Where am I, what am I doing now?

I just reconnected with a friend from the Rice Ultimate team. I sent her off a long message, mostly ramblings, so I thought they belonged here as well. ...

Thanks for the super long update. I will try my best to respond in kind. So yes, I am living in the Bay Area and I teach high school (public) in the Mission. It is simultaneously rewarding and heart breaking. The US public school system, especially in big cities and in very rural areas is in the shitter. I never imagined the levels of segregation. The number of parents who don't know how to be a parent and the disrespect that is being accepted of the students across all levels.

As for living in the Bay Area, I think I'm reaching saturation. For life as a teacher, I go to bed by 10 and am up before dawn. This is not the lifestyle of the Bay Area. So at times I feel as though I'm just paying a high premium to live in a place that I can't benefit as much from. However, the natural beauty and coastal access is definitely still alluring.

I am living with my beau. He is also a teacher at my school, we got together towards the beginning of last school year, thus we've been together just over a year. Living with him is almost too easy. We get along really well, but still question whether we have that burning passionate love. However, we both know we're not done with each other yet and may never be. We've both applied with a company that organizes job fairs for international schools and in February we're going to interview hoping that we'll find a school and country where we can continue to work together and live.

However, I don't know if teaching is sustainable for me, so I've also contemplated the "what else?" I've thought of opening a yarn/knitting/tea shop as I've become a knitting fiend and I love tea. But that would take many hours, stress and start up capital. So I've thought about returning to my very first job out of school (as they recently called and told me they want m back for twice what I'm earning now) for a few years to save up some money. But then again, maybe teaching in a different environment would be sustainable and I'd still have all the vacation time - the biggest perk in teaching.

... I've also toyed with the idea of grad school, a masters in math or a PhD in math education. But not knowing where I want to end up it's hard to commit to. The boy has his whole life planned out and I just can't imagine that, but at the same time, it would be a load off to know exactly what I wanted to do.

For my opinion, I see nothing wrong with flagging the professional stuff and working in an outdoors store. However, going back to retail means that you'll usually be working the hours that most people are out playing. I think the harder part is that as we get older, it's harder to get back into the professional world once you leave it.

Like you my plan is generally to go with the flow. I don't really stop to ask how long that's sustainable, but William often does of me. I still seem to have this idea that if I don't like what I'm doing I can just go off and try something else. I know that I want to be doing something where I'm not working 12+ hours a day, but also not selling off my soul wholesale, though teaching I feel like I'm having my soul stripped away piece by piece.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about a plan for you. Basically I have no guidance, except that maybe not all jobs can be satisfying, but it's the life outside of the job that can be.

> Its been an educational
> experience seeing how relationships evolve—almost
> sinusoidal in passion and frustration and
> contentness but constant in friendship and
> commitment and love. I’m not sure if this is
> “normal”—would be interested to know of other
> people’s experiences and if we are ‘just like
> everyone else’?

Your relationship sounds "normal" to me. It's often that I think the boy and I are an anomoly, in that the moments of frustration are rare. I've always heard that relationships are "work" but I don't feel as though I work very hard at mine. But also, outside of the bedroom, I don't think I would use the word passion to describe our relationship, which at times has me concerned.

So I think in our own ways, we all question our lives as being normal or not and often for me "is this what real life is?" Yes! Job hopping, city hopping, partner having this is all part of it. At times I wonder if I'm driving or just along for the ride, suprised at the next destination. But maybe that's all part of it...

Alright, there you have it. The wanderings of my mind. I hope life continues to take you down the path of adventure. So nice to "chat" dear friend!

Em

Teaching Goodness

I would really like to remind myself of the good days of teaching. Because it's easy to get bogged down in the bad - segregation, politics, being shit on by students, their parents and your administration, working 12+ hours 6 days a week. Wait, I'm not going to focus on that part.

I have two students, let's call them D1 and D2 in my 2nd and 3rd period classes. Both black, both very smart. D1 occasionally does homework while D2 does nothing outside of class. D1 has a caring grandmother who is involved, but can't get him to do his homework; D2 has virtually no parental support. D1 comes to class roughly twice a week, D2 is there every day. D1 has no chance of passing, however, D2 has a D- in my class because he does no homework, but generally scores well on tests and quizzes and usually does his class work. Well today, after they'd both been in class all of 2nd, I noticed that they didn't have their white collared shirts on (it's hard to tell sometimes under the sweatshirts). So I told them they needed to get their stuff and go down stairs.

Miraculously, they both returned in uniform 35 minutes later. I stood out in the hall with them discussing why they were so long if they had shirts with them. D1 said he didn't want to be in my class anyway and I told him that was fine, but that it was rude of him to be pulling D2 down with him. "How you gonna blame me for pulling anyone down with me?" You're right I said, the only one you're pulling down is yourself.

"Em, this not teaching goodness" you're thinking. And prehaps you're right, maybe I should have been more tactful with D1. But if you know me, I'm very rarely tactful. However, D2 decided to come in. And then he got to work. And then he asked me to grade his work. The first part of their final is multiple choice. They're allowed to take (different versions) as many times as they want to get a perfect score. However, to get any points at all they have to get at least 70% right. D2 has consistenly been getting 67% because he keeps changing his answers. He did this again today. And he said, "That's just my thing, I don't know why I keep doing it." I said, "Well, next time I'm not going to let you have an eraser so that you keep your right answers right!" And he walked out the door with a big grin on his face and said, "See you later, Ms. S" this being the first time he's 1) smiled in class and 2) called me by my name. Sigh.

Committees

Part of being a teacher is being on committees. Our school has very few of these (that I'm aware of anyway). However, I decided to apply for a district wide committee, the mathematics textbook adoption committee. And I was selected! There are about 30 of us from almost all the high schools in the district. We had our first meeting yesterday and it was fun, frustrating and interesting. Frustrating in the ways that getting large groups together and attempting consensus. However, there were only a few moments of long windedness and mostly we made decisions rather easily. Of course, we haven't started looking at any books yet! And really that's about as much as I'm legally allowed to say. But I think I'm going to enjoy it.

A really good teaching day

This was one of the days that make it worth while. In my "best" classes, ie the ones before lunch and better behaved, there were discussions of math happening all day. Beyond that in my 2nd period, arguments with each other over exponent rules. I have the same students for 2nd and 3rd periods, for Algebra and Math Support. They finished with their quizzes way faster than I anticipated, blew through the worksheet that was supposed to last for 3rd period (6th/7th didn't even finish said worksheet for perspective) so I suggested 10 minutes of a "game" and 15 minutes to do their homework when they were done with everything I'd prepped 3 0 minutes early. So, we start the "Find the Treasure" game. Basically I pick a spot to "bury treasure" on an x-y plane and they "hunt" for it by calling out points. I tell them how many "steps" they are from it. Thus they implement logic calculations and have to remember that (1,5) means right 1, up 5. Well, the three teams got so into trying to out guess each other thaat we played the full 30 minutes and they didn't even want time to do their homework.

Sigh :)

Cooky McCooks-A-Lot

Yay! A full day in the kitchen. I really enjoy spending time with DBF's family, but it was nice to be back to my kitchen full of veggies. We started back at school today, the 2nd, and I start back with my credential program the 9th, so I knew I'd better get some meals in while I could.

BF came down with a cold, so I whipped up a pot of chicken soup, Thai Style Chicken and Rice Soup. The broth was surprisingly flavorful, but I wanted more "stuff" in it, so today I added bok choy and some shrimp. Although we haven't managed to work our way through it, so I think it'll head into the freezer.

Monday was NY day so I made the traditional black-eyed peas along with a huge pot of brown rice. I felt so Martha Stewart-esque using my brown rice. I made two "breakfast" casserols with rice, egg and cheese, one southwest flavor and the other "fancy" using left over cheese from BF's "I must have a cheese plate in addition to my meal" craving. Part of it was used today to make fried rice and of course part was for the black-eyed peas.

I also made two loaves of wheat bread, chopped all the veggies for today's stir-fry and roasted veggies for Thursday's pot pie. I told you, Cooky McCooks-A-Lot.

And I'm not posting this to rub it in how much I accomplished in the kitchen, more to remind myself that I can be organized and use one ingredient in many ways. It also helps having an awesome dish washer of a BF ;)

New Year, New Career?

Why is it that I'm always in transition? Never settled? Driving home from SoCal with the DBF, I was thinking my "when I grow up I want to..." thoughts. I don't know if teaching is sustaniable for me. I love all the vacation time, to be sure, however, it's super stressful. I'm always working and have developed even larger knots in my shoulders. So back to the "when I grow up thoughts..."

There's this tea shop in Vancouver that I love, love, love. I spent so much time there while in culinary school (a place I'd never recommend attending, so it gets no URL), that people thought I worked there. And I'd have loved to. The owners told me if I ever wanted to start my own in the States they'd help me out. You go there for a cup of tea (discount if you bring your own cup) or for looseleaf tea in bulk. There was a counter with six stools for folks to stay and chat. BF's sister even ordered my favorite, the organic cream earl grey, for me for x-mas - yay!

And then there's the fact that I seek out every yarn store I can when traveling. Knitting ranges from a bit of miscellaneous know-how to an obssesion for me. (Over Christmas I made wrist warmers for my sister, finished a sweater, started a hat for my mom and attempted a leaf scarf several times before deciding the yarn I was using just wouldn't work). Not to mention knitting is the new trend.

So, I want to combine these things into a tea shop/yarn store. Imagine this: big comfy couches and chairs with books of your favorite knitting patterns to peruse as well as a computer and printer for searching knitty.com, along with a few board games for those into those geeky pleasures. In the corner, teas for you to have your own cup, pot or bag of leaves. The rest of the store full of your favorite luscious yarns and knitting accessories. I don't want it to be a coffee shop where people come in to work. I want it to be a place to relax with others who are passionate about the same things you are.

Punny name ideas:
Sit, Sip, Knit
Knit-Tea (though maybe the folks at knitty won't like that)

suggestions? thoughts?

