Saturday 9

I haven’t done a Saturday 9 in quite some time…

1) “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees is about a guy who fell in love when he saw her face. Do you believe in love at first sight? I believe in lust at first sight, but not love…that takes me MUCH longer.

2) "I'm a Believer" is the best-selling Monkees song. Can you name another one? Not unless I look it up.  I remember seeing the show in reruns in the 80s so the music is familiar, but I don’t know the names.

3) On their TV show, the boys competed for the same girl. Have you and a friend ever been romantic rivals?  No, not seriously anyways.   

4) In another episode, the Monkees visited the circus. If you were confident there was a good strong net beneath you, would you walk across the high wire? Oh definitely, but I’d rather do the trapeze.

5) The Monkees show originally aired on Monday nights. Do you have a favorite day of the week? Friday, duh!

6) Davy Jones guest starred on an episode of The Brady Bunch. The plot revolved around Marcia's efforts to get him to perform at the prom. Share one of your memories from a school dance. Hmmm, that was a long time ago.  One thing I remember about prom when I was a freshmen or sophomore was that a senior brought his date to the venue in a helicopter.  Yes!  A helicopter!  That same person became a California State Assemblyman…as a republican of course. ;)  Oh, and a sad memory during my senior year was when a friend was killed driving home from prom with his date and his sister and her date.  They were about 2 minutes away from home, and he fell asleep.  After that the high schools in the area required students to go to and from prom on a bus.

7) At the height of their popularity, the Monkees' faces and logo appeared on a lot of merchandise, including lunch boxes. Which would you rather have for lunch -- chicken salad, tuna salad or egg salad?  Oh my goodness all three make me want to gag.  Tuna and egg and mayonnaise are probably my three least favorite foods EVER, then they go and mix them together, blech!  I’ll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich please.

8) You have an afternoon all to yourself. Would
you rather spend it at the mall, checking out what's new in the stores and people watching, or walking through the forest, observing the birds and trees and leaves?  Hmmm, I could make a case for either.  If it were a nice day, I’d rather be outside.  If it’s hot, in the mall with the air conditioning.  However, I REALLY dislike the mall so I’d rather stay home (or go to the movies) in the air conditioning.

9) Do you have a good memory for names?  I think so, although I think it’s waning. 

August is Here

It’s hard to believe that August has arrived and summer break is just about over.  Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed being on vacation this summer, spending an awful lot of time sleeping just playing in the art room.

Here is this month’s calendar for The Kathryn Wheel Calendar Challenge.  I had a hard time photographing it so the background showed up. It looks kind of plain in the photo. 
Some July journal pages...

I finished the book I had been working in so created a couple of new ones.  I learned the binding stitches (double x and diamond x) from Mary Ann at Dispatch From LA.  

The back-to-school count down begins today.  Happy August!

No More Humping Dinosaurs

As I think I've mentioned, my new school is the oldest school in the school district and the oldest school in town.  About 40 years ago, several murals were painting on the inside walls of the main building.  The murals depict scientific, historical, literary, and social studies content as well as some cultural references for that time.  They are bright and some are cute and cartoonish.  They have been a trademark of sorts for the school.

When I started working there last summer, a few of the murals had been painted over and bulletin boards were placed on top of them to display student work.  At first, I felt a little bad that this part of the school's history had been covered up, but in reality displaying student work is very important for the culture of the school and several murals remained - it was like a happy medium.

Throughout any school year, some decisions on how to use funds are brought to the grade level team for discussion and input.  The murals were brought up this year, in fact it's been an ongoing discussion over the past few years.  There are mixed emotions about their fate.  Because of their age, they have been deteriorating and not looking up to par.  Some of the staff wanted them restored while the rest of the staff has been indifferent.  All the options were researched and presented to us this year.  Restoring the murals turned out to be quite cost prohibitive for a public school, while the cost of painting over and installing bulletins boards was more manageable.  Our team had a discussion during one of our team meetings midway through the year.  Most of the team agreed that bulletin boards were the smarter direction due to cost as there are always things we need that take priority over restoring the murals.  Since I haven't been involved in the past discussions, I didn't feel right voting but playing devil's advocate, I mentioned I was feeling nostalgic and might be sad if they were painted over.  There was some understanding, but the two teachers on the team who have been there for a few years shared a few examples of how the murals may not be the most appropriate for school.  They pointed out that in the paintings Huck Finn smoked, a few characters carried guns, and best of all...the dinosaurs in the prehistoric section were "doing it"!

