I hope you’re not getting the wrong opinion of me – I’m really not a big fan of email forwards…  it’s just that I get so many.  I don’t religiously forward every one to everybody I know.  And I am certainly not superstitious and don’t believe that I will get bad luck for not forwarding emails.  But occasionally, I will follow the directions on a forward, or sometimes I even pass it on to my friends and family because I find something cute, fun, or just a little bit entertaining.  One popular forward is the “4 Things About You” forward.  I’ve recently received this one for the umpteenth time (wish I had been keeping track), but I don’t mind since filling out questionaires about yourself tends to be fun, I don’t know why…  maybe to get a chance to think about your favorite things and put them in a list?  Anyway, I’ve decided to post my answers here: 

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

Mommy

business owner

receptionist

office manager

B) Four movies I would watch over and over: (I’m just gonna put my favorites even though I wouldn’t watch them over and over – Forrest Gump is just too sad, but it’s still my favorite even though I haven’t seen it in years)

Wizard Of Oz

As Good as it Gets

Forrest Gump

Nanny McPhee

C) Four places I have lived:

Warrenville, IL

Lincoln, NE

Pioneer, OH

Wheaton, IL

D) Four TV shows I watch:

The Office – writer’s strike is OVER – can’t wait for new episodes!!!

Lost

Dr. Phil

Friends / Everybody Loves Raymond reruns

E) Four places I have been:

Orlando, FL

Washington, DC

Idaho

California

F) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):

Sue

Vickie

My mom

Elizabeth

G) Four of my favorite foods:

gyros off the spit

saganaki

spaghetti

cheese

H) Four places I would like to be right now:

home

somewhere warm

at a zoo

at an animal park
 

I) Four friends I think will respond:

Elizabeth

Jamy

Vickie

MB

J) Four things I am looking forward to this year:

The birth of our 4th daughter

having 4 kids

warm weather

the Cubs season

Here is my own review of the Thursday, February 29 episode of Lost:

To sum it up quickly, see title of post.  This show is intriguing, yet if they don’t start answering questions soon…  I don’t know what I’ll do.  I’d still watch it, but only to get answers to the thousands of questions the writers have put out there over the years…  That is, if I can actually remember all the questions…  there are literally hundreds of loose ends, with at least 5-10 new plot twists and story lines opening EACH WEEK!  Stop it already!  I am a busy person with a terrible memory!  Now that that is out of the way…  on to the actual synopsis of the latest Lost episode.

*WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD – DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED MOST RECENTLY ON LOST!!!*

First, let me refer you to the tvguide.com Lost blog – they do a great job and I really recommend reading their blog every Friday after the show airs.  Although I must say that the person filling in this week is not nearly as insightful and clever as the person who normally writes the blog, so if you don’t like it, I would suggest reading it another week when the regular writer is back: https://community.tvguide.com/blog/TV-Show-Blog/Lost/800062566

This episode actually opened with the answer to a question!  Albeit, it was a question only raised last episode, but still a step in the right direction – Sayid and Desmond are alive!  But, immediately following this revelation, we were introduced to 2 MORE CHARACTERS – Omar and Kearney – and YET ANOTHER plot twist – time travel!  I have to admit, the time travel aspect was interesting, if not confusing, but at least they answered some of the questions they raised about it this episode – they tell us what year Desmond is traveling back to (1996) and why he is time-traveling (exposure to radiation).  Unfortunately for Desmond, others who have traveled thru time in the show met an unfortunate demise – RIP Eloise and  George Minkowski, Desmond’s roommate on the ship.  Of course we will have to wait and see what Desmond’s fate will be, as that is yet another unanswered question at this point.  But Thursday’s episode was remarkable in that it showed (fast-forwards NOT INCLUDED!) the FIRST time any of the island-dwelling characters have gotten off the island!  Way to go Sayid and Desmond!  Unless, of course, the ship is a bad place to be – we don’t know what the ship is yet because that is an UNANSWERED QUESTION!

As always, we had some time for a bit of subtle comic relief this episode, such as the moment when Penny’s father said “Walk with me.”  to Desmond so they could have a chat, but then the scene cuts away, and he is in a urinal – it’s no secret how he feels about Desmond!

The tvguide blog likes to pose some questions to viewers at the end, so here they are with my answers in CAPS.  Since this week’s blog was written by a replacement writer, the questions are not nearly as thought-provoking, witty, or well-written as they usually are:

1. Was Penny expecting Desmond’s call? It wasn’t clear if Present Penny remembered Past Des’ promise.  TO ME IT WAS CLEAR SHE REMEMBERED HIS PROMISE!  SO SHE HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR HIM FOR 3 YEARS EVEN THOUGH SHE DIDN’T REMEMBER HIS PROMISE – UNLIKELY!

