It's Johnny Cammareri...!

Moonstruck might be my new favorite movie of all time.

she smite him, dead he lay, she hit him with a tent pin and he fell down dead

This morning I went to shul randomly because I happened to wake up early and I happened to have a conversation last night about meeting Jewish guys at shul and I happened to be feeling guilty about not doing anything religious in a long while. When I got there I was not really feeling it and being uncomfortable because I recognized a lot of the faces in there but didn't really know anyone. Like, I think a handful of people had been at our parties on Reeves.

So then the torah reading finishes and Hillel, my old bat mitzvah tutor, who also happens to be a leader/cantor there, he turns to me and asks if I want to do the haftarah. Totally weird, I make a face and say no. Because that's not the kind of thing you do on the fly. But then he tells me that it's Beshalach, my portion, and do I remember what a long freaking haftarah I had. Yes, I remember the pages and pages. No, I'm not going to sing it. But awesome coincidence! Bizarre that today of all days I felt compelled to go to shul. And at Ikar, of all places, where my teacher actually remembered that that was me.

ego boost!

I went to an a capella show at UCLA with Rebecca tonight and we ran into the DOTs!!! I was sitting and listening to my neighbor chat about the workshops she went to that day, and started talking to her about singing. She asked which group I was in, and I told her I graduated but used to be in UCSD DOTs. She was like, WHAT THAT IS MY GROUP and I very proudly mumbled that I started it. Screaming ensued. She showed me her DOTs tshirt, and dragged me over to meet the rest of the girls. They were all super excited to meet me and I was super surprised that they knew who I was. (Even though my name and bio is still on their website. And I arranged several of the songs on their CD.)

After the show we said hi again and there was some mild hysteria. We took a picture together and they all told me how DOTs has changed their lives. I believe it. The pictures online make the group look like an awesome thing to be a part of, and I don't doubt that they have a lot of fun being silly and being girly. They had eighty girls try out last quarter. EIGHTY. That's a long way from 2001 when the five of us would meet in my dorm room and I would hum out parts and we had maybe three applicants when we did auditions.

They are performing at ICCA in two weeks and I'm so excited. That is big time. They are super happy and I am super happy and we had a love fest there in the ballroom of Ackerman Union. I am so proud to have started this group that has grown into something special.

persuasive essay

I'm really excited to grade this assignment.

lesson delivery methods

I wish someone had given me this list when I first started teaching.

1. LECTURE (Teacher talks, students listen.)
2. JIGSAW (Each student group learns a small portion of the lesson, and teaches it back to the rest of the class. Have them make posters, say, as a visual aid.)
3. INDEPENDENT STUDY (Students read text and take notes on their own.)
4. DRAWING (Students draw the subject they are studying, including details and labels. This works the best with maps.)
5. WORKSHEET
   
6. QUESTIONS FROM THE BOOK
7. DISCUSSION (Teacher asks questions, students answer them and each other.)
8. OPEN NOTE QUIZ (Puts the fear of God into them, but students end up really searching for the right information.)
9. DRAMATIZATION (Assign parts and act out the scene/concept.)
10. COMIC STRIP (Like a flow chart, but sounds more fun.)
11. WEB (Students brainstorm and write down everything they know about a subject, making visible connections.)
12. DICTATION (Teacher talks, students write it all down.)
13. MOVIE (Discovery Streaming)
    
14. MAKE A LIST AND PUT IT IN ORDER (Like making a hierarchy.)
15. VENN DIAGRAM TO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OBJECT/IDEA (Forces higher level thinking on Bloom's taxonomy.)
16. CORNELL NOTES (Similar to lecturing and taking notes, but the teacher models what the students should write down.)
17. PICTORIAL INPUT (Teacher lectures while drawing a related picture. Students are captivated.)
18. PROJECTS (Students create a project and learn while doing.)
19. READ ALOUD (If you can find a related book.)
20. POWER POINT
    

I would like to do relief work in Haiti this summer.

In a tent, not a building.

