How Time Flies

7am: wakey wakey!

8-1:30: Grading projects at Borrone's.  My rearend hurts.

1:30-2:15: Grocery shopping

2:15-2:45: Put away groceries, fold laundry

2:45-3:15: updated finances and paid some bills

3:00-7:00: recommendation letters

7:00-7:30: catch up on email

7:30pm: nighty, nighty...

A day in the Sunday of a teacher.

...wait, that makes no sense.

A Sunday in the life of a teacher.  No time for the NYT or thinking today...except when I was writing those amazing rec letters.

Battle of The Bands 2008

I love marching bands.  While I only lasted one year in my high school's, I have always been a huge fan.  This, along with loving to watch running events...it's a shocker that I'm single, right?  I was thinking today on my run that at least when I'm single I can do whatever I want.  I get to go to bed when I want, wake up when I want, and watch any internet video I want.  I'm pretty happy about those perks on this four-day weekend.  Lots o' sleep and lots o' nerdy videos.  Sure, it'd be nice to have someone to do stuff with, but would they watch marching bands with me?

Here is Southern in the Bayou Classic Battle.  Mom thinks they win because they spelled out "Obama" and "Jan 20."  No one really noticed the Jan 20, but when they spelled Obama, everyone went crazy.  However, the costumes the dancers wear are the kind that are all skin-colored nylon on the back, so as to seem like they are bare-backed.  I don't love that.  The drum major is pretty great though and the MCHammer redux is awesome!  Especially when half the band puts down their instruments to dance.  Are you watching this yet?

Grambling is the competition as usual.  Oh, their drum major did the same back bend.  Bring it!  I love the diamond stuff, which is totally mesmerizing me.  I don't know what they spelled first (BCFX), but they have Obama in their act too.  Just looked it up.  Black College Football.  Their dancers are wearing some pretty revealing vests and they are the center of attention for a while.  Get back to the marching people!

Finding a female in these bands is kind of like finding a minority at the RNC.  They are there, but it's really hard to tell because you can't see their faces all that well and the get-up pretty much covers up any indication of the female form.  Sure does look fun though.  I might have to watch "Drumline" now.  Who wins in your book?

Shout out to "Camel" from FHS who ran at VanCortlandt Park today in the Northeast Foot Locker XC Regionals.  

History

For those of you who have never seen a false start in cross country (basically everyone I would guess), tune in to the men's national race.  You'll see it in part one, of four.

Full coverage of the races are here (on the left side).

For The Running Nerds

I'm just catching up on the NCAAs.  I know I'm behind, but when things happen on weekdays, I often don't know about it for a while.  And I know there's a significant portion of my readership (?) that loves them some running (I think it's somewhere around 4 out of 10).

Here's a fun video from Saucony:

Visit Flotrack For More Videos

Great pictures:

Men  How exactly did Galen Rupp win this?  Answer: He is a stud.  I am searching for video of "the move."

Women

I've got the College World Series knocked off my list.  Now I just need to get to the NCAA XC Nationals one day...and then the Olympic Trials...then the Olympics.  I'll just keep working my way up the list.  Hopefully I'll get to see the "modern" "pentathlon" when I'm there.

You Can Stop Fretting About The Elites

I'm not sure why I was so worried about the elite runners regarding yesterday's course.  They were doing the 5K, rather than the donkey show 10K.  I wish I had stuck around for their race, but it started more than 45 minutes after I finished and I still had to go to the grocery store.  I had no idea what to expect there.

The men's race was won by Scott Bauhs.  This guy is amazing.  He won yesterday's 5K in 13:37.  That's 4:24 pace (which means he was running at about twice the speed of me)!  He won by one second, in front of a Kenyan!  Bauhs is a Senior at Chico State and from nearby Danville.  He broke four minutes in the mile last spring, won the Div II Cross Country Nationals a week ago, and was named the Div II Cross Country Athlete of the Year (among many other great running accomplishments).  He is forgoing the rest of his eligibility in order to turn pro.  Good luck Scott!  I'll be looking for your name.  Olympian Gabe Jennings was also in the race, finishing 22rd at 14:43.

On the women's side, the African women won the day.  A Kenyan was first with Ethiopians in second and third.  I was most interested to see that Teresa McWalters was back home for Thanksgiving.  McWalters is a local, ran at Stanford ('07), and is now residing in Cambridge, MA (I suspect at Harvard).  I often saw her name in Boston results, so I guess I've been following her career a bit.  McWalters finished in 5th yesterday with a time of 16:12.

So, I guess they had no trouble with the course.

Seemingly Simple Math

There was a great article in yesterday's Times.  There are so many reasons why I love this article, let me count the ways.

1. The title.  "Modern Pentathlon Gets a Little Less Penta."  Genius!

2. The premise.  The Olympic event of the modern pentathlon will now combine two events: running and shooting.  So, technically, there are four distinct competitions for the gold.

3. The first paragraph.  The author calls out the event for not being so "modern" anymore.  Fencing, shooting, and horse jumping?  The running and swimming make it only 40% modern.  Maybe they combined events to make it more like 50% modern.

