halloween parade

our school has a really cool tradition; on the friday closest to halloween, the seniors and the kindergartners are allowed to dress up in costume, and then they walk together in a parade around the traffic circle at the front of the school.  all the parents of both the 12th graders and the kinders come and line the parade route, along with the majority of the students and teachers in the rest of the school.  one reason i love it is that the seniors do such a great job of picking fun, kid-like costumes.  typically, a 12th grader might pick a revealing or somehow inappropriate costume (sexy cat, for example, sold at every target and wal-mart in america.  tragedy.), but our kids are ALWAYS appropriate.  my favorite costumes this year from seniors were 5 girls who dressed like crayons (homemade costumes by one girl's mom), four boys who went as mighty ducks (the hockey team), and kids who went as the characters from the movie "toy story."  adorable.

we got a faculty group together this year to be old macdonald and his farm animals.  i was a chicken.  it was awesome.

while we were waiting in line, kinders paired with seniors, to begin the parade, i had this conversation with a kinder:

me: "are you an alligator?"  [i peak inside his felt mouth to find a very eager face with the remnants of a bloody nose.]

him: "no!  i'm a velociraptor!"

me: "oh, obviously!"

him: "i like velociraptors because they are the fastest, scariest, and coolest dinosaurs."

me: "do you know what i am?"

him: "a turkey!"

me: "close enough - a chicken.  can we pretend like the velociraptor is eating the chicken and someone can take a picture?"

him: "um, no - they didn't live during the same time period!" [said in a voice that implied that this was OBVIOUS...why do i have to explain this to you?]

me: "well maybe there were chicken-like animals back then.  can we do it anyway?"

and this was the result.

i almost stole him and took him and his homemade costume home with me.

happy halloween, everyone!

47

"i got a 47 on my precal quiz."

it was ANDREW O'NEILL who said this!  andrew o'neill, referenced in a previous post, who tutors china in math!  i overheard him say this in the hall and my heart SANK.  what would this do to his confidence!  this is his one shining subject!

andrew's friend: "i'm sorry andrew!"

andrew: "it was out of 44."

andrew's friend: "what?"

andrew: "i got a 47 out of 44."


of course.

this is my october

announcement, announcement: i took some pretty pictures.

i went hiking this weekend with some friends and had a GREAT time...we left saying "why don't we do this more often?"  we hiked a 4 mile loop at sweetwater creek park in west georgia - about half an hour from my house.  so easy to get to, and with the leaves changing colors and a crispness (but not coldness) in the air, it was perfect.  and gorgeous!  i heart fall!

if you squint, you can see that the leaves are changing.  for anyone who lives in the mountains or new england, this isn't anything special, but in georgia this is as fall-like as it gets.  so we are proud of it.

as we left, a little sweaty from the hike, it was drive-with-your-window-down perfection.  today, of course, it rained and was disgusting, but (victory!) our school didn't flood.  i'll take it, though - sunshine on a weekend day, rain on a weekday.  i can handle that.

(first person to correctly identify the song that the title of this post is taken from wins a big high five from me!)

5 podcasts you should be subscribing to

perhaps the correct grammar is "5 podcasts to which you should be subscribing," but either way...

I LOVE PODCASTS and listen to them when (a) i'm getting ready in the morning, (b) i'm driving, and (c) i'm working out.  i have to be careful, though - sometimes i'm working out and a real tear-jerker of a story comes on; walking + crying is a bad combination.

1. this american life - "each week we pick a theme and bring you a variety of [usually true] stories on that theme" - anything from the current health care debate to christmas stories to a theme like "music lessons" or "how to rest in peace."  david sedaris and dan savage and sarah vowell are occasional contributors, and obviously they are awesome and reason enough to subscribe.

2. wait, wait...don't tell me - "NPR's weekly news quiz" - but a HUMOROUS news quiz, so don't be nervous.  always includes an interview with someone famous...ashley judd, chris paul, paula deen, barack obama (before he was president obama), neko case, occasionally people you've never heard of.

3. the moth - "true stories told live without notes" - this is where a person could start crying - or just as easily could laugh out loud on the treadmill and embarrass herself to the same magnitude.  amazing stuff.

