Adventures in..

introducing my newest adventure

2009-03-02T20:06:00.002-05:00

http://onemillionthingstobehappyabout.blogspot.com/

all blogging is moved over there. check it out, participate, be happy : )

Weather and Baseball

2008-10-29T19:47:00.003-04:00

Hey, my old buddy Owen wrote a about how silly baseball commish Bud Selig was to try to have a baseball game on Monday night and then blame the weather(wo)man). Owen is a real live weatherdude and smartypants. Take a read if you are interested in this type of stuff. Oh, and GO PHILLIES!!!

DC Schools

2008-10-29T09:13:00.002-04:00

I am a big Michelle Rhee fan. And I am a teacher. And not afraid to say it. Do I think she needs better PR? Yes. Do I think she's brave and brash and could make some big big big changes for the good? Yes. This is an interesting piece on Michelle and her (our?) generation of school reformers.

Almost being there

2008-10-12T10:03:00.002-04:00

One week until our wedding! HOME STRETCH!!! If we can just get through the next couple of projects while staying in a positive state of mind....

being clueless

2008-10-05T18:37:00.002-04:00

I had no idea about Lindsay.

Political Cartoons (thanks N!)

2008-09-25T21:44:00.000-04:00

trying not to turn this into a soccer blog but

2008-09-23T10:05:00.003-04:00

How could I really help myself... Hey, at least I'm not posting the video of Abby Wambach sitting on her bed... whoa.

being a fan

2008-09-20T22:10:00.004-04:00

The WPS (new women's pro-soccer league) is looking, well, looking better than I expected. In the years since the demise of the WUSA, I've been cautiously optimistic about the return of pro women's soccer. The league had it's allocation of national team players and, well, I was pleased. Even if two of our players had broken legs this year and one is a relative unknown. Because, well, we have Abby. ::sigh:: ahhh, my other girlfriend (ha, ha, says N) I'm super-psyched that she'll be back here in DC- the team that drafted her (#2) in the second WUSA draft (for trivia purposes, #1 that year was Danielle Slaton, a defender, drafted by the worst team the first year of the league, Carolina). In those days Abby was not really playing youth national team stuff, she had a crew cut and was a bit of a bad-ass. Playing for the Freedom (starting right next to #9) helped her become the hard working, determined and humble(ish) player that she is.
Anyhow. I'm happy about Cat Whitehill (nee Reddick) as well- a solid defender is a great start to building a great team. Ali Krieger is a local and there's lots of good talk about her, so I'm excited to see her stuff. I'm not happy about having to go to GERMANTOWN to see 7 out of 10 games, ew. Who wants to go to Germantown...? But having the Freedom back? What a treat. Stay tuned- on Monday teams go to bat to see which International stars they can enter into contract talks with... I'm hoping for some crafty midfielders and outside backs... : )
To see pictures from allocation, check out this

Schooling

2008-09-10T20:58:00.003-04:00

Where would the Obama or Palin girls go to school in DC? Nice article on the neighborhood public schools of the White House and the Naval Observatory. Wish they spoke more of the schools but I like the idea anyway.

Saying goodbye and starting over

2008-08-27T20:05:00.003-04:00

If anything could be a spark to get me back on the blogging bandwagon, it would be two deaths of two brilliant women, Rachel Falls, my former supervisor at NAF Hotline, and Del Martin, activist and author. Rachel was a phenomenal human being, a mentor to many, a bright light in the pro-choice community, and in my life. And, supposedly, Dar Williams wrote the song "Iowa" when she was driving out to visit her (in Iown, of course). What an amazing and clever woman and a great loss to all of us.

As for Del, have you ever read Lesbian/Woman? Classic. Historical. Something all queer women (and men, and throw in some straights too) should read. We need to know our history to understand our present. We're not talking ancient history- we're talking recent friends. Thank you Del for your bravery. I hold it in my heart everyday.

So here my blog is in a crossroads. I think I'll try again. It's a new school year, and I can make a school year resolution, right? I want to blog again. It's good for me and by golly, I like it. (Hey other teacher-friends- happy new school year! I'm ready for Saturday, aren't you?)

RIP Colorado Kitchen

2008-06-30T13:45:00.002-04:00

Sad!

Another Brightwood neighborhood restaurant bites the dust (last week news of the newly opened and quickly closed Meridian came via the Brightwood listserv).

I am sad about Colorado kitchen- such a yummy brunch, a great cup of strong coffee, and just an awesome place to meet friends (like we did for N's last bday... We'll miss this neighborhood joint.

Worker Justice

2008-05-19T16:23:00.002-04:00

One of my Korean students looked at our class "Sharing our culture" wall panel and asked me about the picture of Cesar Chavez. I've been meaning to write a few lessons about Farm Worker issues and Mr. Chavez, one of my great heros.

This week's United Farm Worker campaign? "Ask Sesame Street why they want to be associated with Stemilt Cherries"
I'm writing a letter and hope you do too. http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/sesamestreet?qp_source=webhttp://

April and May Flowers

2008-05-03T17:31:00.021-04:00

In the words of a former student of mine (whose name rhymes with oy vey), this is just a "teeny-weenie little brag"

Wedding Planning

2008-04-23T14:13:00.001-04:00

Faux-Wedding Cake?!? http://thebridalwave.blogspot.com/2007/06/thrifty-or-tacky-faux-wedding-cake.html
Probably not our style, but intriguing...

