Because he is!

Gak.  And I actually liked tea, too.  And coherent rhetorical techniques.  (Did you know, for example, that "halle-fuckin'-lujah" is an example of tmesis?  This really is the coolest website ever.  Even the Venerable Bede does tmesis.)

In other news:

Today is the last day for U of A to accept applications for their fall cohort (that's graduate school for "class").  They only accept 40 students into the program each year, and they'll start picking in the next week or so.

I did my taxes in February.

I definitely did not get one job at a school just outside Missoula.  No word yet on jobs I did get.  Phone interview with Idaho Falls went well, I think.  Fifteen people applied for the high school job in Troy (pop=1200).  

My bosses will not fill my job here until I have a contract elsewhere, even though it may mean not having a choice who takes the job during the "involuntary transfer" period.

When we drove through Idaho Falls last Thursday, I saw 5 beavers sitting on the shoulder of the interstate.

I thought maybe I could live in Salt Lake, but it took an hour and a half to drive through the whole thing.

Montana is a very progressive state.  It has a "banana belt."

The kittens are almost 9 weeks old and are able to get into all kinds of trouble.

Tyson's x-rays revealed a hairline fracture in his ankle, but he won't be able to see his written report for another 5 days because that's "standard procedure," even though they faxed it immediately to his doctor.

We are hoping to have a massive garage sale and get rid of about half of our stuff, Montana or no.  Anyone interested in a good deal on an old leather couch?  I hope we do not have to sell the fixtures and appliances in the back house.

[end]

This is the job I want:

Here is a job description for a Virtual Librarian in Boise. Too bad I’m not qualified—this is pretty much exactly what I want to do.

The IDLA Virtual Librarian is responsible for the researching, compiling, organizing and formatting of educational digital resources. This position will maintain and update a vast database of digital media resources in an efficient and organized manner that will be utilized by in-house and statewide stakeholders. The Virtual Librarian will also provide training, reference, and instruction on using and retrieving available resources.

Experience and Training
Required:
Bachelors Degree in Library Science or technology-related field
Minimum of 2 years experience as a librarian or related field

Preferred:
Masters Degree in Library Science from an ALA accredited institution
3+ years of experience as a librarian or equivalent
Additional training or certification relevant to position

This is so what I want to do after I go to librarian school.  Did I mention this is in Boise?  And that it STARTS at $50K?

Better, thanks

I've been taking Wellbutrin for about ten days now, and I'm feeling a lot happier.

And, well...

...happier.

Suck on this, fucktards!

Although the site says that 390% of the pages on the internet have swearing, so I'm not sure I trust the math whiz that cooked this one up.

The Writing on the Wall

It's starting to look as though it might be time to pull up the stakes here.  Yesterday, our governor proposed cutting teachers' salaries by 6%.  Combined with the 4% cost-of-living increase that won't be coming this year, that's an effective 10% salary cut next year.  Hell, they're even talking about cutting salaries for THIS year.  As in, the one we're having now.  The one we signed a contract for in August.

Because, God forbid, we make it more costly for businesses to relocate to Nevada, or institute even a fraction of a percent state income tax, or require user fees to participate in competitive sports.  Not to mention rewriting overtime rules for school district and other public employees.

I signed up for the GRE in two weeks.  I'm applying for admission to the Masters of Library and Information Sciences program online at University of Alabama,where I can learn to say "shhhhhhhh"  for only $275 a credit hour.  Some of the programs I looked at, like Rutgers, cost for a semester what I'll pay for the whole degree, or just about the same amount as I'm paying on my student loans right now.  It will be so exciting to pay cash for a semester of school!  I don't think I have ever done that before.