4. NPR's story of the day - the editors' pick, updated daily, with the best story that was on the air that day.  kelly - if you can't handle the fundraising drive (who can??) on NPR right now, this is what you should download!  the last three stories of the day were about navajo reservations, the health care debate, and brain injuries caused by football.  lots of variety!

5. indiefeed: indie pop music - when i was in europe this summer i listened to hours of this on trains while i played zuma and people-watched.  (i'm a multitasker.)  they update this podcast daily with just one song by an artist you've probably never heard of, but it's a great way to find out about new bands.  do you like the indigo girls, brandi carlile, the weepies, and/or the mountain goats?  you'll like this podcast.  don't know if you like these bands?  get this podcast.


things you should know about podcasts: you find them on itunes (search the podcast title and click through the search results under "podcasts"), they are freeeeeeeeeee, and they will automatically download to your itunes and update themselves whenever a new episode is available.

other podcast listeners out there: any podcasts that you like that i haven't mentioned?

ppd-ed

a 5 year old: "the phillies are in the world series because they won the NLCS.  i love the phillies.  go phillies!  my favorite player is howard."

me: "oh, i like him, too.  he hits the ball really hard."

the 5 year old: "no he doesn't.  he hits home runs."

me: "oh, okay."

the 5 year old's dad: "there might be a game on tonight in the ALCS - they didn't play last night because there was a rain delay."

the 5 year old: "no, dad, it was ppd-ed."

the dad: "ppd-ed?  postponed?  oh, you're right, but that's the same thing as a rain delay."


the 5 year old had read "ppd" somewhere and knew this was the reason the game wasn't being played.  IS THIS NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU HAVE EVER HEARD?  because the games are on after he goes to bed, his parents tape them and when he gets up in the morning he goes downstairs and watches them before his parents get up.  additionally, the 5 year old is better than me at basketball, knows how to add ["what's 8 + 4?" "okay, you put the 8 in your mind [points to head] and then you put 4 on your fingers.  9, 10, 11, 12.  it's 12!"], and when faced with dozens of designs to carve on his pumpkin, chose barack obama ["why did you choose obama?" "because.  i like him."].  he also sang the continents song for me and can ride a bike without training wheels.  i love this kid.

14 cents

okay, let me put this out on the table: i don't understand health insurance.  i have it, i'm happy to have it, it pays for things, i don't ask any questions.  but i DON'T UNDERSTAND IT.  for example - and let me preface these examples by saying that these are prescriptions that i had filled for minor things and my doctor gave me a "clean bill of health" (her words) at my yearly physical this week (hooray!) and all is well.  even my iron level was normal - a 13.5 - normal is between 11 and 17 (according to the nurse).  because i'm a vegetarian i always worry that i'm not getting enough iron, but apparently i am.  whoo hoo!  i am amazing!

back to my example.  this is a prescription i had filled a couple months ago:

um, how glad am i that i have insurance?  some questions, though: (a) how is it possible that 30 pills cost $438.28 - and i know many prescriptions cost more than this, and (b) what the hell do people without insurance DO?  i understand that some of the cost of prescriptions comes because a great deal of time and energy goes into creating different drugs, and companies need to be compensated for that.  but seriously.  whoa.

yesterday i got this prescription filled:

why thank you, insurance.  i'm glad you picked up that 14 cents.  seriously - if it's going to pay that little, why does it pay anything at all?  i may have laughed out loud in the pharmacy.

i don't understandddddd...

"did you fire me?"

time: thursday at 4:30pm.  location: the faculty workroom.

me: "what are you still doing here so late?"

coworker: "china [her daughter] gets tutored by andrew o'neill after school."

[note: andrew o'neill is the kind of kid where you have to say his full name.  he's not andrew.  he's andrew o'neill.  he also is the most socially awkward kid EVER.  not even socially awkward - socially uninterested.]

me: "how cool!  is andrew o'neill good at math?"

coworker: "andrew is so good at math.  i pay him minimum wage - $7.50 an hour - for an hour every day after school, and i give him a $5 bonus if china gets an A on a quiz and a $10 bonus if she gets an A on a test.  tutors are so expensive in this city, so this is the only way i can afford to get her some extra help.  i decided to ask him to help tutor china after i found him last year walking through the halls mumbling to himself, 'i can't believe i have a 101 average in algebra II.'"

