40 Minutes at School

I did the Roosevelt advisory program earlier today, first time I was on my own. There were 15 students on the attendance list, 4 did not show up at all and 3 did after I started taking attendance. And I waited a good 4 minutes after the bell rang. I knew it would be hard to do, since I hadn't done anything like it before. It was nice to see some participation, but not much was there. It may mean deciding to 'be there' for those who are interested. It is a college prep program, I did my best to get them started by sharing my own college experiences. It will mean getting pointers from my group as to what may work more effectively when I venture out again. When one student in the class spoke of the movie 'White Men Can't Jump' I reminded
them how it was at theaters when I was in high school. Sounds like in some cases how little has changed in high school, at least the choosing a college part. One student said it still came down to the money, as it can be hard to afford. I am thankful I attended when I did, as I don't know if I could afford college now. The tuition has at least doubled since then. I knew well enough not to push them too much. One student showed up before the others, saying she was sent there for study hall and had permission to study in the back. When she found out I had majored in history she asked if I had read 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', I had read very little of it. For some reason I was reminded of how one teacher in high school had us all try our luck at being the teacher for a few minutes to see how well we could handle it. This was a science class, and this session was held in a science room so some continuity. I didn't do well then, but I didn't like many of those in the class. I tried to give a lesson about Wegener and continental drift, and when I got stuck I just spoke on John Wayne and some got confused and though I said 'John Dane' as Dane was the name of one classmate.  
    At the comedy club tonight I saw 2 big plastic barrels for food bank collections, one comedian friend had sent a Facebook message about it but I was too busy to read it closely before getting to the club tonight. One performer I had seen before, and she spoke of doing vaudeville, I was unfamiliar with what venues had vaudeville in this area.

Diabetes Panelists

Went to a diabetes panelist event in the afternoon at my workplace, it helped that a senior leader sent a special email encouraging us to attend. I knew him already, so the rapport helped. Ended up winning 2 gift cards, it was a 'Price is Right' theme. The first one was for Subway sandwiches, the second was an Apple I-tunes card. I got the second as I was the winner of the 'showcase showdown', guessing the calorie total and being closest without going over. But I don't have an I-tunes account, so I will likely give it to a friend that can use it more than me.
    This means I now have a more positive memory of this game show, I told myself. Since my main memory previously of 'TPIR' is watching it when I was unemployed after finishing college. Since it's a daytime show, though I have seen a few primetime specials since Drew Carey took over as host when Bob Barker retired.
   At the comedy club tonight, I was waiting outside for a few minutes before the show, wanting to finish a Dairy Queen Blizzard first. I knew the pumpkin pie flavor may be going away soon so I wanted to get it before the end of the month. I got a shout out from one comic, the 'show runner', kind of nice to get those as it means he can hear me all the way in the back. Liked his 'fainting in the bathroom' joke, about being checked on a lot more than necessary when back for family gatherings.

Cyber Monday

As part of Cyber Monday, I ordered 2 gift cards as it was through my employer's reward program. Much like before, I decide to go with the staples of life: food and clothing. One card is a clothing store, this time Kohl's. The other a restaurant, an Italian place. Every so often I need to replace outfits for the office, so one must think of needs besides jsut food. Though I like how there are many options available, a good way to check out many different stores. I try not to duplicate my choices too much, so it helps to keep the forms I printed after ordering to know the history.
   Also ordered a plane ticket for some travel next year. I have 2 frequent flyer accounts, I like using both of them every so often especially when one of the airlines still has expiring miles so it means flying with them at least once every 18 months to keep the miles.
   I enjoyed the gingerbread cookies sent with me, as did my coworkers. I put some out early on, then the other half later in the day. Unsure what it means when one cookie, a heart, broke as I was getting them out. Don't know if i ever had one of those before. It was in three pieces. And I put it back together before eating it. If it was some other shape of cookie, I would have thought nothing of it at all.
    At the comedy club I had hoped to see a friend so I could ask him about his upcoming schedule in a rap duo, but he wasn't there.

Four More Bags

I sent 4 more bags to the recycle bin as I accomplished plenty this weekend on cleaning up and getting some magazines and newsprint moved out. Much like on Saturday, I didn't go out much. It was just to the recycle bin and to the convenience store, and I waited until lunchtime since I had a candy bar for breakfast. Then I had a date in the evening, we watched a Charlie Brown special on DVD. There was a second special on the Thanksgiving DVD that we hadn't watched yet, the one from the American history series about the Mayflower crossing the Atlantic. It is usually shown right after the well-known Turkey Day special each year. I liked finding some things due to the cleanup, like a political cartoon in reference to the Charlie Brown and Snoopy statues. It was about the public works crew not doing their job. It was nice to get pizza at the Little Caesars nearby.
   The other thing in common with Saturday was avoiding the electronics as much as possible, so I didn't know things like football scores today as well. I mainly knew about the tentative agreement to end the NBA lockout due to logging on to my computer to check email. I didn't mind doing the 'hermit weekend' but I was surprised how I hadn't done the sorting of media in a while. Based on the newspaper dates, I hadn't done it in two years!

