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03/30/2008
Bring It On
So it's thirteen days until the day
There are times when I'm beside myself with excitement
Others when I'm scared
Still more when I'm content to think of it
But the fact remains
That within me there is a spirit of blind abandon
Outrageous happiness
Undefined calm
I was told the other day
That I look remarkably sane for being so close to it
For being within reach of you
Just a hair's breadth away
And that's all it is, really
I fully intend on making you mine
On letting you make me yours
In committing to you, my life, my love and my trust
The joy
The pain
The laughter
The morning squabbles about you leaving the spoons on the counter instead of in the sink
In learning patience with your driving
In learning to let go of control when it comes to tidying the kitchen
In being your first resort for comfort
In being your strongest pillar of support
And new senses have perked with interest
Coaxed out of slumber by the closeness of everything
The closeness of you
The very near closeness of you
My fingers leave trails of intense color on everything I touch
My thoughts are sunnier
My ambitions honed, sharpened to a fine edge
My circles defined and closed
So it is that I am awakening to the new
Awakening to creation
Soon to wake beside you
To face life and say
Bring it on
22:52 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
03/21/2008
Learning Curve
So I've been compiling a list of things that rock about working in a school as opposed to going to school.
1) You plan the fire drills yourself. You execute them yourself. You know exactly when they'll happen.
2) There's always something yummy for the staff to eat that's off limits for the students.
3) There's always some joke about the students. Most recently, it was a teacher who was alone in their classroom (a rare occurence here since our site has a teacher:student ratio of 1:2), who came upstairs, was asked who was watching the kids in their classroom, to which they replied 'I like to play Lord of the Flies with my class sometimes.'
4) Friends. At least here, I'm starting to feel like I work not only with people that are my colleagues, but people that are becoming my friends.
5) After hours shin-digs. Seriously. When it's someone's birthday, we go out. When it's a Friday, we go out. The people I work with are serious, but enjoy having fun outside the work place with each other. There's something very satisfying about seeing colleagues enjoying the company of one another outside the workplace.
6) No homework. 'Nuff said.
7) Getting paid to come to school (aka work).
8) Understanding the innerworkings of how a school is run. That's something that's very satisfying to me. I like knowing how things work.
9) Knowing that what I do is integral to the sustainability of this school. It beats sitting in AP English wondering how the Herman Melville will ever effect your life. Here, the question of 'why' is answered in full.
10) Heirarchy. I know it sounds negative. After all, we all know what happened to the aristocracy when the surfs up and rebelled. Still, here it gives you a sense of placement. Each person is assigned to a task and they do it. They don't presume to take on the duties of someone else unless it's absolutely called for. Or asked for.
11) Did I mention no homework?
12) People care here about one another. I find people will come to me and talk to me about their lives. They ask me about mine.
13) Fridays. They're good days at school, whether you work at one or go to one.
14) Breaks. Next week is spring break and although I have to work, I'll be working short days and it'll be really quiet.
15) Hearing the older guys coach the younger ones in the fine art of basketball. My high school was notorious for just pointing out the faults of athletes. It's nice to hear encouragement amongst the students.
16) Having answers. I find that I usually have answers for questions that the staff brings into the office.
17) Staff meetings. Once a month or so Gus will call a staff meeting where all the teachers and the few administrative staff we have cram into the office and have time to talk.
My job, primarily, for this is to go shopping at Trader Joe's for snacky foods. I bring back the spoils of my war waged against the crowded aisles of the market and set them out along the counter.
I then get to do one of my favorite parts of my job. I wander back to my desk, sit down with a glass of Dixie Peach juice and watch while Gus heads up the meeting. I love this part of my job because it reminds me so much of a summer camp counselor meeting. Gus is the head counselor and the rest of us are regular counselors. He tells us things we need to know and then we all get a turn to report what's happening in the various realms we work in.
