I forgot to mention something in my New York Trip Diary, but it’s just a little thing – no need to make an entire volume of it.  I was just going to talk about how much my husband and I enjoyed seeing the Empire State Building.  We didn’t go up into it, but we passed by right next to it while riding a bus, and of course we also saw it looming over the NY skyline since it is once again New York’s tallest building after the collapse of the World Trade Center.  The Empire State Building actually wasn’t quite as tall as I would have thought, but the architecture is what I noticed.  The building has limestone panels on the outside, and it looked much different than the steel skyscrapers (like the Sears Tower and the John Hancock building) I am used to being a native Chicagoan.  The Empire State Building was completed in 1931 after only 410 days of construction.  It was finished during the worst of the Great Depression, and as a result, no one wanted to rent office space for its first few years of existence – leading to its nickname, “The Empty State Building”.  Five people were killed in its construction; including a worker who committed suicide because he was laid off.  In a macabre example of foreshadowing for the city of New York, the Empire State Building was hit by an airplane in 1945.  The crash happened between the 79th and 80th floors and killed 14 people.  One of the plane’s engines shot through the building and out the other side, where it landed a block away on the roof of a building and started a fire.  The Empire State Building’s elevator operator survived a fall of 75 stories inside the elevator and her record for ‘longest survived fall in an elevator’ still exists today.  Here is a picture of the accident:

So anyway, fascinating building with a lot of history.  I just found it really cool to see an old-school skyscraper up close!

And since we were on the subject of the Sears Tower earlier, here is a video of lightning striking it – which I understand happens pretty often.  If only they could harness that energy for human consumption…

My youngest is on her way to a show choir competition. That in itself is enough to make a parent worry a bit. She will be spending this evening on a bus, and arrive at the destination tomorrow afternoon. That is also enough to make a parent worry.

But she is heading south and east to South Carolina and the Myrtle Beach area. Has anyone seen the news about that area? Unfortunately, I have. If you haven’t I will share.

FIRES in South Carolina.

Can a just say that this is really something to worry about. My youngest is always getting herself in this situation. When she was in the 8th grade she went to a Vet Camp. There was news that a Black Bear was roaming around in that area. Hmmm.

She decided to go to a specific college. There was a dorm fire in the dorms she was going to be living in. The students in the fire were in the same area of study she wants to go into. Hmmm.

Does bad luck follow my little girl all over the place, or is this just some weird set of coincidence.

I’m guessing the latter. It helps keep me sane.

My cousin and her small family moved to Alaska last November. Alaska?! Who goes to Alaska!  (HEHE… small inside joke).  Char’s husband was stationed there after his training in the U.S. Army.  In March, Rich was deployed to Afghanistan but he is allowed to communicate via phone or computer from time to time. He will be able to return for a week or so for the arrival of their second child (reportedly another little girl). I chatted with him a few weeks ago to discover that he is stationed in a relatively safe zone… in fact, he was bored.  I think I would rather be bored in Afghanistan than being in the heat of battle somewhere else..

My sister got a phone call this afternoon from Alaska.  It seems that Rich helped set up for a concert that will be taking place featuring a famous country star.  Both Char and Christi were upset that they could not be there, too because Rich got to meet him and got his autograph.  I told them… if you wanted to meet him so badly, you could both enlist and join him.  Don’t suppose that is very likely in their familial circumstances.  But I believe that they were both promised autographs.  Hopefully, some pictures as well.

I wonder what Christi would have done if instead of Toby Keith there were stars of the WWF or WWE or whatever the so called “professional wrestling” group calls themselves.  I belive it has been downgraded to “sports entertainment.” Honestly, it reminds me of a soap opera with all the convoluted story lines and obviously staged matches. .. good for a laugh.   However, somehow there is a number of members in my family  who enjoy it.  I still remember running outside on Saturday mornings when dad turned it on.  To each his own, I guess.  I would much rather see Toby Keith in person.  Of course, there are other celebrities I would like to meet.

