Well, I had a lovely Thanksgiving day with the fam here in Bakersfield. I saw the Rockettes in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we played Scrabble, we played badmiton (which I suck at, in case anyone was wondering), we watched football, we ate Chex mix, and my mother made four pies (if you're counting, that's one pie per person...she didn't want anyone to be disappointed by not getting exactly what they wanted).
And yet, I feel a bit blue. I'm a little stressed out about money (the holidays = unpaid time off), I still don't know what to do with my professional life (I love my job, but it isn't a career), and I miss DWE too much (by which I mean he's been gone as much as usual, if not less than usual, and for some reason it's harder than it used to be). I have some vague sense that the free time and the independence that I have when he's gone is really a blessing, but I'm struggling to figure out precisely what it is that I want to do with my time (other than watch Law and Order reruns, which I finally stopped doing a half an hour ago).
I suppose what I should do right now is go to bed, since my mother and I are going to make some attempt to hit the sales at Target tomorrow (but probably not until 9 a.m. or so...we don't do that whole nutty 4 a.m. thing). I just finished transfering all the music on my ipod to my new computer, which was a small but satisfying accomplishment (that wasn't really apropos of anything; I just thought I'd mention it because I am mildly pleased with myself).
(Is this post heavy on the parentheticals or what?)
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
the most dangerous cities in america
A controversial study was recently published by CQ Press which purports to rank American cities by crime rates. Apparently, the study has been attacked as "an irresponsible misuse of crime data," a criticism upon which I am entirely unprepared to comment. All I can say is that, according to this study, my current hometown of Oakland, California is the fourth most dangerous city in America, and Richmond, California (the much smaller city where I work) is the ninth most dangerous.
Needless to say, my mother is very proud.
I'm not even a little bit surprised by either of these rankings. Oakland, like any city, has its sketchy parts, and they are truly quite sketchy. I, however, live in one of the safest and most gentrified parts of Oakland, and not a second should be wasted worrying about my safety in good ol' Rockridge. As for Richmond: yep, there's quite a bit of violence (hence the need to help the kids avoid all the violence and go to college instead). Most of the shootings are north of the BART station, while I work just south of the BART station, and I never walk by myself after dark. Also, there's been a very admirable community effort to stymie the violence through grassroots organization (there's this thing called "Tent City" which is sort of an intense version of a neighborhood watch, and which is apparently working pretty well).
I know it's kind of silly, but I'm almost a little proud that I live and work in the only two Californian cities to make the top ten on the dangerousness list. It isn't that I want to be in danger; it's more that I recognize that danger is out there, and I'm glad to be aware of it and acting in some very minor way to combat it (I figure that any time I spend in Oakland or Richmond during which I don't commit a crime is decent progress).
Needless to say, my mother is very proud.
I'm not even a little bit surprised by either of these rankings. Oakland, like any city, has its sketchy parts, and they are truly quite sketchy. I, however, live in one of the safest and most gentrified parts of Oakland, and not a second should be wasted worrying about my safety in good ol' Rockridge. As for Richmond: yep, there's quite a bit of violence (hence the need to help the kids avoid all the violence and go to college instead). Most of the shootings are north of the BART station, while I work just south of the BART station, and I never walk by myself after dark. Also, there's been a very admirable community effort to stymie the violence through grassroots organization (there's this thing called "Tent City" which is sort of an intense version of a neighborhood watch, and which is apparently working pretty well).
I know it's kind of silly, but I'm almost a little proud that I live and work in the only two Californian cities to make the top ten on the dangerousness list. It isn't that I want to be in danger; it's more that I recognize that danger is out there, and I'm glad to be aware of it and acting in some very minor way to combat it (I figure that any time I spend in Oakland or Richmond during which I don't commit a crime is decent progress).
Saturday, November 17, 2007
lonely and politically ambiguous
I've been contemplating my social life (or lackthereof) this evening. I have friends here, but I rarely see them, partly because I don't make the effort to contact them. To some extent, I have been busy with DWE and with out-of-town visitors (last night my stepmom and her friend were in town, and last weekend Muffin was here), but I've also just been antisocial and moody. And of course, since I get home from work at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, my socializing is generally limited to just weekends. So, I wish I had something to do tonight, but I suppose it's largely my own fault that I don't.
Instead of being social, I'm sort of goofing off and sort of trying to clean a little (after being inspired by Rebel's bout of weekend cleaning). I just took a sort of interesting but sort of dumb quiz at The Political Compass that is designed to situate people on a political spectrum with two dimensions (social and economic), the theory being that it is more insightful than the traditional single-dimension left-to-right spectrum. I agree wholeheartedly with the concept, because socially, I consider myself highly liberal, but economically, I'm moderate-to-conservative. It's why I'm hesitant to classify myself as a Democrat (but I do anyway, more or less). Anyway, after taking the website's quiz, here's where I'm supposedly situated on the compass:
The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.00
Obviously I expected to land closer to the "Libertarian" end of the Social spectrum than the "Authoritarian" end. I'm certainly not a Libertarian (as an overall ideology, I think it's pretty dumb), but I support legalized marijuana and abortion, I oppose the death penalty, I am concerned by anti-terror curbing of civil liberties, etc. But I really don't consider myself to be as economically "lefty" as the quiz is telling me that I am. The reason for the discrepancy brings me to why I think the quiz was kind of stupid: some of the questions had (in my opinion) flawed premises and therefore elicited very misleading answers from me. For example: "The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders." Well, in theory, I strongly agree with this statement. Companies aren't designed to make the world a better place, and that's not what they exist for. They exist to make profits, and that is what they should do. But what of the environment, the downsized employees, etc? Well, the environmental costs of what the company does should be paid by the business along with all of its other costs through very carefully designed regulatory systems. That way, the business only polutes to the extent that it is profitable to do so (keeping in mind that it's probably not profitable to pollute very much, because pollution is very expensive when you have to pay for all of its consequences). Companies should support the employees that they lay off by paying high taxes that ensure that the government can afford really good public health care, retraining programs, etc.
Instead of being social, I'm sort of goofing off and sort of trying to clean a little (after being inspired by Rebel's bout of weekend cleaning). I just took a sort of interesting but sort of dumb quiz at The Political Compass that is designed to situate people on a political spectrum with two dimensions (social and economic), the theory being that it is more insightful than the traditional single-dimension left-to-right spectrum. I agree wholeheartedly with the concept, because socially, I consider myself highly liberal, but economically, I'm moderate-to-conservative. It's why I'm hesitant to classify myself as a Democrat (but I do anyway, more or less). Anyway, after taking the website's quiz, here's where I'm supposedly situated on the compass:
The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.00
Obviously I expected to land closer to the "Libertarian" end of the Social spectrum than the "Authoritarian" end. I'm certainly not a Libertarian (as an overall ideology, I think it's pretty dumb), but I support legalized marijuana and abortion, I oppose the death penalty, I am concerned by anti-terror curbing of civil liberties, etc. But I really don't consider myself to be as economically "lefty" as the quiz is telling me that I am. The reason for the discrepancy brings me to why I think the quiz was kind of stupid: some of the questions had (in my opinion) flawed premises and therefore elicited very misleading answers from me. For example: "The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders." Well, in theory, I strongly agree with this statement. Companies aren't designed to make the world a better place, and that's not what they exist for. They exist to make profits, and that is what they should do. But what of the environment, the downsized employees, etc? Well, the environmental costs of what the company does should be paid by the business along with all of its other costs through very carefully designed regulatory systems. That way, the business only polutes to the extent that it is profitable to do so (keeping in mind that it's probably not profitable to pollute very much, because pollution is very expensive when you have to pay for all of its consequences). Companies should support the employees that they lay off by paying high taxes that ensure that the government can afford really good public health care, retraining programs, etc. My point is, I don't think it is the responsibility of a company to be anything other than a ruthless little profit machine. I think it is the responsibility of government, not business, to protect its people and its environment. Business should merely be made to pay their fair share in order to help the government do all this (after all, government is gracious enough to support the legal and property rights that businesses rely on).