Soccer viewing!

2008-04-22T19:40:00.001-04:00

The US Women's National Soccer team is playing at RFK Stadium in DC on May 10th! I am soooooo excited! Anybody want to come along?

Birthday Horoscope! (dah,dah, DAAAAH!)

2008-04-06T19:21:00.002-04:00

If Today is Your Birthday: April 6 (it is!)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Year Ahead
Forecast for April 2008 to April 2009

The New Moon in your Solar Return chart suggests that you will instinctively begin a new phase of your life this year. A decisively new direction has come about in your life. This can be an emotionally stimulating time in which you feel the urge to initiate and project, even if you are not quite clear about what you are projecting. Much of the energy in your life can have a magical quality to it as things are just automatically going in a certain direction. It is important to be intuitive at this time and allow the natural course to show you the way to the next step. Surprises (mostly very pleasant) pepper your year. New beginnings are in order, and you are bound to feel some level of excitement as the year unfolds.

The Sun squares Mars in your Solar Return chart this year. Your energy levels run high this year, but you should watch for hasty or impetuous behavior. Remember that haste makes waste. This year is likely to be especially busy. You could be rather willful and impassioned, and it would be best to channel excess energy into healthy physical outlets. Others might find you temperamental. If you suffer from frequent headaches, it is likely that you are not dealing with your own anger or desire to take the lead appropriately. You feel a great need for action, but if you don't know where you're headed, you might take the wrong turn. As long as you channel the excess energy constructively, instead of wasting your time arguing or getting yourself into conflicts with others, you can accomplish much.

With the Sun also square Jupiter, at times you may tend to overdo things or to promise more than you can deliver due to an optimistic, but not necessarily realistic, attitude. Your eyes may be bigger than your stomach. You may feel vague restlessness and discontent with life as it is, although you are generally in a happy mood. Elevated moods could also be rather unstable, as they may not be based on reality. Channeled well, this energy can represent creative power.

With Venus square Pluto in your Solar Return, intensity characterizes your personal relationships and romantic attachments. Passions, feelings of jealousy, and possessiveness run high, and these emotions are in direct proportion to fear of losing someone. You are likely to have to deal with these emotions in yourself, but you may also need to handle the jealousies and possessiveness of a partner. Fear of betrayal may be strong this year. Because Venus also rules finances, you may have some tension over your personal finances, and/or need to make a large payment that necessitates changes in your spending habits.

A harmonious aspect between Jupiter and Uranus suggests this could be a "lucky" year, although the luck is likely to come from a positive attitude and an enterprising spirit. It should be a strong year when sudden opportunities for advancement in different areas of your life appear. At the heart of this is your ability to recognize and capitalize upon opportunities and potentials. You are more open to new energies, approaches, and attitudes under this influence. Fortunate events occur as a direct result of your willingness to entertain the unusual and to think outside of the box. This aspect favors group activities, financial endeavors associated with groups or organizational efforts, educational pursuits, writing, publishing, speaking, and humanitarian efforts. A positive and optimistic outlook serves you especially well this year.

The year ahead is bound to be a stimulating, active one, ripe with new beginnings and fresh energy. There can be times when you overextend yourself, however. A positive attitude serves you best and allows you to grab the opportunities for advancement that are bound to come your way. Dream big, but keep your feet on the ground. Intensity characterizes your close personal relationships.

2008 is a Number Two year for you. Ruled by the Moon. This is a year of potential companionship. It is a quiet, gentle, and mostly harmonious year that is less active than other years. Instead, you are more responsive to the needs of others. If you are patient and open yourself up in a gentle manner, you will attract both things and people. This is an excellent year in which to build and develop for the future. Advice - be patient, be receptive, enjoy the peace, collect.

2009 will be a Number Three year for you. Ruled by Jupiter. This is a year of sociability. It is a friendly time, when it is easy to enjoy life and other people. Focus is on personal freedom, reaching out to others, making new friends, and exploration. You are more enthusiastic and ready for adventure. It is likely to be a rather lighthearted year, when opportunities for "play" time are greater than usual. It's also a good year for expressing your creativity. Advice - reach out, but avoid scattering your energies.

(hey, sounds good... I'll take it http://www.cafeastrology.com/birthday/april608.html, thanks!)

MiniVacay and Staycay

2008-03-25T17:41:00.003-04:00

A little trip to Philly, dinner with my gramma for her 80th (didn't get a picture, too bad) a little hanging out with the Cherry Blossoms.
Here is some evidence:
N tries to knock down the last domino

I obviously have a thing for statues

Politicking

2008-02-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

It's almost super Tuesday. Here's an awesome resource for anyone interested in Disability issues put out by The American Association of People with Disabilities. It's quite an expansive piece- a lot to sift through but for folks interested in civil rights, it's a must read.

Oh. And if you're voting on Tuesday? Vote with my union- Vote Clinton! If you want to know my reasoning, email. I'd like an excuse to write it all up. : )

Soccer Moms

2008-01-08T17:40:00.000-05:00

Kritine Lilly is having a baby. Good for her and her hubby and bad for the US Women's National Team's chances this Olympics. Ack!

shiny plum, patent leather goodness

2008-01-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

I bought a pair of shoes. I am not a shoe-horse. I own, maybe 8 pairs of shoes. But these shoes??? Too much. I put them on, saw N's face and (after checking to make sure that they were actually on sale) bought them. Because, well, I would have regretted it if I hadn't. I know that things like a pair of heels shouldn't make me feel prettier, or more sexy, but I can't help it. These look great on.

