Stargazer

Happy Blog Day!

Our cultural competency training this morning was both fulfilling and horrifying. I "filled" myself with coffee, conversation among friends from other buildings or my school, and amusing asides to a fellow French teacher. Horrifying was how accurate my assessment was of what our morning session would be like; as I predicted, our district throws around the words culture, cultural, multi-cultural--and then the WHOLE inservice ended up to be about race. (yes, the race that won a 7.5 MILLION dollar lawsuit against my district) I do think that all employees should be educated about the implications of this settlement; just don't call it cultural competency training, you dolts. The powers that be also chose the high school at the farthest edge of our district for this session--one way in and one way out, one lane, with everyone trying to go the same direction...Note to self: Make sure to go to the restroom before climbing into the car! I have to admit that the afternoon program in my own building with our staff was much more about culture, and thus, WAY more interesting to me. I did have to hear the word "pedagogy" today, and also had to read a question on a form that used the verb "explicate."  Then, we heard about the necessity to "affirm the students." This type of language is a sure fire way to get me all sorts of ANNOYED--just ask my tablemates!

On to blog day!  I have found the following FIVE new blogs, complete with links. (they can't be on my blogroll to qualify)

1. http://www.flummel.com/ee/  I am not sure if this person is a man or a woman(woman?), but s/he uncloaked to reassure me about Evergreen State College. I appreciate that! For several weeks, I assumed that my blogger buddy, FB, was a woman--how embarrassing. So, sorry if I'm wrong on your gender, Flummel.

2.http://blackbird17.blogspot.com/ What a cute title for a site: Say la Vee. As a French teacher, I was awestruck by the phonetic rendition of C'est la vie. S/he also had some really interesting photos of a visit to a Japanese store; it brought back wonderful memories of trips to Uwajimaya in Seattle.

3.http://agirlandherlife.blogspot.com/ I like the way she wrote her last post about accidentally putting her hand through a window. (and at least I know HER gender!)

4.http://spaazlicious.blogspot.com/ She's a knitter, and anti- Iraq war blogger in San Diego (death wish?) and had a bunch of interesting buttons on her site.

5.http://gotnik.blogspot.com/ Agog and Aghast is the name of this blog; it is beautifully constructed and written. I admit to a huge weakness for artwork woven into a site; it's not only esthetically pleasing, it's also very calming.

Post(card) from the edge

I don't have a single picture to post today, nor am I in the MOOD to do so. (It made me quite weepy to go through those old photo albums anyway!) I have spent most of my day in my room at my high school and feel fairly under control there.  At the junior high, the math teacher has still not done a thing in the room, every drawer and cabinet in the room is packed with junk, the overhead cord doesn't reach the outlet, blah blah blah. Then, when I pulled down the screen to see how far back the overhead should be for the students to be able to read what's on it(yes, you already know I'm anal), the blankety-blank screen refused to go back up. I climbed on desks, tried to coax it back in a bit at a time, and finally gave up and e-mailed our technical support center, previously known as the AV department. I am anticipating a couple of months to get that repaired; in the meantime, the smallish white board is pretty much blocked. That should make writing on it extremely challenging. Alison had her sophomore orientation at the same time; she has a great set of teachers and I can't complain. Well, maybe I can find something--she ended up in aerobics instead of business marketing; Alison loves P.E. but I don't want her body getting pounded in P.E. when it's already hammered enough in gymnastics. Do you think that someone who spents 3-4 hours five times a week working out and conditioning NEEDS to be in P.E.? Nope, neither do I. It's kind of awkward to get her schedule changed when I work in that school, especially since I really want her to keep all the other teachers she has. It's very complex to move classes around, and she could end up in worse  shape teacher-wise. (like with the math teacher I don't want her to have!) I have NEVER been someone who hand picked teachers, so I'm relieved about this year, but concerned about the impact, literally and figuratively, of this aerobics class. She wants to keep the aerobics because a couple of her friends are in it; I am extremely conflicted about what to do! Flip a coin? Tomorrow it's on to "Cultural Competency Training." Since they won't serve Hefeweisen,they'd better have lots of coffee and snacks. As a World Language teacher, I am extremely interested in culture, but in our district it's a euphemism for race. When one's district loses a huge lawsuit to a group of families of a particular race, that causes almost every training to be about sensitivity of one kind or another. It also "requires" this district to go to job fairs and offer teaching jobs to diversify the staff;  however, they should probably have made sure that there were actually positions available for those they hired. (in their area of expertise would have also been nice) On the bright side, the state is offering up a bit more money toward our very expensive health insurance, so perhaps I won't be paying $600 out of pocket every month for it. Luckily, my insurance has also increased the number of days (from 12-30) that one can stay in an In-patient mental institution. I'm hoping not to need to use that benefit.

