came up at the roots and the branches landed in her front yard. Missed the house, just clipped Little K's car a bit, I think.My communication with her has been sporadic because she's conserving cell phone battery life, but she's coming to my house to recharge later. Meanwhile, she says her house and Little K may appear on the channel 4 news tonight. (You realize, of course, that Little K, who is 20 now, is way bigger than my own daughter K, but he's still the youngest.)

I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to try a supermarket, although what I will have for lunch tomorrow I cannot imagine. Maybe I'll just get a salad from the cafeteria and call it a day. How bad could that be? Today I brought a frozen meal which didn't altogether cook by the time I ate it. Eeuuww. Maybe by tomorrow, everything in the stores will have been replenished, and I won't end up buying the same food they had Sunday that had gone unrefrigerated. Whaddaya think, safe? Not safe? All I want is yogurt. (Oh, and I just realized that I can't buy chicken after school tomorrow for tomorrow night's dinner because it's a crockpot recipe. Crap. I'll have to see how that all goes. And check my freezer tonight.)

So, did I mention that K got a teaching job for September? Heh heh, just kidding. I'm still all excited about it.

I'm going to post now and then actually work.

Still High

Here at the house of Chai, we are still overjoyed by yesterday's news. K and I have even started talking bits and pieces about the apartment she'll be looking for/moving to as part of her new job. She is so excited, and rightly so.

In brief, it's a job in a private school, something none of us ever considered, but which came about because someone she knew knew about the opening. It's a high school on a beautiful campus, roughly forty minutes from here in a lovely area of New Jersey. (Yes, there are lovely areas in New Jersey!) She could commute from here, but it's time for her to be on her own, and I know I would feel much, much better knowing she has a shorter drive in bad weather. She'll start in September, and in the meantime, she'll keep the museum job she has now and live at home.

For right now, I'm just glad we have power, since there are many areas nearby without. We're in day two of the three or four day storm that comes with high winds and heavy rain. It's very creepy out there; wind is the weather that actually frightens me the most, and I hate hearing the noises it makes outside and against the house. K and I went out to pick up sushi a little while ago, and while I was waiting for her in the car, the wind was making the car rock back and forth. *shiver*

Thanks for all your wonderful comments and congratulations!

Fireworks Over New Jersey

K GOT THE JOB!! SHE GOT A TEACHING JOB FOR SEPTEMBER!!

(Thanks for all the crossed fingers, everyone!)

Progress, Of a Sort

R is off work this week, so she came by yesterday afternoon and we ordered her wedding gown online. YAY! Looks like my kid is actually getting married!

I was in Nordstrom the other day, which I may have mentioned, and looked over their mother-of-the-bride type dresses and they had nothing, but they still show a lot online. Looks like they have a special wedding department, with consultants and such, so I may give them a call. (Sadly, there's no wedding department in the Nordstrom that is one mile from my house.) I'm leaning now towards a jewel-tone type brown or dark bronze, but of course I'll have to see what's what when I'm ready. Seven pounds to lose and then I'll start looking.

It is an ugly day in the neighborhood today, and will be so well into next week. Yuck. It's a raw, cold rain, although the temperature is actually in the forties, and will continue to be in the forties and fifties. (Otherwise, four or five days of precipitation in the form of snow would bring all life to a standstill, I think.) This is not a pretty sight out the library window.

Even so, I'd like to see if the Sibs is up to lunch tomorrow or Sunday, or anything to get her out of the house. She's starting to feel a lot better and is getting out on her own, but I'd like to get in on it and spend some time with her, too.

In the meantime, the annual spring invasion of ants has begun, except I haven't seen them in the kitchen; they're upstairs. K couldn't even sleep there last night, so I'm off after school for industrial strength ant repellent. I've read that the brand to use is Terro, and certainly I've never really found anything else that does the job. I'm hoping this does. I think ants are fine and I love nature and all that crap, but they've got the whole outside of the earth and I've only got inside my house, and that is my space, and I do not want uninvited creatures in it. So say we all.

Fish for dinner tonight, which means I am the cook. Got to pick that up after school, too.

