you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have...

Crazy day of work stuff happening up in the Bronx. Probably shouldn't go all into it, but to say the least, things, they are a-changin'. In order to re-set, I went out to eat with my friends Rachel and Claudia to a place in Union Square called Mesa Grill, which is quite fancy!! Ohhh, but Rachel's "gay boyfriend" as she calls him, works there, so we hit up the place. Dan came out to meet us too, which was super fun!

A happy night of goat cheese and lamb was had by all. :) I like sharing meals with people I enjoy!

Nothin' but Sunday

I admit, I didn't take a picture today. I did get locked out of my apartment though. So here's a picture of keys. Then, I actually managed to follow through with a desire I had the previous weekend when I was thinking about church in New York. My friend Bertina (or The Bertizzle who Izzle, to those of you who have traveled through Brazil) invited me to her church called Morning Star New York, and it was quite the show! I really enjoyed the music, and there was a speaker at this particular service that was talking about his role as Jesus Christ in the movie The Gospel According to Matthew. It was pretty interesting, his view from that role, and he had a lot of thought provoking things to say about it. I've actually been thinking about it a lot since then, from many different stances. Anyhow, I'm glad I checked it out, and I know where to go on a Sunday night for a rollicking good time of praising Jesus if I need it.

Art in a Mix

It was a day of meeting back up with couchsurfers! I think it's pretty cool that I had a chance to host such awesome people in the last month at my apartment. First there was Roberto from Italy, who stayed with us at the beginning of March because he was here to study acting at the New York Film Academy. He and I met up today for bagles at my favorite place because A. he had a few things to return to us and B. because we hung out quite a few times since got here a month ago. He's heading home tomorrow, back to Milan. And I'm invited to stay any time I want, which is really great by me, considering we sat in the cafe talking for about two hours this morning, just catching up, he told me about his classes and his month in the U.S. It's fascinating how traveling can really change your perspective, and it was fun to share in his journey of sorts. I hate to use that word, that word is SO overused now that America is addicted to reality TV. Something is ALWAYS a journey on those shows, but ya know what, this is reality, not reality TV, and some people have real journies. More power to them (us!) We chatted on the way to the subway and then parted ways. Weird to think "I wonder if I'll ever meet up with him again..." Coud be!

I then jaunted off to Queens to meet my new friends Chrissy and Demark from Austria. They stayed with Dan and me last week, but they really were hoping I'd have a chance to meet up with them to view some art (their professor was showing in a big contemporary art fair called The Armory this week.) We made plans to meet at P.S. 1, which to me sounds like Public School 1, which I thought it actually was until the end of my classes at NYU. Someone finally clued me in that it was an old-school-TURNED-art-museum. And a VERY cool one at that. One of my favorite instalations was a giantic room with a large metal box sturcture in the middle, except that the structure was PACKED on all sides with matresses! Totally awesome! Of course Chrissy and I jumped (until the security guard came to tell us to stop). Apparently it wasn't for jumping, it was for resting, but who could resist! I HIGHLY reccomend this VERY contemporary art museum (it's like the step child of the MoMA).

To my suprise, there is actually some VERY engaging art just across the street from P.S. 1 in the form of, get this, graffitti! It's an entire building called 5 points, encased in legal graffiti! And it's awesome! We ended up walking around for a place to sit and eat (even attempting for a breif moment, the roof of the building) but we were so engaged in the promotional Rangers video being shot there, and all the wonderful art around us. Truly awesome.

It was a great day to be out and about! What fun things to discover around the city!

Spartans Down, Heads Up!

I met up tonight with my friend Leonard at the MSU Alumni bar in Manhattan. It's the place to be for any Michigan State sports viewings. Since tonight we made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I thought it fitting that I head out to support my Spartan boys!