Winter Break

Ahh, one of the perks of being a teacher is all the vacation time. The boy and I took our time traveling to SoCal. We took Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) the whole way from San Francisco to Long Beach. What a gorgeous driving, winding ones way along the pacific ocean. Except for the mild car sickness that ensues between Carmel and roughly San Simeon (75 miles or so), it was the perfect way to go. We stayed one night in Carmel and window shopped at all the outrageously expensive boutiques. Then on our second night we stayed in Cambria, CA at the J. Patrick House B&B. We had a lovely big room with a fireplace, they set out menus to all the local restaurants for you to peruse over wine with your fellow guests in the evening and then when you get home from dinner you find ice cold milk and cookies waiting for you. And unlike our stay in Hawaii, this one did come with breakfast, a delicious 2 course breakfast at that! It was wonderful!

And now were down here in freezing, literally, Southern California. William assured me I wouldn't need my winter coat and of course they've had record breaking cold. His parents don't have central heat so we've moved on to his sister's. We're doing a lot of nothing: sitting around reading, I've been knitting up a storm and we've been on the verge of breakup after several games of Blokus. Yay, winter vacation!

Garh

When I'm working it's always so long between posts. Since last posting, I've been to three weddings, Ohio for Thanksgiving and have been working my ass off to have all but 4 students (out of 20) in my 6th/7th Algebra and support class failing. It's a frustrating year work wise. Enough to make me consider actually going back to Quorum where I was selling my soul as opposed to just working with little devils in disguise. Example today I had a mother tell me she's "raised her son to never appologize" and that "sometimes the only way to be heard is by talking back."

Housing situation has been rough too with an ongoing furniture saga, house getting broken into, etc. However, living with the boy is good, good, good.

And now here we are, 9 days until xmas break. 2 weeks off. One week with his family and then a week of spontaneous last minute travel deals, please let it be a cruise!

Work and a Wedding

Dear Diary,

Today was my first official day back at work. I'm very excited to be returning to O'Connell and see all the returning teachers. My new math co-workers are all experienced teachers and we should make for a good team.

Ok, enough of the cheese, though that's how it felt this morning. It is good to be back, my room is mostly set up and I'm mostly ready for kids on Monday. That's largely due to the fact that we're running a freshman orientation week to really teacher our students what it means to be a freshman at O'Connell. We're really hoping for a strong academic push this year with 2 hours of homework a night per student. Toto, this isn't middle school anymore. The freshman test scores were the only ones at our school to go up last year and we'd like to make that consistent across the school.

However, that's the last work day for me this week. Tomorrow, William and I fly to Atlanta for my best friend, Karla's, wedding! I get to wear a big Barbie pink dress. Stay tuned for photos!

Sweden photos!

Go check out all my "Sweden - " sets on my flickr account.

Seoul - The 5 Star Way

Sunday was William's birthday and we had a day and a half off from teaching. So I checked around the various travel sites and found us a room in Seoul at the Sofitel Ambassador, a five star hotel, for $135. Mind you, our beds in Yeojoo, where we're teaching, are more box spring than matress, seriously uncomfortable, plus we can't sleep together as they're way too narrow. Also, Korean pillows are the antithesis of what I consider to be a comfortable pillow. Their pillows are densley packed and huge, laying on one, I feel as though my chin is being forced into my chest my head is so high.

So, we decided to go ahead and spend the money. I mean, after all, we do have full time jobs back home and we're getting paid to be here. Then, we get to the hotel and since it's low season they offer us an upgrade to the "premium" floor which includes free use of the sauna as well as breakfast and a 3 pm check out for only $44 more. We splurge. And boy was it worth it!!!

The first thing we notice is the attachment sticking out from the toilet with 15 different buttons. What the f%@&??? I, of course, took pictures, but you'll have to wait until I'm back home to down load them. Ok, so the different buttons, after sitting on the pot for many, many minutes playing around, I figured out 1) heat the seat 2-4) in 3 different temperatures 5) a bidet feature with 6) a front option for ladies (unfortunately this wasn't working), 7-9) the bidet feature came in three speeds 10) a drying feature 11-13) also in three speeds and 14-15) a delay shut off. Oh my god!

The bed was everything I dream of and more. King sized, a feather top with 4 fluffy feather pillows. Of course, we had to crank the A/C down low to sleep under the feathers, but it was heavenly. Rather than heading out the the Dongdaemun night market, we were asleep by 9:30 :-o

Breakfast was Western with a few Korean options. Rye bread! Museli! Yummy!

I had to check out the sauna and while it was newer and more shiny than the one in Yeojoo, the dry saunas in Yeojoo are nicer. But I still enjoyed my soak and steam.

We then had a great Sunday afternoon roaming around various markets and malls. I'm on the hunt for crazy t-shirts and have only found one worth buying. It reads "Bunny is pet name for a rabbit." And better yet, it was only $2!

Now we're back in Yeojoo and I'm sure this last week will just fly by. I no longer want to strangle my demon child, though he is still a struggle every day. Today we did "Christmas" with the kids. And tomorrow it's outdoor Olympics. My class is going to be Sweden! Heja Sveirge!

Korean Sauna Experience

We just passed hump day. It's getting to that high frustration level where everyone wants to kill someone. For me it's one student in my class, I want to tear off his head and play soccer with it. However, all my frustrations were alliviated last night by a trip to the sauna. Matthew and I had discussed doing this last year, but it never manifested.

So, a Korean sauna has many areas and features; thankfully, I had a seasoned sauna veteran with me though who could help with the translating and just general "this is what you do now." At this one in Yeoju, first you enter the lobby and a man hands you a key to a locker where you put your shoes. Then you pay him 9000 won (~$9) and enter into the ladies (or mens, respectively) changing room. However, this is more than just a changing room, there's a tv, several mats, lots of floor space where if you wanted you could spend the night. Also, in this room was a people sized oven, seriously, it looked like something I'd bake bread in on a Wonderbread scale. Anyway, once safely nestled in the changing room you proceed to get buck naked. And, as we all know, that's when the fun begins. You enter the shower room where they have "western" wall showers and also the hoses with nostle attachments. There is a large hot tub as well as a large cold plunge. There were also two wet saunas each with a different theme, one being charcoal for it's purifying characteristics. Next to the tubs there were three massage tables, except these tables are covered in vinyl. You can pay an agima (an older Korean woman) 15,000 won (~$15) to scrub you while you lay upon one of these tables.

Ok, so if I'm going to a Korean sauna, I'm going all out so, of course, I got the scrub. The agima is naked save for a pair sheer leapord skin grandma panties (she is old enough to be a grandma after all). You lay on the table and she puts on a pair of gloves, which are essentially socks, that feel like brillo pads. She rubs you ~all~ over for a rough 15 minutes. There were rolls of dead skin sheeting off of me. It looked like I was surrounded by all these grey little bugs. Yes, that part was disgusting. The scrubbing was almost painful at first, but then I got used to it. I won't really say that part was pleasurable, but it was in that really gross "I just popped a big zit and look at all this stuff that came out of it" sort of way.

Anyway, after the scrubbing has ended (at that point you've laid on your back, your sides and your stomach, as well as sat up to have your back and neck properly scoured), the skin scraps get washed away by several nice bucket-fulls of warm water. Then, back on your back, you get soaped up. She then gets you to flip over and I felt like I was on a slip and slide while your back gets soaped. More warm water. Then a very brief oil massage with clapping hits along your buttocks, shoulders and calves. It was so cool!

After all that, I showered off the oil in order to enjoy the tubs a bit more. Oh, one glorious thing is that the tubs aren't chlorinated! Ok, so you've been scrubbed, showered and now you put on some sauna-provided lounging clothes to head up to the co-ed area. In the co-ed room, there's another large wooden floor with mats for sleeping, if you choose, a few coin operated massage chairs, and three more dry saunas, again with different themes. These were really cool with different mossaics. Well, of course after being in the sauna I needed one more cold plunge, but this time opted for the cold shower. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

It was awesome!

Egg Drop

Well, I'm in Korea and at the moment all my blogger links are in Korean script. Very strange. I'm here teaching English for three weeks to a class of 12 adorable (mostly) students. I teach for 3 hours in the morning, eat an awful lunch and then for 3 more hours in the afternoon before another awful meal.

They've changed things around this year though, so that my 3 hours in the afternoon are the same lesson but with different kids. Much less planning required. And my afternoon lessons are fun! I'm teaching them about the post office and we write letters home and then after a 30 minute break in which they go out and buy such delicious snacks as "Fried Chicken Snack" which looks like minature KFC drum legs completely with a piece of dried chicken inside or "Squid Covered Peanuts" we do a science project. And it's fun as they we are doing an egg drop.

I give each group supplies:
1 1.5 liter soda bottle with the top cut off
1 piece of bubblewrap (which we learn to say, so funny!)
1 piece of cotton
4 rubber bands
2 pieces of tape
1 egg

And the object of course, is to save your egg from death when it is dropped from knee level, hip level, shoulder level and above the head level.

Well, the first day I did this I built up the suspense, delayed the introduction of the egg until the end and then spent the time explaining that they wanted their egg to live. I turned around to begin handing out supplies and my elbow bumped the eggs knocking them all to the floor. All eggs are now dead. The kids and I stand their shocked.

New plan:
You build your egg shelters, I go find new eggs, then we drop. So I run downstairs to our resource room where the counselors tell me there are no more eggs.

Next New Plan:
You build your egg shelters, we all go to the store, then we drop. But they got so into the building that I just ran off to the store myself where, to my delight, I find that they sell eggs in cute packs of 3, which is exactly how many groups I have! I return, the proud successful teacher and the students then spend 5 minutes explaining to me that I have bought cooked eggs :-o

It doesn't matter! Cooked eggs still crack, I say. And we continue with much hilarity.

Since then, I haven't dropped any more eggs :)

More about Sweden

I see that I never posted again about my time in Sweden though I meant too. I really, really, really love Sweden in the summer time. Swedish people are really friendly, it's super easy to get around as everyone (young and old) speaks English and it's BEAUTIFUL!