This is especially great because it keeps us all on the same page. We all know what's going on in each classroom. We learn about new kids and their quirks. We find out if some among us need help and we collectively solve problems. The minds here are phenomenal. The hearts are even better.
18) I have unfetted access to the staff white board. It's a dry erase board where important notices get written. Upcoming IEPs, birthdays, warnings about state mandated minion visits, etc. I get to write on it at my leisure. I wrote something there this morning. It was about upcoming orders going in the week after next.
19) Uber cool refrigerator magnets on the staff fridge.
20) Local favorites. I have slowly found out the guarded secrets of the CLC staff and where they go for a food fix when they need to. There's a corner store a couple blocks away that makes a nice turkey sandwich. Alternatively there's a Greek market a few blocks down as well that makes a mean falafel sandwich and a kick ass Mediterranean plate complete with dolmas and tabouleh. Oh man. It's seriously good eats.
21) Knowing that I do little things that make the school day easier. I restock the cutlery in the office, make coffee in the mornings, always make sure there's paper in the copier. I sometimes wonder what will happen when I go away on honeymoon. All the things that I do, that just naturally seems to get done, won't get done. Still, I work with talented people. They'll be able to cope.
22) Autonomy. Being able to do what I need to without being micro-managed.
23) My own desk, organized to my own specifications. I don't have to share a desk with anyone like I did in high school.
24) Getting to come to work in casual clothing. Seriously, I think the corporate world would kill me. Somehow, although I know it's done, the picture of me, dressed in dreary colors, walking around the pot-hole marked streets of San Francisco in stiletto heels just doesn't do it for me.
As any of you know, I'm a girl that loves color. And I love Converse.
25) The level of dedication that the staff has to educating these kids. Sadly, most people (teachers among them) just do a job to do it in order to get that paycheck. They go to work, but they check out, so to speak. Sure there are days where you'd rather not be at work, but there still is an undeniable depth of dedication here that I've seen only two other places in my life.
I'm glad to say those two places are the school I worked at before I came here and my home.
26) Effortless communication. Yahoo messenger is set up as a network here at work for easy communication between my site and the site down the street. Dangerous, yes. Effective, definitely yes.
27) Quickbooks. I'd never used it before I worked here. It's a fabulous piece of software.
28) How funny the kids are. Even though they're special needs kids, they each have distinctive personalities.
29) The satisfaction of knowing that I work in a place that invests in the superiority of Mac products. There are two PCs on campus. Two. And sadly...very sadly...one of them is mine.
Hey, the joy of Quickbooks isn't Mac compatible.
30) Working close to home. It rocks my world. It means more sleep, less commuter insanity and more time getting to know the cool little places in the community.
31) Jason, in addition to being a Crisis Intevention Counselor, is also an avid singer. He comes in and out of the office singing from time to time and it makes me laugh. Most recently was 'I'm in the mood for love, simply because you're near me.'
32) Errands. It's a change of scenery and pace. And it's part of my job description.
Well, I'd love to go on, but alas, I need to run some stuff down to the other site and then I think I'll stop by the aforementioned Greek market for a falafel fix.
Later Days,Arty
11:25 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
03/12/2008
Subsist
Subsisting on a forgotten Snickers is not okay.
Subsisting on fresh crab sushi, however, is. It is very good indeed.
Later Days,
Arty
13:43 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
03/11/2008
One Week Solid
Hello! It's good to be back on the front lines of blogging. I've noticed a dispairing trend as of late and that is my friends seem to forget blogging. Seriously. Helen and DJ both haven't blogged in a while. Neither have Margo or Hobbs (although admittedly, they get some grace because they're dealing with stuff that I wholly sympathize with). Benny up and deleted his blog. What's that about?!
But anyway, here I am, just plugging along with the tradition I've kept going for quite a while now. I am pleased to know, however, that even though the vast majority of my loyal followers have stopped blogging, there are a few faithful ones that blog regularly.