So in retrospect, I should have answered that question with a "strongly agree", but instead I said "disagree" because I don't think that business should be given the latitude to tromp all over people and the environment, and I feel like that's what the question was implicitly asking. But maybe I was overthinking the whole thing. But this also brings me to the point that my actual view involves a pretty powerful federal government that collects a lot of taxes and does a lot of stuff, which should probably scoot me a bit closer to the "Authoritarian" end of things.
Yeah, so, did I mention how bored I am?
Thursday, November 15, 2007
math woes
I cried at work today. Okay, I'm lying. But I did cry, very briefly, in the parking lot of the Bank of the West which is between work and the 7-11 where I get my Dr. Pepper fix. I was crying because one of my students got an F on the test he took today, and which I helped him prepare for yesterday.
This is hardly the first time since I started teaching that one of my students has failed a test, and I knew that he was really struggling with the material, but for some reason I just found it particularly devastating. Obviously I can't control the grades my students get, but I do feel responsible, partly because I don't know if I am doing a very good job teaching this particular student. He is in Pre-Calculus, a subject which I neither enjoy nor excel at. I don't know how to make it interesting to him, because I don't find it interesting. His class moves very quickly, and is very challenging, so I don't have time to linger over underlying concepts or to review the stuff he should have learned in Algebra 2 (apparently his Algebra 2 class last year was kind of a mess, so his foundation in terms of understanding functions and graphing is really weak). As a result, there's a lot that he doesn't understand, and therefore much of what he knows how to do he knows by rote rather than through actual comprehension. That's the way I learned math in high school (I think that's probably how most students learn it), and it contributed to both my lack of success and my hatred of the subject.
The upside is that my feelings of failure are motivating me to seek out and embrace my inner Pre-Calculus Goddess. I plan on taking a copy of his textbook home with me over Thanksgiving break so that I can immerse myself in the next few chapters, both to understand it in a less superficial way and to figure out what is interesting and cool about it. I'm hoping that my brother will be helpful in this endeavor (although I have a sneaking suspicion that he hated Pre-Calc too...it's kind of a stupid class because it's a hodge-podge of semi-difficult concepts that are sort of helpful to know before Calculus, but it has no unifying theme the way that, say, Calculus or Geometry do). Anyway, maybe I'll be a better Pre-Calculus teacher after Thanksgiving.
One bright spot at the end of the day was that I taught a class for one of my coworker's students. The coworker is Mr. W, who is probably my closest work buddy, and who sits across from me. Our desks face each other, so pretty much all of his students know who I am (and I know them). The particular student I taught today is this really funny, outgoing sophomore, and she absolutely cracked me up for the whole hour I was with her. We were learning about the different methods for proving triangle congruence, which involve combinations of angles and sides. So if you know that two triangles have two pairs of congruent sides and one pair of congruent angles between those sides, then you know that they are congruent using the "side-angle-side" method of congruence, referred to as "SAS". But this student says "Saaaassss!" in this really funny voice, and for SSS congruence, she says "Sssssssssss!" And then in the middle of class she was like, "Do you want to scratch my ear?" I said, "Um, no, not really. Did you want me to scratch it?" "No, I just wanted to check." It's good that she's not usually my student, because I have a hard time keeping her focused (because I have a hard time staying focused, because I just want to sit around and gab with her and let her crack me up).
Well, there's discouragement in every job, and at least if I feel like a failure with one student, there's always another one that I feel like I'm doing great with.
This is hardly the first time since I started teaching that one of my students has failed a test, and I knew that he was really struggling with the material, but for some reason I just found it particularly devastating. Obviously I can't control the grades my students get, but I do feel responsible, partly because I don't know if I am doing a very good job teaching this particular student. He is in Pre-Calculus, a subject which I neither enjoy nor excel at. I don't know how to make it interesting to him, because I don't find it interesting. His class moves very quickly, and is very challenging, so I don't have time to linger over underlying concepts or to review the stuff he should have learned in Algebra 2 (apparently his Algebra 2 class last year was kind of a mess, so his foundation in terms of understanding functions and graphing is really weak). As a result, there's a lot that he doesn't understand, and therefore much of what he knows how to do he knows by rote rather than through actual comprehension. That's the way I learned math in high school (I think that's probably how most students learn it), and it contributed to both my lack of success and my hatred of the subject.
The upside is that my feelings of failure are motivating me to seek out and embrace my inner Pre-Calculus Goddess. I plan on taking a copy of his textbook home with me over Thanksgiving break so that I can immerse myself in the next few chapters, both to understand it in a less superficial way and to figure out what is interesting and cool about it. I'm hoping that my brother will be helpful in this endeavor (although I have a sneaking suspicion that he hated Pre-Calc too...it's kind of a stupid class because it's a hodge-podge of semi-difficult concepts that are sort of helpful to know before Calculus, but it has no unifying theme the way that, say, Calculus or Geometry do). Anyway, maybe I'll be a better Pre-Calculus teacher after Thanksgiving.
One bright spot at the end of the day was that I taught a class for one of my coworker's students. The coworker is Mr. W, who is probably my closest work buddy, and who sits across from me. Our desks face each other, so pretty much all of his students know who I am (and I know them). The particular student I taught today is this really funny, outgoing sophomore, and she absolutely cracked me up for the whole hour I was with her. We were learning about the different methods for proving triangle congruence, which involve combinations of angles and sides. So if you know that two triangles have two pairs of congruent sides and one pair of congruent angles between those sides, then you know that they are congruent using the "side-angle-side" method of congruence, referred to as "SAS". But this student says "Saaaassss!" in this really funny voice, and for SSS congruence, she says "Sssssssssss!" And then in the middle of class she was like, "Do you want to scratch my ear?" I said, "Um, no, not really. Did you want me to scratch it?" "No, I just wanted to check." It's good that she's not usually my student, because I have a hard time keeping her focused (because I have a hard time staying focused, because I just want to sit around and gab with her and let her crack me up).
