Happy Halloween!

That's Why They Call Me The Enforcer

My good friend Emily and her son Sumner were having a conversation. Sumer's a former preschool student of mine. I'm a teacher at Corner Co-op Nursery School, and Rosie is the Teacher/Director, i.e., my boss.

Sumner: Mom, Alex is in charge of the Corner Co-op, isn't she?

Emily: No; actually, Sumner, Rosie's in charge.

Sumner: Alex kind of acts like she's in charge. But I always thought that Rosie should be in charge.

CVS--Cashier Very Sad

I just had a depressing visit to CVS. I had to make photo prints for school, and I had to get milk. I made the prints at the NEW PRINT STATION!, where they print out your pics immediately and then give you a receipt that doesn't have the price on it.

I got the milk, and noticed that they also had yogurt and eggs.  I need breakfast for tomorrow, so I got those too. It depressed me to buy my eggs at CVS; call me a snob.

So I went to the register and I handed the cashier guy my receipt. This guy seems depressed. He's one of those quiet, greasy haired lonely guys who doesn't like his job. I asked him how the new system worked--did I give him the receipt and he'd tell me how much it was? He said, "No, just tell me how many prints you made." I was trying to remember, but then he scanned the receipt and told me how many. I told him that it was an "interesting" system; I mean, theoretically, I could make 50 prints and tell him I made 10, or not say anything, and walk out of the store. He said, "You wouldn't do that, would you?" Of course I wouldn't, but..."I'm just telling you, for your design system." He replied, "If I designed systems, I wouldn't be working the cash register."

To which I said, "GOT it!" and beat it out of there. Oh god. I'm glad I'm a happy person and that I love my job. This particular CVS has so many characters. There's the pharmacist who looks like early man, the mousy depressed cashier, and a new cashier/manager guy who reminds me of the "bad" brother from Slumdog Millionaire. He's very nice, but just a little too slick. Thing is, this CVS is 2 blocks from my house, so I go there all the time. Never a dull moment, I guess.

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

I just got the soundtrack to Slumdog Milllionaire the other day. One of my favorite songs is "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. I played it for the kids at school over and over, until I brought it home and really listened to it. I realized that part of the song is the sound of gunfire followed by a cash register. Oops. Not a lesson I'd like to impart to my little ones. But I still love the song.

Heinous Halloween

What? You didn't want to just get rid of the tree???

I can't wait to see what it looks like at Christmas.

Puzzled

We have this puzzle at school. I call it "Breaking and Entering". You'll notice that the chain slide lock on the top right was totally broken off. Who knows where the kid who did that is now. Hopefully not in the Big House; maybe he or she is an engineer.

Sweet Enough?

Last night I had dinner with my friend Melissa. She had made cookies from the South Beach Diet book; they only had 3 ingredients: peanut butter, Splenda, and an egg. The cookies came out sort of crumbly, and by the time they reached me in a Ziploc bag in Melissa's purse, they looked like the topping on a sundae. She asked if they were too "Spelenda-y", and I didn't think they were, though the aftertaste was a little reminiscent of artificial sweetener, which I dislike.

I told her no problem, we'd go over to the local ice cream joint and I'd sprinkle the peanut butter crumble on top of some frozen yogurt, which I figured would be healthier than ice cream. I ordered some NS vanilla yogurt, and asked, after I placed my order, what the "NS" stood for. I was told "no sugar", and Melissa asked what it was sweetened with. We were told, "Splenda, and sometimes NutraSweet." Great.

I got home and ate most of my dessert. Tonight I think I'll have one of the Fudgsicles in my freezer.

Soak

I went into the kitchen to wash some dishes, when I accidentally came upon Fork taking a bubble bath. Sorry, Fork, I didn't see nuthin'. Sponge, on the other hand, was definitely trying to sneak a peek.