The company was good (Leonard also brought is friend Janae) and we had a good time standing around in the bar till half time, when we ventured outside to move on to the next place where we'd have more room to sit. Janae decided to head home, and Leonard and I struck up a conversation with a fellow Spartan. Turns out he's one of the head honchos and when he heard that we were thinking of hitting the road he ushered us right back in to the bar and back to the back room, which is always full of the regulars and VIP fans. It was rad!

Other than the fact that we won by a gazillion points.

It's ok boys, there's always next year! But there will never be another 2001 Championship (one of the best nights of my LIFE, SO FUN to be out on the streets with crazy college kids!) So here's to my home state school, my blood still runs green, even in New York!

PD-athon and Koreatown

I haven't been home ANY day this week before 7:00 pm. This sucks. I don't ever have time to go to the gym anymore! Where has all my time gone!? I took the train down to a Literacy council tonight in mid-town for my school in the Bronx. It's like another teacher training session. If I counted all my PD hours for this week I'd have about 18 hours total. Uhg! That's a boat load of professional development!!

On my way out of the meeting tonight, I stopped by a Korean grocery store in Koreatown, just to stock up on the staples of kimchi, bulgogi, ramyun...you know, the necessities. I heart Korean food. It is so comforting to me!

The Friendly Tank

Never heard of it? My couchsurfer invented it...in his painting. We are housing an artist couple from Austria tonight. Turns out that even though they came late (they MISSED American Idol!), they are still super duper awesome! We've been going over many things ranging from museums to vocabulary words to which way to turn the handle on the bathroom door. It's tricky!

Here are some highlights from the day:

a bulding down the street was on fire!

My couch surfer, with her bag of fortune cookies!

Eccentric Nut

I appreciated the title of some of the hardware that came with my new bedside table and dresser over the weekend. It's a put-it-together-yourself kind of deal, so I was sitting around with a hammer, multiple pieces of particle board and several different sizes of screw driver at 10:30 at night. My neighbors love me! It was awesome.

I spent the day at a teaching conference, and on my way out snapped this photo aiming towards Madison Square Park. When I got home, I watched one of my favorite shows called "Secrets of New York", mainly because I'm a huge dork, but also because I enjoy learning random facts about the city. So I learned all about how architects back in the day used to specifically put clock towers on their buildings because it was in a time before watches. Seemed to make sense, except that I felt my brain go "there was a time before watches?" Yes, indeed there was. Here ya go. Who never said I was an eccentric nut?!

Here and gone

Flew back to New York today. It was a long day of flying. Here you see where the blue sky meets the blue of Lake Michigan. Lovely. I'm happy to be back to my Dan though. Here he is with his new stack of fresh towels. Thank goodness Dan has a Sugar Daddy to get him things like large stacks of new, fresh towels! I got an Easter Chocolate bunny out of the deal though. I love when Sugar Daddy's remember me too.

Cargo "beep beep"

Here's my favorite Easter joke from when I was small:
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Ether.
Ether who?
Ether bunny.


(ahahahahahaha)


Knock knock.
Who's there?
Cargo.
Cargo who?
Cargo "beep beep" and run over the Ether Bunny!


(AHAHAHAHAHAHA)

My mother laughed particularly loud at the dinner table tonight, until she realized that my 8 year old cousin and 3 year old nephew were laughing just as hard. And then the 8 year old started memorizing it. Now THAT'S funny!


I got up early and attended church this morning. I must admit that I love this specific church much more than most of the churches I've been to in my life. It's pretty much a log cabin A-frame in the woods. It sounds nice, it's wooden and comforting, it smells like a church should, sort of musty, but full of life. The rafters are high, and the windows are big, letting in lots of natural light and a view that overlooks the trees and a small pond down the hill. Just beautiful. It's the perfect setting for introspection and faith, if one were to choose it. I quite enjoyed it myself. Perhaps I should try to find something similar in New York. I've tried elsewhere, it's been hard to compete, but maybe I'll try again.

