Ida

New Orleans, LA

I'm home again. Two days early.

Too tired to explain why.

Time Changes

One of the things I loved about living in Japan was that there was no daylight savings time. The time didn't change twice a year and people stayed pretty even-keeled. There's been a lot of grumpy crazy this week and I blame the screwiness on messing with people's internal clocks.

Testing

Can I post from my phone? If you see this, the answer is yes.

Queen Bee

New Orleans, LA

I'm taking a new tea with me, into the woods.

"Cycles are, by nature, predictable. Most have familiar beginnings, behaviors, and endings which allow us to prepare for, adjust to–and (in the best case scenario) even embrace them...

Queen Bee Balance is deliciously harmonious. It has an uplifting-yet-soothing flavor that helps make adjusting to difficult cycles easier, and the inclination to embrace them a little more likely."

I Heart Visiting

New Orleans, LA

Going to New York for a week was just what the doctor ordered. Last night I was having dinner with my old co-workers from the park. One of them asked, have you been enjoying being back in New York?

"It's been fantastic!"

Does it make you think about possibly moving back?

"Absolutely not."

I love visiting New York. (I should get that made into a t-shirt.)

Visiting means not having to worry about laundry. There's no apartment to clean. There are no work deadlines to meet. No school work to submit to professors. Friends try hard to get together to catch up face to face, even if it's only for 20 minutes over a cup of tea. There's time to wander the museums. It's ok to gorge on sugar because of all the walking and endless stairs. Two dinners, back-to-back in one night, are perfectly acceptable. The one week unlimited ride Metrocard is worth its weight in gold.

There's enough time to visit old haunts and see a new place or two. There are several favorite places not visited, beckoning for a return inspection. Favorite people not seen, needing to be returned to before too much more time passes.

When I lived in the city, somehow there was never time for all these things.

Packing It ALL In

Brooklyn, NY

I'm ready to fly home tomorrow and sleep.

The Feet Are A-Hurtin'

New York, NY

I've walked my way around three boroughs in the past 5 days. In relatively new shoes. New shoes that I bought specially for the woods because they are waterproof. I need shoes I can use to stand in puddles for 10 hours at a time. (The last shoes failed that test).

The blisters started yesterday. Today I noticed the gaping hole that had formed where two seams meet in the shoe. Nice. My brand new specially ordered expensive shoe.

It's been wonderful to get to spend this week in New York as a visitor. I much prefer it to living here. There are no projects to do around an apartment. Laundry is something to do when I get home. I'm not cleaning a bathroom or trying to finish something on deadline.

There's been a lot of eating. And friend visiting. One night I ate two dinners because it made it possible to see two groups of people. There are a lot of friends I'm not getting to see at all so that means another trip will have to be in the works for either the spring or early summer.

NaBloPoMo

Brooklyn, NY

Good lord, has another whole year passed already?

It's become a masochistic ritual to try to post ot the blog everyday in November. I succeeded for the first two years and failed the third. Giving it another go this year.

The November's full of posts become a snapshot of what life is like this time each year. The theme that last couple of years was BUSY BUSY BUSY. I'm not sure what the theme will be this time around.

Curb Alert Alert

New Orleans

I haven't been feeling like much of a communicator these past 1...2...3, um three months. Settling in and figuring out what I'm realistically doing with my life has taken a while. Everything's still in flux although I do finally have a job (or two) and it looks like next week I will have a car (red).

There are several things I was supposed to be doing today instead of watching episodes of The Office on Netflix or perusing Craigslist ads. But sometimes there is treasure on Craigslist and this one was too beautiful not to share:


Old person junk - Curb Alert (LGD)

