Happy Birthday to Rob! One right after another. Who's next? Anyway, hope you had fun. I owe everyone a drink or something.

Happy Birthday Dennis! Yup, June 29th it is, albeit almost over. Hope you enjoyed your day.

Exactly one week after my interview there, I today received a letter from Bloomfield saying I didn't get the job. I still don't even know what job it was. They never told me any grade or school. Fuck that shit. It's exactly what happened last year in my interview. They blew a bunch of smoke up my ass and gave me positive feedback and a day later they're sending me a letter. Fuck all that. I had an interview somewhere else today, and will be going back for a second interview in mid-July. The interviewer was pretty nice and gave me some pointers for my call-back interview. I really hope I get a job there. It's a nice district and it's not here.

Afterwards, I got to spend some time with my sister-in-law, who is as cool as a sister-in-law could get. I don't see her as much as I'd like, so it was nice. We talked and got some tacos for lunch and hung outside for a while before I left. Of course when I come home, there's the letter waiting for me and it gets cloudy. Anyway, that's my day. I'm tired from getting up early and driving and getting lost among farms.

Welcome weekend. Please do not flee so fast this time...I ran for the first time in about a month on Thursday morning. It was one of those things that I thought about doing on Wednesday night, and planned on it, but since I woke up at 5 for some reason, I decided to definitely do it when I finally rolled out of bed an hour later. I didn't quite know where to go since I still had to get ready for work and all, but I did do it, and was happy with my efforts, but my knees were sore the next day and still a bit today. That's sort of disheartening since I always stretch and warm up. I'm anticipating my interview Monday, and hoping things go well. I even "studied" for my last interview and this one by brushing up on some concepts and things that weren't so fresh in my mind. I have off from work after the interview, so while I'm near the shore, I'm contemplating hitting up a surf shop to hook myself up with a board and some accessories, but we'll see where the day takes us first. Don't know what's going on this weekend, but don't want to stay home.

Watched Simpsons reruns the other day, and the one where Sideshow Bob runs for mayor was on. For some reason the funniest part in the episode to me was when Bart is looking thru the phone book and sees the name "A Gorilla" listed...I'm satisfied with the Sixers draft pick, but unimpressed with the trades that occurred. Boring. I guess the Lakers turned down the Shaq for Greg Buckner and Glenn Robinson proposal.

I almost vomited after seeing some rumors about the sixers and the upcoming nba draft. The first one I saw was Allen Iverson to the Raptors for Vince Carter and the teams would swap first round picks. That sickened me enough, but then I read one worse: Sixers trade Samuel Dalembert, one of the few bright spots on the team to Chicago for Tyson Chandler and swap first round picks. I think the Sixers would get the #3 pick, but I don't care. According to Billy King, they are just rumors and hold no truth, but I've heard that before. I swear to god if they do any of those deals, I will drive to Philly and destroy Billy King's office. Take that, rolodex and fax machine.

I'm highly anticipating our week off. Did I mention that in my previous blogs? Well, it may be seen in just about every one from now until July 18th or whenever our fun begins.

One girl at work asked me today if I really want to get out of there, and I responded "why, can you tell?" She sort of smiled and said "yeah." I guess maybe because I don't talk to anyone at work really and other little things. I started wearing sneakers instead of shoes, since I ruined 2 pairs of shoes from getting scuffed and torn. After punching in, I avoid the cashier and go directly to the stock room to waste some time(i.e. drinking my water, eating a granola bar, scratching my balls, "looking" for products to put on the shelf). I found myself playing with a sponge ball while I was on register last night and bowling for employees. I got one employee. I've been wearing a blank label over my name tag since I don't like it when people I don't know call me by my first name, or when my boss isn't working, I take off my name tag. I can go on, but if I soon start wearing sandals and a hawaiian shirt to work, and gut a fish on the tps report, then you can say I have a problem.

Interview #1 completed. Things seemed pretty good, but we'll find out within 3 weeks. My other is next Monday at 9:30 am in Howell. No, not Mr. & Mrs. Thurston Howell III, but the town in Monmouth County. Please tell me I can get one of these jobs. I can't take much more of retail. Got about another hour or so before I have to leave for work, and as usual, I do not want to go. Something about stewing over the fact all morning makes things worse.

My brother was covering the U.S. Open all weekend out on Long Island. It must have been riveting devoting four whole days to golf, especially when it's extremely windy.