Anyway, church was followed by a lovely brunch, where I sat with Jim's (see yesterday's post) parents and sister talking of Jim's wedding plans and life in the big NY. My life there seems so much more glorified when I have to explain it to someone who doesn't know me that well. I'm sure they are just fulfilling a picture of it that they already have in their mind. It's really no use for me to sit down and give extra time to explain how I don't actually exsist in a movie there. So many pre-conceived notions about a place, and I'm hardly the one to break all those down in a few minutes. I wish there was something more profound I could say, but just saying "I teach Middle School in East Harlem usually gets 'em.


My mom and I came hom with plenty of time to prepare for the family arrival. Basically everyone in my family and beyond was here tonight for the Easter feast. I do love family gatherings, but this one was somewhat of a chaotic craze. There were kids everywhere, so it seemed! My mother talked a mile a minute, to noone and everyone in particular. The food was in fact delicious. I make a mean green bean cassarole! Here's what I got.
The Grandma and the Dad! So cute!

Jonathan saying something like "Hey EVERYBODY"! I love it when he throws his hands up in the air and shouts. He was looking for his jelly beans.

Since I didn't actually see Jim today at church (he's interning at another church since he will be a man of the cloth someday), he, his fiance Ari, and Brad came over to chat, have some rootbeer floats, and play Clue tonight. Randomness turns to fun so quickly! I actually won the second game and I haven't played Clue in probably 20 years! Like ridin' a bike I guess!

It was fun, although my mind is already turning back to New York. Luckily I took tomorrow off, so I won't be rushed, but I'm refocusing back on work. Uh. I do feel slightly unwound though, so that's all well and good. I needed a break. My feet feel better, my head is lighter. All good things.

Oh my pants!

I woke up to go tux shopping with my friend Jim today. He's a real hoot. We've been friends since about 4th grade, through church, high school, theatre classes, same dorm in college...Jim just is one of those installations in my life. So I'm in Jim's wedding in August. It's going to be a really extravaganza, a certain party! I'm excited for said wedding, and one of those reasons is because I'm going to be in it! I'm actually standing up on the GROOM'S side of the wedding party though, so when I went tux shopping it was for ME! I had originally thought it would be kind of hot to be a girl in a guys tux, but I did put some thought into how to "girl" it up a bit. My original idea was to wear a corset type get-up underneath the jacket, instead of the shirt, but when I brought that up at Olde Peninsula the other night I got a rather firm "no" on that idea. I asked him just to think about it though, keep it in mind.

That desire went out the window today when I tried on boys tux pants. The jacket is do-able, the shirt actually looked cool I thought, but OH the pants. Here's the deal. I don't have a boy body. I have hips. And a butt, and other curvy parts. I do not have need for extra front room, so here's what I got in that outfit: a saggy crotch, a tight butt and hips, and pleats in the front that stick out a mile. Not cute. Not even remotely cute. Something must be done. I'm in the process of deciding/polling people about what might actually happen during this wedding as far as my pants go. I will wear any top they give me, just PLEASE let me have flattering (or even just not grotesque)pants!

This was just my morning entertainment. I went to lunch with Brad and Jim and then went home to help my mom with Easter preparations. We had dinner, some hamburger soup, which I was WAY too over-eager to eat and burned the CRAP out of my tongue. It will hurt for days. Taste buds are inflamed. Not nice.

After dinner, my mom and I decided to take a walk down to the lake to look at the sunset! I love spendin' time with my mama and my dog Daisy! Oh, and my mom's little minion of ducks!

Michigan State was playing in the March Madness Tourney, which I am completely mad for, so I was excited to go to the bar with Nick and Mary (again). We also had tickets to see Tracy Morgan at a comedy club below the bar, which I don't really feel like talking about, cause it was incredibly awful! Barf. Never again. I wished I stayed upstairs to watch the game, but ah well. I can't stand that people smoke in bars in Michigan. Drives me nuts. I had to put dryer sheets in my coat sleeves tonight to try to get the cigarette smell out before church tomorrow! Gross!