I've been poking around shopping for jobs and houses.  Barring amazing and astounding developments at Tyson's job (possibly involving a move to Florida for a few years--in which case I can be a Gator for $200 a credit hour), we basically have narrowed things down to:

• Missoula, Montana.  We have several friends, including a family with teenage kids (and horses!), that have moved there in the last year.  U of Montana campus.  Mountains.
• Idaho Falls, Idaho.  IF reminds me a little bit of home, if Lubbock were Mormon instead of Baptist and three hours from Yellowstone.   Bonus=affordable houses made of brick and U of Idaho down the road in Pocatello.
• Spokane, Washington.  Forty-five minutes and $100,000 away from Coeurd'Alane.  Cheap houses.  Snow.  According to the salary schedule I found at the school district website, I'd be making about $5000 more there, plus a $1400 stipend each November to employees with a Master's.

So my work is cut out for me the next few weeks: cramming for the test, tracking down transcripts, asking for letters of recommendation.  In addition to regular work, coordinating and implementing a new program for next year (which I'll do regardless of my being here or no) and managing my seratonin levels like a diabetic watches his insulin.  I can't very well get any of this done if it's hard getting out of bed in the morning.

Sacrifice

Several really, really great questions came up at the debates last night, but I want to talk about one in particular, in which the questioner reminded Obama that during wartime, presidents during the first half of the last century asked the American people for sacrifices, and what sacrifices might he ask for during these times.

That's something that's been bothering me throughout the Bush administration, and I was glad to hear Obama talk about this.  I was disappointed that he didn't mention that no government in the history of the world has ever LOWERED taxes during wartime, but I guess on a scale of what people want to hear to what they don't, nobody really wants that little tidbit thrown back at them.

But I was glad to hear him say Bush had basically been a moron to respond to crisis by asking people to go out and shop.  It's a resentment I'd been harboring since 2001, and it was good to hear it echoed by someone who actually stands to make a real difference, not just six English teachers around a lunch table.

Then I got to thinking:

While the little voice of rampant teenage idealism in my head tells me that we should all just stop being so materialistic and spending beyond our means, I know that no politician alive can say that because spending beyond our means is what drives our economy (into the ground, it turns out).  But I decided last night that where our generation can make the kind of sacrifices that will make the biggest difference is in our time.  Obama almost got there on this question last night, but I would love to see a widespread, grassroots effort to get people involved in service.  First, I think THE REASON for the world being the fucked-up place that it is is that technological progress has done away with too many human interactions.  Actually, I LIKE drive-through pharmacies and automated phone systems and having all my questions answered by the Internet instead of real people, but by and large, I think we're losing something important by limiting social interactions between strangers.  Second, the more people are involved in helping members of their communities, the less the government is going to have to do to help people.  And who knows better what the people in the community need than, say, other people in that community? While I think the government's prime responsibility is helping people, it usually takes twice as long and uses ten times as much money as the groups who are already doing that work.

So that being said, I am volunteering with the Pumpkin Triathlon in Boulder City next weekend, and offering extra credit to students who come and help.

How did I miss this??

Oh, man!  Can anybody spot me, like, 400 bucks?

The Amaz!ng Meeting is in town this weekend, featuring 2 of my favorite internet boyfriends:

Yes, that's Adam Savage and PZ Myers.

For those of you who don't know, the James Randi Educational Foundation (sponsors) is the one offering the million-dollar prize for verifiable evidence of any paranormal or supernatural event.  Thousands of hot, sexy rationalists are affiliated with the JREF, and they and their fans will be taking over the Flamingo for the weekend.  I'm sure all the dealers in the casino are thrilled to have a bunch of intellectuals roaming around, scoffing at all the rubes who bet red because it's "due" or yell at the guy next to them at the blackjack table for "taking" their cards.

Locals Penn and Teller will be there too, but their show has been vitriolic and sucky lately ("Lesbians on a blind date prove the 0-60 on the Prius is awful; therefore, alternative fuel is a left-wing lie."), so I won't be sorry to miss them.  [Interestingly enough, Penn used to visit my Starbucks pretty often.  Don't ask me how I remember these things, but he used to get a venti iced coffee with vanilla and lots of room.  And he is REALLY tall.  And his daughter's middle name is Crimefighter, he said on NPR.  Really, I am not a stalker, not even a fan (but I would still totally name my kid Moxie Crimefighter).]