That said, it should come as no surprise to you that Uncle Benny beat me to the blogging lines to say where it is I've been and what I've been doing lately. But just for the sake of argument, let's say you haven't read Tio's blog and let's start from scratch here.
Where have I been?
I've been in SoCal and I've been trying to re-align my mojo to work in my favor. The last couple blogs were dedicated to the inconceivability of my streak of odd luck when it came to patience. I'm happy to report that things haven't changed.
Friday, March 7th, 2008 - I get away from my train tracks and my bridges only to be stopped by a freight train in the central valley on my way to SoCal. Quite literally, the only thing I could do was sit in the back of the van we had rented and yell 'come on!'
I then had to explain to Doug why I was yelling in the midst of everyone else's laughter.
Saturday, March 8th, 2008 - I think my mojo was starting to get itself together because there were no bridges or trains that needed to be stopped for. There was just traffic. But it's Los Angeles. There's always traffic. Always.
Sunday, March 9th, 2008 - We have a glorious trip home. No traffic in the Los Angeles Basin (LA, for those of you who don't know, sits in the middle of a large crater called the 'basin' and it's this basin that's responsible for all the famed smog in the city of angels. No air flow comes in off the ocean, thus a thick, dense cloud of nastiness).
We get to the Altamont Pass (about 40 miles from home) and come to a dead halt. This wasn't just traffic. We were actually among the majority of motorists that just turned off our cars to sit and wait it out. The reason for this was a very bad accident. CHP (California Highway Patrol) had to shut 580 (that's the freeway that runs through the pass) down in both directions (east and west) to allow a rescue heliocopter to land on the freeway.
Once again, my mojo was working against me.
Monday, March 10th, 2008 - Mojo is back up and running and kicking some serious ass. *knocks on wood*
So that's the latest on the patience sprite.
My weekend is SoCal was fantastic! Naturally we stayed at Craig and Julia's place. They're super freaking awesome about that. They take care of us like no others I know! They're the best hosts ever. Ever.
We got to their place shortly after midnight on Friday night and quickly commenced with having a good time. A good time with Craig and Julia always...always...involved drinks. Craig made us a couple rounds of something called a margatini (and as the name suggests, it's a combination of a margarita and a martini), which is perhaps the most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth.
So a couple margatini's later I'm feeling super good. I'm so happy that everyone came (everyone being both my brothers, my uncles, Doug and Matt) and I'm laughing hysterically at the faces Uncle Benny is making after taking a couple shots of tequila.
Apart from the two margatini's a piece, some other people did a couple shots of tequila, a shot or two of SoCo and some other stuff. The 'other stuff' is kind of a blur to me now.
Doug also had enough in his system to actually forget my name. He and I were sitting on one side of Craig and Julia's kitchen bar when he looked at me because he wanted to ask me something. And then there was this moment where you could actually see one side of his brain look at the other and whisper 'it's dark in here.' I looked back at him and asked if he had forgotten my name, to which is started laughing hysterically and answered yes.
So that, of course, made everyone else laugh and that was just about halfway through our merriment.
The second half of the evening consisted of watching a movie on Craig's big, bad-ass projection screen. Craig works in the film industry, so I'd expect no less of him really.
Finally, at 4am I parted company with my boys (I was the only girl that travelled with the group and Julia had already gone to bed) and went the Purple Room, which is where I sleep when I go to stay with Craig and Julie (heretoafter referred to as CJ because typing their names gets tedious). I'll take guesses as to why it's called the Purple Room.
I awoke the next morning around 9ish and took a long shower. I was pleased to find out that no one was suffering any hangovers. A shower later, I was dressed in a skirt, stockings and high heels to go to the theatre.
But first, breakfast.
We stopped at a local dive (or if you prefer a 'greasy spoon') for a delicious breakfast. After ordering I was tired of my stockings, so I went with Matt back to the van and used it as a dressing room while he stood guard outside. All I have to say is thank goodness for my forethought in taking some extra clothes along and thank God for tinted windows. I was so over those stockings.
