Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Okay, I only have a minute here, but I'm facing some interesting changes. First, I had a class that was two periods long, and we were really hitting a wall every day, about twenty minutes into the second class, where they were just no longer interested in learning. I talked to another teacher and he agreed to swap classes with me, so I'm getting a whole new group of students and cutting my time with the old ones by half. Our hope is that because they get to change classrooms and teachers, they'll be more likely to pay attention longer. Another benefit is that we get to split up the curriculum somewhat, so he teaches grammar and writing and I teach lit and reading comprehension. It's an interesting experiment.

The other change is that I'm going to try a new form of exercise -- capoeira, a Brazilian martial art/dance. I'm not giving up ballet, this will be in addition to it, but speaking of hitting walls, I'm still improving in ballet and I still have a long way to go, but I'm not sure I'm getting the kind of well-rounded workouts I need. Like, I'm not gaining much arm strength, and although there's some cardiovascular, there's not as much as I suspect there will be in capoeira. Whoops, there's the bell!

Bye now.

Saturday fun

I had a great day today with Monkeygirl. We went to Harbin Hot Springs. I'll have to tell you the stories, like "Do you know Ishvarra?" But since I'm about to go to bed, all I'll tell you is that it's awesome to hang out with friends with whom you can talk for like ten hours straight. Old friends rule. --CM

Ruminations on another woman's breasts

Okay, a few weeks ago I noticed in my ballet class that one of V's breasts was significantly smaller than another. I didn't want to stare, but when I glanced again later, I thought perhaps she'd had a mastectomy. Then I felt bad for looking/thinking about it, so I didn't look anymore. I did, however, note that I'd had classes with this woman for months without ever noticing before.

Then the next week, I happened to look again and I thought: wait a minute -- when they do a mastectomy, don't they take almost everything? She actually still had about a B cup in there, although the other one was a C+/D. I thought maybe I was wrong, and it was just a naturally occuring difference. Then I vacillated and thought that maybe she HAD had a mastectomy, and had one of those gel inserts. But why wouldn't they make the insert the same size?

Last week I noticed that it (the right one) was also a lot higher than the other -- it was fuller toward the top, like it was mooshed upwards somewhat. Could it, I wondered, simply be a bra adjustment issue? I know that when I had big boobs I had to do some adjusting and repacking to make sure they were pointing the right way and all. I looked a little more purposefully, trying to determine whether it was just packed wrong. It could happen, especially if you had one hand more dominant than they other and you always put your bra on the same way . . . Could it be that she just always did it the same way and one always rode higher than the other? Was it compounded by a natural size difference? I just don't know.

This week I noticed that is definitely still higher and smaller. I can't figure it out -- it's a bigger difference than most naturally occuring differences, but if there's a packing issue involved, it could be. Or can you have a partial mastectomy? Maybe they removed half of her breast. Maybe they did remove all of it, and gave her an inadequate gel insert. I just don't know, I can't figure it out on my own, and I certainly don't want to ask her. I feel like a bad person even thinking about it, but I can't help it! I'm obsessed now! Geez.

Altoids and cats and steel wool, not all together.

Dude! They have finally released the first vegetarian Altoids! I can have Altoids again after 15 freakin' years! Like, the last time I bought Altoids, the only place you could find them was at import stores like Cost Plus. Anyway, the mini-version has no beef gelatin at all. I have been pepperminty since my Target visit last night!

So, why does my cat have to obsessively do one of the things I hate most in life? I am not crazy about the sound of emery boards. I also hate things touching my teeth, like forks. The idea of combining the two, emery boards touching my teeth, is so vile and horrific that I actually shudder and have nightmares about it. I've been known to gag a little. So why does my cat, if I don't keep the emery boards locked away in a cabinet, always find them and begin chewing on them, loudly, right in front of me? I saw her doing it earlier, shrieked, and grabbed the thing out of her mouth. Jesus, yuck! It's like she knows it drives me batty so she must find a way to do it. Blech.

Sort of on the same topic, I don't really like steel wool. I don't like touching it, and I certainly don't want to have to be in prolonged contact with it. Guitargirl sent me this list of helpful "Heloise"-like tips earlier, and one of them was to cut your steel wool pads (actually she was suggesting the brand-name SOS pads) with scissors to make them last longer. Are you kidding? CUT STEEL WOOL WITH SCISSORS?!?!?!?! Sure, why don't I just use a cheese grater on my head after that? Then we can all chew on some emery boards! And maybe rub sand on our eyes. Fucking household hint masochist! I will not join your cult of the thrifty!

By the way, I know I used too many, but the question-mark-exclamation-point I used earlier? That's called an interrobang. Cool, huh? ?! Interrobang ?! Interrobang! INTERROBANG!!!!! IN-TERR-O-BANG!

A variety of subjects

Recycling man, why do you hate me? I put my recycling in the street on time, but not too early. I put it in the street rather than the gutter. I try to keep it away from the trash can so you can get your pick-up-device around it. I do my best not to contaminate my recyclables with food waste. So why oh why do you, every week, put my recycling bin in the street right in the middle of my driveway so that I have to stop my car in the street, get out, move the bin back, then get back in the car to park? Why?