Before hurricane season.

sara watkins

Whoa, that was the best show ever. Sara Watkins on violin and vocals, brother Sean on guitar and vocals, upright piano with the front board taken out so you can see the hammers, acoustic base, drums, metal hammer washboard thingy, Ben Lee, John C O'Reilly who sang and played his thunderdrum, and Gillian Welch with David Rawlings at the end. At Largo you get to sit down, too, and the room doesn't smell like alcohol or hipsters.

meshuga

Hm, weird. I just had a telemarketer call me up and we had a whole conversation in Hebrew. He was trying to sell me an Israeli cable channel. He sounded surprised that I could speak and understand Hebrew. He didn't really try to push the sale like most American callers. I have no idea where he got his special Jewish phone list.

about me

I definitely have some bitch teacher going on which can be real fun (for me). I would say that the kids like me and some of the boys def have that student-teacher crush going on. I've earned extra points because I love Twilight and youtube and will generally eat any junk food that they give me.

Here are some things I look for in a leading man:

1. Like yourself. Like your life.
2. Be interested in stuff. Like, all different kinds of stuff. Electronics, sports, cloud patterns, history of salt, whatever. If you don't think other things are interesting, you are probably boring.
3. That you know about Twilight is a plus. Knowing pop culture and/or the news is important.
4. Make me laugh and/or get my humor. I like sarcastic and weird. This one is the easiest and the hardest because it takes a while to "get" a person and it takes a while to develop inside jokes. On the other hand, someone can be funny without really knowing them but then after a while it gets boring because it doesn't go any deeper.
5. Bonus if you went to Jew camp and we can trade stories.
   

too late to think about dating

A quick, QUICK list of things I liked about the last guy before he hooked up with me three times and then emailed that he wasn't feeling the chemistry:

1. He read Twilight. and New Moon. and Eclipse.
2. The youtube of him dressed up as his friend's dad dancing with another guy dressed up as his friend's mom. With a shirt labeled, "Love 2 Fuck."
3. He ate ketchup on his pasta.
   

first of four

It is raining super hard and loud right now. I have opened all of my curtains so that I can hear the tapping and see the drops more clearly. I am thinking frantically of other ways I can take advantage of this situation.

the year 2009

Road trip! New Years Eve in Arizona with a bottle of Martinellis and going to bed at 10
bladder infection
Palm Springs with Ro
girls night at Village Idiot with Lena and Sasha
Obama inauguration! Party at school
LAACC concert at Temple Isaiah
Glenda engagement party and I am scared of my bf's ex
Grammy foundation concert with Sara Bareillis
art show with Lena
New York - see Anna, Abbey, Naomi, Alter Boys, buy beads
Sacramento and San Francisco with Tova, Nick, and Aaron
re-meet Wade
new dentist and cavities and teeth guards
Griffith park big ass hike with Claustro
crazy concert with Wade
Lost marathon with Wade
Karen huge dinner party and meet Emily
Habitat for Humanity painting a house
heart monitor
Ro is a shithead
Jayita's with Liz and Dale and Indian food
Culver City art walk with Benja
Wade, Wade, Wade, then not Wade
One World, Many Voices LAACC concert
improv with Rebecca choir
Temescal with Claustro
junk food with Haley and dye my hair RED
AUSTRALIA
Glenda wedding
volunteering at Cedars
Idan Reichel at the pier
Karen engagement party in Encino
tie-dye clothes with Aaron
swimming at Benja's new place with cousins
German boys come to LA! We eat Mexican and drink and I discover they all have girlfriends
hike with Liz
Shabbat dinners with Emily Shmemily
Mad Men with Wade
more dentistry work
more doing nothing with Hayley and the boys
LAACC bonding party with Rebecca and Andrew and Christy
Lynn wedding salon and Thong Song mashup with Andrew
shabbat dinner with Nicole
Halloween with Rebecca and Andrew and Lynn and I carve my first pumpkin
teach mother about evolution dinner
wine tasting with school
boring date with Ian at Griffith park
Thanksgiving at Benja's apt
holiday concert with LAACC
Tour of Hope bus captain with Rebecca
make holiday cookies with Wade
game night at Rich Kennedy's and being awesome at celebrity
New Moon with Emily
LAACC at Dorothy Chandler with Fred Willard
finish Australia and Peru albums
Nicole wedding
New Years Eve date at Ballona Creek with Jeff

best email of the year

The prize goes to new friend Emily Shmemily:

Holy big fucking ass dick. Seriously, I can't believe this. It is funny what a big dumb jerk he is. At least you don't have to miss him AT ALL!

texts number five

• You knew he would! What an exciting sexy time for you both.