A highlight of the night though, really, was watching Nick and Mary dance around on Nick's street to Sara Bareilles. So funny! I love them, but they were the party animal type tonight! I just couldn't handle it, so I went home to sleep.

Pictures, Playing, and Peninsula

A Good Friday edition of Photo-a-Day: The Jane Way. I woke up this morning in my bed at my parents house, and felt pretty good. I really love coming home. Just the sound of it is nice. It's a great old two story house, lots of wood, smells good, and you can always hear someone talking downstairs. It's just comforting I guess.

I got up early to head over to my friend Heather's house though. She was home for her Spring Break and I had a really nice breakfast with she and her family before she headed back to Chicago. I'm glad that we overlapped timing a little bit!

Came home and my nephew Jonathan, who had slept at our house STILL wasn't up. I had heard him up and talking around 4 AM (he's almost 3!) and I assumed that my mom was up with him, but nope, he must have just been playing on his own at 4 AM. What a crazy kid. So we got him up and bathed (he loves it when Aunt Jane gives him the bath because we play games with his rubber duckies and sing songs while we wash!) and ready for pictures at noon. My mother had arranged for my aunt an her grand baby, Cole (age 2) to come take pictures with a professional photographer today. Here's some of the things they were up to. So cute!

We had lunch with them, visited (my grandma was here too). My mom and Jonathan and I had a little while to go outside and enjoy the WEATHER! It was a literal blizzard today. I don't understand- I leave New York wearing a light rain jacket, and here it snows a foot. Seriously. We had a great time playing around outside though! Jonathan loves to shovel with Grandma!

Soon after Jonathan's mommy and his brother and sister came over to dye Easter eggs, which turned out to be much more fun than I thought (although Jonathan did spill the red egg dye all over and down the cupboards!). Here's Amy showing off her eggs.

I met up after THAT with my friend Brad, had to go pick up a phone charger because I left my real one in my stinkin' apartment in New York and then went down to Kalamazoo to a place called Olde Peninsula. Great food, homemade beer (and root beer, which I had!). Jim, Nick and Mary joined up, as well as a few other oddball characters. Lovely time for the most part. Hanging out with long-term friends is usually pretty fun for me. Good times!

So long, and on to the next one

Off to Michigan today after a very long day at work. All I wanted to do was get up and go! By the time I got the bus home, my plane was already delayed. Boo. I hate you LaGuardia. So I waited around at home, putzing around and placing more things in my bag. Took me forever to get a cab, and finally I got to the airport where I sat for several hours waiting to catch a plane that was SUPPOSED to land at 8:50 pm in Grand Rapids. We didn't even take off until 8:30. I spent that time watching a movie (Memento) on my computer, so passing the time wasn't really a big deal. Nothing a little movie time couldn't fix. I ate my leftover pizza. It was all good, but I was still antsy to get home.

The flight was pretty painless, despite a little turbulence now and then. I snapped this photo just after leaving New York. I think I rather like looking out plane windows. That's why I always pick a window seat. I just can't help looking down.

Monkies and burritos

Erica and I met up for Blockheads tonight. It's good because I stood her up last night. On top of failing to remember my dinner plans yesterday, I also completely missed a dentist appointment, and I almost missed the aforementioned family night. Like, I'd actually left the building to go home and then I'm waiting at the bus stop with my hand on my forehead realizing that I'd just messed up my world for the day. Ah well. I had the chicken and mashed potatoes.

Tonight it was burritos from Blockheads. I don't know how much I've posted about this particular establishment, but it it definitely one of my favs in the city. Why? Because they have delicious burritos, free chips, and super cheap margaritas. 3-4 bucks. No joke. In THIS city?? you might say? Yes. In this city. Love it!

It was nice to catch up with Erica, even though I had to rush home tonight to PACK! Going home to Michigan tomorrow! Yay!