I'm indulging in just a little bit of self-hatred lately because I feel like I've been trying really hard to lose weight and eat healthily, but not only am I not losing, I'm gaining! Listen, I have reduced my junk food, I'm eating more veggies and fruits, I've upped my exercise, what the hell, dude? I'm kind of pissed about it.

I'm home in the middle of the day today because I attended an off-campus meeting all morning, and am going back for an after-school meeting at 1:15, but I decided not to go teach half of one class -- even if it's not going well with the sub, it would only get worse if I interrupted halfway through.
I actually learned a lot at today's meeting. Some of that stuff about API scores and AYP scores and No Child Left Behind can be really incomprehensible. Today's presenter really laid it out clearly. Sadly, I was right about one thing I was hoping I was wrong about -- the best way to meet our goals in one category is to reduce the number of students in the special ed program. Sad, huh? They force us to test students who, by definition, can't meet the goals of the test, then punish us when they don't. So how do we not get punished? Stop serving those kids.
There's good news though. There's this "Safe Harbor" clause. The short story is, even if you don't hit your target, if you have improved by a certain (lower) number of percentage points, you can still meet your AYP goal. I disagree with our principal on this issue, though. He doesn't want to tell the staff this, because he wants them to shoot for the higher goal. Which makes sense, except that the higher goal is damn near unattainable. My theory is, tell them that it IS possible to reach our goal so that they're inspired to work for it. Otherwise, they might think "Well, I'll try (heavy sigh) but since we'll never make it anyway . . ."

An interesting piece of news for folks not in the biz -- you've heard how crappy California is doing education-wise, right? Well, in part it's a statistics game. Compare California to Texas, for example: Texas has a way higher percentage of students scoring "proficient" than California does. That means they're doing a better job, right? Wrong. Each state sets its own standards, and California's are a lot more rigorous than Texas'. For example, in each content area (math is a content area), Texas has about 6 standards. California has 30-40 per content area. Also, Texas has more students scoring in the "proficient" range. But they define "proficient" differently than California does. There are five categories kids can fall into -- Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic. CA counts only the top two categories as proficient. Texas counts the top three. And finally, Texas' tests are just easier. You can look it up yourself online. There are sample questions from real tests on each state's department of ed web site. Compare the test questions at each grade level. Anyway, when you start looking at the real information behind the numbers, it's totally comparing apples and oranges to say that Texas has more proficient kids. If in my class, I set the goal for a standing long jump at 12 inches and another teacher sets hers at 5 feet, well no damn wonder that 100% of my kids are meeting the goals and only 30% of hers are. It doesn't mean I'm doing a better job.

I guess that's about it. I would have sworn I had something else interesting to say, but it has completeley slipped away.

Just a short one today

I contacted my representatives in congress to ask them to vote against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales, you know, the "Geneva conventions are quaint" guy? The "torture is legal" guy? Anyway, Californians, here's how:

Barbara Boxer

Dianne Feinstein

Non-Californians, look up your representatives and write to them.

That's all. Oh, and for every piece of good news, I guess there's bad news to balance it out -- another student, a new one who I REALLY liked and cared about, is hospitalized and will not be coming back to school due to her extremely f-ed up living situation. Life is a series of ups and downs, I guess. Too bad for her they've been mostly downs lately.

--CM

Got a hug today

from one of those "hard cases." A new girl with a major chip on her shoulder. I pulled her out of class last week and said "listen, I'm not mad at you, I'm not yelling at you, I'm here to find out why you're so angry." And she told me. And she had a right to be angry. I asked her if she wanted me to refer her for counseling, and she wasn't sure. Apparently I was the first person she'd felt comfortable talking to in a while. I said she could come talk to me anytime, but that I knew someone in our Healthy Start program that I thought she might like, and then I asked the HS woman to personally handle this young lady, rather than delegating her to someone else. I also promised the student that if she didn't feel comfortable with the HS woman that she didn't have to stay and could walk right out. I made sure HS knew that, too. Anyway, the student came up today with a big smile, hugged me, and thanked me. Apparently, it went well. There are some big rewards to this job sometimes.

Boys vs. girls

So, we've been having some gender issues lately.

#1 -- I say we need a bedskirt for the new big bed. Piggs says he doesn't know why. I say we have to cover up the ugly box springs. Piggs still doesn't understand. I buy a bedskirt.

#2 -- I say, can you find a textile to cover the coffe table? He says, like a round one? I say no, a square one to match our coffee table. He says, our coffee table isn't round? I say no. He says, was the one before it round? I say no. I describe the black varnished rectangular, mirrored-top table (my friends called it the coke table) we had before. He looks confused.

#3 -- I have a weed that keeps coming back in the garden that causes me to break out in welts. Due to a pencil drawing I saw recently, I suspect it might be stinging nettle. I think that to find out for sure, I should do some research and look online at more pictures. Piggs suggests that I touch it to his ankle. When it doesn't sting his ankle sufficiently, he rubs the whole boquet against his arm and pronounces "yep, it's stinging nettle." The welts went down after applying cortisone cream.

