Melinda Musil dot Com

Posts Tagged ‘McDonald’s’

I hate how much I love fast food.

I live in a pretty good sized suburban community, and we have all kinds of fast food restaurants.  There is McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Fazolis, Hardees, Chick Fil A.  There are more “specialized” restaurants like Panera Bread or Chipotle.  There are “local” restaurants like Hi Boy or Burger Boy.  There all kinds of Chinese restaurants- master this or that, gold this or that.  There are even sandwich restaurants like Planet Sub, and of course many Subway franchises.  It’s just so easy to buy dinner on the way home, or buy breakfast on the way out in the morning. 

When you don’t blog about your life for a whole week, that leads to this awful catch-up feeling.  So, here you go- the last week of my life, in bullets.

• My site was down because of a scripting issue related to the theme.  Since I don’t know much about scripting, it took a LONG time to figure out what was wrong and to fix it.
• I swung between loving my host (Bluehost.com) for all their help, and hating them for their lack of help.  I was like a hormonal woman, with my mood swinging back and forth faster than you could bat an eye.
• On the upside, since my site was down and since I had to make a whole bunch of changes anyway, I took the opportunity to make some updates to improve the function of the site.  I changed the permalink structure from /post-name/ to /yyyy/mm/dd/post-name/.  Dont’t know why I had originally made it just /post-name/.
• I also switched from Fantastico to SimpleScripts.  That’s a deep-within-the-belly-of-the-website thing… but Fantastico has been annoying me lately, so I’m done with that.
• In the offline world… which there was not enough of, since I was spending so much time fixing my website…
• On Monday I subbed for a HS English teacher.  I’ve subbed for this particular teacher once before.  The classes were good and it was an easy day.
• On Tuesday I subbed for a MS English teacher.  This was at the school that is quickly becoming my favorite school to sub at.  The kids were nuts, but the principals and other staff were wonderful, so it was okay!
• On Wednesday I subbed for a kindergarten teacher for a half day.  It started snowing just as I got there, and the mob of 5-year-olds was just gone after that.  We got almost nothing accomplished, but no one was bleeding or crying at the end of the day, so I counted that as a success.
• On Thursday I subbed for an elementary SPED (sped=special education) teacher for a half day.  I was a bit nervous going into it, because with SPED classes you really never know what you will get.  It could be severly disabled kids or it could be mild learning disabilities.  These kids turned out to be on the mild side, and very sweet, so it was a fun day.
• On Friday, I wasn’t scheduled to sub at all.  But I got a phone call in the morning – not a surprise, it’s the life of a sub- asking me to sub for a high school science teacher.  This call came at approximately 6:35am and asked me to get to the school by 7am… HA!  The school is a 20 minute drive from my house so, yea, that wasn’t gonna happen!  I got out of bed, got dressed, threw on some makeup, and left home at 7:00.  Including a stop at the McDonald’s drive through for breakfast (number four with a large diet coke, no ice, and *cough cough* of course I never eat while I’m driving), I got to the school at 7:20.  The tardy bell rang at 7:25.
• I was so relieved when I was told that this teacher’s plan time was the first block of the day.  That would have worked out so well.  I was then disappointed when I was told that they needed me in another classroom during that time.
• Oh, and this particular school is HUGE, and has been added onto many times, so it was VERY difficult to find my classrooms.  No one offered to help me… so that was a fun adventure.
• The teacher left lousy lesson plans for the day.  Luckily, in spite of this, the kids were really good and it turned out to be a good day.
• Did I mention I’ve been neglecting my feeds more than usual this week?  I have so much work to do, getting back up with my feeds.  Ick.
• I can’t think of any more bullets.  So I’ll stop now.

This morning, since I was awake early (for once!!) I decided that when I stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast, I would actually park and sit down to eat.  But that turned into quite an experience!

After I parked my car in the McDonald’s parking lot, as I was walking into the restaurant, a fire truck pulled into the lot.  Its lights were flashing but no siren.  I went inside and got my food, then sat by a window and watched as two police cars and an ambulance joined the fire truck.

I can’t forget the most important part of this story… the fire truck was parked right behind my car!  So I couldn’t back out of my parking space!  I watched nervously as the firefighters, EMTs, police, and so forth, got out of their vehicles.  I was early, but not so early that I could spend a long time at McDonald’s!  I asked around, and discovered that the emergency vehicles had arrived because a driver had pulled into the lot slumped over the steering wheel.

