Tuesday, March 27, 2007

divine intervention

The City of Angels has sure had some weird weather this year. There was the frosty freeze that killed off all our citrus (causing orange juice nationwide to go up in price), then the ninety degree heat wave several weeks later, and then today and hit-and-run hail storm. Which began and ended within five minutes. Bizarre.

It reminded me of this day several weeks ago, an ordinary partly cloudy March day, a typical seventy two degree Los Angeles afternoon. I got in my car to drive home from school, turned westward, and was completely bowled over by the sky. It was filled with white and yellow clouds, textured and fluffy, laying a blanket over the entire city. The sunlight and the shadows worked in a way that made the sky look like upside down foggy mountains. It was magnificent. I remember sitting at the stop sign at the end of my school block for five minutes, cursing myself for not having a camera phone.

I was so enraptured by the clouds that instead of driving north on Vermont for several miles, how I usually drive, I took Manchester west through South LA. This was so I could stare at the sky as it was lit by the setting sun. Seriously, it was amazing. I remember being on the phone with a friend and having a completely one-sided conversation that consisted of my oohs and aahs and exclamations. As the wind blew the clouds eastward, the blue sky came into view just at the tip of the horizon, where the ocean ended. I noticed this right as I passed the round, white columns of The Forum, a huge deal since I have only seen it once at night and several times from an airplane. Across the street was the Inglewood Park Cemetery, where Ella Fitzgerald is buried. I considered stopping to find her grave, (my class is studying her for Black History Month), but drove on.

After that, I realized I really needed to head home (not the best neighborhood), and so I found a northbound street that cut through. Mesmerized as I was, I actually missed a turn somewhere, and ended up in my cousin's neighborhood. My darling three-year-old cousin, whom I had not seen in several weeks. I stopped by her house and had a wonderful afternoon of tickling, dancing, and cuddling.

It felt really random and spontaneous, but I swear it was not by accident.

Monday, March 26, 2007

whoopsies

I may have kinda, sorta hooked up with a friend of mine, one whom I had promised myself I wouldn't touch again.

oops.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Abbey Wedding Weekend Tidbit #2

Amazing sunset in Boston from the airplane. See the snow on the ground? See the sky on fire?


Very Exciting New Purchase from 99cent Store

Very Exciting New Purchase from 99cent Store:



Very Sad Day when I chewed every single gum ball in one sitting:


(sitting atop list of students whose parents I have to call because of their misbehavior)

bringing awesome back

Ok, I need to toot the horn a little louder, because just this very moment I got an email from my UCLA advisor about my PACT, this huge project we had to do last year, taping ourselves teaching and explaining our lesson plans and whatnot:

How are you? I hope you're well!! Did you know that your PACT from last year has been held up as a model by the state? It was used as the standard for grading!!


All of you reading can say I KNEW HER WHEN.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

anal retentive aesthetics

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but apparently I am a super, huge deal at work. On Tuesday afternoon, the entire staff met in my room for our faculty meeting. This meant that not only did I have to make things look impressive and presentable, I also had to give mini tour of the class to the rest of the teachers. This is A LOT of pressure for a first year teacher, to have all these veterans checking out my walls. Luckily, I am somewhat (completely) picky about how things look, and so my room is already beautiful and labeled and appropriate. But still, stress. The meeting and tour was successful, and I got major props from the principal and A.P.

Then on Wednesday, we had a cohort of principals from the district visit our school. My A.P. told me beforehand that they were going to visit my classroom because it looks so great. !!! Pachotch!!! They were going to look closely at my walls and bookcases and displays and scrutinize everything! Like, is this person fit to teach small children? (Definitely.) Does this teacher have any idea what she is doing? (Somewhat.) Is she doing a good job? (According to her bulletin boards, yes.) The suits came and went, and lucky for me, we had guest visitors for Career Day during the visit, so I myself wasn't actually on display, just my walls. I got many, many compliments. Super ego boost.

THEN, today the principal tells us that there is to be a group of Assistant Principals visiting our school tomorrow. They will be walking through my class, led by the DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT. The DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT, my principal informed me, has chosen to ADOPT my classroom. And is therefor going to be showing me off tomorrow while I teach. Seriously! My classroom is adopted! I have no idea what that means!! But it must be good, because no one adopts something they don't like! I must be awesome!

new toy! white and shiny!

Holy Batman, I am now the proud owner of an apple ibook. I never thought the day would come.


Not the day that I got converted over to Mac (I'm not there yet; I do love my right click), but the day that my school would finally get their shit together and give me the laptop they promised in October.

I can't really and truly internet on it yet, because for some reason it won't install Firefox, and for some other reason, it won't log me into Blogger. Since I don't know how to put all my bookmarks in Safari, it will be a while before I can play on my couch. Alas! I must finish report cards first, before I fuss with the new toy!