Pretty, eh?

Do-si-do-ing

2008-01-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

I'm here with guest commentator N. (Everybody wave and make N feel at home!)

We are now officially DP-ed, as in Domestically Partnered. We didn't expect much from the DC Department of Vital Records and well, to be honest, it was a strange experience. Very quick, pretty easy (by DC government standards) and we got two pretty blue-bordered forms proclaiming N as partner 1 and JT as partner 2. We were giddy and had some guy take our picture. Probably the happiest people in the place. We are DP number 8415, which doesn't seem like that many but the law has only been around for a few years. We feel very very lucky that we live in a place that allows us to register and get many of the rights of married people (tax filing in the district, medical decision making, see DC for Marriage for more info).

And how do we feel? We feel glorious and overwhelmed and lovey and renewed. When we look at each other we giggle. Quite ridiculous actually, but lovely. It's a great way to begin our wedding year.

We wondered if there was a DP version of "you may now kiss the bride" As much as I hate the unromantic, unsexy word "partner" (see my previous post on this issue) I was kinda hoping there'd be some sort of pronouncement, something other than "$45 made out the DC Treasurer" Hey DC Registrar! How about "and you may now do-si-do your partner?"

Vocabulary and Rice

2007-11-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in honing your vocabulary skills, AND helping feed those who do not have enough to eat, please visit the website linked here:
http://www.freerice.com/

For each word you get right, the organization will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

N and I played for a good 20 minutes. She's better than I am but together we got up to level 45.

Coming up from under the first advisory!

2007-11-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

I have not dropped off the face of the planet. I am just relearning how to balance this teaching thing with this, well, life thing.

I am officially not a first year teacher anymore (as of this week). It's great to finally recognize things and school traditions that I was part of last year at this time.

I'm loving all my students. My load is the PreK, K, 3rd, 4th and (sorta) 5th). I have my hands full most of the time and when they're empty I search the building trying to fill them. We had some major staff changes over the summer and I'm getting to know all the new teachers and new assistants and I'm enjoying that part a lot. One of the things about being an ELL teacher is that I really get to know almost everybody in the building. I'm probably closest with the 1st and 2nd grade teachers which is pretty ironic since I don't see many of their kids. But it does mean that I get to build stronger ties with people throughout the building. The community is just amazing and I can't imagine being much more lucky with this school. And to think, I got this job off of Cr*igsL*st! Oy, the luck! We had to do some serious "practice" testing here- a whole days worth, how dull and depressing. The worst part is that the kids aren't supposed to get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water and when they finish they can't read or draw. Just the rules I guess but it's hard to see and harder to enforce.

My folks visited at the end of September and we have a great time. Mom spent two days with me at school. We were part of the first grade (hi A!) lion hunt- we read an AMAZING picture book called Library Lion and then played the lions in the hunt. Some of the kids are still calling me Ms. Lion. Other kids (smarty 3rds, mostly) have been calling me Ms. T Jr (since my mom is also Ms. T) : ) They think they are really cute and smart. Too bad they're right.

The September visit turned into a meet the Faukers type event ("Who are the Faukers? Us or them" my father asked) since my dad suggested that N's folks come down too. It went about as well as could be expected. My dad was an absolute angel and balanced the situation out perfectly. Thanks Dad. Once again I realize why I'm such a daddy's girl.

Wedding planning is moving. We've met with the Rabbi once and we're going again tomorrow. She's great and we're very lucky to have her. We have a local locale about 10 minutes from home and we're working on the other details. I'm sorta into it in a chill and relaxed way so that's nice. It helps that we have 11 months. If N and I just chip away at all the planning hopefully we'll stay grounded and anxiety-free as the date (10/19/08) approaches. Meanwhile N has taken charge of the legalisms we'll need to deal with before really meeting with a family lawyer. Any suggestions in the DC area? Anyone to stay clear of? We plan on dealing with the DP registrations as soon as it's the new year. I'm looking forward to that. It just feels more comfortable and secure to be moving in the right direction to make sure that our relationship is protected.

What else? I've been carpooling to work with one of the second grade teachers, who also happens to be an alum of my college. Set her up with my BF here in DC and things are going pretty well. So my yenta-ing is impressive. So far.

The garden was beautiful this fall. It's actually interesting, since this is the first full year of full garden in this space, but I actually am not minding the gardening to be slowing down. It's not because of the work though, I love the yard work. It's more because it's the cycle and the cycle is comforting. I love to see my garden in all its faces. Next year though? I'm growing argula. We coulda put a kid through, well, summer camp, with the amount of cash we spent on that amazing spicy green. YUMMMMM.

Ok, so I'll add links later because I gotta run, but this was fun! I should blog more often!

Dopey internet questions

2007-09-07T18:52:00.000-04:00

Power to the working class warrior!!!!
My blood flows pink and I am a Union Member (yay)!

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Mint Chocolate Chip

2007-09-07T18:26:00.000-04:00

And now for something completely different...

I'm totally slow churned light, low fat ice cream obsessed.
Best by far? Breyers Double Churned Mint Chocolate Chip (it's not green! I love white colored, mint flavored ice cream!)
Second best, or best depending on my mood is Edy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup.

Yum. When it's hot like this ice cream's the only answer.

