Saturday, August 30, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
texas musings
things i had never heard of before moving to texas?
farm to market roads - abbreviated FM roads. these are secondary roads off of larger highways, and i love the name, because it tells you exactly what they were used for. they are everywhere.
charro beans, which i don't order because i have assumed (and now confirmed) that they are stewed with bacon. every mexican restaurant in texas that is worthy of its name has them as a side item, and they were served in our school cafeteria today.
ice houses (this article gives some information on how ice houses evolved in texas, and the one they reference is just down the street from me!), which are awesome open-air bars where you shouldn't order wine or a cocktail - it's a BEER place. my local ice house has picnic tables and a basketball hoop and a ping pong table and a few outdoor TVs; people bring their dogs and their kids and buy tacos from the taco truck across the street. it's a casual drinking spot for people from all walks of life, and i love it.
i may only have a short window left to remember all these unique texas things before they start to seem normal and i forget how different some aspects of houston are from any other place i've lived. i now can sing along (and know when to clap!) when "deep in the heart of texas" is played, so i've clearly made some progress since moving here!
farm to market roads - abbreviated FM roads. these are secondary roads off of larger highways, and i love the name, because it tells you exactly what they were used for. they are everywhere.
charro beans, which i don't order because i have assumed (and now confirmed) that they are stewed with bacon. every mexican restaurant in texas that is worthy of its name has them as a side item, and they were served in our school cafeteria today.
ice houses (this article gives some information on how ice houses evolved in texas, and the one they reference is just down the street from me!), which are awesome open-air bars where you shouldn't order wine or a cocktail - it's a BEER place. my local ice house has picnic tables and a basketball hoop and a ping pong table and a few outdoor TVs; people bring their dogs and their kids and buy tacos from the taco truck across the street. it's a casual drinking spot for people from all walks of life, and i love it.
i may only have a short window left to remember all these unique texas things before they start to seem normal and i forget how different some aspects of houston are from any other place i've lived. i now can sing along (and know when to clap!) when "deep in the heart of texas" is played, so i've clearly made some progress since moving here!
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
eyebrows, why
i found this article super interesting. let me say that the best $8 i spend every month is for a digital subscription to the new york times (discounted because i am a teacher yessssss). they have a relatively new app called NYT Now, which in addition to linking you to lots of great new york times stories, links you to awesome stories that the editors like from OTHER websites. i have read so many fantastic articles this way - it is like having a smart, awesome friend email you links to stories you should read - and they have a very easy "save" feature so you can peruse headlines with one eye open as you're waking up, but read them at some later date. everyone should get a subscription. huge props to the people running the new york times mobile app.
i found this article super interesting. let me say that the best $8 i spend every month is for a digital subscription to the new york times (discounted because i am a teacher yessssss). they have a relatively new app called NYT Now, which in addition to linking you to lots of great new york times stories, links you to awesome stories that the editors like from OTHER websites. i have read so many fantastic articles this way - it is like having a smart, awesome friend email you links to stories you should read - and they have a very easy "save" feature so you can peruse headlines with one eye open as you're waking up, but read them at some later date. everyone should get a subscription. huge props to the people running the new york times mobile app.
Monday, August 25, 2014
what i'm listening to right now
"last love song," by zz ward:
her voice at the beginning of this song has a very old-timey-music vibe, and i love that.
i do not know all the words, but that does not stop me from singing what i can at top volume when this comes on the radio.
her voice at the beginning of this song has a very old-timey-music vibe, and i love that.
i do not know all the words, but that does not stop me from singing what i can at top volume when this comes on the radio.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
cautionary cat lady tale
Don't attempt to rescue the kitten who is meowing pitifully at school while you are there opening the doors for an event. In addition to making you abandon your post where you are checking kids in, the kitten will be feral and it will bite you. Then instead of going to yoga, which you are dressed for, you will go to the ER, where the doctor will tell you that there has not been a reported case of rabies in Harris County in 40 years, but you need to get a tetanus shot and the first in a series of four rabies shots anyway. Since you don't want to die you decide that you are okay with this. You will also ponder (a) how it is possible that every doctor in the ER is attractive enough to be on Grey's Anatomy (seriously. it was awesome.) and (b) how much this visit could possibly be costing you. Then a 22 year old guy will get put in the bed next to you. Because there is zero privacy in the ER, you will find out without trying that he lives 90 miles away and accidentally (?) got shot in the abdomen last week and was life flighted in and had two surgeries and oh, yes, there are the entry and exit wounds being uncovered in front of you, and now he has a fever and they are running more tests and HE HAS NO INSURANCE. And you will stop worrying about what this is costing you and focus on the fact that modern medicine is preventing you from getting a fatal disease that you most certainly don't have to begin with, and thank goodness you have a good job and health insurance and weren't shot in the abdomen last week.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
my 14-hour search for the end of TGI Friday's endless appetizers
i might have laughed so hard while reading this in bed that ruby had to give me a mean look and hop off the bed to sleep in peace. i want to be friends with the girl who wrote this.
i might have laughed so hard while reading this in bed that ruby had to give me a mean look and hop off the bed to sleep in peace. i want to be friends with the girl who wrote this.
