Hat Day - Minnie Pearl, Where Are You?

Okay, I wore the hat! Don't I look lovely? As I anticipated, they sneered, pointed fingers, chuckled, or pretended not to notice me. I was a big hit in the office. They actually let me come back to work today and I wasn't called in for an early evaluation! (The Lost and Found sign in back of me is my claim to fame in the office. I am in charge of reporting lost items, as well as, items found and turned in. I write a daily email to the staff notifying them of these items. Sometimes, I write funny stories about my kids - many of the teachers here taught my kids when they were in middle school. I pick out brain teasers from Mensa books just to see if anyone replies. Not everyone reads these emails, but I have fun writing them.)

I felt like Minnie Pearl! For those of you born in the last 20 years or so, Minnie was a regular at the "Oprey" in Nashville, and a television show called "Hee Haw" which featured well known and new acts of country musicians. She always wore hats that still had the price tags on them. (google her) She was a "hoot" and a bright spot everywhere she went.

Back to the YaYa hat... I only wore it when I had to deliver messages to classrooms. I did not wear it while at my desk. It was just too humiliating. Many of the women with whom I work liked the story behind the hat, and encouraged me to wear it all the time. Ha! I know they were just using me for their entertainment!

It was very quiet at work today. As I passed through the classrooms, I noticed that almost every class was missing at least 30-40% due to the flu. Yikes! I got a shot yesterday; I sure hope it helps. At the rate we are going right now, our January flu season will be over by November 1st. Hope all of you are protecting yourselves and your families.

And if you do get sick, get lots of rest and play dress up with some hats!

American Icons

Do we have any American Idiot(I mean Idol) fans out there? Duh...is Chocolate its own food group? How many Gummy Bears are in a family size bag? These are important issues that I ponder every single day!

I may have mentioned once (or twice) before, that I am in charge of the Lost & Found at my work. Every day that someone comes in looking for something they lost, I have them fill out a form which I then include in the body of an "all staff" email at the end of the day. I also include any items that are brought to me, found by a good Samaritan or just anyone who is tired of looking at things sitting on the floor in their classroom.

In the beginning, the emails simply listed all the lost and found items. They were quite boring, even to me. Nobody paid any attention to these emails. I thought if I could say something clever, maybe I could get one or two people to look at the email, and thereby find the owner of an article. So, I stole jokes out of "Joke of the Day" calendar and after a few months, I finally had a response from one person. (Sort of like this blog!) Well, the attention gave me all sorts of false confidence, and I expanded my repertoire. I would include comments on what I watched on TV the night before.

Then, American Idol bit me and the infection is still ongoing. I would make up little "personal facts" about some of the contestants and write as if I had just finished an interview with them. Soon after, I began to work on the judges. Simon gave me a lot of material. As the competition dwindled down to the top ten, I would critique with much passion those contestants that were either really bad, or really good. It was fun to make predictions, because at this point, I only had two readers, and would only have to answer to them.

After five years, I now have five readers. They look forward to reading my opinions and love to comment with theirs. (Sort of like this blog!) I think I can safely say that I have provided six votes to the program (my five readers and myself). Of course, these votes are but mere grains of sand in the whole picture of voters, but my false sense of confidence keeps me striving to increase my numbers!

I've started attending AIAA meetings (12 Steps for American Idol Addicts) and have met the most interesting people. We share our stories about being a slave to the show, talk about the snacks we ate during the show, and discuss the types of seating arrangements we have (couch, chair, lazyboy, bed, etc.) while we watch the show. We seem to get sober around mid-May, and then cave sometime in January of the next year. Abstinence is not an option, however, we strive to only watch each show one time, even though it's been Tivo'd!

We are getting down to the wire, with the finale coming up next week. I think it's anybodys game at this point. Simon needs a man-size Binky to quiet himself. Paula needs a more outlandish ensemble. Kara is too new to criticize, but I will say that as the "New Kid on the Block" she should hold back some of her brutal honesty. Randy, who makes me smile just to watch him, needs to speak the Kings English more often. Have I left anyone out? Oh, yes! Ryan! He needs to wear clothing that is bigger than the size he thinks he wears!

If you are a fan, please enjoy the dream, the singing, and that wonderful confetti that comes out of the ceiling when the winner is announced!

Found on Bus 40

One of the job duties I have at work is to manage the Lost & Found Department. I am brought anything from money to phones to hoodies and expensive jackets. The person who brings the item in tells me where it was found. When someone loses something, they fill out a Lost Report and turn that in to me. I send out an email to the staff at the end of the day detailing lost items and found items. When I first started this, the emails were very boring to write, as well as, to read. So, I began to insert goofy humor (I pretend to be a professional critic for American Idol, and a few other Fox shows; I also share funny stories about my kids.) into my emails, and now I can get more people to open them up and read them.

Today a phone was brought to me that was found on Bus 40. I set it aside in a secret hiding place (so no one will take it when I am away from my desk). I have to be careful, though, because sometimes I forget my hiding places! At the end of the day, I opened the phone and looked in the contacts for "home" or "mom." I tried calling "mom", but I couldn't get service. I put the phone away and brought it home. I just tried calling it again from my back porch. It rang (one ringy dingy....) about five or six times and then I got a message that the battery was low and to recharge immediately. With what?....my good looks? It just so happens that Retro has the same brand of phone, so I'm going to charge the battery on that and then try "mom" again later tonight.

Edwina & Katya still go out on Halloween. I'm sure we will be pinning, taping and sewing at 5:00pm on October 31st, but oh, what fun it will be! Their high school football team plays the cross-town rival that night. The costumes are going to be very interesting. Do you think that if someone dressed up as a football player they could sneak out on the field and play?

Thanks for stopping by. Gotta get some laundry done....