anthem

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

School has started, dating has gone awry, I got back together with the emotionally unavailable guy, after six weeks, because he admitted some of his feelings for me, and acted like a boyfriend, and man have I enjoyed it. But tomorrow he leaving for South America for three months, maybe more. Last night we said goodbye, and it was sad and sweet. He said he was going to miss me, which is everything I wanted to hear. There were long hugs and a half-night sleep over and lots and lots of cuddling (God I hate that word) and I did cry. Well, the tears didn't start until he left, but the eyes were welling. He is the best kisser I've ever kissed; that's what got me into trouble in the first place. The first time our feet touched I swear, I felt a jolt of electricity, and when we kissed I remember thinking, Whoa! This is fucking awesome.

A little part of me is hopeful that when he gets back maybe we can do it for real, but the rational part of me knows it's a really long time from now, and we didn't make any agreement, and who knows where both of us will be in January. Or March or April, because it could be that long, too.

Today I discovered Leonard Cohen. His song, Anthem, I love. It's too bad he wasn't a great singer because he sure was an amazing writer.

best second date ever?

Following dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood, jumped a fence into the veteran's cemetery, made out amongst the headstones, and then used a grad student's dorm bathroom on the way back (with his permission).

Dude, it's been a super busy month here on NBC. First the Olympics, now the DNC, next the RNC. My Netflix are being woefully ignored.

Next week is the first week of school. I expect to be SWAMPED. In addition to (omigod) teaching again, I am doing the partial group and an opera run-through thing with the choir. I will be glued to the tube in the evening lest I miss one second of political coverage. While also having a social life, which I worked on very hard this summer.

Wish me luck.



Also I wrote this a few months ago but never hit "publish."

sixth hundredth post

I just spent the past half hour watching Nadia Comaneci routines on youtube. She is amazing. Is it just her, or did gymnastics used to be more dance-y and less aerobic-y?

so far, August rocks

My new job is so incredible that all I want to do is talk about it. I love my coworkers, I love my curriculum, I love the fact that we can go to LACMA once a month. Today we workshopped at this private school and planned out three months of advisory activities. Advisory is like homeroom that we do for the first half hour, four days a week. Fellow teachers can attest that having three months planned of ANYTHING already done in August is a Huge Fucking Deal.

Tonight is the opening ceremonies for the Olympics so obviously Glenda and I have a full evening of international snacks and activities planned. I can't hardly wait.

changes

I've gone through some pretty huge life changes in the past few weeks. Now I'm on the other side and ready to write again.

The smallest of the changes was that I didn't have a computer for a month and a half. That shouldn't be a big deal, but it was. I stopped emailing people, stopped checking my websites obsessively, stopped procrastinating by "researching" on Wikipedia. I started reading again and forced myself to social plan the shit out of my weeks. Since June, I've hung out with every single friend and relative I have in town. I've read five books and went to the movie theater a few times. I painted my TV armoire which I've been meaning to do since 2007.

The biggest change was my job. I am helping to open a brand new middle school in LA. This is huge. I'm completely happy to be out of South LA and oppressive LAUSD. I am ecstatic that I finished the joke that is BTSA and now have a Clear Credential. I love my new coworkers. So far it has felt like a dream job. For example, we take a Red Mango break every afternoon and walk across the street to get frozen yogurt together. For another example, the school is providing us with black MacBooks. For the last example, I get to teach ancient history. Pyramids and shit.

The last change is that I let go of the emotionally unavailable fuck buddy I've been involved with for the past year. I always knew this was something that wasn't going to last, but I didn't want to give it up. Plus, it was super fun and made me feel like a better person (as convoluted as that sounds). As soon as my new job started, I realized that it was the ideal time to make a clean break. He took it very well and we were able to have a nice goodbye (with hot sex to boot). No hard feelings on either side and I'm welcome to call or not call him as I please. There is obviously no question that this was the right thing to do.

I haven't missed writing on this website because I've been trying to live outside my head. But I really miss the processing aspect of it. Once I get it down here perfect, I don't have to obsess or talk things out to seven different people. It's almost like therapy, but I would say it's closer to REM sleep. I've been meaning to make sense of everything again and so it's good to be back.

so you think you can live blog!

Kat needs to get her roots done. I wonder if she's pregnant? Why would they ignore something like that? Otherwise, I love her hair tonight. Her dress, meh.

Courtney and Mark do a Viennese Waltz. I heart Courtney. But I hate this style and I hate this song.

While we're waiting for this boring dance to finish, I will proudly report that I have begun the arduous task of reorganizing my living room etc from when my classroom threw up in it. It is going well, albeit quite slow. I HAVE SO MUCH SHIT. For example, my computer from 2001 which has two ex-boyfriends worth of love-emails and both my undergraduate and graduate school papers. Need I keep these? I can't decide.

Chelsea does a slutty solo samba/rumba thing. Then she does the splits and my crotch pity-hurts.

Twitch does a hip-hopish routine to a disco song. It kind of works. He is wearing fake gold teeth and Urkel glasses. Kat puts on his glasses and looks even hotter. Then she puts on his fake teeth and it's kind of gross. Because he takes them straight out of his mouth.

Joshua and Katee (what the hell with the spelling of her name?) do a contemporary Romeo & Juliet thing. To Celine Dion. I secretly really like Celine Dion. It's the "All By Myself" song, which makes me think of Bridget Jones, not Shakespeare. I do not think this dance is particularly exciting. Perhaps because I am not really concentrating on them but rather on Colin Firth as Mark Darcy. The judges love them. Paula Abdul is in the audience!!! EXCITING!

Twitch and Chelsea do the mambo. Her dress is AWESOME. The top is fringy and sparkly, the bottom is like a fluffy tutu. It is bright red. A piece of her shoe falls off mid-dance. The judges are all, your dress was so banging I really didn't notice Twitch.

Katee does her solo and I can't help but not care. Ironically, the title of her song is, "I Can't Stop Thinking About You."

Joshua does a hip hop solo. I love this song. He is good.

Courtney and Mark are doing a jazz number choreographed by Sonya the one with the long hair mohawk. It's all about sex. Like, rear-entry. Courtney can do no wrong in my eyes.

Joshua and Katee do the pasa doble. Her dress is Amazon chic by way of Mexico. He is not wearing a shirt, which is nice. The judges orgasm.

Courtney does another contemporary solo. Can she try another style, please? I mean I love her but it gets a little boring every week, all this FEELING and EMOTING. I think she has become biffers with Kat.

Mark does a really well choreographed hip hop contemporary solo in which he takes off his shirt. It's hot.

Chelsea and Twitch do hip-hop. It's a very clever piece about two conductors fighting for a single baton. Very clever. Not very high energy, but very fun to watch. Chelsea's hair looks like she stuck her finger in a socket.

...and we're done.