Happy New Year

Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year, on this beautiful California evening.

Music Lists

Back before podcasts, I listened to A LOT of full albums (I still buy CDs so that I can listen to them straight through, over and over). I'll spare you lots of words about each of these, but the chronology is here (although I wasn't always on the cutting edge).

(Note: I can't figure out what full albums I was listening to in 2000...the mix CD still ruled my life)

O Brother, Where Art Thou (soundtrack) - Baltimore '01-'02

Parachutes by Coldplay - Apt 1010, Baltimore '01-'02

Brushfire Fairytales by Sim Redmond Band - grad school, 2002, cruising around the campus, fun with JJB

Good Thoughts by Sim Redmond Band - grad school, 2002 vacation in Pebble Beach

Busted Stuff by Dave Matthews - grad school, 2002 driving on 280

Justified by Justin Timberlake - grad school 2003

Songs About Jane by Maroon 5 - grad school 2003, rainy winter at Hillsdale High

A Rush Of Blood To The Head by Coldplay - sunny days in Berkeley Spring 2003

Whoa, Nelly by Nelly Furtado - first semester of teaching, Fall 2003

Red Letter Days by The Wallflowers - lots of confused trips between Cambridge and MetroWest in Fall 2003

Soul Journey by Gillian Welch - snowy NYC trip 2003...Whitinsville 2004

White Ladder by David Gray - Whitinsville, 2004

Nickelcreek (self-titled) - Whitinsville, 2004

Garden State (soundtrack) - this music changed my life, 2004

Feels Like Home by Norah Jones - busy work music in my aunt's NYC classroom, 2004

Skylight by Harpswell Sound - Maine 2004/5

The Eminem Show by Eminem - various times in the Saab but mostly on the Mass Pike, mid-aughts

The Creek Drank The Cradle by Iron & Wine - Winter '04-'05 in Somerville

We Were Here by Joshua Radin - Fall 2005 driving to and from field hockey games

Twilight by Twilight Singers - winter '04-'05...whoa...can't believe how long it's been

The Tigers Have Spoken by Neko Case - Brookline and/or Charlestown winter '05

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco - some nondescript time in Somerville '04-'06

Futuresex/Lovesound by Justin Timberlake - Fall 2006...good afterschool working in the classroom music

Loose by Nelly Furtado - seventh semester of teaching, Fall 2006

Trouble by Ray LaMontagne - winters, working, '06, '07

The Clarence Greenwood Recordings by Citizen Cope - Woods Hole trip 2007

Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams - various times, latter part of decade

Ongiara by Great Lake Swimmers - this album got me through many, many trips up to Tahoe and back in 2007 and one of the best opening songs of any album I know

The Story by Brandi Carlile - Cali road tripping summer 2008

West by Lucinda Williams - Fall 2008, losing daylight

Simple Times by Joshua Radin - Cali 2009

Together Through Life by Bob Dylan - cruisin' in Cali 2009

For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver - the 'Gucc 2009

Vampire Weekend (self-titled) - 'Gucc 2009

Viva La Vida by Coldplay - summer 2009

I And Love And You by The Avett Brothers - driving to and from school...the entire fall semester 2009

Songs of the Decade (49 of the 73 on my December playlist were able to be published in iTunes. I thought I had figured out how to make it work by using only songs that I owned, but if they are songs that don't match iTunes in the slightest way, they don't show up in the published iMix. You used to be able to drag and drop songs you didn't own into the mix and that would solve it...why must you prevent me from the drag and drop iTunes? Why?)

Sigh...

Link here!

Best Stuff

Wow...did we really just start a millenium this way? This was the decade of the Internet explosion and all that it entails, wars with many lands, and reality (and real competition) shows in the living rooms of all Americans. Kind of depressing when put that way. Coming up with the best stuff of the decade is tough because it's hard to think back to when I was a teenager and the time when we didn't have this stuff. I can hardly remember what that was like.

Best Stuff o' the Decade:

Podcasts - my vote for the best thing to come out of this decade, but I guess they wouldn't be as awesome without the ipod.

iPod

Blogs - obvi.