That's all of that. I went to ballet today and then to Macy's to buy bedding for the big bed. I also stopped at the Benefit counter to buy some cosmetics. (I had a very alliterative day, ballet, bedding, Benefit . . .) Anyway, the girls there always put a bunch of makeup on me then tell me how awesome I look, and so I buy shiny pretty things from them. Today I bought a lipstick, two liners, a penny-colored sparkly powder and a face wash. Sheesh. But the lipstick is a really pretty color. The Benefit lady pronounced it my "new red."

We went to sushi tonight later than usual and there was quite a crowd. We didn't get to sit in the prime sushi-watching area, and we had a hard time getting the waitress to pay attention to us, too. On the bright side, we were kind of in the owner's flight path, so he shared his observation about two teenage twin boys in a booth nearby and their likeness to Matt Damon.

I gardened this morning, and I can figure out how weeds get around, but I can't really figure out how garbage keeps getting into my yard. My front yard gets garbage, of course, because it's a path to and from school for a high school and an elementary school, but the back yard? It's enclosed by a fence on all sides. So why is there a Nestle Crunch wrapper in my garden? By the way, I was ho-ing (heh) and the ballet class must really be using my abs, either that or the coughing, because they were screaming at me with every stroke of the ho (heh).

I'm planning on going dancing tonight. My high school buddy is in town and is throwing a big bash at a club. Guitargirl and I should be communicating soon about what time we plan to go. I'm looking forward to it because I haven't seen him in a long time, but I'm also (as always these days) tired, so I don't want to close the place or anything. Okay, I thought I had something interesting to say, but I guess not. Bye.

Random stuff

Now that I started Count Broccula, I've been posting somewhat less on here. I didn't mean for it to go that way. Not much is going on around the vicinity of my life, though. I've been working, going to ballet, getting the Gynas CD together . . . I really need to garden a little and clean up around the house a bit. I asked Piggs if he could find a textile to put on the coffee table, and we dug through his trunk and found a cool one. It's just the right size and looks nice in there. I washed another one that he had on his desk, and I need to get some candle wax off it, then we can try that one on the table, too. It's really neat that he has so much art and so many antiques. I'm just thrilled to have some original art from some of my artist friends and stained glass from my dad. I don't have many antiques (my kitchen table is one exception), because my family just acquired taste last generation, and that's only on one side. I'm being unneccecarily mean, actually -- my great grandparents had some cool stuff, some of which my mom has. Okay, gotta look something up from NPR. --CM

Demo CD is done!

Hey, the Gynas just put together 60 demo CDs. They are beautiful, and live, and they rule. I'm SO excited. I brought home four of them, and I kind of want to just give them all away for free. Really shouldn't though. Anyway, they look professional and everything. Yeehaa! CDs!!!

Still giggling 16 hours later . . .

Okay, I figured out the name of my new cooking blog: Count Broccula.


I haven't really put anything on it yet, but I will. Oh yes, I will.

Mwah haha hahahahahaha!

Experiment #1: Success

Well, I joined Full Belly Farm, a CSA (community supported agriculture) program, where you pay in advance, then once a week, pick up a box of veggies. Since I love experimenting culinarily, I thought this would be fun (I did it once before a few years ago, but I was in school and working and hardly ever had time to cook). Anyway, today's box included carrots, oranges, onions, cauliflower, salad mix, cabbage, celery root and joi choi. I had to look up celery root and joi choi to figure out what to do with them. Joi choi is basically like bok choi and celery root is a starchy, somewhat bland root vegetable. So here's what I did:

Cauliflower curry -- I diced up and onion and sauteed it in olive oil. Then I added the head of cauliflower, busted up into florets. I also added two sliced carrots. I put in about a teaspoon each of minced garlic and minced ginger. When the cauliflower was browned and getting soft, I added a tablespoon of Thai Tom Yum paste (sorry, didn't have any Thai curry). Then I added about 1/3 cup yogurt mixed with 1/3 cup water, mixed it all up good, lowered the heat to medium and put the lid on. After another ten minutes or so I had a curry that Piggs pronounced "good."

Joi choi -- I just chopped it up, leaves and stems, and stir-fried it in a little olive oil, seasoned with some red chili flakes and soy sauce.

Celery root -- I decided to experiment with the smaller of the two. I peeled the thing and sliced one half very thinly (with a mandoline, I'm not really very good with knives). Then I heated the oven to 425, threw the slices on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam, salted and peppered them, and put them in for ten minutes, then took them out, flipped them over, and did another 7 minutes or so. They were good, but next time I'll be more careful with the salt -- I sort of over-salted them with sea salt, thinking that it would mostly fall off, but it didn't.
I grated the other half, and on the advice of a web site, put some lemon juice and salt on it, then let it sit for about ten minutes. Then I rinsed it off, drained it well, and put a vinaigrette on it. I made the dressing with a little sesame oil, cider vinegar, and wasabi mustard. I liked it. It was kind of like an asian slaw.

I served all this with rice. I would probably have used brown if I was just cooking for me, but Piggs loves his white rice. Overall, I would say this was a very successful experiment so far, and I still have the cabbage, several carrots, another celery root, another onion, and some oranges. A soup may be in my future . . . and probably more celery root chips.