How I ever was a vegan, I don't know (but I do know the reason I stopped being one was because I was dating someone at the time who ate ice cream at least once a day).

Can we skip right to dessert tonight, N?

Oh, and for a nifty story about another obsession with Mint Chocolate Chip check out this story from trust NPR

Celebrating Us

2007-09-03T21:43:00.001-04:00

As posted on the Jewbian Listserv (it's better than an engagement announcement in the Times!):

Sun Sep 2, 2007 8:58 pm (PST)
Simcha Announcement!

NJG-DC is not a singles group, but several Jewbians have met girlfriends and partners through the group and formed wonderful couples in the two and a half years since it was founded. I'm thrilled to announce that we now have our very first engagement! Steering committee members JT and N(*name removed for privacy) -- who met at one of the very first NJG-DC happy hours -- plan to be married by a rabbi next fall. Meanwhile, they are living in sin and hosting a Rosh Hashanah dinner for the group at their home, so be sure to wish them mazel tov if you attend!

On behalf of all of NJG-DC, I just wanted to publicly wish them the best...It couldn't happen to two nicer people.

ListMamaD
___

More details added below!

Reflecting

2007-08-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

Ahhh, Labor Day Weekend. The slight reprieve between the first and second week of school. Ahhhh.

August was a pretty good month, all things considered. When people ask me "How was your summer" I've been saying pretty much, "The worst of the worst, the best of the best" By now, you know that my brother passed away. N and I had to decide if we were going to keep our plans for our summer travels to Cape Cod to see her folks (with a bonus day in Ptown) and Chincoteague Island (a week long beach trip we'd been talking about and planning for half a year).

We decided to go. And in Ptown we got engaged. (!)
N really is the best of the best. It was heaven to spend downtime with her at our favorite place- the ocean. I never thought I'd find a bigger beach bum than I. She matches my enthusiasm for big waves, endless beach reading, seafood and minigolf. : )

So did I mention we got engaged? Some parts, but not all, were planned in advance. And I mean in advance of this whole strange summer.

We did decide to wait to tell our parents until after the period of sloshim (or 30 days from the date of the burial, the mourning period for close family.) Now that they know (and now that N's folks know) they are all pretty excited. I'm surprised that, my parents at least, were caught off guard. My mom, I think is looking forward to being a mother of one of the brides. She thought it never would happen (dude, mom, I'm only 26! Not really an old maid thank you very much!)

Anyhow, this is about reflection, I guess, which is interesting because it's the same work I've been doing with the fourth graders at school.

Oh yeah school. Planning. Oy. I guess that's why I'm posting on Tuesday. : )

Assateague Wild Ponies

Crashing waves

Assateague Lighthouse

What's my minigolf handicap again?!

Marshland

Sunset (see the lighthouse in the background?)

So much wild life! Deer! Rabbits! Birds! Butterflies!

Here's the Ptown Lighthouse as seen from the Jetty at the end of the arm (This is the spot!)

View from the jetty.

Here are our rings, newly exchanged, from the jetty!

Hey, by the way, our jeweler, Leber, was awesome. Conflict free stones and recycled materials. Don't want to start out a partnership with blood diamonds, now do we?!? : )

Car buying

2007-08-11T17:08:00.000-04:00

Please welcome the newest member of our family, the Honda Fit. It gets 38 miles per gallon and is half as expensive as a Prius. Neither N nor I have ever owned a car before. We should get a bumper sticker that says our other car is the Metrobus.
I think the Fit is totally the cutest car ever. But she is our new baby after all.
:)

Coming home to DC

2007-07-24T19:15:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been an odd, to say the least, last two weeks. I suppose I'll have more to say about pieces of it as I deconstruct in the next two or so. I wanted to mention that so many friends (bloggers and non), family, coworkers and people from our past have been so truly wonderfully caring and loving and supporting. I'm lucky to have the web of support that I do have. I owe every person an individual thank you and I'm getting there but I did want to blog my thanks...

To some of the core of the Jewbians- who sent, in wonderfully Jewish fashion, a platter to my grandmother's house the day we went to the funeral home and cemetery to deal with the business of funeral arrangements. It arrived just after we did and reminded us to eat. Thank you dear dear friends. It meant a lot to my parents and my grandmother but mostly to N and I. It made us feel cared for by our you, our family of choice.

To the Rabbi who spent an hour the night before the funeral talking to my mom, dad and I about Alex. For not pressing the hardest issues, but for getting us to, and allowing us to, talk about all the wonderful parts of our lives with Alex. For being able to synthesize all the info at the end of the phone call allowing us to feel confident that he'd be able to represent our feelings and thoughts. He never met Alex but he did my brother proud. And, while we're on this subject, thank goodness for religion. It gave me a small sense of knowing "what to do next". Even if that was just sit and think.

To the principal of my school for saying that she and her son were thinking about me. For some reason thinking of her rising 3rd grader made me know that my school community was really looking out for me. For the rest of the teachers who sent cards and emails. For the flowers and the offers of books to donate to the school library. I am lucky to work in a place like this.

To N's bosses who just let her come and take care of me. To the public official who sent condolences when he heard.

To NR who came from Brooklyn. Seeing you was a reminder of home. Thank you for being authentic, loyal and loving.

