I now know horror...

...and thy name is seeing-your-grade-school-teachers-dance-the-limbo.

So, here is am in St. Louis for the National Catholic Educational Association annual conference. This year the conference since the conference is in St. Louis, every school in the area, that's seven states that touches the good ole MO, is here, including almost every teacher from my old grade school. By the way, many of whom taught me. I left Kansas City, and not for nothing, but for a damn good reason. If I wanted to know everyone whereever I went and have them know me and my life story, I would have stayed, but I didn't. I could have very happily gone through life without seeing my old gym teacher. Common, I'm 5'2" now (I was shorter in grade shool and it is possible), I'm asian, and I debated through grade school, high school and college, yup that's TEN years of full out dorkyness. I didn't need that woman getting down on me for not making a layup shot. Basketball does not enrich the life of a short asian girl. I don't got game, and I never will, yet I live a very full life.

So, tonight my boss was off doing work things, which left me all alone in a midwest city. Not much to do. The conference arranged for a river boat ride on the Mississippi, which I wouldn't have to pay for. So, I go, figure Catholic educators have got to be a nice bunch of people, I'll talk to someone. Dinner goes by, dessert goes by, then the dancing starts. And that's when about 1.5 hours of pure horror started for me. Imagine the teachers that you had in grade school, on a dance floor dancing. Keep in mind, we are in the midwest and most of these educators are from the midwest (read: middle-class white people). There was a congo line, there was limbo line, there was a boa that was used to 'sexily' pull other people towards the wearer of the boa, there was a nun in a boa dancing. Did I mention the nun in the boa? Did I mention that you should imagine your grade school teacher dancing to Get Down On It? I actually saw my seventh grade teacher do a dive under a limbo bar. The teacher I had more than a decade ago was dancing, shaking her hips, and generally making me wish I was blind. It's one thing for your teachers to busta move at the school dance, but this, this was different. This was horrific.

It's said that you can never return home, but home shouldn't have changed like this for me. Never again will I look at grade school teachers the same.

My heart is in Maryland, soon Pennsylvania.

Well, whooptie do...

So, this week-end will be Easter when all the bunnies hatched from eggs and something minor like Jesus rising from the dead happened. At first I thought I would be miserably cold in cold water on the cold hard ground, but then I found out that that didn't have to happen, and I was very happy.

The topic for this post, though I am still very irate with a certain car dealership will be resume fluffers/padders. You know who I'm talking about the onion just had a great article about kids like this. Basically it made fun of this high school junior who was working in a homeless shelter to make his resume look better and the ficticious co-workers and I hate those kids. I really hate people to do it after high school, to them I say, "WHAT'S THE FREAKING POINT!" Yea, I will admit, I had some ridiculously insane resume out of high school, but I truely enjoyed all the dorky extracurriculars that I did and I do believe in volunteering, there are alot of great organizations that could benefit from a few good people, but I hate those kids who do something for a year or less or get some hollow leadership position to make themselves feel better or to fluff their resume. If you don't beleive in something, if you are getting some leadership position becuase you think it will look good on your resume and you are clearly not qualified for the position or if you go into a job/position so you can tell others about it, don't do it. Seriously, don't do it. You're not helping anyone and you are a perfect case for the argument that altruism does not exsist. I would like to think that people everyday go out and do things for the simple end of doing it to help. People who go out to do things to make themselves feel better or put it on a resume are doing it for all the wrong reasons. If you really are in a position for yourself, or to make yourself seem cool, then don't do it. Who really is going to notice if you were a staff writer for your school newspaper or the vice-president of your chapter of sadd. NO ONE! Let's get real, the only reason that people get hollow positions is to be a stooge or put it on their resume. Guess what, only your college degree and your work experience will get you a job, not some vice-president position, no matter how large the organization was. They don't know and don't care. Get a life, get a job and stop wasting your time on pointless volunteering and leadership positions. The job is really what going to help you out of school and that's what's going to matter in the long run. You won't affect change or change people's lives in a year or less. Don't take positions from someone who really does care or is really qualified. You're not helping others or yourself.

I still hate car dealerships

This is gonna be quick. 1. Things were taken from my car when I picked it up yesterday. 2. My bloody brakes still don't work! Yes, took it by today, they said I have to bring the car in on Monday. I really am starting to hate Darcars of College Park. A la Milton, [I'm gonna burn this place down.]