On my very first day of teaching, in New Hampshire in 2004, I was in the copy room before my first class started and I was apparently looking a little nervous. A veteran teacher, close to retirement, grey-haired and slightly hunch-backed, leaned over to me and said, "I still get nervous on the first day of school, too." His words were calming.
Tomorrow I begin my 10th year of teaching. I'm a lot less nervous, but the nerves haven't gone away entirely. I'm also so excited to welcome 18 kiddos into my government classroom!
I feel incredibly lucky to have had some great teachers and mentors and coworkers and students along the way that have made this job into a career that I love. Hooray for 10 years!
Monday, August 18, 2014
file this under "things i didn't know about before moving to texas": hatch chiles. they are from new mexico and they are in season right now, which means they are everywhere. grocery stores have huge hatch chile displays (and one grocery store chain has a hatch chile festival), and today i bought hatch chile cheddar cheese (it is, as you won't be surprised to hear, DELICIOUS - a little spice, but nothing crazy). i love tasting all these new southwest flavors!
what i'm listening to right now
from the secret life of walter mitty soundtrack, which kate gave me a copy of after it was on in her car and i kept saying "i love this song!": "stay alive," by jose gonzalez:
Thursday, August 14, 2014
a Ruby a day
Morning snuggles with Ruby, aka my furry scarf. (This kitty will only snuggle on her terms, but she is a professional cuddler when she wants to be.) You may not be able to tell from this photo, but her diet is working. She is down from 10.0 to 9.8 pounds. Woo hoo!
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
what i'm listening to right now
"see the world," by gomez:
i love the beat of this; it's hard not to want to dance to this song!
i love the beat of this; it's hard not to want to dance to this song!
Sunday, August 10, 2014
I love Chicago!
…when it is 75 degrees and sunny, and I am with good friends who plan fun things! So maybe I only love Chicago on August 9th.
[Not pictured: Melanie (the hostess with the mostess) and her husband Pat (who made me the best breakfast burrito of my life), Grant Park, live blues music at noon, live jazz music at 2am, beers, Chicago-style pizza, Garrett's Chicago mix popcorn (caramel and cheddar together in the same bag - genius!), my joy at the temperature and humidity levels.]
Friday, August 8, 2014
a photo a day
An hour delay for lightening storms wasn't so fun, but the resulting sunset I saw from the plane was incredible. I know sunset pictures are annoying because sunsets are always better in person, but you're getting one anyway!
Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
july: 15, 16, 17, 18, & 19
july has traditionally been a prolific month for me in this book challenge, and this july did not disappoint! i'm a little behind my pace from last year, but this helped me catch up a bit. i read four nonfiction books this month, which hasn't been the norm for me - this month i read:
outliers, by malcolm gladwell (this is the all-school summer reading for the school where i work, and the only major gladwell book i HADN'T read, so it was a good excuse to get a free copy and read it. a lot of gladwell's most famous stories are here - the 10,000 hours needed to become an expert and why NHL players are all born in january - but there's definitely more here than that. it was a quick read, and a good one! if you're somehow a person on this planet who hasn't read something by malcolm gladwell, you should definitely correct that. pronto.)
blood done sign my name, by timothy tyson (an amazing memoir-history; the author grew up in a small town in north carolina, and was a child when a black man was killed in public by a white man (for making a comment to the white man's wife), and the white man was found not guilty of the murder. this was not in the early 1900s but in 1970. the book is a retelling of the crime and the trial, but also the history of the small town in north carolina and a look at the role of religion in the civil rights movement (the author's father was a progressive methodist minister in the town). fascinating read, and it complicates our understanding of the history of the civil rights movement. i can't recommend it highly enough. i cried reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book. THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. who am i?)
as i lay dying, by william faulkner (a re-read - i took a faulkner course in college and this was one of my favorites from that class. when re-reading my college copy, i was impressed by all my margin notes, and enjoyed the story and faulkner's writing style the second time around. in high school i imagined faulkner to be IMPOSSIBLE TO READ, but an instructor in the 20th century american lit class i took at duke put a faulkner book in the syllabus, and i loved it. that led me to take the semester-of-faulkner and enjoy the class immensely. this is one of those IMPORTANT AMERICAN AUTHORS that SMART PEOPLE LOVE who is, in fact, worth loving.)
the warmth of other suns, by isabel wilkerson (i listened to the audiobook of this one, which is (wait for it) 19 CDs long. it took weeks of driving around town and two long road trips to make it through the book. my aunt monica recommended this book to me: it's the story of the great migration, interwoven with the oral histories of three people who participated in the great migration - one in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, and one in the 1950s…one to new york, one to chicago, one to LA…one who became a doctor, one who worked for the railroad, one who worked in a factory - three lives to symbolize the various experiences that blacks had of the great migration. a plus, the audiobook narrator on this book did a great job (she did great voices for each of the characters, none of them cheesy), which is crucial. a long book, but very worth reading!)
