The Goings On

Here are some life updates:

I have yet to mention that I was at "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" on opening day. This may shock those who know me well. I have never read Twilight nor seen the movie. In fact, I bypass everything related to R-Patz on Perez. I don't know what Team I'm on. Team Good Writing? Is that possible here? Doesn't seem like it.

So, why was I there? I have some great teacher friends who are into the books and I just wanted the girl time. After years of refusing to get on the bandwagon...with Titanic and Harry Potter, for example...I am starting to cave. Mostly because I don't know what else to do. But, I did get some fun hours with my friends, which makes me feel better about the world.

My thoughts on the flick: It was entertaining but not good. I was scoffing out loud at the dialogue (and why did I learn to spell dialogue this way?). The writing was completely ridiculous. But, I see why people like the story. Us ladies love the romance. And after being at the theatre on opening day with all the screaming girls (literally...screaming the whole time), I already have the next in the saga on my calendar for June. It was kind of like being at "Up" with all the kids. It's just a better movie-going experience when everyone around you is fully engaged and has been holding their breath for this day. The theatre was about three-quarters full, but as soon as we excited (around 7pm), the lobby was busting. Busting! I have never seen so many people at the movies before. We saw about 25 of our students. Some of them, I wish we hadn't seen. But that's because of their state, not ours. Ugh!

My new laptop comes Tuesday. I'm so excited about a battery that is not dead (I have been unable to leave my room with my computer since May), Windows 7, and all the hard drive space I should need for the next three years. And it has a web cam...so video Skyping can commence! Did I really need a new computer? Of course not. But, I think it is going to make my life a bit easier. And I need that these days. I'm looking for anything I can get.

And for the record, I love my name. I wouldn't change it for anything (except I wish people knew how to spell it when I say it). And mom says that about 1.39% of people have B negative blood. That's cool, right?

Working in a retail store, I have now learned how to shoplift. I will not share this knowledge, nor will I attempt anything even close, but it's knowledge nonetheless.

I burned my chin today. I got a bit too close to my cup of tea as I was trying to warm up. So, I have a nice linear blister on my chin. And I have a new haircut. Short (shoulder-length) and darker...I had to get rid of that box color that PP convinced me to do last summer.

I am faking positivity these days. This year at school is about a 5.5 out of 10. 5.5 because it's more good than bad, but I think I've rated it pretty accurately. For the first time in my career, I don't want to go to school tomorrow. Sad.

Here's to riding the fixed gear this week and doing my best to avoid animal products. More to come when I have time.

November Playlist!!

I'm still trying to figure out how to make a playlist as easily as I used to in iTunes. imeem is not the best way, but I needed to get this playlist created, at least for the sake of posterity. I miss the drag and drop of iTunes and the fact that I could just go in there during the month and add a song. There's a lot of good music out there...and even more music that I just like to listen to, whether it is good or not.

So, here's the link to the November Mix. Since I had so many difficulties with getting this mix together, this is to serve for October and November. If you click on the link, you need an account with imeem. But it seems as if I've embedded it here so you can listen to samples of the songs without an account (but this is not compatible with something like Google Reader, so you need to open up my blog...I know...). I'm sure someone out there will help me figure out how to do this better.

More Of The Same 11.09

A bit about the mix:

Everything My Morning Jacket and The Weepies do makes me happy.

A few songs by Phoenix...one of my new favorite groups. Another KEXP discovery.

A few of these are songs I heard while watching copious episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" this weekend. Why didn't anyone tell me about that show before? NPH and Jason Segel? Paradise. And NPH deserves awards upon awards.

Jason Schwartzman continues to make the mix lists. I heart him (Bored to Death and Fantastic Mr. Fox are both excellent).

Paolo Nutini has been one my love list since "New Shoes" and I stumbled on this today while looking for another song called Rewind, also on here, and I quite like it.

Beyonce and OneRepublic...what can I say. I'm a sucker for some pop. I didn't mean for there to be three OneRepublic songs, but I'm not going to fiddle with it now.

Zoe Muth & LiliAna Rose are two newbies that I really like.

OCMS & Death Cab never go out of style.

Wes Style

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope the sides are good and the pies are a-plenty. And I highly suggest you see Fantastic Mr. Fox. It is just delightful and funny and, of course, fantastic. The worst part was at the end, when the movie did not automatically replay. I never read the book as a kid, one of the few Dahl books I didn't run across. I'm hoping to get through a lot of books, rec letters, crossword puzzles, and episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" this weekend.

This Explains A Lot

It's a miracle that my boss thinks I'm one of the most positive people at our school.

Exhibit A: My name translated means dark or bitter.

Exhibit B: And I just found out today that I got the worst combination of my parents' blood. They are O negative and B positive. My whole life, I've dreamed about being O neg or B positive. I would have taken O positive. But, of course, I am B negative. B negative?!?! I am walking around with 5 quarts of negativity? Ugh!

I consider it a major victory that I have yet to find myself standing on the side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

For The Win!

Last week, I was frantically trying to find out more about Jonathan Safran Foer's new book. There was some hubbub because of Natalie Portman's article at Huff Post that it was the reason she became vegan. I have a phenomenal local bookstore a few blocks from my house that attracts some great authors (Richard Russo and even Alicia Silverstone and Andre Agassi). I was desperately searching for book talks by JSF. All my searching led me to his talk at the SF JCC that I attended before my red eye on Thursday and a contest to win his book. At the JCC, I purchased his new book and had it signed by him. Today, I awoke to an email saying that I won a copy of the book through a website. I've won very few things in my life, but amazingly, when I have won things, it's something I actually would buy (or did buy) myself.