Ashley retrospective-Final Installment...but to be continued

So, the saga of Ashley's life at home ends, or does it begin? There is a reason why the ceremonies at the end of high school are called commencement. Yes, she'll have a new life, starting September 17th when we move her into the dorm; we'll have a smaller family to adjust to, different dynamics, both more and less stress. I have faith that we will all survive these major changes--but anticipate many tears and poignant moments. My job at two buildings is calling me like a siren song--lesson plans, more room organization, space at at the junior high or desk out of a box... It's pulling me slowly, but inexorably back to those lists and errands that I have put away for the past week. (I hope it's not to my doom!) My Ashley final retrospective post arrives, yet her story is just starting. Much of the rest of it, I won't know exactly, thus I can't share it with you. She will no longer live under our roof, but instead have a room that sits empty most days, yet waits for her expectantly, like those of us who love her.

Ashley was a quiet, serious child, but she loved a silly, arrogant alien named Alf. It was the show that got belly laughs from her--every time that creature waddled on stage, she howled. My husband and I didn't really watch the show; we just laughed along with her because her giggle was so infectious.

Who knew that she would go from this to this? When she finally started dance (too late) in 6th grade, she thought she wanted to do jazz and hip hop. It is still a big joke in our family because she doesn't have a funky bone in her body. A year later, she discovered a passion for ballet--and for such a late starter, she managed to end up dancing in the junior company of a prestigious local ballet school.

Ashley had and has a soft spot for animals, and can't bear to go into an animal shelter. She wants to take all of them home and love them! Her first dog was the Gentle Giant, Chinook. He was a huge, majestic dog; he was also wonderful with children, even when they tried to ride him.(he was almost as big as a horse!)

Ashley does, however, prefer cats. Finally, at age 10, after much begging, she got a kitty of her own and named it Kendra Michelle. Mr. Stargazer had taken Kendra away from her mother before she was weaned, since Momma Cat was one of my mother-in-law's barn cats, and they are experts at hiding from humans. Kendra has the feisty, independent barn cat personality; at times she is loving, other times hostile, and almost always manipulates her humans. She sounds like a teenager, doesn't she?

She has almost always been some kind of a cat or a princess for Halloween. Nearly every animal report she's written has been about a feline. Ask her anything you'd like to know about Siberian tigers!

We had many holiday traditions, like Easter Egg Hunts, Christmas parties and Fourth of July. Ashley and her friend, H. couldn't stand the boy next to them--can you tell? Most of our friends came over to our house for the Fourth, not to see us, or our fireworks, but to enjoy our dogs' antics...

Our crazy dogs loved fireworks. Kiwi(in the air) would attack them, chase them, or leap after them. Teddy (on the ground) would often grab Kiwi by the tail and try to drag him away. It was quite the show for the kids, who had never seen animals that weren't terrified of fireworks.

I hope the holidays don't change too much; I'm not ready for Ashley to tell me that she's spending Christmas somewhere else with someone else. It's too soon for that. She's only got one foot out of the nest; she's not ready to fly completely away. (is she?) I guess time will tell.

I never had a sister, so I don't understand the relationship very well. I thought my girls would be closer, and they have been at certain ages. There are times when they are good friends, and others when they appear to be mortal enemies. I think this particular "road" still has a ways to go with some twists and turns in it.

It was August, like it is now; I had written as the caption on this photo: Ashley and Alison stargazing for shooting stars. Little did I imagine then that I would be writing about my older daughter leaving for college on a blog I have named Stargazer. 