Literacy or Bust

I guess the parents in East Harlem choose bust, cause they sure as spit didn't show up to the Family Literacy Night that Patrice, my co-worker and I planned for tonight. Uhg. So I spent an extra several hours at school tonight waiting around for the parents to come, share a meal and talk about spreading literacy and sharing reading in their homes (no matter what language!). Didn't fly. None of them showed. So Patrice and I just looked at each other over beans and rice. Shrug. What a day. It was far too long. I'm starting to feel the stress creep back up again.

I came home and Dan had prepared dinner for me, but I wasn't even that hungry, and I was exhausted. It looked delicious though, so I had a bit.

We sat around with Dan's friend Michael watching and commenting on American Idol, then watched a crazy YouTube video about Jimmy Kimmel (click Jimmy, then Kimmel). I would not suggest anyone over the age of 30 to watch this video since it's pretty crude, however, to anyone who watches that show and enjoys dirty pop culture, this one's for you!

Our couchsurfers came home late, Dag and Maria from Sweden. They are pretty cool, and we chatted for a bit before everyone decided it was time to crash. I am about ready to fall asleep on my keyboard, so this is it for today. I choo choo choose Literacy.

My Goodness, My Guinness

Anything goes when I try to get a ride home from work from the Bronx. My friend Corie has a car, and as I might have mentioned before, it's heaven to get a ride anywhere in this city for free. So, today I forgot my metrocard, and had to pay a girl at the bus stop to swipe me on. That was sweet. It was a Monday, so naturally the kids were apeshit, without reason. I just sort of let it roll of my shoulders today. It's getting to be common practice in the Bronx to just go with it. Kids are crazy, and that's part of life.

The ride home was supposed to entail stopping off at Corie's house to get her ID (She was going to meet friends at a bar down town), but actually landed us at a place called the Rambling House just outside Yonkers, which is filled to the BRIM with the Irish. The whole area might as well be called Little Ireland. So we stepped in, and didn't step out until much much later when I had to take a cab back to the city cause Corie just wasn't gonna make it to her improv class that night. Ah well.

A St. Patty's day well spent I should say, a little bit like the year I was in Dublin for the holiday. I ingested no green liquids, and therefore commend myself on a day well done.

P.S. Thought it would be fitting to add that I bought my plane ticket to Ireland for Spring Break tonight! Wa Whooooo!!

Rooster-what?

So, there was a rooster. No joke. He was roosting in the "courtyard" area in our apartment complex this morning. Dan found him when he went to go get his bike from storage down there. It's pretty much just the middle of the building that the owners use for storage of supplies and debris when they are redoing an apartment. However today, it took more of the chicken coop route. Weird. I have no idea how he go there!! I asked him, but he didn't say anything. So, I suggested to Dan that we build him a little house. I know that these things don't usually go over well in cities (just ask my friend Louise). I will check up on him tomorrow! Perhaps I will call him .

Readership Roster

Because it's the middle of March, and despite all my tries with tracking websites, I cannot for the life of me really figure out who, or how many people read my blog. So for giggles, I thought that today's photo might as well be a role call sheet. It's the teacher in me I guess.

Directions:

1. Leave a comment (see the link down at the bottom there?) for this blog if you read every day, or even if you read this a week from now. Even if you anonymously say hello, that's fine.

It'll give me an idea of audience, and as every good writer knows, audience it important! Although I appreciate writing for my own good into the oblivion of the Internet, I also like to get comments up in here every once in awhile. My friend Leonard left me a comment on my facebook that positively made my day saying "photo-a-day is the best thing on the interwebs." Thanks Len! You deserve a shout out.

2. Have fun!

P.S. I forgot my memory card today, and had a billion other photo opportunities, ex: down by the East river with the sun shining on my face (lovely), at dinner with my friend Rachel we made art from the salt shakers, our wine bottle cork, the candle at the table and the cork screw. It was terrific! Well, I suck, but that doesn't mean you aren't reading this. Thanks for playing along!

"Girls, girls, girls-I like that!"