I did mostly follow my itinerary and added a trip to the ski town of Are (put a circle above the "a" and pronounce it Oh-rah) which was my favorite part. I hiked up a beautiful mountain stayed and a very comfortable, friendly ski lodge and just had a blast.

Once reunited with Magnus and Linus we immediately set off for a 3 day, 65 km (40 mi) canoe trip that Linus had ambitiously planned. We ended up having to paddle for 8 hours a day to complete it, but it was so fun. Emilie, Linus's girlfriend, is awesome and super friendly and laid back. She was a great hostess all the times that Linus had other things to do. Not to say Linus is a bad host, he let me into his apartment, dye his clothes pink, fed me incredibly well. I just had so much fun.

I hope I remember to come back here and write about the crazy things in Sweden. But now I'm in Korea, surrounded by a whole new style of craziness.

Stockholm!

Is beautiful! After a 7 hour delay at Newark, I finally arrived and wandered my way to my hostel. It's on one of the smaller islands and half of the rooms are on an anchored ship! I'm staying on land though (as I prefer it). Yesterday was rainy and a bit chilly, but today the sun has appeared making everything and everyone glow.

I've wandered around all morning and am now in a 7 Eleven using the internet (much cheaper here than the hostel). I'm on my way to a food hall, woo hoo! Tomorrow I head off to Möra and the country, which I'm really looking forward to, for while Stockholm is a lovely, lovely city, it's definitely city and I had enough of that in NYC.

A Swedish Itinerary, of sorts

I sat down (literally in an aisle in Barnes and Noble) with a few Swedish travel books yesterday and here are my thoughts of what I might do before heading to Goteborg where I'll meet up with my friends.

Wed-Thu June 28 - 29 in Stockholm. I arrive Wednesday at 7 a.m. I'll head to the hostel, drop off my bag and probably seek out some caffine. Then, given the forcasted rain, I'll probably spend most of the next two days in museums.

Fri June 30 depart for Mora, try to stay here at this hostel. Mora is at the north end of Siljan lake where I want to hike, swim, etc.

Sun Jul 2 - take the Inslandsbanan up to Ostersund. This is a train that only runs in the summer time and makes all sorts of unconventional stops. It's apparently a lovely way to see Sweden.

Mon Jul 3 - tour Ostersund

Tue Jul 4 - take the train to Goteborg.

NYC in the summer time

Is hot, really, really hot. And humid. And very few folks have air-conditioning. Why, would I choose to come here in the summer you may ask? Well, my best friend since the 1st grade, Karla, is getting married and moving from NYC back to Atlanta. So this is her last hurrah in NYC. We did the bachelorette thing Friday night, much drinking and (too) many mostly naked men later, we can check that off this list. Today, Sunday, is the bridal shower (number 1). We're going for a tea party! I'm really excited about that part. More so than the bachelorette festiivites. Although, I managed to stay out until 4 a.m., yes, Miss I'm-Tired at 9:30, was out until 4 a.m. I even stopped drinking around 10.

Last night I had dinner with some Rice friends. We went to a Chinese/Peruvian place in the upper west side. Huge menu, no fusion. We all ordered Peruvian and it was ~delicious~!! It was also great fun to see them; we're hanging out again tonight while Karla goes to a going-away party.

What else? I also was able to get my Korean visa - it was so easy! And now I'll legally be working in Korea (July 20th - August 13th). But first, SWEDEN! I head off for Stockholm on Tuesday, land Wednesday. I'm really excited! I haven't been to Sweden since March of 2002. March is not a good time to be in Sweden, it's cold, rainy and grey. While summer has 18 hours of day light! Some of you may remember I saw Magnus in Thailand and I'll be seeing him again somewhere in Western Sweden. Linus came to visit me 2 years ago to the day almost and now it's my turn, Sweden here I come :)

Rereading this I see it's very jumbled. I've been surrounded by people for 5 days now, something the introvert in me doesn't handle well. Hopefully after a few days on my own in Scandinavia, I'll be more lucid...

Decisions, Decisions

So before I became a teacher, I was a pastry chef and before that I was a technical consultant for Quorum Business Solutions. Well, school ended on Wednesday for me (hallelujah!) and I flew to Vegas for my cousin's graduation. Thursday night a manager from Quorum called me and offered me my old job back (the one I left 3 years ago!) and offered me two times what I'm making now! I would be working in Denver commuting from SF.

There was much agonizing. A long talk with my principal. Several nights worth of long talks with Wil. Everyone (including the massage therapist) telling me to go with the Quorum offer. But in the end, I'm going back to O'Connell for at least another year. Quorum told me they'd still have work for me then. I love my job. Next year, I think I'll love it even more, but will then have much more college debt, so then I'll go for the money. But for now, I'm still an algebra teacher.

Check Yes or No

I got a note on Friday that read:

Hi Emily,
I think you're really fun and interesting. I think we'd have a really great time going to prom together. If you want we can go just as friends, but I'd really like to get to know you better.
From,
me

The me being, of course, Wil. I checked yes as prom was Sunday (yes, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we got a cheaper rate). We got all dressed up, I had my makeup done at the MAC counter Carnival style

We had dinner first and then stayed at a fancy hotel. It was the prom you see in the movies. It was great.

See the whole set of photos here

I need a vacation

I've been really mean to my students these past two days. I'm frustrated because most of them just bombed a test on material I thought they understood. Even my honors class, I gave them an open book, take home quiz and no one did better than a low B.

There are 3 more teaching weeks before finals. Just 3 more weeks before the term ends. A huge percentage of my worst class is failing. And they seem resigned to it - to either being in summer school or back in the same class next year. Dear god, I would have rather been shot in the foot than repeated a class. How boring?! I need to find a way to get them to buy into the fact that they can change their grades. But right now, their behavior (poor) and lack of task accomplishment just makes me angry.

However, this weekend is Memorial Day, a three day weekend! X-Men 3 opens Friday night and I've already got my tickets. I'm baking a cake Saturday and he's volunteered to help. Prom is Sunday night. The boy and I are getting all dressed up and going out. And I think he's got something special planned for after. Maybe we'll go cherry picking Sunday afternoon. And then game day on Monday with grilling. Vacation, here I come!

Is an update in order?

I feel like somehow I should post an update to my last post. But really, my life is still where it was a few days ago. I have valued the input of my friends. Words given to the suspicions I had about their feelings towards my relationship. In the end though, as has been stated, I'm the only one who knows what it's like when it's just him and me, I know what it's like being with him and his family, with him and my family and all those parts are amazing and wonderful. With more exposure, hopefully it will get to be just as wonderful with my friends or at least more palatable for them. All I can say to you, dear friends, is that don't give up on him yet. He just takes a l...o...n...g time to get comfortable around people.

I don't get it

My dear lovely housemate Joy and I shared dinner tonight at our house, just the two of us. It was nice, it's been a while since this has happened, but looking back to last April-June, it was this way a lot as we hunted for a new housemate. But now Amy's leaving for the summer and so am I and so Joy and I got to discussing where I'm at as far as living in our house goes. Back in October, I signed a lease agreeing to be here until the end of this coming September ('06).

However, I'll be traveling from June 15 - Aug 15th, so I don't really want to pay rent, so I'm half-heartedly looking for a subletter, which is hard to find. Also, Amy's definitely going to have a subletter as she needs help paying the rent, where as I could pay it if I need to. Anyway, and then as I've posted, the boy and I are discussing moving in together in the fall. So really, I"m looking for my replacement, which is sad as I love our house.

And then in talking to Joy telling her that I was going to live with the boy she asked, "Don't you think it's a little soon?" Well, by the time we'd actually move in together it'll be a month shy of a year. Not that I care particularly whether it's been a year, we're already spending 3+ nights a week together. Also she told me, "I just don't get it. You don't seem like a subdued version of the old Emily with him. When was the last time you wore fake eyelashes?" And then she tells me it's not just her amongst our friends who "don't get it."

And now here I am, having a "Sex and the City" running monologue with myself. Questioning. I admire her and thanked her for having the guts to say it to me. It's a good friend who will tell you that she doesn't understand (approve of) your relationship. But in the end, I am the one living in it and loving being in it.

I am in love with a full on introvert who doesn't do well in groups and claims to hate hippies. (Yet, here he is in love with one.) However, this does mean that he comes into conflict with my group of hippy friends. I'm fairly confident that my group of peninsula friends don't hate him, though maybe they don't get it either??

And nope, I haven't worn fake eyelashes since October. Is that because of the boy or is it because I am way too tired to consider going out dancing if the event is after 9 pm? Going out dancing and partying all night never really were who I was, though I spent about a year out here living that lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I love it, I love dancing when the music is great. But no one would ever call me an audiophile and I'm just as happy being in bed at 9. Is the real Emily really gone? I'm still traveling as much, if not more and managing to actually work a full time job doing something I love. I'm not cooking as much, true, again because of the job not the boy.

So if any of the three of you who used to read my blog are still out there, I'd love a response.

Em

What is going on?

Do I even want to keep this farce up? I mean I now post, what?, once every 4 months? Should I try to start again? Not really, any time I spend creating internet materials should probably be spent on my also sorely neglected class website.

But here I am. I'm in a funk. My alergies have been ~horrible~ these past few days. I'm back to the days of loading up on antihistamines, which I hate. Also, the boy is away in Seattle, location of our 2nd date except now he's there without me. Sad.

But of course I'm me, which means I've already had a compltely full weekend. Last night I hung out with Beth, who's the daughter of my parents best friends. We grew up together and it was nice to connect with someone who's known you for so long, knows your parents and the exact situation you grew up in. It was nice to talk about life here, how much more we like it, but also how different it is.

This morning was my dear friend Adam's 30th birthday brunch. I got to meet his family, who I've heard so much about. It was great, but then it was crowded and I don't handle crowds well, even of very friendly warm open people.