Going to visit my grandmother today. Also going to hit a ton of traffic on the way. Tomorrow is father's day, so happy father's day to any father out there...
Have an interview Monday and got a call for another one somewhere else either sometime next week or next Monday. Wish me luck. Gotta get out of retail. For shizzle.
Can't wait till the Blue Jays play with all their starters. That could happen late July.

Lakers: terminated.

mission: success.

Yes.

So I visited my old student teaching school and my teacher seems to be doing well. Mostly everything's the same at the school. She hooked me up with the personnel director's extension. She was the principal of the school when I was student teaching, so hopefully she'll remember me and remember to give me a job. It was nice seeing some of the teachers I got along with. Then I was off to work. Same old story. Got home. Bowflex. Going to eat dinner. Peace out.

My grandmother(my dad's mom) had been in the hospital for the past few weeks undergoing testing, etc. They believed she had cancer while doing an examination. The biopsy was "suspicious," whatever that means, but didn't prove anything. They made her undergo another exam and the biopsy was inconclusive. They had gone over the treatment options which consisted of radiation 5 days a week and chemo one day a week. My grandmother is 92 years old. If you've never met her, you would be amazed at how healthy and smart she is...While there, she also went thru 3 catscans for some reason, and the other day, they tried a different method of exam and did a biopsy by using a needle to get the cells. This was inconclusive. So they tell her she has cancer, but yesterday they sent her home because they don't know if she does or not. They told her the only sure way to tell is surgically, but her doctor stepped in and halted that thought. They won't be giving her the treatments, at least not yet, so she's home now. I was going to visit her tomorrow and leave work early, but I'll see what my dad recommends...

I was also supposed to visit the teacher I did my student teaching with today, but my work schedule kind of interferes with that possibility, so I told her tomorrow morning I'll try to catch her before her school day starts. Got my interview on Monday. I'm hopeful, but nervous because if I don't get this, then I don't have anyone else lined up with interviews. At least last year I had a few interviews.

So since Kim's at a gym now, I'm trying to keep up by exercising when she's there. I've been doing bowflex, but yesterday my arms were dead and I couldn't raise them for a half hour after I stopped. It wasn't easy taking a shower and not being able to reach above your crotch. Well, some would say that's a dream come true, but my goal was to cleanse myself and get ready for work.

Our vacation's about a month away! I'm excited just to do something because I have no money right now. I just paid my credit card, car payment, doctor bill, bought my bro & sis-in-law an anniversary gift, and my dad a father's day gift. And my insurance payment gets deducted on Thursday.

I've been in dormant blog mode this week for some reason. I guess there hasn't been much to talk about besides work, and Kim blogged about the one event of the week, which was Braid. It's Friday, and I'm home from work, although tired. Got to shower in a minute and try to re-wake myself up after sleepwalking thru work since 5:30 am. I feel like doing something this weekend, but I'm not sure exactly what. Just feel the need to get out for once...I don't know who won the game last night nor do I care. One person at work insists on asking me every time he comes in whether I saw the Lakers game. I respond every time by saying "no, and I don't plan on watching the other games." He then continues by telling me what happened like he's the orator for the associated press. Lots of drama at work lately probably leading to someone I get along with being transferred out. The mangagers just don't know how to fix problems among employees, but insist on transferring someone out rather than working at a solution. Anyway, stop letting me ramble. Enjoy the weekend biznatches!

Got my oil changed in my car today, but the big problem was that my car hasn't been starting correctly. Anyway, I have to bring it back next Monday because it has a faulty fuel pump. Then I have to get a loaner car for the day and go back again on Tuesday to pick my car up when it is ready(hopefully). The service guys said Mazda was aware of the faulty fuel pump, so my question is: why wasn't I informed? You know, because I drive the car. So now I have nothing to do for 7 hours before the Braid show tonite. I'll probably vacuum and clean my car since I didn't have the chance to do such things Friday.

Did I ever mention on the ole blog that I have an interview on June 21st? I don't recall, but I do have an interview with Bloomfield for a leave replacement for next school year. Hey, an interview is a huge step! I haven't had one in about 9 months, so maybe my bad luck has worn off.

I'm actually a little upset that I'm going to miss game 7 of the Stanley Cup tonite. Yeah, me upset over missing a hockey game?! Off to do something non-constructive with my time.

Well, that clears up the oreo mystery. Thanks. I still don't know if I could eat one though. I did just finish eating some mixed nuts, and while I found that I consumed 24% of my fat content for the day, I also took in 20% of my copper allowance. Sweet, now I can self-manufacture pennies(i.e. when I make a deposit into the toilet, it can be taken literally now!). Sorry for that gross pictorial.

