It's a Small World After All

Oh and after some research on last night's Oscars I have found two notable residents of Salinas, CA were involved in last night's ceremony. Dustin Lance Black and Vanessa Hudgens are both from Salinas. Small world yes I know.

The 81st Annual Academy Awards

Was so fabulous. It was a departure from the usual which I thought was very interesting. One teacher this morning remarked that she didn't like it because it was reminiscent of a "town hall meeting." I dunno I kind of enjoyed it. The whole previous award winners giving praise to the nominees for the Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress was very emotional. I enjoyed that and thought it was kind of special that the veteran actors praised their peers. However, it would be kind of hard to know what their performance was like if you had not seen the movie, which was the case for me in a few instances (Richard Jenkins in Frozen River, Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona). For the most part I have seen all of the movies that were nominated, which is not always the case. Maybe thats because I go to the movies on a weekly basis these days and see more movies these days. Oh well.

And that has been the most exciting thing to happen to me since I last posted. This next month I am going to be volunteering at some other events in the Salinas area such as their Young Authors program with high school kids and History Day as a judge. I am pretty pumped about that because I will be judging area students on their History projects. Totally up my alley. February was kind of a funk for me. I am really looking forward to Spring and then Summer. After last summer I have kind of become a fan which definitely was the not the case before. Ever. Last Summer I was also surrounded by friends and was living in Summer's Favorite City. So that could account for my new found love of Summer

The Hour I First Believed

Yesterday after school we were put on lock down for the second time I have been at MLK Academy. The school gets put on lock down from time to time and my first reaction was, "Oh ok there is a police situation nearby. It is for our protection." Which is usually the case. SO I continued to do my thing in the cafteria and waited along with other students and families that were at the school to pick up their kids. Rumors began to flood the cafeteria. "Somebody got shot." "We heard it was so and so's brother." "It definitely was, my friend's mother told me." I tried my best to keep the students calm. One boy became hysterical because the rumor that spread through the room was that his brother was the one who had been shot. The lock down was lifted and everyone went their separate ways and the student's continued to talk. I knew no information and could not give them any satisfactory closure on the situation.

This morning it turns out that the 16 year old that was fleeing a confrontation suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. This young man is the brother of one of my fourth grade students that I work with in English Language Development and the After School Program. This student had issues to begin with and this will just send him into another dimension.

The gang violence is Salinas, CA has just gotten out of hand. With a population of 148,350 the death toll since the beginning of 2009 is staggering for a city of this size. I am just not sure what to think, what to do, or what to say anymore.

Havin fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!

So I so many books that I own that I have not read. It is disgusting. I decided to post the list to make me feel even more guilty than I already do. Currently I am reading The Audacity of Hope by President Barack Obama.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by John Meacham
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling
The Beautiful Fall : Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
My Friend Leonard by James Frey
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max
Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Hour I First Believed: A Novel by Wally Lamb

Titles in BOLD are borrowed from John Steinbeck Library in Salinas, CA
Titles that are ITALICIZED are on loan from Stephanie King and April Wolcott

One Fine Day

Yesterday was quite nice. My presentation on Abraham Lincoln for Ms Jimenez's class went so well. They were all so interested adn had lots of questions. After they went to the library they all showed me the books that they got on Lincoln. Ms Jimenez even checked out the book that I used in my presentation. So that was pretty exciting.
At lunch we had a baby shower for one of the ladies in the office. Ohmagod I ate some of the best food. Working at a school is amazing because you have these wonderful office parties that have the best food ever. We had tamales, enchiladas, and all sorts of delicious food. I pigged out. It was glorious. I made magic cookie bars and they were a hit. Ms Campanaro asked me if she would feel magical after she ate them? Coming from a woman who used to follow the Dead I thought that was quite funny.
Then after work went and hung out at another AmeriCorp apt wherein my coworker and I decided that we had really had a lovely day.

Over the Rainbow

the weather in central california has been extraordinarily beautiful. Usually I am not too much for the whole mountainous, farm land that makes up the Salinas valley. But lately the fog and the rain and the clouds have been coming together to make this kind of strange gloomy beautiful landscape. I saw a rainbow form today after the rains and found myself thinking back to my youth when I always wanted to find where the rainbow ended. I dunno today was kind of magical. I had a dance party while I made my mac and cheese with girl talk that was pretty fun. Then I found myself having a Steel Magnolias moments and was like, "Ouiser, you sound almost chipper. What happened today - you run over a small child or something?" I dunno why I was in such a good mood for no reason. It was quite strange.

I really wanted to find that quote from Sex and the City for this post from when Smith was in that play. The quote went something like The rain came down... it reminded me of you

America's Next Top Model

OMG there is a marathon on Bravo on Saturday. They just showed a clip of Tyra's freak out on Tiffany and now I wish I were watching it. Oh well.

I feel like so much has already happened this week. On Monday I got this crazy note taped to my door from Nick. I mean can you really be "man-to-man" in a note taped to a door? Because I don't think so.

Also Monday I night I started my math class at Monterey Peninsula College. So hey guess who was a credit short last June and only walked at Graduation? Me! So there's my secret. I kept it on the down low because I was embarrassed. So yeah I am going to take this last class and then I will be a College grad. Woot!(?)

Today was a pretty good day at school. I led a 4th grade class in Math. That was pretty fun. I am kind of burnt out. I am just so glad that we have two three day weekends coming up. If only I had some money to do something worth while with my long weekends.