Called Uber right after breakfast. I had trouble with them for most of the day. They took 10 minutes arriving this morning, and I was almost late to work. They took 17 minutes to get to the Acme at 2:20, and I was five minutes late to Thomas Sharp. I was surprised I didn't have any trouble getting home. I got a ride at quarter after 5 in 7 minutes.
It wasn't bad at the Acme when I arrived. In fact, I was entirely outside today. The head bagger did the sweeping and other indoor work. I even got to see men drop green salt on the sidewalks to keep them from getting too messy later when it starts to snow. Thankfully, it was just cloudy and cold when I was at work. It didn't start picking up until I was just about ready to leave.
Got my schedule at this point, too. It's pretty much the same schedule as this week with earlier hours on Sunday and next Saturday...but it's also easier than this week. I took Thursday off because the kids have a half-day then. The Collingswood School District is closed next Friday for a staff meeting, which means I'll only be working at the Acme next Friday.
I found something on the bakery clearance rack called "celebration cookies" (M&Ms, white chocolate chips, sprinkles) I wanted to try. Changed, grabbed them, made my way through a rut in the snow across the street to Rexy's Bar and Grill. They were still pretty busy, despite it being quarter after 1 when I arrived. I had hot tea, a warm fried fish sandwich with Asian slaw, and crunchy onion rings for lunch. Picked up the Uber at the Acme after I ate.
The head teacher took today off, and the replacement ended up working with the older kids. We had the older woman who usually works with the older kids working with us, but she doesn't know our rhythm, and she certainly didn't have any music on her cell phone for dance parties. None of this was good. We had 25 kids today, all of them wild with cabin fever from being inside the last two weeks. At least my group of 7 was helpful cleaning up their own toys and not bad at the bathrooms.
The trouble started after snack time. Since reading The Gingerbread Man and one more book to the kids while they were playing before we went to the library seemed to calm them down a little (they kept coming at me with books they wanted me to read), I replaced the dance party with me reading The Bernstein Bears and Too Much TV and half of If I Ran the Zoo. When they were too noisy, I stopped reading to talk to them and ask them their feelings on the head teacher being missing and point out that, just because she wasn't there, didn't mean they shouldn't respect the teachers who were around. The kids spent so much time ripping the paper taped down for them to stencil on, I finally gave them regular paper to color on. There was arguing over books, too, including ones the kids could not have read at their ages. At least by 5 PM, it had cleared out enough that those who remained were big helps bringing everything back to the cafeteria.
(Oh, and it started to snow lightly when I was waiting for Uber at the school. It's snowed lightly off and on ever since.)
Watched Match Game Syndicated and had dinner when I got home. The first hour finished out the Robert Walden/Judy Landers week. The second hour brought in Gary Crosby, David Doyle, and the delightful Rita Moreno. I really wish Rita could have been on the show more often. She brought a spicy Caribbean flair to the show and was hilarious flirting with Gene. Down-to-earth Gary is a lot of fun, too.
Finished the night with Remember WENN after a shower. Frustrated when her agent Brian Wilburforce (Heath Lamberts) won't get her the lead role in a local production of Antony and Cleopatra, she fires him and becomes her own agent. Rex Noble (Daniel Benzali), who is producing the show, is so impressed, he wants to meet her agent. She literally plays "Hilary's Agent" to get the part, but ends up driving Betty crazy with her demands. The others try to make Hilary see that honesty is the best policy...but as Eugenia points out, Hilary does make a lovely couple.
"The Birth of a Station" was controversial online when it first debuted. A very pregnant young woman (Debra Wiseman) wanders dazedly into the station during a public transportation strike and promptly goes into labor, begging to see Young Doctor Talbot. Trouble is, he's a character on their big hospital drama. While Jeff plays him to keep her calm, we get a glimpse of Mackie on the road when he calls.
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