I got home about an hour ago from the Mets game with my brother. They actually won, 5-2. It was a pretty good game if you take away the fact that it was 50 and windy. We got to Shea in about 40 minutes, which is spectacular, especially when the Yanks are also playing a 1 o'clock game at home. My brother had hoped Smarty Jones would throw out the first pitch, but we got a worker from Gold's horseradish & mustard company instead. Anyway, the game started with Juan Pierre bunting his way on and then getting thrown out at 2nd as Luis Castillo K'd. In the bottom of the 1st, Animal Piazza roped a 2-run double to get the Mets on the board. The inning ended with the Mets up 3-0. No runs scored for either team until the bottom of the 5th, when Piazza lined a homer 410 feet against a stiff inbound wind. He drove in 4 of the 5 runs, and the game was quiet until the top of the 9th, when Braden Looper came in for the Mets. He looked pretty awful and allowed 2 runs. With 1 out and the bases loaded, he struck out Miguel Cabrera and got Conine to fly out. Game over. Mets win.

The ride home sent us through Korea, or at least a very big Korean population in Queens, before we realized we were stuck on the wrong side of the highway. Had to u-turn to get back on track and hit the LIE. Hit some slow traffic in midtown before trudging thru the tunnel. All in all, took an hour and a half to get home. Now I have to look forward to taking my car in for repairs tomorrow morning and not watching the NBA finals. P.S.-Al Leiter's batting average is higher than Mike Cameron's.

Fried Oreos?! I can't picture someone putting an Oreo in a pan with some butter and cooking it. I don't know, tell me more...I was a little disappointed because I missed the end of the Tampa/Calgary game last night. I saw up until 2:00 into OT, but fell asleep before anything happened. A pretty good game based on what I saw. Ended the week by working from 5:30-2:30 for our truck. Actually anticipated cleaning my car afterwards, but there was nowhere to park my car when I got home in order to vacuum or wash it. Speaking of my car-my new car-I have to bring it to the dealership on Monday morning because it isn't starting right. The engine isn't turning over properly, so it's been taking 2 tries to start it. Not bad considering I have just passed the 3,000 mile mark. Are you serious? Yes, yes I am.

I got a bit of good news today when I checked my phone messages. Bloomfield called me up about an interview for a teaching job for next year. It's a leave replacement, so I have no idea how long it lasts, it probably doesn't offer benenfits, and if it's for the whole school year I won't have a job the next year again, etc. I go at 11 am on Monday, June 21st, so hopefully I'll find out more then.

Shopping & lunch tomorrow with Kim & her mom. Mets game with my bro Sunday, and Braid on Monday(after waiting for my car to get fixed). Enjoy the weekend.

I currently hate the NBA. Could there possibly be a worse finals matchup in my mind? Well, maybe if it were the Bulls from Jordan's era vs. the Lakers of today. I refuse to watch the finals. And to top it off, the draft is garbage. Who the hell is available for the draft? Everyone already came out of college or high school. The only thing I'm interested in is seeing who's left unprotected in the expansion draft...

Keeping on the sports topic, the Jays put their 7th player on the disabled list. Here's the list of people who are currently on the list:
*Justin Miller-starting pitcher
*Justin Speier-closing pitcher
*Kevin Cash-starting catcher
*Greg Myers-catcher/DH
*Orlando Hudson-starting 2B
*Chris Woodward-starting SS
*Frank Catalanotto-starting LF

In addition, Roy Halladay, the Cy Young winner from last season was scratched from his start tonite due to shoulder stiffness. Jason Kershner, a long reliever who I like a lot, started in his place. He's never started a game before. Also, Carlos Delgado, their starting 1st baseman, isn't playing because of a sore knee. He may end up on the DL. So that's my rant about sports.

Other than that, there was a tornado that touched down about 30 minutes away from me today. That's interesting. Kim and I watched a show on Animal Planet called Venom ER. It's a pretty cool show about snakebite victims I'd recommend if you've got nothing better to do on a Tuesday night. I'm trying to stay up until 12:30 in order to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Cartoon Network. Michael, the photo guy at work, insists I watch the show, especially the episode at 12:15 tonite. I usually don't watch solely because I am sleeping, but he urges me not to miss tonite's episode. Watch it with me if you will. Going to the Mets/Marlins game on Sunday. Please pray for no rain!