Thanks to Jack Bishop, whose cookbooks I consulted for ideas and inspirations. I'm sort of considering starting another blog just for my cooking junk. If I do, I'll let you know. --CM

Well, we had a good time anyway . . .

Friday afternoon, we race out of town so we can get to Santa Cruz in time for dinner. We make just one pit stop in Fremont, and check into the motel a little before 7. We pretty much drop our stuff and go out for dinner. Piggs says he noticed a place that said Thai noodles, so we go there. He laughs at the sign that says they have an “arsenal” of spices, and we sit down to order. We got pretty decent spring rolls, but that was the end of the good news for this meal. I don’t know what happened to the arsenal, but you know how usually Thai places liberally use ginger, garlic, lemongrass, peppers . . .? Apparently, this Thai place has never heard of those. I tasted a tiny bit of his pad thai and didn’t want any more, and basically fished the vegetables out of my “curry” (apparently a code word for “broth” here). Piggs was still hungry afterwards, so we went to 7-11 and he got a Slurpee and Milk Duds. Mmm. I had a Pacific Cookie Company cookie, and it’s a good thing I did, because I LOVE them, and we didn’t get any others while we were there. Then we enjoyed cable and crashed.

Well, sort of crashed. See, I woke up every 45 minutes with a massive coughing fit. Which, naturally, also meant Piggs woke up every 45 minutes. And don’t think I was skimping on the Robitussin or something. No, in fact I took way more than the recommended dosage, but the Tussin let me down. So we were both sort of tired on . . .

Saturday. We woke up early and went to Coffeetopia for bagels and coffee, then went straight to Natural Bridges beach. It had been cold the night before, so I anticipated that the weather in SC would be rather like it was at home, but actually, it was warmer. In fact, even though we’ve been in warmer times of the year, it was downright pleasant on the beach, whereas in the past it has been wondy and cold sometimes. We passed a couple hours walking around in the waves (him) and reading on a blanket (me). I also walked around barefoot for a while and he joined me on the blanket for a while. When we were both satisfied (and a little hungry) we picked up and went downtown, where we got some coffee, shopped a little, then ate middle eastern food for lunch. I power shopped for an hour or so, and although I had some extra money and genuinely was ready to spend it, I couldn’t find anything worth spending it on. I found several cute tops and dresses, but they were all $280 and a size 2. I ended up with only a couple cards, a book, and Valentine’s day socks for me, Mom and monkeygirl. Thank you Santa Cruz Sockshop and Shoe Company. When I met up again with Piggs, he had bought me a Wonder Woman light switch plate! Cool. We then went and rested in the motel for a while. That night for dinner I talked Piggs into going to Saturn Cafe, a vegetarian place that masquerades as a burger joint. I love the food, but understand why Piggs gets a little itchy in there -- it is chock full of people who look like they’re trying hard to live up to the MTV ideal. There are a lot of trucker hats, an insane number of Ugg boots, and all the petite little men had faux vintage clothes. I had the delicious “Western,” which is a boca burger with fakin’ bacon, barbecue sauce, and onion rings on it. Mmm. Then for dessert I had the Chocolate Madness (mini version) with ice cream, mousse, fudge sauce, brownies, whipped cream, and almonds. Oh lord, yes. Earlier that day I’d called my health care provider and asked how to get through the night. The answer was codeine, and the advice nurse asked me to find a nearby pharmacy she could call it in to. I found a nearby Rite-Aid, and she said to wait a couple hours, then go pick it up. So after dinner we went to Rite-Aid, but the pharmacy part was closed. So I bought NyQuil Cough, and it worked okay. I certainly woke up less offten, but I took a dose-and-a-half, then another full dose later in the night, and still coughed. So we were both sort of tired on . . .

Sunday. But we had woken up early enough to get a table easily at the Walnut St cafe. I had a delicious breakfast while Piggs had . . . bacon and fruit. His tummy has been off lately. Anyway, then we drove north on the Cabrillo highway until we got to Seal Point, where there’s a lighthouse, a museum, a hostel, and a nifty beach. We walked along the beach for a long time, checking out tidepools and picking up beach glass and shells and rocks. I got some good up-close looks at anemones and crabs, and Piggs got a good handful of these creepy transparent worms that could have easily gotten cast as “Creepy Skin Boring Worms” in an X-files episode. We saw some seals sunning, and even though it was technically whale season, we didn’t see any. It was another sunny, lovely day. We came back to town and got my prescription, then started heading for lunch. Incidentally, all along the Cabrillo Highway (a coastal highway, highway 1) there were people in shorts or wetsuits with surfboards and boogie boards hitting the water. It was a little odd to think that had we driven the same distance from home in the other direction, we’d be in ski country. California can be a little unnerving that way. Anyway, sweetie had noticed a place called “Sri,” a Sri Lankan restaurant. We headed for that. We figured it would be pretty much like Thai food, but in actuality it was a lot more like Indian. Still, it had a seperate and distinct flavor, too. Like the “papadums” that came with it -- in an Indian restaurant they’re round flat lentil wafers, but here they were more like big puffed rice Chex. Also, the curries tasted of coconut milk, but also had a mild, sweet flavor. The mint sauce that came with it was different than Indian, too, a little smokier and spicier, although in general the food was distinctly lacking in heat. The most interesting thing I had was the mango curry. I can’t say it was so amazingly wonderful that I’m going to crave it in the future, but I do enjoy trying new things, and I’ve never had anything like it before. It treated the mango as though it were a vegetable, hot and savory, with slivers of almond.

