N L C S!

Today was a great day. Bucket list worthy.

At 4:25, K, N and I got on the train, heading north to the city. We were going to a baseball game.

N had been on a boat with his students, so he was not feeling well at all. Here he is, post whale watch. Not adding value.

When we got to the park, for the National League Championship Series Game 4, Giants v. Phillies. You might think that with a 2-0 lead by the Giants, N might have perked up. You would be wrong.

This is the last of me happy for a while because this was taken before: 1) the Phillies fan in front of me got in the beer line got in a literal fist fight with a Giants fan over nothing and I almost got hit with a punch as I tried to break it up and 2) a guy was in the women's room to announce that the Giants scored a run and to use a stall. It was tough for a few innings while I tried to recover.

Definitely not perked up.

Given that the K, N, and I are 3/4 of the GTL gang (we all watch Jersey Shore together on Fridays), we loved this part of the game!

Hey! There's a smile. Good to have you, N! This was right before a single in the bottom of the 9th lead to a Giants win. It was pretty great. I kept score if anyone wants a recap. Hoping for good news tomorrow night.

The Craft

When I saw this picture, it dawned on me that it's rare to see your friends or family do their job. My colleague sent me this shot today. It's me, on the first day of school with my mentor group. And it's what I do every day. Talk to kids. Talk with kids. Work with kids. Struggle with kids. Encourage kids. Guide kids. Adore kids. Appreciate kids.

Every year, as a teacher, September seems benign when it's on the horizon, but then it just wrecks you. It never fails. You don't even know which way is up when it's all over. Thankfully, tomorrow, we get a new month. And I'm so excited for it. This month has been one for the books. Our camping trip was cancelled due to poor student decisions, my students are struggling to get up to speed with the material I'm teaching, I have a student documenting all the ways in which I'm doing a poor job, and I feel like I'm regressing as a teacher. I've spent an hour with each of my 17 mentees and their parents to set goals for the year, I've spent nearly every free period in study hall trying to give extra help to my struggling students, and I haven't turned off my light before 10pm yet. But, despite the fact that nearly picked up and left this place, there's just something about walking into my school every day and seeing my kids every day, that just makes it kind of worth it.

Tomorrow is Fixie Friday. I can't wait to get out on the bike with the kids (and NK) and breath deep the air of a new month. And then, to be perfectly frank, I'm going to pour a glass of wine and veg out to the Jersey Shore. Here's to October!

September Songs

Here are the tunes that have been playing this month. I'm really into The xx, The Format, Horse Feathers, and Andrew Bird. But, I somehow listen to Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" every day on the way to school.

Oprah

Watch Oprah

Monday September 20

On television

Talking about "Waiting for Superman"

One of my students (the one from the film) was flown to Chicago to be interviewed

Happy New Year to my fellow Members of the Tribe.

Things To Do

I've said this one before:

If you pledge to see "Waiting for Superman" and then use your $5 Donors Choose coupon so my kids can have graphing calculators to take home (I have about 10 who cannot afford one).

And we are pretty sure that one of our students (the one who starts off the movie trailer) will be on Oprah, Sept 20 and 21. The dates are not known for sure, but keep an eye out.

I get the feeling that things are about to get a little more crazy around here.

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.

Remember to pledge to see "Waiting For Superman," and then use your Donors Choose coupon here.

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.

Home!

I'm home! Yay! This is my last big trip of the summer and I'll be excited to end all the traveling when I get back to Cali.

I have lots of fun planned for this trip: adventures in Maine to hit up my favorite spots in Wiscasset, Newport Folk Festival (both days!), really good seats for a Sox game, some time to enjoy my favorite parts of Boston, a Paw Sox game (AAA ball team), and then the family reunion in New Hampshire. I'm hitting up every state except Vermont (as planned so far). This is still the summer of supporting the economy, it seems, but I'm in recovery from a tough year as a 29 year old.

This is also the last time I'll be home until December. I was given the opportunity to stay at my school, work at 80% (manageable financially and very appealing emotionally), and have more time in California. While this is sad for me from a family perspective, it feels like the right thing to do otherwise. While I had found a job in Massachusetts, I never felt settled about the decision and I definitely was not excited to be leaving Cali. So, that's the big change of plans. It's not as exciting as some would hope, but I'm really excited. I get to stay in Cali, I'll have a little less work to do (maybe), and keep having gorgeous days to ride my bike. I need to make some commitments on the West Coast to get a little closer to happiness. I'm hoping those will include things like: temple, writing more letters, getting back to running, and finding more people who like running and bikes. I hope the 20% that I don't have to work can help with that.

Here's to the next year of taking advantage of both coasts while I'm on them.