Since arriving at my new school I've run around campus like a chicken with my head cut off so hadn't taken the time to really look at the murals when I walked through the halls.  After our meeting, I made an effort to do so.  On my walk from the cafeteria to the office I noticed the cigarette and the guns as well as a Eurocentric cultural diversity with stereotypes section - the Dutch girl and boy with wooden shoes, the Irish leprechaun, a kilted Scots boy, etc. - which was kind of funny being that our school is now about 80% Latino.  On our way to the science lab, I walked the class past the prehistoric mural and, sure enough, the dinosaurs look like they're humping (or at least what we think dinosaurs would look like humping).  Actually, it's just a really bad example of foreshortening or perspective.  I don't think the artist's intent was to paint fornicating dinosaurs, but still it was pretty funny.  On the other hand, maybe it was the intent.

Today I popped into my classroom for a few hours to get my furniture set up.  As I walked to the office to check in, I was surprised to see ALL the murals were painted over this summer.  Even though the hallways look very clean and bright without the murals, it is a little sad that part of the school's history has been removed. From now on, every time I walk by the science lab I'm going to giggle thinking about the humping dinosaurs.

The Return of Carlos Danger

A couple of years ago Anthony Weiner’s political career looked to be all but over with a sexting scandal.  In addition to sending explicit texts to college students while being a married congressman, when the news came out about it he lied.  After numerous women came forward, he finally admitted to having taken and sent the photos and eventually resigned from politics.

This spring however, Weiner dipped his foot back into the political pool by entering the New York City mayoral race.  Some, even from his own party, didn’t think he should run, but he has been polling well.  That is until this week.  It seems that Weiner is back at it again.  Even after claiming to be a changed man, he has continued his sexual messaging via Facebook under his porn star screen name Carlos Danger (the best part of the story, in my opinion). 

Again, there is an outcry that he stepped down from the mayoral race.  So far, he has refused to do so saying this is old news and his wife has forgiven him. 

My mind is blown by this.  Beyond this behavior while married – I’m not married to him, beyond him sending explicit pictures of himself – to each his own, beyond him having lied about it in the first place – of course he did, I just can’t understand how this seemingly smart man can be so incredibly stupid to do this very private thing AGAIN in such a public way.  I mentioned this last time, but it’s worth mentioning again…When you are communicating in this particular way electronically (via phone, tablet, or computer) is it really possible to keep it private.  After the news came out in 2011, you’d think this guy would stop or, if he just couldn’t help himself, to at least know to keep it off line. 

While many see scandals in one’s personal life as the end of a public personality’s career, I’ve always viewed it as none of my business.  I don’t necessarily think that poor judgment at home means poor judgment in the workplace.  Heck, we’ve all done stupid things personally that don’t bleed into our work life.  But for this one, I’m kind of on the fence.  Part of me thinks that this needs to remain a private matter for him and his wife, and it doesn’t necessarily make him unsuitable for mayor.  On the other hand, there’s something about being deceitful and kind of yucky, to be honest, on multiple occasions that makes me feel like maybe he’s lost his chance to be mayor. 

If Weiner stays in the race, it’ll be interesting to see what side of the fence the people of NYC end up on.

Thieving

A couple of weeks ago while finishing getting ready to go out, I couldn’t find one of the sandals I had planned to wear.  I was running a bit behind so quickly looked in a few obvious places (under the bed, in the back of the closet, in the car) but the missing shoe wasn’t found.  I changed up the outfit and didn’t think too much about it until this week.

