Lucky

In case you didn't know already, I work at the best school in the world. My 17 mentees are the sweetest and the funniest (and they matured since last year). My seniors are not driving me crazy, yet. Although I think they are scared of me. That's the rumor, at least.

Today, when my mentees were filling out their daily schedule, one of my students did the following:

The sheet asked kids to record when they wake up, eat, do homework, go to bed, etc. Next to Wake Up, M wrote: "in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy." Oh thank goodness I didn't move.

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Monthly Playlists Making a Comeback!

I finally figured out how to publish playlists in iTunes when I don't own all the songs. With iTunes 9, users became unable to drag and drop a song from the store into a playlist while logged in to their account. However, if you just sign out of your account, you can do it all you want! Let the monthly playlist resume!

Usually, I like to publish at the end of the month. But, since school is back in session and you never know how the first few weeks will treat you (case in point: I'm up too late). And I'm just so excited about this one.

So, here's the link to this month's playlist. It's a song from every artist I saw at Newport Folk Festival, in the order I saw the artists. And I think it's darn good. I am in love with Andrew Bird and I am still giddy that I saw his only 2010 solo show in North America. If he had performed both days, I would have hung on his every note through both sets. He is and was incredible!

Thank G-d

Potentially I'll end my radio silence, or maybe I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and check in here every so often.

What should I blog about? Grading AP exams, being a tourist at Alcatraz, the wedding of some former colleagues, my trip to the Galapagos, the wild rollercoaster of my employment status, my trip home including Newport Folk Festival and family reunion, starting school again, or my beautiful bike ride with my former mentee. So yeah, there's a backblog.

What am I going to blog about? The things I'm going to do instead of blogging. While I don't think I'll quit this thing completely, don't be surprised what happens. I have no idea how much I'm going to blog, but I do know that I've had little time to blog this summer (or little time that I wanted to blog).

I'm staying in California (in my mind, it'll be for the next three years at least), so the first order of business was making commitments to things I love, the things that make me happy. Here are those commitments:

Run 3-5 miles 3-4 times a week and feel like that is great!
Go to temple once a month
Write more letters – at least one/week
Do not be an Athletic Director
Running club in PA? Mon/Wed
Volunteer at Cycling events?
Reading – finish an average of one book a month
Friend stuff – do something YOLO-ish once per month...get outside, go to cool stuff, be with people
Cooking - do it more often, try new recipes, make lunch every day
Read the paper every day (at least enough to know what's going on in the world)
Crossword puzzle – attempt four times a week, including Sunday

There are things that aren't on here - anything about my job (I already know how to work really hard, so much so that I need to commit to working fewer hours) and cycling (I ride at least 40 miles per week to school anyway which is a good start). I have a few question marks, that I want to feel out, but I also want to make them public so that I remember to push myself on them.

The best thing that's happened to me recently is that I found a temple. It happened last night, actually. I haven't looked very hard for a temple out here and I think I've just assumed that I wouldn't find one replace TI in Boston, but last night, I honored a long-calendared commitment to go to temple. I went to a temple in SF that, like TI, holds a monthly late Shabbat service for young adults (which apparently I still am). I purposefully kept my expectations minimal, but even if I kept them high, I would have been pleased.

The service was so much like the Young Adult Shabbats in Boston. Similar vibe, similar spirituality, and just as packed, if not more so. And on the way out, I ran into a girl who I went to college with. She told me how she always wants to come more often...maybe that's something we can do together.

As I drove home, I thought about the rabbi's sermon (about finding "the place of your soul"). I am pretty sure I know where that place is for me and so far, I haven't found something to match it on this coast. I don't think I've been open to finding something like that place here. So, that's what the next year is about. Doing what makes me happy and at peace with the world...to balance all the working I'll be doing. Here goes!

Reflection On My Life

"When asked "What do we need to learn this for?" any high-school teacher can confidently answer that, regardless of the subject, the knowledge will come in handy once the student hits middle age and starts working crossword puzzles in order to stave off the terrible loneliness."

— David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day)

I both love and hate this observation.