And N. I can't begin, on something as insignificant as this blog, to express what it means to have had N here with me. My brother's death was something I've dreaded for twenty years. Where would I be? Would I be alone? Would anyone understand? To whom could I turn for support, when I knew my parents would be grieving. My entire community turned out for me but really N, to be loved and cared for by you, has made all the difference. Thank you for wanting to protect me even when you couldn't, for letting me "think to you", for holding me and telling me that my thoughts, feelings and decisions were good and valid. Thanks for going through everything with me, by my side. It kept me whole. It kept me connected.

To mom and dad. For the struggles you've had in the last weeks, months and years. For trying to protect me and loving me no matter what.
Oh, and mom, thanks for showing Allie those Nathan's Famous Pictures here on the blog. It's a comfort to know he saw them and felt connected to me.

My mother, who, as you can imagine is just begining on her own process. She's started her own blog here:

http://www.felice-mysonalex.blogspot.com/

Grief

2007-07-13T18:39:00.000-04:00

My younger brother Alex, pictured in the sidebar passed away very early yesterday morning. He had duchenne muscular dystrophy. For a while just a disability, but then a real illness as the muscles that helped him breath lost function as well as his heart. He was twenty-four, just twenty-five months younger than me. I am still in shock, I think. My parents are bringing his body to Philadelphia, our natal home, I guess, to be buried near my Taransky grandfather. I'm meeting them there for the funeral Sunday. He looked at my blog the day he died and loved the Nathan's famous photos. I knew he would. That makes me really happy. I'll post more when I get home but for now it felt right to blog.

Octopus Massage

2007-07-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

Does the Squid Get a Mani-Pedi?

Frank Bruni reviewed my cousins JoAnn and Marco's newish sushi joint in Union Square today. Two stars! Yay! And I ate their last week while I was in NY- tasty!

Oh and Frank Bruni is pretty funny : )

NY and then Home!!!

2007-07-10T10:06:00.000-04:00

Guess what N and I did on the 4th?...

Went to Coney Island for the hot dog eating contest at Nathan's Famous!

Me and mustard

I am so short that you guys are now officially seeing everything I could (other than a bunch of NYers butts and backs and heads). I kept handing N the camera and asking her to take pictures of the actual contest so I could see something. Don't try this at home!

The winner ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes (thats a hot dog every 10 seconds!) ew gross. The cool Japanese guy did not win because he had jaw arthritis. eeeehhh... Here's the winner Joey Chestnut with the mustard yellow belt!

The ferris wheel at Coney Island

Our cat Rosie has been chatting with this bird every chance he gets. It squawks so much that we decided to look it up and guess what, it's a cat bird. So now we have a cat bird and a bird cat.

Home is wonderful. My roses are trying to beat the heat.

2007-07-09T12:19:00.000-04:00

there is nothing like coming home. sigh....

More about my trip to my other home, NYC, later but for now, innudated with cats I busy myself with the mundane weeding, washing and walking of home. thank g-d.

Conservative Judiasm

2007-06-23T16:38:00.000-04:00

Big Gay Jewish Wedding'Panelists look at Conservative stance on gay weddings (sorta), as LGBT group celebrates first year

N and I went with some other Jewbians last weekend to hear some local rabbis (and one Rabinical School Dean) talk about Conservative Judiasm and the changing religious laws concerning ordination of out gay rabbis. It was supposed to be about conservative rabbis and how they perform weddings/commitment ceremonies (now that they are "allowed" to by the movement) but the most interesting parts had to do with this really brilliant Rabbi Artson (the vice president of American Jewish University and dean of its Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in LA) and his battle through the years to decriminalize gay sex within the conservative jewish legal world. The Rabbi from the local gay synagogue, ordained as a conservative rabbi, but who left because it wasn't (at the time) gay friendly, was really really angry. There were also a few youngish orthodox men who were really, really angry. So my quote in this article that I've linked above is really about the old adage: Invite 5 Jews to a meeting and you'll have 8 different opinions. :) Of course, I love it.

Growing up conservative I laud the movement for making these changes (admitting out queers to Rabbinical and Cantorial School and performing gay unions (is this marriage? is this something else? the Rabbis/synogogues are allowed to decide- including deciding whether or not they're going to do it at all)). Yes, it sucks that for the last 100 years the movement has criminalized gay sex and yes, ofcourse this makes me angry. It sucks that Rabbis can refuse to marry queers. But consciously making a change for the better, a change that shows committment to human rights, should ALWAYS be congratulated. Even if it's not as big and revolutionary as one would hope- this is a great and forward and thoughtful change. Good Job Conservative Rabbis.

Reuniting

2007-06-16T14:58:00.000-04:00

We had a nice weekend up in Cambridge for N's 10th college reunion. I got to meet some of her rooming group friends, sleep in a Harvard Dorm (ooooh, man for a place with such a huge endowment, you'd think the beds would be a little more comfortable), and meet many a little kid. It seems that about 8-10 years after you graduate from college, you procreate. A lot. Whoa. I like kids and for the love of Pete, I work in an elementary school but this amount of 3 and unders in a tent? It was a bit scary. Birth control, actually... We had dinner at an overly crowded Spanish restaurant (can I say Spanish-themed since the waiter handed us our menus saying- uno, dos, tres and then spoke to us in english for the rest of the meal?) with the rooming group buddies (and three birthday gatherings and a bachelorette party, but that was unplanned). The next day we spent time at K and H's in Quincy with their two boys. I build a broken bridge with L (age 3) who was really the chattiest little kid I've ever met and had to have the 9 month old peeled from me. K's lucky she got her baby back : ) We ate amazing banana pancakes and the girls reunited. N had a nice time and so did I. I don't like Logan Airport and I don't like Air T*ran and I'm going to leave our reflight to your imagination. Except to say we got a set of free round trip tix in the deal. :)

This was the last week of school. I'm not ready to post about it yet but I will. I'm relieved, sad, excited and proud of myself. It turns out that I'm happy at my school but it's so so so complicated. I'm off this week before the crunch to end my cert happens next week. Here's a picture of the Charles River. It was the day of the Dragon Boat Races in Cambridge. Wish we'd have seen 'em.