YouTube

Google!

Single camera comedies (and their stars - Fey, Carell, Braff, et al)

Honda Insight - paving the way for the Prius, which made it cool to drive hybrid

Tesla Roadster

The GPS as a personal electronic

Social networking - I could care less if Facebook and Twitter went away at the stroke of midnight, but Good Reads has changed my book reading for the better.

The rise of Whole Foods - you can have any kind of dietary restrictions under the sun and WhoFo understands

Comedic News (Onion, Daily Show, Colbert Report...)

Netflix

Obama

Point and Shoot Digital Cameras

Skype

Reviving Kafka

Texas Instruments software - changing how one can teach students mathematics and calculator functions

Non-BPA water bottles

Increased social and environmental responsibility

What I Could Do Without:

Cell phones everywhere...as if they have

Globalization - local shops closing and USPS losing ground

Twitter...why is everyone talking about this?

Photographs are hardly a physical thing anymore now

Book List

I met my goal of reading at least 12 books this year. It's far fewer than I'd like or really aspire to, but it's progress. Next year I hope to keep increasing my numbers.

Back before Good Reads was a site, I kept track of the books I read in a word document on my computer. With that and GR, here is my list of the best books I read in the last decade that I would read again in an instant. It's been some good reading. These are not necessarily published in the last decade, but just the best of what was in my hands in those ten years.

Angle of Repose - my mom's favorite book, and so thus, I love it too. It is simply a wonderfully told story of family, love, and land.

Everything is Illuminated - my favorite author and a ridiculously impressive first novel.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - a ridiculously strong follow-up to Illuminated

Botany of Desire - Pollan's best, in my opinion.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers - I read a bunch of this book while on in the training room during the fall of my senior year in college. Hard to believe that was also in this decade. I'm a math nerd through and through and when I read about Ruth-Aaron numbers, I was in heaven.

Blue Highways - the book that made me want to explore the world. And the book that reminds me to accept myself.

It's Not About The Bike - I love reading about my heroes. This was the book that put Lance on that list.

Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris made me one of his followers with this book, the first of his that I read.

Into The Wild - I read this is the summer of 2000, when I returned to being a reader (after 7 years of hating reading, mostly brought on by lack of interest in my assigned school reading and uninspiring English teachers). I believe this is Krakauer's finest. He tells this story so neatly and passionately.

Pre - I love books about my heroes and Steve Prefontaine inspires me to this day.

Honorable Mention (books I wouldn't read again, but still such great reads)

Monkey Wrench Gang - this book isn't a book I'd read again, but I just loved reading it at the time. I think those are the books I remember best...the ones I couldn't put down.

Life of Pi - it took me a few tries to get into this book, so it's barely making this list, but I really liked the story in the end. It's fun when at the end of the book you understand what the author was trying to do at the beginning.

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder. Paul Farmer. Fantastic.

My Movies List

As many of you know, I love, love, love year end/decade end/century end/millennium end lists. I've been doing nothing but catching up on all of them from every source I can.

I'm working on lists of my own.

Movies I Loved This Decade:

Best of the Best - Movies I Would Watch Ad Naseum if I Owned Them:

Royal Tenenbaums (I do own it)

Garden State

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Almost Famous

Best In Show

Amelie (own it)

High Fidelity

Slumdog Millionaire

Wall - E

Winged Migration (but only because I have a big screen in my house)

The Rest - Movies Of The Last 10 Years that I Would Watch Right Now:

Darjeeling Limited

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Little Miss Sunshine

Good Night and Good Luck

Two Days In Paris

Aristocrats

Death To Smoochy

Step Up

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I Heart Huckabees

Spellbound

Stranger Than Fiction

Thank You For Smoking

Finding Nemo

Ratatouille

Helvetica

"Best" Movies I Haven't Seen (movies on the lists that I haven't seen and why):

There Will Be Blood - blood...ewww

No Country For Old Men - I hear this one has killing and/or dying

Lord of the Rings - sci fi...yikes!

City of God - huh?