So, after I finished eating, I watched (VERY) nervously as I waited for the emergency vehicles to pull out.  They did leave, and they really didn’t take very long.  But as soon as they left, I hurried to my car and hurried to work.  I had JUST BARELY enough time to make it to school on time.  This was DEFINITELY not something I expected to see at McDonald’s!!!

I had two equally disconcerting experiences at the drive-thru window this week.

I’ve gotten into a bad habit of picking up breakfast at McDonald’s on my way to work.  I know, it’s not healthy and it’s a bad bad habit to get into.  When I sub at the high school or junior high, I have arrive at the school between 6:30 and 7:00 am, plus often I have to drive up to 30 minutes across town. (yes, I live in a big city.)  So often, I can just barely get out of bed, get dressed, and get on the road in time.  If I want to eat breakfast (and believe me, I do, since I might not get lunch until as late as 1pm), then my only option is to pick up food from a drive-thru and eat on the road.  (Again, I know it is bad to eat and drive.  I know.  Spare me the lecture.)

So, in light of my recent experiences, I present you with these two drive-thru lessons.  They may seem basic, but apparently not everyone knows this.

1)When you pull up to the drive-thru, have your cash or credit cards in your hand.  If you have exact change, that’s even better.  But make sure you are able to pay for your order.
When I pulled ahead to pay for my order, the car in front of me was taking an awfully long time at the first window.  I stuck my head out the window and listened.  The woman in this car was arguing because the McDonald’s store was refusing to accept her Wendy’s gift card.  Then, apparently, she had no other way to pay for her food, so she wanted them to give her the food for free.  I looked at my clock, watching as the time ticked away and wondering how late I would be when I got to work.  Finally, the woman pulled away without her food.  Then, once I got to the window and paid for my order, the store became hopelessly mixed up and gave me the wrong order.  I corrected them before I pulled away.  I got to work on time, but I definitely did not obey the speed laws in getting there.

2)When you pull up to the microphone, know what you want to order.  Make it short and concise.
When I pull up to the microphone, I know what I want, and I make it as easy as possible.  “Hi, can I get a number four with a large Diet Coke, no ice?”  But on this day, I sat behind another car at the microphone.  I listened as this lady attempted to figure out her order.  “Hi, I was wondering, does your McMuffin come with cheese on it?  Is that American cheese?  ‘Cuz you know, I’m lactose intolerant and American is the only kind of cheese I can eat without getting sick.  Oh, and are your hash browns fried in extra virgin olive oil?  You know, it’s the only oil that isn’t bad for your heart.  Why don’t you offer the same size juice drinks as your sodas?  You should, you know, juice is healthier than soda.  Okay, so if I order a McMuffin, can I get that with exactly one and one third slices of cheese, and with seven-eighths of a sausage patty, and can you cut the eggs in half?  No wait, I think I want that with one-eighth of a slice of cheese, one sausage patty, and three eggs.  No, wait just a sec…”  WOMAN, JUST PLACE YOUR ORDER!!!

Yes, I know my last post was also about Mcdonalds.  So sue me.

Have you seen this year’s Mcdonalds Monopoly game?  I have a real love-hate relationship with Mcdonalds for that game… I love the game, but I hate that I love the game, and I hate that my love for the game sometimes convinces me to buy Mcdonalds.

But on the upside… I won a $50 gas card the other day.

If anyone has the “Boardwalk” piece, please send it to me.  That piece would qualify me for the $1 million grand prize, and I will happily split the prize with you.

I am exhausted.  Just… exhausted!

I subbed in a middle school today.  I was supposed to sub for an 8th grade social studies class, but after I taught two periods of social studies, I was asked to switch to a 6th grade science class.  Then, after a couple of periods of that, I was asked to switch to sixth and seventh grade band.  Then it was back to science.  Finally at 3:30, the day was over… and I had not had any breaks all day!  So I’d had nothing to eat since I ate an apple with a scoop of peanut butter at 6:30am.

Man oh man, I could not get to a McDonald’s fast enough.

Also, I think it didn’t help that I was wearing a pair of shoes that was not too comfortable.  I need to go shoe shopping – the only nice “teacher-y” shoes that I have are all fairly worn out, so obviously I need to buy more shoes.

Today I discovered what I have suspected for awhile- that this school district is very understaffed when it comes to subs.  Of course, that’s good news for me since I can always use the work.  Truthfully, if I wanted to work every day, I probably could.  That’s almost MORE work than I had planned on – when I had first applied, I had figured on maybe 2-3 days a week.  But at the same time, I hope I can keep doing this, because I can definitely use the money.