Again, I appreciate the elation that comes along with a Friday. It wasn't a bad day, but I certainly was ready for a relaxing weekend. I had a party in my last period class with my 7th graders in Harlem because they earned it. One of the classroom management techniques I've adopted is to reward the classes that I pull out into my room with a letter each day they behave (as a

whole). They actually grade themselves most of the time, on whether they deserved a letter. My 7th graders earned all the letters in GAME DAY, and therefore we had a little celebration. They need that every once in awhile I think, and it's a relatively good mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Teacher talk, I know.

After school I immediately fell asleep on my bed for about an hour and a half. I have been SO tired lately. I don't know what's gotten into me! Kate and I had plans to visit the Guggenheim because of an awesome exhibit I'd heard about from Nick last weekend. I quickly made dinner with Dan (turkey burgers, mmmm) and then headed out to meet Kate and walk over to the museum. How awesome is it that I live within walking distance of the Guggenheim! It's still amazing to me, even though that's been true for almost 2 years now!

The exhibit was...well, I really wish everyone could see for themselves, but it was

spectacular.

One of the reasons I love art is due to the emotions it creates, which I know is probably different from the emotions art creates in other people. That just seems so powerful to me, but this exhibit really did have me feeling things I've never felt before. It was a mix of wonder and fascination, sights, sounds, smells. A really wonderful mix to different mediums. Cai Guo-Qiang is from all over Asia, and has such an interesting take on art. The cars, seen here, spiral up from the ground, or down from the ceiling (however your perspective), he has 99 taxidermy wolves racing around the rotunda, just to show them crashing into a glass plate wall (representing the Berlin Wall), a sack full of live snakes tied to the ceiling with mirrors showing them, a doubled shower curtain filled with water and acupuncture needles, depicting the healing that will happen with clean water. I could go on, but there's just too much. Amazing.

Kate and I walked out to the Resevoir after the museum, just to get some fresh air. Warm nights around here lately, and I love that. The feeling of spring keeps me going I think. My camera wiggled a little bit taking this picture, but I liked it better than the others, which were straight on. Sort of depicts my mood a little better. Nice, but a little skewed lately.

Oh, and as for the title quote, as Kate and I were walking back to my place to watch a movie, a weird guy with dreds passed us by saying "girls, girls, girls...I like that!" We both laughed and walked a little faster!

I look forward to no plans this weekend. Come what may, and that's a nice feeling. I shall now sleep for hours. Hurrah!

It's payback time!

My mama made these curtains. My mama also helps me. We talked money today. It's student loan payback time and you know what that meanse? No happy Jane. Uhg. I hate being poor! I will just accept the fact that I will be paying all 80 odd thousand dollars in student loans for the rest of my life. Yay! Cue rich men to come sweep me off my feet. But could they also be smart, funny, and caring?

How did I get from curtains to personal ad? See what happens to me when I blog tired!?!

Security, Bridge and Bowling

So there you have it: The solution to all my problems for my classroom that is forever being burgled. A locking file cabinet. 'Bout time!
Also, this is one of those random, every day occurrence things to me, especially when I'm walking home from school a few days a week from Harlem. This is the footbridge that connects Manhattan to Ward's Island, which has had quite a varied past ranging from World's largest mental facility (at the time), a hospital, an immigration station, and a park, and a support for the Tribourough Bridge. I also once saw one of my inspirations for this blog, a photographer that photographs New York City daily.

After arriving home, there was shrimp pasta and a little more Wii time. Kate came over to play a little tennis, baseball and then bowling. Here's the proof that I kicked butt in the last frame! She SO didn't think I was going to win!

One of those days

I LOVE this show, and this season in particular is going to be totally rad. Not just rad in a kinda good way, but rad in a totally awesome way. This is the time of year I start to look forward to Tuesdays because I can see people sing on my TV at night. Good times.