Promised Pig and More Flowers

2007-06-08T22:25:00.000-04:00

As promised, Eloise, wonder guinea pig

An orange lily appears!

My Takoma Neighbor's Bee Balm. Mine will look like this soon (I hope) for those of you in the neighborhood. This is from the house on Piney Branch that is like one big beautiful garden- even on the sidewalk. It is tended by the sweetest men ever. I aspire to be gardeners like them and my other gardening neighbors.

Harvesting

2007-06-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

This is actually our second harvest. We had some baby rainbow chard and some radishes about two weeks ago. But look at these SUGAR SNAP PEAS!!!! I'm so excited! They must have appeared yesterday when it was raining buckets. YAY for peas! The square foot garden is doing sooooo well even though it looks like a jungle. The herbs are looking great, the borage and some flowers are ready to bloom. There are flowers on the eggplant plant and a baby yellow bell pepper. I'll take and post some pictures of the whole contraption tomorrow. Yippee for gardening!

And I realized there have been no pet pictures up on this blog. What kind of lesbian am I? So here are the cats- Rosie and Guildy (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, don't blame me for the names, I had nothing to do with 'em). Tomorrow I'll add a guinea pig shot as well. Eloise deserves as much airtime as her feline brothers.

Guildy (aka Shmern) on his way to a nap. Surprisingly he isn't kneading. Generally that's what he does.

Rosie on the prowl

Capitalism Done Right

2007-06-01T08:06:00.001-04:00

http://goodstorm.com/index.html

Just found this storefront- note to self--- maybe useful for NJG Ts?

Following the "news"

2007-05-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Sexual orientation affects how we recall "lost objects" and other funny cognitive tasks

Infants can discern a language change at 4 months from just facial expressions (by 8 months the babies from monolingual homes have lost this skill)

And oh yeah, Mary Cheney had her baby. Gramma and, well, I guess he is Grandpa, look nearly cute and cuddly with the new tot with two moms. I wonder if Mary will start blogging for Lesbian Families... What do you think Liza?

Cuteness

2007-05-15T21:44:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah. Here's one more fabulous picture. My gramma (the one who beat the beast! and is not related the the famous Jewish Gangster Lepke!) and her red hat friends. She's all the way on the right in the foreground. Cuuuuute!

Undepressing myself (DC, S and an odd branch of my family tree)

2007-05-15T21:25:00.000-04:00

Ok. So. I just totally depressed myself and N is still at work and will be until the wee hours of the morning so... I need an activity to take my mind off of ucky thoughts...

How about DC in the rain (thanks www.dcist.com)

And a picture ofmy best buddy S and I last year (no, you don't get a cookie if you know where we are. too obvious!). S just graduated from AU's Grad program in International Communication. She's fabulous. I got to go to her graduation because she was the student speaker. I wished that K could have been there, she would have loved S's talk on dialogue.

She's cute AND looking, ladies! Line on up!

After the graduation I spent the afternoon at S and her sister's apartment at a lunch with her grandparents, an uncle, an aunt and a cousin. I felt like I'd spent the day with my family. Just as fun, just as exausting, just as glad when I got to go home : ) S's granddad did some family geneology and encouraged me to do more, even though it's "thankless." He's even heard of my most famous relative, Lepke "Lucky" Buchalter. He was a cousin of my mom's mom. In this picture (from his FBI file- whoa I still can't believe that this is public!) they described him as having "shifty eyes" What do you think?

And as a bonus... Lepke going the court house!

Yay for undepressing myself with oddities of my own family tree! Yippee!!

Saving the Cookie! and thinking about R's Brain and some beasts

2007-05-15T20:35:00.000-04:00

http://www.savethecookie.com/

Sign the petition to help Midwest Airlines from a hostile takeover! A very good airline with the added bonus of the wafting odor of chocolate chip cookies mid-flight. It's enough to take N's mind off of her,uh, dislike of flying.

So... Coworker A is impressed that I update this blog at all but she still sounded a bit disapointed. And no one wants to disapoint their favorite first grade teacher. She's helping out the cause by lending me The Other Mother (the book, not Robin the blogger who's blog I have listed here, though she does have an essay in the book). Look out for a special blog on this for Blogging for LGBT Families Day (June 1).

A little bit of sad news, but my dear friend and former coworker Rae is ill again from the same cancer she was just recovering from when I first met her 3 and a half years ago. Other than being a rockin' gal, her major claim to fame is that Dar Williams wrote the song "Iowa" when she (Dar) was driving to visit her (my friend). Dude. That's just awesome. : ) She also gets major points for being the hotline director for a large, well-known, prochoice organization. Big healthy happy, anti-cancer thoughts go out to R.

