Easter Hat Facade

I find it absurd that I needed to have my public school second graders work on making and decorating Easter hats all week to wear in the school Easter Hat Parade next week. It is absurd because there is not one Christian kid in my class (I know this because I have a list of all the kids' main important info, which includes it), and the vast majority of them are Muslim. It is also absurd because all the secular Easter-themed decor uses pictures and colors associated with spring. It is autumn in the southern hemisphere right now. I am forcing Muslim children to celebrate Christian spring as the weather gets colder. 

In reality, I am not forcing anyone to do anything. I just told them to think of it like wishing a Chinese friend "Happy Chinese New Year", even if you're not Chinese. Just make a bright colorful hat, and if you want to, put a bunny or a chick or eggs on it. After getting over the initial fear that they were committing blasphemy, they are now loving it.

One kid took shiny plastic ribbon and made curly tendrils that hang down just from the sides of his hat. A bunch of the others saw it and liked it, so they did the same thing. So now it looks kind of like they are little Hasidic Jews when they wear their hats, and they have no idea. Their mothers are going to come to the Easter parade in their hijabs and wonder what we are teaching them. 

Explaining these things to parents is above my pay grade. 

Missing Richard Simmons

This week I have been listening to the NPR podcast, "Missing Richard Simmons", and I am loving it. I blew through the first episodes and only have one more to go, and it's really rare that I'll get through that much of one podcast in one week. 

First off, I just want to give a little more praise to my beloved NPR, for continuing to produce thought-provoking content of substance. They ask questions and incite you to ask questions of what you have experienced, think, and believe. It can be a nice break from all the political and disaster coverage of late, and the idolization of famous people we see in the tabloids and magazines. NPR often follows lesser-known stories about lesser-thought-of people, or scientific, philosophical, or ethical issues. 

Since a lot of my thoughts are summed up in the link above, I won't repeat most of the same stuff. I just love that the podcast examines the idea of how people feel like they know a celebrity, and whether they really do or not. It explores how unique Richard was as an icon. Most people think of him as an eccentric, silly fitness fanatic, but he literally saved some of his fans' lives by giving them very personal hope and encouragement to get through tough times. One of the questions the host asks again and again is, "Did he owe these people anything?", or was it fine that he built up this need in people for him, and then disappeared? Was it his okay for him to do that? The podcast explores how much Richard gave of himself, and how he would literally cry at almost all of his classes because what he was doing was so important to him, and how he felt about himself and about helping people. So, in some ways it was a two way street; he really needed all the people to need him.

I think these questions that come up about Richard can also be asked about the everyday relationships we have non-famous people throughout our lives. My friend who recommended the podcast to me said that it in some ways sums up how she feels about being a teacher and I can definitely relate to that sometimes. I imagine it could be the same way for doctors as well, from what my friends in the medical profession have told me. When you do a job where you are needed so much and so intensely sometimes, at the end of the day sometimes you need to feel not needed and to just disappear for an hour and let your emotions return to baseline. It makes you think, "How well do I really know the people I think I know?", and the nature of your relationships that are based on needs (isn't that most relationships, whether one-sided or mutual?).

Kudos, NPR!  

Scavenger

I was teaching a second grade class yesterday when I was told that the school received word that the teacher I was covering for just had to have her appendix removed. In addition to this, she was going to be away for the last week of the term anyway, since she will be getting married. Imagine having your appendix out 2 1/2 weeks before you're supposed to get married! Anyway, due to her misfortune, it is my fortune to be placed on the same class for the next 2 1/2 weeks. I haven't had the same group of kids for such a stretch of time in about 3 years, so it might actually be nice to have some semblance of normalcy in my work for a little while.

Great Scott!

We recently watched Back to the Future at the outdoor cinema with a group of friends. Unbelievably to the rest of us, one of our friends had not see any of the movies in the trilogy before that, and he loved the first one. Friday, the same group of us re-watched the other two movies. 

I couldn't count how many times I've seen all three movies over the years. I can pretty much recite all the main lines, and I know a lot of strange behind-the-scenes facts about different characters and scenes. It was fun to watch them with a different group of friends who had varying depths of memory of the films - perhaps only one other knew them as well as I did. It was kind if painful to watch the part of the second movie where Marty is realizing the present has turned into a nightmare, in the same way that it's painful to read the news every day now. They movies still hold up as great a comedic, sci-fi cinematic experience. Even though more time travel movies have been made since, they are still quite unique as a set.

The other highlight of the weekend involved karaoke. Apparently at Ding Dong Dang, if you ask nicely, they will let you borrow tambourines and maracas. We already enjoyed karaoke, but having these simple instruments made it 100% more fun. One of my hands is even bruised from tambourining so awesomely.