The Continuing Adventures Of

It's 11:00 in the library on a beautiful spring day, apparently the last of these we're having, since it's going to rain for the next week or so (but still be in the fifties.) Ah well.

It's a busy day for me, a class last period, a class next period, and another later, all requiring the full period of instruction. If the hot flashes would just leave me alone, all would be well, but I'm dying here. I think it all has to do with blood pressure; mine has been low in recent months despite a change in my medication. I'm having it checked again next week, but I can take it at home and I know it's still low. We'll see what happens with that.

I did not walk home yesterday, since the Hubs pulled into the parking lot to pick me up just as I was walking out the school door. I took advantage of having the car and went to Nordstrom to buy a bra that fits. Next time I will just jump off a bridge and save myself the aggravation.

Oh, there was a comment yesterday about bathroom breaks and a hostile work environment. I certainly agree with that. My problem is that the school is very supportive of my needs and has made arrangements for me to be able to go anytime I want, but the people who actually need to be there are not the administrators who support me but my colleagues who generally have only that same time to get to the bathroom themselves, and who are only human and make mistakes or some of them are just jerks. The secretary who assigns substitutes also impacts my situation from time to time, and although she is generally very nice, she is Not Smart. So the situation is not implemented smoothly, which is why sometimes when I need to go, no one is here to cover me, although on paper, someone is always here. I will complain about some people and not about others, so I guess I bear some of the responsibility too.

My weight loss has stalled. I actually gained a pound last week in the city, and was glad to have gained only a pound, but I haven't been able to shake any of that. I haven't exercised much, which is why I was looking forward to the walk yesterday, but I'm going to try to get back to the Wii this afternoon.

And at the bell, it's me, posting and going into the computer lab to teach yet another group of freshmen how to write a research paper. That brings me up to somewhere around ... oh, 120,000, I think, over the years. Damn, I hope some of them remember it.

As Forrest Said

I gotta pee. And the guy who's supposed to be here now to cover the library so I can leave is ten minutes late. We'll see if he's here by the time I'm done.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as it was yesterday, although I didn't get much outside time yesterday. I expect to get more today because the current plan is that I'll be walking home from work. Somewhat like my trip to New York last week, it's an adventure. My house is only a mile away from the library, but I haven't walked a mile all at once in some time. Even so, it's gorgeous out there, I have my cane, and I won't need to be carrying anything, or, for that matter, climbing any hills. So that's all good.

The reason I'm walking home is that we are down a car, more or less permanently. My father's car, which the Hubs has been using for several years, a 91 Oldsmobile, so literally, this is my father's Oldsmobile, has finally bitten the dust. It needs a catalytic converter, which is expensive, and it failed inspection because of it. As of March 1, it was no longer legal to drive, so it sits in our driveway until the Hubs decides what to do with it. (His record for letting a dead car sit in the driveway is, I believe, three years.) He works at home, and walks nearly every place he needs to go, so we're not in a rush to get him a car. (And things with his parents are very stable, I might add, because that would be a huge factor otherwise.) So we haven't replaced the car, and I don't know when we will. In the meantime, he has a meeting in south Jersey today, and so he dropped me off at work and went on his way. He may or may not be home in time to pick me up, since he'll add a visit to his folks while he's in the area, but really, I'm looking forward to the walk. It should be lovely, and I haven't gotten in a lot of exercise lately due to some pain.

Oh, he just showed up, about 18 minutes late total. I wonder what time he'll be leaving. Anyway, bathroom break for me.

I'm back, got distracted for a bit by actual work, but now I'm back. The bell is going to ring in about a minute ... or now, there it is ... and my hall person is still there, to the bitter end today, but he's actually got a kid out there and is working with him on some kind of math. Anyway, he stayed, and I wandered around a bit when I took my break. I'm very much in eating mode today, but I'm being good.

So did I mention yesterday that ABC decided to let Cablevision have its programming back about an hour into the Oscars on Sunday night? Yeah, that was nice of them. I'm just glad to be able to watch Lost tonight, since I wouldn't be able to see that online until tomorrow, or record it. (Sometimes I go back to hear or see something again.) When ABC went away, it wiped out all the scheduled recordings on that channel on my sister's DVR, but mine was okay. Not that any of this is relevant to anything.

