Sunday I turned 30. Truth be told, I have relatively little anxiety about it. I was too damn stressed last Thursday and Friday, what with the complete failure of my hard drive on Thursday and (delayed) travel to school on Friday. I have a lot of friends who are older than me, which must be because I’m so mature I pronounce it matoor, so it just wasn’t that big of a deal. I’m lucky to have the life that I have; it’s a damn good one. And, I lost 15 pounds in the last three months.→ continue reading
So I’m a procrastinator anyway, and I had allotted all day yesterday to crank out a paper that is due today. That’s how I do it. I got a system. Long story short, about 45 minutes after sitting down at a local coffee establishment to get cracking, my two-year-old MacBook freezes, and when I restart, I get the blinking file icon of death. I know what this means. I know that I’m fucked. I also know that I haven’t backed up in a while. SO GO BACK UP, KIDS.
The charter school is coming along exactly as planned (insert evil mustache-twirling maniacal laughs). A few weeks ago, we had our review for the first of two planning grants. This involved submitting the first incantation of our business plan, as well as an in-person interview where our four founding members defended said proposal in front of a group of people. It also involved me squeezing into “business attire” that I didn’t exactly try on before I bought it and consequently ended up feeling like Joan Holloway.
The Bad News (because I’d rather get it out of the way first):
When I left my job helping unqualified people become underwhelming teachers (I KID, at least five of them were competent. Ashley, you’re one of them), I went to work with a friend, helping her with the small business she owned. When I started working with her, we set a three-month trial period, at the end of which either of us could withdraw from the arrangement, no hard feelings. Unfortunately, due to a really crappy economy, she really couldn’t afford to keep me after three and a half months, which I expected. Therefore, as of Friday, I have no substantive incoming coming in regularly.
Howard Zinn died. He was an author, historian, teacher, and tireless activist for peace and civil rights.
I first read his most famous book, A People’s History of the United States, in college. This book was pivotal to my own radicalization; it was the first major work I read that questioned history as it was presented to me in school. I learned from Zinn that there are multiple sides to every story, and the story is told most often is probably the story of the oppressors. I learned from Zinn to question institutions and authority. He will continue to be one of my intellectual heroes.
We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness – embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television.
– Howard Zinn, “Changing Minds, One at a Time”, in: The Progressive magazine, March 2005
Wheeeeee! It’s my last week of work at my current job, which means it is the last week I will be in this building on Tuesdays from 7 or 8AM to 9:30PM. That is such a nice feeling. I think I will be less of a misanthropic eye-roller in class when I’m not spending the previous 12 hours in the same building. However, I will still be very annoyed when Lady Who Talks Too Damn Much (LWTTDM if you aren’t familiar with my Tuesday night tweets) gets going on God knows what.
The mad bummer right now is that our internet at home just flat-out quit working this weekend. Of course, Chris had to spend a ton of time on the phone with people in India who refused to believe that our connection just quit working and the Chris hadn’t hatched a nefarious plan to siphon their time and energy into fixing his own grievous errors. A dude came out yesterday and said it’s not the outside connection so it must be the modem. Joy. Our normal neighbors-from-whom-we-steal-internet when ours goes down apparently learned about passwords (none of them being “password”. I tried) and the faint open connection only works with Chris’s computer from one couch. This does not bode well for my productivity on various projects/posts I hoped to get off the ground ASAP.
Don’t forget to donate to DonorsChoose projects in your area. Every little bit counts! My grandma Marilyn sent me a check in the mail to donate to Donors Choose because she didn’t know how to do it online. Then she went to Branson. True story.
Also, check out The Novice Foodie later this afternoon. I’m talking about Monarch and why it’s the best place to spend your money for a fancy dinner. I was fortunate enough to dine at the Chef’s Table there on Friday, which I will be (hopefully) blogging about tomorrow or Thursday. If you live in St Louis, GO THERE. You will not regret it.
More posts to come this week which may or may not involve the following things: Hoarders, food, my anniversary, terrible movie trailers, a goodbye to my job, and a garden update. Ooh! Thrilling!
Being a former teacher, I know how much teachers give of their own lives to make sure their students’ needs are met. Often, this giving is financial. There are schools in our area where teachers have to buy all of their own supplies because their school can’t give them a budget and their students’ families cannot afford to buy even basics like crayons and paper or CHAIRS FOR THEIR CLASSROOM. Seriously? Not enough chairs for the amount of students in your class? What is WRONG with this country?
This is why DonorsChoose.org is such an awesome organization. Teachers can request supplies they need for their classrooms and individuals looking to contribute financially to our schools can log on and find a project that speaks to them. You can donate any dollar amount to a project, and many are also sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who will match your contribution. → continue reading
Being a former teacher, I know how much teachers give of their own lives to make sure their students’ needs are met. Often, this giving is financial. There are schools in our area where teachers have to buy all of their own supplies because their school can’t give them a budget and their students’ families cannot afford to buy even basics like crayons and paper or CHAIRS FOR THEIR CLASSROOM. Seriously? Not enough chairs for the amount of students in your class? What is WRONG with this country?