Old people junk being thrown out in front of a house that was just sold...everything was hiding in boxes that the buyers/spawn of the sellers threw to the curb along with their packing garbage. I surfed all the rad stuff out for all interested parties to scavenge:

crutches
walker
7 or so christmas-y tins
a few random greeting cards that say "god" on them
an empty vodka bottle shaped like a trumpet
a little basket
a plastic outdoor collapsible table/plant stand?
two straw brooms
spices (slightly used)
crackers!
bag of white mardi gras beads
most of a bag of blue aquarium pebbles
an ancient air purifier
an iron/steamer...I think
a cordless plate warmer and two miss-matched plates
'world's best grandpa' cap (give it to your grandpa)
two collapsible Lillian Vernon cheapy storage containers that probably once contained hair rollers or something
a nice metal 12" ruler

Stuff I already rewarded myself with for doing all the picking:

the chimney to an old oil lamp
a pie pan
some red wooden beads
a few glass pushpins
burlap
a crafty little bird made from wood and stuff
two tiny mason jars
two packages of Top Ramen oriental flavor
box of peppermint candy
teeny jars of jams/pumpkin butter
chocolate confectioner's sugar
a broken rattan waste basket
a green reusable shopping bag
a big silvery bubblewrappy bag thing to be made into an as-of-yet unknown Halloween costume

1300 or 1400 block of Magazine Street (btw Melpomene and Terpsichore) river side

Twit

New Orleans, LA

I've had a few short things to say... but, due to technical problems have not been able to tweet for about 3 days now.

Tonight's fortune cookie: "We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems."

Which makes me think either a job or a massive road trip are in my near future.

Settling In

New Orleans, LA

I hadn't realized it had been a month and a half since I posted anything. Output of any kind longer than the 140 characters of a Twitter post has been almost non-existent these past few weeks.

It feels like reverse culture shock. When coming back from living in other countries it's taken me six months to settle in to New Orleans again and become a productive, social being. I think this time around it is going to be a six to eight week process.

I've been spending a lot of time outside working on the landscaping at my parents' house and helping get the garage finished so the storage pod on the front lawn can finally disappear.

Things are good. Mellow. Taking a break from everything after two and a half years of non-stop go.

I'm job hunting, waiting to hear about a couple of applications submitted last week. Watching Mississippi kites fly from tree to tree. Helping our elderly dog get outside as often as she wants. Trying to get excess belongings packed up and put away until I get a place of my own.

How can it be 2 AM right now?

Brooklyn, NY

Two weeks left of living in New York. I've got a list of things I've been wanting to do for years and I'm trying to squeeze everything into the next 13 days.

Today I visited the Morgan Library, saw the "Felt" exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, rode the tram across the East River to Roosevelt Island and back, got some things I needed (and some pretty things I didn't) from the wholesale bead shops in 6th Ave., picked up some Japanese pottery I'd had my eye on in Chinatown, and went to see the movie Moon.

Tomorrow's plan includes two museums, a synagogue, hot chocolate, and a newborn baby.

I know I'm supposed to report on the playground that was built on Saturday. That's in the list of things to do once my furniture get taken away sometime at the beginning of next week. The build was amazing and I've got a lot of before and after pictures. Thank you to everyone who helped in person and to everyone who was there in spirit.

Floating

Brooklyn, NY

I feel like I've birthed a curriculum baby.

It was delivered on April 29th at 7:05 pm. Height, 1 1/2 inches. Length, 233 pages.


I didn't know I had it in me to write something that long. There was no requirement for it to be so extensive. Some people turn in papers 25 pages long, and that's perfectly fine. For my project, I wanted to present the entire curriculum for a year-long program and that dictated the length.

Plus, I'm long-winded.

Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life and I found out what it is I would do if I could do absolutely anything I wanted:

1. Catch up on missed 30 Rock episodes
2. Walk around the garden for a few hours, visiting favorite trees and flowers
3. Eat an everything bagel at Bergen Bagels
4. Wander around Target
5. Go to Trader Joe's to stock up on cheese and purchase various items I've never tried before
6. Make plans with friends in the city I've not seen or talked to for months
7. Get a full-night's sleep

Today, I'm going to water my plants.

It's all good.

Unwinding

Grenada, Spain

I have seen almost every square inch of the Alhambra that is open to the general public. Of the past 24 hours, I have spent about 10 of them wandering the grounds. In the dark. During mid-day. At twilight.