4. The ridiculousness.  There are no plans to change the name of the event.  And the reminder that the Big Ten conference has 11 teams.  But, never fear, they have an 11 in their Big Ten logo.

5. The reach.  A former competitor says, "it's really three events plus a biathlon."  I guess 3 + 2 is still 5.

6. The linguists shaking their heads.  "This is crazy."  But then continuing to say, "There's a fine line to fuss about."  How does the linguist let this slide?  I think it's ludicrous.

7. The near perfect rebuttal.  The author writes: "But just try to remove an event from the decathlon, or write a trilogy with two books, or draw a rectangle with three sides."  Shoot.  He was so close.  Deca- is ten, tri- is three, but recti- means right or straight, referring to the, duh, angles of a rectangle.  Rectangle does not mean four angles.  

8. The article leaves both math teachers and English teachers giddy.    

And, yes, I do like counting things.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  This has turned out to be a long post, detailing the donkey show that was the race I ran today.  I'm documenting it for the sake of posterity.  And for some reminders if I ever decide to organize a road race.

I just got back from turkey trotting, something that I barely managed to do this morning.  I awoke at 8:22, after making the poor decision to turn off all my alarms.  I woke up, looked at my watch, and decided that running a race today would probably not be in the cards.  But, I had to get up to go to the bathroom.  Somewhere along the way, I decided I should at least go for a run in the neighborhood.  As I got dressed, I realized that this was a chip race, so I could be a few minutes late.  

I was in the car at 8:35 and running the race by 9:02, while the mob was still crawling across the starting line.  The first mile (oh wait, I never saw the first mile marker, the second time that has happened this fall--Hiccup #1) was slow.  There were so many people and as the 5K runners came back on the turn-around, no one seemed to get the point that we should not be in their way.  Hiccup #2.  We got to the turn around and all the sudden, everyone slowed even more.  I said outloud, "What's going on?"  No answer.  Then I found out.  The 5K was turning around while the 10K was going straight.  No notice, just a sign on the ground, blocked by all the people. Hiccup #3.

We ran on a beautiful multi-use path in San Jose, but at some point, the 10K turn-around came back on itself and we were all on the path, that was only four runners wide.  We were hardly running.  Hiccup #4.  Then, I saw the 3 mile mark.  My watch said 12 minutes for that mile.  I was totally confused.  I knew I had slowed at the bottle neck, but it didn't feel that slow, but what do I know.  Hiccup #5.  I hit mile 4 at 5:26.  Hiccup #6.  Okay, so it seems like the 3 mile mark was in the wrong spot.  I wasn't going crazy, especially since my Nike SportBand almost always shows 9:07 on my easy runs.  Trotting along, I got to 5 mile marker.  6:41 on my watch.  Hiccup #7.  So, far, this race is not exactly going as advertised.  The Pacific USATF was running a 5K championship right after our race...I hope their mile markers were correct and that the 1 mile mark was visible.  

Right after we hit the 5 mile marker, we turned the corner to see a stream of 5K walkers.  As I am processing all of this visual information, I see that we are merging with them onto the path.  The same path that fits 4 runners across.  I don't mind walkers in races one bit, but in the last mile of a race, when I'm trying to push the pace, I would like to be able to run.  So, another bottleneck.  We were hardly running again, and the guy behind me was audibly upset.  He kept asking the walkers to stay to the right (actually his tone was always friendly).  Then, there was a point on the trail where there was a trailer (like a small truck trailer) that  you had to go through.  Most of the runners opted to go through the mud to the left of the trailer.  More bottleneck.  As we were running up a rise, next to the trailer, under a bridge, lots of people were warning us to watch our heads.  We were at a standstill and people were yelling to keep moving.  Then we all saw a woman on her back with a dozen people surrounding her.  She must have hit her head.  She looked completely out of it, but she was conscious.  Hiccups #8 (trailer) and #9 (low bridge and walking again).  Then were were back on the narrow path.  But now, finishers were walking against us back to their cars, I assume.  I was not happy about that, but was happy to see a bike medic going to help the woman who went down.  We weren't on the congested path , but getting on the road wasn't too much better.  There were walkers all over the place.  Usually by the end of a race, things have opened up and you are with people of similar pace.  But, this felt like the beginning of the race...dodging people left and right, people walking right in front of you, people stopping right in front of you.  Finally, I saw the 6th mile marker.  11:44 on the watch.  What do you have to do to get correct mile markers around here?

Coming down the home stretch, when I could finally see the finish line, there was more slowing down.  Almost at the finish, I finally saw someone telling the 10K to stay right, 5K stay left.  Information that would have been helpful a while ago.  

I crossed the finish line just under 9 minute pace.  I was happy about that, given all the hiccups.  For some reason though, most of the people who had finished already, were just standing at the finish, making it frustrating to, again, have to dodge people left and right.  Then, we saw a table with only the remains of packaged water bottles.  There was no water left.  Hiccup #10.

