Saturday, February 10, 2001
Andy's journal today mentions warm fuzzies and cold pricklies and i suddenly had a flash back to a childhood of TA for Tots and making piles of warm fuzzies out of yarn for everyone i knew. It was a good contrast to the Oprah pre-V Day show that i flipped past which was talking about cutting the genitals of young girls and men throwing acid in the face of women who have refused to marry them.
We played with some great 7th graders in Lincoln, MA today after doing a show for the 6th-8th grades. They were a blast. They were very enthusiastic and full of ideas. Massachusetts has some of the best public schools i've ever visited. They feel more like the private schools, i don't know quite how to describe it, but you can tell the difference when you walk in the door. Our contact person was a parent who introduced us to all of the administrators. The day ran extremely smoothly even though we had to switch workshop space due to the musical theatre auditions. We were invited to lunch with the teachers and while they asked a few of the "standard" questions (where are you from? how long have you been doing this? etc) they really included us in their regular every day conversation. Also, for middle school students, these kids were all very welcoming and kind to us and really wanted to learn whatever they could from us. As one group left they were going to their "option" classes which involved a variety of community service activities. These kids were learning more than just the basic skills of english, math, and science, they were learning how to apply their skills to help their community. Testing in Massachusetts has become an issue recently since 4th, 8th, and 10th graders each take a battery of tests totaling about 17 hours. That's a lot of standardized testing in one year, and with the 10th graders it affects their ability to graduate. However, unlike Texas this testing is in no way linked to school funding. The difference? Teachers here don't worry about teaching to a test to keep their jobs. Granted the scores are published in the local papers and can have an impact on real estate prices as people move to or from areas depending on where they think their child will get the best education. But, in the schools the focus is still on building knowledge and skills not feeding the students a bunch of "right" answers. Ah, education does exist in public schools!
I like the Boston area. It kinda reminds me of Seattle but with more snow. As i watched it snow last night i kept thinking of how in Seattle that much would have been sure to shut down the town for a least half a day. Here however, the roads are salted as it falls and before it even stopped for the night the roads were merely wet. Oh well, i guess it's too flat. How can you dislike a town with so many bookstores though?
We're out in the suburbs for the weekend, close to our freeway for driving to Vermont on Sunday, but only 1/2 an hour to downtown. Best thing of all, the hotel is half the price, nicer, and local phone calls are FREE! Plus i get 2 lines in my room, so i can be online and make phone calls at the same time! Whoo hoo!~w
wendi's 12:31 AM ravings
Friday, February 09, 2001
The last groups of 4th graders were crazy monkeys today! One class actually had a couple of poems that they'd prepared for us to see since they saw the show on monday. I guess that's why they kept asking us all week when we were going to visit their class. They were absolutely precious! We bolted from Long Island when we finished and were lucky enough to miss rush hour in the city. We hit Providence, RI rush hour, but were smart enough to take the by-pass to miss the traffic in the snow storm. Unfortunately, i didn't get much reading done since i fell asleep shortly after getting in the car and didn't wake up until it was getting dark. But, we arrived at a decent hour in snowy Boston (actually Waltham) and found a Ciro's Restaurant for ciro and i to eat at for dinner. Tasty calzones!
Ack, i just realized the tv is playing something called Sex Wars. It's a game show that i've actually heard about but never seen since a friend of a friend was talking about working on filming it when we were in Long Beach, CA last fall. I suppose that odds are i would have eventully run across it, but i probably would have surfed past it if i'd actually been looking for something to watch on tv. It's pretty wacky. Basically they're answering Family Feud style questions (well kinda, now instead of "survey says" it's from a website poll) about the opposite sex while the audience hoots and hollers for either the men or the women to win. The women came from behind to trounce the men tonight and i nearly cheered out loud for the triumph of females in a silly game. Hmmm, maybe it has something to do with the talk show i heard today where this guy was bashing Oprah, Calista Flockhart, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, and other famous women for being male bashers by associating with the V Day event at Madison Square Garden. Mostly it seems to be a gala performance of the Vagina Monologues which i've heard both men and women say was very good. This guy made it out to be some radical militant feminist war party and his ranting is exactly the kind of thing that makes some men seem like pigs worth bashing. But according to their mission statement it's not loud mouth male talk show hosts that their after so he should just relax. They are working more on stopping physical violence than emotional violence. Unfortunately i don't know what station it was that we were listening to when we heard him. Ciro got tired of his tirade and turned him off.
