May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii

One of the things that made living in Hawaii special was the wonderful tradition of May Day. Every year when May 1st rolls around, I can't help but think back to the way we spent the day in school, with music and dance. Every class participated, from the preschool up to high school, and most of the community came to watch.

Kupunas provided the music, and everyone worked for weeks to prepare the costumes, and most importantly the leis. Leis on the head, around the neck, on the ankles and the wrists. Plumerias, pikake, tuberose, ti leaves, ferns, ginger, maile. What a heavenly smell!

Books, Art and Opera

The Festival of Books was not all I was up to last weekend. From Westwood to Santa Monica to Pasadena (now that is a drive across the city). Made a quick appearance at an art gallery opening,

and then off to a folk opera, The Bartered Bride.

Gosh, I love Los Angeles (most of the time). Sometimes I wonder what I am doing in Orange County.

Authors I Want to Read

Matt Blakeslee, Sandra Blakeslee, Christine Kenneally, Daniel Lord Smail, Tony Cohan, Pico Iyer, Jenny Price, Thomas Curwen, Susan Jacoby, Philip Shenon, Tim Weiner, Barry Siegel, Kathleen Finn, Deborah Rodriguez, Joshua Swiller, Lijia Zhang, Louise Steinman, Ron Carlson, Jane Smiley, Tobias Wolff, and Susan Salter.

All of these are authors who I had the privilege of listening to at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the country's largest celebration of the written word. These were the panel titles (it was so hard to choose!):

• Science: Mind Matters
• Nonfiction: Blurring Boundaries
• Current Interest: Checks & Balances
• Memoir: Other Places, Other Lives
• Fiction: Serious Prose

It was rather hot in Southern California this weekend (think triple digits inland), so it was a perfect time to sit in air conditioned auditoriums and listen to these thought-provoking discussions. I still managed to get into quite a few booths, as the sweat dripped off my brow and onto books, and leave laden with purchases each day. In addition, I came away with lots of freebies. Lest you think I'm crazy, I was joined by 140,000 other folks over the two-day festival. In Ackerman we sat behind someone who traveled all the way from Massachusetts for the event. Looking forward to next year already, and hopefully I will have read all of those authors by then!

A Celebration of All Things Literary

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

It's almost here, one of my favorite events of the year! I have been to almost all of them (might have missed one year when Daughter #3 had a race out of town). The first year was when Daughter #3 stood at the top of Janss steps and pronounced, "I am going to go to college here." Let's see, she must have been nine years old back then.

About three years ago I started going to one or two actual ticketed panels, as opposed to aimlessly wandering through obscure publishing house booths. Then last year I kicked it up a notch by going both days. Mainly that was so I could stand in line to have John Wooden sign some books as graduation presents for Daughter #3. Wow.

This year I'm amping it up to a new level. Ticketed panels all day long, both days! Maybe I won't spend as much money on books. Daughter #1 will appreciate the frugality of this event as the whole thing is free!

School Budget Cuts Update

Well, we had a rally and the laid off teachers went to an Administrative hearing. We now await the Governor's revised budget. All indications are that Class Size Reduction will not be preserved, and over 130 elementary teachers in my school district will be laid off. Here's a compilation of media coverage from all over the state:

California Teachers Association

Click here for an article about why this state budget crisis is different from previous years.

Take action! Contact the Terminator (aka Gov. Schwarzenegger) and your state legislators. See the links on the right side of my blog. Thanks...

The Shrinking Skeletal System

Used to be, when we were young, we went to the doctor and they measured us to see how much we had grown. Getting bigger was a given, and it was exciting to hear the nurse pronounce our current height down to the quarter inch.

Who knew that after a certain age, they would be measuring our height again, this time to see how much we have shrunk!? That's what the technician did before administering a bone density test. She pronounced my bones in good shape, though I do appear to have shrunk a quarter of an inch.

Osteoporosis does not sound like any fun so I will keep on taking my calcium.

50th Anniversary of the Ash Grove

The original Ash Grove: 8162 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood

For 15 years, beginning in 1958, the Ash Grove presented music as a major voice for the experiences, beliefs and feelings of communities and peoples. It was an important focus in the lives of over 100,000 Los Angelenos. The performance standards and creative interplay among musicians, young and old, produced many great artists, enriched the lives of audiences, and gave the club a leading role in the culture of a generation.

