Gotta Get Back in Time…

     On a recent episode of Portlandia, the cast performed a song about “The Dream of the 1890′s” being alive in Portland.  It was a parody of the song they sang last year about the dream of the 1990′s being alive in Portland, “where young people go to retire.”  In present day Portland, people are pickling their own vegetables, brewing their own beer, shaving with straight razors and raising chickens.  “As if the 20th century never happened.”  Sure they were making fun of Portland, but I am seeing a return to the rustic life all over.

     A recent article in the NY Times, “How about Gardening or Golfing at the Mall?” discussed how malls all ever the country are going broke and are turning into suburban community centers, complete with gardens, churches, dog parks and other community spaces.  They are turning into to spaces to meet and visit, rather than just consume.  Malls around the country have turned into parks, casinos and aquariums.  They are “restoring natural elements like creeks that were originally paved over.” 

     San Diego is turning into the microbrew capital of the country and there are more farmers’ markets than you can shake a stick at.  Every day, all over town.  Within a few blocks of my urbany community I am seeing almost as many chickens in yards as dogs. 

     Midnight in Paris was about how people romanticized the past and it was sure to be better than the present.  Well Gil in the movie found he was both right and wrong.  But he understood there is a simpler life waiting for him. I think society may be shifting a bit that way.  At times of great stress, we turn to the simple things in life, and to self-reliance.  The joys of being with family and friends and community.  The pride in craftsmanship and making your own stuff.  Is this the end of big corporations, big government and the stock market?  No.  But maybe the shift is going to commerce being a little less important than community. We see the world crashing down around us and it may be at times seem like we can’t do anything about it.  Except maybe take joy in eating a fresh egg and drink a tasty brew.  

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The Right Thing

I cannot get the Penn State scandal out of my head.  I want to.  It is horrifying.  I cannot stop being angry at that graduate assistant coach who at 28 years old and at 6 foot four inches did not stop a middle age man buggering a 10 year old kid in the showers.  He called his FATHER!  Who told him to call a FOOTBALL COACH!   WHAT??????? My head is buzzing just writing this.   That 10 year old kid is now grown.  I wonder what he would say to that assistant coach now.  I think as a learning experience to all those folks who thought that saving a school’s honor and a football team’s honor is more important than speaking up for children being brutally abused should have to meet with those victims and get their stories.  Those “manly man” and “powerful”  football coaches and college administrators would have to sit in a room and listen, maybe not just to Sandusky’s victims, but to many victims.  Then they will maybe understand that life is more than a game where you throw around a little ball. 

I should say what I would really want the now grown victims to do to those guys.  It involves brooms and socks filled with dog doo.  But this is a respectable blog and I will let your imagination go.

The Tim Robbins Porta Potty

Today a friend of mine and I went to check out Occupy San Diego.  It is only into day three, but there was much going on.  There were numerous tents, food stations, a media tent, a socialist bookshop (a shoutout to Haymarket Books) and lots of cute dogs.

Marches and discussions were scheduled and there was even a solar phone recharger.  It was peaceful and fun and the San Diego weather was perfect.  I wish all these kids a safe and productive occupation. They have a lot of passion and a lot of heart and they are getting a lot of conservative panties in bunches and that is always fun to hear about and to see in the media.  Are they scared of a revolution? 

I was reading an article about the Occupy Wall Street crowd in the NY Times.  Many of the protesters were disturbing local businesses by using the bathrooms and not cleaning up after themselves and not even buying a cup of coffee. I am sure it is only a small percentage of the protesters, but it is always true that a small percentage (1%) can mess it up for the rest of us. (99%) A woman who owned a bagel shop had her sink broken and had to replace the lock on the door with a 200 dollar lock.  She did not want to be anti-protester, just anti-cleaning up after their shit, literally.  Many celebrities have stopped by to visit the protesters.  Micheal Moore, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon have all made the scene.  It is all well and good to get the publicity folks, but lets cough up a little cash and get these campers a porta potty. Even  the 99% ers have needs.

After that September

Everyone I know has a September 11 story.  Now, after 10 years they are sharing them once again all over the media.  People in San Diego, who were not even in New York, Pennsylvania, or Washington are calling into radio stations with their memories of that day.  I first thought, “who cares”? “why are you calling?” you were not there to witness the events firsthand.  But then I thought, we all witnessed it firsthand.  We all were watching the T.V.  It was a tragedy for all of us to share.  We all need to be a part of this tragedy that is bigger than us, just so we can understand it. 

Maybe I thought about this because I have my own 9/11 story to share.  How significant is my story compared to the thousands of others?  Not so much.  But here it is anyway.  My story though, does not take place on September 11, but in the aftermath, in the months and years after.