I just started Eating Animals after finishing Shooting Stars, LeBron James's book about his amateur basketball career. I really enjoyed reading James (assisted by Buzz Bissinger, of Friday Night Lights fame) and I can't wait to recommend it to some of my athletes. I'll let you all know if I become a vegetarian or vegan after this book.

I Was There!

Yes, I am a proud member of Red Sox Nation. But, I don't hate good athletes. That's just not in my blood.

So, I was at the Yankees parade today. Sure, we were 30 people back, but I did recognize Mariano Rivera.

Look who else was there! Yeah, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys Bridget Kelly (?) performed at the end of the parade. I didn't see them with my eyes, but heard them - the size of the crowds was pretty crazy in NYC. It might have been enough to send a Red Sox fan to Bellevue, but I was totally high on East Coast fall weather. It seemed as it everyone in New York was in blue. As much as I don't like the Yankees, it's pretty cool to see the whole city come out and for all types of people to be happy about the same thing. I was not too impressed by the number of school children who were roaming the streets instead of being in class.

Pictures will be posted at some point soon.

Why My Sister Moved To Chicago

In case you aren't constantly refreshing my social networking page. I'm pretty sure this was the draw for Little Duds.

Photo ID

Today, I only had 40 minutes to give blood (it actually took 50 minutes with all the paperwork, but only 7 of blood-draining time...don't faint AS). The first thing they asked was, "Can I see your photo ID?" I work in a really, really, really small school. Everyone knows each other, so we don't carry around IDs. But the blood-mobile people do not know me. I didn't have time to run out to my car to get the ID, but I did have my yearbook from senior year in my bag (high school girls are obsessed with stuff like this and a few asked me to bring mine in).

I used my senior picture as my picture ID. Did I mention I'm 29 and 4/12 today?

Awesome.

It's Not Real

Okay, so Freaks and Geeks took place at William McKinley High School. So does the new show Glee (which is one of my new favorites, despite what I believe to be blatant misogynism).

What's the deal? Of course, the Internet had something to say about it:

William McKinley High School was the setting of Freaks and Geeks, it's nice to see that they are paying a tribute to that show.

posted on May 22 2009, 10:18:39

it's not the same school. glee is set in Lima, Oh. Freaks and Geeks is set in Michigan.

posted on May 24 2009, 11:10:02

I beleive [sic] William Mckinley High School is a common school name, as most TV sitcoms use it, kinda of like Oceanic Airlines, and 555-5555 etc, President Name High School although used in the real world is used for some reason in movies / tv shows, like east, west, north, etc

posted on May 26 2009, 16:46:01

Ummm...person #2...do you know that neither of them are actual schools? I love the attention to detail, though.

Big Day

Today...

I turned 29 and 4/12.

I voted (first in line, of course).

I donated blood for the first time.

When I was in high school, I was on acne medicine that required me to get my blood tested every month. On the first day I had to get blood drawn, I was waiting for my mom to pick me up. It was snowing that day and I decided to wait outside (I love the snow). I was outside for maybe 30 minutes and my doctor was only about five minutes away. Because I was still so cold when I got to the appointment, it took foooorrrrreeeeevvvvveeeeerrrrrr to fill the vial. My blood was just not flowing. I've never been good with medical procedures...don't touch my knees, neck, or stick things down my throat...but that sealed the deal on needles. Since then, I was a disaster when it came to getting blood drawn.

What made today different? After 29 and 4/12 years? Today, the blood drive was at my school and I had tons of encouragement and support from my colleagues and kids. Two colleagues came and sat with me and one of my students changed his appointment so he could get blood drawn with me at lunch (I think he has a crush on me...but all the 16 and 17 year old boys love me...it's just the ones my age that don't even notice I exist). I was so grateful they were there; I couldn't have done it without them.

It's amazing how much you can do with a community supporting you. I was thinking that I definitely wouldn't have donated if I had to go to a random place and sit around with strangers. I hope we have another next semester.

Funny Guys

A few weeks ago, I saw Mike Burbiglia in SF. You may recognize his humor if you listen to This American Life. Here are some things he said:

"...that guy hates second halves of sentences."

"Do you ever ask someone for directions and know from the first sentence that you're not going to use those directions? You thought you knew nothing, but this person knows less than nothing. You're dealing in negative integers of information."

"[in high school], you'd call anything gay. You'd call Geometry gay, which is one of the gayer maths."

I love all the math references!

Last night, I saw David Sedaris in San Jose. He read some new stories and diary entries. I hope those diary entries are in a book at some point. Sedaris will be coming out with a new book in about a year, which is most excellent news. He had the audience in stitches, so get excited for the book release. Here are my favorite lines of his:

About his upcoming book: "Its a book of fables because my morals are weak."

"For no reason in particular and every reason in general."

"His family aside, when would he have the time [to be gay]?"

"Sometimes things happen and I don't know what to do with my face." This describes my life in a nutshell.

Brief update: Haven't been running in weeks because my life just won't let me. If there's one success for me right now, it's that my total "still to deal with email" count is down to I haven't forgotten about the October mix, but the new iTunes won't let me create playlists with songs I haven't bought yet. Which means it hasn't been as easy to remind myself of the songs I liked that month. Do they know they are killing their business? I am like free advertising?!?! Oh well...I'm still trying to find a work-around, so hopefully I'll have an October/November mix.

I'm going to see Jonathan Safran Foer on Thursday night before I catch a plane to NYC. JSF is my favorite author...if you haven't read Everything Is Illuminated or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I could not recommend them more highly. He has a new non-fiction book out called Eating Animals which apparently has turned Natalie Portman vegan.

Cross your fingers that there won't be a World Series parade for me to pout about while I'm in the Big Apple.