Last night while getting ready to take Rigby out for a walk, I made the mistake of saying, “Ready to go for walk?” before I was actually ready to go.  Rigby LOVES to go on walks.  Just saying those words causes her to become a ball of howling energy and excitement.  She went a little crazy while I was changing clothes and ran up and down the stairs a few times wondering why I had said those words when we hadn’t left the house yet.  During one of her passes through the bedroom I was getting my socks and sneakers on, and in the blink of an eye one of my sneakers went running down the stairs.  I called her a few times, hoping she’d bring it back, but in her excitement she ran back up the stairs without it.  I finished what I could in the bedroom and then hopped down the stairs to find my other shoe. 

I walked from room to room looking for my sneaker.  Rigby dragged her leash out and bounced up and down hardly able to stand it.  I hadn’t spent any length of time in the living room in a week or two so hadn’t realized what had been happening.  I walked to her bed in the back corner of the room and sitting on it was my sneaker along with the missing sandal, two socks, a paintbrush, and a half-eaten tube of Chapstick.  That little stinker has been stealing and hoarding my things for a couple of weeks.  Every time I think she’s turned into a grown up dog she proves that she’s still just a naughty puppy – cute but rotten.

The Nine Circles of Hell

This month’s book club book is Inferno by Dan Brown.  It’s not the “typical” book club type of book, but it’s a good summer read.  I’ve read a few other Brown books – The DaVinci Code (of course), Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol.  I didn’t really care for The Lost Symbol, but the other two were fun and, so far, I am enjoying Inferno. 

Inferno takes place in Florence, Italy and revolves around Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, more specifically Inferno.  Since I’m not yet finished with it, I’ll save my review (if I do one) for a later time.  However, I had some thoughts as I’ve been reading.  A few pages into the book, Sandro Botticelli’s painting “Map of Hell” was mentioned.  I looked up the painting online as a point of reference while reading.  My initial search didn’t bring me to the painting, but rather an art message board thread about the painting.  I curiously read through the first few posts, and was taken back a bit about the scathing reviews of Brown’s book.  Poor writing and silly story lines were the most common complaints.  The posts, however, were not critical essays or particularly well written themselves.  Instead, they sounded like pretentious rants, almost shaming anyone who actually dared to read and/or enjoy it.  Granted, Brown’s books may not be considered great literature, but I can’t understand the utter disgust some of these posters had for the book and the fact that people read and enjoy them.  Still, as a New York Time’s best seller regardless of critics, Brown’s probably laughing all the way to the bank.

While enrolled in a Humanities class during my junior year of high school, we studied Dante’s Divine Comedy.  There are very few actual lessons or units of study I remember from my high school days, but this one I do remember.  While reading each part of the poem, the teacher had us create our own modern day version of the allegory.  After our poem was written, I believe it was then acted out on camera and presented, along with the poem as a final project.  I have forgotten most of what WE wrote (other than possibly New Kids on the Block fans playing some role in the depths), but the work that we did made this 14th-Century work more relevant and comprehensible to 20th-Century high school kids. 

A Beach Break

Some friends and I rented a beach house in Oxnard for a 4-day mini break. 

It was probably the most laid back, relaxing trip I have ever had – lots of chatting, lots of sun, lots of walking, lots of reading, lots of board games, and lots of beautiful weather. 

Our house was actually a beach shack built in the 1920s and slated to be torn down in 2009.  The current owners bought it, renovated it, and now use it as a rental.  It is a kick on the outside and just beautiful inside.  A lot of the house’s original fixtures (windows, frames, etc) have been used for the decor.

One of the original bunks.  It was like sleeping in a fort.  I think it reminded Rigby of a giant dog bed.

The loft had two more bunks and a gorgeous view.

Hollywood Beach was right across the street, and we couldn’t have had more beautiful weather. 

      
We brought cards and Mexican Train with us, and the house had Clue and Scrabble.  It was a game-filled vacation.  The round kitchen table was a perfect game table.
 

The Hollywood Beach neighborhood is so clean and beautiful.  I enjoyed the scenery while out walking.

 

We took a quick trip into downtown Ventura for some window shopping. 
San Buenaventura Mission sure looked pretty against the cloudless blue sky.
  

The best part about the whole trip…

  The temperature didn’t go above 70.  I really wanted to stay until winter.