I started playing soccer relatively late: a awkward nine-year old lured to the sport more by the promise of Little Debbies and Hi-C juice boxes after games than any real draw to running and kicking. But in the early 90’s, especially in Iowa, it didn’t take much for a girl playing with boys to eventually get immersed in the game through club soccer. As my skills improved and my exposure to women’s soccer increased, I slowly fell in love with the beautiful game. How could you not, as an adolescent back them, be enthralled by the story of the founding mothers of US Women’s Soccer? How could you not want to be like Mia Hamm, a star so dominating, so prodigious, that she made the US Women’s National Team before she was old enough to drive a car? How could you not look up to Michelle Akers, dominating the midfield in the air, despite looking like she could be my mom? How could you not be inspired by Tiffany Milbrett, who gave hope to 5’2” girls everywhere that they could knock around the best defenders in the world? → continue reading
It’s been a while. I’ve been busy and when I have had time to sit down and write, somehow I find my mind drifting to other things with nothing left to trickle from my fingertips. But Thursday was the first really gorgeous day of the year, and it was a day that made me feel like just about anything was possible, so here I am. → continue reading
People have been asking me what is going on with the charter school. Things are moving along. We will be awarded our charter at the DESE board meeting today, which means we are the real deal, legit, and authentic. This also means we are going to start enrolling. Spread the word if you know of a family with current fourth and fifth graders in St Louis City who want a rigorous, college-prep education for their child. South City Prep wants ‘em. We are in lease negotiations on a temporary home (two years) in a great location, so I’m excited to announce that when we can. You can read our first bit of press in the St Louis Business Journal. We’ve also hired our Head of School and hope to continuing hiring in the next 2-3 months. If you are one of those people who graciously offered to volunteer for the school back when I didn’t have anything for you to do, here’s a heads up: hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife. I’mma coming for you soon.
Last week, a team from SCP, including myself, visited three high-performing charter schools in the New Orleans area. Because of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has a huge charter school populations. More than half of their public schools are charters. We saw some downright awe-inspiring schools getting incredible results, and I left feeling really inspired and motivated about what’s to do to get ready to educate kids.
I have learned so much through this process, particularly during our visits to high-performing schools. I’ve seen, over and over in our visits, programming implemented the right way, with all stakeholders intensely-committed to educating kids. I’d seen bits and pieces tried elsewhere, never with the dramatic results these schools are getting. I’m completely rethinking how I think we educate teachers. Before, I knew that we were doing it wrong, but I didn’t know exactly how I would train teachers differently. This is something I could expound on at length but I’ll still stand by what I’ve said before, which is that it should absolutely be harder to become a teacher. I’ll also say these schools weren’t perfect, but there’s a lot we can learn and play with when designing programming for our school.
While in New Orleans, also got to scout some eatin’, and I would highly recommend Cochon if you are in New Orleans. We had an outstanding meal that surpassed my expectations, and I would undoubtedly visit again when I return to the city. You should go there if you get the chance. It’s a great place for people really into food to take their less-adventurous friends and have a meal that satisfies everyone. Totally approachable food that was still exciting.
Unrelated to anything serious, I’m a finalist for the RFT’s Web Awards in the category of Best Personal Blog. I’m going to lose to up against my friend and fellow Church of Burger Priestess Stef Pollack of fantastic The Cupcake Project. So many of my friends are up for awards, which makes me a member of the cool nerds, I guess.
Thank you so much to whomever nominated me, unless this is some weird elaborate prank to humiliate me, like on Carrie. Because if it is, me and my dirty pillows will have no problem sourcing heritage-breed pig blood that I can and will telepathically hurl at my would-be humiliators. I also still have a pig head. So, basically, JUST TRY ME.
Check back next week to see if I “win” or not. I hope, like all situations I find myself in, it involves a giant check.
I hate winter. It’s mocking me, what with its spread to New Orleans while I was there. But there are a few simple pleasures I take during winter that, while they may not completely make up for the suckitude of the season, make things at least tolerable. These things are:
Being able to leave groceries in the car without worry of spoilage.
Using your back porch as a walk-in beer cooler.
Hot beverages in mugs. Perpetually. Lately, I’ve been making hot chocolate with half milk, half coffee. Homemade marshmallow on top. Plain coffee will gladly do.
Scarves, which are my very favorite accessory ever.