Well, there's discouragement in every job, and at least if I feel like a failure with one student, there's always another one that I feel like I'm doing great with.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
drunk posting
helloooooo! hi. i'm at home with dwe right now. we went out for dinner and beers with his boss and one of his other coworkers (it was basically a business meeting that they let me tag along to...dwe feels bad because he's convinced it was really boring for me...it wasn't that boring, but i'll let him think it was because i can score points that way...). after that, we went at got a drink at the conga lounge, which is this tiki bar a few blocks from my place. i would have liked to stay longer, but someone was tired and wanted to go home. so now i'm being kind of a punk to him, because i'm kind of annoyed. he's watching the end of a football game on his computer, and i'm blogging on my computer. we're pretty lame (but also cute because our computers match).
muffin is coming to the bay area tomorrow! i'm so excited because he'll get to meet dwe, and because he gets to see my new apartment and stuff. and also i haven't seen him in a few months, so it's exciting.
dwe is trying to play footsy with me now. i think he's tryingto figure out if i'm annoyed. we're listening to bruce springsteen. i LOVE bruce springsteen.
anyway, i'm being silly. later dudes.
muffin is coming to the bay area tomorrow! i'm so excited because he'll get to meet dwe, and because he gets to see my new apartment and stuff. and also i haven't seen him in a few months, so it's exciting.
dwe is trying to play footsy with me now. i think he's tryingto figure out if i'm annoyed. we're listening to bruce springsteen. i LOVE bruce springsteen.
anyway, i'm being silly. later dudes.
Monday, November 05, 2007
math trick and the return of the internet
Just when I was about to cave in and pay for internet, the mysterious unsecured network reappeared. Yay! Assuming that it sticks around, I'm going to do my best to get far more prolific on your asses, so stay tuned!
In the mean time, let's do a fun math trick, shall we? First, grab a calculator, or pull up the one on your computer. Now punch in the first three digits of your phone number (not the area code). Complete the following operations, making sure to hit "enter" or the equal sign after each one:
multiply the first three digits of your number by 80
add 1 to the answer
multiply the answer by 250
add the last four digits of your phone number to the answer
add the last four digits of your phone number to the answer again
subtract 250 from the answer
divide the answer by 2
Recognize the number you got? Pretty cool, huh? I did this with one of my students, and she told me it was "hecka tight." Anyway, here's why it works:
Let x=the first 3 digits and y=the last four. Based on the instructions, we get:
[(80x+1)*250 + y + y -250]/2
Does everyone remember how to simplify an expression? We have to distribute the 250 into the 80x + 1, giving us 250*80x + 250*1 = 20,000x + 250. We also know that y + y = 2y, so we end up with:
(20,000x + 250 + 2y - 250)/2
The 250s cancel out, and then we divide by two, giving us:
10,000x + y
If you multiply, say, 123 by 10,000 you get 1230000. Obviously, if you add 4567 to that, you get 1234567.
Yeah, I know. That's five minutes of your life that you'll never get back. Sorry.
But look, here's baby M (practically toddler M now!), all adorable when I went up to Portland to visit:
In the mean time, let's do a fun math trick, shall we? First, grab a calculator, or pull up the one on your computer. Now punch in the first three digits of your phone number (not the area code). Complete the following operations, making sure to hit "enter" or the equal sign after each one:
multiply the first three digits of your number by 80
add 1 to the answer
multiply the answer by 250
add the last four digits of your phone number to the answer
add the last four digits of your phone number to the answer again
subtract 250 from the answer
divide the answer by 2
Recognize the number you got? Pretty cool, huh? I did this with one of my students, and she told me it was "hecka tight." Anyway, here's why it works:
Let x=the first 3 digits and y=the last four. Based on the instructions, we get:
[(80x+1)*250 + y + y -250]/2
Does everyone remember how to simplify an expression? We have to distribute the 250 into the 80x + 1, giving us 250*80x + 250*1 = 20,000x + 250. We also know that y + y = 2y, so we end up with:
(20,000x + 250 + 2y - 250)/2
The 250s cancel out, and then we divide by two, giving us:
10,000x + y
If you multiply, say, 123 by 10,000 you get 1230000. Obviously, if you add 4567 to that, you get 1234567.
Yeah, I know. That's five minutes of your life that you'll never get back. Sorry.
But look, here's baby M (practically toddler M now!), all adorable when I went up to Portland to visit:
Saturday, November 03, 2007
not so much with the internet again
I'm not really sure why I thought that stealing a weak, unsecured wireless signal was a permanent solution to my internet needs. 'Cause guess what? It wasn't. The signal, alas, has gone away, so I've been sans internet at my apartment again for more than a week. Hence no blog updates.
Right now I'm at Shine Laundromat, my local laundry joint, which has free Wi-Fi. I'm wondering how long I can get away with being here. My laundry is probably ready to go in the dryer, but I'm going to wait a little longer before I check, I think.
So, what's new in my world? Not much, I guess. I'm still really enjoying my job, and becoming more and more attached to my students and there math successes (or lack thereof: I spent all of Thursday night in a funk because one of my 6th Wavers got a D on a quiz). (By the way, "6th Waver" just means he's a senior, and that he's in the 6th cohort of students to go through the Making Waves program.) One of my 7th Wavers just got an A on a quiz though, which is a big deal because she has some major test anxiety issues.
DWE and I went to The City on Halloween to go to a party that one of my coworkers had. It was fun and pretty mellow, which was what I was in the mood for (as opposed to being in the mood to get wasted and flash my boob). We dressed up as vikings, which involved viking helmets, swords made out of cardboard, foil, and duct tape, and capes made out of twin-size sheets. So yeah, it was kind of lame, but at least we dressed up.
Other than Halloween and the safety meeting* last weekend, I've been pretty antisocial lately. I haven't seen my USF buds in ages (even E I haven't seen for at least two weeks, now that he has his own place). I also haven't seen S in close to two months now (although things between us are cool again). It's hard to socialize on a weeknight when I get off work at 9, and I was out of town two weekends in a row. DWE was around more than usual as well, although that was mostly on weekdays. Anyway, the point is that I should really try to get together with some people sometime this weekend, or I'm not going to have any friends left anywhere in the Bay Area.
Okay, it must be time to switch my laundry now. I'm going to suck it up and start paying for some sort of internet, so hopefully I'll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging soon.
Right now I'm at Shine Laundromat, my local laundry joint, which has free Wi-Fi. I'm wondering how long I can get away with being here. My laundry is probably ready to go in the dryer, but I'm going to wait a little longer before I check, I think.
So, what's new in my world? Not much, I guess. I'm still really enjoying my job, and becoming more and more attached to my students and there math successes (or lack thereof: I spent all of Thursday night in a funk because one of my 6th Wavers got a D on a quiz). (By the way, "6th Waver" just means he's a senior, and that he's in the 6th cohort of students to go through the Making Waves program.) One of my 7th Wavers just got an A on a quiz though, which is a big deal because she has some major test anxiety issues.
DWE and I went to The City on Halloween to go to a party that one of my coworkers had. It was fun and pretty mellow, which was what I was in the mood for (as opposed to being in the mood to get wasted and flash my boob). We dressed up as vikings, which involved viking helmets, swords made out of cardboard, foil, and duct tape, and capes made out of twin-size sheets. So yeah, it was kind of lame, but at least we dressed up.
Other than Halloween and the safety meeting* last weekend, I've been pretty antisocial lately. I haven't seen my USF buds in ages (even E I haven't seen for at least two weeks, now that he has his own place). I also haven't seen S in close to two months now (although things between us are cool again). It's hard to socialize on a weeknight when I get off work at 9, and I was out of town two weekends in a row. DWE was around more than usual as well, although that was mostly on weekdays. Anyway, the point is that I should really try to get together with some people sometime this weekend, or I'm not going to have any friends left anywhere in the Bay Area.