2. Why would Faraday need a “constant”?  MAYBE HE WAS JUST PARANOID AND WANTED ONE IN CASE – I WOULD!

3. Does Miles still have that grenade in his gob?  WHO CARES – MILES WAS AN A-HOLE!

4. Are Sawyer and Kate still in bed back in New Otherton?  AGAIN WHO CARES – THOUGH I BET THE ACTORS WHO PLAYED THEM WERE IN FOR A SURPRISE WHEN THEY READ THE SCRIPT THIS WEEK AND WERE NO WHERE TO BE FOUND – ALSO JIN, SUN, HURLEY, CLAIRE, LOCKE, MICHAEL (where IS Michael, anyway?!?) ETC, ETC.  THAT’S WHAT THEY GET FOR HAVING SO MANY CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW!!!  UNFORTUNATELY, IT’S NOT THE ACTORS’ FAULTS!

5. Where was Ms. Hawking? I missed her.  WHO IS MS. HAWKING?

Now that that’s out of the way, here are the questions I have about this episode:

1.  How does Desmond know what Daniel looks like in 1996 at Oxford?

2.  How come Penny doesn’t look any different between 1996 and 2004 – what is her secret?

3.  If Penny was so fed up with Desmond, why was she looking for him for 3 yrs. (since 2001),  even though he said he wasn’t going to call her until 2004?

If you are an avid watcher of the show, give me some feedback!  Let’s pick our brains and come up with some insights and possible answers to all these questions!  They have said that they have put the show on a timeline – meaning, they know when they want it to end, so they are writing it so that ALL (so they say, yeah right) questions will be answered by the time the show is finished.  My husband thinks maybe what the show is about is that the island is pergatory, and that when someone dies on the island, they are going to Heaven if they’ve passed their test, or ahem, the other place if they haven’t.  It had certainly seemed this way at times, and this is a good theory, but I don’t think it’s going to be that biblical in the end.  Especially after this last episode, I’m starting to think the island is about time travel…  maybe it will turn out the Oceanic survivors were only missing for a matter of hours or days…  all we can do at this point is hang on tight and wait and see!

What do YOU think?!?

The subject of this post, my friends, is the result of an email forward I got today.  It’s one of the stupidest forwards, yet somehow irresistable at the same time.  I posted it below if you want to try it.  I didn’t have the nerve to bother my friends with this at work, so I decided to post it on my blog instead.  Imagine my surprise when I got an email from a neighbor my mom had like 4 years ago (I somehow got on her forward list) with a subject of: “I love an ipod because I think I need some serious help.”

This is funny, and silly but fun..keep it going..Type the sentence you end up with, in the subject line and forward to your friends… Pick the month you were born: January——-I kicked
February——I loved
March——–I karate chopped
April———-I licked
May———-I jumped on
June———-I smelled
July———–I did the Macarena With
August——–I had lunch with
September—-I danced with
October——-I sang to
November—–I yelled at
December—–I ran over

Now type out the sentence you made, in the subject line and forward to your friends. 

Trying a different theme.  The other one didn’t show italics, just two ways to show bold type…

Erm… Running into what?? It sounds like I mixed up two topics here… Well as to the second, since it’s the least interesting, the position I wound up subbing for was art. After patting myself on the back for actually arriving a little early for once I ashamedly dragged my tail out the door and over to the school I was supposed to go to. Okay, though that scene has actually happened before, this one wasn’t my fault. Really. You see, many of the specials positions in this district are itinerant, or traveling jobs. That is, the teacher works out of two schools. Having been burned before I meticulously checked, and rechecked both the message (“special instructions”) the teacher left and the online system so I would really know where I was going. Real– okay, enough of that word. Anyway, the message told me all about how there was a student teacher and I would leave the teaching to her… yada yada. Been there, done that. No school mentioned. Check. Over to the online system, looked at the school, check. Go to the school, sign in, drop my lunch off, pass over the store-bought bagels someone brought in, go to the art room, and… another teacher is there who says she has the room Friday mornings. Check in with the office, and sure enough all my careful detective work is shattered when they (now) inform me the teacher I am subbing for works out of a different school on Fridays. Oops… Sign out, collect my lunch, pass over the bagels again, travel to the other school which is fortunately only five minutes away hoping all the while it wasn’t one of those schools that closes their parking lot when the buses start to arrive (seriously), fortunately again find out it is not, check in, put my lunch away, pass over… wait- Panera bagels? Grab bagel, go to art room, carefully verify with student teacher that I am indeed in the correct place this time, then finally take my coat off and plop down with relief. Hey, at least someone brought good bagels over here. 🙂

So, it turned out there were eight classes to teach: four 5th/6th, and four 3rd/4th. Apparently all classes except kindergarten are multiage at this school. Well, the 5th/6th classes were in the middle of a project involving Crayola®-clay animal pots and acrylic paints. Yes, they looked better than that just sounded (most of them…). I of course assured them that yes, the olive green and yellow plaid shirt I was wearing was on purpose because I hate it and don’t care if it got messed up in art. Through all four periods unfortunately it didn’t. I guess with three wins (“fortunatelies?”) I was bound to lose one.