My body is aching from the walking and the looking. So, I´m signed up to go to a hotspring outside of town that´s on offer as the excursion of the evening. There´s a woman in the bunk below me who is also going. We´re glad of the company because both of us had the same thought that we might get dumped in the woods. Don´t know why that is a universal reaction to being taken in a vehicle somewhere by a stranger, but there it is. Might explain my dislike of cabs.

Ahhhhh

Granada, Spain

It's been a very nice day and really I haven't done much of anything.

I got up while it was still dark to wander down to the Mezquita church in the center of Cordoba and take another walk around when it first opened. I was the only person on the street for a long time. It was eerie and beautiful.

When I needed to walk back to my hostal to pack up and get to the bus station, I couldn't find my street. It totally disappeared. I did go up the wrong street which turned out to have an alley I'd been looking for the past two days. Turn around and there is the bell tower of the cathedral framed by buildings covered in flowers.

Again looking for the road back to the hostal, I ran into a dormitory bunkmate who also needed to go to the bus station and we found our way back to the hostal and then to the bus station. It was nice to have some company for a little while. I have only had fleeting conversations with people since Kim left. Most people I've encountered are traveling in groups and have not been up for socializing much with a solo traveler.

The bus ride from Cordoba to Granada was gorgeous, passing through olive grove after olive grove. There are snow capped mountains just outside of Granada, hovering over the cityscape.

I'm staying in a friendly place with lots of interesting people and seem to have sealed on person's decision to apply to Japan's JET Program. Now I'm going to go out in search of falafal, my favorite thing to do. Tonight the Alambra by dark. It's a good day. A nice way to be finishing up travel before heading back to New York in a couple of days.

The View from Over Here

Cordoba, Spain

I´ve been so busy these past several months that it often comes as a surprise to me that Obama is President and not just someone that I really, really want to be President.

When it hits me that it´s real and he is the President, my arms flap in an impromtu dance. I manage to forget and then remember several times a week.

It is interesting talking with people in Morocco, and in Spain about US politics. People are interested in how things are going with Obama. And they congratulate us on no longer having "a stupid person for a President."

The general hope seems to be for the new administration understand that what the US does affects nearly everyone else in the world, for good or for bad. People want the arrogance and disaffection for the concerns of the rest of the world of the last 8 years to be a thing of the past.

I just read in Obama´s op-ed to Latin America that he says the United States government wants to listen and learn as well as to lead when appropriate. Respect for others. That´s a good sign.

The Birthday Adventure

Seville, Spain

Last week Kim and I had an "adventure" on my birthday.

Dear M,
I am writing for Kim who made a reservation for tonight and tomorrow. The ferry to Tangier left hours late. We are on a bus from Tangier to Meknes. We left Tangier at 18:00. I have a mobile phone that sends email but cannot call. We think we will arrive at the bus station around 23:00. If someone from the Riad can meet us that would be great. I will try to access email again when we are closer to see if you have sent a response. In any case, please hold on to our room. We are coming. Thank you!
~ Jennifer

Dear Kim and Jennifer,
We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by the ferry. Please could you tell me which bus station are you arriving at? Is the bus company a CTM or another one?Let me know as soon as possible to facilitate the pick up.
~M

Dear M,
Hello! The name of the bus company on our ticket is Nejme Chamal. If we stop somewhere we will ask the driver or ticket taker the name of the station the bus is going to. Thank you for your quick reply. You made our day!
~Jennifer and Kim

Dear Jennifer and Kim,
I think that the bus station is Sidi Said. When you get the name of the station give it to me and tell me when the bus arrives.
~M

Dear M,
We have been told the name of the place where the bus will stop is Hamriya. The time it is expected to arrive is 10:30. If you need more information we will ask more questions.
~Jennifer

Dear Jennifer and Kim,
Hamriya is the new city part of Meknes; it is quite big. Try to get the exact name of the place where the bus stops and i will be waiting for you there. Could you give me your phone number.
~M