Filling Boxes

I had 10 boxes that once held copy paper and I brought them home from the office. The plan was to fill them at some point to get my home better organized. I decided that 'someday' would be today. It has been effective so far, where most everything is now in a bag or box. All of the boxes are being used now. And I have filled up 5 tote bags already with magazines and newspaper and sent them to a recycle bin. Haven't been out much today, just to go to the recycle bin and to get dinner at a convenience store, Superamerica. It helped that I had food available for breakfast and lunch, granola bars and a TV dinner, so I didn't have to go anywhere for those meals. I like how it should be easier to find things now, especially when I decided to label the boxes, be it game programs or magazines. I've done big cleanups before, and know what works- being committed to it. This meant keeping the radio and TV shut off, and not checking email until late in the evening once I was satisfied with what was accomplished for the day. So I am largely unaware of any big news stories of the day, but I can find out later on of course.  

Camcorders- or Video Cameras

Early on 'Black Friday' I got a camcorder at a Kohl's, after finding out the tickets were already gone at a Best Buy. It will be nice to have it for filming things like being onstage doing comedy. After seeing a TV ad for one under $100 I was interested. I still like the term 'video camera' that I grew up with though I know 'camcorder' is a more common term now to describe them. This is likely due to these devices doing more than they had, and of course being downsized. In the 1980s they were big, fitting on the shoulder, like what TV crews have. But they are much smaller now, mine fits into my hand. I was very businesslike about it, wanting to get in and out since I am normally not at a store at that hour. And it meant taking care of ym date, as there was a small crowd right after the doors opened. This was why we just looked around at the nearby Walmart to see what DVDs they had, but didn't buy anything, as the checkout lines were too long.
   In the morning we did go back and I got a DVD of a Charlie Brown special, one I already had on VHS but the updated version has more bonus features so it's worth it, the one where Patty is a figure skater. Also got a memory card for the video camera.
   I helped with making the cookie dough, for gingerbread cookies, and was entrusted with walking the dog by myself while lunch was being prepared, a late lunch. We watched the Iowa football game at Nebraska on ABC, Iowa lost 20-7 but is 7-5 and will likely go to a bowl game. Iowa wasn't moving the ball on offense and not getting the stops on defense when needed, no surprise why they lost. We did watch some of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on DVD after the game, had more time for it then.

A Turkey Day First

This is a first for me, a Thanksgiving where I'm not traveling to Iowa to see family. I have looked back a little to some memorable ones when I was a kid, like when we went to Lineville, Iowa, to see an uncle of my dad's, Harry Shelburg and his wife Jo. He owned an auto parts store in this town named for being on the Iowa-Missouri border. I recall Dad saying 'Kaiser-Frazer' upon arrival at their farm property, thinking he meant a Corvair. I later found out it was a different type of car. I also recall seeing a little dog inside and said 'it needs a litterbox'. Unsure if we went more than once there, but one time definitely was when NBC-TV personality Ahmad Rashad proposed during a Thankgsiving football broadcast to the actress who played Mrs. Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show'.
    Another first was watching much of the Macy's Parade from New York, usually I am en route and don't get to see it. There were plenty of balloons of course, but patriotic things I hadn't seen before. But Memorial Day or July 4th parades don't get the same TV coverage, so in some respects it made sense to me. Liked seeing the Snoopy balloon of course, but didn't see Bart Simpson. After it we watched the dog show, I had seen this one fairly often before and liked being able to recognize many breeds since some are in various TV shows and movies. Before leaving for a dinner at her friend's place I asked that we switch over to the first game, Packers-Lions, Packers were winning big, just wanted to know the score. I liked meeting some of these members of the 'adopted family' she has, at least talking to them at length unlike before. They have 2 sons, the younger one is autistic. The parents majored in history, so I liked that, saw plenty of their books there like Gore Vidal's novel about Aaron Burr. He was in the Marines, and had a certificate from reaching to Equator. We made it back to her place to walk the dog and watch a new Charlie Brown special, we can watch the ones about Thanksgiving later as I just acquired a DVD copy.