The 3rd/4th grade classes started a new unit on movement. No, this wasn’t PE or performing arts. Movement as portrayed on the canvas. They even got to draw a little, well, er, two of the classes did. Such a crime- art class and some didn’t even get to do art! Well, that’s unit introductions for you.

Okay then, until next post.

Wait, I’m forgetting something aren’t I? Yes, really (didn’t I ban this word earlier?). “Running into” doesn’t actually refer to the movement, as they weren’t allowed to draw people today anyway, only objects. Drawing people and showing their movement is apparently for more advanced students, more advanced than 8-10 years anyway. And besides, I had to have added the church category for this post for some reason.

In this case “running into” refers to me running into someone I actually knew from church. No, not really (that word again!) running into him, adults don’t run in school rooms now, do they? So anyway, It had been a couple of years, and memory for names and faces isn’t exactly one of my strengths, or even neutral features (you know where I’m going with this…). Apparently his memory was only slightly better as I just “looked familiar” like maybe someone from camp. I one upped him and said “church camp?” still not recognizing him. Then he one upped and gave the name of the camp and his name. I of course pretended to recognize him before he said his name (secretly grateful he said it, reall- truly recognizing him only after he said it). As it turned out, he was the one student from my cabin I spent a week with (yes I truly am pathetic…) and never saw again after that summer. There were two like that the following summer, but at least I knew I wouldn’t see them again when they told me that the one was from another church and the other was a friend he invited to come with him. Anyway, since you have suffered through this entire post I will provide an obligatory picture of my cabin from that year, but you will have to just guess which one he is. All I’ll tell you is he isn’t the one on the right (that would have been a really (sigh) big 5th grader). The one on the right was actually my junior counselor (I was the adult counselor). I of course am behind the camera, so no picture of me- sorry! 😛

Note: The thumbnail picture is not so good, so click on it to see it in it’s full glory!

There have been countless interpretations of the classic tale of “Cinderella.” There is the classic Disney film, Ella Enchanted, Pretty Woman, Cinderfella (starring Jerry Lewis in a movie with a male twist to the tale), and several others in all media. My personal favorite is the Rodgers and Hammerstein version which began as a television special in 1957 starring a young Julie Andrews (fresh from her role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady).

I believe the role of the fairy godmother in this version is different than most interpretations. She not only creates a fancy dress, a wonderful carriage, and all the accessories to get Cinderella to the Prince’s ball; she also encourages the young lady to get up and get out of her life of servitude to her evil stepmother. “Fal-do-ral and Fiddle-de-de. Fiddly faddly foodle; All the dreamers in the world are silly in the noodle.” It is fine to dream about something but if you are unwilling to try and pursue a dream then a dream is all it will be.

Of course any musical is only as good as its supporting characters. One of the most memorable roles in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is the Herald. He has the dauntless task of announcing to the townspeople that “The Prince is giving a ball.” He has to sing through the mile long list that is the Prince’s name as well as the King’s and Queen’s. The Prince’s name: Christopher Rupert Vwindemere Vlademere Carl Alexander Francois Reginald Lancelot Herman. Quite a mouthful! The Queen’s name: Queen Constantina Charlotte Ermintrude Guinevere Maizie. The King’s name: King Maxmillian Godfrey Ladislaus Leopold Sydney. Hope I did not forget anyone.

This version has been made into three other films and has been staged by numerous theatres. Most recently, a version was seen on television in 1995 starring Whitney Houston, Brandy, Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber, AND Jason Alexander. A perfect movie for the whole family.

One of the things I don’t like about subbing is cancellations, especially those of the last minute variety. That happened this morning, but here is where the drama comes in:

Waking up several minutes before my alarm clock goes off, I look at the clock and see that it’s too late to try to go back to sleep so I decide to just get up. I do my morning business and go to get the paper. I open the door. No paper. But what’s that I see? Fresh snow! So I decide to go outside and do a quick shovel job. Fortunately it was only about an inch or so. I finish, grab the paper which was by now delivered, go inside, and pour myself some breakfast. As I’m putting the milk in the cereal the phone rings.

What? The other districts should have me down as unavailable.

I look at the caller ID and it’s the district I am signed up in today. Heart falling, I answer the call expecting “this job has been canceled.” But as I listen the computer voice is offering me a position for today!