But, I did it. My first race back in the saddle.  While I didn't race and had no plan to, it was nice to have something to do this Thanksgiving.  I am whipping up some more bourbon sweet potatoes to take to my old supervisor's house for a small dinner.  It was nice of her to include me, as I had no plans until a week ago.  I look forward to a time in my life when I can be the person who makes sure to provide a seat for Thanksgiving for those who need one.  A year ago, I was lucky to have a place to be and someone to spend the weekend with.  This year, I'm only half as lucky and I'm very sad to be on the opposite side of the country as my family.  I think this will probably have to be one of the last Thanksgivings without them.

I hope all of you are surrounded by great people today and that your turkey trot was better organized than mine.

Wordle Wednesday #4

The last time I paid under $2 was December 2, 2005.

The last time I paid under $1.85 (to account for the fact that I now live in the, more expensive, state of California) was February 15, 2005.

Longing For Newport

iTunes just made available some tracks from a live show that Brandi Carlile did in Boston.  Among these is a great cover of "Folsom Prison Blues."  This take is just as good as what she did in Newport this summer.  That same energy is there.

Now if only Gillian would put out a record of all the great new songs she played (and the cover of "Jackson") and my Newport playlist would be recreated to my liking.

I'm over the election phase I guess.  Filling the void: men, women, and their guitars.  This morning, while wailing along to "You've Got Growin Up To Do" in my car, I thought I should learn to play the guitar.  Then I tried to figure out when I'd have time to do that.  I didn't get too far...so I'm content to just sing along, at the top of my lungs, for now.

Brandi, Joshua, Lucinda, Bobby...when are you coming to SF?  And not the Fillmore...I hear that people smoke in there.

This Old Courdoroy Coat...

Ahhh....I just love Joshua Radin.  I found this live concert from "Mountain Stage," a public radio bit of awesomeness that is new to me.  And then I watched him on Conan.  Joshua Radin is just the kind of artist who makes me happy.  Of course, I admit that I have a big crush on him, but his music is just my style.  All I need is a guitar and two-part harmony.  I also really like that he bought himself out of his Sony contract because they wanted a "Top 40 Hit" on his new record.  He basically told them, "Ummm...why did you sign me?  You know I write slow, sad songs.  Not exactly the Top 40 type."  So, I'll probably be buying some more of his records just to support him.

And that coat...

...it's not keeping me dry.

Today was some kind of crazy day at school.  I can't really even begin to process it, but now that I'm finally home, it's already time for bed.  It's amazing the amount of work that needs to get done in the next month.  Revisions, assessments, and rec letters.  Oh my!  I am trying to get back to my normal bedtimes and normal running routine.  My foot still hurts, in an odd way.  I can't figure it out.  You'd think that four weeks mostly off would have helped, but I guess it's just being stubborn.  

I only made one kid cry today.  They all almost made me cry three times because they just don't like to listen.  They like to talk to each other.  So, I'm trying to spend more of my class time with them talking about math...and less time fighting for their attention, which they don't like to give me.  But during mentor time, there was a random radio in our room.  Someone turned it on.  I was about to get aggravated with them and ask them to turn it off so I could make announcements (my last two periods just put me right on the edge).  Then I got a glimpse of them having fun, and I just started grooving with them...making announcements to the beat.  Then, one of my kids asked if we could listen to NPR.  (What?)  Then another said, "Oh yeah, see if you can find Car Talk?  Is that on right now?"  This same kid was celebrating his birthday today.  He found me during break and opened a bakery box.  "I saved the last donut for you Ms. Dudley."  Oh man...I almost lost it.  Do my kids really know I exist?  This is from a kid who, last year, was nearly oblivious of all the people trying to help him out and I'm not even sure if he could have identified one positive thing about having me as a mentor.  Not in a mean way, just in a self-involved teenage way.  All year, I have been seeing breakthroughs from this kid.  To start, his first appreciation of the year was a departure from his usual, "I appreciate that today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday, which is almost the weekend."  The first appreciation of the year, this young man said, "I have so many things to appreciate."  Again...losing it.

This old courdoroy coat ain't so bad I guess.  At least it fits me.

Sign of the Apocolypse

Because just running isn't enough...

Perhaps you heard about the SpeedFit on "Wait, Wait..."  I'm not really sure who the target audience is for this product, but watching this video depresses me a bit.

Again...

I am thankful this year and today for people who make me laugh.

Yes, all the ones who get paid for it, but also my friend Elaine.  We had this email dialogue today, the night before we attend a potluck and town meeting of 400 (?!?!) rabid Obama supporters and I'm still laughing:

Me:

I just looked at the insane list of food.  Three things: 1) For me, Obama people means Red Vines and I don't see any of those 2) Someone is bringing potato chips as a dessert, which made me laugh for a while and 3) There are more desserts coming than main dishes.  I don't think there will be any lack of sugar. 

Elaine:

If someone is bringing potato chips for dessert, I bet I could pass off red vines as a salad!

There's a Hole

There's a great Bob Dylan song called "Heartland" that Willie Nelson sings wonderfully.  The song is at once both beautiful and melancholy.  And, as most Bob Dylan songs, it is oh so true.