Next in the plan was Hollywood, that cesspit of all things nasty. It never ceases to amaze me that so much 'glamour' is produced there yet it's one of the nastiest places you'll ever have the misfortune of wanting to go to.
So if I dislike Hollywood so much, why bother going?
Well, the Pantages is there. It's a theatre. A rather kick-ass-awesome-cool-beautiful art deco theatre. We all went to see Wicked there. And for those of you who have missed any kind of headlines concerning it, Wicked is a musical based on a book of the same name that's all about the life of the wicked witch of the west from The Wizard of Oz, only it's about her life before Dorothy came along.
Oh baby!!
I think it's one of the best shows I've ever seen. The top five shows that I love are:
- The Phantom of the Opera
- The Lion King
- Mary Poppins (which I saw on the West End)
- Wicked
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
Wicked is, by far, one of my top three. If you're near a theatre that's showing it, go buy tickets now. NOW! It's not to be missed!
Okay, so moving right along, after the show, the plan was to head on over to Malibu. Because really, why the heck not when you're in SoCal?
The only problem with said plan was that we missed the sunset. And that's one of the real reasons to see Malibu. The sunsets there are indescribably beautiful. So instead of heading over to Malibu, we headed right on over to the local Vons (market) and got us some eats. We then went back to the house and pretty much stayed in. We drank some more, cooked and then watched 3:10 to Yuma. It's a surprisingly good film. We all liked it.
Midnight was when I withdrew to the Purple Room.
Sunday we all got up, showered and went to church with CJ. We then parted our ways and started the trek back north after stopping in Santa Clarita for some lunch. Jeff wasn't feeling well (combination between too much to drink and being exhasuted, I think) and tossed his cookies at a local Starbucks, for which I am pleased.
It took us all afternoon/evening to get home, but it was nice getting back. It always is.
And that, in a nutshell, was my weekend. Short, sweet and insanely fun. Although I didn't get much sleep, I needed this past weekend. I'll be seeing CJ again in a few weeks as they'll be coming up for the wedding. Hopefully then we can repay them for all their wonderful hospitality.
Until then, however, I've got a list of things to do.
- Wedding rings
- Dress alterations, which I'm going back for a 2nd one today after work
- Get Matt to choose his tuxedo
- Get a cake
But more pressing right now is this:
- Get something to eat.
Later DaysArty
11:53 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
03/07/2008
Inconceivability Revisted
Thursday, March 6th, 2008: Stopped on the way home from work by a bridge being raised. This really is just ridiculous now.
That is all.
Later Days,
Arty
10:48 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
03/06/2008
The Power of Twelve
Evening all. Well, dinner is in the oven, Matt's home and cleaning the bathroom (*rejoices on the inside*) and I'm listening to some jazz. Apart from a slight headache that's been like the plague to me all day, all is well with the world. I spent some time this evening chatting with Aimes (my nickname for a wonderfully dear friend) and she and I talked of life and spent the majority of our time pontificating...as we're prone to do.
One subject of conversation tonight was my borderline obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Aimes likened me to Monica from Friends because I'm competitive and like cooking/cleaning. I merely explained to her that sometimes cleaning in my mechanism for coping with anger. Seriously. I'm like Pacha's wife from The Emperors New Groove who gets upset with rudeness, is left speechless due to anger and then simply says, 'I gotta go wash something' before proceeding to the kitchen where all her frustrations are taken out on a sink full of dishes.
I also explained that cleaning as well as cooking (most of the time, anyway) re-aligns my chi. It's therapeutic. Okay? Okay.
So moving right along, there's been quite a rush of acitivity on my side of the pond, due to very obvious reasons. We've had to put the machine back onto the floor, which is really just a way of saying all of our waiting peoples (i.e. the photographer, the caterer, the florist, the bridesmaids, etc.) are now back in motion.
Now, you'll forgive me if it's taken me several days to write this blog. Really, I started this blog Tuesday night. It's now Thursday. Shameful, I know.
Anyway, yesterday Matt and I met with the photographer yesterday afternoon. We spent and hour and a half sussing out what we wanted and then the plan was to head over to Walnut Creek to look at wedding rings, but that plan failed miserably. And here's why.
Photographer man took far longer than even I expected. To be fair, though, it's not like Matt and I were chomping at the bit to get out of there. We quite enjoyed talking to photographer man. Tiffany & Co. was going to be our next port of call.
The reason for this is that Matt and I spent a great deal of time Saturday afternoon looking at wedding rings from different places online. Just to get an idea of what was out there and to narrow where it is we'd be going to look closer at these things.
Personally, I'm pretty simple to please when it comes to wedding rings. I'm not the kind of girl that goes for this:
http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?sku=GRP00081&am...
Or this:
http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?sku=GRP00320&am...
I'm looking for something very simple, perhaps with a bit extra bling, but certainly nothing that is gawdy or awful like the above links. If you happen to like either of the aforementioned links, my apologies to you for having horrible taste. Come back and read my blog when you've learned the difference between beautiful and God-awful jewelry.
I prefer something much more along these lines:
http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?sku=GRP00363&am...
So all that is to say that because of photography man, we couldn't go look at nice things under glass. But that's okay! We got to come home and meet with Marco instead!
For those of you who don't know, Marco is the pastor who's marrying us. He's awesome. He grew up in Texas and until he came to my church he had never been in an English-speaking congregation before. That's really my way of saying he's got some of that Latin charisma when it comes to preaching. And that's a good thing. A very good thing.
Anyway, we met for a marriage counseling session and went over a survey that we took, which actually made for some great entertainment. Marco was laughing at us. And we were laughing at ourselves. It was great.
And so concluded our evening. I pretty much went home and crashed out because I'm exhausted. I didn't sleep well while Matt was in England taking care of visa business. I'd sleep, but never well. Now that he's home, I think it's all catching up with me. That and it's insane how much stuff is happening pertaining to the wedding.
His visa is a beautiful piece of paper. It's what we've been waiting for, but I can't help but think at times that it's kind of silly, all this waiting, working and separation for such a tiny piece of paper. All the anxiety and tears shed over something that the mere kiss of a flame could destroy. Still, I only think that fleetingly. The majority of my time is spent thinking, 'but it doesn't matter now because now he's here and he never has to go back without me.' Even now it still tears me up to think of that.
In other news, I'm beginning to think that I've been cursed by some strange little sprite that revels in my lack of patience. Said sprite seems to be bound and determined to teach me a lesson in patience even if it makes me crazy. Why do I say this? Well, for the answer, let's review the last week in my life of driving.
Friday, February 29th, 2008: Matt's coming home!! Woo!! I work a half day at work and then joyfully take the afternoon off to go collect the love of my life. BART runs to San Francisco International, so I was heading to a BART station not too far from where I work in order to catch a train to the airport. In order to get to said BART station, though, I must first cross over a bridge (where I work is on an island) and some train tracks (not BART tracks, but the real diesel powered monsters that I love so much).
Well, as I approach the train tracks, I see a train just stopped on the tracks. Stopped on the tracks. Stopped! Not moving at all!
I figured it'd be along shortly since it's not uncommon at all for trains to momentarily stop at this crossing. It's happened a few times before and they're always on their merry ozone-depleting way within the span of five minutes. Not today, however. Oh no. The train is stopped when I get there and continues to be stopped for half an hour. Half an hour of my life when all I want to do is get to the airport and throw my arms around Matt.
I got to the airport in time not to miss him. I got to greet him without having to make him wait for me, which is great!
Saturday, March 1st, 2008: I awake early. Despite the fact that I have the opportunity to sleep in, I can't fall back asleep. It sucks.