After lunch we went to the Boardwalk area, where we walked the length of the wharf, checked out some sea lions, and then hit the Boardwalk itself. Piggs played some video games (he rocked the Ms. Pac Man machine) and I had a caramel apple and played Skee Ball. I did average, winning ten tickets in three games, and bought a little parachuting alien toy with my winnings. Sweet. We walked the length of the Boardwalk, then headed back to the motel to rest a little again. Because I was still feeling kind of sick, we were resting rather more than usual. For dinner we went to Vasili’s Greek restaurant, where I had the vegetarian sampler (tiropita, spanikopita, rice, greek salad, dolmas) and Piggs had lamb. Then we chilled out at the motel again. I slept better, but I still think I woke Piggs up a couple times with a combo of coughing and snoring (I’m not a big snorer unless I’m stuffed up).

This morning we were up early again, but Piggs decided we should skip Scotty’s Cafe at the Sash Mill and just go to Coffeetopia again (which was fine with me). We ate and got out of town. Our first stop? Ikea. Oh, yeah. I spent $27 and got 16 packs of markers, six rolls of wrapping paper, eight eggs of curling ribbon, three pairs of scissors and two silicone pastry brushes. I’m totally not kidding. Then we bought two things of jam in the food area, but one of them was a casualty of unpacking. Then we went to Berkley, eating lunch at Long Life Veggie House, then walking around looking at stores and stuff. Piggs was quite successful, finding a book he liked, some clothes, and a couple other things. I wasn’t in quite the shopping mood I sometimes am, given that I was tired as hell and my feet were hurting. Then we headed home, and that’s pretty much that.

I wish I hadn’t been sick, but I still had a better time than I would have at home. In fact, given the weather and everything, it was a pretty good trip overall. I kind of wish I still had some friends in Santa Cruz whom I could call up and ask “Hey, where’s a good Thai place where you can order stuff Thai hot and really get it Thai hot?” I have two friends who live down there, but alas, they’re kind of wrapped up in newlywed nesting couple love, which means they can’t return your phone call to meet your ass for breakfast if you drive for three hours to their city. God bless them, I’m glad they’re happy.

Thus ends my 29th birthday celebration. Thanks to everyone who made it wonderful, particularly my sweetie, who made the trip possible.

I so rarely get sung to . . .

But it happened 4 times yesterday! First, when Monkeygirl called me and rushed through the birthday song (the general effect was that it sounded like "Happy Barbecue.")

Then my sweetie came home and had composed a multi-verse birthday rap, complete with human beat-box.

Then I got a long-distance call from Oregon with a large portion of sweetie's family also singing the birthday song.

Then, after dinner with pops, there was band practice, where the girls sang me their new "Who smelt it, dealt it" song in honor of my birthday.

All in all, a pretty good birthday for someone whose breathing sounds like a Volkswagon Vanagon.

Rant: My school library

Man, am I ever glad that I haven't identified which school I work at. 'Cause now I get to use the big anonymous format of the web to get real cranky about it.

So, we've got this money from an award, and we're decided how to spend it. In my small learning community, we suggested library books. I brought this idea to the table in a meeting with the principal, and his response was "More books. Do you mean, like in a particular subject?" No, I answered, just more books in general. I said that we have fewer books per student than most other schools in the district. He turns to his assistant and she agrees that we have approximately 4 books per student, whereas the average is 6 or 7. Well, if you believe this:

"The latest figure for the average number of school library books per K-12 student in California is 13.8. In 1986 the number reported per student was 10. Nationally, school libraries average 22 books per student."

then the situation at our campus is worse than we thought. Picture a school library as you remember them. Now take away all the bookshelves you have probably mentally placed in the middle of the room, and leave only one complete wall with books, and two partial walls with bookshelves. Now you've got our school library. And we say we want our students to read?

The last librarian we had was fantastic -- she started reading groups, campaigned for an outside reading area with tables, created a library committee, and (best of all, I think) threw out all the books that indicated we hadn't yet landed on the moon, or that listed MLK as (1/15/1929 to --). Which actually helped to decimate our collection, but with good reason. Some of the books were quite offensive, actually. I held on to one for a while that was called something like "Negro Stories." Anyway, she also did her best to replace them, which is not as easy as you might think. There's all kinds of red tape involved, so you can't just have people donate books or something. Anyway, having someone so dynamic for two years kind of spoiled me, and I have to admit that our new librarian would have big shoes to fill. But she also happens to have REALLY EXCEPTIONALLY TINY FEET. She just doesn't seem to like the kids much, for one. But what this is all leading up to, the big punchline here, was what she told me yesterday about my 2nd period class. See, they're not getting a lot done, and one of the reasons it that their behavior is pretty bad. I'll give you that. But the librarian's helpful suggestion yesterday was that I have "too many black kids" in the class. Wow. Well, I haven't thought of it that way before. And I hope I never do.

Hey, what are you doing home today!

Said my friend monkeygirl when she called earlier.

Well, we just got cable, so I decided to celebrate by staying home all day and watching it.

No, actually, I took the day off for my birthday.

Nope, not that either. Actually, it's still the effect of having Slimer from Ghostbusters living in my sinus cavity. I feel icky, and when I woke up this morning, just couldn't face six hours of eighth graders without even the ability to yell. So I squeaked my way into the substitute finder syster, then dragged my ass to school to drop off lesson plans. My feeling is that it will probably go badly and that I'll have to clean up the aftermath tomorrow. Oh well. At least I get to rest today, drink tea, and, well, watch the home makeover shows and the cooking shows, and flip through all the other junk. Right now the Oxy-clean guy is yelling at me, so I'd better go. He sounds mad.

If I were Sherlock Holmes . . .

I'd have known earlier that I was sick. See, I always have the same early symptoms . . . a little more asthma than usual, nagging sore throat, off balance in ballet class, a bit cranky . . .

Last night I was up late in bed supressing a cough for about 45 minutes before I got up and chugged some Robitussin so I could sleep. I've also been trying to drink more water, so I had to get up and pee a bunch. I didn't sleep well at all. Every time I woke up, I had a hard time getting back to sleep, because I'm having some pretty serious ----THE EASILY GROSSED-OUT SHOULD STOP READING NOW -----


post nasal drip, like a constant rope of mucous making its way from my sinus cavity down towards my stomach. When I swallow, my throat constricts as far as it can, but it can't cut through the mucous rope, so I can't really get a decent swallow in. Which bugs me, so I stay awake trying desperately to use my throat muscles to saw through the rope. But alas, to no avail. Anyway, I woke up this morning pretty seriously cranky and sick-feeling (I sometimes get this burning sensation in my throat, like after you've been in a really smoky bar), so it's a good thing today has been a library day.

Speaking of which, the librarian said I could use her computer to look stuff up for the kids, so I went to it, but it had one of those messages: "Your updates are complete. Would you like to restart your computer now?" So I restart it, then enter what I suspect would be her user name and password. I'm no hacker, but I got it on the first try. Don't make it so easy, people!

Okay, that's all. I'm going to grade papers and be cranky now.

Just say no

to Rellerindos.

Seriously, sometimes my students give me candy, and when I'm hard up for sweets, I eat it. But usually it's good candy, not disgusting tamarind puke. Blech. I'm still scraping my tongue.

Hoe

There is just no small talk you can make with the cashier at Home Depot about having gone there to purchase a hoe that doesn't sound dirty. Don't try it. Just wait for the total and hand over your money.

I figured out the puzzle master's puzzle on NPR this week in about a second! Take an old time movie actor's name, six letters each in the first and last name, spoonerize the names (switch the initial sounds) and come up with an 1876 historical event. But you're gonna have to e-mail me or comment if you want to know what it was . . .

The Gynas' demo is starting to really take shape. We got it normalized (sort of), we're buying jewel cases and CDs, we're contacting booking folks, and we're pricing print places . . . This is so totally cool . . .

This was a busy weekend for me, because I went to three ballet classes (almost 5 hours total), got my car back, turned the rental car in, celebrated my and my cousin's birthdays with delicious cake at my mom's place, cleaned up a bittle, made a Home Depot run, painted a spot I was unable to reach before on Piggs' office ceiling, went to birthday dinner with Mom and Piggs, had a band meeting, checked out two middle-eastern markets . . . WHEW! I barely got to even feel like it was the weekend. Still, everything I did was fun or useful, so I had a good time. Now I can't wait to plant all the bulbs I got at the Depot . . .

And use my hoe.

Car, God's opinions on things, the Governator, snot dream.

I GOT MY CAR BACK!!! It's been in the shop for almost three weeks. I got the message at about 4:45, so I jammed downtown and got to the garage right at 5, then it took a few minutes to get all the paperwork and stuff done, but my baby is beautiful! The Jellyfish is perfect again! Then I was like, oh hell, what do I do with the rental car? The people at the body shop said that the rental place might give me a ride back, but that they might have closed at 5 too. So I jump into . . . (DUNH DUNH DUUHHHH) downtown Friday 5:15 traffic. Am I an idiot or what? I deserve to be flogged, but I got my punishment in the form of sitting on 16th street at Q and watching the light turn green, and red, and green, and red, with only one car in front of me, time slipping away . . . I thought that if I got to the rental car place at, like 5:20, maybe someone would still be there, but as each minute ticked by, I wondered whether there was even a reason for my madness, or whether I was going to end up at a darkened rental car place, trying to decide which car to ditch. Fortunately, they were there until 6, and gave me a ride back to my car.

And speaking of my stupid ass, I've done almost nothing for three weeks besides complain about the automatic. So what do I do when I get in the Jellyfish? Put my foot on the brake, turn the key, and wonder why it wasn't turning over (Hint: put your foot on the clutch, dingbat).

Okay, you know I'm not a religious person, but I was listening to one of those freaks from godhatesfags.com on the radio this morning . . . Seriously, I don't think I should be the final arbiter of God's word or anything, but I have a hard time believing that God (of "God is love" fame) hates anybody, besides perhaps Hitler, and maybe Satan. I just don't see God as a hater. And apparently these folks have now started web sites like godhatesamerica, godhatescanada, godsentthetsunami . . . and of course the woman is saying that God is laughing his ass off over the deaths in Asia. That he's gloating, basically. Like I said earlier, I'm not religious, I couldn't quote scripture or anything, but I think that the general idea is that God loves people, wants the best for them, and isn't, well, EVIL. I'm not sure, but I honestly think these godhatesfags people have got the wrong guy. Has anyone asked them whether God's messages to them came from playing Judas Priest records backwards? It's just weird. It's like going to a vegetarian recipe book and finding that every recipe starts with "cleave head in two, remove eyes and brain." Or like going to Buddhism.com and finding some story about Buddha smiting the shit out of a bunch of peasants. It's like, "are you guys sure you know what you're talking about?"

I won't rant too long, but Ahhhnold wants to pay teachers based on merit. Great idea. How shall we determine merit? Well, since any new testing system would cost a whole bunch of money, let's use the old one, the students' CAT-6 scores. Okay, great, so all the teachers in the fancy parts of town who teach GATE and have the world's most obedient and studious kids naturally get the highest scores, and down at the bottom are us Title One folks, special ed teachers, and ELL teachers. Well, since I don't want to make the lowest possible salary, I'm going to IMMEDIATELY go interview at a hoity-toity school with a bunch of upper-middle white and Asian kids. And my position at the Title One school? Well, it gets filled by the newest, most inexperienced, and possibly least capable teachers (being new and being bad are not the same, but I believe you do get better with experience). So, the kids who need the least help get the best teachers and the kids who need the most help get the worst teachers. Well done. Dickweed. Oh, don't forget, though, that some of the oldest tenured teachers who suck will hang out in their positions at the upper-middle class schools, making fat money. At the same time, some of the most awesome, dedicated teachers will stay in their Title One special ed positions and never make the money they deserve. Great plan.

Last night I dreamed that I was hanging out with the cool kids and I had a stuffy nose, so I kept trying to blow it out, and all I could get out at a time was a tiny amount of gum-eraser thick pink stuff, so I was trying to get it out subtly so that no one would notice.

I guess that's it. Bye.

Except for the gang fights . . .

Everything's been going swimmingly lately! My mom bought me a new fireplace screen for Xmas which makes the living room look so much better. I wanted to get rid of the old one, along with a large dog pen that was taking up space in the backyard, so I posted them on Freecycle.org, and was rid of them both in less than 24 hours. The dog pen was especially a relief, because I couldn't get it out through the gate and didn't have the proper tools to disassemble it. But it's gone now! I also made a new friend at school and we're going to the movies. And finally, Piggs and I bought a KING size bed, so now I don't have to sleep like Count Dracula anymore (arms crossed over my chest). I still managed to get an elbow into his back last night somehow. But damn, did I ever sleep well! It was really comfy, and for an early birthday present Mom got me flannel sheets. It was heaven, I swear . . . The bed is so huge that after Piggs got up this morning, I kind of turned around and slept sideways on the thing for a while. We also have a real live guest room with a double bed now, which makes me feel like a total grown-up. Okay, I have a lot of work to do here at school, because the kids are damn near ready to strangle one another (the Norteno-Sureno activity in the neighborhood has amped up recently, and the bad energy has spread to the kids). But everything's great around these parts! And more fun stuff is a-coming -- an ice skating date, a weekend in Santa Cruz, a birthday party for me, a birthday tapas date with my Dad . . . Yay!

Had to do it.

Piggs did it, and I usually ignore these quizzes, but this time I had to.

You scored as Neutral Good. A Neutral Good person tries to do the 'goodest' thing possible. These people are willing to work with the law to accomplish their goal, but if the law is corrupt they are just as willing to tear it down. To these people, doing what's right is the most important thing, regardless of rules, customs, or laws. Neutral Good 85% Lawful Good 85% Chaotic Good 55% True Neutral 50% Lawful Neutral 40% Lawful Evil 40% Neutral Evil 20% Chaotic Neutral 15% Chaotic Evil 10% What is your Alignment? created with QuizFarm.com

Welly welly welly welly well

Okay, I just told Piggs that I hadn't blogged lately because I didn't have anything interesting to say, and he reminded me of a few things. See, he wrote about our big Oregon trip, but I guess my viewpoint's probably different.