Ashley retrospective-Part 2

Since I am starting back to work unofficially tomorrow, and attending the dreaded TEACHER inservice days the two days after, I am trying to do as much reminiscing as I can about "The Way We Were." To me, life is a road, a journey that can lead to unexpected destinations. It's full of bumps, twists, turns, hills and valleys--sometimes you drive off the road entirely and aren't sure you can find your way back.  With our older daughter,  we often thought we had apples, and then got oranges. Everyone knew that she was artistic, literary, gifted, thoughtful--but no one expected the superficial changes, from preppie to hippie, from meat lover to vegetarian, from hating nature to loving nature, from solitary, lonely, perfectionist child to a high school girl with friends, a boyfriend and a social life. I share with you more photos and memories, because this is my journal as well as my blog, it's more for me than for you. (but you may look at them if you wish!)

She is still horribly messy, and loves having things on the floor. Her room is a disaster; I just try to close the door and ignore it. I never could indoctrinate her into becoming a UW Husky, like me. She always told me that UW is TOO big, and that Seattle is a great place to visit, but she wouldn't want to live there.

Reading has always been very important to her, although a couple minutes after I took this photo, she was chewing on the book. In kindergarten, she wrote and illustrated her own stories, then read them to her class. A kindergarden nerd?

We could never have too many art supplies around. She constantly colored, painted, and drew. Our kitchen wall was covered with her artwork. Not much has changed; if you look in my right sidebar under Ashley's art, you'll see that my "kitchen wall" has simply become more sophiscated.

They loved making costumes and playacting. These paper Little Mermaid outfits were terribly uncomfortable, and they couldn't move very easily in them. Luckily, they were not very modest at that age...

When she was little, camping was wonderful and fun. Then as a pre-teen, she hated roughing it. Now she backpacks, hikes and camps again. (that road twists and turns!)

Over the years, boys have been a mystery to prim and proper Ashley. She never thought she would have a boyfriend, then in her junior year, a guy from Art Club called and...almost two years later, they are still together.

Their first date at Homecoming 2003 was very retro--complete with an old-fashioned dress for her and a yellow tux for him. "Plus ça change, plus ça reste le même."

An Ashley retrospective-Part 1

As most of you readers know, our 19 year old daughter will be leaving in a few weeks for Olympia to become an Evergreen Geoduck. This was never my dream for her, but she somehow morphed into a brilliant, thoughtful, vegetarian hippie, so I am thinking that this college will suit her and nurture her in this last step of her journey into adulthood. I'd like to invite you to share in her journey to today by showing you some photos and telling a few short stories of my very unique and lovely older child.

She was pretty much bald, but hated hats. As a baby, she screamed often with colic, and I was sometimes at wits end. So, I would put her in Mr. Stargazer's lap, and escape for a walk. When I returned, she would be sitting placidly with her dad, which was both wonderful and annoying.

  See? She would be shrieking when I left, and I would come home to this very domestic scene.

Horror stories anyone?

Consider this a public service post; I am reading more and more in BlogWorld about poor or non-existent customer service from big companies. Shouldn't there be some kind of site devoted to this? Old Horsetail Snake directed his readers to MuzikDude (horrible problems with Cingular) which somehow led me to Jeff Jarvis' issues with Dell. I too have recently spent TOO much time trying to get a laptop rebate from Dell that I qualified for, but was denied for mysterious reasons. I did end up going to Dell Chat, where I laid out my case and my utter frustration to Swarnalatha, who appears to have solved my problem by contacting the Rebate Department and procuring my $100 rebate. Still, it should not have cost me so much effort. What horror stories do the rest of you in BlogWorld want to share about your run-ins with businesses or companies? Which organizations should we NOT patronize?

An Interesting Meme, but I prefer Alison's list

Go to Music Outfitters and enter your high school graduation year in the search box near the top left.  You should find a list of the top 100 music hits from that year. Alison's list from ? was superior, but I tried with my 1974 tunes. I did underline more than one because I couldn't decide on just one favorite.