Dear M,
We can't find out more specific information. I'm sorry. There was a big fight happening outside the bus. The police came and now we are moving again. Is it possible to take a taxi to your hotel? If not maybe we should take a taxi to the train station and meet you there. Because of the fight the bus will probably not arrive before 23 or 23:30. My phone number is +1 504... We are so sorry that this has become so difficult.
~Jennifer

Dear Jennifer and Kim,
Your trip seems to start in a very exotic way. When you arrive to Meknes take a taxi and tell the driver to drop you at Bab Mansour; that is the biggest touristic attraction in the medina and that is the place where we can't miss each other.It is just five minutes walk from the riad As soon as you arrive to Meknes send me an email ; a member of the riad staff will be waiting for you there.
~M


Dear M,
That sounds like a wonderful plan. We will email you when the bus arrives. Hopefully we will have no more exotic stories to tell.
~Jennifer and Kim


Dear Jennifer and Kim,
Fine. Have a safe trip.
~M

This is the point in which the woman sitting in the middle of the aisle (next to me) begins to vomit. Copiously. The bus pulls over by the side of the road at a restaurant and the ticket taker procedes to flood the bus with several buckets of water.

About half an hour later we get told by some passengers that we´re in Meknes. The bus pulls over at the side of the road on the outskirts of town. The driver gets off and helps explain to a taxi driver where we want to go in the city. The taxi gets to the city center faster than my thumb can text a message to M. With creative gesturing, we beg the non-English/French/Spanish speaking taxi driver to let us wait in the taxi with the meter running until someone can come find us.

Dear M,
We are at the Bab. We are waiting with the taxi until someone can come.
~Jennifer and Kim

Dear Jennifer and Kim,
He is coming right now; three minutes.
~M

Dear M,
Great! We are in a taxi next to the open plaza.
~Jennifer and Kim


Dear Jennifer and Kim,
TWO MEN WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY; CONFIRM WHEN YOU MEET THEM;GOOD NIGHT AND SEE YOU TOMORROW.
~M

Omar and Abdul found us. I don´t know if I´ve ever been so happy to see two men in my whole life. They took us to the guest house which could have been mistaken for a palace. It was gorgeous. There was even a midnight feast waiting. It was a fairy tale ending to an unexpectedly dramatic day.

Glorious Geometry

Seville, Spain

Today I was in geometry heaven. Tiles tiles and more tiles, tesselating in the way that circles, squares, and hexagons do.

The Alcázar in Seville was decorated by the same craftspeople who worked on the Alhambra so it´s good. Very good. I took a ridiculous number of photos. Photos which I hope to get on-line sooner than the photos from last summer´s trip to Ireland and England.

No. You haven´t seen those photos.

This evening I went on-line and reserved tickets to get into the Alhambra in Grenada this weekend. There are 6000 tickets available a day, some sold in advance, and to get a ticket the day of, people tend to get in line at 6am. I´m not doing that. I could, but thanks to internet magic, it´s unnecessary. Saturday night I´ll be there under moonlight as the ticket lets me in at 10pm. Sunday, I´m going back for some daylight viewing. More tiles. More geometry.

Today I was reading up on how to use the radius of a circle to create a hexagon for repeating tile patterns. Sexy stuff.

I wish I had a drafting compass.

From Morocco

Fez, Morocco

It took us about 16 hours to get from where we were in Spain to where we were going in Morocco when it should have taken about 7. We are on a day trip to Fez and late for getting lost in the Medina.

Holy Monday

Malaga, Spain

Ohhh, it been a long journey to get here.

But IT´S SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD TO BE HERE.

I love Spain. I love Europe. I´m hoping to love Morocco too.

I´m with my friend Kim and we are not tired but we have to wake up in a couple of hours to get on the road to take a bus to the ferry to Morocco.

We spent the evening in one of Malaga´s central plazas, eating roasted eggplant and drinking several glasses of delicious 2 Euro wine. And eating chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce with chocolate chips and chocolate ice cream.

What thesis?