Okay, it must be time to switch my laundry now. I'm going to suck it up and start paying for some sort of internet, so hopefully I'll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging soon.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
emma the freakshow
One of the highlights of a trip to Bakersfield is getting to see my mother's dog Emma. She is as adorable and slightly ill-behaved as always. This afternoon my mother was spreading grass seed on the lawns in the backyard using this cool wheelbarrow thing that spews the seeds out the bottom in a circular motion. For reasons that are totally unclear to all of us, Emma loves these grass seeds. She sticks her nose right in the wheelbarrow and eats as much of it as she can until we stop her. Then when we start spreading the seeds, she runs along the side of the spreader and tries to catch the seeds in her mouth.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
why i haven't posted pictures recently
Rebel claims that she's boycotting my blog until I post pictures of my "new" apartment (of course, she also claims that when we lived together I used to sit around in nothing but my bath towel for hours on end, and clearly I would never do something like that, so do we really believe her?). In an effort to woo her back, I just took a bunch of pictures of my apartment using my sister-in-law's camera, which is the only camera that I currently possess (my old one was stolen in Ghana, as you may recall). I realized just now that my dear sis did not give me the cord that hooks the camera to the computer, so I can't upload the pictures. Sorry Rebel. I tried. (And I can post pictures this weekend when I go home to Bakersfield.)
I have the mood lighting going on in my apartment right now, which means a "fire" (aka Duraflame log) in the fireplace and all the candles lit. Candle and fire light are neat when you have wood floors, because the floors are shiny and reflect the flickering light. This is the first time I've ever had wood floors, and the first time I've ever had a fireplace (excluding the house I grew up in, which always had a fireplace, and has had a few rooms with wood floors since I was in college). This is also the first apartment I've had with a bay window, which is noteworthy because bay windows were one of those things that I always wanted when I was a kid.
Anyway, I'll post pictures of all of these things as soon as I can.
I have the mood lighting going on in my apartment right now, which means a "fire" (aka Duraflame log) in the fireplace and all the candles lit. Candle and fire light are neat when you have wood floors, because the floors are shiny and reflect the flickering light. This is the first time I've ever had wood floors, and the first time I've ever had a fireplace (excluding the house I grew up in, which always had a fireplace, and has had a few rooms with wood floors since I was in college). This is also the first apartment I've had with a bay window, which is noteworthy because bay windows were one of those things that I always wanted when I was a kid.
Anyway, I'll post pictures of all of these things as soon as I can.
Monday, October 15, 2007
airport
I'm early for my 11:15 flight back to Oakland, so I'm taking advantage of PDX's free wi-fi. It's weird that I'm going to be at work in a few hours. I'm debating whether or not to drop my bag off at home or to go straight to work from the airport. I suppose I'll see how long it takes me to get to the MacArthur BART station (that's where I would transfer to the Pittsburg/Bay Point line, which goes to Rockridge) and decide then whether I have enough time to go home. Technically as long as I get to work by a little before four I'll be fine, but I'd prefer to be there by three at the latest (which shouldn't be a big problem because my flight lands at 12:55 and I'm not checking any luggage).
I had a great time in Portland this weekend, and although DWE couldn't make it back up here, he is coming back to the Bay today (in fact, his flight may be coming into Oakland around the same time mine is). I'm getting kind of spoiled with him being home so much (and when he's not home I just jaunt off on a fun trip, of course).
When I started this blog entry it seemed like maybe I had something interesting to say, but apparently not. I guess I should go get in the security line.
I had a great time in Portland this weekend, and although DWE couldn't make it back up here, he is coming back to the Bay today (in fact, his flight may be coming into Oakland around the same time mine is). I'm getting kind of spoiled with him being home so much (and when he's not home I just jaunt off on a fun trip, of course).
When I started this blog entry it seemed like maybe I had something interesting to say, but apparently not. I guess I should go get in the security line.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
new computer
I finally got a new computer. Yay! It is an HP laptop, and it's shiny and black and silver.
The reason I bought it today (other than the fact that I really needed it) is that I am in Portland right now. I decided on Thursday to take a spontaneous trip up here, and I found a really cheap ticket, so I got on a flight on Friday afternoon. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous, and of course it's wonderful to see my friends. (I also came up here to try to take care of DWE, who has been really sick, but he had one of his many work emergencies and had to go to D.C. at the last minute.)
Anyway, there's no sales tax in Oregon, so I saved about $50 on my $600 laptop.
I'm being antisocial, so no more blogging for now, but hopefully I will be back to posting regularly.
The reason I bought it today (other than the fact that I really needed it) is that I am in Portland right now. I decided on Thursday to take a spontaneous trip up here, and I found a really cheap ticket, so I got on a flight on Friday afternoon. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous, and of course it's wonderful to see my friends. (I also came up here to try to take care of DWE, who has been really sick, but he had one of his many work emergencies and had to go to D.C. at the last minute.)
Anyway, there's no sales tax in Oregon, so I saved about $50 on my $600 laptop.
I'm being antisocial, so no more blogging for now, but hopefully I will be back to posting regularly.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
my sad little world without internet
So this whole thing where I don't have internet at my apartment is kind of a drag. When E was staying with me, I was able to use his computer to get online, and now DWE is here, and I'm using his. I don't want to get DSL because I don't want a phone line, but I don't think my apartment is hooked up for cable, either. And even if I did have internet, my computer keeps doing that thing where it randomly shuts down all the time, so it's only semi-usable at this point. Really what I need is a new computer, but it will take me a couple months to save up enough money. In the mean time, I check my email and pay bills and stuff at work, and I just neglect other things like reading peoples blogs or updating this one. Sorry about that.
DWE has been in town for a few days, and we are having a nice time together. Right now he is at the grocery store buying ingredients to make me french toast. Isn't he cute?
I had a good week at work, but I'm bummed out because I had to give up one of my students. Basically, students are put in MEP (Math Empowerment Program) because they are getting lower than a B- in their math class, or because there is some other reason to think that they need extra math support. One of my students is doing really well in Geometry, and she's really bright and sweet, and I love working with her. But since she is doing so well, and since it appears that she has the ability to continue to do well without my support, she doesn't actually need to be in an MEP class, so now she's not my student anymore. I'll miss her, and I'll miss the gratification of having at least one student that seemed to retain everything I taught her, but it's also kind of exciting to get a new student.
DWE has been in town for a few days, and we are having a nice time together. Right now he is at the grocery store buying ingredients to make me french toast. Isn't he cute?
I had a good week at work, but I'm bummed out because I had to give up one of my students. Basically, students are put in MEP (Math Empowerment Program) because they are getting lower than a B- in their math class, or because there is some other reason to think that they need extra math support. One of my students is doing really well in Geometry, and she's really bright and sweet, and I love working with her. But since she is doing so well, and since it appears that she has the ability to continue to do well without my support, she doesn't actually need to be in an MEP class, so now she's not my student anymore. I'll miss her, and I'll miss the gratification of having at least one student that seemed to retain everything I taught her, but it's also kind of exciting to get a new student.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
i have officially become one of those girls...