This picture that I took in Boston this summer reminds me of "Heartland."  A few lines: 

There's a big achin' hole in my chest now where my heart was

And a hole in the sky where God used to be

"Heartland" is an apt song for me right now, as is "Learning How To Live," from Lucinda Williams's great "West" album.  These are both how-to-deal-with-real-life kind of songs.  I'm trying to move past these and "One of Those Days" from Joshua Radin to channel his "Brand New Day" and stay very clear of "I'd Rather Be With You."  Trying...

What Can I Do To Make Up For This?

Pun intended.

JD and I went to the Maker Faire way back in May.  Here's what I said on May 9:

I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo last week with my friend JD. Literally, it was just lots and lots of people who make stuff--robots, sewing projects, a life-size mousetrap, things out of bikes, and power tool drag racing vehicles. It was amazing. At one point, I hit JD and said, "Look, there are people driving cupcakes around!" I will post pictures of that soon.

More than six months later...you have pictures.  There is some bizarro stuff there.

Today, my student teacher asked if "we could say bizarro more often."  I had no idea what he was talking about, so I inquired.  Apparently he thinks it's funny when I say "bizarro," which I said in each of my four classes one day and I say it frequently.  I often say, "We're seeing some bizarro answers on some of your papers today.  Let's go over this."  I can only blame Seinfeld here.

Two random things that weird me out: Sunrise in AK is now 9:51am.  That would be weird.  And there are real pirates.  I don't like that idea and am definitely not going on a cruise anytime soon.

'Tis The Season!

Last night, I was so cold, I was curled up like a dog in my bed.  So, today I got out the down comforter!!  Given how warm it's been around here, I thought I would make it to Thanksgiving without the need of feathers (it's only in the 40s at night, but somehow my house is colder than the outside).  I've layered up, but that didn't cut it last night.  I can't tell you how excited I was about the comforter coming out...I'm already in bed, because it's just so cozy.

Back-Handed Compliment

"Look, the record has obviously been unbelievable," Howard Dean said in an interview with the Huffington Post at the DNC's headquarters. "It wasn't all me obviously...I had a big assist from George Bush..."

Oh man...

Happy 24th!

My little sis...living the dream at the Wawona in Yosemite last March.

Sunday, Sunday

Today started off very ambitious.  Within the first three hours of my day, I had made pancakes, butternut squash soup (a la Sharon) and Kentucky Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, crusted with pecans.  

I caught up on lost of NPR podcasts and while it took him 7 years, Tom Brokaw finally redeemed himself to me.  He was pretty good on "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" today and that may have made the difference.  Some of you may remember that back in college, I threw my remote across the room in a rage, after listening to Tom Brokaw for way too many hours during September 2001.  Within a week of this outburst, I received an email announcement that Brokaw would be speaking at my graduation.  That was almost too much for me to take.  However, years without watching much television has helped me get over the aural pain I suffered back then.  And Brokaw telling the presidential candidates to get out of the way in the second debate, his job on Meet The Press, and now his humor on WWDTM may have fully repaired our relationship.

Today is Leah's birthday!  She's 24!  I'm pretty bummed because I didn't get to talk to her.  I think it's a bit of pre-Thanksgiving blues and the expectation that I'll be really missing my family that's sneaking up on me.

I brought the potatoes over to my graduate school supervisor's house for a little math teacher get together.  I was the most senior of the group, having finished STEP in '03, but I impressed the youngins with some sweet potatoes.

I finished the day by cleaning up my digital camera.  Look for some old pictures to be posted online soon...Maker Faire, Yosemite, and more!

Today, Everyone Came Out

I am currently looking at pictures from city halls across the country, of people protesting California's Proposition 8.  San Francisco had a great rally today, under a clear, blue sky, with tens of thousands of people gathered to show support for...well, equality.  Bec, Adam, and I stood out in the sun, listening to all sorts of people, making the case for equality in this state and country.  I know that there are many people out there that, for some odd reason, are against marriage for "non-traditional" couples, but can you really say you're against equality?  The best speaker was a black Baptist minister.  I mention that he's black so you can imagine this man.  He had that deliberate way of speaking that Southern Baptist ministers have cultivated and boy did he know how to work a microphone and a crowd.  While it seemed that he had very little connection to the gay community, per se, he spoke of seeing the massacre in Selma as a 14-year old and vowed then to never mistreat anyone just because they are different.  The he said things like, "One day, we will be able to say, 'I'm black and I'm proud,' 'I'm straight and I'm sensible.' " (See the comments for Bec's great recollection of this.)  He was a master.  I wish that today, nearly 30 years since Harvey Milk was murdered for being gay in the same city hall we stood in front of today, we could have been there celebrating a big step forward.

I continue to feel very dismayed about this issue and since the vote is over, I hope our lawmakers here take care of things, given that the populous can't seem to make a good decision. 

It was nearly 80 degrees today in SF (what?!?!) and so we left the rally around noon.  We weren't prepared for the heat.  Apparently after we did leave, everyone marched to the Castro.  I'm posting my pictures here, so those who are interested can browse.  A favorite sign that I didn't get to take a picture of: "When do I get to vote on your marriage?"