Okay, so I realized this morning that I'm having a hard time dressing myself. This could mean many things, but I don't stand and stare at the closet and try on multiple outfits, nor do I have trouble tying my shoes. What I'm finding is that once I'm dressed, and wearing nice things that actually go with each other, I look in the mirror and see a mess. Today, I'm wearing a very cozy and soft army-green hoodie with a pretty wide collar, and a taupe tee shirt under that. I simply cannot get them to lay right. The round collar of the tee shirt will just not be round; it keeps pulling down on one side, which indicates to me that like yesterday, probably one of the girls is hanging lower than the other (but not the same one.) Yesterday, my bra straps kept falling down all  day. I feel like a schlumpf, which is probably not a real word, even in Yiddish, but it's descriptive of how I feel I look.

What else can I tell you this morning? I should be shelving books, which I have no interest in doing. Maybe I'll finally finish shifting the reference books. That should burn a few calories.

So ...

I'm home, I got home yesterday around four. I really had some nice days in the city. I have a couple more pictures which I'll post within the next few days.

Cash Cab. No, I didn't get to ride in it, but it seems that everybody wants to. People were talking about it at the taxi stand, and when I got in the cab to come back to the hotel, my friend -- who hailed the cab for me; I wouldn't have known what to do -- peeked inside and said "Oh, it's not the Cash cab."

Times Square. I have not been in Times Square for probably forty years, although I was there as a child with my parents a couple of times a year. I looked out the cab window in awe as if I had never been off the farm before. I felt somehow that I should still be holding daddy's hand, and I was surprised to see it as light as day! Several things about the trip were nostalgic for me, including the drive into the city and then out along the West Side Highway.

Celebs. I didn't stay to see Queen Latifah because I was just fading away by then, but I did see Queen Noor, who was quite impressive, and Bobby McFerrin, who was talented and adorable.

Back in the real world, you may or may not have heard that ABC pulled its broadcast off the major cable provider in New Jersey and parts of New York, Cablevision, so I'll be looking for live streaming to watch the Oscars tonight. (I have several good links at hand.) No captions, I suppose, but it's hard to watch anything live with captions, because there's always a time delay. Fingers crossed for this absurd dispute to be resolved by Tuesday, for Lost.

And it's back to school tomorrow. I did nothing today, never even went outside, although I understand it was a beautiful day. Tomorrow, then.

The Evening Meal

This is how room service brought my dinner last night.

It was a corned beef sandwich and a bottle of O'Doul's.




-- Post From My iPhone

The View

I'm on the 23rd floor of the New York Hilton. Here's the view from my room:

Here's the fancy bathroom:




As always, I am creeped out by seeing myself in big mirrors everywhere. Even so, this is indeed a swell time. In an hour, I'll be in a cab on my way to dinner out in the actual city. I hung out today with librarians fromall over the country. It turns out that I dpn't have an accent, although they all do.

-- Post From My iPhone

My Bags Are Packed ...

I'm ready to go. Sadly, I must still spend the day at work. I'm not going until six.

YAY! At six p.m., I'm being picked up by a car service -- I don't think they'll be sending an actual limo -- and driven into New York City, where I get to stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel for three nights and go to a conference for three days! What an adventure for homebound little me. I'm so excited, I could just plotz.

Anyway, I am totally packed, because I'm getting my nails done right after school, and will be done with that, I hope, in time to pick up a sandwich at Subway so I can bring that with me to eat in my fancy hotel room when I get there. Tonight, all I plan to do is finish up entering some stuff into a new medical records app I have, and watch some TV. Tomorrow, I see that the all-day school librarian's conference is providing breakfast and lunch, and then I'm taking a cab down to the Village -- listen to me, like I spend my life in the city -- to have dinner with my OldFriend, and possibly R will join us as well. On Friday and Saturday, lunch is included -- I'm all about the meals -- and I think that on Friday night I will allow myself to get room service for dinner. How cool is that? I'll be home by dinner time on Saturday.

For now, testing is once again the theme of the day in school. I can't even go into all the details because there is so much idiocy going on here. After the testing is done, I have a class coming in for my history of B-Town presentation, but the period is shortened because of the testing so I'm going to be talking like an auctioneer. I wonder if my jokes will still be funny at high speed.