Moulin Rouge - seems Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish

Brokeback Mountain - just didn't get the time

Pan's Labyrinth - is this anime? That's what my brain thinks.

25th Hour - huh?

Memento - potentially disturbing

Mulholland Drive - potentially disturbing

Kill Bill - potentially disturbing

Spirited Away - potentially anime

The Departed - killing and/or dying

The Hurt Locker - killing and dying and war

Together - huh?

Casino Royale - was this on someone's list? Never seen a Bond movie...didn't want to start now...

Grizzly Man - possible death and/or mauling

The Bourne Movies - possible moments where I'd be too nervous

Not Too Shabby

I was that kid who never had one of those license plates in the airport gift shop and someone whose name is perpetually misheard, misspelled, and mispronounced. It's nice to get some good name karma every now and then.

Today's New York Times crossword. #19 across. Amazing. With all the vowels in my name, it was only a matter of time before I saw this.

The rest of the puzzle is a work in progress.

Cracking

Finals week. Capital O M G! I can't even see straight or think straight. Here's all the fun stuff I am doing (and please don't say...oh but you get two weeks off and the rest of us don't get anything...because I'm apparently working at my other job every day that I'm not in Boston...so much for catching up on sleep and work):

Creating all the schedules and attendance sheets for the seniors during finals week

Planning review sessions for my Stats kids

Proctoring exams in the morning and running review sessions in the afternoon

Helping to hone a proposal for the math department's new direction

Taking pictures of students

Learning all 410 students' names

Planning the last 4 hours of school on Friday after the math final

Writing a math final (well, more like polishing)

Making my math final more accessible for my kids who have learning differences and difficulty with the English language

Writing pump up post-it notes for my kiddos

Trying to be Jewish...lighting candles every night

Attending work parties

Ordering pizza for the 30 kids I'll have at school from 5-8 pm tomorrow to study (what was I thinking?)

Creating a slide show of students for a naming competition that we will have on Friday

Crafting a mix CD for my friend (lots of pressure)

Trying to pull something together for the holidays

Trying to keep up appearances with some friends

Trying to keep my sanity and wake up when my alarm goes off

Trying to smile even when I don't want to

But I am not in the hospital trying to keep a pre-term baby in utero (thinking about you AH). And I am not JMac, who is moving to LA at the end of the semester and her husband packed all her underwear when he left the house on Tuesday. She has two more days until she is reunited...

But JMac wrote to me saying...if you weren't cracking jokes, I'd worry that you were cracking up. It's true. I'm trying to keep my sense of humor.

Happy birthday Ma! (And Beethoven!) I'm almost home...

Do Something

Assumptions:

People who are reading my blog know me personally.

If you read this and don't know me personally (or my family/friends personally), well, I'm not sure why you're reading my blog, but my political views come out every so often. If you don't agree, don't read.

You will pardon my incoherence (and help me correct it)...I am an overworked teacher, after all.

Okay, if you're still reading, I'm going to ask you to do something. You need to email your senators and representative right now and tell them what you think of their recent votes regarding the Health Care Bill. Right now, the Republicans are doing whatever they can to keep Health Care Reform from happening at all. The way I see it, Republicans are putting abortion bans in the bills (despite the laws already on the books) so that Democrats won't pass the bill as a whole. They are playing their cards so that the midterm elections are advantageous for them, without fully considering the needs of their constituents.

For the 54 Senators who voted on the side of civil rights today, they need our thanks and appreciation (especially those who are facing tough re-election battles next fall). You can head to Planned Parenthood to thank all the Senators who took Nelson-Hatch off the table.

Tonight, I went to a meeting of people in the area who are concerned about the implications of the Stupak Amendment in the House Health Care Reform Bill (the equivalent of Nelson-Hatch). One thing I heard loud and clear is that there are not a lot of young women involved in this fight right now. It's true, we haven't had to fight to get equality. I was playing soccer and baseball with the boys from an early age. I was never told that I couldn't be whatever I wanted. I never considered that I might not have access to the health care I needed and the advice of doctors about my health as a woman. I haven't had to take my friends to get illegal abortions. But there are a great many women alive today who continue the fight for women's rights and we must join them. We can't take their work for granted. We must continue to remind our politicians that they need to speak up for us women...we are more than half of this country.

