The Oscars!

I love the academy awards and they were twice as fun this year since I've become as cynical as my friends...so we could mock them all together:)

I liked...
*The Will Ferrell, Jack Black, John D. Reilly trio about the downside of comedic acting. First, they can all sing pretty well, next "John C. Reilly- huh?," finally they made Ryan Gosling blush and that's cute.

*Helen Mirren's dress. I can only pray that I'll look like that when I'm in my 60's. My other choice for best-dressed was Abigail Breslin, because her dress was so age-appropriate.

*The bizarre dance troupe. For me, that never got old. It must have been so funny when they were practicing...there probably had to have been someone who could see them from a distance yelling how they needed to move while they hung on to each other!

*The acceptance speech for "West Bank Story." I saw the nominated short films with my friends, and while the beginning WAS pretty funny (with sterotypical Jewish and Muslim people snapping like in "West Side Story"), the rest was banal and obnoxious. But, the speech was so touching, even though it makes me jealous that the film was his senior thesis and he won an Oscar...talk about an auspicious start.

*Ellen's joke about boxed wine. Really, who hasn't drunk it and liked it, too?


I got mad when...
*Binka's Big Idea didn't win for best live action short. It was a sweet story about a girl who helps other girls who aren't allowed to go to school in Africa because of their parents' beliefs in gender roles.

*The Danish animated short film won. Honestly, I saw it and it was a simplistic story about a woman with incredibly long hair. The movie about the squirrel from "Ice Age" was so cute! But, my favorite was a movie that wasn't even nominated: it's called "One Rat Short" and it has the most beautiful and realistic animation that I've ever seen. It's kind of "Watership Down" meets "Lady and the Tramp" meets a movie about animal testing meets "2001: A Space Odyssey."

*Ellen vacuumed near people's thousand-dollar couture dresses. Maybe that's nothing to movie stars, but I would have kicked that vacuum away with my $500 stilettos.

*When the cameras cut to minority actors whenever there was mention of minorities in any way. Honestly, pointing it out misses the point.

This was the best Academy Awards I've seen in such a long time, though. Thoroughly enjoyable, fine holiday fun.

So, I'm currently in a financial crisis...my loans caught up with me :(

I finally did all the math and added up all of my monthly expenses and it turns out that I have $8 of spending money each day, not including gas money. $8! That's less than my lunch today. This is not good. At all. So I'm currently looking for a part-time job for weekends. I wish I had had some financial foresight in college.

Whenever I watch the news, I always wonder how Iraqi people really feel, not the muslim commentators who seem to speak for them here, or the opinions voiced in small snippets of civilian diatribe. It can't be all just blind hatred or desperate fear. Here, finally, is an online journal from an Iraqi living in Iraq:

http://gorillasguides.com/

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

And it breaks my heart.

My birthday is soon. It's time for bravery.

On CNN, the headline was "Ugly or Cute?"





























It's a duck with four legs and his name is Stumpy...obviously cute!

My FAVORITE song is finally on iTunes!

"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest.

I looked it up on google first, and here is a picture :)

I empathize whole-heartedly with this sentiment, which is making me very confused- at the moment- about my career:

"If you’ve found something you really like to do – say write beautiful sentences – not because of the possible benefits to the world of doing it, but because doing it brings you the satisfaction and sense of completeness nothing else can, then do it at the highest level of performance you are capable of, and leave the world and its problems to others. This is a lesson I have preached before in these columns when the subject was teaching, and it is a lesson that can be applied, I believe, to any project that offers as a prime reason for prosecuting it the pleasure, a wholly internal pleasure, of its own accomplishment. And if your project doesn’t offer that pleasure (perhaps among others) you might want to think again about your commitment to it."

-From "Why Do Writers Write?" by Stanley Fish, The New York Times, 2/11/07

What do you do when your devotion to a career that helps others changes from a passion to a sacrifice? What is noble then, and should it matter? Who am I letting down by not being happy as a teacher- me, the students, the dream of public education as the great equalizer, the women's rights movement that lets me choose to be a teacher without guilt (well, in a progressive- or maybe regressive?- sense)? I am more profoundly uncertain than I was as a freshman at Washington University. And then my dream was to be a fashion designer working for Prada in Milan.

When is giving up not actually the choice to stop trying, but a measure of rationality? I want to do something that helps others, of course...I can't imagine working as a toner purchaser, or a business person, without some element of human interaction, some sense that my dedication is not in isolation. But then again, the cynicism of staying in a career that is personally unfufilling is quite dangerous...I never want this feeling to rub off on my students. The only thing that is certain is that I need to resolve how I feel, because until then, I can't make any choices.