Does anybody know why the higher the hotel rate for the night, the more they charge you for local calls? Shouldn't it be the other way around? It's $.50 per call here up to 60 minute then they charge you 5 cents a minute after that. Urrrgghh.
There was something that i was dreaming about that i was thinking i should write about, but i can't remember what it is now. I hate it when that happens. Hmm, maybe i'll have to really work on some writing tomorrow.
I keep thinking that this past day was friday, but no, now it's friday. I better get some sleep if i want to drag myself and my stuff out of the hotel in the early hours to go work with middle school students in the morning.~w
wendi's 12:34 AM ravings
Thursday, February 08, 2001
What is the stuff that turns 4th graders into puddles of giggles and wacky ideas at the end of the day? I think someone could make a fortune if they could figure out how to bottle it. I have seen teacher's nearly as wacky afterschool, so maybe it's contagious. I think people would be a lot happier if they ended each workday in a fit of laughter. There was something about today that had me nearly skipping down the sidewalk to work. I couldn't say what it was cuz i'm not sure. I just felt breezy. Yeah, that's the word. Like that first warm breeze that let's you know that spring is just around the corner. Hee hee. We have one more day of 4th graders and then drive (through new england rush hour) to Boston. I guess i'll get some more of that book read.
I had a lovely evening of delicious finger food and friends. How can you not like a restaurant that gives you a platter of tasty dishes and no utensils? That's right, dive right in and grab yourself some good grub. MmmmmMmmmm. My friends Patrick and Andy and Ciro's friends Guy and Monica met up for our second annual dinner. I'm not sure how the 3rd annual one will happen since it is courtesy of Poetry Alive! that we are all in the same place at the same time. We had some wonderful silly and serious conversations. I got a good dose of perspective on Israel that adds to what i'm currently reading. It's hard to wrap my head around the situation having never visited the place myself. I found particular joy in getting updates of life in The City from our friends who, though they are all involved in performance, only seem to cross paths when ciro and i tell them to meet us in one place. Guy works with Collapsable Giraffe, Monica's taking a gaggle of creative classes, Andy's working on a new one man show that is, as he puts it, "'Sex in The City' meets, well, I don't know, something," and Patrick's working on a secret project that involves a large stuffed Blue. I know that they're grinding away at this stuff while i'm floating around the country performing poetry every day, but somehow i'm jealous. Funny thing is though, i feel a lot happier about my job in general today. Maybe that's what friends are for...~w
wendi's 1:44 AM ravings
Wednesday, February 07, 2001
My puter crashed as i was posting...urg foiled again. It was probably dull anyway.
Here are the highlights:
We played with 4th graders again today. Wheeee!
White Castle for dinner. mmm, mmm good junk food burgers. Budget night since last night was tasty veal at Orlando's Family Italian Restaurant and tomorrow is Ethiopian food in the city with a gaggle of friends. Yeah, i have friends!!
I listened to samples of the new Erykah Badu cd at Barnes & Noble where i wandered around looking at books and stuff but buying nothing.
I looked for a script to solve my current puzzle with stylesheets. I'm getting closer, but still no luck.
I turned off the news today because tax cuts that don't affect people like me who make less than $25,000 a year and Sharon's election and Reagan's 90th birthday weren't very entertaining.
zoom zoom zoom
the way i go
i do not need the suv
you're selling me
but the kid's kinda cute
and the jingle is too
though it keeps on bugging me
night to noon
I know it's silly, but i was having problems writing anything and then it crashed and well...better luck tomorrow.~w
wendi's 2:07 AM ravings
Tuesday, February 06, 2001
It's snowing. It started at 11am, but has finally died to a couple of wispy things every now and then. I'm really glad we traded in the skittish Camry for a Grand Marquis with it's anti-skid feature, not that i'm doing any driving. Ciro's happier though. He feels a lot safer driving a bigger car in this kind of weather. It's kinda like trying to rollerskate on a ice rink that's been covered with crushed ice. I'm beginning to get really tired of winter now, but it will be a month before we head south again. I don't think i would mind it as bad if i was home. At home you can stock up on food and videos and books and putter around the warm house. Here we have to go out just to eat. Fortunately we don't have to leave the area until Thursday.
