Vino Vino Vino

This past weekend Levi and I went up to Sonoma with his brother, Kory, and Kory's girlfriend, Vanessa. We stayed at her family's beautiful house and wine tasted all day Saturday. Her brother, Vito, has the hookup!!! We went to three different wineries where I swear he knew everyone! In the last place we got taken over to the reserve area where we got to taste some really excellent wines, then got a great discount on the bottles we bought. Thank you Vito!!! Then we ate at The Swiss Hotel, drank some more, and were basically sloshed by about 8:30. I can't hang. I was in bed (then out of it trying to find the bathroom like 15 times that night) by about 11:30. Par-tee! Seriously, that much wine is bad news. The next day was rough. But it was a great weekend. Sonoma was beautiful. Wine country-it just doesn't get better than California!

Flashback!

At Liz and Steve's wedding the photographers had this little figurine that thay made everyone take photos with. This was at the end of the night, the photogs were like parapazzi, with the lights flashing like crazy-I couldn't keep my eyes open! but I really like this photo. I think it turned out super cute!

Brought to you by the letter H

Not to sound like a Honda commercial or anything, but I filled up the gas tank yesterday in my little '98 HX and the mileage gauge read 367 miles. And the gas light hadn't even come on yet. Wow.

Weekend Antics

This weekend we went to NOLA's in Palo Alto for dinner. Damn it was tasty. We also met Gina's new beau, Francisco, and got to practice a little of our espanol which was fantastico! Then we played darts. Ian and I dominated (Ian was the big winner, really) Bob and Levi, Bob being a stranger who rounded out our 4some. Best part of the night, trying to translate the joke: "What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho cheese! (Pronounced like not-yo'-cheese)" It would be translated to something like "Como se llama queso que no es tuyo?" "Queso que no es tuyo!!!" Watching Gina try to explain it was possibly the funniest thing ever. Speaking so slowly, pronouncing each word "What do you call... Nacho cheese. Ha. Ha. Ha. Not Your Cheese. Notchyour cheese...Ha Ha Ha Nacho Cheese...Ha.Ha.Ha..." And Francisco just looked SO confused, like "Huh? Queso?"

Response

I want to respond to the person who said that it made them sad to hear me talk about teaching, because they love their job. I am not trying to in any way critique teaching as a profession or teachers who love their jobs and are fantastic at it. I was a pretty good teacher, but my heart wasn't in it. And when you aren't there to do your best and give your all, it's time to go.

I love a lot of aspects of teaching, but you have to agree, there sure is a lot of non-teaching going on in the classroom these days that really makes it hard to get to what you love about the job. The teaching part, that is. I also missed the team aspect of work. Teaching is by and large a very individual, and often times lonely, profession. And, another thing, I miss merit-based pay. My mom just said yesterday "It's really true, you don't do it for the money." And I exploded. Actually, that's EXACTLY why people work. For the money. It's often a bonus when you loooove your job. It's total bullshit that people should have to put up with that attitude, that teachers have to wait it out for years to get a raise, that there are no bonuses, no monetary incentives for working hard and getting results. If I were to be a volunteer I would be in Louisiana. The people educating the kids are not volunteers, they work damn hard and they should be paid accordingly. However, as a female-dominated industry, much like nursing, you can bet that won't happen in our lifetime. I applaud those who go into teaching, because I think if you love it that's what you should do. I also think that you should recognize my leaving as a good thing, because there are plenty of apathetic teachers who don't leave, and they are doing a disservice to each and every one of their students and fellow teachers by skating by in a job that demands more than they are willing to give, but who stick with it because they can, because they are waiting to retire or whatever. Most of my friends are teachers and love their work. It wasn't for me, but it doesn't mean it wasn't a great experience and something I took a lot from and that taught me a great deal as well.

Update

First thing, I have officially had more than 1000 people look at this blog. Wow. I am thrilled and think it's great that people are checking in. I have decided to stop complaining about all the time on my hands and devote it to good causes-well, better causes, such as cleaning my room, knitting the sleeves for my sweater and keeping up with my blog!

That said, here's the latest. I have two interviews next week. I am so excited. The one is for a place whose ad declared "Nerds Wanted." Since it was practically flashing my name in bright lights I promptly sent them a cover letter listing my nerdiest attributes. They include but are not limited to: I am in not one, but two book clubs. I rarely lose at Scrabble. I know twenty chords on the guitar and can therefore play roughly ninety percent of the Eagles Greatest Hits. I have a blog. I taught algerbra in summer school this past July. I went to Vanderbilt, the "Harvard of the South." Well that surely got their attention so here I am heading in to convince them that I am the one they want next Wednesday. The other interview is for a really exciting company that is on the verge of some major advances in the way we shop and use technology, so I am really eager to hear what kind of position they may have for me.

Other than that, I was reading today and found this which I thought was really interesting, mostly because I related to it. If you’re reading this, you probably have had some of the same feelings about your weight and its effect on your dating life. It’s not uncommon, especially for women. Body-image issues can impact your love life in a couple of ways. “Body image problems almost always occur in conjunction with low self-confidence,” explains Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D., of Cherry Creek Psychology in Denver. “If you are feeling self-conscious about how you look, you are going to exude low self-confidence. That is not going to be an attractive quality..." What’s more, body-image problems are frequently associated with anxiety. “Overwhelming anxiety can turn a decent date into a nightmare, especially if you start panicking half-way through dinner about how much you’ve eaten just in case your date ends up seeing you in your underwear.” I am not exactly in the "dating scene" as it were, but I am conscious of how I look, who isn't really, and the anxiety/body-image is coming into play bigtime these days, with my overwhelming feelings of insecurity about not having a job bleeding into my daily calendar. I feel exceedingly anxious if I don't work out in some way these days, and am already worried about how I am going to keep it up once I am working as well. I am constantly weighing myself and keeping track of every thing I eat. It's weird how your worries about one thing show up in another part of your life. Poor Levi has taken the brunt of a lot of my anxiety and stress, and I have to say for the record how lucky I am that he is as patient and loving as he is. I could not ask for a better. He is my media naranja.