And, in the spirit of having some stability in my thoughts, here is something I'm certain of:

Maple sugar candy is absolutely delicious, and reminds me of complete childhood happiness!

ps- I am still doing my job everyday to the best of my ability and using my generous ECM funding to support student projects. For example, we are mailing a big box of supplies and kind letters to kids at a school in Louisiana this week...most of the supplies were bought with Episcobuxx! :)

A- Available or Single? Single.

B- Best Friend? I've never had a best friend, but I have the best group of friends.

C- Cake or Pie? Cake.

D- Drink of Choice? Caramel Apple Pie shake from the Tea Garden. It's a mixture of wintermellon, green apple, and spice chai.

E- Essential Item? Cell phone, my only phone now.

F- Favorite Color? Burgundy.

G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Sour patch gummy worms.

H- Hometown? Hanover, New Hampshire. No matter how long I'm away, that will always be my hometown.

I- Indulgence? Chipotle!

J- January or February? February. January is all post-Christmas blah.

K- Kids and names? I kind of want to adopt children from a different country. I definitely don't want a lot of kids, because I would completely stress out. My only name rules are not Dwayne or Kaydee.


L- Life is incomplete without...? My family.

M- Marriage Date? I have no idea.

N- Number of Siblings? 1... my hermancito.

O- Oranges or Apples? Clementines.

P- Phobias/Fears? Big bugs, like centipedes...so I've already lived that phobia, which was horrible. Otherwise, probably people I love dying. And regret, although I try not to have regrets.

Q- Favorite Quote? "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi

R- Reasons to smile? Fun with friends.

S- Season? Springtime, especially when the warm wind starts and it smells like grass and flowers outside.

T- Tag 3 people? I don't like anything that feels like a chain letter.

U- Unknown Fact About Me? I have genetically curved pinkies, which kept me from being a piano prodigy (according to my first teacher), but most people know that already.

V- Vegetable You Hate? Pickled beets make me sick.

W-Worst Habit? Needing to be in control all the time.

X- Xrays You've Had? I had a CAT scan to check for appendicitous.

Y- Your Favorite Foods? Hummus and toasted pita with greek pepperochinis, or creme bruleé.

Z- Zodiac? Pisces, and even though I don't believe in it, almost all of the traits are true about me.

Quickie update:

*I'm single again. Which gives me a better shot with Clive Owen, right? Yes!

*My dad lost his job at Pfizer, along with 2,200 other people. Which means these are the options for my family:
-Move to Minneapolis, so he can work at the "U of M."
-Stay in Ann Arbor, so he can work at THE U of M.
-My dad will move to Groton, CT and my mom will stay in Ann Arbor, and they will take turns flying back and forth each weekend. Added bonus: my dad will be near Mystic Seaport, the location of the infamous 5th grade overnight field trip, when we slept on hanging bunks in Joseph Conrad's ship...my elementary school was so progressive;)
-Move to Memphis, where my dad will work at St. Jude's Children's Hospital, helping to cure cancer. He likes this option best.

*Winter in Minnesota bites the big one. And it's super fun to try to get kids to learn when they haven't had recess for 4 days due to the freezing wind.

*I love the 7 Up series. It follows a group of British children every 7 years of their lives, looking for traits that they had as children that might predict who they'd become. How cute is a British boy saying, "I rather dislike the Beatles haircuts"?

*My birthday is a month from last Monday. I'm going to be 25. I officially need to get busy. My life needs a plan!

I love book questionnaires!

1. One book that changed your life:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. The main character is a girl who is quiet, independent, and bookish, yet succeeds just as much as anyone in her life and dreams. When I read it during high school, it finally clicked with me that your personality has almost nothing to do with the extent to which you'll be happy in life (which was a much needed lesson in the face of the superficiality of my high school!)

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher. This is such a soap-opera novel, but I love it because it's all in the UK, which is somewhat redeeming.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
Well, a book I could read over and over would be something by Shakespeare, but the book I would actually want if I was on a desert island, would be something about fire building, or scavenging for berries.

4. One book that made you laugh:
Any Place I Hang My Hat, by Susan Isaacs. This is the funniest book! It's about letting down your guard.

5. One book that made you cry:
I don't know, but I will cry if Harry Potter dies...that's a fact.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
A better sequal to Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea. It's sad that after all of the adventures, the rest of the books were like Little House on the Prairie.

7. One book that you wish you had never read:
A Goosebumps book I started in 5th grade. It described someone getting shot in the head, and I swear, it haunted me for years. I won't go near those in the library at school:)

8. One book you’re currently reading:
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. He may have not presented a lot of concrete plans for the future, but his morals and attitude could do so much for the country. And I much appreciated his chapter about improving education by peer-evaluation and competitive compensation!

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
hmm...does anyone have any recommendations?