Sunday, May 28, 2006

lazy Saturday

Friday night I was extremely tired, nearly falling over myself trying to stay awake until dinner, which was at seven pm. I had two cups of strong black tea before eating, and they woke me up enough to follow dinner conversation. I was hoping that they would also help me last through the after-dinner activities as well.

When I got to the boyfriend's house, he was dead asleep on his bed, and joy! I wouldn't have to feign enthusiasm at a bar. I woke him up but then we both went to back to sleep at ten-ish.

Saturday morning we woke up at SIX THIRTY. Fully awake awake, the kind that you can't just roll over and go back to sleep. (I already did that at six.) It was a little eery. I'm somewhat used to waking up early, since my weekday routine has carried over into my weekends. But I've never before gotten up at this time and still felt like I had a good rest.

We both got up and got dressed and got in the car to go for a drive. The streets were completely empty. The sun was already shining all over. We ended up at Franklin Canyon and walked around for a bit, looking at the water and the ducks and the turtles and the trees. After a while the joggers started to come around. It was so quiet and relaxing, like a cottage by the lake.

After the lake, we returned to the city, which was still quiet save the early bird yard sale people. The apartment was silent. I read my teacher books, he read the newspaper. We went out for breakfast. We talked about our brothers. When we finally parted ways to do our things, it was only eleven o'clock.

Lazy, lazy Saturday. I love it.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

too techno savvy for my own good

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2006 when...


1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of fifteen phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first twenty or thirty (or sixty)years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

12. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

13. You are too busy to notice there was no number nine on this list.

14. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a number nine on this list.



AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.


thanks to Jo for this one!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Survivor: Grade School

Have you heard about the next planned Survivor show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 6 weeks. Each business person will be provided with a copy of their school district's curriculum, and a class of 28 students.

Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three will be labeled as severe behavior problems. Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.

They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addition, they will complete drills for fire, tornadoes, and shooting attacks.

They must attend workshops, (100 hours), faculty meetings, union meetings, and curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor those students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the Terra Nova and EPA tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show. Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford it anyway. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes.

On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is supervising their class. They will be provided with two 40-minute planning periods per week while their students are at specials. If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials at this time. The business people must continually advance their education on their own time and pay for this advanced training themselves. This can be accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying someone with money. The winner will be allowed to return to his or her job.


Thanks, Glenda!!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

sing sing sing

just a few of the best songs on earth, the few that are in my head right now:

  • Careful Where You Stand - Coldplay
  • The Touch of My Hand - Britney Spears
  • Amphibian - Bjork
  • Alarm Call - Bjork
  • Everything in Its Right Place - Radiohead
  • Lovely Day - Bill Withers
  • Lucky - Radiohead
  • The first song on Norah Jones' first album, but not the first one on her actual album, just the first one on the mix that I got from my roommate
  • Every song by Zero 7
  • Love of My Life - Erykah Badu
  • Brown Sugar - India Arie
  • Cleva - Erykah Badu
  • Your Love is My Love - Whitney Houston
  • She Don't Like Jelly - Flaming Lips
  • Feel Love - Paula Cole
  • Lost in a Moment - Shrift
  • Adam's Lulluby - Natascha Atlas

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Saturday, May 13, 2006

arrested

Yesterday one of my students was arrested in class. It was quite an eye-opening experiences.

Apparently, this student (I’ll call him J) has had trouble with the law before. He was suspended from his last school (I don't know why) in the middle of the school year and transferred to this class. At some point in the last year the police had to intervene and warned him that if they needed to be called again, they would cuff him and take him to the police station.

In the past seven weeks that I have been in his class, J has consistently displayed inappropriate behavior. He engages in frequent back-and-forth arguments with other students in the class and seems always to need to have the last word. I have heard him use words such as "faggot" and "ass" talking to other students. He is also reported frequently by the other students as fighting or being mean on the yard. The teacher told me that in the past, he also made sexually explicit remarks about her and about a female student to other kids during recess. My guiding teacher has worked really hard to talk to him privately and try to help him make better choices in the classroom.

On Thursday, however, three separate incidences forced the teacher to demand school administration to help her out. First, a female students’ mother came to class before school started and reported that J has been verbally harassing her daughter every day. He does it during class time and during recess. The mother also reported that yesterday J touched her butt. Second, while in line for recess, a male student told me that J had just told him that “his brother suck dick.” I pulled J out from the line and told him quietly that such language was unacceptable and we would talk about it with the teacher when she came back. Third, a fifth grade teacher approached me at lunch with one of her students, claiming that J threatened to beat him up the previous day.

My guiding teacher told me yesterday morning that the school police was coming for J at some point during the school day. As soon as the student began their morning routine, the teacher pulled the students out one by one to ask if any of them had been harassed or threatened by J. A half hour later, the assistant principal entered our classroom, followed by two tall police officers, fully uniformed and armed. The room fell silent.

The AP asked which student was J. He raised his hand. The police said he was to pack up his bag and come with them. They asked if he knew why they were there. He answered yes.

And then he was standing in front of the cops, handing over his backpack, with the whole class watching him. J was so tiny in front of the adult officers. They ordered him to put his hands behind his back. He hung his head low, moved his arms, and the police put handcuffs on his skinny little arms. The click of the metal was so loud in the classroom. The police led J into the hallway, with the AP following.

The AP reported later that they found a joint in J's backpack. He is suspended for a week from school, and will not be returning to our classroom.

J is nine years old.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

passed-on "compliment"

Back when they were Maybe Dating, old friend Evan and Naomi were talking about me:

"She's the kind of girl who, when you call her up and ask her what she's doing, will tell you that she just went through her closet and made a list of all the clothes that are blue."

NO TRUER WORDS WERE EVER SPOKEN.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I want to work at a Black school

from postsecret

aircraft maintenance

Funny site!! Found by accident!! While trying to name upcoming co-authored by boyfriend taco blog!!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

twenty four and a half

Today is my HALF BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

annoying roommate

It is so getting on my nerves the way that Miriam is CONSTANTLY on the phone with Atlanta boyfriend Seth. She is ALWAYS on the phone. She is on the phone all over the house -- while sitting on the couch, while eating dinner at the dining room table, while cooking in the kitchen. Her conversations are loud and long enough that when I want to do work or read or talk on the phone, I must go into my room and shut the door. (When I talk on the phone and someone else is home, I always go into my room.) It's not like when two roommates are constantly talking because at least then I could interject or become part of the conversation. It's just really antisocial when I walk in the door and she is on the phone and she continues to be on the phone walking all over the house for the next two hours. The rooms she occupies become off limits -- who wants to sit next to half a converstation?

grandma, july 4, 1947

oh bush

Oh Bush, go learn yourself some English.

Thanks Jerm!

Monday, May 01, 2006

a day without immigrants

This is what I did today: