is brooklyn my eden?/shostokovich is the man

apparently mickey and chill were having a conversation about where would be their eden's to live. they agreed that i'vbe found my eden in new york. this week i have felt a bit like that, and it is a great place to live. i don't always. slipandslide buddy would probably disagree, in a tense passing conversation that neither of us wanted to go down the road of she mentioned that if she listened to what i said, then getting the fuck out of new york would probably be the best thing for me. i'm not sure where i fall on that continuum.

my saturday gig not only starts early in the morning, but has a dress code/uniform. i can wear a modified part of the uniform but must wear the program shirt. also my co-teacher wants to tie in revolutionary war history. umm we are supposed to teach about nature and ecology and environmental education in the park. it should be an interesting experience working with him. i'm trying to to pre-judge negatively. i wish i was making more money with the job though.

not smart move i make a lot, mm not sure what that is. maybe not starting to cook before my dinner guests arrive?

the philharmonic last night was one of the best performances i've been to in a long time. the pieces were so cool, its late and that is just going to have to work for lack of a better adjective.

is brooklyn my eden?/shostokovich is the man

apparently mickey and chill were having a conversation about where would be their eden's to live. they agreed that i'vbe found my eden in new york. this week i have felt a bit like that, and it is a great place to live. i don't always. slipandslide buddy would probably disagree, in a tense passing conversation that neither of us wanted to go down the road of she mentioned that if she listened to what i said, then getting the fuck out of new york would probably be the best thing for me. i'm not sure where i fall on that continuum.

my saturday gig not only starts early in the morning, but has a dress code/uniform. i can wear a modified part of the uniform but must wear the program shirt. also my co-teacher wants to tie in revolutionary war history. umm we are supposed to teach about nature and ecology and environmental education in the park. it should be an interesting experience working with him. i'm trying to to pre-judge negatively. i wish i was making more money with the job though.

not smart move i make a lot, mm not sure what that is. maybe not starting to cook before my dinner guests arrive?

the philharmonic last night was one of the best performances i've been to in a long time. the pieces were so cool, its late and that is just going to have to work for lack of a better adjective.

good night

non-adventure in bay ridge with guido
and more excitingly got to pop impatient seed pods. i love it. and i felt good.
but now i really!!!!! need to pee and my roommate is in the shower. sleep would be nice to, but not without peeing first....

would it be better to teach us to make responsible descions?

so i'm all about promoting healthier eating habits for all and getting rid of trans fats, but is legislating it out of restaurants the way to go? aren't we just enforcing a stupider population who doesn't know how to take care of itself. a friend commented the other week that since the world of cell phones she feels she's lost some basic survival insticts like how to find people in a crowd. are totally just dumming ourselves down? i need to get on adding in the nuitrition bit to my 4th grade food chemistry.


in the oops category. i meant to forward a job posting to my friend dan. in the handy gmail way a lit of dans came up and i thought i sent it to the correct one. then i got a reply email from some guy i never went on a date with, but had been in potential contact with and had responded to several of my CL ads thanking me for thinking of him. i was like what the fuck are you writing me for/thanking me for, why would i be in contact with you. got to watch the power of the tab button.

um/ahem davy rothbart has a featured article in october's believer

have you seen this guy? its amazing how reading some sage-or not words by nick hornby (some of whom's books i have loved and some have been eh) in the believer makes the world (ie my world) feel all right and that it doesn't matter i can hardly keep my eyes open. of course i went for a drink after class to try and feel like a human with my classmate who i like a lot but feel like i have nothing to say to. luckily we didn't have to take the train back together.

um do i like the isreali or just like the idea of the isreali (clearly i do that) and why isn't he writing me and how foolish will i feel if i write him and suggest i'll split the cost of his plane ticket to come back. and the chances of this working out easily are so slim i should just forget it and move on.

i may have no idea what is going on in the world, and be thinking way too much about the israeli-or at least the idea of the israeli, but at least my

i can't have the days i had, which was mainly good, totally full and dealing with politics and then get 6 hours of sleep and teach/work for 8 hours and be in school for 4.5, oh but i will. and with no produce to boot. although i felt a bit like a human and made myself buy some fresh produce today at the green market. hopefully i will eat it before it goes bad, as i have no time to eat in my schedule tomorrow.