We flew up early Thursday (the 23rd) to Portland, then rented a car and drove to Eugene. We got some delicious ramen (man, I wish Sacramento had a ramen house llike that!) then checked into our hotel and pretty much went right away to his sister's place. I hung out with the kids while the Piggses went for a picture (and my sweetie bought me delicious truffles!), and then we had kind of a quiet evening, talking, playing, and eating pizza. His sister and I watched "The Manchurian Candidate" (the new one, with Denzel), and it was mighty strange. We left right afterwards, because it was late. Friday was Xmas eve, and we stopped by his mom's house in the morning. His sister and neices were already there, and I went with them on a couple errands, leaving Piggs alone (no, not alone!) with his mom. We went to a cool bead store, gigantic, with a massive selection and nice employees. I have this thing about spending money on arty stuff when I suck so badly at assembling/creating it, but it looked so fun I wanted to make one myself. Then we got Piggs and went back to his sister's place, where we hung out some more, and soon Daddy Piggs and P's stepmom were there, so we all talked and had a nice time. That evening we went to other sister's house (forgive me for being so obtuse about names, I just don't like to use people's names online without their express permission) and had delicious cheese fondue and pina coladas and talked and hung out some more. The kids got a little goofy, possibly on the wine in the fondue.
On Christmas morning, we stopped by mama's house again, then went to sister's place, where she'd been slaving to prepare the house and food for 21 people! Yowza! We ate breakfast, fashioned ourselves Irish coffees, opened presents, sat down to eat at about 3 (dinner was delicious!), and then spent most of the rest of the evening (until about midnight) talking again, and watching the 4-hour extended Return of the King (which was good).
Sadly, Monday morning we were scheduled to leave, but we had a really nice breakfast out with everyone (at the 5th street market, which I'd like to visit when we have more time sometime). Then it was off to Portland, where we met Flage and hung out -- went to Stumptown to check out some art and get some delicious coffee (which I've been enjoying nearly every morning since), then to the Powell's on Hawthorne. Curse me, I checked my purse, then didn't have anything to write with or on when I wanted to write down some titles "Oh, I'll remember them" I thought. Yeah, right. Then we went to a few other cool shops, and the boys were very patient while I browsed. We drove most of the way up Mount Tabor, where we caught an awesome sunset, then we dropped Flage at his car and went to meet the Redhead and the Latin Lovah. We had awesome Thai food with them, then huddled in their room, falling asleep as we talked. We slept over, then said goodbye early the next morning. We had breakfast at the Stepping Stone ("You eat here because we let you"), and then dropped off the rental car and hopped a flight home. It was the bumpiest flight I'd ever been on (given my limited flight experience), but I wasn't ever worried, because it was still way less bumpy than, say, Amtrak. Given our limited time and decided exhaustion, we did not get to hook up with my friend Cruciferous Vegetables, although we practically were at his apartment. But fortunately he's coming this way soon.
Once home, we pretty much vegged out for about a day. I met up with my grandma and saw her new house, then we had the vegan sampler at Katmandu Kitchen (good, but a little heavy on the momos and not very spicy even though I ordered it hot). I saw my dad, too, and we traded presents. Over the week, I really didn't do much -- one ballet class, coffee with my buddies, a little tiny bit of shopping, lunch out with sweetie, made soup one night and pan-glazed tofu another . . . While at coffee with bandmates and webGyna, I asked if anyone else had New Year's Eve plans, and nobody did, so I invited them over for dinner and called up MonkeyGirl, too. We had a nice time, just relaxed and quiet (except for a brief noise-making interlude in the Gyna-cave -- everybody left when we did our mash-up of "Strange Fruit" and Jane's Addiction's "I Would For You," god knows why). At midnight, we all went "whoo" and toasted, then it pretty much broke up. There was major celebratory gunfire from across the street, which I was not happy about. Oh well, this was the neighborhood I could afford, and it is a concrete bunker, basically. I stayed up a little later than sweetie did so I could prevent an ant invasion and watch the fire die down some. He took that as an invitation to commandeer my side of the bed, including my pillow! Jackass.
Today was New Year's Day, and I slept in, then we went to my aunt's house for pea soup. In the south, I guess eating black-eyed peas on New Year's is lucky, but my great-grandma never liked black-eyed peas, so we all eat split pea soup, and we've had overall enormously good luck, so it must be working.

2004 was great for me -- I got my M.A., visited New York and the Caribbean, had my sweet thing move in, and saw good news happen for almost all of my friends and family. When Drummergirl asked last night what I'd like to see happen in 2005, my honest answer was "more of the same." I'm still crossing my fingers for the new job, and I'd like to try Capoeira, go back and take some more belly dance classes (tribal, though, not western cabaret), exercise and ride my bike more, really try some art (I did exactly one thing in 2004), edit my Nanowrimo book, maybe start to compile some research for this book idea I have, submit some of my poetry to journals, and (OKAY, BOOMPAH) submit a poem to the Tor House competition (not that I have any hope of winning, but it's not like there's a punishment if you lose) . . . that's about it. I'd like to see the Gynas get back to playing regularly, too, since I really enjoy it. I'm not about making money or getting signed or anything, but I want to get out there and play. Oh, and for the house -- I want to paint the kitchen and the living room, and install Pergo, as well as fixing a few of the things that really need attending to (removing a big dead tree, getting a new garbage disposal, and fixing some of the stuff the home inspector recommended). I also really want to create/build/install some big planters on the side of the house (I hardly have any garden space) and grow more veggies this year. Since I have such limited space, I never want to waste it on things like carrots or radishes, which are such fun to grow and eat fresh. Anyway, those aren't really resolutions, just ideas. Wow, this turned into a long post! Thanks for reading, if you did, and check out http://www.zoombaba.blogspot.com to check out a couple of the latest books I've read. Take care, everybody, and have a wonderful New Year! (Maybe have some split pea soup, just in case.)