Now I just wonder what it would take to convince the district to provide benefits…

Since I’m working at an elementary school today, I don’t have to leave as early.  Of course on the flip side, I will be finished a little bit later.  But no complaints, it’s nice to get some time in the morning.

To answer an earlier question… I have a Bachelor of Science in Education degree.  In college, I majored in elementary education with a minor in social studies education.  I received a teacher’s certificate in Elementary Education.  After college, I did a whole bunch of studying and extra tests, and also received certificates in middle school mathematics, high school English, and high school social studies.  So I’m uber-qualified to teach… but I don’t. At least not full time.

Actually, all those extra certificates proved quite useful when I lived in Africa and worked at a small international school.  We had so few teachers that each teacher had to teach a bunch of classes.

I will have to get ready soon and leave.  We are out of peanut butter – yes, I’m a peanut butter fanatic – and I don’t have anything else to eat for breakfast.  Usually I have a piece of fruit with peanut butter.  But I’ll have to stop at McDonald’s on the way to school.

Did you hear about the sheriff who is refusing to evict people?  He’s very concerned that many of the people he has to evict are actually renters who are not notified that the landlord has not paid the mortgage.  I’ll have to look up the story for you later.

Okay… gotta go… I’m off to be a librarian for a day!

• It has definitely been a crazy day.  But a good day.  Very busy but good busy.
• I swam 500m free/back this morning, plus 50m dolphin kick for good measure. (My dolphin kick STINKS.  But it’s still a good workout for my core.)
• Came home, showered, cleaned up, dressed.  I’ve started using conditioner in my hair after I swim, particularly if I want to fix it and don’t have time to let it dry naturally.  It really helps get rid of the tangles caused by the chlorine.
• Speaking of chlorine, I read that prolonged exposure to chlorine will lighten dark brown hair.  So far, my dark brown hair is… still dark brown.  Nothing.  Nada.  Not even a little bit.
• I went (back) to the dealership to get a state inspection so I can renew my tags.  Hardly anyone does state inspections anymore… I remember when the oil and lube places would give you a state inspection.  Now, my dealership is the only place I can find who will do them.  But I’m hardly complaining… it’s only $12 and they give me free donuts and soda while I wait.
• Then, google maps in hand, I spent several HOURS driving around and finding all the schools.  On the upside, I was successful in finding all the schools.  All 3 high schools, 4 middle schools, and eighteen elementary schools.  I skipped the alternative high school and the preschool.  On the downside, it took FOREVER.
• Somewhere in there, I stopped at McDonald’s for lunch.
• I also stopped at the library to do a little bit of research.
• Then I went to Costco to pick up a prescription.
• By this time I was fairly tired.  Go figure.
• When I got home, I discovered that I had a message on my answering machine.  Remember how I applied to substitute with my local school district?  I’ve taken them quite a bit of paperwork, and at 11:30 today the HR gal called me to tell me that I was hired and, by the way, could I work this afternoon?  By the time I got the message, it was 4:30, and all I could do was call and apologize.  BUT I got the job and I’m quite happy about that.
• So, I am substituting tomorrow at a middle school, sixth grade science.  Should be interesting, to say the least, but I’m quite excited about it.

I am right now debating what I will eat for lunch.  I have some leftover spaghetti in the fridge, which is what I SHOULD eat, but I am totally craving McDonald’s nuggets.

I think I’ll go log into my bank accounts online, just to remind myself that I can’t afford McDonalds!

Have you heard about the latest news on the government bailout plan?  It just passed the House a few moments ago, and passed the Senate earlier this week.  I’m not sure if I’m relieved or massively concerned.  I see why they chose to do this bailout plan, and I don’t entirely disagree.  But I also think there has to be a better way to rescue the market.  I don’t know what it is, but surely there’s something!  What do you think?

Tonight my friend Abbie and I went to a genealogy class at the local library.  It was SO TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

I picked Abbie up from her Tae Kwon Do studio (she’s a black belt!), and we grabbed a quick bite at a McDonald’s.  Then we got to the library just as the class was starting.  The class was pretty simple, in a lot of ways- a basic genealogy class.  But, we got a few good handouts, and we learned that our library has subscriptions to websites like Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.  Learning that fact alone made the whole class worthwhile!

Plus we learned a few more strategies about researching genealogy at the library.  We live near one of the absolute best libraries in the world, and I LOVE it.  I have no doubt that you’ll be hearing much more about my library in the days to come!

I’m debating going to the library to do some work and research tomorrow.  I’m also craving pizza, so I’m thinking about getting pizza for lunch.  It’s been awhile since I’ve had pizza… yumm.