As much as I really, REALLY want to go shamelessly throw myself at Adam from Mythbusters, registration is RIDICULOUS.  I guess real rationalists are supposed to be smart enough not to have student loans or multiple high-interest credit cards.

Elaine's Rowing, I'm Crowing!

And my reputation is growing!

So I got pulled aside today for a closed-door meeting with my admin (always a little scary!) but what really happened was he told me I am all set to be the program coordinator for those block classes we're doing next year.  He made it sound like I would be essentially an uncompensated argument-settler and work-deligator, which I was happy to be asked to do, even if it didn't have a job title or pay package.  When there's something big that needs to be figured out, I have a lot of trouble with uncertainty where I have no authority to actually do anything about it.  Plus, I'll have someone to back me up when I come across as steamrollering over someone who's not being assertive enough (or just plain has a no-good idea).  Man, am I a controlling bitch or what?

But THEN as I was walking out of his office, my principal stopped me and gave me the same news, except that I would actually be getting a job title (Program Coordinator, with initial capitals) AND a prep buyout if there's money to do it (and there probably would be after count day in October).  What does that mean?  Only an additional 1/7th of my salary!  Well, and the expectation of doing a hell of a lot more work than with the informal title, but being compensated for an extra hour of work a day means I can focus on actually getting it done right rather than trying to cram it in somewhere in between other crap, all the while feeling like I'm done and should be going home.

So anyway, sorry if you have been having a lousy month or something and are continually being subjected to my telling you how great I am, but if that's the case, you've probably stopped reading my blog lately.

Don't worry; soon it will be summer and I will be back to being angsty and restless again and you can stop listening to me brag all the time.

Begin Chastisement

You. Guys. Seriously. Just because my computer is not working and I cannot receive email notification of comments left on my blog does not mean that I won't know if you say anything or not. There is not, as far as I know, a blog out there devoted to my friends (real and internet) telling me I am cool, and that is the kind of reading I need to do every day.

Maybe you are not interested in my frank honesty about my silly internet crushes and how lame I was in high school. I get that, I really do. Then maybe you should say so, like "Erin, why don't you quit your bitchin' and stop stalking libertarians who are married to other people anyway." Or maybe you think you're so cool because you come over and read my blog, all smug-like, and think man, that drivel is so far beneath me I am going to go listen to some indie band no one has ever heard of over at Pandora instead of deigning to reply. To that I say, Yeah?! Prove it! If you're that much cooler than me, let's hear about it. Reading people's blogs is a privilege, guys; sometimes you've got to give a little in return.

So please. Give me something to do on the internet when I get home from school in the afternoon besides crossword puzzles.

/Chastisement

It's a Birthday!

Tyson is having a birthday today. Go over there and remind him that, being 37, he's only got a few good years left in him.

Another Preemptive Sick Day!

The one good precedent set by the Bush administration over the last 7+ years has definitely been the doctrine of preemption. Yesterday I was feeling crummy, but not quite sick, so I put in for a sub day, figuring I could cancel it if I wound up feeling better. When I got up today, I was feeling OK, but the kind of OK you know will start to wear off after about two hours in the vertical. So I'm taking the day off to lay around the house so I don't wind up getting really sick. Take that, germs!

And guess what?

After a nap this morning and a motorcycle ride out to Boulder City, I am feeling much better. Thanks, President Bush!

Hmmm.....

So my statcounter says I had 74 visitors last Tuesday, with a larger-than-usual smattering of folks trickling in just before and after. Unfortunately, I can't tell where they are coming in from because there's not anyone linking in from somewhere else.

It's more like someone is emailing a link to all their friends.

All their 14- to 18-year-old friends who go to their high school, says the paranoid part of my brain.

I sort of figured having, you know, my actual name in my url was one day going to make things awkward. So anyway, I hope everyone found the place okay, and never goes back to some of my earlier posts where I link to myself because I'm not going back and manually changing a bunch of dumb hyperlinks. Sorry.

Anyway, T and I are going to pick up the new adoptee-dog tonight. I will put up some pics and possible names very soon!