By going to the rally, I missed the West Regional Cross Country Championships, which I've had on my calendar for months.  I would have loved to have rung my cowbell at Olympian Galen Rupp as he tore up the Stanford Golf Course today.  There's always outdoor track, and this was just a bit more important today.

When It Rains, It Pours

So, the subject of this blog has a negative connotation, right?  Is there a similar one that has a positive connotation.  Maybe something like: when you find a dollar, you find a hundred?  Does that exist.

Usually, my days consist of working and being in my house.  It is rare that I have human contact outside of school (since the election ended).  This weekend is the opposite of what most of my life is usually like.  I am going from social event to social event.  How did this happen?

Friday after work was this:

Mexquite Cantina with the co-workers.  It's been awhile since we have had an "off-site meeting" (as we call it) and I was in need.  What is it about a three-days week that reallly takes it out of you?  Anyway, we have a little ritual that goes like this: no talking about students and if you mention a student's name you have to take a shot of tequila (mom, dad...sorry).  As someone who is pretty much a teetotaller, I try to get through these "meetings" unscathed and focus myself to do so.  Today, I was tricked into saying a student's name.  Someone asked me where we were going after the "meeting" and so I said "so and so's house."  Great!  So, I'm going over to my mentee's house and will see many parents after taking one for the team.  Just great...  But it was nice to talk about real people things like "should we bailout The Big Three" and "should one say 'little' brother about a grown man?"

So, off to my mentee's house.  His father is on the board and so they were having a gathering for the fundraising team and invited teachers along.  It was a very nice shindig and I got to have fun conversations with parents...and we didn't talk about Summit athletics or how to intervene with kids to get them on the right track.  How great!  And I even found out that two parents with whom I work with on athletics are right on my running route.  We're neighbors!  

Then, I booked it to the movies.  I saw "W." with my friend Elaine from the Obama office.  I don't have much to say about the movie except: that actually happened?!?!  One more thing...Brolin nails Bush.

Saturday is the big No on Prop 8 Rally.  I am hoping that it's not an angry event.

Sunday is a math STEP reunion of sorts at my supervisor's house.  I'm going to make mom's bourbon sweet potatoes!!  So much for teetotatling this weekend.

The Day That Won't Die

For those of us who were a bit relieved to see November 5th appear on the calendar, it seems that it just won't go away for Alaska, Minnesota, and Georgia.

Working east to west...

Georgia will have a rematch to decide who should get the seat.  As many of you know, Republican Saxby Chambliss would have won in most states with 49.8% to Democrat Jim Martin's 46.8%.  But, Georgia requires this race to get plurality from its voters.  50%.  So, December 2, let's see what you got Georgia.  Apparently, Johnny Mac has already been dispatched to the state.  Palin must be feeling left out.  Oh wait, she's too busy doing five interviews a day.

Minnesota now has Republican Norm Coleman with 1,211,565 to Democrat Al Franken's 1,211,359.  And then there are almost half a million voting for the third party candidate.  What?!?!  It's separated by 206 votes when 3 million people voted?!?!  It's going to an automatic recount folks!  When will we know?  Ask Florida.

The shocker of my day was in Alaska.  To recap.  It was a close race last week, but our newest felon Senator Ted Stevens still led by about 3200 as of yesterday.  After many ballots came in today (?? does anyone really understand why ballots are showing up now??), Democrat Mark Begich now leads by 3 votes.  125,019 to 125,016.  Again?  What's going on here?  

I have no deep analysis.  However, I will let you know my thoughts.  Is someone just screwing with all of us?  Right now, I'm somewhere between..."My vote really does count (sort of, not really in Cali)!!!" and "Where have these votes been hiding?/Where is someone hiding them?"  Does anyone really understand how our election process works?  Does my vote actually get counted or is there are lot of "ish" counting going on?  Dad, from your ballot counting days...what happens there?  Do absentee ballots actually get counted or just if they matter?  

Right now, I feel like I'm back to the days of driving across the country with my mom.  We had so many questions...and so few answers.  It was comical then when we were asking about wheat and drilling for oil and mileage.  But now, it's the future of our country.  Maybe not so funny to have so few answers.

And, Palin is like a car wreck (Olbermann said she's like a man with a sore tooth...just can't stop touching it...oww!).  I can't look away, but it's oh-so-awful.  Actually, I think I might have my fill after tonight's "Countdown."

A Good Day For Keith

In addition to this great piece, Keith held his own on The View.

One Day

Maybe one day, I'll move on from all this, but I wanted to share some great things that have come across my desk here are Election Central.

Today I got an email from our fearless leader at the phone bank, John.  John is a retired middle school math teacher and served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone.  He is one of those people who is just a quintessential educator.  He ignites the fire within you and finds ways to effortlessly bring out strengths in everyone.  He also can twist your arm and convince you to do something without it feeling like he's twisting your arm.  He just presents a good, rational argument for why things should be a certain way.  As much as I wanted to go door-to-door in Reno, John convinced me that the action was right here in Palo Alto during that last weekend.  And was he ever right.  We made a quarter million calls in those last four days (the perspective here is that our region generally made more calls than all of New York State, the second highest state in call totals after CA, and we made half a million calls after Labor Day).  I never got to be on a true championship sports team.  While my college team won our league a few times and won some NCAA games, this is the closest I've come to that feeling of everyone being in the zone, working so fluidly together, choosing positivity and friendship over stress and pessimism.  And to be honest, I'd rather have this victory anyway.  Over the summer, it became clear to me that I needed to do what I could to help Obama get into office.  And I feel confident saying that there I know many people here, part of Silicon Valley For Obama, who left it all on the field this time.  I am proud to say that I am one of them.