I am not ready for another week to start. If only I had a time machine so I could go back to the beginning of the weekend and relive the good parts. 

#11 is Back!

I previously posted about my neighbor having a heart attack while I had some friends over. I slipped a note under his door and hadn't heard from him, so I was starting to assume the worst. Tonight, out of the blue, he knocked on my door and we had a short little talk. He said he'd just gotten back today after being gone two months. He had a big smile on his face, no doubt very grateful that he'll be able to sleep tonight in his own bed. 

Not a bad weekend.

The weather hasn't been that great for the last two weeks (wet on and off), but this weekend it has been beautiful. It was one of those rare weekends that we didn't have a lot going on, but yet we found plenty to do. We had a low key hangout with some friends Friday night, then we went to Bondi on Saturday morning for some beach frisbee, a swim, and lunch. As a side note, the waves were the roughest I've ever seen there. There was white water as far as the eye could see - surfers were only hanging out in one small section on side, when they normally spread out across the whole beach. That didn't stop people from hanging out on the sand, though, and swimming in the small designated area. I had every intention to go out Saturday night, but a headache got the better of me so I decided to relax while Michael went out with frisbee friends. Sunday we had brunch at a local cafe and in the afternoon Michael went to his frisbee practice. In between all that stuff, we caught up on some knitting projects, cooked some yummy stuff, and Facetimed with family. Not a bad weekend.

The Basin "Episode"

You can view the "episode" of our Survivor weekend here.

The Room

I almost forgot to write about our experience seeing The Room recently (not to be confused with Room)! It plays once a month at the Orpheum Theater, and is an interactive cult experience the same way as seeing Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater. It's laughably the worst movie I've ever seen; you're expected to throw plastic spoons and yell at the screen all night. There are so many instances of characters coming into a scene, saying a few random lines, and then leaving. As they walk out, everyone yells, "But you just got here!". There are also terribly written, whiny one-dimensional female characters. When one of them complains and says something like, "Nobody ever listens to me", everyone yells, "Because you're a woman!". My favorite inexplicable scene was when four men in tuxedos were throwing a football in an alley, and then the next scene was completely unrelated (you never find out why they were dressed up or what they did afterwards, it's just suddenly another normal day). 

Anyway, if you get the chance to go see it, I recommend going (and bringing extra plastic spoons). I also recommend sitting a few rows from the front, because then after you run out of spoons you can collect all the ones people have thrown from behind you, and then throw more.

International Womens' Day

A belated Happy International Womens' Day! 

Whether you can strike, can't, or don't want to, it is a day for women to come together to appreciate each other and be appreciated. 

Patience is a Virtue

When, substitute teaching there are lots of times where you have to come up with a solution instantaneously. It's part of the gig. 

One of my pet-peeves is schools that are disorganized, because the staff is really just making more work for themselves all the time. Every single day this week I have been in a different, but familiar school. Every one of those schools has been disorganized, even some ones that are normally on the ball. They tell me last minute or five minutes too late where I'm meant to go. Someone shows me the lesson, if there even is one, when I'm already standing in front of the children. I can handle this for a day here or there, but when it's every day, it's really annoying. It makes me look like I'm irresponsible or disorganized, when I'm the one who showed up on-time with everything I need, and then nobody was there to give me the minimal information I need to do my job properly. Or, I have the schedule and I'm ready to go to my next classroom, but then the person relieving me shows up 10 minutes late and then I look like it's my fault I'm running late when I get to the next room. I get asked to cover extra duties last minute because somebody else didn't do what they were supposed to.

I don't mind picking up the slack when it's my turn, but it's not my turn every time. I am out of patience for adults who don't have themselves organized this week.

Survivor: The Basin

This past weekend we went on a Survivor-themed camping trip with a group of friends at The Basin in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. You have to take a ferry from Palm Beach to get there, and there are swamp wallabies everywhere. There is also a beautiful shallow lagoon that has some stingrays meandering around in it. It was the perfect setting. The highlight of my weekend was poking my head out of the tent this morning to see Martin (who is ordinarily very quiet and introverted) chasing a little wallaby who was hopping away and weaving around tents with a full, unopened bag of Grain Waves chips in its mouth. Martin was ultimately successful at getting the bag back, but flustered that his morning reading time was disturbed by this guy and all the other wallabies and wild turkeys who were very curious about our stuff. I was laughing so hard at the cartoonish scene that I woke up Mike and couldn't even find the words to tell him what I was witnessing.

The actual Survivor events included a memory challenge, balance/endurance challenge, and 4 beach relay races. Our friend, Taffy, worked really hard making the teams, designing all the challenges, and planning the whole thing. Mike's team won and mine came in second (out of three), which I suppose is acceptable. It was a lot of fun, but now we are exhausted and having a quiet evening eating takeout ramen and petting the kitties.