So I came home and I was going to nap because of the aforementioned allergies have made me weary. But instead I poked around craigslist looking at apartments for rent as the boy and I are discussing moving in together next fall. So yes, it is too soon to be looking at places, but it's still nice to know our options. And as much as I hate the commute, I don't think I can leave the East Bay. I love it over here. It's sunny and has yards with fruit trees. SF is crowded, cloudy and concrete-y, except in the Mission where it's sunny. But that's too close to work. I don't want to run into my students on weekends.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. Oh, our high school's baseball team (the O'Connell Boilermakers) made it to the playoffs. We're the smallest school in our district going up against the biggest on Monday, wish us luck!

Kauai Photos

We've returned from Kauai, school's back in session, though only 7 weeks to go until summer! Kauai was amazing of course. It rained every day (expected) and was windy (unexpected). We hiked, kayaked, snorkeled, slept and ate tons of fruit. Fantastic!

Photos!

Do I still exist?

Does anyone out there even check this out anymore? How insane is my life?

Being a teacher is hard fucking work. Everyone knows it, everyone tells you that, it's not until you're actually doing it full time that you truly understand why teachers need a summer off. If we didn't get one there would be no more teachers. Today is the first day of spring break and I'm so excited I could cry.

In a little over 24 hours I will be on a plane headed to Hawaii where my love and I will spend 6 nights relishing the fact that we are not working. Of course, we probably will do some work, but hopefully only on the plane ride over and back.

There is so much to teach and so little time to do so. I love my job, but man is it hard.

Teaching Makes you Bipolar

I've always considered myself as one of those girls who usually has her emotions in check. I'm much more likely to try and analyze what I'm feeling rationally. I love my life and am used to being happy every day.

Teaching has thrown a wrench into all of that. My daily mood fluctuates hourly. Up and down like a roller coaster. It's a bizarre experience for me. I have my "good" class in the morning, honors just before lunch which can be good or bad depending on how engaged I can get them and then after they've juiced up on sugar, been outside sweating in PE I get my most "challenging" class. The one that makes me at times want to shout in delight, but mostly has me close to pulling my hair out. I've yet to cry in front of them, yet to cry at all honestly, but it's always a test.

I've turned to music for help. Playing their cds, sometimes mine, is such a motivational tool. Which of course I should have suspected.

I'm not posting very much because I'm working all the time. Really, me, strange I know. And I'm back to traveling on weekends, Seattle to see Josue at the beginning of this month, Phoenix last weekend, Healdsburg last night for a Pirate Prom at Roshambo Winery (man, I love their parties. Grrrrrrr!!!) and next weekend down to Orange County to go to Knott's Berry Farm which becomes Knott's Scary Farm for Halloween. I'm going with the boy (yes, there is a boy in my life now and he kicks ass and likes to travel as much as me) and we're taking his 12 year old nephew and staying with his parents. Yes, I'm meeting the family. No, I'm not scared, really excited actually :)

Is this it? Am I actually returning to grown up status with a responsible job that has a fixed schedule and a salary and a stable relationship?

Strange.

4 years and going strong

Two weekends ago marked the 4th annual gathering of a group of friends. Each year we go to a different city and delight in each others’ company and delicious food prepared by and for each other. So far we’ve seen Seattle, Bend, Oregon, Victoria, BC and now this year, Phoenix, Arizona together. I got a sub, and flew out Thursday night. Friday was spent at the Fairmont’s Willow Stream Spa. It was expensive, I’m not going to lie. But the whole day spent there enjoying the luxury was worth every penny. They have a delightful well, everything. Hot tub (actually that could have been hotter), cold plunge, steam room, dry sauna, room temperature eucalyptus inhalation room and Swiss shower (12 jets set in the wall to spray you from all directions) all for women only. Co-ed outside was a “waterfall treatment pool.” A waist depth pool that was warm with 3 waterfalls of different strengths pouring into it. Stand or kneel under them for a shoulder massage. I could live in one of those. Free muffins in the morning, cookies in the afternoon, iced and hot tea all day. An atrium area that was shaded to relax in, a pool with lounge chairs and trellising. Ah, it was lovely. Everyone should experience spa days at least once a year. We had a slight run in with the food but after I talked with the manager that was taken care of and my pedicure later in the day with a shoulder rub, foot massage and paraffin treatment made me forget all about it. Saturday we hiked Camelback. A short hike at just over a mile but it was straight up. I’m not kidding. It was rough, but rewarding with beautiful views. Then a trip to our favorite spice store Penzey’s. The best part though is having a group of friends who travels to see each other. It was grand. Who knows where we’ll end up next year… San Francisco? Vermont? Atlanta?

SERENITY NOW!

Anyone remember that Seinfeld episode?

Ok, it's been forever since I posted. I know. I've taken a job teaching algebra at a high school in the Mission. I'm also going to school simultaneously to get my teaching credential. And coaching cross country. I sleep very little and spend many hours at schools. But I'm LOVING it. I have so much fun, I love my kids (freshman) and my classes, even the one that's really hard to handle.

Last night, I went out to see the opening night of Serenity, the movie based on the Firefly tv series created by Joss Wheadon. It's so good I'm going to see it again tonight. Loved it. Loved the serires. Thank you, Joss! Even if you haven't seen Firefly, Serenity is still great and I mean great. Yay!!

District Desperation

Everyone talks about the desperate shortage for math and science teachers. I figured it would be a piece of cake to get a job even if I didn't have a credential. Well, that was a bad assumption, I wasn't getting any interviews for "real" teaching jobs. Now that I've applied and am in a credential program and it's two weeks until school starts I've had three offers for interviews. Two of those are with school districts, Oakland's and San Francisco's. I know Oakland is still looking for 4 high school math teachers and "many" middles school math folks. SFUSD is hiring 6 high school teachers. So looks like by the end of this school year, it's highly likely that I will have both my credential in progress as well as a year of teaching under my belt.

And because of this, I will lead a very rough life this next year. Much preparation, because I don't actually have a syllabus made for what a school year of math will look like, and little sleep in preparing for both schools, the one I teach at and the one I attend. Also, since the semster starts Aug 30 this means no Burning Man for me. Which is tragic only because AJ and Adam old great friends are both flying in for their first visits ever to the playa and I will no longer be able to host them. Sad.

Here I go, again on my own

Traveling down the only road I've ever known.

Alright, so I've traveled down many roads, when confronted with a choice I'll always take the one I haven't tried before. Seems like I keep going back to this going to school thing though. And I'm off again. First day of classes is Monday. Me taking the classes. Heading back to school to get my teaching credential. Hopefully I'll also manage to find a school to hire me while I'm getting my credential. I'm going to interview for a teaching job, but that's in the city and school is 12 miles north west of me, ie even further out of san francisco.

I know it will all work out in the end, I trust in this. But I'm a bit concerned at this point. I'm constantly questioning the decisions, spontaneous choices I make in life. Really, in the end, I want to travel, eat good food, learn new things. Share my knowledge.

I need to write more about Korea, especially the food and drinks I had. But I haven't had time nor desire to do so yet. Been spending all my time at this maching looking at different job postings and financial aid places.

What to do, what to do?

I've been applying for all kinds of math teaching jobs. I've even had a few interviews, though none have led to a job. Seems as though every math teaching position requires a credential. Do I go back to school? Again? Do I spend the money (that I now don't have) again? Do I really want to be a teacher? In being here, teaching every day, 7 hours a day (of the same kids) I do love it. I wake up ready and energized everyday (though, honestly needing a beer or two by the end of the day on Thursday, but hell I made it to Thursday). I don't like teaching English though, this much is for sure. I want to be teaching math. I want my summers to travel. I should just go ahead and do it. Fill out my FAFSA and make sure that I can get government loans to do it. Start applying for math teaching scholarships. Ones that don't lock me into being in the United States so that when I have my credential I can go teach abroad. Wish me luck.

And check again with me in a week, maybe I'll have changed my mind.

Abortions Tickle

There was a girl wearing a shirt that pictured a 1950's looking cartoon of one woman whispering in another's ear. The caption reads "Abortions Tickle." Why do I write about this? An observation on Korean abuses of English? The dicotamy that exists in teaching English and how well does a person ever truly know a second language unless they are raised with it. All day long this girl was getting gasps of horror from the Western teachers, but how do we explain the intrinsicness of why this is so painfully wrong? Do we even bother to try?

Personally, I never actually saw the shirt. If I did though, I would have been hard pressed to think in simple enough English my thoughts conveying why I don't like her shirt.

This is a bit of a struggle I've found even in teaching ESL for a mere two weeks. Already I feel my vocabulary diminshing. I fight against it, I try my best not to "dumb myself down" in front of my kids. But it's hard, I lose sentences when I talk to them. I refer to them as "Emily Teacher's class." I'm giving them a vocab quiz of 15 words tomorrow. All of them we've learned through class room discussions. I'm trying to get them talking as much as possible as that's what I was told my job would be, improving their spoken English fluency. However, us teachers just learned that the parents were told their students would have learned 900 new words by the end of the 3 weeks. If you're keeping county that's 300 words/week or 60/day. Imagine trying to RETAIN 60 new words of a language a day. Um, yeah, right.

Teacher, are you a gangster?

I've had my favorite moment thus far in teaching Korean kids. Today I was asked if I'm a gangster! Apparently the majority of people with tattoos are also in the mafia here. It was great fun talking about it with my students. I have new students now, my kids left as their program was only one week and I took over a junior's level class for a teacher who had a family emergency and needed to leave. It works perfectly as he'll return the day I have to head back to Seoul for my flight home.

Pancakes!

I taught my kids how to make pancakse today and also how to say fractions by showing them the recipe. We couldn't find any baking powder so I just left it out, but added in bits of chocolate. They were a hit, "Teacher, delicious!" I heard over and over. Then I gave them a word search, without the words, and they worked in groups and were spelling and pronouncing the hard letters (r and l). What a great day! And lunch had raw veggies and seaweed/cucumber soup. Yum, finally healthy food! Although the kids were really confused, "Teacher, no bap (rice)?" And of course, I don't want to tell the girls that eating the rice will make me fat, so I just tell them that I'm not used to it for every meal, which is of course true.

