heat wave

a few weekends back...
100 degree heat + baby girl = cranky!

prom

What did you do for your prom?








I didn't go to my junior prom (due to an untimely move down South), but did go to two senior proms, one with my oldest girlfriends and one with my high school beau. I remember surprisingly little about each prom, minus what I wore and how I did my hair. Prom is one of those ridiculous rites of passage that is such a big deal when it happens but in retrospect is completely absurd.

I have gone to the senior prom every year since I started teaching high school. I dress up, wear a bit more make-up than I'd wear to work, and go take photos of my students. To see the students all dressed up--our school is very much a jean, hoodie, tshirt, sneaker-type place--makes me well up with pride. And, surprisingly, they are so nice to each other for this one night. No girl fights, no gang crap, no nothing. The biggest debacle is usually the Hispanic kids wanting more Reggaeton music played and the Black kids wanting less Hispanic music played. But even that gets sorted out quickly with some good pop hits.

This year's killer song was by Soulja Boy. Even though it's popularity peaked last summer, the entire prom population screamed and raced onto the dance floor for it. While I had taught it to myself using Soulja Boy's youtube video, I refrained. After all, it was their prom. And, as much as I feel I can cut a rug in my bathroom, when you put me with a group of 18 year old students I am whiter than Santa's bare bum.

Here are my fave pictures from the prom. You can click here to see the whole album, replete with comments!

sex & the city & baby luca

mary, the aforementioned queen of all things video, made this hilarious entry on her vlog of seeing SATC with our downstairs and youngest neighbor, baby luca.

as mary points out, luca is especially insightful for an infant. his yawns, naps, and eyes speak volumes of the film.

i hope to go see it monday night with bethany. after i'll have to hash it out with luca.

this video made my groggy, head-cold, snot-filled day tolerable.

one year

last year on May 31st we lost our close friend and neighbor, eric dutt.

eric was one of the first people i met in nyc, though a mutual friend--virgil. we were all addicted to the xfiles and would host xfiles parties every week at alternating apartments. i got to know him and kat through their cooking and hosting, and this grew into me later moving in upstairs from them with my then boyfriend (now husband). we still live upstairs from kat and their son, luca.

it's hard to believe we have all lived an entire year without his silly pranks, his creative snacks, his infectious laugh, his rabid gardening, his warm and solid hugs, his bug collecting, and his light smile. i think of him everyday. i know a lot of his other friends do, too.

but when i'm not sad over losing such a wonderful person, i am encouraged to live my life like eric did. i can't think of a single bad thing to say about him, and i don't know a soul who had beef with him when he died. he lived and loved with such joy and effortlessness that even though he was only here for 34 years he left a legacy of family, friends, and students who are quite simply better people because of their relationship with eric. that is definitely something to aspire towards as we all wake, live, and repeat.

we miss you, eric. big time. i know of you're out there you are still reading blogs and on flickr! xxoo.

oprah parody

saturday night live did a great parody of the crazy oprah audience a while back.
it is virtually impossible to find a good copy on line to reproduce--SNL is strangely a bunch of heartless czars when it comes to sharing their material on the information superhighway.

one maverick blogger has caught a bad copy of it here. click for a good laugh. the humping, limb ripping, and spontaneous human combustion get me every time.

i heart america

you know, oprah kills me. i have had many a heated discussion about oprah--in doctorate level education classes, in teachers' lounges, with friends--everyone debating if oprah's acts are beneficial or superficial.

regardless of the oprah effect, people go bonkers over her, especially when she gives away free shit. for oprah to give away all this crap is the equivalent of me giving a street musician a dollar, but lord have mercy, her studio audience goes buck wild.

what could oprah do that would make me lose my shizz on national television and act a fool? hmmmmm.......

oprah, you could:
1. buy me a brownstone in brooklyn and let me renovate it with an endless budget
2. pay off our college loans and the loans of everyone who takes them out study education (because we'll never make enough to pay them off ourselves!)
3. fund my school, but let ME make all the spending decisions
4. buy out all SUV makers so that those asinine cars get abolished
5. totally fund a non-profit i'd love to start that sends inner-city high school students on international travel/work trips

oprah, i promise if you did the above (probably even ONE of the above), i'd cry, pee my pants, scream, and wriggle down the aisle to you like a snake to kiss your wrinkle-less face! i swear!

The Dream Act

Yesterday, as I was waiting for the bus with my in-laws, one of my old students emerged into the daylight from the large and dark Catholic church on 4th Avenue and Ninth Street. I run into my old students frequently, and my first questions is always " Are you in school?"(Yes, the broken record the teacher quality plagues me.)
As soon as those words escaped my mouth, this young woman's situation reemerged into my mind, and I thought, "Oh, shit...NOT the question to ask."

This student--we'll call her Lucia--is from Mexico. Her parents moved her here when she was a toddler. She was raised in Brooklyn, has the rough Brooklyn demeanor, speaks Spanish at home and accent-less English at school, was in all honors and gifted classes during her 12 years of public education, and is an astounding artist. BUT, Lucia is an undocumented immigrant. She cannot received Federal Financial Aid to go to college b/c she is not a citizen. Her family cannot afford to send her to school. Therefore, she is bussing tables at a busy restaurant in SoHo instead.

Lucia is one of the students who got me interested in one area of my doctorate research on what happens to undocumented immigrant students once they finish high school. To ask a student their immigrant status is an illegal act, but at the end of high school (when college looms heavy in everyone's minds and conversations) many students will begin to offer up the information to their teachers in order to ask for help. Lucia was one of those for me.

While many states have granted in-state tuition for undocumented students (NY is one of them), they are still unable to get the finanicial aid they need. There is legislature out there to legalize these students so that they can go to college and start careers here. It's called the dream act

Please familiarize yourself with this, and when it comes back into the political dialogue (both Barak and Hillary support it) voice your opinion that ALL students deserve the educational opportunity to attend college.

Gracias ;)