janestclair

Speaking of weddings, I got a save the date card for a cousins' wedding in California. Now, we used to be relatively close with these people, but I personally have no spoken to any of them in a good 5 years. I know his mom came to my sister's wedding and gave a gift, so she probably should at least send a gift to reciprocate. But I'm not going and am perpetually single, so I don't have to send anything, right? If I did get married, I would absolutely send personal thank you notes. In fact, I harped on my sister until she did it. It took months.

The worst emails are the ones that are sent to the entire distribution list and someone does a reply all with something inane like, "Thanks!" It makes me rage. My supervisor marks every single one of her emails as urgent and neglects to put a subject in about 75 percent of the time. I delete all of them without reading. If everything is urgent, then nothing is, in my book. Only once in 5 years have I missed something important. While I'm on the topic, the rumor mill has it that because of everything going on with us writing narratives and speaking to the superintendent about her incompetence and general failure as a human being, that she is resigning at the end of the year. I will believe it when I see it; however, all signs do seem to point in that direction. She seems like she is completely out of fucks to give. Which is fine with me.

I've never had my nails done either. I always just do them myself and I've gotten pretty good at it. I like to do fun colors like dark blue or purple even though I'm 37. Sue me. I've also never dyed my hair, nor had any inclination to do so. I'm boring I guess. That dishwasher is making me twitch. Who does that? I also can't stand open cabinets or drawers. I have to close them.

I think I've pumped my own gas twice is my entire 17 years of driving, and I like it that way. Everything in NJ is expensive (except ironically, the gas) so the least they could do is pump it for me so I don't have to get out when the weather sucks, figure out the pump, get gas on my hands, remember I forgot to unlock the stupid tank (really, why do gas tanks need locks? That's a whole separate peeve.), unlock the tank, and then finally pump gas. I'll just go to Wawa, fill up my tank, and be on my way after popping in for a coffee. I don't mind waiting for the attendant. Hell, one attendant at one of the Wawas near me used to give you your receipt on a fancy platter, and he was dressed up to boot. It was pretty hilariously great. Don't get me started on governor douchebag.

Oh god. Who does that? No updates on my supervisor yet...which might be a good thing. A similar change already was approved for another department last month, but no similar change for her/our department. I do think my meeting went fairly well, and that some of the things I mentioned knocked her for a loop. We were actually hoping to hear something today, but nothing yet. They only do these kinds of hiring/firing/personnel issues meetings once a month though, so we're all going to be dead by the next one, just from the waiting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This is a total guess, but probably decomposing egg produces some hydrogen sulfide which then leaves the egg, causing it to be less dense than the water, so it floats. Of course, I teach biology not chemistry, so I could be wrong.

The same thing happened to my little sister when she was probably 4, but we were just in the parking lot at the time so she was fine. My dad removed the door handles to the back seats himself. It was the 80s version of child safety locks. I used to play kitchen in the real oven. When I was probably 5 or so, I put some sort of plastic colander in there and forgot about it. My mom pre-heated the oven without opening it first, because why would you? Unsurprisingly, it melted and started a fire. Whoops! We used to sled down a really steep hill behind my house. This was not inherently dangerous, except for the fact that at the base of this steep hill was a creek, so you needed to stop yourself in time, unless you wanted to end up in it. One time, I knew I wasn't going to stop, so I pulled a hard right, straight into a thicket of pricker bushes. The neighbor had to pull me out. I met with strangers from the internet and flew to Chicago for a concert maybe 15 years ago. We had never met before, and I didn't know them from Adam. Back then everyone on the internet was supposedly a murder or something. All of those strangers are now my best friends. None, as far as I know, was or is an ax murderer.

Traction park! My parents would never let us go, but I've heard so many stories of people getting maimed there. It's open again now, isn't it? We also rode our bikes all over the neighborhood and played outside all day until our parents yelled for us to get home. No helmets with those bikes, either. I don't think I ever wore a seat belt as a child. We also didn't have peanut free cafeterias, and no one died. Though I might have if we did when I was a kid, because literally pb&j was the only thing I ate for awhile.

I like the yogurt with the fruit and yogurt separated if we're talking about Fage. That stuff is freaking delicious, especially the cherry. It's like having dessert. I don't mix it, but put a little bit of both on the spoon. You do have to use a narrower spoon to get it all, which is annoying. I would love a housekeeper or someone to come clean. I like things to be clean, but I hate cleaning.

@bilgistic - that took some guts. Good for you. Your boss sounds worse than mine, which is a feat I thought not possible. At least I might be rid of her, if my meeting goes well. Congrats on the raise/title change. But yeah, keep documenting everything. @Splishy Splashy - you've gotten some good advice here. I teach high school, including a healthcare type course, and PT and OT are hot fields right now, as is PA. Any of them would be great options. I had my meeting today. It went well, I think. I did go in with a list of bullet points, but I remembered a couple that I forgot to write down as I was driving away. Rats. She seemed receptive to my concerns though, so we will see what happens. Cross your fingers for me.