Ooh, and on the topic of food last night we had chop chey, potato starch noodle. Delicious!

English Camp

Here I am with my kids. I'm the head in the sand. We took them to the beach yesterday. Yep, we're walking distance from the East Sea (call it the Sea of Japan and you might get kicked).

My experiences here have ranged from pleasant to nightmare-ish. I was led to believe my kids knew written and general spoken English and that I would be here to help them with they're spoken English as in school they are usually taught by Koreans. However, I've got a few kids who speak no English. Which would be fine if they all didn't, but I've got some who have a working knowledge of the language. I think it's frustrating across the board. Beyond that they aren't interested in lessons, they only want to play games. They don't work well in groups and one is especially disruptive. Ah, young adults. Really, what this has done has firmed up my suspicion that I want to work with older kids. Mine here are between 9-12 years old.

Oh, but I think I witnessed first flirtings today, one of my girls hit a boy! Normally, the two sexes avoid contact like the plague.

Signs, signs everywhere NEON signs

First impressions of Korea:

- In the bathroom in the airport they have "etiquette bells" which of course I had to press. It makes fake flushing noises.

- Going into Seoul from Incheon (where the International airport is) all you see is neon. Arriving into the small town of Sokcho where the camp is, population 90,000 all you see is neon.

- My first meal was in the airport waiting for Matthew, I got a hot pot of veggies and tofu. By hot pot, they mean a very hot stone pot that keeps the food boiling, literally for minutes, and there by way to hot to eat for many, many minutes. It came with a side of minature brined shrimp.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Joy went on and on about this book. Chris lent it to me on Thursday to take on my flight. I connected through Vancouver (which actually ended up being over night so I got to see both Linda and Martin!) and was finished before I even boarded the plane for Seoul.

This is such a moving, deeply romantic, well written book. I'm so sad that it's over, I can't stop thinking about the characters. As the title suggests it's about a time traveler and his wife. That's all I'm going to say about it. Read it.

Quandry

I never got confirmation from Matthew this morning that he caught his flight from Chicago to San Francisco and then from SF to Seoul. I'm in Incheon Airport waiting on him. I at least know that he tried to make it to the airport this morning, I presume he managed to rescue his passport, complete with Korean visa from the post office this morning.

The problem is, that if he didn't make the flight, then I'm spending 2.5 hours at the airport when I could be traveling up towards Sokcho. We'll see what happens.

I'm thrilled to be here. I've never felt more secure in a random travel deciscion than this. I'm excited to be working with kids, helping share my quirkyness in a way that helps them learn spoken English complete with all it's idoms and figures of speech.

I'm still waiting to hear back about teaching jobs I interviewed for before I left. The last was with Unity High School a bad ass charter school that I would love to work at. I went in and taught a quick twenty minute lesson on factoring trinomials and the kids were left to evaluate me. I also interviewed at Maybeck HS for a part time job that would most likely require me to work another job (bookstore?) but would be a great start for me to get some experience. I also sent in my application to Project Pipeline which is a teaching while earning your credential program which provides the training on weekends spread out over two years and is considerably cheaper than any University credential program I've found.

Who knows what this life holds for me? I'm waiting patiently to see what manifests and as always, just going with the flow.

Egads!!!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by my life and my own spontinatity. I have returned from Atlanta feeling sorry for my mom who is still entertaining and housing two of her sisters and two of said sister's kids. She and my dad will get their lives back on Saturday.

I've been studying for the Math CSET. I was in an internet cafe today along with three other people who were studying as well. One is a math teacher who's taking the Geometry heavy test (subtest II) again because he failed the first time by three points. I'm taking subtests I and II tomorrow. Am I ready? I've never been good at studying. I've done more than usual this time, but I'm sure the statistics and "foundations" of algebra will still throw me.

And in the midst of all this I've had an interview at a private school for an Algebra II teacher position (went well, fingers crossed) and bought a plane ticket to Korea! Egads. I leave on the 21st, less than a week. I'll be gone until August 10th, spending the time their teaching English, which of course, I've never done before. Sometimes, I amaze myself with my hutzpah.

Family

My mom is one of 10. Her side of the family has gathered from my grandmother's 80th birthday. We had 40-some people at my mom's house yesterday. A motley crew of aunts, uncles (14), cousins (12), spouses of cousins (3), 1st cousins once removed (1), great aunts and uncles (3), and of course my parents and sister were along as well. Yowza. If I ever get married, I think I'll be eloping. Actually, it's been great to see everyone, but we don't really have so much to talk about as we're very different. Most of the cousins that are here are 10 years old or under. The older ones are all married and live in either Ohio or Buffalo, NY. And as we all know, I'm an introvert, I don't handle large groups of people well.

The tattoo hasn't even been that big of a deal and it's been revealed that one of my mom's sisters has a couple as well. The one who also just bought a new Mustang, midlife crisis anyone? The hardest part has been explaining to everyone what it is I do, or don't as it may be. Thankfully, I've had the CSET to study for, so every day I leave for a couple of hours to brush up on my math. Like right now... hmm, maybe I should get back to that, because really, does anyone remember off the top of their head vector math? Multiplying vectors by matrices? Yeah, neither do I.

God and Cafes

I've been searching for cafes with free wifi. Yesterday I was at Cambridge Coffee in a booming strip mall district in Alpharetta, Georgia. However, their wifi was spotty at best. Today, I'm right down the street at a Port City Java spitting distance from my folks' house. When you're in Georgia you use words like folks apparently. Today's wireless is everything it should be, strong and clear. The similarities in the two places are that both include tables of people talking about god. Yesterday was a women's group trusting in god to make their marriages better. Today it's a father and two sons, one named Roman. He's lecturing them about what god will do or take away from you. And I quote the father, "If you see a homeless person lying on the street and you don't give them money what does this mean? It means that one day god might take away all your money." He asks the kids questions, when the younger one resonds with elaborate stories the father continually says, "now, don't get carried away." Right, because god doesn't like you to have an imagination either.

Now I know I'm coming across as all high and mighty. No, I don't have kids. I have no idea how I will teach them about what I think is right and wrong. Sure, I think the 10 commandments are a good set of rules, but I'm not going to present them as these things that "god said to moses." This man is continually using scare tactics on 10 and 12 year old kids. Ugh.

Life Goals

On my flight to Austin yesterday, I started writing. I'm in a place where I'm constantly analyzing mylife, where it is, where it's going. Who I am, who I want to be. I started a list, I like to list.

Life goals:

work with math
use my brain
live sustainably
work for the greater good
have a big permaculture yard with a small earthen built house
travel (even more)
learn to spin wool
have a partner in crime
teach more summer camp
share food from my garden
learn to be an organic farmer
take time to live
learn more about wine

How to do this? What to do? I like the idea of teaching in public schools. Of being part of the solution. We clearly have a lack of math and science teachers. I love math. I want to share this love of math, of being geeky with kids. I want to share my experiences throughout the world with them. Though I learned about other countries in my history classes, it wasn't until I traveled to them that they became tangible something outside of the paper. I want to take kids abroad. How can I do this? Where do I start?

Then of course there's the food and sustainable living. Is this something that will just become part of my existance, something that's a day to day, or is this something I should work at as well. I need to start volunteering with the places that didn't hire me. Get experience, be part of their organizations.

How I do it...

An annonymous commenter (why are you scared of me knowing who you are?) asked how I live my life, am I independently wealthy? Trust fund baby? Living off credit cards? Nope, none of the above. When I graduated from Rice, I had a high paying job for 18 months and I saved almost every penny. I've been really fortunate as I don't have any school debt. My parents put me through school, something I probably don't thank them for enough. I put myself through culinary school with my savings. It is very important for me to live debt free. I use my credit card (how else would one buy plane tickets over the internet??) but pay it off every month. I live a simple life, my biggest expenses are food and travel, though right now as we're still searching for a new housemate, rent is ranking really high up there. My car is paid off. And last Christmas my grandparents gave each of their grandkids a sizeable chunk of change which I immediately put into the bank. So I've been catering some to supplement and living off my savings. The time for all this non-work though is ending. By August, I want to be working full time and saving money again, so that I can continue to travel. The what's, how's and why's of my life are still being worked out, but that will follow in my next post.

Blog Chainletter

I hate chain letters. With a passion. Typically I throw them out, even if they are from good friends. However, this one is easy enough. But I'm not passing it on. It doesn't even ask me to, so prehaps it's not a chain letter. More of a questionaire, so here goes.

1. Total number of cookbooks I’ve owned: I'm not at home, so I can't give an accurate count. And since it has the past tense, I'm sure I'll forget some that I've given away. I'd say the number is around 20 or so.

2. Last cookbook(s) I bought: Blue Ball Book of Preserving.

3. Last cookbook I read: Part of the Fog City Diner cookbook. Love the restaurant, think I'd love the book.


4. Five cookbooks that mean a lot to me:
a. Lebanese Cooking - reminds me of my grandmother.
b. Stop and Smell the Rosemary: It always makes me think of my dear friend Rebecca. Plus the pictures are beautiful and the recipes are always a success.
c. Enchanted Broccoli Forest: my first introduction to vegetarian cooking and hippy living.
d. American Pie: another book I was introduced to by Rebecca. I love Peter Reinhart, his passion for food and willingness to try pizza throughout the world inspires me to do something similar.
e. Baking with Julia: yay, Julia!

5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog? I must admit, I rarely read other peoples' blogs religiously. The only one I really do is Linda's and she's already done this.

Ok, done. Linda, I hope you're happy ;)

Job Perks

No, I don't have "real" job yet. The second interview (which I was told was just a formality) for the Global Footprint job, that I wasn't really all that excited about, got cancelled on me as I flew home from Vegas. Such is life. I just keep keep on keepin' on. I've been sending out more resumes and actually have an interview tomorrow with Making Waves a non-profit that supplements education and life in general in one of the statistically poorest areas of the East Bay, Richmond. I'd be teaching high school math, Geometery, Algebra and Calculus, oh my! And it's a program that I find fascinating. More about it after the interview though.