Last weekend I picked up a job in hometown district for first grade.  In fact, it was the school nearest my home.  Later, a job in supersized district appears for a resource teacher (they call it by a different name, but that’s what the job is- for those students who need the extra boost).  It was of course much further so why would I want to change over to this one?  Yet, for some reason I did.  Probably because I hadn’t worked in that district for a month thanks to them canceling most of the jobs I’ve taken in recent days.  Yes, the expected one included.  That actually lasted an entire week believe it or not.  I guess no one bothered to check and see that a mere 90-day (noncertified) sub had their three-week assignment.  We’re the ones who get the unwanted/last minute scraps at the table.  Did you know 120-day (certified) subs in this state can work more than 120 days?  They have to get a waiver from the state to do it, but for some reason they get it.  There was one year the state said no, but with some finagling they managed to get it back for the next year.  For the end of that one year, jobs were easier for me to come by.  So back to the story, I did change the job.  1st grade is a little below my comfort zone anyway, as I have mentioned.  So Monday I arrived and guess what?  They told me I was needed in first grade at the start of the day because another sub was going to be late!  Sigh.  It happened to take away my only break that day outside of a 45-minute lunch (the teacher didn’t have any students for nearly the first hour, after that it was one group of students to the next.  Actually, they offered to let me stay in first grade and bump the other sub to my assignment.  After having worked in this class for the last hour I thanked them for the offer but moved on.  And, the other teacher worked with older kids.

The first grade irony continued on Wednesday.  I subbed for elementary PE where we played hockey tag all day, a combination of the two games in the name.   The “it” players are armed with hockey sticks and they try to hit other players with yarn balls.  Depending on the rules the players hit could be out or become “it” as the stick is handed over.  The morning was all 4th-6th grades, most of whom knew what they were doing.  The afternoon had four groups, one 4th grade, one 2nd grade, and two 1st grade.  So, back to first grade for another hour 😉  Not only that, but one of the classes, probably the roughest group all day, was a class I had subbed in for a couple of days last year.  Several older students had asked if they could help me during their lunch, and this was the class they would have helped with had I said yes.  I should have said yes.  Oh, well.

In case you’re wondering, Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of IT in hometown district, same school as last week.  The 6th graders were working on house floor plans instead of enlarging cartoons, and the 7th and 8th graders were still doing modules like last time.  Nothing much to say.

My favorite team (the Detroit Tigers) are at the end of a West Coast road trip. After tonight’s (this morning’s) game they will head to Kansas City. I’m curious as to the start times used on the West Coast. In Seattle, the games started just after 9:00 PM our time. Most of the games were over before 1:00 am. In Anaheim, the games start just after 10:00pm, and they haven’t been over before 1:00 am.

I usually have to get up by 6:00 am, at the very latest, so these west coast trips are usually going on past the time I would like to be asleep (I don’t always get there, but that was another post). Since I’m paying for Game Day Audio, I feel like I should get my money’s worth and listen to as many games as possible. So, yes I did stay up for all of the west coast games (3 in Seattle and 2 so far in fair Anaheim).

As you could guess, I’m kind of tired today. I did go to “bed” early last night, but I woke up in time for the game. But that really doesn’t get to my initial curiosity. Why the different start times for Seattle and Anaheim? They are in the same time zone, aren’t they? Now the 10:00 start is what I would consider normal (that is 7:00 in California), but the 9:00 (6:00 in Washington) is a bit odd. So, I started doing some research, and found my memory failed me (I was missing some sleep here). Only the Saturday game started at 9:00 our time. That now makes sense. Saturday games could get the people there by 6:00 local time. Not a bad idea.

Of course, now everybody knows why I was so tired on Saturday during filming. I was up late listening to the Tigers lose last Friday…. 🙁

Since I answered my own question, I imagine there won’t be many comments here…. 😉

The last week at the old grind has had a few surprises.  Last Thursday with about 5 minutes to spare on my shift, two of my best friends and their two youngest happened into the store on their way to meet a prospective sitter for use when their normal sitter is not available.  Apparently, there was confusion as to where the store is located since the old Super Value sign is still hanging but the Krispy Kreme sign hanging on the building struck a chord.  At the time, I was  putting some potato salad in the case which the customers turned down.  After clocking out, they were at the register so I walked out with them.

Today, I was told that Saturday would be the last delivery day for Krispy Kreme at the store.  Apparently, the location that delivers them is closing its doors… yet another victim of the rotten economy.  The deliveryman who was the subject of a post a few months ago must not deliver to our store anymore… I haven’t seen him since the incident.

I don’t know how I got so luck today but I got the pleasure of stocking about every type of baked bean we carry: Bush’s, store brand, regular, homestyle, with bourbon.  The person working with me in the aisle cracked a few jokes before I got the chance… including Bart Simpson’s famous axiom :

Beans, Beans

The musical fruit

The more ya eat

The more ya toot.

Ah, the wit and wisdom of the eternal ten year old eldest child of Homer and Marge.  It also made me recall the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles.  I have always though that it would be extremely dull to work in a place where you could not have some fun.