A Return?

So I was really having trouble there for a while justifying why I was taking up your time and mine on what really seemed like, at the heart of it, a bunch of crap. Yes, this summer I got all post-ey because I literally had nothing to do for a month, and played Sims and surfed the internets for entire days, and in the course of all that digging around, sometimes stumbled across interesting things.
But that was really sort of pathetic, in a way, because it involved me not really thinking a whole lot except for "Man, that's neat" and going to my blog and typing up a little hyperlink so I could share it--almost as though stumbling across something is somehow in the same ballpark as creating something. And then school started, and I didn't have time anymore to convince myself it was not meaningless (that's litotes, not a double negative, by the way) because that takes time that I didn't have anymore to spend like that.
It's like what we're doing in AmLit right now: When real, important things (the Civil War) happened, nobody really gave a damn about all those writers (the Romantics) who were busy all having feelings and trying to intuit the essential nature of things. (For a great example of this, watch the first half of Gone with the Wind and compare the barbecue scene at Twin Oaks with the burned-out shell of Twin Oaks an hour or so later.) So when school started, there was like a micro-Realism/Naturalism movement going on at my house, except without the acres of dead bodies like in GWTW.
Anyways, I think I can deal with not "contributing to the blogosphere" or anything high-falootin' like that, but I also think I need to stop pretending that everything in my life needs to be authentic and original all the time. Sometimes recycling is OK.

Erin's 100th Post Retrospective

It all started one hot, boring day in June 2006. I was three days into my first summer of freedom in twelve years, and I was getting tired of wandering around the house in circles.

My, it's amazing how things just don't change.

1. Vegas is still a miserable, smoggy, soul-searing, apathetic, lethargic, sun-baked hell-hole after about 10 in the morning.

2. I still don't have much more going on than meals and naps.

3. I still weigh the same as at this time last summer.

4. I think my skin cancer is back.

But if that was the whole story, there would be no reason for this blog to exist. Let's see what else happened over the last 100 posts:

There were lots of great vacations, with lots of great pictures. Click here, here, and here for cool, refreshing photos from the Sierras.

Last August, Tyson wanted some pictures for Tracy, an old friend from high school.

In September, we had a little poster contest. The second poster from the top was declared the winner.

In December, we got snowed on and said goodbye to the beach house.

Things were pretty boring around here until the end of February, with the debut of the a series of participation exercises. Soon dubbed Audience Participation Monday, these activities quickly became the highlight of this blog.

April brought a potential Spring Break crisis and a new job for next year.

May consisted almost exclusively of Audience Participation Mondays, and June, well, scroll down to reminisce about June. It's all still there.

I just want to give a shout out to all my readers who have been there from the very beginning--Tyson, my sister, and my moms. Without their support, this would probably have been another one of those "ehhhh" projects that sounded good, but never got off the ground. And for everyone else--Tammy, Erica, Elaine, Brannon, Michael, Billyfish, J--I'm glad you showed up and stuck around. (With apologies to anyone I may have forgotten. I can always add you in, good as new, and nobody will know the difference.)

Here's to another 100 posts.

Are you ready?

Something very significant is coming up!

No, it's not Tyson's passport in the mail (although we're crossing our fingers that it arrives tomorrow, seeing as he's scheduled to fly out Thursday morning).

If you've been following the numbers in the column on the right, you might notice that this is the 99th post on my blog.

In case you're wondering, the traditional 100th post gift is hundred-dollar bills, but if you're strapped for cash, I'd accept your humble comments.

And check back here soon for my 100th Post Erin's Blog Retrospective, probably coming tomorrow!

I have summer plans! Woot!

I finally have something to do during the month that Tyson will be gone!

This morning I signed up for Aikido classes and a guitar workshop at the rec center up the street. Okay, so they will occupy exactly four hours of my time each week, but that's four fewer hours to mope around the house, bitching about the heat. (Which has, by the way, become excruciating, particularly during the hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the time each day most people in other cities set aside for doing things other than lying pantsless in front of the air conditioner. It becomes very difficult to get much done when half of the day has to be spent in this way.)