In the meantime, I haven't just been sitting at home eating bon bons. I've been working with Stir Catering, mostly doing front of the house (carrying trays of food, serving drinks, setting up buffets) stuff and I'm loving it. Being the natural flirt that I am, the people interaction is fun. On Monday and Tuesday I was at Lawrence Berkeley Labs where there was a conference being held on Dark Matter. There, I met some mathematical modeling people and sent a resume off today. Who knows what may come of it, but it was a neat connection. I also came home that night with two flank steaks and 4 chicken legs. Yesterday, we were at the SF MOMA doing food for a New Zealand wine tasting event. From that I came home with 8 bottles of wine! Which was as much as I could carry to the BART station. If only I'd driven!

Ah, it's chicken that's flammable

I made Grilled Chicken Moroccan Style tonight. I cut way back on the recipe since I was only making 2 legs and did them under the broiler rather than the grill because again, there were only 2 legs. I'm still unclear how it occured, but clearly chicken fat is far more flammable than gasoline.

me: "Um, um, fire extinguisher..."
Joy runs in holding said device, "How do I use this thing?"
me: "Pull the pin, then squeeze the handle. But do we really want to use it though, it'll make a huge mess..."
her: "Wait, where's the baking soda?"
me: "here" dousing pan liberally with the white stuff.

Much window opening, fan placing, towel waving ensues. Then the grabbing of a beer and sitting down in shock. Then the scraping away of the baking soda to discover that there's still edible chicken under the black skin. And, to my shock, that it's delicious. So, I highly recommend this recipe. Though, I recommend doing it on the grill, not under the broiler (and I had it on the second rack down).

Y'all want some privacy?

While we were at Travertine hot springs, we had three different people or groups of people offer us privacy. Just because we're three young naked people in a hot spring, doesn't mean we're being kinky. Everyone else was naked. Why did these people find us weird to be around?

knitty mcknitsalot

I've been knitting up a storm on this trip. I finally finished the fishnet arm warmers I started in Thailand (that was back in January, for those not keeping track). Unfortunately they're two different colors at the moment as one of them got so dirty and bleached by the sun in Thailand. I didn't really like the pale blue anyway, so I think I'll just bleach them both and then attempt to dye them with beet juice.

Still left on the needles is "Under the Hoodie," a hooded sweater pattern from Stitch 'N' Bitch. This was started back when it was cold in November. I've made so much progress the past week that it actually looks like a sweater. Ok, so maybe it's more like a tunic at the moment, but still. I've been messing with the pattern to avoid sewing seams, which I know I will hate. I did the shoulders with kitchner stitch, undoing the binding off (that's when you take the thing off the needles) to avoid sewing the curling in bound off edges. And for the sleeves, the pattern tells you to knit them flat then sew a seam up the arm to make them round and then to sew them to the sweater. Well, I'm going to instead, pick up stitches from around the upper part of the sweater and then knit in the round (using these cool short circular needles I picked up in South Tahoe) so I won't have to sew any seams at all for the sleaves. The only seams left to actually sew will be the sides of the sweater.

This yarn shop (often abbreviated LYS for local yarn store) in South Tahoe was a trip. The lady in there was super nice and super chatty. She had a cute little Shitzu with crazy long hair and when Adam asked if she had ever accidently knitted him into something she was making she told us to wait a minute and she disappeared into the back room. We all look at each other with that look of "oh my god, what are we about to see?" She returns and tells us of the shitzu she used to have, Sosumi (named by her attorney husband, say it out loud, So sue me). It was her baby, she loved it so, it got sick and so she began to collect the hair from it's daily brushings for a year. Sent them to this company who sent her back a ball of yarn that is 60% Sosumi hair. Creepy, eh?

Lotus of Siam

Last night, we had a food adventure! I'd read about Lotus of Siam on Chowhound, apparently a singular reason to visit Vegas. So we go out and try it. Everything I'd read, suggested not ordering, but letting the staff pick for you. Thankfully Adam was so hungry, he was willing to go along with this plan. We tell the waiter that we don't eat meat (as it's not sustainable there) but we're willing to eat the catfish (as most catfish is farmed which is sustainable, well, for catfish anyway, definitely not for salmon). I digress. We tell him we want a soup, a salad, a fish entree and a noodle dish. Every dish arriving was a surprise! And every dish was excellent all with different flavors going on. A hot and sour soup with bright sour lime-esque flavors and mild spicyness, a tofu salad with perfectly fried pieces of tofu on a bed of crisp lettuce, red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes topped with a spicy dressing and loads of mint, the catfish was blackened and grilled, topped with a spicy cilantro and red onion stuff. That one was hot, but fresh and oh so good. And then noodles the big fat ones. Topped with sauteed veggies and mint. Dear lord. Oh and dessert. A coconut ice cream, which wasn't made with any dairy, just frozen condensed coconut milk on top of sweet sticky rice. h\Hot and cold. Sweet and textured.

You need more melon

We've left the heat of Saline Valley, escaping the flies. It took us 10 hours to make it to Vegas. We stopped in Pantamint Valley to eat some sandwiches and use the bathrooms, but didn't buy anything there as it's the first stop for miles and it's crazy expensive. Gas was $3.15/gallon for the lowest grade. We continued on to Stovepipe Wells and stopped again. It was bloody hot. 104 degrees. We bought cold drinks, some toffee pretzels and Juli got a beautiful ring. The guy behind the counter very shy with Adam commented under his breath how he'd like to come out and two step with me as I must have been dancing around. When Juli and I went up to purchase aforementioned items he was very chatty with us. Commenting on how I had a lot of energy calling me "square dancer" and the two of us "young ladies" which always makes us chuckle. We told him we'd come from Saline and how it was too hot for us. He said "well, it's summer. You just have to take things slow and easy." Even his manner of talking was slow and laid back. As we were walking out the door, he was warning us about sun exposure. Telling the fair skinned Juli "you need more melon. be sure you wear plenty of sun block and stay in the shade." To Adam and I, more olive skinned, "Y'all should wear sun block too. Even I do and I'm pretty dark." Clearly, as he's a black guy. He was very amusing. Next stop was Furnace Creek to buy the national parks pass Adam and Juli will use across the country and then on to Shoshone, Ca. Town of one gas station and two restaurants. But one of these restaurants I'd read about on Chowhound, Cafe C'est Si Bon. A vegetarian internet cafe. We had mangolada smoothies. Mango, banana, pineapple and coconut milk. Drool. I want another one now. It was so good. Then we went out back to pet Pizza, their Vietnamese pig. Very bizarre. Finally 10 and a half hours after leaving Saline, we arrived at my aunt's house in Las Vegas, baby, Vegas. This visit is going to be much different than the previous one, thank goodness. Agenda is knitting, reading, swimming and watching movies.

Job Drought

Sigh. So I didn't get the Backroads job. Fine. But then I checked my voice mail in Big Pine, Ca, just before we entered the road to Saline and I had a voice mail from The Edible Schoolyard. They've already filled the position. :-( I'm really bummed. I still have the Global Footprint interview on Tuesday. I'm assuming they'll give me an offer, which I guess I'll take, because I need an income, though I'd love to spend the rest of the summer hiking and traveling. And in being the eternal optimist, the job does that it's perks. I'll be doing geeky type stuff working with SQL and databases, which I really liked at my old job. And this job, I won't be working for the man. I'll be working for a company that's promoting sustainability. And, they all eat lunch together every day. A lunch that's home cooked in the office with a big salad. One more thing is that I can bike to work! Maybe once I've started making some money, I should get a better bike, one with gears.

So that's the update.

Valley of the Heat

We're out in Saline Valley and it's fucking hot. Excuse my language, but we're talking 95 in the shade. 104+ outside. Everyone says, "oh, but it's dry heat." Dry my ass. I'm drenched in sweat. And angry apparently.

It is beautiful. I took a short walk this morning when it was cool (at 6 am) and it was beautiful. The sun hadn't yet risen over the mountains in the east and the western mountains were glowing pink. There are lizzards everywhere, some are green, others rock colors. Small little chipmunk type creatures and last night 4 wild burroughs walked past our camp.

The drive out here, 40 miles of washboard (meaning it takes 3 hours to go 40 miles), was also beautiful. There are still tons of wild flowers out here. And this time I had my camera!!! Woo hoo. Two and a half rolls shot so far.

Flat Tire #1

I'm an optimist. Always have been. Can't imagine myself any other way. But, that said, I'm also a realist. And while I'd like to hope we won't have another flat tire, I'd say odds are against us. We got our first one this afternoon. Just barely into the dirt road part of the ride down into the Saline Valley, our next destination, where we plan to spend several days, camped in one spot. However, as luck would have it, we're back in Big Pine. Camped at a lovely camp ground, rushing streams, much smaller than the American, but still making that lovely rushing water sound and it's warm. A constant breeze, but it's not cold, not at all. I"m sleeping outside tonight, next to the river, under the stars and moon. Yay!

Anyhow, like I said we got a flat. And it wasn't a simple puncture wound. More like a half inch gash that the tire repair kit couldn't mend. So we turned around. We're hoping to have the tire fixed first thing in the morning so we can attempt the drive in once more. It's a pretty rough road, washboard for miles. We'll see what happens.

Apparently, gasoline is inflammable

We made the journey from Sacramento down to a lovely camp ground along the American River (see my previous post on my glorious hike down to said river) in Kyburz, Ca. It was very dark when we got there and all we could hear was the river roaring. In the morning we saw it raging by. I don't know rapid classes, but these were at least a III. The kind older couple that runs the camp ground said that the river is 7' higher than usual. And from the amount of snow yet to fall, it appears it's only going to get higher. A bit of a concern for them as it appears that the campground could flood. I love sleeping with river noise though and so it made for a great night, except that it was cold. I packed lightly, thinking only of us being in Death Valley, where temperatures are already in the 100s. However, as we were driving towards South Tahoe, we were awed by the beauty of snow falling from trees. The highest elevation we hit was 7,500', I can still see snow in the mountains around us. Yeah! I love snow. However, with no snow gear that rules out any snow hiking or cross country skiing. Not that I know how to xcountry ski, but I could learn.

