Stuck!
A Haiku about Removing Wallpaper
By: JenMagenta
Score wall, get it wet
Piranha© scraper struggles
The glue won't give up.
i flew to LA on sunday morning and met my friend sarah. we stayed at the farmer's daughter hotel http://www.farmersdaughterhotel.com/hotels/index.htm across the street from CBS studios. sarah ordered tickets for us in advance online, but ordering tickets does not mean anything. it's kind of a joke, actually. i mean, they won't let you in if you don' t have them, but if you do have them it doesn't mean anything. sarah made us hot pink shirts that said "the bob barker farewell tour" on the front with his picture, and on the back there was a list of the games. it was cute.
anyway, one of sarah's co-workers said we should be in line by 3am or we probably wouldn't get in. we were going to sleep from about 5pm to 2:30am, and then we were going to get up and get in line. then when we were talking to the woman at the front desk of our hotel, she told us that we should probably be in line by midnight, and that the hotel gave a free seminar about the price is right at 10pm that we should go to. so then we decided to sleep from 5pm to 9:45pm. well, we got up at 9:45pm and got ready to go, and then we walked outside and looked across the street and there was a HUGE line of people waiting on the sidewalk, many of them had tents! we freaked out and decided to skip the seminar and just get in line.
so we got in line. i brought my homework with because i like to use my time efficiently. we were behind a group of 40-somethings from wisconsin. they were smoking the whole time which was annoying, but they were nice and they bought us hot chocolate. behind us were two sisters from maine who were about our age. anyway, we didn't have tents, or even chairs, so we were sitting on the ground. and it was really cold for LA. 50 degrees and windy. i decided to walk down to the 24-hour cvs to see if i could buy some cheap chairs there, but the woman at the store said that a place across the street from the line rented chairs and that would be a better deal. so i walked back to the line and then across the street. the shop was closed but there was a sign that said "ring bell for chairs" so i rang the bell and some poor man who probably had been sleeping on a cot in the back room came out and rented me two chairs for $5 each. so then we had chairs.
we were really lucky that our hotel was right across the street from the line because there was pretty much nowhere within 10 blocks that was open where you could use the bathroom. also, i ended up going back to our hotel a few times for some power naps and to put on more layers of clothes. i hadn't brought a jacket b/c we were going to freakin LA, and i didn't think i'd need one... i was wrong! anyway, at 5:45am everyone in line stood up, and then at 6am the line started to move! i had never been so happy in my life. we slowly moved up to the gate and we were handed our order of arrival passes. sarah and i were numbers 244 and 245. and we got there at 10pm! haha. anyway, we got to go back to our hotel until 7:45am when we had to be back to the studio.
we took a little nap and then went back to the studio. this time we had to line up on benches according to our order of arrival numbers. this took FOREVER, about an hour, because people do not know how to count apparently. anyway, then we finally stood up and moved in our line until we got to the cbs employees, who checked that we had tickets and we got a new number that was written on our tickets (some people had tickets for the 4:30 taping so our numbers changed). they had about 800 people to get through so it took a really long time. lots of people at the end of the line were turned away, and some were given standby numbers. (the studio only seats about 325 people). when they had finally given everyone new numbers then we had to get in line on the benches again according to our numbers. the employees then came around again and gave us number cards. then they came around another time and wrote out our names on the sticky price tags that we attached to our shirts. that's when i started to get excited, haha!
after they got through everyone's names, they brought people over for the "interview". we went over in groups of 10 or so, and there was a man who asked us where we were from and what our job was. i guess that was the time we were supposed to interrupt him and say some interesting things about why we should be on the show... but no one in our group did that. anyway, after the 1 minute interview we had to sit and wait again. around 1pm we finally got up and were led into the studio! we got REALLY excited then. it was really cool, except we couldn't believe how small the audience was! on the tv they must do some camera tricks b/c the audience section is serously like 3 sets of 10 rows with 10 seats. it's unbelievably small.
the announcer man rich told us what to expect with the show, and he told us that we have to yell a lot and act really excited (most people were doing that anyway). and then bob came out. it was pretty exciting. during the commercial breaks people got to ask him questions and he was pretty cool. my favorite thing that he said was when someone asked him what he planned to do when he retired, he said "put a rocking chair in front of the tv, then i'll pet my dog with my right hand and in my left hand i'll have a jug of tequila". lol.
the show went really quick. 4 out of the 6 contestants that got on stage won. one woman that we met in the bathroom before the show won $10,000 so that was really exciting. one guy won a car. at first i thought it would be really scary to be a contenstant, but actually the studio is so small, and bob and the people working there tell you what to do, so it really wouldn't have been too nerve-racking. lots of people brought presents for bob. shirts, awards, yo-yos... i bet he throws it all in the trash right after the show. i mean really, how can you keep 35 years of crap that people have brought for you?
anyway, it was a pretty cool experience. i'm glad that i went and got to see bob barker before he retires this summer. if i ever went again, i would go with a big group of people- for two reasons: 1- you can take turns waiting outside in the line and sleeping in your hotel room. 2- they seem to pick people to be on the show who are part of a big group. also, when you "interview" i think you really need to be interesting and quirky in order to get picked for contestants' row. i think i would like to go again if we could get a big group of people, especially if mario lopez ends up replacing bob barker!