[note: i am not surprised to learn that andrew o'neill was walking the halls mumbling to himself.  or that he had a 101 average in algebra II.]

me: "does andrew like tutoring?"

coworker: "he likes the money! you should have seen his face when i gave him the $10 bonus when china made an A on her last test."

me: "i bet that's really good for him - to have to explain the concepts to someone else and help them understand it."

coworker: "the librarians tell me that he drills her with problems for the whole hour - he takes it so seriously.  'you have to practice more of these if you want to do well on the next test.'"

me: [laughing]

coworker: "oh, and you'll get a kick out of this story - i gave china two days off from tutoring during homecoming week and she was supposed to tell andrew, but she didn't.  on the second day andrew walked right into a meeting i was having without knocking and said 'i haven't seen india for a couple days - did you fire me?'  i couldn't even bear to tell him that he got her name wrong after nine straight weeks of working together ever day - i just reassured him that he wasn't fired."


this, THIS, is why i love teaching.  you take a socially awkward kid who is good at math and you put him in a new situation and he steps up to the plate and out of his comfort zone.  i just want to give him a high five.  but acknowledging that i know all of this would probably be crossing some sort of unacceptable invisible line.  so i am just going to smile to myself every time i see him from now on.

fall fundraising campaign

my public radio station (wabe) is in the middle of its fall fundraising campaign.  this annoys me greatly - give me my news!  don't convince me to donate!  i promise to donate - just give me my news!  okay, but the please-give-us-money spiels do work - the first time i donated to npr was three years ago, when one of the donate-to-us spiels was from a reporter who was reporting from iraq and said that donations go to buy him bullet proof vests to wear so he can be safe while reporting the war back to us the united states.  YOU CAN'T NOT DONATE WHEN THIS IS HOW THEY ARE TRYING TO CONVINCE YOU.

i can't remember how they convinced me last year - it probably got wrapped up in my end-of-year donations to duke and ncssm or was part of the warm feeling i get from christmas.

this morning i'm listening to my news as i drive to work, and they move into the donate-to-us spiel and i change the channel, but all of my other preprogrammed channels were either in commercial or talk radio.  a nice reminder that THIS IS WHY I DON'T LISTEN TO THEM IN THE MORNING.  so i go back to npr and resign myself to listening to the fundraising portion of the program.  but wait!  that's my friend ira glass of this american life who is trying to convince me to donate now!  he entertains me, so i will listen to him.  he tells me the following fact: 9 out of 10 public radio listeners don't donate.  argh!  okay, i can't let that be me this year - i need to remember to give, as i have for the past two years.  he then cuts to this tape where he calls an independent bookstore in chicago and asks for 10 books, but only wants to pay for 1 (to prove the point that there are few things in life where only 9 out of 10 people pay, but everyone reaps the benefits).  this interview amuses me, and i continue listening.  ira glass then says something like, "and you!  you who are listening!  you are listening to the fundraising portion of the program!  you are a diehard public radio listener if that is the case!  how have you not donated yet?" (i was extremely embarrassed to admit that i fall into this group, but the evidence was overwhelming.)  then my friendly wabe announcer comes on and says if they raise $2,600 in the next half an hour, an anonymous donor would match it.

okay, enough is enough.  as soon as i got to work, i donated.  of course.  you are so convincing, npr!

set your tivo

do you know about inspector lewis?  okay, until july i didn't either.  when i was in oxford this summer my british friends got in a tizzy because lewis (that's what hip kids call it - drop the "inspector") was filming on campus, IN one of the colleges at oxford where we worked.  i got hourly updates from sally about which actors she'd seen and how close she'd come to talking to them and, in essence, how excited she was.  i had never heard of this show before and people were AGAST at this.  so when i got home from england and was missing pretty pretty oxford i rented the first series (they don't call it a "season" because they are funny and british) and it is SO GOOD.  of course.  the premise: this other inspector (morse) who had a long running show died.  the guy playing morse died in real life, so they had to end the show, and lewis was morse's sidekick.  he gets promoted to inspector (i guess) and now has his own show.  lewis is your average joe and he doesn't really fit in in intellectual oxford, but his new sidekick, hathaway, is both attractive AND smart.  in every episode there is a murder, and there are always little puzzles with literary or historic allusions that only hathaway can get and are necessary to solving the crime.  it's different from american tv shows in that each episode is a full 90 minutes long, and it is funny and has lots of beautiful shots of oxford and it entertains me.  AND NOW THEY ARE SHOWING SEASON (oops, SERIES) TWO ON PBS.  set your tivo, friends.  it's called "masterpiece mystery," it airs on sunday nights, and you get to hear alan cumming announce each week's episode...and that should be enough to convince you to watch.