It´s Holy Monday so in the plaza around midnight, the purple people showed up. With candles. And hoods. They carried a ¨trono¨float with Jesus on it. In the distance we saw another trono that looked like a giant wedding cake with candles on it. We think it was Mary. There was a kind of showdown between the two tronos when they reached an intersection of two streets at the same time. Lots of heaving and hefting. I thought one trono was going to ram the other. There was no jousting, but Jesus definitely won.

Every day different tronos get carried around the city while dirges play. We´re tempted to stick around... But there´s a Sufi music festival in Fez and that´s an even greater pull. It´s impossible to pass up whirling dervishes. And I want to ride a camel.

Heading off...

Brooklyn, NY

I'm about to walk to the subway to take three trains to the airport. Then I'll take three planes (London-Madrid-Malaga) to catch a bus to a ferry to cross over to the continent of Africa and once in Morocco, catch a train to go to the city of Meknes.

Morocco-bound

Brooklyn, NY

This time next week I'm going to be sitting in the airport, waiting to take a plane for the first leg of a journey full of planes, buses, and ferries to Northern Africa.

I'm ready to GO! Except for the unfinished thesis. That might be a problem.

This is not photoshopped...

Brooklyn, NY



DOOCE!

I was thinking about it and I don't know that there are any well-known people I've ever asked to have a photo with. Heather B. Armstrong may be the first.

Somewhere there may exist a picture of me and friends with the Gypsy Kings at breakfast one crazy weekend in Japan. But if there is, I never got a copy.

Heather's brand new book, It Sucked and Then I Cried, had me laughing out-loud before her book reading even started. Wish I could be finishing the book right now instead of writing an age study about 6th graders.

A Public Service Annoucement

Brooklyn, NY

Very exciting!! Pass the news along to any New Orleans public school teachers you know.

Or, check out the projects and find something to fund. Your money will go twice as far!

DonorsChoose currently has a Double Your Impact grant for proposals from teachers at New Orleans public elementary schools (K-8). This means that if your project costs $300, when someone donates $150, the project is completely funded because of the matching grant. Five proposals have already been funded through the DYI grant.

High school DonorsChoose projects may be eligible for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation DYI, if the resources you request will help prepare your students for college.

According to the DonorsChoose web site, 80% of all projects under $400 have been funded. Since 2000, donors have contributed over $30,000,000.

The Internet Hoohah - Gov. Jindal vs. Kenneth the NBC Page

Brooklyn, NY



Too funny.

Oy, Louisiana. Sometimes it's hard to love you.

Aha

Brooklyn, NY

Just figured out my hours for last week and it turns out I worked at least 60 hours between the part-time jobs. That doesn't include the work done for graduate school. Now I don't feel so bad about being so tired.

More Embarrassment

Brooklyn, NY

UGH!

Too busy working to sleep more than 5 hours tonight, but not too busy to share how once again the junior Senator from Louisiana is a continued embarrassment to my State. He needs to be voted out in 2010.

I'm serious. Let's organize.

"On Wednesday, February 4, during Senate consideration of the economic stimulus bill, Sen. David Vitter offered an amendment (S. Amdt. 179) that contained a provision barring funds from being used for zoos, aquariums, or a Mob Museum. ("None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, or Mob Museum.")

The Vitter amendment also called for the deletion of the proposed $55 million for the Historic Preservation Fund at the National Park Service, and investments in high-speed rail, hybrid vehicles, climate change research, and health information technology, among other provisions. Fortunately, this amendment was defeated by a 32-65 vote."

~ email from the American Association of Museums

Resolution

Brooklyn, NY

2009's New Year resolution is simple: to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

In the last 10 days, I've been successful at fulfilling that resolution only once.

When He's Not Calling Prostitutes

Brooklyn, NY

It felt good to write to the junior Senator from Louisiana and tell him how I really feel. He really is quite the embarrassment.

He has been know to be much more embarrassing. Looking forward to his next Senate campaign in 2010 if only because there are going to be some great bumper-stickers.

At Last

Brooklyn, NY

Today I screamed in joy.

What a change. WHAT A CHANGE!

Obama, you do our country proud.