This slideshow is something I doubt I will ever tire from watching.  The man who made it, Curt, is another one of the truly great men we had in the office.  He is someone who puts you at ease, supports you, and includes everyone.  For those of you who have the time to watch, he has composed a beautiful thing here, and I don't know if our office and our people could be captured better.  And I think it speaks better than I can about why this was so meaningful to me.

Here is a great article from the New Yorker.  Having seen the focus, organization, and drive of this campaign at the end, I learned a lot about its genesis from this article.  And here are the smart people behind the Obama campaign on 60 minutes.  The New Yorker article led me to watch Obama's speech at the Jefferson and Jackson dinner.  No notes, no teleprompter, and absolutely amazing.  Many of you know that I tend to stay clear of primary season.  Watching Democrats who have generally agreed about most things (especially all of those who work together in the Senate) nit pick to get ahead of each other is tough for me to deal with.  So, I'm catching up now on Obama's speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire.  It was a tough primary season, this one, and I hope that Democrats around the country know no regrets.  

Then there's Will.I.Am on Oprah.  Love it!

There have been a lot of people interviewed on the news who are saying they are finally proud of America.  Most of these comments are miscontrued by people who consider themselves "true patriots" and I don't think they are meant as a blanket insult to our country up to now.  But, as someone who grew up very patriotic...memorizing the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the Consitution and always thinking about every word I was saying during the Pledge of Allegiance and always excited to vote, it's been a bit crushing.  The elections of 2000 and 2004 took away a little (maybe a lot) of the hope I had as a kid.  The hope that we lived in an amazing country of thoughtful individuals working to bring people together and get things done.  If we recall, the founders of this country were extremely smart men and lately we've shunned politicians who come off as "elitist."  The founders of this country were not particularly religious men and yet we are quick to exclude or at least doubt non-Christians from consideration on the national scale.  I hope that we keep working through these kinks and insecurities.

So, here we are and it seems like we might have that hope back.  Time will tell.  On January 20 (or maybe 21) we will start to see if we as a whole country can hold onto that hope for the next four years.  We can bet that our new president will be holding on to that hope.

And long live fivethirtyeight.com.

Stop The Junk!

Today, I am participating in what seems to be a biennial tradition...getting myself off mailing lists.  I gave some money to the Golden Gate Parks last year, and now I have a stack of mail from all around the region, asking for my money.  Oh, and since I've stayed at Yosemite, they gave my name out too.  Some good advice from everyone I talked to that day: anytime you give out your address, to organizations or to magazines, ask them not to give it to anyone else.  That might be for another day...I'm tired.  

Some of the people I talked to:

Save The Bay...the mailings actually do increase membership, according to Mandy, and the woman I talked to was THE nicest.  She thanked me for calling and asking them to stop sending paper to me.  When I look at making year-end donations, they will be on the top of my list (after Summit Prep, of course).  And maybe volunteering with them will be a good way to get active in the community.

The Yosemite Fund also gets my vote for being awesome and friendly.  The guy was able to figure out who gave them my name (Yosemite Park) and was generally just pleasant.

There are many companies that help you get your name off lists.  Among them are greendimes, proquo, DMA, and Opt-Out.  But, it was fun to get to talk to some people today as I have the day off from school for a long Veteran's Day weekend.

Still Saying No on Prop 8

This Saturday, November 15th, there will be rallies all across the country against Proposition 8.  I hope that some of you will go to the rally in your state and support equal rights for all Americans.

The website is here: http://www.jointheimpact.com/?page_id=32

Remember these words: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  

Let us all be able to pursue happiness.

Television and Your Vote

There's a great article in today's NYT about how "The Cosby Show" may have set the stage for people in this country more comfortable with the idea of a black family in the White House.  Looking at the exit polls and that Cosby watchers and younger voted for Obama in the highest numbers, maybe that did have a big effect on us as we watched.  As I watched, there were so many times when I wanted to be Huxtable...to dress up and lip-sync to songs, to proudly weartacky sweaters, and to have some of that yummy Cliff cooking (stick of butter in the pan with beef and rice as I recall).  

Obviously, people in my generation have grown up exposed to a very diverse world, at least through television.  So, do we now need a television show to help this country accept gay marriage and families of two moms or two dads...or even just one parent?  Ellen is doing all she can, and probably convincing a lot of people that nothing is going to implode when we give everyone equal rights.  While they weren't gay, My Two Dads showed that two men raising a child wasn't so scary.  Similarly, didn't we all want to be part of the Tanner family on "Full House?"  I really hope that soon in my lifetime, we can come to a place where marriage and family is about love and commitment.  I really have a tough time with all of this, because there are a lot of people in this world who get married, not for love, but for other reasons, and have kids when maybe they are not cut out for the job yet.  Meanwhile, we have a whole segment of people who are still fighting, in 2008, for just the chance at adding more happiness to their lives.