I had just started a new teaching assignment in a Catholic high school, it was ok, but I was unhappy teaching and had been for a while, but I did not know what else to do.  I was in limbo.  When the planes hit that day, I was at the school trying to teach English to freshmen and sophomores while our world was changing as we knew it.  I remember coming home that day, and looking at the names and faces of the victims of that day.  I thought about how suddenly their lives were taken from them.  They were just sitting in their offices like they had done a million times before and BOOM.  It was such an ordinary day.  All I kept thinking was, it could all end tomorrow and was I really doing what I wanted to do with my life?

Over the next few months I really began to think about what I wanted out of life.  I began studying religion and spirituality, looking for answers. I thought maybe I should convert to Judaism. I wanted to find my identity.  A way in which to define myself.   I began to think of what I really wanted to accomplish, what my biggest wishes were.  I decided teaching was not on any of my lists so at the end of the school year, I quit.  I applied to grad school to get my coveted M.A. in Literature.  I taught preschool.  I came out.  I wasn’t Jewish, I was a lesbian, was the joke between me and my friends.  I decided I wanted to be myself and not what society thought I should be.  I fell in love, moved to Germany.  I decided to take risks.  Quit jobs when they become stale,  or work two jobs or three jobs to support my laziness, but at least they are jobs I enjoy. I began seeing life as a gift to myself.  I did not want to ruin that gift.  I know I have this luxury to live the life I want to live, and I have made a lot of sacrifices, but to this day I am still living on my terms.  I surround myself with great friends and family who love and support me.  I am everything I want to be.  That is my 9/11 story.

GO BOTS!!!

I think a lot of people talk about the schools needing an overhaul, but the schools do nothing as probably most parents treat the schools now like child care and then they hope for the best.  I get comments from teachers all the time about how hard it is even to get parents to open houses and conferences, and I work at a good school!!!  (a noted CA Distinguished School, no less).  I went to a public school and we got dance classes and guitar lessons and art out of our gazoos.  Teachers were allowed to open us up to their interests and talents.  My fifth grade teacher knew guitar so we got to learn too.  Reading was not a “subject”  we were able to read all sorts of subjects.  Kids will read when they are able to read not only subject matter, but what interests them too.  There is reading in every subject.  Now teachers can’t teach science since they have to teach reading.  Last time I checked though, there was reading in science.  There were times to be go-bots, but kids need that too. Being go-boted is kind of nice when you need to do rote work.  Kids learn in all sorts of ways.  Then we got to go out and play….Now everything is so scheduled.

I want to meet the genius who marketed standardized testing to the schools.  He is the only one Not Left Behind…

Help Wanted

How would you like this job?  You get to work before most of your other co-workers, because you need to be in a before work program, work on stuff assigned to you yesterday as you were leaving the office after a long day.  Then you finish that and for the next 3 hours or so you listen to your boss assign you tasks that you need to complete in a time frame of about 20 to 30 minute increments, whether you understand it or not. And don’t TALK to anybody, my goodness, or you may get sent out, and then you may never understand what is going on. 

     Then you finally can have a break where you are assigned where to go and who you can hang out with.  After 15 minutes you return to another lecture by the boss and more tasks. If you need to go to the bathroom, you have to ask, and then you only have a few minutes to go, because the boss needs you back. Then you have lunch, where again you are asked to eat with your coworkers, whether you like them or not. If your friend is in another department, tough luck, we can’t mix departments, even at breaks.  Then you have to participate in assigned activities with them as well, on your lunch break.  Then after that do more tasks and on your way out the door after a 6 and half hour day your boss gives you some work for when you get home.   But maybe you can’t go home, you need to be in an after work program, and you need to go to a place where you are told to sit and do after work  work and then when you are done you can do what the bosses tell you until 5 or 6 p.m.

Sounds like fun right?  This is what we ask our children to do every school day. 5, 6, 7, and 8 year olds, dude.

The Last Button

I discovered and learned to appreciate a few things today….

1.  The Last button on my T.V. remote.  With one push I can go back and forth between channels.  I have used this feature before but tonight it was extra special as I was switching between baseball and the fall of Tripoli.  Within megaseconds.  Amazing.

2.  New England Sports Network.  Being from California, I do not get much East Coast ball on television.  With MLB network, I get some coverage from Boston.  I love the way these guys call a game.  They are not afraid to BE QUIET when they have nothing to say or there is nothing going on.  The blowhards on ESPN and Channel 4 SD can learn something. Let viewers enjoy the game and not have to listen to another story from your glory days (Mark Grant).

3.  Organic popcorn popped on the stove.  Like the pilgrims used to make it.

4.  The Say Something Nice megaphone. And my friend Sean who sent me the link.  Good Times.  In New York where everyone seems to be talking about remembering a tragedy, it is nice to bring the city together in a positive way.

5.  I learned that my friend Ani may be the funniest texter in the world.  Can one be a texter?