Wedding day!

My oven obviously didn’t reach temperature because my pies were filled with liquid – tasty liquid, but not what I’m used to seeing. It also made things hard to transport. We got to the house around 9AM along with most everyone else. There was still a lot to do, so most of us worked right up to the noon wedding. Right before the ceremony, my mom was a little panicked because someone had forgotten to make coffee. She tasked me to do that. My sister Mindy had also arrived overnight and was tasked with cooking 500 shish-kabobs plus a lot of potatoes and bread. She couldn’t do it alone so I helped her out. I took care of the coffee, potatoes and bread in the kitchen. I also washed dishes so Mindy could reuse them to hold the completed shish-kabobs. We worked right through about 15 minutes of the ceremony until we could leave things alone for a while. I still saw most of the wedding. It was simple and lovely – right out on the deck of my parent’s house overlooking the lake. With the wedding done, Mindy and I kicked it into high gear. We also had the three sisters to help us, since their job was to serve during the wedding reception. They transported stuff and put everything in fancy silverware while we continued cooking. Dinner was served and it was very delicious. Everyone raved about my blueberry pie. I was surprised that no one touched my apple pies, even though I thought they were the best pies out there. The shish-kabobs were awesome too, so good job Mindy, Monique and Patrick. Patrick was to cook crepes later on, and he did try, but he set the fire alarm off at the apartment while attempting to do so, and the building had to be evacuated. There would be no crepes. It was OK though because we were stuffed. We worked a little of that food off with dancing. We learned some swing dancing and then learned some traditional French dances. It was so fun being around all these French people. In the evening, Barbara and I left the party to go and pick up Jeffrey at the airport. The drive was no problem and Jeffrey quickly arrived. It was so nice to see him again. We got home at midnight and went to bed.

Today would be a work day. This was the day that we would prepare everything for the wedding. The bride’s mom, Monique, had some rather grand ideas. The French contingent and the Ohio contingent had arrived overnight so now we had 30+ people when we gathered at the lake house. Courtney would stay at the house to set up that place, while Barbara and I went with Monique, three French people, and four Ohio people to do food prep in the kitchen of St. Luke’s Church in Penn Yan. The kitchen could comfortably fit four and six with less comfort. Three sisters from Ohio started making pie crusts and Barbara made a broccoli salad while the rest of us went to BJ’s (a big box store) in Geneva. Of the group, I was the only one who had ever been in a big box store before. They were a little overwhelmed. I helped them navigate and I wound up finding most of the items on the list as well. We couldn’t find all of the items though, and others were simply too big, so we went back to the kitchen and a few of us joined the kitchen crew while Monique and Patrick (French) went to Tops down the road for those last few items. I will tell you that our shoppers were not that efficient, so we were really behind on the food prep. Monique and Patrick were gone for a very, very long time. Our pies had been prepped for at least two hours before they came back, and they were still missing some items, like Cinnamon, which we needed for most of the pies. While we chopped vegetables, Monique and Patrick went back to get cinnamon and tapioca. We still couldn’t make the pies when they got back because now it was time to clean up and go to the reception dinner. We would have been even further behind, but the rehearsal itself was cancelled due to rain. All of us went to our apartments to change to nice clothes, and then we went to the Esperanza for dinner. The location was wonderful, but to me, the food wasn’t very good. Others though were impressed. To each his own I guess. For dessert, we went to the house. We had cookies, coffee and wine. At dusk, those of us on food prep went back to the church… in our good clothes, to complete our work. I made the pies, and then chopped a whole bunch of onions & peppers for shish-kabobs. We never did get to the salad Nichoise. We cleaned up the kitchen, moved all the food to the vans and got out of there by midnight. Barbara and I cooked two pies in our apartment until 1:30AM. The Ohio girls worked on their food items until 4:30AM. Monique and Patrick never went to sleep. They spent all night skewering and marinating shish-kabobs, about 500 of them.

We left Kevin’s house right on time at 9:30. The drive was seven hours of “fun.” Barbara rode with Kevin in his car to keep him company while Courtney and I rode in Kevin’s van (which we will borrow for the next month!). We listened to loud rock music to keep us awake and interested. We also made fun of Kevin and Barbara who looked like a couple of Italians from behind – both used their hands a lot! Eventually, we got to the lake. We greeted the family and spent some time with them. As it was getting dark, we were taken to where we would be sleeping for the next couple of days: apartment/dorms at Keuka College. The place was musty but spacious. Our floor had a definite slant to it so one hiked more than walked around the place. We wanted to get some food items for tomorrow morning, so we made a trip over to Penn Yan to get groceries and then back for the evening.

Yesterday’s flight to DC was completely uneventful. I really like Virgin America as a carrier; it was my first time flying with them. Kevin got us at the airport and then we ate at Famous Dave’s (BBQ). The evening was spent watching “Kindergarten Cop.”