I've been totally obsessed with reading opinion pieces about Prop 8 here in California.  There are a lot of opiners out there (Harvey Fierstein, Michael Patrick King, Joe Salmonese, etc) who, like me, can't understand how California is blatantly discriminating against humans, when we voted to give animals more room to move around.  This country has come a long way, but we seem to have this continuous need to opress some of our groups, so that others can be on the top of the pile.

On another note, gas prices here are as low as I've seen them since March '07 (when I was in Mass...so it's probably been even longer since gas was in the $2.40s here in California).  I'm so nervous that all those SUVs are going to start flying off the lots again, after months of slowing sales and seeing some hope that this country would change how we make and buy cars here.  

I am not trying to be pessimistic about what is clearly our country moving in the right direction and I don't expect everything to change at once.  I just wish we could make good decisions about the world and how to live in it every day of the year.

Coming Back From The Edge

My students are about to put me over the edge.  I guess last year's kids spoiled me in that when I asked them to work, they did it.  This year, there's a lot of chatting.  I can't even end a sentence without people talking.  When I ask them to work, they just start talking about whatever they want.  I am a professional babysitter.  But today, I did get an email from a student asking for a meeting with all her teachers and her parents so she can get back on track and improve her grades.  So, we have one motivated kid.  

This four day weekend will be bliss.

Wordle Wednesday #3

Obama accepts:

Now What?

After not seeing my name on Obama's transition team and having two students crying to me today over errors in judgment, I couldn't help but wonder what I was doing with myself now that the election is over.  Sure, I was going to be really depressed with an Obama defeat, but it's still a big downer to have to teach sine and cosine when there's so much more to be done in the world.  Not that my job is trivial, but sine and cosine?  On top of it all, many of us (approximately 48%) here in California are sad today as it looks like Prop 8 passed, which will ban gay marriage here.  This comes after our Supreme Court ruled that there would be no such discrimination in this state last spring.  Now lawsuits will send this vote back to the state Supreme Court.  Rainbow flags were at half mast today in San Francisco.  

So, now I feel the need to find my next act.  Today, it felt like my path might diverge in the near future to something else, but tomorrow is another day.  If anyone thinks of some brilliant way to keep this wave going, I'm all ears. 

P.S. Only one county in New England went red for prez (Piscataquis).  And Tahoe is still blue too.

Consider Us Organized

I can't really begin to put into words what I've just experienced.  I walked into the Obama office at the end of September for Barack, and I kept going back because of the people supporting him and because I knew I was working with and for some of the best people around.  The Republicans may joke about community organizers, but I have seen first-hand how much of an impact it makes to actually do things in your community.  Maybe I don't have responsibility per se, but I always felt like I was actually doing something with others.  We were working together.  I wasn't bossing anyone around, but supporting others to do what they came to do.

Today was amazing.  I woke up and watched Obama vote with his family.  Since I wasn't going to the polls myself, I needed the connection to voting today to get me going.  I bounded to the office with the feeling like it was Christmas.  I was giddy and excited and I couldn't wait to get there.  We had already called Ohio and were on to Pennsylvania (spelled Pennslyvania on our info sheets...oops).  We were told that our calls today would be dictated by exit polls.  I wish I didn't know that because it made me nervous all day...thinking...are things bad in PA?  Why are we calling for so long?  Then it was a rush to make calls to volunteers in Lafayette, Indiana because voters and the campaign needed help.  Yikes!  What's going on there?  I stopped for a moment to see these amazing pictures on the NYT website.  I love the people voting in the general store.  But my break was only so long, for then it was back to PA for a long while, then New Hampshire, Missouri until their polls closed, Colorado until their polls closed, Iowa until their polls closed, and then Nevada until their polls closed.  Finally, we called Alaska.  We were told it was still a close race at that point (500 votes with 2 hours until polls closed).  Really?  Or did the campaign want to let us have a little fun.  It was a bit suspicious when we got call sheets for Wasilla.  

I took the day off work and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to do so.  It was even more amazing that some of my colleagues texted me during the day to thank me for the work I was doing.  Of course, it's the callers who really deserve so much credit for all that's been done in our office.  I've been so thrilled to help facilitate them each night.

