The Clumsiest Girl

Saturday, May 23, 2009

The comic misadventures continued this week:

Thursday night, I spent an hour and a half translating a recipe into pictures. As in, removing all the words and replacing them with images of the ingredients, the amounts, what to do with them, etc. I did this so that my students could follow the recipe themselves, which makes cooking with kids more fun, because they feel like they're "reading." It also creates opportunities for meaningful interchanges and some "math."

Anyway, it was gorgeous. Never has a recipe for applesauce brownies been more beautiful.

I saved it to my desktop and went to bed.

Then, in the morning, I forgot my computer on the couch when I went to work.

Seriously.

Later that day, I got home from work, realized I was thirsty and decided to go to the corner store for a soda.

I got my bag, my shoes and my sunglasses and left the house, pulling the door shut (it was latched, of course). I then reached into my bag to pull out my keys to lock the screen.

They were inside the house.

Sigh.

My supposed 3 minute trip to get a soda turned into an hour long trek over to Cal, so that I could get keys from Boyfriend. I took the circuitous route around campus, got stopped by families of graduaters wanting me to take family photos and got a little lost (cause I'm used to accessing his lab from North Side, not from South Side)......

And that, dear friends, is how I started my weekend.

Must go on grandma duty now.

Great. Just. Friggin. Great.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

As if my week weren't bad enough. It was one of those "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" weeks, topped off with a complete lack of sleep. I was waiting for Friday. All week, I waited for Friday. Friday came, and it looked like it was going to be an ok day.

Then. My head teacher determined that one of our kids has lice.

Yes, lice. As if my week weren't shitty enough, we had to discover lice in the class.

We think it's just that one kid. We hope he hasn't given it to the others. That, however, remains to be seen.....We'll have to do really thorough checks on Monday morning.

Ugh.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies.

Quick Singer Rant

Friday, May 8, 2009

At the risk of confusing my non-musician or non-classically-minded readers, I'd like to share a few things that one should NEVER say to a classical singer:

"You should go on American Idol!"

"Do you sing like this: *cue wobbly weird sound that crosses Tarzan with Julia Child*?"

"Oh, you sing Renaissance and Baroque music? Have you ever sing at the Renaissance faire?"
(This one could also be "Do you wear garb?" which is also forbidden)

"You're an opera singer? Like, you mean Phantom of the Opera?"

"You're an opera singer? But you're not fat!"

I know that I've heard others, but this is a basic list of things that will probably annoy or offend a classical singer. Please make a note.

Apologies

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

My writing has been poor to non-existent lately.

I'm really sorry.

I've been generally angsty about lots of things (singing, body stuff, blogging) in the last couple of weeks, and my lack of meaningful writing is among them.

I would like to move away from re-posting other people's work, with only brief comments, because I feel like that's a cop-out and a poor excuse for blogging.

That's really all I had to say.

Further Proof that Music Programs are Good for Young People

Thursday, April 30, 2009

This charming little story of 2 would be muggers and a 17 year old girl.

They approached her from behind and demanded her money.

And then she beat the shit out of them with her marching band baton.


On behalf of band geeks, choir sluts*, orchestra nerds and everyone in between, I say:
"Awesome job, girl in Quartz Hill, CA. You Rock!"

(via the AP...why Yahoo filed it under "odd news" is unclear. Obviously it should have been under "awesomest news")



*refers to musical promiscuity. We used that term in high school for those of us who sang in all the choirs at school, and probably some outside of school as well. Yes, it's weird. So are teenagers.

Finally, Reasonable Thought From the Government

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Secretary of State Clinton addressed Congress the other day. Here's a transcript:

Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ): —my question: Is the Obama administration seeking, in any way, to weaken or overturn pro-life laws and policies in African and Latin-American countries, either directly or through multi-lateral organizations, including and especially the United Nations, African Union, or the OAS, or by way of funding NGOs like Planned Parenthood; and, secondly, and so we can have total transparency—you know, you know, as a former lawmaker, we always have definition pages when we write legislation; definitions do matter—does the United States' definition of the term "reproductive health," or "reproductive services," or "reproductive rights," include abortion? I yield to the distinguished gentleman.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Congressman, I deeply respect your passionate concern and views, which you have championed and advocated for over the course of your public career. We obviously have a profound disagreement.

When I think about the suffering that I have seen of women around the world—I've been in hospitals in Brazil where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully greeting new babies and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions. I've been in African countries where 12- and 13-year-old girls are bearing children. I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of oppression and hardship. So we have a very fundamental disagreement.

And it is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate, and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world, and so are we.

We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health—and reproductive health includes access to abortion, that I believe should be safe, legal, and rare. I spent a lot of my time trying to bring down the rate of abortions, and it has been my experience that good family planning and good medical care brings down the rate of abortion. Keeping women and men in ignorance and denied the access to services actually increases the rate of abortion.

During my time as First Lady, I helped to create the Campaign Against Teenage Pregnancy, and while we were working to provide good information, access to contraception, and decision-making that would enable young women to protect themselves and say no, the rate of teen pregnancy went down. I'm sad to report that, after an administration of 8 years that undid so much of the good work, the rate of teenage pregnancy is going up.

So, we disagree. And we are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive healthcare.

Abso-fucking-lutely!!

It's really great to hear reasonable, 21st Century thinking coming out of the administration. None of this "oooh, no, we won't give you money unless you promise you won't let those women get uppity and live their lives independently" bullshit.

(transcript by Melissa McEwan at Shakesville)

Beyond disturbing-update

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Am I the only one who's completely, physically ill over the Supreme Court's probable decision that a school strip searching a 13 year old girl is just fine??

I'm sorry for the nearly incoherent previous sentence.

I'm absolutely grossed out. Literally, it makes me physically ill to think that the nation's highest court sees no difference between changing for gym class and a forcible strip search. Of a child. In fact, they laughed about it.

Justice Ginsburg will probably be the most vocal dissenter, but the fact she will be in the minority is at once not surprising and totally shocking. Not surprising because the court is full of asshole men, but shocking because how could even the most assholic of assholes not realize that strip searching A CHILD is downright repugnant.

There are many sites that are reporting on this (just none in the mainstream media....go figure), but I'll choose to link to Alas, A Blog. Read up on what happened. Follow Amersand's links, too, because apparently this isn't the first time that Justice Alito has given the ok to strip searching girl children.

**Update: Commenter "PG" posted the dissent from the circuit court case. It's comment number 27 after the post to which I linked**