The other day I got an email from my friend about an unusual request she had.  I found the email quite amusing, so I’ll share it:

The last time I wrote, I forgot about a big detail from Friday.  I have been subbing for a few years now and I must either have been in elementary schools on this particular day, or in districts that don’t support it.  The day I’m referring to is the day of silence.  This is a day where non-heterosexual students, and those who support them, make vows of silence (which many don’t keep outside of the classroom by the way) as a response to the bullying many receive.  Being what and who I am, I cannot support their lifestyle of course, but neither do I support people bullying them.  As such I do support their right to make this particular point.  However, in doing so it does bring to the forefront their lifestyle for everyone to see and discuss during schooltime, so naturally I support the counterpoint that follows on the next school day- the Day of Truth.  The truth being that this lifestyle is dangerous, particularly for males, and it is counter to God’s Word.  As such, some Christians started this day in response, though I understand many schools that support the DoS do not support the DoT even though it is completely run by students and so doesn’t fall under separation of church and state.  This year there were some who promoted a Christian walkout on Friday, but I think this person has a better Christian response:

I propose instead of walking out, that evangelical kids pledge to do better, to do things differently.

Last year, on the Day of Silence, Campus Crusade for Christ Regional Director, Michael Frey and I promoted the idea that students in high school and college take the Golden Rule Pledge (LINK). In response to silent peers advocating for safety and respect, we hope evangelical kids will agree and pledge to treat others the way they want to be treated in return. Over 30 schools took part last year, and we hope this year we can build more bridges instead of walls.

Click this link to go to Dr. Warren Throckmorton’s blog to read the whole thing.  Anyway, the school I was at supported the DoS in a big way, even giving students packs of notes they could hand to teachers in each class they were in.  I really didn’t do much about it, though as I said I (silently) supported their right to do this, and at the same time I treated it as a small blessing- fewer students talking in class 😛 . Unfortunately Monday I was in an elementary school in supersized district so I have no idea if the Day of Truth meant anything at Friday’s school.

Make that 4 rats.  We now have 4 pet rats.  How did that happen, you ask?  A bit of mistaken identity when they were picked out at the pet store resulted in rat babies?  No, all 4 are male – I don’t think there’s any mistaking that.  What happened is this…

We got our two pet rats, and the kids’ friends decided they wanted pet rats.  This family has a history of obtaining and disposing of pets at a record rate.  It bugs the heck out of me, but I don’t want to say anything to them and step over the boundary of  telling people how to raise their kids.  We took a cat they decided they didn’t want anymore, but we had to give it back because our dog was constantly trying to eat her and I was more allergic to that cat than I am to most cats.  So anyway, this family is notorious for getting pets and then “getting rid” of them when they’re tired of them, want new pets, or just plain can’t take care of them anymore.  To a degree, circumstances like these are understandable.  We had to “get rid” of a dog because she bit my daughter in  the face – understandable that we can’t have a dog in the house who bites kids when we have 4 kids.  Getting “rid of her” upset me at the time, but I also knew there was no choice.  I’m putting “get rid” in quotes because it’s a term I don’t like to use about pets.  I don’t like to think that this is something people should regularly do with animals.  I’m a firm believer in pets being commitments – you must keep them until they pass away (extenuating circumstances don’t count – stuff happens sometimes, but not to EVERY pet, as in the case with this family).  You need to do all the research about care before you obtain the pet; such as cleaning up after it and how much it will cost to feed it – which is why our daughter’s friend’s family needed to “get rid” of their rats.

It was a fine line to walk.  I don’t want to encourage these people to get more pets by taking their leftovers, but on the other hand, I’m an animal lover, and I can only  imagine what would happen to unwanted rats (snake food, turned loose in a field = hawk or cat or coyote food, etc).  Besides, my kids have been just GREAT about caring for their pet rats.  I barely know the rats are in the house, except when I actually have time to play with them, which is exactly how I wanted it.  The girls feed and water their rats, clean the cage weekly, and play with them and give them exercise daily.  So how could I say no to getting their friends’ rats and yes to sending them to certain doom?

So, yes, we now have 4 rats in the house.  Please don’t start calling me ‘crazy rat lady’; it wasn’t entirely my fault; I was just trying to help!  Here are the new additions – Buckeye and well, I can’t remember his name, so here is Buckeye and what’s his name (his head is barely visible underneath Buckeye – he looks just like Oreo, one of our original rats).

And while I’m at it, here are our original rats, Oreo and Bobby Jack:

My Bookshelf O’ Rats – just what I’ve always wanted 🙂