Dogs as portable bed warmers. Neko is the best heated blanket that ruined a bunch of stuff I used to own ever.
While Chris watched the weatherman warn us of New Year’s Eve tornadoes, I created a calendar for the month of January. Then I wept. Actually, I wept before all that happened. Now I’m just trying to calm the impending panic attack.
I’m taking a J-Term class, the second-to-last elective I have in my program. It’s on Paulo Freire, possibly the most important critical pedagogue who ever lived. My professor is an expert on him, and he’s incredibly intelligent. This means his classes are quite heavy on reading and theory–well over 800 pages for the month-long course. This also means I’ll be traveling north for two weekends this month.
We also have a grant application due at the end of the month for desperately-needed pre-operation money for the charter school, which we’ll need to have done well before that in order to revise after receiving appropriate feedback. We’re going to New Orleans for three days to visit high-performing charter schools.
I’m also writing five paid blogs posts per week and working at Kitchen Conservatory.
In short: I’m stressed.
I write this because this is my way of telling everyone I know “no”. I won’t be going out except for a very few pre-scheduled activities. I can’t do lunch. I can’t do coffee. I can’t grab a drink. If it’s not on my calendar as of right this second, it’s not happening. I’m not saying this to act self-important or snobby. I’m doing this because I have to put my head down and get shit done, and I can’t apologize for it. I just have to do it.
So I’ll probably be even more scarce around here than usual. I’ll be scarce everywhere except my couch, the library, and whatever coffee shop in which I’m working. But I still love you. I still love this space. But IS BIDNESS TIMEZ NAO. And I literally don’t have time to have a Jessie Spano-esque breakdown.
Over at MamaPop, we’re all posting our “Best of” lists for 2010. Each person has their own criteria and theme for their lists. You can and should check them out, particularly the amazeballs TwoBusy’s Anti-Best of 2010: A List of Cultural Regrets. Mine, The Best of 2010: WTF? Edition, will be published Monday, so check it out then. In the meantime, I realized I had a whole list of pop culture casualties to pay tribute to, because we had some tough losses this year, so I thought I’d post them here. Pour one out for the homeys, y’all.
1. Lost. While I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the finale, and it’s demise was scheduled and appropriate, I still mourn the loss of one of the most talked-about, engaging shows ever produced on television. For six seasons, Thursday mornings were full of furious discussions, predictions, and, just as often, confusion, as viewers pondered the show and pored over the mysteries within. Several shows have unsuccessfully tried to replicate the intrigue of Lost; none have succeeded. While the show was ultimately a flawed one, I’d argue, like the producers, that the ride was more important than the destination.
2. Paste Magazine. While they’re continuing to produce online content, Paste stopped print production in August of this year, after over a year of financial difficulty. I discovered Paste in a train station in Zurich in 2003; not realizing the exchange rate at the time, I paid almost $20 for the issue. I don’t regret it. As soon as I returned to the States, I subscribed, drawn to the idea of a monthly culture magazine that included a mix CD each month full of new music to sample. But Paste was more than just a music sampler. It’s tagline, “Signs of Life in Music, Film, and Culture” was truth in advertising; Paste provided smart, critical analysis of the best of pop culture and gave me faith that not all of America was wrapped up in Toby Keith and NCIS.
3. Party Down. This show was preternaturally funny and produced maybe the most hilarious half-hours of television I’ve seen in years, the infamous “Steve Guttenburg’s Birthday Party” episode. Featuring hilarious writing, a can’t-miss premise (caterers in LA), and a superb cast, Party Down‘s premature demise was probably due to a strange combination of being too successful, yet not successful enough. Ratings weren’t great, largely due to original episodes airing on premium channel Starz on Friday nights while simultaneously provided on Netflix Streaming. But the cast was so damn good, Starz just couldn’t keep them around. Cast member Jane Lynch left after the first season to appear on Glee, where she won an Emmy for her role as Sue Sylvester. Adam Scott’s end-of-season guest stint on Season Two of NBC’s Parks and Recreation turned into a regular role for the upcoming Season Three, and Lizzy Caplan and Adam Scott both scored major network pilots for 2011. But the two seasons we did get of Party Down were damn near perfect, and I’ll probably watch them again and again.
4. Danielle Staub. While not dead, this Real Housewife of New Jersey did get the boot from the show, since no other cast member was willing to continue the franchise with her on board. While I’m glad she’s freed up to get the mental health care she desperately needs, she really did create a special brand of delusional crazy to Bravo. And that’s saying something. Farewell, PROSTITUTIONWHORE. Can’t wait for your next lesfaux slow ballad.
5. The vampire trend. Sure, True Blood will return in 2011, but the Twilight-fueled vampire obsession that pop culture has been obsessed with for the past few years was supplanted by the literal and figurative uprising of motherfucking ZOMBIES. Walking Dead ruled. Forget Robert Pattinson’s brooding ass; I want axes to skulls and raw survivalism. Vamps, you were fun while you lasted, but your gothiness comes across as snobby.
6. Summer music festivals. While I was glad that St Louis was able to host its own first-year festival (and do it right, I might add) 2010 saw the demise of several festivals I wish were still around. Rothbury, 10,000 Lakes, and All Points West were just a few festivals canceled in 2010 due to the abysmal economy. Hopefully, some will be resurrected in 2011.
7. Celebrity deaths. While anyone who watched the trainwreck reality show The Two Coreys could have predicted that Corey Haim was sadly on the fasttrack to an early demise. But Gary Coleman died. Rue McClanahan. Tom Bosley. FUCKING J.D. SALINGER! Double pour one out for that enigma.
8. The Hunger Games trilogy. Well, the highly-anticipated final book in Suzanne Collins’ popular young adult trilogy, Mockingjay came and went. I read it. I liked it. I didn’t love it, because I didn’t love the ending because I’m not a fucking libertarian. But Katniss Evergreen is an amazing character, and the fact is that she’s a teenage female and she kicks an entire dystopian nation’s collective ass, so I won’t dismiss three whole books because I didn’t like how the author wrapped up the overarching story.
What pop culture phenomenon that you will miss came to a close in 2010?
I’ve been so scarce here as of late, and I apologize to my grandma and the seven of you who still care about this little blog. It’s not that I’ve nothing to write about; far from it. I’ve just little time or motivation because I’ve got about ten irons in the fire. God, how sick are my friends of hearing that? Everyone’s fucking busy, duh. I’m lucky as hell to be this busy doing things I really love: writing, working at a kitchen shop, and starting a school. I might be broke, but I’m lucky, lucky, lucky. Except for that dog that keeps eating my bras and glasses.
South City Prep is coming along, but not without some stumbles along the way. I’ll not get into details, only say that we’ve had two pretty substantial catastrophes in the past month that have forced us to rethink our plans. Opening next year isn’t a question, actually, we’ve just had some timelines altered and plans rearranged largely due to circumstances beyond our control. Yes, that’s cryptic, it’s just that things are still up in the air in a few key areas and I want to keep the details under wraps until those areas are 100% done deals, otherwise it’s just a big jinx and my soul can’t handle any more “surprises”, thank you very much, unless said surprise is winning the lottery.
That being said, I think we’re close to signing paperwork on a building, a building I love in a neighborhood I love, a building that could be our permanent home. We should know in the next two weeks or so if all the pieces will fall into place, so please keep our team in your thoughts and prayers. Finding a facility is our biggest challenge next to student enrollment, and we’ve got two backup options if this deal falls through. So many things can’t happen until our facility is finalized, and the time frame for completing any renovation is tight, so we really need good karma pushing our project forward. Once that happens, we can begin the process of actually getting down to the nitty-gritty of programming and recruitment, which is what I can’t wait to dive into. We’ve been so caught up in finding a building, securing financing, working with developers and architects and realtors and loan officers, running numbers over and over again, and trying to get our charter from the state that the actual work we get to do with kids has been on the backburner. I can’t wait until we get to focus on efforts on programming that will provide kids with a high-quality education. I can’t articulate how much I’ve learned, and continue to learn, through this process, both about education in general, but also education in the context of Missouri and how politics and regionalism impacts kids. The political climate in Missouri is not good for urban schools, period. I’ll save that for another day when all our deals are already done and my mouth won’t get others in trouble.
Because the work on the school is taking a lot of my time, probably more than I thought it would, and that time will only increase, so I’ve been considering where I have to scale back my efforts. Unfortunately, many of the things I love are things that don’t earn me a ton of money, so it ends up being hard decisions. I’m on indefinite hiatus from Draft Day Suit, which Sarah and Laurie were oh-so-understanding about. I love those women fiercely, incidentally, so you should continue to support the site and read their writing.