...who talks about her boyfriend constantly on her blog. (Are there girls that do that? I'm just assuming there are.) But today is our one year anniversary, so I felt the need to mention it. I don't really have much to say about it, though. Neither of us did anything nice for the other. He texted me earlier this evening to say happy anniversary and to say that he was thinking about me, and then he called a little while ago, but we didn't talk for long because he's still out with client-type people (although he did say he'd call me later).
Anyway, I guess it's kind of cool insofar as technically, this is the longest I've ever had a boyfriend (IB and I only made it 10 months or so by the official tally, but we did have sort of a quasi-relationship for a while after that). And this is certainly the most serious relationship I've ever been in, in terms of my level of commitment and my hopes for the future. It's easy to imagine finding someone else who would be, for lack of a better phrase, a "better boyfriend" (you know, someone who isn't gone all the time and isn't insanely busy and isn't terrified of commitment and emotions), but I find it increasingly impossible to imagine finding someone that I'd rather be with.
E is still staying with me, and right now he's teaching himself how to juggle. I'm often impatient with him (especially when I first get home from work and I'm tired and drained and don't want to deal with anything) so I'm trying to be tolerant of the constant sound of bean bags dropping to the floor. I might not last much longer.
I keep meaning to blog about work, but I have so much to say that it kind of feels overwhelming. Maybe this weekend I can set aside some time to do it, because my job is interesting, challenging, and fun, and I want to tell you all about it.
Anyway, I guess it's kind of cool insofar as technically, this is the longest I've ever had a boyfriend (IB and I only made it 10 months or so by the official tally, but we did have sort of a quasi-relationship for a while after that). And this is certainly the most serious relationship I've ever been in, in terms of my level of commitment and my hopes for the future. It's easy to imagine finding someone else who would be, for lack of a better phrase, a "better boyfriend" (you know, someone who isn't gone all the time and isn't insanely busy and isn't terrified of commitment and emotions), but I find it increasingly impossible to imagine finding someone that I'd rather be with.
E is still staying with me, and right now he's teaching himself how to juggle. I'm often impatient with him (especially when I first get home from work and I'm tired and drained and don't want to deal with anything) so I'm trying to be tolerant of the constant sound of bean bags dropping to the floor. I might not last much longer.
I keep meaning to blog about work, but I have so much to say that it kind of feels overwhelming. Maybe this weekend I can set aside some time to do it, because my job is interesting, challenging, and fun, and I want to tell you all about it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
caution relationship deconstruction ahead
I'm on the fence about how appropriate it is to discuss the problems in my relationship with DWE on my blog, but as usual, I seem to be erring on the side of blabbermouthy-ness. It's not like I'm saying anything that I haven't said to him or wouldn't want him to read (he does occasionally look at this blog, so I guess he might read it).
Anyway, when I talked to him on Sunday afternoon, he said that he didn't want to call me when he woke up from his sleep on the couch because he didn't want to wake me up in case I was asleep (at midnight on a Saturday night, because apparently he thinks I'm as lame as he is), and also because he wanted to go straight to bed. I told him that I wasn't asleep, and that if I had been, I would not have been mad. And then I suggested that he consider the number of times that I'd gotten mad at him for calling and waking me up (none, although he's done it a few times in the morning) versus the number of times I've gotten mad at him for not calling (numerous, to say the least). In his defense, if he had called, it would probably not have been the 45-second conversation that he was hoping for, because I would have wanted to blab for at least 5 minutes or so. If he were a more conniving sort, he would call, experience the annoyance of not being able to get me off the phone for 5 or 10 minutes, and then throw that experience back in my face the next time I get mad at him for not calling before he goes to bed. But he's all reasonable and practical, and he doesn't want to prove a point or show that I'm wrong, he just wants to get some sleep.
So yeah, I was overreacting a bit. But it's also very true that the standards for him calling are different because he's gone so much. The phone calls average out to an amount of communication with which I am happy, because there are always a few nights a week like last night where we talk for a good hour or so. And if I imagine how I feel when he does call and wake me up in the morning (not mad, but not much like talking to him, either), it is slightly easier to understand how he could ever not feel like talking to me.
I guess the bottom line is that the logistics of what is essentially a semi-long-distance relationship are difficult, DWE is highly imperfect despite good intentions, and I seem to be particularly needy these days. And of course I should try not to lose sight of how wonderful he is and how hard he tries to make me happy. Nor should I lose sight of the fact that I have lots of wonderful and supportive friends who will tell me that I'm right (very true), that I'm kinda overreacting (also very true), and answer the phone when I call.
In other news, I actually managed to get up before 10 a.m. this morning. Maybe eventually I can have a real life in the mornings before I go to work. I guess coffee and a blog entry are a start.
Anyway, when I talked to him on Sunday afternoon, he said that he didn't want to call me when he woke up from his sleep on the couch because he didn't want to wake me up in case I was asleep (at midnight on a Saturday night, because apparently he thinks I'm as lame as he is), and also because he wanted to go straight to bed. I told him that I wasn't asleep, and that if I had been, I would not have been mad. And then I suggested that he consider the number of times that I'd gotten mad at him for calling and waking me up (none, although he's done it a few times in the morning) versus the number of times I've gotten mad at him for not calling (numerous, to say the least). In his defense, if he had called, it would probably not have been the 45-second conversation that he was hoping for, because I would have wanted to blab for at least 5 minutes or so. If he were a more conniving sort, he would call, experience the annoyance of not being able to get me off the phone for 5 or 10 minutes, and then throw that experience back in my face the next time I get mad at him for not calling before he goes to bed. But he's all reasonable and practical, and he doesn't want to prove a point or show that I'm wrong, he just wants to get some sleep.
So yeah, I was overreacting a bit. But it's also very true that the standards for him calling are different because he's gone so much. The phone calls average out to an amount of communication with which I am happy, because there are always a few nights a week like last night where we talk for a good hour or so. And if I imagine how I feel when he does call and wake me up in the morning (not mad, but not much like talking to him, either), it is slightly easier to understand how he could ever not feel like talking to me.
I guess the bottom line is that the logistics of what is essentially a semi-long-distance relationship are difficult, DWE is highly imperfect despite good intentions, and I seem to be particularly needy these days. And of course I should try not to lose sight of how wonderful he is and how hard he tries to make me happy. Nor should I lose sight of the fact that I have lots of wonderful and supportive friends who will tell me that I'm right (very true), that I'm kinda overreacting (also very true), and answer the phone when I call.
In other news, I actually managed to get up before 10 a.m. this morning. Maybe eventually I can have a real life in the mornings before I go to work. I guess coffee and a blog entry are a start.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
unpacking and waiting by the phone
After several days without progress, I did quite a bit of apartment unpacking and setting up last night. The books are all on their shelves now (I'm missing a bunch, and I know some of them are in Bakersfield, but it seems to me that there's at least one whole box of them that should be around here somewhere but doesn't seem to be, which is troubling). My new microwave, which is shiny and red, had been sitting on the floor in the livingroom/bedroom because I lacked the proper extension cord and outlet adapter needed to put it in the kitchen. Having a microwave in the livingroom was fun, but ultimately also annoying, and it's now been moved to its permanent home on top of the refridgerator (I have no counter space, so I have to be creative, and luckily the fridge is kind of short). Note to Rebel: between the microwave and the TV, I officially no longer live like a pioneer. =(
I've also started to put up pictures and knick-knacks, which is perhaps the true indication that this is my new home. Dad's ashes are on the mantle, which is a tad cliched, I guess, but I'm just so excited to have a mantle that I can't help it. Speaking of the mantle, the fireplace has been great. I burn Duraflame logs (or the Pine Mountain brand or the Safeway brand), so there's no effort involved, and it's like instant atmosphere. DWE seemed to like it when he came over on Wednesday and Thursday.
