10 years later

Happens tonight.

Pictures to follow.

Coyote

Note to self: When teaching a class of forty Latino students about Native American literature, make sure they understand the definition of "coyote" as an animal and not one who transports immigrants illegally across the border.

How many days until summer?

The Moon at my Window

I started school on Wednesday and have cried every day thereafter. That stress and trepidation that I mentioned may be approaching soon - well, it has arrived.

I have forty kids in each class (including Sheltered English which is made up of kids who can barely read and need one-on-one help just to write a paragraph), no printer, and an air conditioner that believes 78 is a comfortable temperature while bending over an overhead projector and surrounded by forty teenagers after P.E. in Escon-freaking-dido.

Deep breath. Things that make me happy.

Japanese poetry. Shopping. Photographs. Raymond Carver's short stories. Fat babies. Licorice. Riding the shopping cart through the parking lot. Peanut Butter. New pens. Chai tea. Football season. Bunco. Recycling. Sunbathing. Cat Stevens. Afternoons at Barnes and Noble. Mechanical pencils with twist erasers. The Daily Show. Activism. Teaching. Libraries. Ice cream cake. Dan helping me set up my classroom. Dan and I making dinner together. Dan sleeping next to me as I write.

Always Dan.

A Change in Title

I don't think anyone really got the "Portrait of a Lady" reference.

Henry James...T.S. Eliot.... Exactly.

So, since I am indeed an idealist (in both definitions) and it cleverly includes my name (thanks mom and dad) I'm going for a new, clever title. (I even had to figure out html to make the title in both lower and uppercase which impressed Dan greatly and made him ever so proud).

Idealism:

1. the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception.

2. Idealism also refers to a tradition in Western thought that represents things in an ideal form, or as they ought to be rather than as they really are, in the fields of ethics, morality, aesthetics, and value.

It seems that the title "idealist" has become a sort of a bad word to the conservative right suggesting "out of touch" or "unrealistic."

It's perfect.