• What. the. f. is a slanket? a slinky blanket?

• Hows it by you? Too many israelis by us.

• Was he cute? Was he Jewish? Last night I had a dream about kichel.

• Well right now I'm listening to la di da di we like to party by slick rick and doug e fresh from 1985. But after that I'm free!

• I thought silver fox came in shirtless.

• Saw the ramachandrin box. In AZ. The couple next door is having rough boring sex. How are you?

• Happy Hannukah!
• Thanks! I'm at a church about to sing more x mas songs. Ironical.
• Ironikkah.

• After going to several stores and calling twenty of them, guess where i finally found citric acid...glatt mart.

• Hang on I'm in the middle. I had to take a shower first, wash the dog off.
• That sounds like slang for cleaning your private area.

• Little indecent incident with the main... Thought you would laugh.

• Let me revisit my journal entry for that date to learn why

• Just made some pasta with ketchup and parmesan cheese. Told my girlfriend that if one bowl of food were to ever sum up my childhood it'd be that. She took one look at it and said 'don't eat that next to me.'

• Woah. Just discovered sephorah. Holy shit.

• The other thing that was supposed to change the world but didn't was olestra. Instead it caused anal leakage.

• I just got a phone call to "Rent a Man."

• Stewie got stuck with a ball gag on Family Guy this week. Thought of you.

• Having a congressional race on my birthday really made my day.

• Did you see that they listed me as School Programs chair on the yellow newsletter? Who knew. I didn't.

• Of course I didn't respond b/c I am doing really important things like watching youtube.

eh

I was directed to this awesome book review website but after paging through six months of reviews and only recognizing one book mentioned, I'm done before I started. The one, by the way, is Infinite Jest, which was oh so hot last summer but I just can't bring myself to care. Too many words.



BUT WAIT !

Redemption!?

Way back last April someone reviewed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, one of the top three (adult) books I've ever read. I had borrowed it from Karen and was so sad to have to return it when I was done. I was hooked from the very first paragraph and couldn't stop talking about how much I loved it. The writing, the story, the image of that little dilapidated coal town in the Appalachians . . . the train track house in Arizona . . . mortification at seeing mom dumpster diving. That I even remember the narrator is female indicates quality. Every time I went to the RIP dollar bookstore to pick up lit circle sets I would spend time searching through that disorganized mess to find my own copy. Trying to be green, you know. This winter break I cut the crap and just bought my own copy.

Which is to say that this book is seriously hearted by me and the single paragraph "review" on this stupid site is fucking lame.

psyching up for returning to school

I think I have to give myself more credit because the truth is that I sat down and graded THIRTY papers today. When was the last time I did that. (never.) Even though there are twenty more and I want to peel my skin before reading through them -- I saved the really terrible ones for last -- I still did the majority of them, enough to just go ahead and do the rest of them already instead of throwing them away, which is what I do with many assignments I just can't bring myself to comb through. Does that sound terrible? Your teachers used to do it, too.

Also: I read four books over break. Technically four and a half, but I'm still in the middle of the last one. Even though none of them were the ones I planned on reading for the kids, EFF THE KIDS. Officially I don't even need to read any of the books they read in lit circles, it's just good practice. Plus I'm an adult and have earned the right to thumb my nose at science fiction.

So really what we're saying is that the only thing I've slacked on is the entering of student updates in our joint update database, but since NO ONE ELSE DID, by comparison I didn't really slack at all. Just following the herd.

dear boys

Dear boys,

If you are not sure you like a girl, and are even more not sure whether you have any chemistry at all, do not spend the night making out with her. Definitely don't sleep with her, especially if you are planning on writing a break-up email the next day.

go see this documentary right now

Nine minutes into Food Inc and I'm already disgusted.

Minute fifteen and I am utterly horrified.

The third time my jaw dropped:


Vegie Libel Laws made me exclaim out loud. How is this shit real. Seriously.

Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and think, MAN, I have the best hair ever!?