The fourth graders were fun today. Our shows had that zing again that seemed to be missing with being too tired from all the travel. I've decided that this will be my last full year of touring though. I need to have friends and community and a home again. I'll still work for the company, just not on the road all year. I also need to get back to writing my own poetry again. I managed to write one poem when i was home for a month this summer. This journal is one thing, but there's something about sitting down with pen and paper in random semi-familiar public places that seems to generate something in my writing that has been lacking lately. It's like both my body and ideas are caught in this centrifuge, but if i could just stop my body from spinning, the heaviest component, i could slow down the light spinning ideas and provide them a place to come to rest.
Bush's tax cut is in the news today. My tax bracket isn't on the charts, but it could mean a couple hundred in my pocket. Still, that $1,600 for a family of four won't help educate their children. That tax cut along with a $1,500 voucher would maybe feed their children lunch at the school we went to last week and that's about it. I don't know why folks keep trying to tell us that vouchers are the way to let public school kids get into private schools. I can't find the source now, but this was sparked by a family on tv talking about how they'd rather see money spent on education than get a tax cut.
Also, Colin Powell announced on CNN that he and Bush are ready to "engage" in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict if the conservative Ariel Sharon (remember when Israel invaded Lebanon? Sharon was in charge) beats out the "peace-maker" Barak in Israel's prime minister election tomorrow. I couldn't tell if "engaged" meant with words or weapons. It may mean that all the old issues discussed in Friedman's book are about to be battled out again.
Oh, i found another seattle poet online, or rather he found me, or something. I was caught by the tagline "imagine a world without starbucks." I feel like even though i took myself out of seattle, i can't take the seattle out of me.~w
wendi's 1:45 AM ravings
Monday, February 05, 2001
A hug from an old friend,
candlelight,
a story that tickles me page after page,
notes from mom,
giggly girl talk with a good friend,
tasting something new for dinner and finding it delicious,
feeling like the person behind a counter believes i'm important and even if i have a silly request they are able to help me,
making peace,
these are a few of my favorite things (at least for today).
We arrived on Long Island today and got a chance to go into The City. Now, being from Seattle i was tempted to call it NYC or New York, but i have been informed that i would be incorrect. There is apparently only one The City (note the capitals) and that is where we went, well kinda. Technically we were in Brooklyn, but that seems to be close enough. It had me thinking of Harvey Danger since i sampled their new album awhile back and only really took a liking to pike st./park slope. Since i lived just off Pike and was walking around Park Slope with my old friend Pat who moved there a few years back the song title just kept running through my head. Add to that, i first heard a demo of their first album a few months before auditioning for this job and it was the last CD i bought at a show in Seattle before leaving. I guess every once in a while i miss life in Seattle, but it would be hard to go back now since it has changed so much in the past few years. Besides, i remember the look in the eyes of those people who'd left to go do something and then came back to find that since they'd done something they just didn't fit in anymore.
Today was good though, i felt like i got my feet back on the ground even if my head's still in the clouds.~w
wendi's 1:21 AM ravings
Sunday, February 04, 2001
Aaaaahhhggg! I have a headache. I've been trying to figure out how to create printable pages for the Poetry Alive! website without having to redesign the whole site. I figured my best bet would be to set up an alternate stylesheet with a light background and dark text and links for printing. So far so good, but now i can't figure out how to allow a visitor to switch to the printable style. I know i've seen that option on a site before, but now i can't find them or find a resource for building the code to do it. It's an entirely geeky endeavor, but it's driving me buggy today. Anyone out there have answers? Or am i trying to do the impossible?
Laundry, rest and geeky web searches seemed to chew up my whole day. I guess that's why i have a headache now and am feeling totally out of it. I did get out for some food with ciro. We went to a place recommended by our co-worker nadine called Pete's Saloon. We ate some big, big burgers that were very yummy.
Okay, that's it. My throbbing head is done with computers for the day.~w
wendi's 2:10 AM ravings
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help?