end of rant.

with apologies to stephen sondheim

oh, if you'd been at our school's talent show (STUDENT talent show, that is) last thursday - the wondrous things you could have seen.  most importantly, the faculty number - a modification of two west side story songs.  lyrics modified by me and whitney:

Dylan & Jocks:
When you're a Jock
You're a Jock all the way
From your first big home run
To your Homecoming day.

When you're a Jock
If the spit hits the fan,
You got teammates around,
You're a family man!

Katie & Nerds:
When you're a Nerd
You're a Nerd all the way
From your first spelling test
To your SAT day.

When you're a Nerd
If the spit hits the fan,
Your lab partner's around,
You're a family man!

All:
You're never alone,
You're never disconnected!
You're home with your own:
When company's expected,
You're well protected!

Then you are set
With a capital J (N),
Which you'll never forget
Till they cart you away (to the power of ten).
When you're a Jock (Nerd)
You stay a Jock (Nerd) !

(imagine actual choreography, thanks to our drama teacher, and the choral director playing piano behind us.  imagine stunned faces in the audience and a pretty large pause before the applause began.)

Forrest:
Baker Field,
You lovely grassland . . .
Land of Friday night victories.
Always the muscles growing,
Always the whistles blowing . . .

Staples:
Baker Field . . .
You ugly grassland . . .
Land of athletic diseases.
Always the stench blowing,
Always the athlete’s foot growing
And the sweat flowing
And the coaches screaming…
And the bacteria teaming…
I like the building of Groesbeck.
To your friends you can take that back!

All:
But we’re all a part of H-h I
Okay by me at H-h I!
Ev’rything fun at H-h I!
We love to be at H-h I!

Dylan:
I like the roadtrips to games!

Wendy:
But you know that it always rains!

Forrest:
Hundreds of fans in bright fashion!

me:
Too bad your grades are all crashin’!

ALL
Higby the Bear at H-h I,
Mohawks in our hair at H-h I,
Plaid everywhere at H-h I,
Short skirts if you dare at H-h I!

Forrest:
I look so cool in my mouthguard!

Allyson:
Don’t you think you’re trying too hard?

Dylan:
We get to swim in a big pool!

Jenny:
Speedos make you look like big fools.

ALL
New kids come to H-h I,
Many hellos at H-h I;
Everyone knows that at H-h I
Everyone’s welcome at H-h I!

Forrest:
Under Armor makes me look hot!

Wendy:
Honey, Chace Crawford you are NOT!

Dylan:
All of the ladies love us!

Katie & nerd girls:
All of the ladies but us!

ALL
But we’re all a part of H-h I
Okay by me at H-h I!
Ev’rything fun at H-h I!
We love to be at H-h I!

Forrest:
Wesleyan thinks they are so cool!

Staples:
Wesleyan is just a bunch of fools!

Dylan:
Everyone there will give big cheer!

Katie:
Everyone there wants to go here!

All:
Go Bears!