I wish that I had a better picture. I'm sure you all would have liked it if I documented my showing up to a conference this morning...two weeks early. I suck basically. And I can't read. I also forgot my key to my classroom, which seemed to cause sadness and agony. In all actuality, I just can't stand the stress of having two full time jobs, but only working at them part time. It's not fun, and sometimes it piles up on me. So I slept. And then I got things done. It wasn't a good day, but in the end, there were several good things that happened. I don't really care to go into all of that, but suffice to say, I'm glad that's over. Now I shall sleep, and tomorrow will be a new day. Thank God.

J-Riz wins!

Yep, I'm a Risdon. And even though I might not have been born into the family, my blood (even though not genetically) runs Risdon. Thank God for that! Thanks to my Mama and Daddy for holding out for me.

Today was my adoption day. I forgot all about it until my mom called me to wish me a happy day. It was so weird that I forgot. I think this might be the first time in years that I have forgotten. I was SO wrapped up in school today. It was the NY State Math exam this morning and my kids at my school in the Bronx were off the hook. Not nice. I was just moving from emotion to emotion today, actually saying to my principal that "my head might actually explode in a minute" when she asked me if I could cover a Gym class outside with crazy 7th graders, after being stuck in a room with 6th graders for 3 and a 1/2 hours (and then having to deal with the behavior issues, for example, the kid who punched the glass window of the door as I was leaving, but looking back in the room to address a student, or the two kids who tried to actually throw the other out of the chair because they both thought it was theirs). Lame. Kids are so lame when they are stressed out. I could relate.

Kind of ironic- same kid who punched the door was trying to insult another student today by saying "you're adopted, you're adopted". He continued to harass the child, and I could tell the other boy was heating up. I finally stopped and turned to the first boy and said "You know what, I'm adopted, and it just seems ABSURD to me that you would try to insult another student with that. " He looked taken aback, and stopped. I told the other teachers about it later and they filled me in. The kid being bullied actually IS adopted, and he's very, very sensitive about it. I just thought it was interesting that that all happened today.

So yeah, it was a day of high stress, my fists and jaw tightly clenched all day. I tried to relax on the bus ride home and felt my shoulders go limp and then was asleep almost immediately. So weird.

Kate came over tonight and we watched the Project Runway finale on DVR (even though we both knew who won) and then SNL from last Saturday had a hilarious parody of it. We then made Kate's Wii Mii and played tennis like stars. So fun! She went home and I had a cupcake by myself (Dan was gone again tonight). No worries, I had little J-Riz to keep me company. Here I/she/we are throwing an awesome fastball:

I'm a material girl

I can't beleive I'm saying that. Yep, I was made pretty happy today by material posessions. I woke up and kicked Nick out of my house. I bummed around for a bit and Dan never got up so I got ready and went down to the Nintendo World Store at Rockafellar Center. I was on a mission. Mission complete: I got a Wii! Hurrah for video games that make you move around!

I went from the store to a book fair called Project Cicero where teachers are invited to come to a ballroom full of new and used books for one hour and fill an entire box FOR FREE. It was like Heaven. It was amazing. Angels sang when I walked in the door. I got SO MANY BOOKS. Like a kid in the candy store. Seriously. If there are material things I get excited about, it would be books (and the Wii)!!!! SO great! I filled an enormous suitcase with books. Oh so awesome. I wish I could bottle the feeling of having over 100 pounds of new books. Simply amazing. Thank you to my Literacy Couch at IN for giving me the heads up. I'll be there EVERY year I'm teaching in New York.

Came home, lugged the suitcase up the stairs (with Dan's help) and then started to set up the Wii and go through my books. I don't know what I was excited about more! Dan ran out the door, which he has been doing quite a bit of lately (his social life exhausts ME!) so I was on my own for playing around. I did though, and I enjoyed it none the less.

I called up Kate and invited her on a walk in Central Park due to extra daylight hours. It sucks, but I decided to make the best of it. We walked around the Resevoir 1 and a 1/2 times, which was good for my body, but made my feet ache. Stupid plantar fasciatus. (Kate will be sending my pictures of the walk.