Monday, March 19, 2007

Abbey Wedding Weekend tidbit #1

So New England has this thing where they don't post street signs. If you live in the area, you know your way around, and if you are from out of town, you get lost. And Sharon being a suburb, there weren't any curbs, either, and thus no curbside addresses. Miriam and I were staying at a family friends' house where we had never been before. The family wasn't even going to be home when we arrived -- they said they would leave the front door open for us.

Well, what do you do when you've narrowed your search down to two potential houses, neither of which has an address posted, both of which have an unlocked front door? You can't trust the mezuzah, since Sharon is eighty percent Jewish. You check their trash for addressed mail, that's what you do. Good thinking, Miriam. Ten points.

Who leaves their front door unlocked at nighttime? When no one is home? Seriously.

Monday, March 12, 2007

redesign

ya know, daylight savings time, "new lease on life," Girl Scout Cookie season, new colors...

pro crastinator

A list of things I did on Saturday to procrastinate from finishing my thesis:

  • read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (fantastic)(started it Saturday morning, finished it Sunday morning)
  • showered
  • four words: Big Love On Demand
  • Girl Scout cookies (two boxes)
  • obsessively listened to Wahjeeleh
  • played Spider Solitaire (the hard level, which I mastered sophmore year in college, and have yet to win since)
  • ate Trader Joes Balsamic Vinagrette (the bread dipped inside was just a formality)sang Wahjeeleh in my head
  • photographed chewed-up gumballs (coming soon)
  • considered several "modest" outfits for Abbey's wedding next weekend
  • took took my personality quiz: (I'm an ENTJ: Extravert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

fat toes

It's so frickin hot and muggy today that my fingers and toes are totally swollen. I thought at first it was because I have been sitting in my desk chair since Friday night, but then realized otherwise. They do that when the climate changes suddenly. I remember the first time my hands swelled up -- I was in high school at my friend Hana's house. Her dad is a doctor, and so I showed him my hands, freaking out a bit. He was nonplussed.

My toes feel pregnant.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

wahjeeleh

Four days and counting until the thesis is due. There will no doubt be a preponderance of posts this weekend as I procrastinate away the hours.

Lucky for me, my internet is down (sign from God?), forcing me to "focus" on the task at hand. Several of these posts were written in Notepad and saved to my desktop until I finished.

Right now I have been listening to a certain song on the computer for, oh, say, two hours in a row. It is called "Wahjeeleh" and is sung by the Stanford Talisman, a student a capella group specializing in traditional African songs. They are fucking awesome. You can listen to them here. I seriously believe this song is the secret to the universe.

There is something about the tune and the harmony and the chord changes and the humming and the shrieking, and also the fact that I can't understand a single word. The beginning chanting reminds me of creation. The way everything starts sort of slow and gets added together one by one. Like the water animals walking onto land for the first time, one leg after another, water dripping off their backs onto the hot earth. (I picture turtles.) And then the first minute of the song just slowly builds. I picture a lot of mud. And tall stalks of wheat. And baskets, men and women carrying baskets. Around minute 2:48, when the world is in full swing, and the ladies are yelping, and the men suddenly come in, and the melody brings us back to the beginning, I really get this feeling that they are trying to tell me something divine.



My stupid ass ex-boyfriend was such a music snob, for a while all we listened to was depressing emo/indie rock. Because that's all he valued. Some of that stuff is good, but there is just so much other music in the world that is great, it is rediculous to limit yourself like that. I actually sort of got into the mindset that his music was all music, and stopped listening to a lot of my stuff. My stuff is definitely better. And more massive. And varied. I have piles of CDs in my bedroom, on shelves and on my nightstand, in the living room next to the stereo, in CD holder booklets, in my car console, and in my classroom. I have rock, and pop, and classical, and vocal jazz, and choral, and Jewish, and country, and Israeli, and hip hop, and neo soul. I know it all. It gives me great pride to know so much music. In this case, more is better.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

no, there is an elephant in the way.

Anyone who has worked with teenagers or had a lazy brother (or was lazy themselves) ought to find these hilarious. The last one is my favorite.







billiards table

Married to the Sea has been on my link bar for several months, but it hasn't been until today that I laughed so hard I had to post a comic up here, too.



Many years ago, my little brother Aaron got a pool table free from some family friends. The pool table was free, but the moving of the table out of the friends' house and into our parents' garage cost him three hundred bucks. That's a lot for a seventh grader. For a good year and a half, us kids and neighbor kids played pool frequently. Aaron even read a guide book and got quite good at it. His thirteenth birthday party was a blast thanks to the pool table and our downstairs neighbor's ping-pong table.

But then, very swiftly, the pool table became a shelf.

And then a dust shelter for my boxes of pre-college CDs and pen-pal letters.

And most recently, a really expensive room divider.