Speaking of which, I'm contemplating the possibility that I'm kind of a lousy girlfriend. Maybe not lousy, but at least sort of unreasonable. He and I talked semi-briefly on the phone a couple of times yesterday, and the last time we talked I told him I'd call him that night. So I did, but he didn't answer. When it got to be 10:45, I called again, and left a message saying that he should call if he hadn't already gone to sleep, and if he had gone to sleep he should have called first. At about midnight I got a text from him saying that he'd fallen asleep on the couch and that he was going to bed, but that we'd talk tomorrow (i.e. today). So I tried calling him back, but of course he'd turned his phone off already. So instead I texted him and said that I appreciated that he sent the text, but that I didn't understand why he didn't call, and it hurts my feelings when he avoids me like that.
In retrospect, I may have been overreacting (and I left him a message to that effect this morning). But really, I don't like it when I've asked him to call and he texts instead. Essentially what he's saying is, "I want you to know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth, but I don't want to talk to you. I don't even want to talk to you long enough to say that I'm too tired to talk." And despite my concilatory voicemail, he hasn't called me back this morning, which is also very irritating to me. Am I just incredibly unreasonably needy? Calling is so little effort, and it obviously makes me very happy, so why can't he do it?
I've also started to put up pictures and knick-knacks, which is perhaps the true indication that this is my new home. Dad's ashes are on the mantle, which is a tad cliched, I guess, but I'm just so excited to have a mantle that I can't help it. Speaking of the mantle, the fireplace has been great. I burn Duraflame logs (or the Pine Mountain brand or the Safeway brand), so there's no effort involved, and it's like instant atmosphere. DWE seemed to like it when he came over on Wednesday and Thursday.
Speaking of which, I'm contemplating the possibility that I'm kind of a lousy girlfriend. Maybe not lousy, but at least sort of unreasonable. He and I talked semi-briefly on the phone a couple of times yesterday, and the last time we talked I told him I'd call him that night. So I did, but he didn't answer. When it got to be 10:45, I called again, and left a message saying that he should call if he hadn't already gone to sleep, and if he had gone to sleep he should have called first. At about midnight I got a text from him saying that he'd fallen asleep on the couch and that he was going to bed, but that we'd talk tomorrow (i.e. today). So I tried calling him back, but of course he'd turned his phone off already. So instead I texted him and said that I appreciated that he sent the text, but that I didn't understand why he didn't call, and it hurts my feelings when he avoids me like that.
In retrospect, I may have been overreacting (and I left him a message to that effect this morning). But really, I don't like it when I've asked him to call and he texts instead. Essentially what he's saying is, "I want you to know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth, but I don't want to talk to you. I don't even want to talk to you long enough to say that I'm too tired to talk." And despite my concilatory voicemail, he hasn't called me back this morning, which is also very irritating to me. Am I just incredibly unreasonably needy? Calling is so little effort, and it obviously makes me very happy, so why can't he do it?
Monday, September 17, 2007
more moving
No pictures of the apartment yet, partly because I refuse to take pictures while it's still in partially-unpacked disarray, and partly because I just got my camera (well, my sister-in-law's camera that I'm borrowing) from S's place. But the good news is that everything I own, save for some miscellaneous items at my mom's house and the hanging clothes that I forgot to get out of DWE's closet, is now in my new place. I rented a car on Saturday and cleared the rest of my stuff out of my storage unit, then spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and getting things in order. Some observations:
1. The Ford Taurus, which I honestly believe that only rental car companies purchase any more, has the biggest trunk I have ever seen.
2. The laundromat in my neighborhood is really, really nice, especially in contrast to the one near my old apartment. Yes, you lose some charm (no Judge Judy playing on the circa 1983 TV and no sketchy people drinking tall cans of PBR in the corner), but you more than make up for it with cleanliness, plants, a working sink with soap and paper towels, and an actual laundromat employee.
3. High ceilings are awesome, unless you want to hang something from them and you're not very tall.
4. I'm not very tall.
5. My next-door neighbor, who also just moved in, is really cool. She is approximately my age, in her second year of law school, and spent a month this summer in Iraq working with abused women through an NGO. We helped each other move some stuff. I also made E (who is starting his new job today and is staying with me for a while) help her move a dresser, and now he seems a bit smitten with her. So cute.
6. Moving into and setting up an apartment seems much more time consuming when you have a job.
Despite the job, which is still going well, I think I will have everything perfect by the end of the week. And then I promise to take pictures.
1. The Ford Taurus, which I honestly believe that only rental car companies purchase any more, has the biggest trunk I have ever seen.
2. The laundromat in my neighborhood is really, really nice, especially in contrast to the one near my old apartment. Yes, you lose some charm (no Judge Judy playing on the circa 1983 TV and no sketchy people drinking tall cans of PBR in the corner), but you more than make up for it with cleanliness, plants, a working sink with soap and paper towels, and an actual laundromat employee.
3. High ceilings are awesome, unless you want to hang something from them and you're not very tall.
4. I'm not very tall.
5. My next-door neighbor, who also just moved in, is really cool. She is approximately my age, in her second year of law school, and spent a month this summer in Iraq working with abused women through an NGO. We helped each other move some stuff. I also made E (who is starting his new job today and is staying with me for a while) help her move a dresser, and now he seems a bit smitten with her. So cute.
6. Moving into and setting up an apartment seems much more time consuming when you have a job.
Despite the job, which is still going well, I think I will have everything perfect by the end of the week. And then I promise to take pictures.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
(don't go back to) rockridge
I apologize for the especially long absence (and I know, of course, that the apology is necessary, because clearly your lives are hollow without a fresh dose of my blog). I have an unusually good reason for not posting: I have no internet access. But this is good news, because it means that I have my own apartment.
I got the keys to my new place this past Friday, and I did the bulk of my moving in this weekend, with the help of my ma, who drove up from Bakersfield, and the help of E, who drove down from Santa Rosa, where he is staying with family. I still have a couple of smallish bookcases and many boxes, mostly of books, left in my storage unit, which is paid through the end of the month.
My new apartment is in Rockridge, which is a neighborhood in North Oakland that is a little bit upscale and extremely close to the Oakland-Berkeley border. Rockridge, aptly enough, rocks. I love it. DWE suggested it as a possible place to look for apartments, and the first time I stepped off the BART at the Rockridge station I knew it was where I wanted to live. The main street is College Avenue (which runs north all the way to the Cal Berkeley campus, where it dead-ends), which is lined with great little restaurants and shops. My apartment is a block and a half off of college, and also a block and a half away from the BART station. In five minutes I can walk to two different taquerias, a Chinese restaurant, an oyster bar, a bar and grill, a coffee shop, a pizza joint, and an upscale food market (bakery, artisanal cheeses, etc). There are lots more restaurants a bit farther than that (probably another dozen of them in a fifteen-minute walking radius) along with about every kind of little shop you can think of (clothing, furniture, optometry, hair salon, spa, luggage, sports, bikes, etc).