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the 50th anniversary Reunion Show at UCLA's Royce Hall. What a show! I smiled through the whole thing. I even got to sing along with the Freedom Singers. The final blues set with three legends on the harmonica was incredible. Thanks, Suz!

Jesus lives in Oklahoma!

Keeping the Kingdom First: Sweet Sunday: Theology From A Two Year Old who happens to be my granddaughter.

In Favor of Opposing Points of View - A Tribute to Jeff

"As dumbness has been defined downward in American public life during the last two decades, one of the most important and frequently overlooked culprits is the public's increasing reluctance to give a fair hearing -- or any hearing at all -- to opposing points of view..."

Read the LA Times op-ed piece Talking to Ourselves by Susan Jacoby (possibly the longest two paragraphs in the history of the LA Times).

This post is dedicated to Jeff, an inspiration to us all in the fight against the "trend toward an ignorant single-mindedness."

Song of the Soul - A Tribute to Daughter #3

“Love of my life,” I am crying;
I am not dying: I am dancing,
Dancing along in the madness;
There is no sadness, only a song of the soul.

And we'll sing this song;
Why don't you sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time.
Why don't you sing this song?
Why we can sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time

What do you do for your living
Are you forgiving, giving shelter?
Follow your heart; love will find you;
Truth will unbind you; sing out a song of the soul.

And we'll sing this song;
Why don't you sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time.
Why don't you sing this song?
Why we can sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time

Come to your life like a warrior;
Nothin will bore yer; you can be happy.
Let in the light; it will heal you;
And you can feel you; sing out a song of the soul.

And we'll sing this song;
Why don't you sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time.
Why don't you sing this song?
Why we can sing along?
And we can sing for a long, long time
And we can sing for a long, long time.

(1975 Cris Williamson)

It Helps to Know the Secret Shortcut!

Driving home from work and errands, about 7:45 at night. Uh oh. One of those orange lighted signs is set up in Laguna Canyon, announcing that PCH is closed at Bluebird Canyon. Huh? How can that be? PCH does not just CLOSE!

Found out later that it was due to a - YUK! - sewage spill. As in raw sewage seeping out onto the highway. OK, I guess I would rather not drive across that, and it would be nice if they got it fixed. But how to get home? Up ahead, gridlock. Turn this way, trying for another way, gridlock. The problem of course, is that PCH is a 4-lane highway and the only alternate is a 2-lane street.

I just KNOW there is a way around this mess... and it has something to do with going up the hill and into the winding maze of hillside streets that make up Arch Beach Heights, and then coming back down to PCH. I find the street to turn uphill, and sure enough, there is a snake of cars with the same idea. Up the hill, down the hill. A reminder of how crazy it is that people build houses that seem perched on the edge of nothing. It is nice that the moon is rising as I climb, and as I head back down, what a nice view of the ocean. I never have any reason to drive into this neighborhood, and it really is pretty amazing.

I have no idea if I actually saved any time with my secret shortcut, but at least I got to MOVE, right? Here's a map that shows my detour around the nasty sewage spill at the red X.

Here's a view of the traffic the next morning. Oh yes, I had to do the same thing in reverse to get to work this morning.

Two Prayers

In Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott says there are really only two prayers. One is "Help me, help me, help me." The other is "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Amen.

Be Nice. Work Hard.

A relaxing weekend in Lake Arrowhead held a surprise when we decided to check out the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival.

We were just in time for a screening of Dalai Lama Renaissance, an amazing film narrated by Harrison Ford. We got to chat with the film maker afterwards.





We checked out the schedule for rest of the festival and decided to return for some shorts and the documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans, a film which had me in tears. It was truly inspiring. I have revised my class motto to be the same as Room 56 at Hobart Elementary School (see the title of this posting).

Click here to learn about The Hobart Shakespeareans

Our $5.00 ticket got us into these films and included popcorn and bottled water. Definitely a great way to spend an afternoon!