On with the non-gushy stuff. I L-O-V-E Project Runway. It is just so Fab! Really. Michael so HAS to win, it's not even funny, he is by far the best designer (except for that purple Paris number...) and most stylish guy on the runway.

Ok I am going to have some lunch. Chimichurri rice! Yum!

B-O-R-E-D

Spells bored. I am. I need work and have swallowed hope and optimism to join the ranks of the child-enslaved who call themselves teachers. Yes, it is back to the "Hey-stop-hitting-her-put-that-down-eyes-on-me-quiet-please-give-that-back-to-him-ok-are-you-ready-no-I-said-put-it-down-thank-you-OK-all-eyes-on-me-sitting-down-are-we-ready?" classroom. I put in my applications to-gulp-substitute for both Mountain View and Palo Alto, which feels like a bit of a jail sentence but I am getting desperate. I thought this whole career shift would take me out of the classroom and instead I find myself very firmly entrenched in the school system, and, unbelievably, grateful that it's even a possibility. Because even if I complain and have a bad attitude (your thoughts I am just pre-emptively admitting to them) I can't do better schedule or pay-wise than subbing. So there I go.

In the meantime (I have only submitted my applications-apparently 4 years as a full-time professional teacher does not exclude me from filling in questions such as "What are the three most important rules in a classroom?" 1. Don't bug the teacher when she's on the phone 2. Keep your head down during all 45 minutes of "quiet time" 3. You can have all the free time you want, we'll just call it Silent Reading! -Oh I kid, I would never encourage reading if there's a TV in the room- I also have to attend Orientation Day and the HR woman makes mandatory calls to my references...) Hey, truthfully, I will be a great sub, have all sorts of contingency plans for when the teacher leaves a note like "Hey my kids are crazy and I didn't have time to make copies. Good Luck!" Smiley face drawn at the end. I just really didn't want to have to use them again.

At least I know I will be better than the title character in the movie I saw yesterday, Half Nelson http://www.halfnelsonthefilm.com/, a "base-head," crack-smoking, cocaine-sniffing history teacher who shuns the curriculum and insists on teaching his own theory of dialectics, all the while hung over and waiting for the day to end so that he can score his next fix. The movie was slow, with a plethora of "glamor shots" of the lead actor over the 2-hour running time, and the subject matter was intense, but as Mom said "Wow that guy-what was he in again? He did an excellent job in that role, don't you think? What was he in again?" "The Notebook" "Really? Nothing more recent than that? I'm sure he was in something else more recent. No? Well, anyway, he gave a really good performance, didn't you think. He was great in that role." (Picture me-nodding in agreement while rolling my eyes. This is my answer to Mom's mandatory post-screening critique that accompanies every viewing. I just like to watch the movie and speak as though the characters were real. Like with TV. I talk about Oprah like she's a friend of mine.)

And in the other parts of my day, what am I doing? I am keeping busy with a host of activities ranging from running in circles around my neighborhood, reading, watching movies and sleeping in. What adventure! I actually just finished a book yesterday that I will be reviewing with one of my two book clubs (I am a SUPER NERD!!!) called We Need To Talk About Kevin http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/2005prize/winner/index.html
The book focuses on a family wherein the successful mother, Eva, makes the decision to have a baby, then that boy grows up and at the age of 15 kills 11 people at his high school. The book is told through letters from Eva to her husband, and follows the history of the family up to the current day. I found it to be really interesting. You could read the book as a story about a successful woman forced to give up her career and the resentment she holds toward her son because of it, but it may be more about the idea that perhaps the boy was born bad. The questions about what led to the final act? The truth may be, there is no real answer. Why do people do these horrible things, when to you put the "signs" together, and what constitues a "sign" anyway? I recommend it and really look forward to discussing it at our next SF book club meeting. My PA book club is reading Florence of Arabia, http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812972269 which I also highly recommend, a comedy about US-Middle East relations. My next selection (personal, going to let someone else choose a book club book this month as my choices dominated the 2 clubs in September) is All The Names by Jose Saramago. Will let you know about that one when I am done.

Saw Hollywoodland last weekend, can't really recommend it, was kind of long and in the end a futile pursuit, as it merely lists the three possibilities about what may have happened to Superman without really taking a stand as to which they thought was the most likely of the three. I guess we're supposed to make up our own mind, and I would, if I cared, but I don't. So just tell me who did it. I guess there's my review. As for Ben Affleck as Oscar contender? Well, if that was one of the top performances of the year, we are in for some year. And Adrian Brody. I am sorry, but does anyone really see him as attractive? Or fantastic? I just don't get it. Maybe I am still trying to get over the Coke commercial.

Bug-O-Rama

This weekend was the annual Bug-O-Rama in Sacramento, California. People come from all over to drag race their bugs, show off the restoration they have done, compete and find treasures at the swap meet. It was pretty cool to see all these old cars, and I was tempted to buy one or two! Mike was there to race his bug. He did the quarter mile strip in around 15 seconds. Great for a first-time run!
At the starting line. A lot of cars revel in the pre-race burn-out.
Me and Trinette, Mike's girlfriend
Beth and Trinette relaxing at camp
Me and Levi

Dead By Sunset (Levi's Band)