The temperament of the neighborhood is pretty nicely balanced: there is no Starbucks, but there are also no flocks of dirty hippies. It's not disgustingly yuppy-ish, but it is fairly young, urban, and professional. The neighborhood is primarily houses, so it's lots of families along with the young singles. And I just love the name: Rockridge. Doesn't it sound cool? I may spend the rest of my life with "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" by R.E.M. in my head, but I can deal with that.
My apartment is in a huge Victorian house that was long ago split into eight apartments. Mine is on the first floor, but there's a semi-above ground basement, and the entire house is raised up from the street level, so there are two half-flights of stairs to take to get to my front door, which is on the side of the house. The apartment itself is more or less a very large studio. You enter into a smallish room that I'm using as a foyer/dining room. To the left is the kitchen, which has plenty of room to move around in but woefully little counter space. It does have a gas range though, which kicks ass.
Just beyond the kitchen, I'm a bit sad to say, we come to the bathroom. Yes, they are right next to each other, and you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. The bathroom, although it is cute and has fun indigo-blue hexagonal tiles, is probably the least appealing part of the apartment. As T would say, it is wee. Really, really wee. I haven't measured, but eyeballing it, my mom and I are pretty sure that it measures 3' X 5'. Tiny, yes, but you have to be a little impressed that they fit a toilet, a sink, and a shower in that space (and that I further fit a trash can, my bathroom caddy, and a bathmat in said space). If you are a guy, you could stand in the shower and pee in the toilet.
So that's kind of annoying, but it's also one of those things that you get used to really quickly, and it really hasn't bothered me much. There's a weird piece of furniture in the foyer/dining room that came with the apartment (it appears to be part table, part coat rack, and part mirror) that is perfect for doing hair and makeup (added bonus: lots of natural light in the foyer), and there's shelving in the bathroom for extra towels and TP and stuff, so it seems like it will work out fine.
So if you walk straight from the foyer/dining room, you get to the main room, which is about the size of the entirety of my old apartment. My loft bed goes on the far wall, my futon (with new cushion and fancy red microfiber cushion cover) goes on the near wall. The papasan chair goes next to the gorgeous bay windows, which are right across from the working fireplace (you can see now, perhaps, why I don't care so much about the bathroom). The floors are hardwood, and the ceilings are really high (even higher than in my old place, which is a big plus with the loft bed). Things are still in a state of disarray, and I need to buy a coffee table, but once everything is in place, there is going to be a ton of empty floor space, which is sort of my preference.
Anyway, that's the apartment. Pictures will follow, of course. Work is mostly good and very interesting, but that will have to wait for another post.
I got the keys to my new place this past Friday, and I did the bulk of my moving in this weekend, with the help of my ma, who drove up from Bakersfield, and the help of E, who drove down from Santa Rosa, where he is staying with family. I still have a couple of smallish bookcases and many boxes, mostly of books, left in my storage unit, which is paid through the end of the month.
My new apartment is in Rockridge, which is a neighborhood in North Oakland that is a little bit upscale and extremely close to the Oakland-Berkeley border. Rockridge, aptly enough, rocks. I love it. DWE suggested it as a possible place to look for apartments, and the first time I stepped off the BART at the Rockridge station I knew it was where I wanted to live. The main street is College Avenue (which runs north all the way to the Cal Berkeley campus, where it dead-ends), which is lined with great little restaurants and shops. My apartment is a block and a half off of college, and also a block and a half away from the BART station. In five minutes I can walk to two different taquerias, a Chinese restaurant, an oyster bar, a bar and grill, a coffee shop, a pizza joint, and an upscale food market (bakery, artisanal cheeses, etc). There are lots more restaurants a bit farther than that (probably another dozen of them in a fifteen-minute walking radius) along with about every kind of little shop you can think of (clothing, furniture, optometry, hair salon, spa, luggage, sports, bikes, etc).
The temperament of the neighborhood is pretty nicely balanced: there is no Starbucks, but there are also no flocks of dirty hippies. It's not disgustingly yuppy-ish, but it is fairly young, urban, and professional. The neighborhood is primarily houses, so it's lots of families along with the young singles. And I just love the name: Rockridge. Doesn't it sound cool? I may spend the rest of my life with "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" by R.E.M. in my head, but I can deal with that.
My apartment is in a huge Victorian house that was long ago split into eight apartments. Mine is on the first floor, but there's a semi-above ground basement, and the entire house is raised up from the street level, so there are two half-flights of stairs to take to get to my front door, which is on the side of the house. The apartment itself is more or less a very large studio. You enter into a smallish room that I'm using as a foyer/dining room. To the left is the kitchen, which has plenty of room to move around in but woefully little counter space. It does have a gas range though, which kicks ass.
Just beyond the kitchen, I'm a bit sad to say, we come to the bathroom. Yes, they are right next to each other, and you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. The bathroom, although it is cute and has fun indigo-blue hexagonal tiles, is probably the least appealing part of the apartment. As T would say, it is wee. Really, really wee. I haven't measured, but eyeballing it, my mom and I are pretty sure that it measures 3' X 5'. Tiny, yes, but you have to be a little impressed that they fit a toilet, a sink, and a shower in that space (and that I further fit a trash can, my bathroom caddy, and a bathmat in said space). If you are a guy, you could stand in the shower and pee in the toilet.
So that's kind of annoying, but it's also one of those things that you get used to really quickly, and it really hasn't bothered me much. There's a weird piece of furniture in the foyer/dining room that came with the apartment (it appears to be part table, part coat rack, and part mirror) that is perfect for doing hair and makeup (added bonus: lots of natural light in the foyer), and there's shelving in the bathroom for extra towels and TP and stuff, so it seems like it will work out fine.
So if you walk straight from the foyer/dining room, you get to the main room, which is about the size of the entirety of my old apartment. My loft bed goes on the far wall, my futon (with new cushion and fancy red microfiber cushion cover) goes on the near wall. The papasan chair goes next to the gorgeous bay windows, which are right across from the working fireplace (you can see now, perhaps, why I don't care so much about the bathroom). The floors are hardwood, and the ceilings are really high (even higher than in my old place, which is a big plus with the loft bed). Things are still in a state of disarray, and I need to buy a coffee table, but once everything is in place, there is going to be a ton of empty floor space, which is sort of my preference.
Anyway, that's the apartment. Pictures will follow, of course. Work is mostly good and very interesting, but that will have to wait for another post.
Friday, August 31, 2007
old lady new job
I'm not entirely in a blogging mood right now, but I thought I should at least check in, because it's been an eventful week. I turned 29 on Tuesday, and spent a couple of minutes obsessing over my wrinkles in front of the mirror. I know I'm being a little silly, but I am feeling rather old. DWE took me out for dinner and jazz music, which was really lovely and relaxing.