Anyway, that is, at least, something to look forward to. My new personal organizational software reminded me this morning that there are only 68 more days until I have to go back to work. Which reminds me, I have to get rid of the lurid orange-pink on my classroom wall. What would you recommend? I was thinking of a crisp apple green. Any other suggestions?

YESSSSSSS!

In one of those moments that, after the fact, seems inevitable, I landed the job at X High School, a job I have wanted since I first subbed there three years ago!!! Seriously, this school is so whitebread--70% Caucasian, 95% meets/exceeds standards in writing, 74% graduation rate (compared to 60% district-wide!)--it's like Warren-Walker with more public-school hoops to jump through, but a better benefits package to make up the difference. Plus it's a four-minute drive or about a 10-minute bike ride, so I can leave the house at the same time as I do now, about 6 a.m., but I'll be home by about 2:30, even staying late to grade/plan. (For some reason CCSD continues to ignore research about adolescents' sleeping patterns and makes them go to school from 7 to 1:15, but that's how I prefer it, anyway.) While I don't know the exact breakdown of the classes I'll be teaching, the official title is Honors American Literature, so I'm guessing I'll have at least two of those.

Anyway, it was SO EXCITING, and it's already becoming difficult to concentrate on the rest of this year. I even got a move-in date, just like a new house. I can't wait to see what great stuff comes in my room.

So everybody stop in at the comments section and congratulate me and tell me how great I am, natch, and then go back to the animal rhymes or what ever else ya'll have going on.

In which I may just have aced an interview

I just got in from an interview with a principal at a high school down the street--a job I have been coveting since I saw the listing last Monday--that would be teaching American Lit to juniors at one of four "high-achieving" high schools in Clark County. ("High-achieving," according to NCLB, just means that they do a certain amount better than their mandated AYP. Go ask your child's teacher. They'll explain what all the acronyms mean. They'll probably find a few choice epithets to share with you, too.)

Anyway, my interview lasted about an hour, and a couple of times I thought we were about to wrap it up, but then we kept talking about more stuff. So I should know by Friday whether or not I got the job; maybe sooner than that if I get put on the top of the list. After my interview I went to the gym and now have my brain is all mushy from the interview adrenaline and the exercise endorphins and the the not having had dinner yet. (If you were wondering why my prose did not seem as tight as usual, that should help explain some things. Haven't you ever re-read that college essay you wrote at 3 a.m. the day it was due, hopped up on a pot and a half of coffee and a semester of worrying about it? And after you got it back and re-read it, you were either amazed at your genius or startled by the way your ideas went in a hundred different directions at once, like water spilling across a kitchen table? Apparently job anxiety and weightlifting do pretty much the same thing.)

Besides that, today is just a Tuesday. I got an email today saying that my sister will be coming out next week, so there is something to look forward to. That and the Decemberists (which none of you except for her really cares about, anyway, and she will be here for it.)

I should probably go eat something now.

Better Late than Never

Woo-hoo! I just found out from a mid-January post on George R.R. Martin's website that HBO will be producing his fantasy series, beginning with A Game of Thrones. Mid-January is just about the time that the new season of Rome started and I turned to Tyson and said, "You know what they should make a show on? The Martin series." You can be prescient but still two months behind the news, right?

Anyway, that started my day off just great. Then it was 90 degrees again and the only place I have a/c is in my car. Then I found out that when you apply for a job and don't hear from anyone for four weeks, you aren't getting it. Then I couldn't get a haircut because my girl doesn't work on Wednesdays. For having such an auspicious start, this turned out to be a day of disappointments. Fortunately, I am at home now with my cup of yogurt, my computer, and a cat on my lap to make it all better.

Here's hoping all your disappointments are minor ones.

Happy Birthday, Tyson!

Tyson's birthday is today, which marks the day he is officially closer to 40 than to 30 and I am married to an old man.

Stop by his blog and leave a comment, or call him if you haven't already. He'd love to hear from you.