I was also quite frazzled because I was co-chair of a trivia night fundraiser for the Safe Connections Young Professionals Board, of which I am a member. It’s a little harder to plan a “real” trivia night, and by “real”, I mean, not in your backyard with your friend’s karaoke machine and your friends’ band in the garage rocking a smoke machine. Fortunately, the evening was a pretty big success in that we hit our target in terms of profits, and there were few major issues save running out of diet soda and running over on our allotted time at the rental facility because everyone was having a damn good time. But I’m glad it’s over.
Because we need money and I love food, I picked up a new gig at The Stir, writing for their food and party section thrice weekly. My first post is up, and it’s on how to cook perfect bacon because I am a whore for endearing myself to new audiences and pork usually does the trick. This all came about from a random business card exchange at a breakfast table at BlogHer in New York, which means I have actually successfully networked, although I can’t say it was intentional or skillful by any means. ANYWAY, yes, another blog I’m contributing to, but it’s well-paid and will help me stretch my writing and learn not to curse in every post I write. Huzzah!
Finally, my brother and sister-in-law came and visited for the very first time this weekend, and it was so awesome. It was the first time we’d done something just the four of us, and, outside of Iowa’s loss in football, we had so much fun that Andrew and Chris couldn’t take it and fell asleep at 11 PM Saturday night while Liz and I watched The Office and ate snickerdoodles. Most of my friends have moved away from Des Moines, so I feel like my brothers are my last little tether to my hometown, and whenever they give me a glimpse into adult life there, I get to feel home for a little bit. Sometimes, my life there feels like a dream. My sister-in-law and brother were at some social media networking event (Liz works in social media) and ran into my high school boyfriend. She didn’t know who he was, and when they met and that fact became known, I guess it was a little weird. He’s married now to another girl from our high school and has two kids and that just kinda blows my mind. Liz running into him just made me curious as to who he is now. I know I’m a radically different person than I was twelve years ago–is he? I just wonder if you change as much if you stay in town. Maybe you change more? I don’t know. I just wonder where everyone else from this different life of mine ended up on their meandering (or not-so-meandering) paths and if there’s anything left to say to some of these people who shared this common formative experience with me once a drunken buzz wears off. I guess it’s just interesting, and melancholy, to think about people with whom you share so much being strangers. Maybe I’d rather not know.
Tomorrow: this week’s Grace in Small Things, plus links to my interwebs writings this week.
1. An event I’ve been working on for a while, the Safe Connections Young Professionals’ first trivia night, happened Friday and it was a great success and I am so, so, so glad it is over because it consumed pretty much all of last week and I have some writing to do.
2. Working after a “My First Thanksgiving” class and getting to eat a plateful of leftover stuffing smothered in really amazing turkey gravy. I aspire to make a gravy so lovely, then bathe in it.
3. The hastily-picked-before-the-first-frost green tomatoes, of which we have pounds and pounds, actually ripening into a gorgeous array of heirlooms on my counter, allowing me to hold onto summer, still.
4. A simple lunch and good conversation with Rev Em on Saturday.
5. Making new outfits out of old clothes. Ladybum win.
Begin staining process. Convince husband that he really has to do the staining himself because you would mess it up.
Start to believe it yourself.
Realize this process is taking four times as long as you had planned.
Feign normalcy by inviting friend and three-year old daughter over to lunch in the basement. Reassure three-year old, upon urinating on the floor, that she wasn’t the first to pee on the floor that day.
Resume role filling scratches and holes with wood putty because you are an equal partner in this project.
Go ladycamping while husband stays behind to stain. Decorate your own coozie and drink vodka-spiked Capri Suns. Talk about periods.
Realize giant pimp tent is less claustrophobic than basement, smells better.
Return to beautiful, untouchable floors.
Clean up basement dog pee, vomit, poop, and shredded personal items.
Repeat #9.
Repeat #10
Referee countless rounds of Basement Dog Thunderdome.
Thank Baby Jesus for awesome husband as he seals the floors.
Agree to do all tangential helper-type activities until floors are finished.
Do that shit with a smile.
Relax in clean, fresh, carpet-free bedroom. Breathe.
Please to ignore our bare bedroom. We’ve only moved essentials thus far. More pics on Flickr.
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
"Your new hair makes you look like David Bowie."--one 6th grader to another, renewing my faith in the cheeldren. http://www.twitter.com/kbestoliver3 mins ago