But, I have had students who have been faced with the choice. And I know each of them made a choice. They didn't all choose an abortion, but I know they all made a choice. We cannot let this choice disappear for those who cannot afford private health insurance.

For every woman you know, for every woman whose voice is not as strong as yours, and for every girl that inherits the rights we currently maintain, rights that we must protect, send an email or get on the phone. Talk to your friends.

My guess is that you're like me and you haven't really heard of the Stupak and Nelson amendments until someone called it to your attention. Here are some links about women's health and the Stupak bill that I found interesting, but are not necessarily on both sides of the aisle.

Not Under The Bus

Rachel Maddow (oh, how I've missed you)

Kaiser Family Health Report

Five Thirty Eight Analysis

Erren

As a teacher, you sometimes connect with certain students and you realize: "I was meant to teach that student." (And I get such joy when I see students of mine connect with another teacher in a way that makes that student fell so important.) I have a few of those in my current class. Students who resonate with me as a person or a learner or who maybe just need someone like me to be on their side. These are usually students who inspire me to be at my best with them and I feel like a real teacher.

Today, one of my students was down. Everything about this student was screaming teen angst, or the like. I wrote an email with a quick note to "perk up" and "enjoy this one chance in your life to be a high school senior." I got a reply with "I've decided that I'm not going to act like that anymore."

Here's what I wrote in response. Sometimes I think I need to be my own teacher, too.

You have decided you can't act like that anymore? That sounds bold, which can be good. I think bold is good, but not brash. I'm sorry that unfortunate things led you to this conclusion, but just like humans are bad at random [AP Stats teacher in me always comes out], we often have a tough time making the best decisions. It often takes getting burned (a few times even) to really learn not to touch the stove (or put your chin too close to a cup of tea, in my case). I am sure that any of the adults you know, myself included, can make a longer list of mistakes we've made than great decisions. That's not to say that we're always screwing up in life, but making mistakes, learning from them and doing better...this is what makes us who we are to a large extent.

Coincidentally, I'm listening to Pandora and a song just came on called "Mistakes I Meant To Make." Song titles like this are just great.

And finally for you: my favorite quote from one of my favorite books. It's a book called Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. The book is autobiographical about a man who loses his job as a teacher and on the same day his wife, with whom he's separated, tells him about another man she's been seeing. Ugh! He basically gets in his camper van right away and sets off on an extended road trip...on only the blue highways, which refers to the color used on maps for the rural roads connecting towns (as opposed to the color used for major highways and interstates). The book is just fabulous. There are many books out there about trying to find yourself when so much seems lost, but I love this one the most because of his fabulous writing and how much he describes the land and its people.

p213...he starts thinking about errors that has led him to this place.

"The word error comes from a Middle English word, erren, which means "to wander about," as in the knight errant. The word evolved to mean "going astray" and that evolved to mean "mistake." ... The annals of scientific discovery are full of errors that opened new worlds: Bell was working on an apparatus to aid the deaf when he invented the telephone; Edison was tinkering with the telephone when he invented the phonograph. If a man can keep alert and imaginative, an error is a possibility, a chance at something new; to him wandering and wondering are part of the same process, and he is most mistaken, most in error, whenever he quits exploring."

I don't believe that we are really meant to ever stop wandering in life and that means making mistakes. But learning from them has to be the most important part. At least that's what I tell myself. Potentially, we could stumble upon something wonderful in life while on a misguided journey that feels hopeless.

The very end of the book finds him at a gas station and the attendant says, "Where you coming from?"

He answers: "Where I've been."

Oh man. It's so good. I need to read this book again. And I need to delight in the wandering.

Home Stretch

With only a few holidays left in the year, I'm starting to get restless for some new goals. I completed all of mine for 2009 (except maybe not the "get out more on the weekends"...because how was that a SMART goal?), which makes me think I need a bit of a challenge this year. (SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.)