I HATE CAR DEALERSHIPS

So, can you guess what this post is going to be about? Hmmmmmm, yup you guess it, car dealerships. Ok, so like two to three weeks ago I take my car, Fritz, into have an oil change and the tires balanced and rotated. Pretty standard. I also ask them to take a look around my car and make sure everything is ok. Darcars Mazda Silver Spring said they would change the brake pads and machine the rotors for $200. Well, I had just dropped about $90 on the car and I sure didn't have an extra $200 around, so I said I would come back. I call around and Darcars Mazda College Park said that they would do the total work for $135. Sure, I say, I'll bring the car in tomorrow. Well, I dropped the car off this morning, told them what needed to be done, they were like, well, we'll see about that. I don't know what it is about mechanics, but they think I'm some kind of idiot about cars. Maybe it's becuase I'm a young girl, or I'm asian driving an asian car(or not so much), or whatever, but they think I don't know about car maintenance. So, I get a call back, they need to change the brake pads and machine the rotors, well gee, tell me things I don't know. And they did, the price would be $290 for both. Whoa. That's a little more than Ali quoted me, he said $135 yesterday, and Ali said, well I meant $135 to machine the rotors. I don't have time to get my car, I don't have time to drive to another place, I say go ahead and do the work. So, I call DARCARS Silver Spring and I ask how much is it to do the work and Stan says $200. I call DARCARS College Park back and they say that they can do the work for $273.60. Wow, that's a whole $16.40 off. Gee thanks, with that $16.40 I can now buy lunch. Same owners, same company, same parts, same flate rate for work and one in Silver Spring is $100 less than the one in College Park. The one in College Park is not willing to match the price of the one in Silver Spring. Lesson learned: Dealerships do not give short asian girls better service than all those patronizing mechanics that I've been to before. Also, bait and switch isn't only on a showroom floor.

I just paid $73.60 extra for the "conveinence" of leaving my car at Darcars College Park to get worked on.

Rainy days

In an ode to the warm, sunny weather that we just had and now not-so-much on the sun and the warmth, I'm going to post about my visit to the Cherry Blossoms.

Last week, after returning from a trip to York, PA, I ran down to see the Cherry Blossoms while they were still in peak bloom. It's DC's annual ritual to see how many residents, tourists, strollers, dogs, bikers and runners can all fit on a 6ft wide sidewalk and how many commuters and buses can fit onto the neighboring streets. Yea, it's a bit crowded, but for a very good reason. It is really truely one of the most fabulous sites that I have seen. It's even more fabulous when it's sunrise or dusk over the tidal basin. If you haven't seen it, well you missed it. Almost inevitably, as the cherry blossoms bloom, there's one huge storm that comes along and takes half the flowers with it. I think NYC even got a foot of snow. No fun. So, got to wait till next year.

I found out that:

I am Ned Flanders!
Which Simpsons Character are YOU?

Random Posting

Ok, I've been working, working like crazy working and I haven't posted in a while. I got back yesterday from a two day business trip to York, PA where I watched little old ladies and their husbands get large amounts of candy and probably go into a diabetic comma later that day. I missed the chance to participate in Make fun of Cheney Day. D'oh. I don't think that my last post really made fun of him, and I don't think I will do justice in this one, but then again, I am two days late and I fully blame it on the candy hungry little old ladies in York, PA. So, Cheney, I don't understand how a man with a heart condition such as his, is able to go around a lob bombs at another country in a campaign of shock and awe. This man's heart couldn't even survive the attack, yet he subjects thousands of people to it on a nightly basis. If he weren't some rich, political white oil tycoon, he would be dead now. Ok, not so much as make fun of Cheney as much as an indict against him.

So, Season thinks I'm like Carrie from Sex in the City(See 27 March comments). I haven't seen that many episodes, considering that I don't have cable in my room and we don't have premium channels in the house, but for some reason being likened to a rather promiscuous, not-so-close-to-being married writer living in NYC doesn't seem all that appealing. But thanks anyway and I'll take it as a compliment, especially since she did say I was a smart Carrie. I will say, I don't think that I comment as much about my love life publically, like in a blog or in a column like Carrie would. I hope I never really do. I think you loose something special, something secret when you talk too openly about something that is very close to your heart. If something is close to you, you know it's close to your heart. Public declarations aren't necessary to make it real. Yea, I do talk somewhat about what goes on, but not whole paragraphs, definately not on a regular basis, just one line here and there. If I felt the need to declare it all the time, especially in a public forum, I would ask myself, why? Do I really beleive in what I am saying, or am I trying to make it real by putting it in print for all to see?