how children succeed, by paul tough (my office at work selected this as our office summer reading, so i dutifully read it. the book is a little more targeted towards people who work with low income students, but there were some important take aways that will translate to our work with mostly privileged kids, too. a lot of the book was a review of grad school: carol dweck's work on fixed vs. malleable intelligence, the KIPP/riverside character report card. thank you, grad school, for giving me a basis of educational theory!)
outliers, by malcolm gladwell (this is the all-school summer reading for the school where i work, and the only major gladwell book i HADN'T read, so it was a good excuse to get a free copy and read it. a lot of gladwell's most famous stories are here - the 10,000 hours needed to become an expert and why NHL players are all born in january - but there's definitely more here than that. it was a quick read, and a good one! if you're somehow a person on this planet who hasn't read something by malcolm gladwell, you should definitely correct that. pronto.)
blood done sign my name, by timothy tyson (an amazing memoir-history; the author grew up in a small town in north carolina, and was a child when a black man was killed in public by a white man (for making a comment to the white man's wife), and the white man was found not guilty of the murder. this was not in the early 1900s but in 1970. the book is a retelling of the crime and the trial, but also the history of the small town in north carolina and a look at the role of religion in the civil rights movement (the author's father was a progressive methodist minister in the town). fascinating read, and it complicates our understanding of the history of the civil rights movement. i can't recommend it highly enough. i cried reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book. THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. who am i?)
as i lay dying, by william faulkner (a re-read - i took a faulkner course in college and this was one of my favorites from that class. when re-reading my college copy, i was impressed by all my margin notes, and enjoyed the story and faulkner's writing style the second time around. in high school i imagined faulkner to be IMPOSSIBLE TO READ, but an instructor in the 20th century american lit class i took at duke put a faulkner book in the syllabus, and i loved it. that led me to take the semester-of-faulkner and enjoy the class immensely. this is one of those IMPORTANT AMERICAN AUTHORS that SMART PEOPLE LOVE who is, in fact, worth loving.)
the warmth of other suns, by isabel wilkerson (i listened to the audiobook of this one, which is (wait for it) 19 CDs long. it took weeks of driving around town and two long road trips to make it through the book. my aunt monica recommended this book to me: it's the story of the great migration, interwoven with the oral histories of three people who participated in the great migration - one in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, and one in the 1950s…one to new york, one to chicago, one to LA…one who became a doctor, one who worked for the railroad, one who worked in a factory - three lives to symbolize the various experiences that blacks had of the great migration. a plus, the audiobook narrator on this book did a great job (she did great voices for each of the characters, none of them cheesy), which is crucial. a long book, but very worth reading!)
how children succeed, by paul tough (my office at work selected this as our office summer reading, so i dutifully read it. the book is a little more targeted towards people who work with low income students, but there were some important take aways that will translate to our work with mostly privileged kids, too. a lot of the book was a review of grad school: carol dweck's work on fixed vs. malleable intelligence, the KIPP/riverside character report card. thank you, grad school, for giving me a basis of educational theory!)
Monday, August 4, 2014
what i'm listening to right now
"everything green," by christine kane (courtesy of a perfect mixed cd that colin made me!):
Sunday, August 3, 2014
a year ago today
a year ago today, i got my first look at ruby.
and she got her first look at me.
ruby purred loudly from the moment she was brought into the get-to-know-you room at the animal shelter. and honestly? that's what got me. i knew she was coming home with me.
it is still easy to get ruby to purr, and if anything she's cuter than she was as an 8 week old kitten (she's grown into those ears, for one thing). she meets me at the door when i get home from work. she is eager to remind me when it is meal time. at night she jumps onto my bed once the light is turned off, and she curls up to sleep in the space behind my knees.
i love my little ruby girl; she adds more to my life than i think i could possibly add to hers. she is a wonderful addition to my little world.
everyone should go out and get a cat.
and she got her first look at me.
ruby purred loudly from the moment she was brought into the get-to-know-you room at the animal shelter. and honestly? that's what got me. i knew she was coming home with me.
it is still easy to get ruby to purr, and if anything she's cuter than she was as an 8 week old kitten (she's grown into those ears, for one thing). she meets me at the door when i get home from work. she is eager to remind me when it is meal time. at night she jumps onto my bed once the light is turned off, and she curls up to sleep in the space behind my knees.
i love my little ruby girl; she adds more to my life than i think i could possibly add to hers. she is a wonderful addition to my little world.
everyone should go out and get a cat.
a Ruby a day
82 degrees in the middle of an August day...in Houston?!? We had to celebrate the unseasonably awesome weather (yes, I now consider 80 to be cool) with some time on the balcony! All week the highs have been in the mid-90s with heat indexes in the 105 range. Lame.
If you need Ruby she will be plotting the demise of every bird in sight.
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