Anyway, from Kyburz, we continued to highway 395 and began our journey south. We made it as far as Bridgeport, Ca, where the Travertine hot springs are. Our first soak in hot springs, thus far. Wonderful, gorgeous, beautiful. We set up camp back on BLM land about a half mile down from the springs, which apparently are not on BLM lands anymore and therefore you can't legally camp there. Whatever, half mile away isn't bad. So we set up camp and the plan for dinner is to bbq hamburgers and sweet potato wedges. They have a small grill, we have charcoal brickettes from Whole Foods, some paper to try lighting them with in an attempt to avoid using lighter fluid or other chemicals. So, the hunt for the lighters begins. In all the reorganization that has happened in the past few days, this takes quite a while. But finally two lighters are produced. We light the paper, which almost immediately burns out without catching the coals on fire. Add more paper, grab some dry sticks and try again. Unfortunately, for some reason unbeknownst to us, now neither of the lighters are working. And there are no matches to be found. Hrmph. At this point I'm willing to give in and have sandwiches for dinner. Adam refuses to be beat by this though. In shifting the coals around, he discovers that one did catch and is still glowing. We attempt to use it to ignite tp. This should be easy right? But there are Adam and I blowing on this coal, holding paper to it and nothing. Adam decides it's time to pull out the heavy artillery and grabs the gas can. He soaks a piece of paper bag and we hold the glowing coal to said paper. Again, nothing. What the fuck? By this point, the coal is no longer glowing. So now, we stack more coals and paper, douse the whole thing in gasoline and Adam rigs up the jumper cables to the battery. Handing me the fire extinguisher, he touches the other two ends together producing a shower of sparks. Thankfully none of the bushes surrounding us caught on fire, but then again, neither did our gas soaked items. I'll say again, what the fuck?! More gas, more sparks. Then a piece of wire between the two cable ends which glows red hot, finally WOOSH, we have made fire! At around 9, we enjoy our burgers and a few of the sweet potatoes. The potatoes could have used a lot longer on the grill, but it was cold, windy and we were hungry.

ESY interview

So my interview is a week from tomorrow at The Edible Schoolyard and given that this is the job I'd really like to have, i've been thinking about it incessantly and I won't get back to Oakland until the day of the interview, I'm trying to learn as much about the program as I can, and will be making my notes here. If anyone has any thing that they would like to add, please do.

Essential Job Duties
Cooking Instruction in the Kitchen Classroom
-Sustainable Food and Supplies Procurement
-Direction, Communication, Leadership, and Personality
-Facilities Management and Maintenance

Essential Job Skills
The ESY Assistant Chef Teacher has a thorough knowledge of regional California seasonality and a strong commitment to supporting local organically grown food. Experience working with adolescents is a must, grounded in an uncompromising dedication to advocacy for youth.

Successful teaching in the Kitchen Classroom requires a captivating, clear, and comfortable public speaker, with awareness of food justice and ecological literacy.

Questions:
Diversity at the school.
How much time is spent in the kitchen and in the garden, for both the students and I.
Who will I be working with?
Will I get to write my own lesson plans?

Things I would like to research:
-Ability to understand and articulate the reasoning behind sustainable procurement.
-Ability to research, plan, execute, and document recipes that are seasonal, fresh, economical, and from scratch.
-Ability to create and use recipes that can be successfully prepared with students in a class setting and that translate to students’ home kitchens.
(those last two I can do, I would just like to have some examples)

And things that I would like to learn over the summer should I get this job.
A bit of Spanish. Mucho de un pocito.
Going to work on a sustainable farm (the one up outside of Vancouver that was my favorite, with all the heirloom tomatoes)

Wildlife Sightings

Well, we're still in Sacramento. Fair Oaks, technically, the far east side of Sacto. I just got back from a lovely hike/walk (when do you differentiate, what is the difference?) Juli says hiking is strenuous walking. But I certainly wouldn't say that power walkers were hiking. And today I was walking at a good clip on an unpaved trail, so was I hiking? I digress... as always.

I started my walk (it was definitely a walk at that point) at Steiner College. They have some really beautiful buildings with architecture that includes loads of sky lights and some really full veggie gardens. But there wasn't much active hiking to be done there, so I headed over to Bannister Park. The beginning of my walk/hike I saw a big bird, bigger than a crow, longer body that was black with bright blue on its wings and a white tail (according to Hans, this is a magpie). Further out on the trail, I almost squished a lizzard painted like a snake. It was cool. Once I got down to the American River, which is big and wide and flows at a good clip, I saw a big fish, about 2 feet long. On the walk back I saw some grey squirrels (boring, I know) and a huge bird, wild turkey, mmm, good eating. Strange, I know, but possible. Anyway it was a really pretty walk full of neat stuff to look at, yay!

Epic Journey

I am very honored to be joining my dear friends Adam and Juli as they start a new adventure. They have now put all their stuff into storage down in Santa Cruz, loading only the items they deemed absolutely necessary into their VW Synchro Vanagan and are traveling around the United States, camping, hiking, seeing what there is to see. The journey began in a rented house in Guernville where 14 of us congregated to celebrate the beginning of A's 29th year. It was a weekend of eating and hot tubbing, with a brief interlude down by the Russian River. Now we've made it as far as Sacramento. We'll spend tonight relaxing and then tomorrow running errands, hopefully tomorrow night we'll have made camp near some hot springs. The rest of the next week will be spent in Death Valley National Park, we'll be starting in Saline Valley.

As for job stuff, well, the Backroads interview went really well. Or I thought it did, anyway. But much to my shock, I was not offered a position. Hrmph. Well, most likely I'd have turned them down, but still, it was surprising not to get the offer. So now it's between Backroads and the Edible Schoolyard. Between those two I really want the Edible Schoolyard job. I interview on the 24th. Keep your fingers crossed.

It's raining jobs, hallelujah

Ok, so not so much jobs as interviews which will hopefully lead to job offers. Yesterday I had a phone interview with Backroads which is a travel adventure company. Think biking tours through Spain or California wine country, backpacking trips through the Canadian Rockies, etc. Benefits of working for them - someone else is paying for my travel. I get to do all the outdoor traveling that I missed out on in my formative years. Downside, working long hours with people who probably aren't all that outdoorsy, the pay is such that you're paid when you're on the road and when you're not they give you housing, so I'd have to move out of my lovely house, with my lovely housemate just when I'm beginning to feel settled. However, if we don't find a third housemate sometime soon... Ugh. I really don't want to move again. Besdies that for completely selfish reasons, I have a lot planned for this summer, weddings, my grandmother's 80th birthday party, things I just don't want to have to miss out on. So maybe joining backroads now is not the best of ideas. But then, when am I going ot be at this place in my life again that I can do something like this. I mean, who likes to travel more than I do? Ok, so maybe I have one friend who does, but really, we're a rare breed. And introducing people to new places, new parts of the world.

Ok, next job, with the Edible Schoolyard!!!

The Edible Schoolyard, in collaboration with Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote the environmental and social well being of our school community

I got an interview for the assistant teacher position. Teaching kids about eating healthy, growing their own food, living sustainably and summers off. I keep going back and forth about which is the job that I really want. Ugh.

Last job, Global Footprintnetwork, I think this one I've mentioned before as I interviewed with the company on April 7th! Ok, that was a long time ago. They want me to come in for one last interview and assuming I were to get the job, to then start immediately. This is the tech job, I'd be programming again, but this time working towards sustainability. However, this job is lowest in personal excitement level.

I go to a hiring event for Backroads tomorrow, then on May 24th I interview with both the Edible Schoolyard and Global Footprint Network. Friday, I leave for a weekend up in Healdsburg where 15 of us will be in a rented house for Adam's birthday :) Then I head out to Death Valley with Adam and Juli as they begin their Roadtrip USA. I fly back to meet my sister in Oakland on the 24th, right, same day as the interviews.

Universal Cafe

I had a stunning meal last night. Bold words for a foodie snob like myself, but it was really great. Starting with a menu with the day's date printed on it (follow this out to the logical conclusion that the menu changes daily). Organic veggies, sustainably raised meats. We order a Sinskey 2000 Merlot, that was light in body for a merlot, not oaky at all, but with a full taste, very little tanins.

We start with a hearts of romain salad. Typically, I eschew romain, because really it's just one step away from iceberg lettuce. The salad was huge, including an entire heart of romain, still in one piece and therefore only had dressing on the outer most layer, reducing it to my traditionally snubbed, plain lettuce. But the plate was also covered in huges chunks of feta, sugar snap peas and an herbed lemon vinegrette. Personally, I found the vinagrette lacking umph, but the fresh herbs were plentiful, the peas so very sweet and crisp and the chunks of feta tangy compensating for the lack in the vinagrette.

Also, a nice touch was that there was a small bowl (think mis en place size) of coarse salt on the table and when the salad arrived we were given our own pepper grinder. I hate restaurants that are conceited enough to think that everything they serve you is going to be perfectly seasoned to your unique tastes. However, that said, I never touched the salt and used the pepper grinder only on my salad. I appreciate even more that they were there and I didn't have to use them.

Back to the meal. Entrees, braised rabbit for me, pan seared salmon for my date. I hate cooked salmon, so I can't really critique his plate. But it did come with fresh beets, again super sweet bleeding brightly onto his plate and rice and those perfect thin young asparagus. The salmon was cooked to have a nice crust, but this seemed to have resulted in salmon that wasn't as opaque as he'd have wanted. My rabbit also had a nice crust, just a slight crunch as you bite into the super tender meat. This was served with garlicy sauteed artichoke hearts (clearly fresh, not canned, given their color) and hand cut pasta. Dear god, I love homemade pasta and this was among the best I've ever had.