That's the part that worries me about writing it down. If they ask me to turn it in, and then my supervisor gets this job anyway, and sees it, she'll be vindictive and retaliatory. Because that's what she does. One coworker was forced to teach a class he did not want (instead of a course for which he was uniquely equipped, and that she taught instead despite knowing jack all about the subject) and another veteran was forced to give up his room and taught for a year on a cart, going from room to room. I was planning on making that one of my points anyhow, so I suppose if they ask for it I can cite that concern.

I have a meeting next week to talk to the superintendent about my supervisor and our vote of no confidence. She did not schedule meetings with everyone. I guess it's good that she's taking our concerns seriously enough to want to meet with people, but I'd really rather just write it all out so I can be sure I don't miss any of the millions of heinous things she's pulled since she's been in charge. She's already met with some of my coworkers, and I'm the last one she has to meet with. The union president basically told me that the supervisor is on the ropes from everything the superintendent has heard so far, and that it's entirely likely that what I have to say could be the knockout punch. So much pressure.

My department met today with the union. It was all very cloak and dagger. I felt like a spy. We took a vote of no confidence by an overwhelming majority. What that will do for us remains to be seen. Best case - it matters, and she's out on her ass. Worst case - it doesn't matter, she gets the job, and makes everyone's lives a living hell. Hope springs eternal.

So my supervisor has to reapply for her job because the position changed slightly. I'm beside myself with the thought that she might not get it. The department is hopeful. If she doesn't get it, I'll do a cartwheel. I don't know how, but I'll learn. She is a terrible boss and human being.

If I ever get a dog, I want an older rescue mutt who sits around all day. I don't have the energy for a young dog who would end up walking me. He will be called Otis. I also don't have any kids by choice. I deal with enough teenagers all day long. But I look forward to spoiling my two month old niece.

Do we work together?

I have successfully parallel parked exactly one time - to pass the driving test. I was using my dad's full size pick up truck, and it was pouring rain. To this day, I don't know how I did it. I'd previously failed for hitting a cone pulling out of the the parallel parking portion - twice. These days, if I have to park on the street somewhere, I look for a spot on the end of the block so I can just pull in.

I've never had to have my vision retested for a license renewal, thank God. My vision is terrible and I'd fail that thing so badly. I can't see tiny little letters, but I have no problem driving. Cars, pedestrians, and lettering on road signs are all generally big. I have to get a doctor's note to renew my permanent disability placard though, because apparently the state of NJ doesn't know what permanent means. I get that people abuse the system and use their deceased relative's card or whatever. But I'm clearly still a living, licensed driver. As long as I continue to renew a license, I shouldn't have to re-certify that I am disabled. The system is stupid. I do think once you start drawing Social Security, you should probably have to redo your driver's test. Reflexes aren't what they used to be. My dad is 75, and still a pretty good driver, but plenty of older people are not.

I also can't stand people who don't clean up after themselves in public. Just because there's someone working there doesn't mean you can't be a human being and walk your garbage to the appropriate can. Maybe the steak leftovers guy put the bag down to open the car and then forgot it? I forgot my leftovers in a restaurant once. Got it boxed up, paid, and left the box sitting on the damn table. I was so sad.

Submitted to the wrong thread...

Babylon was terrible. It's the only episode from S10 that didn't get at least one rewatch from me. Weremonster I've seen quite a bit, but don't have it memorized. On the whole, I'm glad S10 happened, if only for that episode and Home Again. Babylon is still nowhere near as terrible as First Person Shooter or Fight Club which is the worst thing ever, but still terrible. What the hell where they thinking? It's definitely in the top 5 least favorites, rounded out by Space and Hell Money. It pushed the butt genie off of that list, which is really something.

Bare minimum service gets fifteen percent from me. If I'm at a restaurant and you brought my meal and my drink without incident but didn't show up to see if I needed anything during the meal, that's all you're getting. Bring me extra napkins or refill my drink without being asked, then that bumps up to twenty percent. If you're not wait staff being paid $2.13 an hour, don't expect a tip from me unless you went above and beyond standard service. So I'll tip the pizza guy because supposedly the 'delivery charge' is not a tip, and they are using their own vehicle to bring me my dinner, but not the barista at Starbucks.

I don't think I ever put together that Brussels sprouts were named for the city. That's probably because I drop the s too. So many s sounds in a row is just awkward to say or something. My dad calls tater tots "tater tops". It cracks me up every time. He also says "chimley", "helicocter" and "colonostopy". He's 74, so I've given up trying to correct him at this point.

When my grandmother passed away a few years ago, I knew as soon as the phone rang. She was pretty old, but the death was not expected. It wasn't some random middle of the night time that you'd automatically think something bad happened, but I knew that's why the phone was ringing. My other grandmother swore she felt my grandpa get into bed with her after he passed away. I have some sort of link with my best friend. She has an internal defibrillator, and one time when it went off, I bolted upright out of a dead sleep feeling like I had been kicked in the chest. Freaked me out. I've had other experiences with her where I knew things were happening that I should have no way of knowing, but that's the first time (of numerous others since) that I physically felt it.

I once had an student ask me what o-pack meant. I was befuddled until she pointed to the word in question. It was opaque. She'd never seen it written before. The only word I can remember doing that with is hyperbole. I also thought it was hyper bowl. I snorted coffee. Hah!