(this second song was pretty hard to sing on beat - or, YELL on beat, since our singing skills are minimal.  the first time we practiced with the piano, the choral director stopped half way through and said to one of us, "how about you just speak your lines instead of trying to sing them?"  i don't think i've ever laughed harder than i did at that moment.  half an hour later, minutes before the performance, we went to the choral director with second thoughts and said, "i think we might only be worse with the piano in the second song."  he very cooly replied, "you need me on the second song."  and boy was he right - through some magical tempo changes, we were synced up with the piano throughout.  and he could drown out some of the more tragic moments.  was this night embarrassing?  YES.  but was it a lot of fun?  YES - i honestly haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  and we're teachers - we embarrass ourselves daily.  that night was really nothing different...)

mustache man

today i went to the decatur beer festival with jenny and wendy.  there were some good beers and some bad beers, great live music, fun people-watching, and a glorious 15 minute break in the starbucks down the street to warm up because it is FALL in decatur and we are SOUTHERN WEENIES who couldn't stop talking about how cold it was. i also couldn't stop talking about how much i love this guy:

he's the logo for this year's festival and he makes me SO HAPPY.  so happy, in fact, that i had to buy a t-shirt with him on it.  i would like to meet the person who designed this logo - i love his mustache and his hat and the fact that he is guzzling beer.  if i was asked to illustrate the word "guzzle" in the dictionary, i would put forth this logo.  or maybe it would better illustrate "swilling"?  either way, he makes me happy.

as a 26 year old, i probably still couldn't get a perfect score on the PSAT

fact: i have 54 free response questions and 54 two page essays to grade.

how is it possible that i sat in the same room for 4 hours proctoring the extended time PSAT and didn't grade a single paper?  what did i DO?

oh yeah.  i'm an amazing procrastinator.  well, i did reply to a lot (read: 43) of work-related emails that i needed to respond to.  but i also entertained myself with:
1. smashing magazine's free desktop wallpapers (50 to choose from each month!  got myself a fancy new one from their october update).
2. dooce.com, confessions of a young married couple, www.mattlogelin.com, texts from last night, cake wrecks, and this fish needs a bicycle.  in other words, my daily dosage of blogs.  (are you wasting time in this way?  you should be.)
3. last week's newsweek (if you haven't read the article that henry kissinger wrote about the conflict in afghanistan, you NEED to)
4. netflix got the movie i shipped back.  have they shipped a new one out yet?  no?  what about now?  no? now?

and then, magically, it was noon!  the kids got to go home early and it was time to go out to lunch with my work friends; for those of you who are teachers, you know how much of a luxury going out to lunch is.  we went to la fonda for their salsa (2nd best in atlanta, i think - taqueria del sol would be my favorite) and their adult beverages.  others are enamored of their paella, but i love the veggie burrito - roasted squash, onions, broccoli, and zucchini with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese and the best creamy ranch/tomato-y sauce.  YUM.

hoping you all have equally effective ways of procrastinating!  now i actually have to do my work...

next steps

my boss: "what is your dream job?"
me: "i'm kind of in my dream job right now.  i can't imagine not teaching, but i also love being in the leadership position of being a dean."
my boss: "okay.  but in twenty years do you want to be finding out which junior parks in spot 112?"
me: "woah.  point taken.  and [laughing] 112 is actually a senior parking spot."

i spent an hour in my boss's office talking about whether i should go to graduate school (yes), when (next year would be good), what degree i should work toward (i think we decided a master's in education, though nonprofit leadership and an MBA were also thrown out there.  not by me.), and whether i want to take a couple courses a semester on top of teaching or take a year off from teaching (i think the former, but am open to either idea).  i needed a little mentoring and he was in a mentoring mood, so it worked out perfectly.  his second question (above) was such a good question - it cuts to the heart of the matter - do i want to be doing all the little things i have to do right now as dean for the rest of my career?  my initial reaction was "i love being a dean and i want to do this forever."  he made me realize that no, i don't.  it's perfect for right now but i will be ready for something different at another point in my career.  "you're a big picture person," he said to me.  i'm taking it as quite the compliment.

adding cheese always helps

cauliflower is GROSS.  unless you put parmesan cheese on it.  and then it is delicious.

