A few years ago I got a label maker as a gift. And I was ecstatic, I mean like "best gift I had gotten in a long time" ecstatic. All because I love office supplies. I love them so much I would marry them if given the opportunity. Seriously.
Here are some examples of my undying love:
During garage sale season when I was little my mom would give me and my sister a couple bucks and tell us we could get whatever we wanted from the garage sales. I distinctly remember using my money to buy a desk organizer.
Like this one. Except mine only had 3 sections
One year I got to go with my dad to his office in Chicago for "Take your daughter to work day." This is where I learned about the magic of electric staplers. My dad was making copies or something and needed to staple them. He stuck the paper into a little gray box mounted on the wall, and BAM! they were stapled. I was amazed! He didn't have to push anything! I'm pretty sure I spent the rest of the day stapling stuff, whether it needed it or not
When I was growing up my mom worked at SciTech Science Center in Aurora (represent) and if I had the day off school, I would often go to the museum with her. That's where I learned about laminators and postal machines. I can still smell the lamination film. Sigh. And postal machines are sweet because you get to push all kinds of buttons (and who doesn't love doing that?) and then BAM! its ready to be mailed.
When I finished my student teaching last year my host teacher got me a gift certificate to Office Max. I only have a few dollars left on it and I'm going to use it to buy rubber cement.
I'm pretty convinced a large reason I went into teaching is the school supplies (another being summer vacation). Oh and I like kids or whatever. Blah blah blah.
Hot jam of the week is Hold On Loosely by .38 Special. .38 Special was never quite as famous as its other late 70's - early 80s counterparts, but Hold On Loosely is still a fabulous song. Like all good stadium rock songs, it's got loud guitars, a steady drum line, and words that are easy to sing really loud. I've always kind of identified with this song, it's all about having space in a relationship, which is a little weird for a song (and pretty deep, especially for the time) but I think that's what I like about.
I love long drives, there's something sort of romantic about them. (Not "romantic comedy" romantic, more like "appreciation of bygone eras" romantic.) Sun shining in the windows, music turned up, scenery speeding by...sigh. It most certainly is one of my favorite things.
That's a temporary tattoo on my arm. Not a weird skin disease
I had never been on a plane until I was in 7th grade. (When our America Sings! show choir went to Washington DC to sing at Washington Monument.)
Side note about that trip: I distinctly remember the teachers having us line up at the gate with who we wanted to sit by and then just handing us any ticket. That certainly can't happen anymore.
My lack of plane travel was not because my family didn't go on vacations. Oh no, it's because we drove everywhere. We spent lots of vacations driving to Minnesota and Michigan, along with various other locations in the upper Midwest (even once all the way to North Carolina), so my sister and I got really good at being in the car. On one trip to MN we saw something like 30+ state license plates and 4 or 5 of the Canadian Provinces. We kept track, of course. Our vacation destinations were almost always a campground somewhere and almost always involved a trip to a roadside attraction. My family loves Americana at its finest, bottle houses (see header photo), world's largest/smallest, large fiberglass statues (e.g. Paul Bunyan, animals, etc), funny signs, actually all signs, etc. and we took at a picture at all of them.
We still take pictures in front of stuff. Mom and me at Exit Glacier
I even do it without prodding from my parents
We also had a tendency to eat squirt cheese on crackers (or not on crackers...) Say what you will about processing and chemicals and preservatives, but it's a road trip must.
Probably due to all those long drives, I became a sign reader. I read every sign I pass when I'm in the car, and it keeps me occupied for amazing amounts of time. Sometimes they are funny. For example, the "Landfill Campground" sign in Eagle River, AK. Apparently the landfill and campground are actually not related at all, but the sign makes me laugh every time. Most of the time I'm the only sign reader in the car, so when I start laughing and repeat the sign to the other people in the car, they never think it's quite as funny as I do. It's the unexpectedness of the weird and funny signs that makes them weird and funny. So let this be a lesson to you, start reading the signs, you might be amused.
Two years ago my friend Adrien C. Mooney and I made the road trip to end all road trips. We drove from Jackson, WY to Anchorage, AK. Driving the Alcan (Alaska-Canada Highway) is what I think roadtripping was probably like 60 years ago. The road is bumpy, gas stations are few and far between, there is some of the most amazingly beautiful scenery, and there are no billboards (good work, Canada).
The trip was almost 2800 miles and we did it in 4 1/2 days. We made it to Anchorage with only one tiny crack in the windshield and one near-miss with a caribou. Next time I drive the highway I want to take at least a week and a half. There is so much we didn't get to see because we had to get to Anchorage. But that didn't stop us from stopping at all funny signs and the few roadside attractions on the way.
Hot jam of the week is She Doesn't Get it by The Format. The Format is one of my top 5 favorite bands. They opened for Something Corporate when I was a junior in high school and I've loved them ever since. She Doesn't Get It is a fun, poppy song with fabulous lyrics. I'm tempted to post them all because I love them so much, but if you really care you can go look them up yourself. But some of my favorites are:
-All the girls pose the same for pictures/all the boys got the same girls' hair
-Four books look across your sofa/I thought your coffee table was more clever than that
-Suddenly between sheets and eyelids I am reminded why I don't do this/I fall in love far to quickly/I never want you to forget me
I've seen them play live a bunch and they are always great, unfortunately The Format has since broken up. (But you can still hear Nate singing in his new band Fun.)