I will probably try to up some of the goals from last year...more riding, more running, and more books seems like a reasonable task.

Some other thoughts that are floating around:

Become a "Vegan Before 6pm." I don't think I'm ready to let go of animal products completely, but most of the time seems okay. The hitch on this is that I ride my bike a lot more when I don't have to deal with lunch and school lunch is definitely not vegan. This is a work in progress.

Get a little more into the bike stuff...you know, learn how to track stand, do a race (possibly cyclocross now that I know someone around here who does it), go on rides. But here is the conflict...do I want to be a runner or a cyclist? How does one manage both of those sports? I can't imagine how I would have added cycling to my life in the past semester as a teacher. Basically, CKB, I'm asking you how it's possible.

I was supposed to run a marathon today. One that I was training hard for up until mid-October. But this year has been, well...pretty awful at school. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and my job is enjoyable when I'm in the classroom, but it is literally all I do. I work seven days a week and at least 10 hours a day, if not 12 or 14 during the actual work week. I literally have no balance anymore. In the life gives you lemons analogy, I have put the lemons into a drawer in the fridge and am praying that they don't rot before I can deal with them. Actually more accurately...hopefully they don't rot before I am required to make lemonade for school.

I have had to resort to buying my lunch at school just so that I can have a little less on my plate and have time to ride to work. I have stopped running, just so I can get 7 hours of sleep instead of 5 or 6. It is with this track record that I have trouble thinking about the next 12 months. I honestly don't know how I will manage the next six months with sanity. I want to be a dedicated, consistent runner and I want to ride my fixed gear everywhere and I want to meet new friends and actually spend time with them and I want to be planned for school far in advance and when my kids ask me if I look nice because I have a date, I want to be able to say yes. I want to feel reliable and organized again. And I want to turn 30 in the presence of at least one person who I adore rather than by myself.

So maybe the only goal I should have for 2010 is to do whatever it takes to get my life back and get on track. I don't want to be at the end of 2010 wondering where I went wrong. But that is daunting to me. I have about 25 days to figure out where to start.

More Funny People

Here's the latest in people being very, very clever.

Fixie "Friends"

On Friday afternoon, a student told me, "You seem happier lately." I'm glad to know that's what it seems, but I'm not sure if it's true. One thing that could be the root is that I've been riding my fixed gear exclusively for the last few weeks (and commuted on it every day this week) and I am having a blast. Some background...a bunch of my students ride after school on Thursdays (mostly fixed gear riders but not all). They ask me to ride each week and every week I remind them that I have a conflicting faculty meeting. Here's a snippet from a conversation I had with another student on Thursday.

St: "Ms. D...so we're going riding tomorrow [Friday] after school?"

Me: "Ummm...we are?"

St: "Yeah."

Me: "Have we talked about this before?" (Now I'm getting confused that I'm losing my mind and memory.)

St: "No, but I thought if it sounded like it was already happening, it would be easier to get people to go."

Me: "Okay, great!"

So, yesterday afternoon, I hipstered up and joined the boys (the girls didn't have their bikes). One of the coolest things about my kids is the fact that they spend quite a bit of their time riding bikes. There are some of them who don't even have a driver's license because they really don't need one.

So we took off and headed for the bayshore area by our school. Business parks full of nice smooth roads for riding. When we went over the train tracks on the way and I dropped by chain (must have been too much slack), I had three young bike enthusiasts all over it. Literally, I just watched them as they fixed my bike. It was pretty cute. One thing that surprised me is that as I rode around with them, I can't remember hearing a single cuss word. And I don't think it was because I was there (given that my presence doesn't seem to stop most teenagers I know). What a relief to know that there are some youngins out there who keep it clean. Although I was told I couldn't talk about math. Noted.

We saw two awesome things: A sign at a boathouse that read "Warning: Watercraft may come out of the blue" and some mini train cars (about the size of a large bathtub) on a mini train track.