"CBS and RTL are in the process of auditioning for a new host. On December 8, 2006, CBS began official host auditions, as CBS weatherman Dave Price from The Early Show became the first candidate auditioned. Two additional sessions were held in January 2007, with one hosted alternately by Todd Newton and John O'Hurley and the other emceed by Doug Davidson (who hosted the 1994 version of the show). Former Beauty and the Geek host Mike Richards, George Hamilton, and Mario Lopez are scheduled to audition in mid-March."
i'm taking friday off as a personal day. i deserve it. i've been working on this substitute lesson plan for a few weeks, but every week i have to change it because either students move or i get more of them. mostly i've just gotten more. anyway, i pity the poor soul who will be my substitute this friday. here is a snapshot of their day:
Substitute Lesson Plan
Special Ed. Resource Grades K-5
Friday, March 9, 2007
All the materials you will need for today are on the table labeled with post-its. Rusty C. is your aide, she may be around in the morning, and she will definitely be around for Math in the afternoon. Please ask her if you need anything. All the teachers' classroom phone extensions are on the brown sheet of paper on my bulletin board behind the computer.
8:15-8:30: Homeroom/Announcements
School starts at 8:15; students are in their homeroom until 8:30. I do not have a homeroom, so you can just relax during this time. (Make sure you use the bathroom, it’s a long morning!!!)
8:30-9:30: K-1 Reading
Joyce W (1st grade)- room 702
Romeo G (1st grade)- room 702
Ray W (Kinder)- room 803
-You have to go get Romeo and Joyce at 8:30. Ray will come at 9:00 with his Instructional Assistant Amanda.
-Romeo and Joyce are both new to Crockett. Romeo is very difficult to deal with. Do your best to get him to listen to you read a book, but if all he wants to do is play on the computer then that is fine. He often has meltdowns and hides under my table and cries, if that happens then call Miss W at x_____. Basically just don't force Romeo to do anything he doesn't want to do and you shouldn't have a meltdown. Don't even make him sit in a chair if he doesn't want to. Joyce is pretty well behaved, and she will listen to you read. Ray comes at 9:00, you can just read to him too. You can choose any books you like from the orange boxes on the floor in the corner. Walk Romeo and Joyce back to class, Ray will go with Amanda.
9:30-10:15: 4-5 Writing
Jon A & Ramon M (4th grade)- room 608
Omar M (5th grade) -room 501
-They will come on their own, Jon comes at 9:30 and the other two come at 9:50.
-Have Jon write in his journal for 20 minutes, he can choose his own topic.
-I have some worksheets for all 3 students to do from 9:50-10:15.
10:15-11:40: 4-5 Reading
Jon A & Ramon M (4th grade)- room 608
Omar M & Alejandro V (5th grade)- room 501
Veronica R- (5th grade)- room 503
Jon, Omar and Ramon stay for Reading and Veronica and Alejandro come on their own and join the group from 10:15-10:45.
-All the students will read AR books independently (that’s what we do every Friday). They should bring their own books, but if for some reason they don’t have a book they can choose one from my collection. They can take AR book tests on my classroom computer if they finish a book, but only one student at a time and they CANNOT use their book the check answers.
-At 10:45, Veronica, Alejandro and Ramon leave. You will now have Jon and Omar to read with for almost an hour. You will all read Wayside School is Falling Down, take turns reading pages aloud. We are on Chapter __. Check their comprehension after each chapter you read. Omar has a lot of trouble with decoding words, and Jon has trouble with substituting words (asked for said, etc), so please correct them and help them when needed.
11:45-12:45: K-1 Writing/Math
Samuel C (1st grade)- room 701
Ray W (Kinder)- room 803 (his aide is gone in the afternoon)
You have to go get Ray and Samuel. Ray’s aide is gone in the afternoon, so it will be a little more challenging for you. You can use Fruit Loops cereal as positive behavior reinforcement. Remind him that for every 5 minutes he is good, he will get Fruit Loops. He may run out of the room or exhibit other problematic behavior. If he is intolerable, take him back to Mrs. Preston’s room.
-I have written some sentences on a piece of paper for Samuel to copy (make sure he stays in the lines and takes his time!), and you can work with Ray on writing his name.
-When they are done writing, the boys can play with/count the colored blocks. You can ask them to make you a tower with 10 blocks, or a tower with 15 blocks, etc.
12:45-1:15: Lunch
I’m not sure what time the cafeteria stops serving food, but my lunch is very late so you may want to take the kids with and grab some food before 12:45… or maybe Rusty can go get your lunch for you.
1:15-2:30: 5-6 Math
Omar M & Alejandro V (5th Grade)
Ramon L (5th Grade)
Veronica R (5th Grade)
Paola E (6th Grade)
-Rusty will be here to help during Math. We have been practicing fractions all week so they have a packet of fraction worksheets to do. You don’t really have to teach anything because it is just review, so you can just sit at the table and help them with their work. They do not have homework today. Good luck with this class, the boys can be very difficult. At 2:20 the students can return to their homerooms, but some like to stay until 2:30.
2:30-3:15: Planning/Meetings
This is my planning period, so you get to go home at 2:30! Thanks for being my substitute; I hope the students were well-behaved!