In the midst of all these calls, the polls finally started to close at 4pm and we tried to get information.  It was like high school gossiping in the office.  Whispers here and there.  First we heard NH and PA (whew!...I guess the calling worked).  Who knows the order I heard the rest, but I know there Ohio came at some point and then Wisconsin, and then New Mexico (I think some of our callers individually won that state for Obama...we spent about a month calling there every night).  Then we heard about Virginia and we were over 200 electoral votes.  But, I had to pull out my teacher hat and keep the callers on task.  Our job was not over.  The call sheets did not stop.  It was around 7:30pm that we got word that we could stop calling.  No one in the office (more than 100 people) were willing to call the election, but we were celebrating.  We had called so many states that were now blue and you can't help but think about voters you talked to in each state.  The woman in New Mexico who "sounds just like my sister," (a line that actually got me out of the seat and into a training role at the office), a woman in Florida who was so nervous to vote for fear it'd be stolen, and the 87-year old man in Pennsylvania who tried to vote twice today but can't stand up long enough to wait the line (watching our office find a ride for this man and someone to get him to the front of the line was amazing).  You think about those voters who said "Keep up the good work," "Thank you for all your doing," and "We're doing everything we can here to get this guy in the White House."  I still get goosebumps thinking about those conversations.

When I hopped in my car just in time to hear that Obama looked like the winner, I couldn't believe it.  I still can't, really.  I can't remember what it's like to have someone other than Bush as president.  I can't remember what it's like to feel like our president is going to do everything he can for us and the world.

I don't envy our president-elect and the job that lies before him.  But, I am inspired by him.  Now, I am on to figuring out what's next for me and what my role will be in this country.  While I did not spend as much time on this campaign as most, I did catch the community organizing bug to some degree.  More than I've felt in the past two months of teaching, I felt like every day I was doing something truly important and worthwhile with my time.  And I appreciate that Obama reminded us tonight that we have started the way to change and we need to keep working towards it, and I hope to figure out what that is for me.  This is the general consensus in the office.  Everyone is trying to figure out what we can do next.  Thanks for joining me on this journey and I'll keep you posted on where it takes me.  Now, it's time for some sleep (and my apologies if my writing is sloppy...it's just so darn late).

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Two More Days

The candidates have one, but as volunteers, we have two.  Tuesday will be just as busy as this weekend as we try to make sure that everyone has voted.

It's bittersweet, seeing all this come to an end.  Of course, I can't wait to go to bed at my normal time and to be able to better prepare for my day job, but I will miss everyone at the office very much.  Yesterday, we made over 72,000 calls to Nevavda, North Carolina, Ohio, and Colorado.  That's like calling all of Orange County.  And today, we get to do it all again.  I'll be at school today, but I'll head to the office to close up this evening.  I've been there every day for three weeks, as much to help Barack as to be with my Obama family there, and it's hard to imagine not going there after work every day.  I hope I can take the day off tomorrow so I can just enjoy every last moment working on this campaign.

Here are some great pictures taken by Curt.  It's amazing for me to look at these and realize how many people I've worked with, trained, and met while being a part of this movement.  They have all made living in California so much better.  It's like have gained a whole slew of aunts and uncles who help take care of me and look out for me too.

Here's a great video of Bobby Kennedy's widow and son.

The funniest thing that happened yesterday was when one of my callers handed in her sheet and said, "This phone number, here, for Ted...it's a dog.  Someone put their dog in the phonebook.  How do I mark that?"  Ah Ohio...

Tough Women

Paula Radcliffe won the NY Marathon.  She looked so strong, especially after what must have been a disappointing Olympic race for her.  Kara Goucher, one of my favorites, finished third in the best American marathon debut since Deena Kastor's seven years ago.  Kara also ran a great race.  Watching her splits refresh every 5K made me wish I could have that kind of pace consistency for miles on end.  

In other running news, Deena Kastor has posted an update on her injury on her website.  She's walking without pain and I can understand being in a place where even the slightest gain back to running is a huge deal.  I' m about to head out for a very short run to see how my foot responds.

The Perks Of Voting

On Tuesday you can get...

free coffee at Starbucks when you tell them you've voted,

a free star-shaped donut at Krispy Kreme with your "I Voted" sticker,

and free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's just by walking in and being human.

Oh, and a new president.

Yay voting!

Dor L'Dor and Door to Door

In Hebrew, dor l'dor means "from generation to generation."  I thought of this phrase today as I drove to the Obama office and listened to a message from my mom.  She was on her way to Dorchester to the Obama office there and my grandmother was out canvassing door to door for Obama in Florida.  Three generations campaigning as hard as we can on this last Saturday before the election.

I am not in Reno going door to door as I had planned...I never received confirmation or directions and Palo Alto just needed me more.  We are given the task to make 220,000 in these last four days.  I started my day by running around in the pouring rain from store to store looking for thousands of earplugs.  I found 1000 atHome Depot, my third stop.  I ran the plugs into the office around 11 am and it was busting at the seams...more than 100 people in our small little space.  I gave someone the earplugs and ran out again to have breakfast with Bec and Adam.  About 20 minutes after I arrived back at the office, I was asked to go to a local church and set up a phone banking site there.  That's how busy were were...we had filled up the 100ish seats in the office, the 15 seats at Happy Donuts (which everyone keeps calling Dunkin' Donuts, which drives me a bit mad), and the 35 seats at Celia's Cantina.  We called Florida, Colorado (including one Dudley in Denver), Florida again, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Nevada for a total of 55,000 calls!  Yesterday we hit our office high of 15,000 and we were pumped, which makes today was a whirlwind for all of us.  Thank goodness for falling back.

Back for more tomorrow!