(don't tell anyone: i may be a vegetarian, but i don't like all vegetables.  my top five least favorite vegetables are squash, green peppers, cucumbers, celery, and radishes.  this was not a difficult list to come up with.  a couple years ago this list would have been even longer, but i have found that if you put cheese on some vegetables, it makes them infinitely better.  even delicious.  this is one example of that.  see also: eggplant.)

one thing you will learn about me, internet, is that i really like to cook.  i guess it stems from a love of eating, but i also really like the act of preparing food.  i find it relaxing - put on a tivo-ed episode of "jeopardy!" in the background, and then chop and measure and combine and stir and make dishes dirty and then make them clean again.  usually, the more complicated the recipe the better.  well, complicated isn't the right word.  INVOLVED.  the more involved the recipe, the better.

my old roommate's mom made this recipe once when i went over to their house for dinner, and she emailed it to me later so i could make it myself.  it is from cooking light's "holiday cookbook," and i love it.  here's what you do:

1. preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. cut up a head of cauliflower into bite sized pieces.  put in a 13x9 inch pan and toss with one glug (i am channeling jamie oliver right now) of olive oil.  put in the oven for 20 minutes, checking every 5-8 minutes to toss the cauliflower around.
3. add 2 cloves of chopped garlic.  bake for 5 more minutes.  (things i have learned about garlic: it burns easily.  burned garlic = gross.  5 minutes really is enough.)  the recipe wants you to add parsley, thyme, and tarragon here, too.  i do not have these herbs.  so i do not add them.  it is still delicious.
4. take out of the oven.  while still hot, sprinkle with 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and a couple squirts of lemon juice from one of those real lemon bottles (i clearly don't have the energy to make fresh lemon juice.  once i only had real lime.  it was equally delicious) and salt and pepper.  toss.  eat.  be happy.

this is a magical recipe because it really isn't that much parmesan cheese, but it makes the cauliflower so much better.  and roasting the cauliflower in the oven makes them kind of crunchy.  and that makes me happy.

all alike endear'd

i have tivo, so normally i zoom through commercials, but this one caught my eye and i stopped and watched it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uBsV8wAEhw

i was sure that the text had to be a famous poem, but i'd never heard it before...a google search led me to:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20157

the audio in the commercial is believed to be an actual recording (on a wax cylinder) of walt whitman reading the poem in the late 1880s.  SO COOL.  best commercial i've seen in a long time - nice work, levi's! - gorgeous footage, it is patriotic without being saccharine-sweet, and it makes me so happy when commercials use poetry instead of some cheesy tag line.  i know they're trying to sell jeans, but they've created a piece of art in the process.  it's worth a watch!  i got equally giddy during an earlier season of "heroes" when they used the yeats poem "the second coming."  perhaps i'm not the typical television viewer, but i appreciate it when television producers realize that their viewers can handle something deep.

levi's is also using this poem in another ad:

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/waltwhitman/13290

the ad is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG8tqEUTlvs&feature=related

donate your dime

at the whole foods i go to in atlanta you get 10 cents back on your purchase for each reusable bag you bring - a nice perk, though it obviously isn't going to make or break the bank.  when i went to whole foods yesterday for yogurt and eggs and fresh ricotta (yum), the woman at the register asked me if i wanted to donate my dime to help farmers in georgia whose crops were hurt by the recent flooding.  of course!  what a kind idea.  (and it was a free dime anyway...)

so that's my public service announcement for today: go to whole foods!

fourth grade

on friday i visited the fourth grade at the school where my sister teaches in harlem.  i was only there for two hours, but i offer the following analysis:

1. in fourth grade there are a LOT of rules.  you have to sit and be VERY quiet.  i didn't even think they were being loud, but all of a sudden a teacher would say "boys and girls, i hear noise!" and everyone would become super silent.  this would not be possible in high school.

you also have to walk down the hall in two lines, boys in one and girls in the other, standing next to each other and in reverse height order.  ms. L says "walk to the exit sign and stop," and silently they do it.  then ms. L says "continue to the double doors and stop."  after probably eight "walk and stop"s, we arrived at the computer lab.  whew.  it kind of stressed me out.

2. it was friday, so it was time to award the star student of the week!  this week is was frank who won.  everyone crowded around and ms. L announced that frank was the student of the week, and it is only the third week of school, so this is a BIG DEAL.  ms. L said, "frank always does his homework, is kind to his classmates, and is excited about school," and the look on frank's face was like he had won the lottery.  pure joy.  all the other kids crowded around to look at the certificate, and frank was beaming.  i can just imagine him running up to his mom and showing her, and then the certificate going on the refrigerator.  things are so much less complicated in fourth grade.  this made frank's week.  for how many people does something that small bring so much joy?