Cancer sucks folk, cancer sucks. Did you know my mom is a two time survivor of B*east Cancer? (oooh, I like that! Beast Cancer!) First time I was a little one (4th grade) and second time I was in college. I can repeat. Cancer sucks. Whenever someone is sick I think of my mom, I think of her mom (who died of Ovar*an Cancer), my other grandmother (B*east Cancer once again) my mom's cousin M (B*easts). And then of course I think about my own set. And N's. And I worry. I nag at her to check, check, check all the time. Now that the Genetic Discrimination Bill has passed congress I'm considering the test for "The Gene" Has anyone done this? Why did you choose (or not choose) to. I've got to go with Emilin from Name that Mama and assume that I'm going to get it sometime. Isn't that the safest way? Or is it just weird and depressing? For me, I guess, it's more like reality. It's not dark or morose, just probable. If you think this is a little weird, join my girlfriend. But between my mom and my brother's longterm illness I have a better sense of mortality, sickness and genetics than I should. It sucks when people you love are sick. End of story on that one.

I guess I did have a lot to say. And it wasn't all about the cookie...

More lighthearted garden pictures to come : )

April

2007-05-01T21:11:00.000-04:00

The tree has bloomed!

Poppy Anemones

Hedge of Irises

By the time we got to see the Cherry Blossoms there weren't many left- it was a rough spring for flowering trees. Still, we caught a glimpse of some pretty ones one cold, cold, cold April afternoon. No snow on my birthday, but some on the day after (!)

Sorry I've been so absent, I'll update soon. As you can see, we've been busy in the garden!

Blooming Trees and Flowers (almost!)

2007-03-23T08:53:00.000-04:00

Yay for the blooms! My birthday is always during cherry blossom season (aren't I lucky?) This year the peak is two days before my 26th. I have that whole week off of school and plan on spending most of the time I have free somewhere surrounded by cherry blossoms. Sadly there will be no sushi under the trees this year until after Pesach ends, but I can wait : ) I'm so excited.

Speaking of blooms, things are popping up in my garden. I'm so excited to see what was not eaten over the winter (the crocuses were definitely all consumed). I'm still waiting for my seeds to arrive. Supposedly there was a back up at the Seeds of Change facility. This stinks- I think I may be too late to start the snap peas but we'll see. If N and I are feeling better on Sunday we're going to go get stuff for the square foot garden and compost pen this weekend. Send good healthy vibes this way. I was out of work all week (this is unheard of for me) and N is just starting to come down from the adrenaline high from her IGJ event and is starting to feel the nasty bug herself. Poor kid. My ear is killing me and I'm tilting right-- weird how important the inner ear is, isn't it?

Time

2007-03-21T16:28:00.000-04:00

Did I mention that N started an important government job (IGJ) a few months ago? The pinnacle of this IGJ comes today. Meaning, primarily, I've seen N more on cspan this week than in person. Thought having her working weekends, every night until 9 (or ten, or 12 or like last night, 2 (!) ) sucks I am very proud of her. She's been under a whole bunch of pressure because of how fast this all revved up but I think she's handling it with a ton of class. Yay for N.

I got kicked in the butt by some nasty virus and have been out of school for 3 days. Went to the doctor today and got some cough meds and an antibiotic. I do not like to be sick. Anyhow, the cats are no good getting me tea and soup so I've had to do it myself. Next time I get sick it will not be during this important time of the year for the IGJ... or I'm getting cats who know how to boil water.

my other true love

2007-03-07T08:09:00.000-05:00

Books have always been an important part of my life. My mom, the first grade teacher, would sit in a c-shaped old fashioned reading group table during her pregnancy and teaching phonics. She also keeps my first books and first little outfits wrapped up together in yellowing tissue paper. Now, I've noticed that a lot of my reader friends talk about teaching themselves to read at 2 or 3. I didn't. I remember sort of reading some little sight words with my mom in kindergarden (I remember the word "see" in particular) but not really catching on the reading thing until the end of first grade, begining of second. Once I caught on I couldn't stop. I was the kid who hung out in the library instead of going out to recess. I read through the children's sections of any library that I came into contact with. I also became a book snob- I loved the Babysitter's Club books (very big circa 1989) but would ONLY read the extrabig ones (were they called the Secret Specials or am I making that up?). I also went through a Little House on the Prarie obsession (as did N. we also both dressed up as Laura for Halloween numerous times. Once she thought it was such a cool original costume and wore it to a costume party. She was welcomed by 9 other Lauras and a Smurf. I love that story). I've been reading some memes on other blogs- you're supposed to highlight from a list of books (it looks like it could maybe be the 100 best sellers of all times). Let's make it more fun. Here are my top 25 (fiction, grown up books) that I can think of right now. I'll do installments of my favorite kids books, non-fiction books, etc later on.

Enjoy (ps I just wrote this list and already remembered one to add, oh well)

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
3. Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fanny Flagg
4. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
5. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
6. Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold
7. The All-True Adventures of Liddie Newton by Jane Smiley
8. & 9. The Kid and The Commitment by Dan Savage
10. Donorboy by Brendan Halpin
11. The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
12. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
13. The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood
14. Carmello by Sandra Cisneros
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
16. Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy
17. Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear by Leslea Newman
18. The Human Comedy by William Saroyan
19. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
20. Bingo by Rita Mae Brown
21. Mila 18 by Leon Uris
22. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
23. & 24. Yo! and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alverez
25. The Girls by Lori Lansens

the rebirth of the WUSA! (?)