We got back to the school, brought our bikes in to find that a DJ 101 course was happening. It was not an official class, but a 9th grader from our sister school came over to get some tips from our Finnish exchange student and DJ. Bizarrely, this was a spectator sport for anyone else in the school at the time. I tried to practice track stands in the meantime...so far, not so good. And I illegally rode my bike around school (we have a rule about no wheels in the building but less than 10% of our population was still around).

Some other funny school things. In the past few weeks, I have signed a few contracts with students about work. These are not contracts that I have initiated. These are contracts that my students have asked me to sign. One was completely normal about what does the student need to do to improve her grade. The other was kind of a riot. I have been avoiding "high-fiving" all year to try to limit contact to germs. Instead, I'll fist bump or "high-elbow" instead. I have one student who cannot handle this. So, he asked if I'd agree to a contract: unlimited high fives for as long as he kept up on his schoolwork (homework, passing tests, etc.). I signed it. He's still on track and I'm not sick yet. Win win.

Two weeks left before first semester is over. So awesome and so scary.

Viruses...The Good Kind

On Wednesday night, I got the greatest email. It was from a collegue and she asked, "Can we use these with our students?" They are the best viral videos of the week (and one of the best campaigns I've seen in a while): LG's Give it a Ponder campaign. And yes, my students will be watching.

Meow

The Honeysuckle Twins

Brush Your Teeth

Steamy

Off Script

I love this time of year and decade. The Soy Nog and seltzer and keeping me well hydrated for all the "end of a significant period of time" lists out there.

I'll keep you posted on my favorites as they come up. Here is the first that you must check out: Newsweek's "When Life Went Off-Script." The top ten of the naughts and they are some pretty good ones. Of course, what would we do without YouTube...without which we wouldn't have already seen these ad nauseum. But the commentary is fun.

If you want the short version...the decade in 7 minutes is here. They have a bunch of great lists. "Unknown in '99, Indispensable Now" is just crazy to think about.

New Look

I am not as on top of this as my friend AS always is, but here is a shot of my new do. Given that I don't have a husband to take pictures like she does, I am happy that my new computer has a webcam to do it for me. I don't have a before picture, but my hair was a lot longer and a lot lighter in color. Also, my chin didn't have a burn on it. Seeing this picture makes me think that I should have gone a touch shorter on the hair. The haircut is pretty drastic for me...I've had my hair about 6 inches longer than this for three years or so. I'm excited to go back to something short.

I was thinking today that not many people go their job and encounter 450 people who know them by name (and it's a mutual acquaintance) like I do. So, when I walk into school with a new haircut and a burn on my chin, I am asked about both by approximately 100 people. No lie. I have two different stories about the burn that I tell. I started by telling people the truth. That I was so cold in my house (since I don't turn on the heat) that I was trying to warm up with some tea and that I was holding it close to my face to warm from the steam and that I got too close and burned my chin on the water. That's what actually happened. But after having multiple people laugh hysterically in my face (with no signs of remorse for doing so), I started saying that I crashed my bike. People don't laugh in your face when you tell them that.

But the nice part about having a big work family is that there are many, many people to compliment you on your new haircut. The response is overwhelmingly positive, which makes me feel great. If you aren't around a teacher all the time, you might not know that we are at one of the low points of the year emotionally. It's tough trying to get to winter break...the kids are restless, they are tired, and they aren't scared of failing anymore (because they have settled into the year and the failures have possibly happened already). So, to walk into work and have tons of people tell you that you look great just makes things so much better and I've been pretty positive this week.

So, if you know a teacher, other than me, give them a compliment, send them a card, write them a poem, buy them a cookie...whatever you think might help. One of my friends sent me an award for the Hippest Teacher in CA, due to my fixed gear riding. I don't think I am really remotely close to hip, but it definitely made my day and got me through the next one.

I'm totally on a Wes Anderson kick. Have been watching Darjeeling Limited and Royal Tenenbaums lately and hope to see Mr. Fox again so I can analyze. One of my kiddos asked me which WA movie was my favorite and when doing so, I realized some commonalities that I'd like to investigate in other films so I can write about them. And another student and I are doing our Intersession book club and reading "Cat's Cradle." I'm so appreciative of my cool kids, even if they could stand to a bit work harder in school.