3. becky team teaches this class with another teacher named linda.  every week linda and becky write a report for each student about their behavior, homework, and they are doing academically, and the kids take it home to show their parents.  linda speaks fluent spanish, so she writes the reports in spanish for the families whose parents don't speak english (maybe five out of the twenty kids in the class).  i was struck, when i noticed this, about how much of a difference that must make for those parents - to have someone whom they can communicate with at their child's school.  for people who say that everyone should have to learn english if they want to immigrate to the us, i say: ideally, sure.  but for those who haven't yet - for those who have other things that have taken priority - i'm happy that there are lindas in the world to make one aspect of their lives easier.

4. best quotes from the kids:
"she's pretty."  (she would be ME.  woo hoo!)
from one kid to another, about me and becky, "they have the same nose and hair."  um, sort of.
one kid to my sister: "is her last name L_______, too?" "yes." "whoa - two ms. L_________s!!!!"

5. after school gets out, the teacher walks all the kids to the exit and watches them all find their parents, because yes - in some places in america the moms and little siblings show up outside the school to walk their kids home.  SO CUTE.  street vendors know that this is happening, so outside the school doors, amongst the moms and kids, there are men selling grilled corn on the cob with parmesan cheese, sno cones, and cotton candy.  it just felt like such an important thing, this school - such an important part of the neighborhood.  this was the place to BE at 2:58pm on a friday.  becky informed me that some kids have permission from their parents to walk home instead of waiting for a parent to pick them up - can you imagine that?  a nine year old walking home alone through the streets of new york?  new yorkers are TOUGH.  even mini new yorkers.

90.

this is my grandma norma.

she is my dad's mom, born in minnesota in 1919.  she wanted to be a singer on broadway, but her mother wouldn't let her.  so she married my grandpa and became an english teacher.  she has four kids and nine grandchildren and she turned 90 this week.  except she has always counted her age differently than you are "supposed to," and so if you ask her she will say that she is 91 because she has entered her 91st year of life.  she loves birds and flowers and scrabble and she gets the new york times on sundays and it lasts her throughout the rest of the week.  she taught me things like how to file your nails and how to spell stationery (stationery, with an "e," is the paper you write letters on, while stationary, with an "a," is standing still.  she told me that you can remember this because letter and stationery both have "e"s in them.  and i still think of that every time i write the word).  her favorite story of me, which she tells me multiple times whenever i visit (or call) is from when i was little and she was living with us.  apparently i came into the kitchen where she was washing dishes and said "grandma, grandma, come quick!"  i took her out onto the porch and pointed to the moon and said "grandma, the moon is broken!"  when she tells this story she laughs and tells me how cute i was.

this weekend 15 of her family members sat around the dinner table with her to celebrate her birthday, coming from georgia, north carolina, new york, michigan, iowa, and california to connecticut to be with her (and with each other - boy do we like each other).  happy birthday, gram.  you've never used a computer and have no idea what a blog is.  so i won't try to explain it to you.  but happy birthday nonetheless.

lunchroom etiquette

lunchroom etiquette, as mutually agreed upon by me and my teacher-friends:

rule #1: once you put your plate down at a table, you must eat your lunch at that table, even if it becomes populated by people you dislike or have nothing to talk to.  if you put your cup and/or keys down at a table, you are also committed to that spot, even if you return to find a table full of people you don't want to sit with.
exception to rule #1: if you make a public announcement to the table that you are leaving and give a truthful reason, you may leave.  acceptable reasons: too much sports talk, too much fantasy sports talk, too much girl talk (if you are a boy), you aren't interested in talking politics.

rule #2: once you have finished your plate, you may get up and leave the table.  if you then get dessert or another drink, you may sit down at a different table to consume this.  forrest has also patented the "soup/appetizer move," wherein one gets soup, eats it at a table, and then moves tables when one gets up to get one's main course.

rule #3: if someone joins your table mid-meal and everyone else finishes eating, after apologizing all people may depart, leaving the one person on their own.  this one person may then get up from this table and join another table.


while these rules may seem excessive, we find them necessary to maintain order and decorum in our lunchroom.  if you break these rules, i will chastise you (a bit too loudly) in conversation with my tablemates.  you won't notice, though, because you will have moved tables.