No room for dessert, though of course, I had to see what they offered. One fruit (rhubarb strawberry cobbler), one chocolate torte, an ice cream and a panne cotte. Plus a $2 piece of biscotti. I love that they give you a cheap option for dessert. If I'd have had anymore room, I'd gone with an ice wine and biscotti.

All this said, I hope to return, something I never say about a place. For those of you who'd like to check it out, it's at 2418 19th St @ Bryant, San Francisco.

Pictures!

I've re-installed gallery on my original website making a much easier format for viewing pictures. Check it out PhotoBug.

Exploding Chocolate Cows!!!

I'm making a sample wedding cake to practice for Minnie and Vim's wedding. I decided to make the chocolate glaze in the food processor as I was going to use it to chop the chocolate anyway. Turns out that little plastic gate thing is really important for keeping hot molten chocolate inside the food processor container. Really.

Hypocrisy

1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.


Scene: Berekely Bowl - a local, co-op, predominately organic, whole grain foods. Long line for the check out, typical.

Lady talking with clerk - blah, blah, I eat only organic, blah. "It tastes so much better. So much richer, when your food is all organic. My children and I never get sick. People complain about how much more expensive it is, but when you look at what they're spending at the doctors, I'm paying for my health!"

Clerk: "Yeah, I've been interested in getting started with that. What do you think I should start with?"

Lady: "All your dairy products and produce. Compare the taste of a non-organic tomato to an organic tomato. You'll see. Plus, you'll be so much healthier. And really when you think about it, who wants to be supporting all those chemicals?"

Clerk: "Paper or plastic?"

Lady: "Plastic. And could you double bag it?"

Hiking

I've had an active few days. Thursday, I hiked around Land's End taking photos with Will. Friday I roamed around part of Lake Merrit (where I found the aforementioned Fairy Land!) and my favorite local haunt, the Mt. View cemetary. (Oh, I'm so punny, I kill myself.) Saturday 7 of us did the 10 mile (roundtrip) trek out to Tomales Point, the northern most tip of Point Reyes. Beautiful. And then yesterday I danced my booty off at the How Weird Street festival. I love, love, love dancing in the daylight. It was grand! And I got to play with Will's camera again. The goal for this week is to get my photo gallery back up and running.

Squeaka-Squeaka

I've been riding my bike to pick up CSA veggies and down to WF for smaller trips. I love riding my bike. It's a big, heavy Murray Cruiser. It squeaks. It's rusty. I hum the Wizard of Oz wicked witch theme song.

Today, I also had the pleasure of exploring more of Oakland. I walked around a wee bit of Lake Merrit. Discovered there's a Fairy Land. Adults allowed only if accompanied by kids. Me on the phone with Badger, "Um, so can I borrow your kid?" Then her telling me all about this place. She's been. It's twisted as I knew it would be. I can't wait to check it out!

I baked two different cake recipes today. Testing for Minnie's wedding. Tasting begins tomorrow as I turn the scraps into a trifle. But the two cakes were very similar. Minimum 1/2 lb butter in each, 6 eggs, 3 cups sugar (which is 1.25 lbs, if you're keeping track). That's why they call them pound cakes, right? The main difference being that one had baking soda (though only 1/2 t) and sour cream while the other added an extra 1/4 of butter and replaced the sour cream with cream cheese. So far the differences - height. Boy did the baking soda make a difference. Cake doubled in height where as #2 rose only maybe 1/5 of it's original height. And color, #2 ended up lighter, though maybe I should have pulled #1 out earlier. I've got them wrapped in foil on the counter. I'll cut out small rounds of each tomorrow, then use the scraps for the trifle. Depending on when I get home from hiking, I'll assemble the rounds into layer cakes tomorrow. Which reminds me, I need more chocolate and cream. Everything a healthy body needs. ;-)

I like dogs and art and I vote

I passed that bumper sticker yesterday as I was walking. I don't know that I really have much to say about it. Seems to me like saying "I like babies and I vote" Who is going to say "I hate art and dogs and I vote"?

Pain or Pleasure?

I had my tattoo finished yesterday, finally. It was started way back in October with a 3 hour session, then 3 more in November, scheduled to be finished in December. Well, December ended up being really busy. Then I was gone. So I just now had it finished. 8 hours worth of art on my back in total. For those keeping track, that means a scant 2 hours yesterday. And this was the least painful yet. I think because my lovely artist, Paco, had me cracking up. Kept trying to convince me that my moans of pain (especially over the shoulder blade and way low back) were actually moans of pleasure. That really I was getting turned on by the tattooing. I'm sure this may be true for some people. But it is not for me. The sensations are so far separated that I can't even pretend to be aroused by it. But that's just me. I'm going to throw in Paco's website, because really, I love my tattoo and it was costume designed and colored so beautifully, that I want to give Paco as much credit as I can, so go check out Graven Image!

Spinning

I feel as though life is spinning around me. I am propelling it in part with my constant travels and never sitting still. I'm afraid to sit still. Afraid of the boredom that surrounds me without having a job. I spend a lot of my time sitting here at this small machine, looking at jobs I don't want or worse yet, jobs I really do want along with loads of other people with better resumes than mine.

I had a wonderful weekend up in wine country. Full of sun (to contradict the sucky forecast) and wonderful people in costume! I went to a super prom! Villians and heroes abounded. Capes fluttered everywhere. It was up at Roshambo Winery. A hip, almost too hip, winery, with a beautiful view and decent wines. They're fun! Not stuffy, no not at all! They throw super hero proms and host an annual Rock Paper Scissors pro-am. I'm not kidding, check out their website.

What to do? What to do? Today, I'm going for a long walk. Getting my Oakland library card. Mopping the floor and making some roasted onion stock. Maybe I'll ride my bike down to Berkeley bowl to see what they have on sale. I'd like to get some more grains for our bulk drawer. Barley especially. I have a hankering for a mushroom and barley soup. It's so pretty outside though, maybe I should turn that into a salad of sorts. Yeah, that's it.

I'm disappointed in my CSA, Full Belly Farms. We're already out of veggies for the week and then next box doesn't appear until Wednesday. I think when our subscription ends in June it'll be time to try out a new one.

Here, there, everywhere

As always, I can't sit still. Especially since I still don't have a job. Shall I talk about that first? I've been sending my resume out to a variety of places and have had an (singular) interview with a company I would really enjoy working at that would have me being a tech geek again. Global Footprint Network makes a tool that measures the ecological footprint countries are leaving. Basically, are you using more than you are replenishing. Yeah, it would be cool. I should know in another two weeks or so whether I'll actually get that job. In the meantime, I've also been sending my resume out to other non-profits, a few pastry places that I'd be willing to work at (Whole Foods and Bittersweet ~ the Chocolate Cafe) and also to The Edible Schoolyard, a program started by Alice Waters of Chez Pannise, it's a middle school with a garden and they teach kids about living and eating sustainably. Hello, I'm perfect for this job!

Ok, now back to the not sitting still. Last weekend found me up at Bruinslair where I helped to build some outdoor kitchen flooring and a cabinet. Also, I had the opprotunity to spend the weekend with some wonderful folks :) Almost immediately upon returning, I headed down to Santa Cruz to spend more time with my friends Adam and Juli before they embark on a road trip across the United States. Who knows how long they'll be gone, so I'm trying to get in as much time with them as I can. Yesterday, I headed down to Monterey while they were working and finally made it to the aquarium. WOW! That place is amazing. Jelly fish are amazing. They pulse and are creepy but cool at the same time. And tuna are freakin' fast fish. And huge with shiny bellies. The Monterey Bay Aquarium also works hard at saving our oceans. Go there, support them, use their Seafood Watch cards (now available regionally) to know that you're eating sustainably harvested fish.

Scary Sleep

My lovely housemate has been working like crazy. I've hardly seen her these past two weeks. Thus, I've been waking up when she does, so that we can hang out for a bit while she gets ready for work. This morning we shared a delightful smoothy, chatted and then she left. I was so sleepy, staying awake wasn't an option. I crawled back into my sun soaked bed and fall asleep. Sometime later, I wake up, but not really. I see that my door is open, and I don't remember whether I'd closed it. It sounds like there is someone in the house and I think maybe it's the housemate who's recently moved out, but then I realize she'd be a lot louder. The scary thing is that I can't actually get myself to move. The covers feel too heavy and my eyelids won't stay open. In my dream state I'm slapping myself on the face, trying to wake myself up, but I just can't do it. I'm going to assume that if anyone had actually been in my house that I'd have been able to get myself up, but it was scary how fatigued and unable to move I was.

Cherries

Something to consider, conventional cherries are sprayed with chemicals 3 times a week to help prevent the pesky cherry fruit fly from destroying the crop. The fruit you eat has been sprayed 3 times a week from the time it appeared as a bud. A simple rinse under the sink isn't going to get rid of those chemicals that have been layered on. Just something to consider. And to all you conventional cherry farmers, something for you to consider might be getting some chickens who will eat the fruit fly larva.

Grapes are another big one. Sigh, it's a constant battle inside me, my love of wine and hatred of pesticides.

For further reading, start with this list of produce to buy organic.

Nothing like a visitor

I've had a glorious few days visiting with my oldest friend (I mean oldest in that we've known each other since we were five), Karla. It's wonderful having someone come out to your town, it reminded me of all the reasons I love living out here. It is stunningly, achingly gorgeous. Especially driving down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, also called 1) from San Francisco down to Santa Cruz. Continuing down to Monterey you can see what artichoke plants look like - crazy - and strawberry fields.

The pacific ocean is massive and driving along it for hours, dreaming into it's vastness is a good reminder of that. I love that the beaches are often too cold to be in bathing suits on. You have people sitting, huddled together under blankets.

We went to Monterey and rather than visit the aquarium as intended, we got side tracked by newly opened tasting rooms. Yes, more wine for me. Thankfully my antibiotic series has ended. There are some glorious Monterey wines, though most of the grapes are coming from further inland near Pasa Robles. I actually think I'm beginning to understand and appreciate white wines