So instead, I get up, get dressed and head to the market where, at 7am, I'm the only one shopping. It was fantastic, actually. No one was there to contend with and I got the doting attention of every single worker at the market. Even the guys who were stocking the bread aisle with the beautiful yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread took time away from their toiling to say good morning to me and ask if I needed their help doing anything.
Feeling sufficiently wonderful after the glorious morning of shopping to restock the kitchen at the apartment, which shall henceforth be known as Chateau Poulet because I feel like calling it that today, I was on my merry way to the apartment.
But lo and behold, what was waiting for me on the very same train tracks that I had been forced to cross the day before? That's right! Another train! Just stopped. Stopped and not moving anywhere.
Luckily, because it was so early, hardly anyone else was on the road and I got to pull right up to the barriers that block car traffic from the tracks. With this position, I could see why the train was stopped. An engineer was a ways down the track, underneath one of the couplings with the biggest spanner I've ever seen. The guy had to carry it with both hands across his shoulders.
The sight of him and the presence of a very large black man that worked for AC Transit (bus systems locally), clued me in on what was happening. AC Transit man was on a large walkie talkie telling all his busses that there was a train stopped on the tracks, a big problem for something like AC Transit that runs to keep a schedule. AC Transit man was also very jovial and walked down the tracks to speak with engineer man about what was going on. Engineer man must have been finishing off his work because he began walking back not only with the giant spanner, but a giant hose in hand as well.
Shortly after he passed me in my car (turned off to spare the ozone all the toxins that engineer man was spewing), the train began to move and I was on my merry way.
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008: I've successfully gotten to the apartment without incident to get Matt and go to church. On the way to church, however, I am once again stopped by a train crossing the tracks. Unbelievable.
Monday, March 3rd, 2008: I decide to avoid the train tracks all together and outsmart the sprite by taking a route that involves me going under the tracks. I'm so clever, I know!
I make it to the bridge and am stopped dead in my tracks because the bridge is raising to let a tall tug through that's pushing a crane. Again, unbelievable.
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008: Stopped by train. We've moved from unbelievable to inconceivable.
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008: Stopped by train while running errands. Inconceivability remains.
Thursday, March 6th, 2008: I have yet to be stopped by a train or a bridge, but it's early in the day still and with the history of inconceivability and unbelievability, I'm not holding my breath for the trend to change. We'll see. I'll update you if this string of insanity continues.
And I suppose what's next on the agenda is to explain my blog title to you. The power of twelve.
I've had a lot of time to think the last month. In the process of doing so, I came to a realization. I had Matt's passport with me and i was flipping through it, looking at all the stamps from all the places he's been. I came across his first stamp when he entered SFO the very first time we met.
We first met on December 12th, 2003.
Exactly six months later, he asked me to be his wife. I accepted.
We got engaged on June 12th, 2004.
Some other interesting facts about twelves in our life:
June 12th - the day my maternal great-grandparents got married. I know, it's a fairly obscure fact to know, but I strongly believe in knowing who you came from. Shameful, embarrassing or not, it's your ancestry and it's yours no matter what.
June 12th - Fiona's (Matt's mother) birthday.
March 12th, 2008 - Next week. It's the marker for being exactly one month before I get married.
Twelve is divisible by one, two, three, four and six.
It's the square root of 144.
It's the number of months in a year.
It's the number of hours on the face of a clock.
It's the number of tribes of Israel that were promised to Moses.
Twelve is the number of disciples Jesus had.
There are twelve inches in a foot.
Twelve eggs, bagels, doughnuts or any other thing sold in a dozen.
Twelve zodiac signs.
Jacob had twelve sons.
It's the number of the Seven Seas added to the Five Oceans of the World.
April 12th, 2008 is the day I'm going to say 'I do' and start this part of my life with someone's hand to hold.
So really, all other things aside, that is the power of twelve.
Later Days
Arty
11:40 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this