i got yelled at for being too political in school today. oops and also oh well. and activist buttons need to be pushed. i hate that we aren't fostering activism in the students. and i don't so much agree with the politics that the school will play. oh being a first year teacher and negotiating all these things. than my other main gig has its own set of politics that i am scared i am overstepping my bounds with, but that is office politics. i also want to ask for more money, but am not sure how since i accepted the job, but i haven't signed the contract. i won't quit if they won't give me more, but i feel like i was told there would be a curriculum for me, and now they are saying they want the curriculum reworked and for me to be the leader for my co-teacher. that's a lot more work and so much planning than i can take as i am totally over extended. i think my only social life will be studying with people at cocoa bar (yum iced hot chocolate)

RH in the burgh was fine. i protested the second day and had a less than great dress shopping experience with my mom. i don't love that i've gained weight but i hate how she deals with it. and i hate how things fit or rather don't and how i don't have time to exercise/its not a priority for me. (i still blame all this weight gain on leopold.)

i am trying not to gossip so much in this new year, but tonight i stopped myself in very verbal ways twice which clearly showed that i had gossip to share or really a mean thing to say. i didn't but the next step is to not even have to censor myself out loud. baby steps. ok if i fall asleep in 7 minutes i will have 6 hours.
arg.,

i really need to figure out a way to get more sleep, and my schedule is only about to get more filled.

1) i got locked in school today and had to shimmy under the gate to get out.
2) nyuwritergirl is starting to tutor this kid in modern jewish lit. she tutored him for his bar mitzvah previously. in 7th grade in sunday school i got my first exposure to modern jewish lit and to philip roth and to the producers. i didn't get the movie at all, it was way too dated for me, and i have hated philip roth ever since. even his short stories bothered me.
ahh sleep.

not your grandmother's immigrant anymore

i had a conversation with someone this past weekend who mentioned that she feels because of cell phones she is losing certain survival skills, like the ability to find someone in a crowd. its always surprising to me how cell phones must have changed communication for so many groups. i am continually doing a double take when the women in the homeless shelter i volunteer at talk on their cell phones. in some ways i think its awesome, but its surprising to me, of course a cell phone is a lot less than rent, and just because you have friends, doesn't mean they can let you sleep on their couch instead of the shelter. i often feel shitty about how much dignity and agency they have to give up in their lives, but the cell phone lets them keep in touch and keep some of that. i was equally taken about by the last sentence in this paragraph from todays NYTimes about the border fence possibly going up in Arizona

"Tribal members, who once gave water and food to the occasional passing migrant, say they have become fed up with groups of illegal immigrants breaking into homes and stealing food, water and clothing, and even using indoor and outdoor electrical outlets to charge cellphones."

on another note, to me i feel like i cited that, and in the age of google it wouldn't be hard to find the source and i acknowledged that it wasn't mine, but i couldn't accept that from my students b/c its not proper citation. oh the double standard of a teacher.

the macarthur fellows are out..

and i've decided to show by jealousy by being bitter over adrian leblanc of random family being named a genius. but i am totally down with david macauly i'm totally into him.
still sick. late for work. 14 hour day today.

i'm sick

i hate it and it doesn't bode well for the rest of my year. but i ran around a ton last week and slept no where near enough and the retreat was at a shitty venue so the mildewey bed didn't help.
back to school night tonight.
i'm not prepared.
oh another year of grad school craziness

so much

and so little sleep,
1. i love radical circus (although circus amok kinda sucked this year. they hit you over the head with their message and yet i still didn't understand it and the circus parts didn't seem as polished or as professional and fun as in past years)
but the dime museum of circus contraption playing at theater for a new city until spet 23rd is fucking awesome. 2.4 hours of nonstop fun and smiling. static trapeze cool ass juggling great balkan influenced band, kitsch, aerial rope work. seriously amazing and fun. so worth all this shit i didn't get done.
2. tutoring. mmm requires more planning and lots of games otherwise she's a brat
3. there was lice at school yesterday. fun fun.
4.now over employed but still under financed
 
so i got that job that i had been waiting for and is kinda ideal and i saw posted multiple times after i had interviewed.  it starts soon and means that i give up all my saturdays from now til may, but i think it is really good experience and good connections and an org that i am interestred in and um yeah like exactly what i've been saying i want to do.  so who needs weekend trips? 
this of course means no jaunt to europe next month which would be foolish and i can't afford anyway.  glad my weddings next month are on sundays.
 