On Monday I started my new job. We spent this week doing training and getting to know each other, and next Tuesday I start teaching students. There are five other new Math Empowerment teachers, all of whom seem really cool (and a couple of whom are young and male and way cute). I think I'm going to like this job quite a bit. It's a very supportive, progressive, and fun work environment, and from what I can tell working with the students will be both challenging and enjoyable.
Speaking of high school students from the greater Oakland area, has anyone ever heard of the slang term "bootsy"? Apparently it's a negative adjective that high school students around here use. Most likely several of my new students will think that math is bootsy.
I'll probably post again later this weekend, but that's all for now.
On Monday I started my new job. We spent this week doing training and getting to know each other, and next Tuesday I start teaching students. There are five other new Math Empowerment teachers, all of whom seem really cool (and a couple of whom are young and male and way cute). I think I'm going to like this job quite a bit. It's a very supportive, progressive, and fun work environment, and from what I can tell working with the students will be both challenging and enjoyable.
Speaking of high school students from the greater Oakland area, has anyone ever heard of the slang term "bootsy"? Apparently it's a negative adjective that high school students around here use. Most likely several of my new students will think that math is bootsy.
I'll probably post again later this weekend, but that's all for now.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
the other love of my life
One thing about finding a job relatively quickly (and with shamefully little effort, unless you count worrying and feeling inadequate as putting forth "effort") is that I never got desperate or curious enough to really look for jobs anywhere outside of the Bay Area. Now that I have a job that I'm enthusiastic about, there's essentially no chance that I will be living anywhere but the Bay Area through at least June 2008. I made a conscious decision to move back to SF at the expense of other alternatives (and maybe "move back" isn't even the right phrase, because it still feels like my home as much as it ever did). And there was, quite frankly, only one other alternative: Portland, Oregon.
So here I am in Portland, and if I'm not exactly doubting the haste and blitheness with which I made my decision, I'm at least feeling palpably the costs of that decision. I love it here. It isn't just that I have so many good friends here, or that the weather is pleasing, or that I know the bus system. Those things I knew, and I remembered when I decided not to move back here. The thing I didn't remember was how much I love Portland in the same irrational and wide-eyed way that one loves another person. I just want to stare at Portland for hours. I want to ride over the bridges in Tri-Met buses even if I have no where to go. I want to wander the aisle of the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, and then when I get bored of that, I want to go to the Broadway Fred Meyer. When people mention Modest Mouse or The Decemberists or Matt Groening or Bruce Springsteen's first wife, I want to say, "They're from Portland, because everything great is from Portland, because Portland is the best city in the world." I want to pay $0.99, not $1.07, for something that costs $0.99. I want to go out to Beaverton and go to all the little restaurants we used to go to when I worked at the Employment Department. Then I want to ride the MAX from Beaverton to the airport. But when I get to the airport I don't want to leave.
Alas, I do have to leave, in just a few days. I already made my decision. I chose SF because I was already there, and I have good friends there too. I chose it because in theory it's one of the greatest cities in the world, and in practice I think it's pretty cool. I chose it because the buses are cheaper and run later. And, yeah, mostly I chose it because I have one particular friend there that I could probably stare at for even longer than I could stare at Portland, although he'd almost certainly get creeped out and make me stop.
Other than my hopeless pining away for the city itself, I'm having a really good time. MJ's wedding reception was a great party, and I found myself all emotional that my little girl is a grown-up married lady! She and her hubby (does he have a blog name? I can't remember...) are clearly incredibly happy and incredibly good for each other, so yay! It's been really great to see all of my friends. Everyone seems to have something interesting going on--exciting trips, new and/or growing kids, cool projects and career plans, etc. I'm hoping that despite working almost-full-time, I'll have more chances to come up here and visit (and more importantly, more money to do so).
So here I am in Portland, and if I'm not exactly doubting the haste and blitheness with which I made my decision, I'm at least feeling palpably the costs of that decision. I love it here. It isn't just that I have so many good friends here, or that the weather is pleasing, or that I know the bus system. Those things I knew, and I remembered when I decided not to move back here. The thing I didn't remember was how much I love Portland in the same irrational and wide-eyed way that one loves another person. I just want to stare at Portland for hours. I want to ride over the bridges in Tri-Met buses even if I have no where to go. I want to wander the aisle of the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, and then when I get bored of that, I want to go to the Broadway Fred Meyer. When people mention Modest Mouse or The Decemberists or Matt Groening or Bruce Springsteen's first wife, I want to say, "They're from Portland, because everything great is from Portland, because Portland is the best city in the world." I want to pay $0.99, not $1.07, for something that costs $0.99. I want to go out to Beaverton and go to all the little restaurants we used to go to when I worked at the Employment Department. Then I want to ride the MAX from Beaverton to the airport. But when I get to the airport I don't want to leave.
Alas, I do have to leave, in just a few days. I already made my decision. I chose SF because I was already there, and I have good friends there too. I chose it because in theory it's one of the greatest cities in the world, and in practice I think it's pretty cool. I chose it because the buses are cheaper and run later. And, yeah, mostly I chose it because I have one particular friend there that I could probably stare at for even longer than I could stare at Portland, although he'd almost certainly get creeped out and make me stop.
Other than my hopeless pining away for the city itself, I'm having a really good time. MJ's wedding reception was a great party, and I found myself all emotional that my little girl is a grown-up married lady! She and her hubby (does he have a blog name? I can't remember...) are clearly incredibly happy and incredibly good for each other, so yay! It's been really great to see all of my friends. Everyone seems to have something interesting going on--exciting trips, new and/or growing kids, cool projects and career plans, etc. I'm hoping that despite working almost-full-time, I'll have more chances to come up here and visit (and more importantly, more money to do so).
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
i got the job!
I was officially offered and officially accepted a teaching position with the Math Empowerment program at Making Waves. Yay! I start on August 27th, so it will be a nice one-day-early 29th birthday present. I'm a bit overqualified for the position (insofar as I don't need a master's degree to do it, and in theory I'm qualified to do other jobs that pay more), but the work is very appealling, and I will make enough money to survive. In fact, I'm starting at a higher salary than I would have otherwise as a result of my degree (of course, I'm also in a lot of debt as a result of my degree, so there you go).
The next project, then, is to find an apartment. Since I will be working in Richmond, which is over in East Bay, I'm considering living in Berkeley or another BART-adjacent place that might be cheaper than San Francisco. Berkeley isn't exactly cheap, but it's at least potentially cheaper than SF, and my commute would be just about 15 minutes instead of more than an hour (not that I mind a long commute too much...I can always read, listen to music, etc).
Anyway, it's a huge relief to know that I have a job waiting, and it's nice that I don't have to start for another two weeks (especially since I really can't start sooner than the 27th, since I will be in Portland all of next week).
The next project, then, is to find an apartment. Since I will be working in Richmond, which is over in East Bay, I'm considering living in Berkeley or another BART-adjacent place that might be cheaper than San Francisco. Berkeley isn't exactly cheap, but it's at least potentially cheaper than SF, and my commute would be just about 15 minutes instead of more than an hour (not that I mind a long commute too much...I can always read, listen to music, etc).
Anyway, it's a huge relief to know that I have a job waiting, and it's nice that I don't have to start for another two weeks (especially since I really can't start sooner than the 27th, since I will be in Portland all of next week).
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