From Daughter #1's blog: APRIL is Child Abuse Awareness Month

Keeping the Kingdom First: Did you know? APRIL is Child Abuse Awareness Month

Why I Love American Idol

For a show that seven years ago was largely derided when it debuted as a desperate Fox attempt to flog ratings with a “Star Search” rip-off and mocked far and wide as an insult to the music world and the death of culture, "Idol" has become more than the savior of American culture (and record sales), with our biggest stars flocking to kiss the ring -- it has become American culture. Welcome to the Age of Idol. -- Richard Rushfield, Los Angeles Times

Click here for Idol Gives Back



You can tell who I like by the pictures I included. I even like the judges and the host. I like the whole shtick.

Last year TIME magazine had an article about why AI was such a hit. "Week after week, a society that is not terribly self-reflective asks itself, through Idol, what it likes and why." Now I consider myself a rather self-reflective person, often too much so. But I guess that the entertainment of the show itself, followed by the exercise of reflection, resulting in pressing the "Redial" button on my phone is just a huge part of my regular escapism.

I got hooked, and I will miss it when the season ends.

I Ran Like a Thoroughbred at Santa Anita

OK, actually I walked, but it was sure fun! And to top it off, I bet on a horse and it won!

Here we are nearly to the finish line, not in any big hurry as you can see, but right on the track where the ponies run. We had already strolled through the Los Angeles Arboretum and around the track. My friend the herald trumpet blower was waiting for me when the (horse) races began. Third race, horse #6, $2.00 to win was my bet, and it paid out 5/2 odds which came to $7.20. Such fun.

Words I Should Know But I Don't

Do you know these words?

abase, arrogate, approbation, abjure, abstemious, accretion, augury

And that's only the A's... Now some of them fall in the category of "yeah I've heard that one before, but can't really tell you what it means" and others I had never heard of. How have I survived on this earth without needing to know these words? Taking a real risk here, putting it out there for all the world to see that I am a fraud, posing as an educator, deluded to think that I am worthy of an advanced degree.

Why, you ask, do I need to worry about this? I have this little (3" x 3" x 1") box which arrived in the mail from Amazon. Within it are 500 of the hardest GRE words on cards. Just based on the A's, I'm guessing I don't know about half of them. So for the next month or so, if you see me whipping some cards out of my purse (yes, Suzy, they do fit in my purse!), you'll know why.

But watch out, I might ask you what "calumny" means.

Six Transcripts?

OK, it's official, I have applied to grad school, and I am on my way to obtaining my Master's Degree! Filling out the application online was kind of surreal as I thought back to age sixteen, applying for college by filling out a paper application. Did I use a typewriter or a pen? I really don't remember. But I had to dig through files and rack my brain to remember where and when I went to school. Finally I had a stack of six transcripts! Six! I actually went to six different colleges and I don't even have a Master's Degree!

I think of myself as a graduate of the great University of California, Berkeley but somehow along the way to getting a teaching credential I went to five other schools. Let's see, I started at the University of Oregon. That didn't last long. I took a quarter off to be a ski bum, and soon I was settled in to Be-zerkley where I actually graduated on time despite that quarter off. In order to accomplish that, I took 8 units of German at UCI one summer when I lived back with my parents. So that's three transcripts up to the good old B.A.

Then there was the teaching credential. Crazy me, single mother of four kids, living in Hana, Maui. Chaminade University in Honolulu had just begun a satellite program on Maui for a teaching credential. Sign me up! Well, there were these lower division requirements that I needed to take. So another summer at Maui Community College to get those out of the way. OK, teaching credential accomplished, gainful employment found, but three years later it is TIME to get off the rock! Off we go to California where a year later I have a job. Hooray! Lucky for me the Hawaii credential is accepted by California. Have to "clear" that credential within five years to stay gainfully employed, but that means nine more units. University of San Diego offers a satellite program in Orange County. Transcript number six.

A lot of blood, sweat and tears is contained in those six pieces of paper. To think that I was all of sixteen years old when I started that journey. And now I can actually get my Masters' Degree without ever setting foot on a college campus. The whole thing will be online. Amazing. Summer of 2010 and I'll be done! Wish me luck...