And here's what you do when you get the list:

Bold = those I liked
Underline = my favorite
Strikethrough = the songs I loathed
Italics = the songs I can’t remember
Untagged = no opinion

1. The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand 2. Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks 3. Love's Theme, Love Unlimited Orchestra 4. Come And Get Your Love, Redbone 5. Dancing Machine, Jackson 5 6. The Loco-Motion, Grand Funk Railroad 7. TSOP, MFSB 8. The Streak, Ray Stevens 9. Bennie And The Jets, Elton John 10. One Hell Of A Woman, Mac Davis 11. Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do), Aretha Franklin 12. Jungle Boogie, Kool and The Gang 13. Midnight At The Oasis, Maria Muldaur 14. You Make Me Feel Brand New, Stylistics 15. Show And Tell, Al Wilson 16. Spiders And Snakes, Jim Stafford 17. Rock On, David Essex 18. Sunshine On My Shoulder, John Denver 19. Sideshow, Blue Magic 20. Hooked On A Feeling, Blue Swede 21. Billy Don't Be A Hero, Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods 22. Band On The Run, Paul McCartney and Wings 23. The Most Beautiful Girl, Charlie Rich 24. Time In A Bottle, Jim Croce 25. Annie's Song, John Denver 26. Let Me Be There, Olivia Newton-John 27. Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot 28. (You're) Having My Baby, Paul Anka 29. Rock Me Gently, Andy Kim 30. Boogie Down, Eddie Kendricks 31. You're Sixteen, Ringo Starr 32. If You Love Me (Let Me Know), Olivia Newton-John 33. Dark Lady, Cher 34. Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me, Gladys Knight and The Pips 35. Feel Like Makin' Love, Roberta Flack 36. Just Dont Want To Be Lonely, Main Ingredient 37. Nothing From Nothing, Billy Preston 38. Rock Your Baby, George McCrae 39. Top Of The World, Carpenters 40. The Joker, Steve Miller Band 41. I've Got To Use My Imagination, Gladys Knight and The Pips 42. The Show Must Go On, Three Dog Night 43. Rock The Boat, Hues Corporation 44. Smokin' In The Boys Room, Brownsville Station 45. Living For The City, Stevie Wonder 46. The Night Chicago Died, Paper Lace 47. Then Came You, Dionne Warwick and The Spinners 48. The Entertainer, Marvin Hamlisch 49. Waterloo, Abba 50. The Air That I Breathe, Hollies 51. Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Steely Dan 52. Mockingbird, Carly Simon 53. Help Me, Joni Mitchell 54. You Won't See Me, Anne Murray 55. Never, Never Gonna Give You Up, Barry White 56. Tell Me Something Good, Rufus 57. You And Me Against The World, Helen Reddy 58. Rock And Roll Heaven, Righteous Brothers 59. Hollywood Swinging, Kool and The Gang 60. Be Thankful For What You Got, William Devaughn 61. Hang On In There Baby, Johnny Bristol 62. Eres Tu (Touch The Wind), Mocedades 63. Taking Care Of Business, Bachman-Turner Overdrive 64. Radar Love, Golden Earring 65. Please Come To Boston, Dave Loggins 66. Keep On Smilin', Wet Willie 67. Lookin' For Love, Bobby Womack 68. Put Your Hands Together, O'Jays 69. On And On, Gladys Knight and The Pips 70. Oh Very Young, Cat Stevens 71. Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress), Helen Reddy 72. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John 73. I've Been Searchin' So Long, Chicago 74. Oh My My, Ringo Starr 75. For The Love Of Money, O'Jays 76. I Shot The Sherrif, Eric Clapton (isn't it Sheriff?) 77. Jet, Paul McCartney and Wings 78. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Elton John 79. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield 80. Love Song, Anne Murray 81. I'm Leaving It All Up To You, Donny and Marie Osmond 82. Hello, It's Me, Todd Rundgren 83. I Love, Tom T. Hall 84. Clap For The Wolfman, The Guess Who 85. I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song, Jim Croce 85. The Lord's Prayer, Sister Janet Mead 87. Trying To Hold On To My Woman, Lamont Dozier 88. Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, Stevie Wonder 89. A Very Special Love Song, Charlie Rich 90. My Girl Bill, Jim Stafford 91. My Mistake Was To Love You, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye 91. Helen Wheels, Paul McCartney and Wings 93. Wildwood Weed, Jim Stafford 94. Beach Baby, First Class 95. Me And Baby Brother, War 96. Rockin' Roll Baby, Stylistics 97. I Honestly Love You, Olivia Newton-John 98. Call On Me, Chicago 99. Wild Thing, Fancy 100. Mighty Love, Pt. 1, Spinners

Return to Music Resources Page

By the way, could someone explain this sign to me? I read this article in the on-line news, and I don't get it.