What?

I scroll through the caller ID and I see that they called about five times this morning, once while I was outside shoveling snow! Perhaps I should have had the phone in my bedroom so I could have heard it, but instead it was in the office where I left it last night. Well, no harm done- I still have a job.

So I sit down, read the paper while eating. About 10 min later the phone rings again- same district! This time it was the dreaded “your job has been canceled” notice. Understandably upset at this point I hang up before hearing it all and go to the online substitute site to see for myself. Job still shows up.

What?

I shrug, finish getting ready for work, check again and the job is still safely intact. Just about ready to walk out the door the phone rings again! This time I listen to the cancel message further, suspecting the reason why, and sure enough the system is still trying to let me know the original job has been canceled, not the new one. One would think my accepting the new job would serve as my notice that the first one was canceled, or logging into the website… Well I must say the district is nothing if not thorough.

Oh, apparently that was not the end of it. After I left I guess they called again. Maybe not so much being thorough as a bug in their system? Sigh.

How ’bout them Cubs?  Ok, it’s only been one game of spring training, but they are undefeated!  Whoo-hoo!  I am so ready for baseball season; especially with all this snow – had ANOTHER snow day today, by the way.  Which means we have 2 make-up days now in the summer, and counting, probably since I’m sure with the way the snow has been falling out of the sky that it’s not done yet…  but that’s ok, because come June, when the kids have their extra days of school, I will be at home, sitting on my very pregnant behind, watching the Chicago Cubs WIN some baseball!  GO CUBBIES!

Ok…. so last night was dress rehearsal for Murder with a Silver Spoon to be presented Saturday night at Orchard Hills Country Club in Bryan, Ohio. Let’s just say it was an interesting rehearsal. To begin, our stage was cut from a huge space which was three smaller rooms minus retractable walls to one small area. Apparently, we were sharing the club with a group who was having a banquet. The space was not the important part. While waiting in the hall for their entrances, a few actors were told by the other group to keep the noise down… seriously. This proved to be very difficult especially for one performer who is full of energy and found it hard to keep the volume down while maintaining his energetic persona. He had to be constantly reminded to tone it down so we would not disturb the other room. Following the dress rehearsal, the director jokingly commented that she had trouble hearing anyone and that the energy was lacking. It was a good thing that Wednesday night’s rehearsal was such a success.

Hubby and I watched this movie last night.  Plot inconsistencies aside – it is a horror movie after all, so we weren’t expecting much – it was actually better than I thought.  I really enjoyed how they let the main characters keep slipping away from the Hitcher, the bad guy, only to be back in danger…  but I kept wondering, ok they’re safe now, but the movie can’t be over, so how are they going to get back in The Hitcher’s clutches?  The answers to these questions are an entertaining combination of extremely stupid and horrible decision making on the part of our “heroes” and also some pretty good plot manuvers on the part of the script.  There was also a lot of police involved in this movie, which, for a horror movie, is pretty rare.  Usually once the main characters encounter the police, they are safe, but without spoiling TOO much for you, this film is different from the norm.  Like I said, it was better than I expected.  Not super-great, but I was never bored or grossed-out, both of which I can’t say during my recent viewing of Saw IV – now that was an awful movie.  I think part of it is the pregnancy, but I just couldn’t handle the gore.  It never bothered me before, but I always did find it annoying when they use lots of gore just for shock value.  Now it’s both annoying AND so gross I can’t even watch it.  And what was with the casting of Saw IV?  They chose 2 actors who look exactly alike!  Even if I was making a serious attempt to follow the plot of the fim, which I wasn’t anyway since I constantly had to divert my eyes and ears from all the gore, I wouldn’t have been able to follow the movie because of the 2 identical actors they cast who were not supposed to be the same character but looked like it!  Anyway, back to The Hitcher – I liked it better than Gone Baby Gone, but then again, it’s a totally different kind of movie.  If it weren’t for some plot unbelievabilities and some of the STUPIDEST decisions I’ve ever seen main characters make, the movie would have been better.  In review, if you like horror / suspense movies, see The Hitcher.  By the way, I’m talking about the newer version, don’t know anything about the older version, maybe I should give it a try.  If you like pointless gore fests, I still wouldn’t recommend Saw IV – I wouldn’t recommend that movie to my worst enemy.  If you want to sit through a terrible movie, try The Night Listener – at least it has Robin Williams! 

On an unrelated note, for those of you who have read my Walmart rant, during my weekly visit today, the “magic price increase of the day” was yogurt – up from $.44 per container to $.46 each.  By the way, have you noticed that computer keyboards do not have a cents sign?  If I’m mistaken, let me know, I have actually gone to use them before!