and i just found out, although it was so bound to happen...leopold now works with absolutely everyone i know.  and i thought the jewish world in the burgh was small but apparently the progressive jewish world in nyc is much smaller.  seriously oy vey.  tilda is possibly seriously getting goats (apparently seattle is bringing them in to combat invasive blackberries) i should just move into the hut under her deck and chill with the goats.

ps VOTE

new york state primaries are today. vote.

etching out some me time

need to make sure that i have a balance of fun time and work time. not sure i can handle anymore work, but in no way have a full salary. we'll see if i can negotiate a bit more out of them..ha like i will ever do that.
but i did get myself to do a walk through of brooklyn bridge park and see the sculpture show. i think its the best temp outdoor sculpture show i have seen in a long time. certainly much better than anything at socrates. and then after work i got to dine with dr dr and asap man in their renovated abode. i kinda miss the frank the penguin but otherwise it looks like it did when silver lived there.
we got philharmonic tix for this season, the rates went up but are still reasonable. and i got glass on wine on arg's back porch which i love, but now i'm not asleep, my homework isn't done and i have to wake up at 6:15 so that i will have time to vote and i have class til 9 tomorrow. shoot me now. with caffeine and lots of it please.

on a side note, i really like the light tribute, i think it is classic and meaningful.

i love the mandolin, new favorite string by far

i love that barbes is so close to my house. it is a great place to go when i have nothing else to do on a sat night or just want to stay in the hood. two weekends in a row work for me. and seriously the mandolin is fantastic.
had a decent day today, a bit of remembering why i like living here and discovering some new places. walked a bit of the hudson river park that i never had before, go hudson river trust for adding green space to the city and waterfront. i'm totally into it. the good life exhibit was cool in idea, but a bit disappointing in execution, as were the snacks from florent. if i had been there with someone else i totally would have wanted to play the connected city game again. i doubt i'll get to since i feel so busy and am out of town the next two weekends. i'm pumped for my trips but esp next weekend feel like i'll be missing some big shit that i would really like to check out...

apparently football season has started again. go stillers, who apparently won on thursday (since when do they play pro football on thursday? hasn't college season started already?)

who will i be having shabbat dinner with in 20 years? a large part of me hope the same people, but everyone seems to be on a timeline or not to be set on staying in new york. i do really like living here, but part of it is also that i am already here and meeting people. so friends don't leave! i hate making new friends/its much harder now than it used to be...

huh. where did my last blog post go? not up somehow and not saved

in any case my apt no longer looks like a complete shithole and its making much less anxious. we found homes for most of the new roomies stuff and took out all his accumulated garbage. the israeli was surprised at how much the state of the apt aggravated me. its one thing for there to be shit all over my room, its another when its everywhere you look and there is the world's largest coffee table in my living room.

the israeli left today which was actually pretty sad. last night he told me i was very israeli, i was like ok whatever. i suggested meeting up in europe in october, he suggested greece, i was like-umm that is so not half way and a long way for me to go for a long weekend. seriously if i were going to greece i might as well go to israel. but seriously i have no money and am i going to start international travel for a guy i've known for a week. i don't think so.

kids come tomorrow. my room is ready. my curriculum is so not... ahhh.
i need to be asleep i haven't gotten much this weekend. sunday night in dc i feel off the twin air mattress i was sleeping on, and i didn't even go to bed drunk after the wedding...

i need someone to wash a fuckload of plastic and glass supplies for me

it would be a waste of my time to do so, but there is a lot of stuff to be washed out. room is progressing. i feel ok about it.

randomly ended up having coffee today with this guy i met randomly in a coffee shop 4 years ago, --smf of overheard in new york fame nationally and writing in 17th century britain speak locally, he was shocked at my memory of so many random details about me. apparently overheard in new york is making a shit load of money and he was written up in time magazine. small ass world.

new roomie seems cool. we just had a very intimate conversation about his sex life. i think this bodes well as long as i don't crush on any of the guys he brings home. and yes i gave him the safe sex talk.