There also were some heated moments at the pro-Bush rally when Bush supporters mistakenly identified two people as war protesters. The two walked in with a sign that read "Say No to War - Unless a Democrat is President."

Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men were war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out. One man tore up their signs.

When Will Marean of Minneapolis kept repeating that he was on the Bush side, one Bush supporter shook his hand and apologized.

Personally, I believe that pro-anything signs (or anti) should have more to do with why you believe that way, not smears against the opposition. Thus, I would have no problem with a "We believe in the Iraq War and would gladly send all of our friends and family members there" versus a sign that says," Anyone who doesn't believe that we have done the absolutely right thing by going into Iraq is a treasonous idiot and needs to move there." If you said anything like that to me, I would find you utterly ridiculous, and might even say so to your face.

Margaret Sees Red

I don't know why this affected me the way it did; it shouldn't have. Maybe I'm just in the mood to be snide and caustic. See if you can guess correctly. One of these neighbors, who used to be married to each other, had a mid-life crisis, met a person on the Internet, had a secret dalliance with that person in Las Vegas, then left the spouse and three adopted children to be with the new love interest. Do you think it was...

her?

or him?

Both the vehicles are red; that might have set me off, or the contrast between them. Yes, I know it can work either way. Our very dear friend had his wife disappear, and she was way too young for a mid-life crisis. She just didn't feel like parenting or being responsible any longer, so she took off and left him with their small children. Then there's this...

I am very curious about this man. He deserted his second family when they were very young, after already getting rid of these older two sons to an orphanage. He couldn't hold a job because he was always "smarter" than the boss, and ended up moving around constantly because life would always be better somewhere else. The strange part is that my husband is not curious about him at all, and yet it's his dad. He doesn't remember him, he's not interested in him--yet they look a lot alike. When I asked my mother-in-law about my husband's dad, she said, " Oh, P. looks the most like his dad of any of the kids, but he's the least like him." Genetics are powerful though; our older girl is an artist like my husband's dad's sister (his aunt in Texas whom we've never met).  My husband, thank goodness, is like his mom, who worked a farm for most of her life; he delights in hard work and his family. Not to say he's perfect... but that's a whole new post.

Ouch

In trying to do this,  my little gymnast ended up falling and scraping her shin all along the beam. Yesterday she crashed on bars, and ended up somehow hitting a chair with her knee.(swollen and bruised) She loves gymnastics, and is already excited about the travel meets to Burbank, CA and Las Vegas, NV--plus several trips to Oregon. Last season was wonderful and very successful for Alison, but this year she has moved up, is trying some very hard moves, and it is difficult for her mother to see this! She just laughs it off, "Mom, it doesn't even hurt that much--you're being silly." Then I guess I'll just have to be silly and terrified.

A ranter in recovery

It’s a bad sign when I want to title a post, and realize that I have already used it—and probably could every other day. “Taking myself too seriously” would fit me an embarrassing amount of time; my saving grace is that ten minutes after I rant, I’m making jokes, poking fun at myself, and moving on. Sort of. So, today, when I was up at my junior high still trying to put away my things somewhere, I realized that there is NO way I can find any room anywhere. What’s the big deal if my desk is a brown box? I won’t misplace anything, it’ll be in plain sight, and easy to get to.  So what if the other teacher used both of my new sponges? At least, she gave me a few supplies that didn’t even belong to me, but were already in the room. (the stapler, construction paper, staple remover and other valuable items) Unfortunately, the stapler promptly fell apart when I tried to use it on my posters for the second time in my second room. Stapler repair is not my strong suit, but I did manage to snap the bottom back on. Phew! There are so many important skills that we don’t learn in teacher education schools; I could go on and on, but that would just depress me. However, I want you all to know that I installed the map of France into the slots on the whiteboard; now I’m hoping that it doesn’t fall on my head the first time I try to pull it down…