A lot of The Format's songs involve synchronized clapping and this is one of the reasons I think they are producers of hot jams.
Fun fact: In high school my friend Sarita and I did our senior English project on Tie the Rope by The Format. I sent an email to Nate to ask him about some things in the song and he emailed me back right away with an answer and told me he hoped I got an A+.
If you have a job that requires you to stand all day, you'll totally know what I'm talking about this week. Is there anything better than laying down in bed after standing all day? In that moment, as you sink into bed, nothing else matters.
I don't make the bed because doing so promotes the growth of
dust mites and the last thing I need in my life is more allergens. Also, I'm lazy.
It doesn't matter than you've been on your feet for 8+ hours, or that maybe you hate your job and have to get up and do it all over the next day. No, none of that matters for that 5 second window of pure bliss when you lay down. It's utter relaxation and it is amazing.
Sitting down on the couch has never had quite the same effect for me. Yes, it's nice when I can finally sit down at the end of the day, but nothing quite compares to finally laying down in bed at the end of a long day.
As I've been trying to find the silver lining in my life, I try to enjoy the little moments like these every day, to take a minute to enjoy my contented sigh. I might not always be happy with the way things are going in my life right now, but I can be happy with the little things, and sometimes that just has to be enough.
The hot jam of the week is another southern rock jam (see Lynyrd Skynyrd), this time by Shooter Jennings. It's Manifesto No. 1. Keen eyes will recognize his last name. Yep, Shooter (who's real first name is Waylon) is the only son of country music legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. I saw Shooter (we're on a first name basis, clearly) a few years ago at Stagecoach music festival and he is just as good live as he is on his albums. The crowd was a total mix of people too, which I love, good 'ol boys, kids (probably not totally appropriate for them, but still), twenty-something hipsters, parents, etc, and they were ALL having a good time.
Manifesto No. 1 is a great foot stomping, hand clapping kind of song, I mean, it's hard not too. Not mention, how many times have you wanted to say something like, "If that's how you say 'hello', well you can kiss my ass goodbye"? If you haven't before, you'll want to after hearing this song.
I think Shooter Jennings sounds like a cross between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bon Jovi, circa Dead or Alive, and with a mash up like that, it can't be anything but a hot jam.
As I write this I'm grumbling at my computer. Mostly things like, "Really!?" and "Come on, guys!" and probably a few "You've got to be kidding me!"'s. Ah yes, baseball season is upon us. Baseball is one of my favorite things, and I am cursed with a love of the Cleveland Indians, hence the grumbling. I can hear you fellow baseball fans snickering, muttering about me being a poor sap. Yes, I know. They lose. A lot. (They've won 2 World Series', 1920 and 1948; and they have the longest World Series drought in the American League. It's the second longest drought in all of baseball. Topped only by my distant second favorite team, the Chicago Cubs' 102 year drought.) In fact, the Indians are losing right now. 8 to 3 to the White Sox. THE WHITE SOX of all teams! Horrible. Not to mention they lost on Friday 15 to 10 AND IT WAS THE HOME OPENER. But I love them still. (Edit: They finally won on Monday! Woohoo!)
It's really all my dad's fault that I love both baseball and the Indians. He's a big fan and it rubbed off on me and my sister. We lived in Cleveland until I was 8ish and I went to a few games as a kid. My sister even got to be a ball girl at one of the games. (Did you win an essay contest, Alissa?)
Alissa on the field. Check out that sweet jacket under her jersey
Alissa's friend Sarah and me before the game
I've been to a few since and I always love it. One time we got to use my parent's boss' season ticket seats at an Angels-Indians game. They were very good seats. Like 10 rows behind home plate seats. Did you know they come and take your order down there? Very nice. It's not just major league baseball I like though, I love it all, little league, minor league. I think it's all great. Remember that scene in The Sandlot where the kids play the little leaguers? That's what baseball is about.
I know a lot of people aren't baseball fans because they think it's "boring". Nobody gets tackled, it's not particularly fast paced, there's rarely a fight (although bench-clearing brawls do break out every once in awhile). But I think the more you watch the more you like it. When you know the players and see the subtleties of the game it gets very exciting. Which is why I'm sitting on my couch in my PJs on a Saturday morning "watching" the game on MLB Gameday. I know what these players can do and I hope to see them do it. I think there is nothing more exciting a well timed double play, or a diving catch in the outfield, or seeing a guy whack a baseball 500 feet for a home run. Or what about the be-all and end-all of baseball? Stealing home. You can't tell me that's not exciting.
Keeping with the sports theme this week, the hot jam is none other than the Jock Jams Megamix. Chances are if you are a 20-something like I am, you owned Jock Jams vol. 3 or knew someone that did. There's no real reason to own it, you're probably not going to be cruising in your car blasting the megamix. More likely you were making up dance routines in your basement. Don't deny it, you know you did. A popular soundtrack to many a sleep over, Jock Jam Megamix is a hot jam because, well, it just is, so dust off those cheerleader moves and turn.it.up.