on the 6 train

on the 6 train this afternoon, on my way to becky's school to meet her for lunch:

homeless woman, in a loud voice: "ladies and gentlemen, my husband and i are living at the blah blah shelter and need some money to get back on our feet.  can anyone spare some change?  i sure hope you all have a good day, and thank you."

she walks through the train.

i look down to avoid crazy person eye contact.  my assumption is that homeless people on subway cars are crazy.  particularly ones who command the attention of the whole car and ask for money.

there is a little girl sitting with her dad on the bench across from me.  she is wearing a pink "pirates of the caribbean" tshirt, has a disney princesses sweatshirt, and is wearing disney princesses shoes.  she appears to be 5 or 6.  she shoves her whole arm into her pocket, as little kids do, rummages around, pulls out a quarter, and says "dad, can i?"  he nods, and she stands up and puts the quarter in the homeless woman's bag as she passes by.  it was the tenderest moment, and i couldn't help thinking how much more that quarter must have meant to the girl than it would to me.  and yet she gave it without hesitation.

the only other person to give the woman money is a man missing the top knuckle on the first finger of his right hand.  he drops his book as he gives her the quarter.  "this is all i've got - i'm sorry - it's really all i've got," she says as he gives her the money and picks up his book.

i can't help but wonder if it's a coincidence that the only adult to give her money is missing part of his finger, or if missing part of his finger gives him some better understanding of this woman's pain.  or if i'm reading too much into it.

shake shack

i'm in new york visiting becky for a day before we both go to connecticut for my grandma's 90th birthday party (more on that later).  becky has THE CUTEST new apartment that is probably three times the size of her old apartment, but that is neither here nor there for this post.  last night beck and i went to shake shack for dinner, and if you are ever in new york you must make shake shack a stop on your culinary tour of this city.  their website is here: http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/  their vegetarian burger is a cheese stuffed portobello mushroom, which is then deep fried (so the cheese is all melty and oozy when you bite into it) and put on a bun with lettuce and tomato.  i have never had a veggie burger like this before, and it is heaven.  there are several shake shack locations in new york, and the last time i visited we went to one that was an actual shack (sort of) in madison square park - you waited in a realllllly long (but worth it) line, ordered at a window, and ate outside.  the shake shack we went to last night was more like a restaurant, with indoor seating and the like...and because we ate a little later (8pm-ish), there was virtually no line.  oh, it was delicious.

becky is at work (she teaches 4th grade in the new york public schools), and i have been given step by step directions of how to take the subway to her school so i can have lunch with her and meet her kids.  i will be taking the 6 train at one point, much like jenny from the block (aka j-lo).  (please don't be fooled by the rocks that i've got.)

this post brought to you by the letter G

Today I'm sitting in my office, minding my own business, and my work friend Willis* comes in holding a Tervis Tumbler he has just purchased from our school bookstore.**  He'd apparently lost or misplaced his old Tervis Tumbler, and I agree - once you own one of these things, you can NOT go without.  It keeps your water so cold!  And thus, you drink more water.  Willis holds up the cup and says, "Claire, they didn't have one with a W on it (for Willis).  This is the only one they had that appealed to me.  And they were having a sale.  I got 30% off."  And anyone who knows Willis knows that he loves a good sale.  His tervis tumbler has a capital G in it. 

Fact: Willis came out of the closet four years ago.
Fact: This was not a surprise to anyone.
Fact: G is for Gay.

I was then told that the bookstore manager said, "Willis, what does the G stand for?" And Willis said, "G is for Great!"

Meanwhile, we both know that G is NOT for Great.

Willis will be walking around our school with a G Tervis Tumbler.  As if his Greatness wasn't apparent enough as it is.


*Name changed to protect the innocent.

**Our school bookstore is OUT OF CONTROL.  It sells books and school supplies, yes, but it also sells fancy soaps, jams, fancy serving plates, Hobo wallets, fancy lotions, and Vera Bradley merchandise.  I have heard that our school bookstore is the number one seller of Vera Bradley merchandise in the Southeast.  I don't know if I totally believe this, but it is NOT out of the question.  If you want to spend money, come to our school and spend 10 minutes in the bookstore.