I should post now because it's time for the bell, even though no one is remembering to ring the bells on testing days. Gahh. You'd think someone had to stand there and ring a bell by hand. Push a button! Set a clock! No, we're just all wandering the building at will today. I hope the conference is better organized than this place.

We Are Being Tested

For three days starting today, every 11th grader in the state of New Jersey is being tested to see if s/he can graduate. It's called the High School Proficiency Assessment, HSPA, which we pronounce "hespa." Like all of these tests, it's pointless. If any little thing goes wrong in the testing, we will lose our jobs, our licenses, our pensions, we have been promised. The state is serious about this shit, as if it actually might mean something.

Because my school is never quite up to speed, I didn't have an assignment this morning, but I took hall duty outside the library anyway, because no one gets out of HSPA alive, and it was better to just find a duty and do it than have to deal with any aftermath. Our bell schedule is all changed for these three days; today, we have morning classes in the afternoon. It's crazy here.

In other news, did I mention that I picked up an inexpensive PC netbook last week? And now I know why I love my Mac? All I wanted was a little computer that could pick up a few non-Mac-compliant websites, and that would stream video, which my Mac is too old to do. All good, it does all that. I do need to remember that I can't download just anything I come across like I can on a Mac, where no one fears viruses, so I activated the McAfee free trial and then decided to upgrade it to a year.

Oh.My. God. This must be why I have a Mac, because I am already in McAfee hell. I have already talked to two people in India, I may possibly have paid for the upgrade twice, and guess what? No upgrade received. Am I surprised? No, not at all. Pissed off, yes, but not surprised. So after school today, I need to do battle with those people. All for a cheap little netbook. Which is very cute, btw. And I can watch things on hulu and they're closed captioned, too.

I'm making dinner in the crockpot right this very minute, some kind of chicken, so it should be easy to get the meal on the table tonight, just make some potatoes on the side. I'm turning into a regular Suzy Homemaker.

I am semi-back to following Twitter, but not really, only because I saw that Serge, the butler robot on Caprica, is twittering, and it's very amusing. He tweets under the name Serge Greystone. If you haven't seen the show, he's just a sort of automated servant, kind of shaped like one of those hip 70's phones with the long sort-of neck, that floats through the house and talks to the people who live there, but he has a personality, which is certainly showing up in the Twitter feeds. I haven't looked at Twitter otherwise in a very, very long time. I'll see what's going on there for a while before it loses me again, I guess.

I am so ready for lunch, but lunch is later today because of the weird schedule. What a stupid place this is.

I Wanna Be the Fashion Police

Although I spend most of my day here in the library, I walk the corridor almost all the way around the building every day to get to where I have my lunch, and then back again after, and I'm walking among the kids. Today's observations were fashion-based, for some reason.

The hot thing in high school fashion for girls seems to be leggings. Leggings, for the uninformed, are kind of like heavyweight tights/pantyhose, but without feet; they end at the ankle, like pants. But they are not pants, oh no. And many of the girls do not have the sense to wear leggings only under tunic-type tops. They wear them as if they are pants. Which means, as the expression goes, nothing is left to the imagination. They are strutting down the halls wearing waist-length tops, and on the bottom, just leggings (and the obligatory Uggs or other hairy boots on their feet.) You can practically tell where their birthmarks are, let alone anything else of more substance.

Are they tramps (oh, what a sixties word!)? Probably not, these are just girls who think they're fashionably dressed. So here's the question:

How did we become a society in which girls and women are essentially tricked into revealing lots and lots of their body parts in the name of fashion? Do we think this is actually better than places that require women to be covered head to toe?

Yes, women have a choice here. Or do they? Don't teenage girls dress the way they do to fit in, to be like everybody else? If not, why do they all look the same?

Most people, boys and girls, are still wearing jeans, and lots and lots of sweatshirts, and are, in general, modestly covered. But the leggings are just not right on some people, and probably not on anyone, and I'm really tired of telling boys to take the hoods off their heads and to pull up their pants. I don't want to see anybody's underwear in public. I'm just funny that way.