Justice, fairness, and all that, but please just do it quickly

I don't know a whole lot about the writers' strike, but since the public cry here on "because i can" demands some ponderings, I'll give it a shot.

My M.O. on such issues could be described as open-minded and generally unopinionated because I figure people have reasons for what they do. Sometimes they might even be good ones, or at the very least they probably have a legitimate complaint or two. So you'll not read any angry "BRING DOWN THE ESTABLISHMENT" or "JUST DO YOUR JOB AND STOP COMPLAINING" here. That said, I'm a writer, so I might be a wee bit skewed. And I'm not complaining --if you think so you're misreading-- it is a job that is largely underappreciated (unless, of course, your writing is for the edification of the church, in which case your rewards are really cool and shiny :-). I mean seriously, can you name a writer of one of your favorite shows? But that's where the real creativity and excellence is found. Sure, there are some great actors-- Hugh Laurie of House, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton of Friday Night Lights head my list--but without the story, who would care?

That said, they better get this worked out before long. In case you were wondering, the last strike (1988 Writers Guild of America strike) lasted 22 weeks, costing the American entertainment industry an estimated 500 million dollars. I don't want to go 22 weeks without good TV. that's what the summer is for! Gas prices are high so it's not like we can go places for entertainment. Nope, we're stuck inside. Thank goodness for Netflix and all those tv shows on dvd that we haven't watched yet. Otherwise, I might have to go old school and read something at bedtime.

p.s. Chick fil A has some really good writers. Everyone should go get a kids meal. They have these little question packs that we've been using at dinnertime. They're very fun...we've fielded such questions as: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
If you could move in with one extended family member, who would it be, and why?
What was your favorite vacation?

The kids love 'em.

Boo

Upon review of my last several posts and your lack of response, I have gleaned that you are more interested and involved in reality tv shows than you are in my actual life.

Me, too. :-)

Game ON

B had his first ever "tryouts" last week. Thursday and Friday after school were basketball tryouts for 55 7th grade boys at his school. On Friday afternoon he came out of the school grinning from ear to ear and holding up his newly acquired practice jersey! We don't know if he's A team or B team yet, but it doesn't matter one bit. He's flying high and loving it so far. In fact, he got home today at 5:15 after his daily 2 hour practice, dropped his backpack in the garage and shot baskets til dinner. And right now, at 8:33 PM, he's upstairs shooting baskets on the little wall-hoop. AH, and it brings back fond memories...I once owed my big bro 100 packs of Hubba Bubba from our gambling on games of "Horse". good times...

Um, I don't think that hotel evaluator job is all that great. in fact, I don't think i want to do it again...EVER. It is perhaps the most tedious, brain-cramping job known to man. Just fyi, bc I don't want to leave you with a false impression that it is really cool and fun. bc it's not.

But TAKS math tutoring, on the other hand is VERY fun (after 1 day on the job). It's only 2 hours twice a week and it's MATH, which is a nice little diversion from writing. I think that's why the hotel thing wasn't so fun for me. I write all the time, and so the tediousness of that highly technical writing was just piling on my already tired writer-brain. I have 4 groups of 5 kids 30 minutes each, back to back to back to back. This week I tutored them on place value and used the salaries/contracts/net worth of Tony Romo, Dirk Nowitzki, Bill Gates, and Daniel Radcliffe to do so. More tuting tomorrow...

yee-haw and stuff

so i'm here in n'ville and it's pretty festive. i didn't know it til i got here, but it's CMA week. this means that even MORE guitars are out on the streets than usual. i've been keeping an eye out for billy ray and miley, since they're the only ppl i think i could recognize. sadly, though, they're not hanging out at lifeway. but kinda cool is that my new editor for the previously mentioned african american curriculum is mandisa's bff. really. and a girl who sings backup for mandisa and melinda doolittle sang for me tonight. actually, she was singing for all of us writers, but i do tend to be a little egocentric.

Schwank, part deux

C and I enjoyed a 2-night stay in the Highland Park area of Dallas this week. I don't know how many of these hotel evaluations i'm going to do, though, bc it's A LOT of work. I think there were 23 checklists, to be exact, and each one requires a detailed narrative, complete with quotes, time stamps, and a play-by-play account of the events. IT's a whole different experience staying at a hotel when you're evaluating, bc the instructions were to perform specific tests that required us to be (in my opinion, at least) quite high maintenance. Here are a few for instances: the first night we were to order room service right before they closed for the night. The next morning, we were to call Engineering and tell 'em we needed to leave soon, but had locked something in the safe and couldn't get it open. On the way out that same morning, i had to ask the concierge for some dinner suggestions in another nearby city (i chose Addison) with a "lively atmosphere and good menu." I was to tell her that I had to leave, but "could you have a list of suggestions for me when I return?" And my favorite was that while I was having this conversation, C had to strike up a conversation with the valet about how "green" (eco-friendly) this hotel group is. this was fun for me bc i think C was growing an ulcer thinking about how he would carry on this conversation, seeing as how that topic is such a natural one for him and all. he did great, though, and when we weren't causing the staff to earn their pay, writing about it, or taking pictures, we hung out at Northpark Mall and ate some good food.

I DID get that massage...about 25 minutes in two different chairs at Brookstone. :-) Turns out it wasn't a required part of the evaluation after all. :-( But this was nice because while I was getting a great chair massage, I learned so much. Did you know that in Asian cultures, skipping a 15 minute daily massage is as bad as leaving the house w/out brushing your teeth? Also, the cost of such a chair really isn't that bad ($5,000) if you consider the cost of a weekly one hour massage. Over a year, you come out pretty even and, with the chair, you can have 2 massages a day if you want. In that case, we'll take 2. we're gonna need them for our private island, don't you think?