So tired though, still. Bed is good.

Couching it

The weary were resting today. Here's a picture of Nick sitting on my couch.

We spent our time making a video for our friend Mary Teutsch! She's awesome, and we missed her. Today we not only realized we missed her, but that we, well I, am happy I am no longer in college. Oy.

No rest for the weary

A long day at work- Thank God It's Friday!

Nick was staying for the weekend, so he came over after school and then there was a long nap time before getting ready and heading out again. This time we went to Marie's Crisis, a favorite gay piano bar in Greenwich Village. LOVE it!

Met up with Craig, Steven, and their little friend Matt (seriously, the guy was 5'1'' yet totally adorable in a completely gay way). A rousing night was had by all, singing along to show tunes and watching the time fly by into the wee hours of the morning!

No plan=crazy fun

Thursday, what a crazy day! It all went fairly normal until the end of the day in the Bronx. I was invited to stay after school for a staff meeting that I had no idea was going on, mainly because I was due to attend a Literacy Council meeting in Midtown at 4 o'clock. The proverbial shit had hit the fan because of the chaos that is testing in New York State. Mainly, the testing coordinator was out of compliance due to many reason, and also, he didn't want the job anymore because it sucked. So another teacher friend was appointed to the task or organizing the state Math test...for Monday.

Anyway, there were several meetings. I ended up in midtown, missed my hair appointment (was going for highlights...completely forgot...I wonder if I'm blacklisted from that place now...I suck), so I called up my friend Nick and we made a plan for dinner and possibly a few drinks.

I met him at his hotel near Central Park and we walked down to Hell's Kitchen for food. We picked an awesome Brazilian place that I frequented quite a bit last year when I was student teaching down that way. Delish. We took pictures of Nick and our arroz con pollo:

almost simultaneously the strange, possibly homeless woman next to us made a sound that can only be likened to "AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaraaaaaaah" and then pushed her table over. She was a little cookoo for coco puffs if ya know what I mean.

We took a little walk and decided to stop in for a glass of wine at a little Irish pub in the area, talking of my teaching job, his job as the artistic coordinator of programming in Kalamazoo (he was in town because he was working with a program at Lincoln Center). We stepped out from there and noticed a bar Nick knew of called Don't Tell Mama's. I will end the commentary at this point because the picture can tell the rest of the story for the most part. We found awesome new friends from London, who refused to let us leave and continued to purchase spirits for us.

I was home late.

water flame

This is awesome and I am tired. Too tired to post my real picture. If that makes me lame then just call me LameJane. It'll be my new name. Heh. :)

Nice F*in' Model. Honk, honk!

That's from Beetlejuice! I love that movie, and it was one of many topics discussed by Dan, myself, and our couchsurfer, Roberto. He's Italian and smokin', I mean rockin' so it's fun to have him around. We have gotten along quite nicely for the past few days actually.

Again with the tired today. Uhg. I wish that would stop. Had a relatively good day, with only a few snags here and there. Mostly I have to say that I love the little children I work with in my new Afterschool Program in East Harlem. I just had two boys today, a 6th and 7th grader, who hung out with me for their snack of popcorn and juice (which they managed to spill all over the floor). We played a fun game of truth/lie, where you sort of have to introduce yourself with 2 truths and a lie and the rest have to guess the lie. They loved it. They also didn't believe that I was adopted! I lied and said I've lived in 5 countries...I've only lived in 3, 4 if you count Brazil, but I don't feel like I lived there. No mailing address.

So school was rewarding in the end. Dan and I made a delicious dinner of chicken, brown rice (in my new rice cooker! Yay Pearl River Market!) and sauteed mushrooms. Those were the best! Here's my roommate Dan cooking. :)

American Idol was a highlight of the night, but then Roberto came home (he's taking a month long acting class at New York Film Academy) and we shared stories, movies/acting experience (our couchsurfer was in an ad! and took pictures. Here ya go!