Today we got a late start because we were still on California time. The GPS also let us down. It could not find the train station. Once we got on the train, we made it over to the DC Zoo. It was larger than we thought, and because we had to be at the Pentagon by a certain time (about an hour before Kevin left work), we didn’t see the entire zoo. We’ll have to come back later. Courtney really liked it. We made it to the Pentagon and Kevin walked us all over. Included in the tour was a quick look at his office. Gee, and I thought Silicon Valley cubes were small. Kevin’s was maybe 4’x 6’. When the tour was over, we headed over to the Pentagon Mall for a “quick” visit. Three hours later, both Barbara and Courtney had new fashions. I had sore feet and a few less dollars. On the way home, the school called to offer me a long-term sub assignment. This was not the temp position I was looking for, but it does get me sort of into the school. In November, they have to give me temp status (with higher pay) if they want to keep me through Christmas. I’m hoping that the teacher doesn’t come back, ever, which is always a possibility when teachers have babies. Let’s hope for the best! Kevin cooked a wonderful meal when we got home! The evening was spent reading. Tomorrow, we would drive (in the rain) to my parent’s house in New York.

As predicted, I did not get a sub job this week. I concentrated instead on the two things I needed to get done this week: An Adult Ed Bible Study and planning for our upcoming trip next week.

On Monday, I did get to go out to lunch with my old start-up company buddy. It was nice to see him after a year or so. He spent lunch not trying to convince me to resurrect the start-up, as he had done last year, but to try to convince me to join a city government because they needed program managers. His two brothers are now working for the city and county. On Tuesday, a different friend tried to get me to join his company as a consultant, also doing program management. Wow, I didn’t know that I stood out so much as a program manager. I’ve always done it as part of my management function, and I have the degree for it, but to me, it’s always been of secondary importance to chip design. Alas, these jobs are starting to look good because there are no teacher prospects so far, and my money is finally running out. To date, I have responded to nine high school positions and two college positions, but haven’t heard from any of them. The same thing happened last year. And yet, I have faith that I’ll wind up as a teacher somewhere next year, just maybe not at the school where I want to be.

On Friday, I got super ambitious. I got up early, climbed up on my roof, and washed my solar panels so they would produce electricity again. I nearly killed myself getting off the roof. I then helped my wife close up her classroom for the year by cleaning appliances and moving heavy things. When I got home, I decided to do a wood project. The project itself was easy and basic, but it required most of my bench tools which were both heavy and buried deep in a closet. The act of moving them alone got me tired. And then the pieces of acrylic I had cut (so… not entirely a wood project) somehow had the protective paper lining baked into the plastic so I spent about three hours soaking and scraping that off so I could see through the acrylic. While things were soaking, I took apart the kitchen sink drain, since it was leaking, applied plumber’s putty, and then reassembled it. This was not as trivial as it sounds, and I pretty much used my last ounce of energy to complete the job. I was sweating so bad, and got so dehydrated that I had to gulp down three glasses of water (and I didn’t pee for the rest of the day!). Just as I was finishing up the wood project, it was time to go to a graduation party. The party was fun, and lasted until bedtime, but I was beat.

Next morning, Barb and I had to get up super early because we had volunteered to set up food vendors for my high school’s graduation. It was the only way we could get into that graduation to see our students because we didn’t have a grad of our own and no one had invited us. This turned out to be a brilliant move. Not only did we have fun setting things up, but we were also ringside when the graduates walked out. We said “Hi” to several of them.

So… while I was out and about on campus looking for name tags, I ran across the principal. He told me that there was going to be a Social Studies teacher out on maternity leave for the first semester of next school year and that he was putting my name in as the guy to fill in, not as a long-term sub, but as a temporary employee. He was also hopeful that I would then continue on in a Social Studies/English capacity in semester #2 and become a permanent employee. Well this was certainly good news. The teacher still has to fill out the official documents, but he hopes that she will do it this weekend and then they can call me on Monday. It’s not a done deal, so I’m not going to jump up and down about it yet, but it sure sounds positive. I think the principal feels a little bad about me not getting that other Social Studies position. I truly feel that he “hid” the position for me for as long has he could, but then the district office found out about it and placed another guy (a friend of mine) without consulting him. He said that he didn’t want it to go down that way, but that this temp position would still get me in. He told me not to apply to other districts because this was a special school, he wanted to see me in this school, and that I would be much less happy elsewhere. I tend to believe that. I’m hoping to get a phone call on Monday.

On Friday, I finally got a sub job in Social Studies. This is quite a rarity, as my friend Annie tends to get all the Social Studies jobs. What’s really cool about this job is that I was subbing for my daughter’s teacher, and that he had requested me based on her input. This was the first time I have ever subbed in any of my kid’s classes. It turned out that her class was by far the worst of the bunch, but it was still fun. OK, it was as fun as watching students quietly study for the final can get. I read about half of my current book. I did have, in my daughter’s class, one student brought in by security. He told me that he still needed to get a tardy pass. I gave him five minutes to get it or I would mark him absent. He didn’t come back, so I marked him absent and called security on him. He arrived soon after with security. My daughter says that he does this on occasion.

The weekend was nothing to write home about. I don’t expect to get any sub calls next week, as it is finals week.