2007-02-27T15:06:00.000-05:00

Could it be?
Press release from the Freedom (W-League version):
________
Pro League Plans for Relaunch in 2008

Ownership groups representing franchises in six major U.S. cities have signed letters of intent to become charter members of the Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc.’s effort to launch a new professional women’s soccer league.

WSII CEO Tonya Antonucci announced the signings today and said the league anticipates a Spring 2008 launch, timed to capitalize on interest built during the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China in September.

The Washington Freedom will of course be one of those teams. For the full press release, http://www.washingtonfreedom.com/news.asp
__________

Man, this would be great. But I hope they move into the city (maybe into DC United's new stadium once the Nats move to their new stadium-- gee, a lot would have to fall into place but at least there's hope. I'd hate to miss Freedom games because they're still playing out in Gathersburg at the Soccerplex. Blech.

Weekends

2007-02-26T14:53:00.000-05:00

I love the type of weekends where we just hang out and don't plan to have a billion things to do. Sure, the Jewbian Iron Chef that we hosted the weekend before last was great (though I'll never look at a Beet in the same way again), but these relaxed, read the paper, take a walk, run some low-pressure errands weekends? The. Best.

Friday night we made some barley vegetable soup and watched The Shipping News and had some beer from the U.P. Michigander beer, dark cold movie on a dark cold night with soup and snuggling on the couch with the kitties? ::sigh::

Saturday we slept in, (she more than I, but I stayed in bed and read which, for me, is pure heaven) had blueberry pancakes* and walked to Takoma Park to pick up the Flexcar. Love Flexcar. Ran errands (Trader Joes was wildly crowded, PetSmart, Ace Hardware for weatherproofing materials- better late than never) and then ran home, had a cup of the before mentioned soup and then went downtown to Chinatown. The plan was to get a drink and go to synagogue (yeah, I know, in retrospect this may not have been the best pre-havdallah idea ever, but hey). We got the drink and went to the movies. We are bad jews. But the service wasn't really supposedly a service, more like a talk and a social justice call to arms. Sounds great! Would have enjoyed it. But too sobering (literally, good pun JT and I didn't even mean it!) post margarita (me) and mango mojito (her). So yes, we went and saw Breach. It was great. Laura Linney was great (omg, she really got into the character of Federal Employee... the lines about TV dinners and no cat were great!) and so was Ryan Phillippe. Even sitting in the second row (ooof! it was a last minute ticket purchase, the movie was nearly sold out!) was wonderful. We took the bus home, had a midnight snack and slept really well.

Sunday we watched the beautiful snow cover our new bird feeder and our maple. We had steel cut oatmeal with Meet the Press. I did my grammar homework and N talked to her folks- both not the most fun it in of themselves, but nothing was going to make yesterday a bad day. We talked budget and savings and does this happen to anyone else? The talk turned romantic. Not sex, that's not what I'm talking about (here at least), but talking about finance suddenly turned into a MRT (or major relationship talk). Ok, well, I am a bankers daughter so I guess I can't help myself. All I can say is that we have solidified things even more and that I'm very very very happy. And a little speechless. Those of you who know me in real life would be shocked seeing me so humbled, shy and speechless. and blushing. It takes a special situation to turn these cheeks pink : )

Anyhow, after that day and that weekend, how could we go back to work? We did. But I still can't wait to get home and plan some more unplanned out weekends.

*Hey, next summer, when organic blueberries are on sale at the grocery store, or at the farmer's market, buy a lot. Freeze 'em (grocery store ones freeze perfectly in the plastic containers they come in. Defrost 'em and add liberally to pancakes, steel cut oats (oh yum) or whatever.... : )

Chance Encounters

2007-02-21T08:52:00.000-05:00

You know, whenever I have those "it's a small world" moments I feel a little bit of a buzz. It's happened a few times in the last couple of months. When I interviewed for this job I ran into S, someone I'd known at Hamilton. Hamilton is a small school- my graduating class was 489. The chances of finding a Hamiltonian in DC is quite large (not as large as NY or Boston, but close), but the chances diminish when you start talking about public school teachers (private school teachers are another story altogether). Not only was S someone I knew a little bit (from some community service projects), she was someone I had thought was cute when I was in school and doing the coming out thing. Cute girls really helped the coming out thing. Don't you think? So turns out that S is A's student teacher. Makes for a nice little club house down at the end of the hall. It's a small world. Two Hamilton queers end up at some public school in DC? Random. But a little buzzy and fun.

My second "It's a small world" encounter happened this am. I take two buses to work. As usual on Wednesdays I got cozy on the bus with the Washington Post Food section. I read about New Chinese-Australian cooking, less scary pressure cookers and biodynamic wine (including one from one of my favorite wineries- Benziger http://www.benziger.com/ ) When the bus slowed down to turn. It was sunny. I figured we were turning onto Western Ave, a few blocks from Friendship Heights. I looked up. We were in Mt. Pleasant, my old neighborhood. I played it cool, like I always do... I mean, no. Actually, I panicked. I hate to be late and I was um, mildly concerned that in the excitement over pressure cookers that I'd gotten on the wrong bus. The man in front of me told me that, no, actually, there was just a huge accident on Military Road so we were being rerouted. Oy. What a reroute. Doubled my commute. I was annoyed. I called my principal. Oh, and here comes the "it's a small world moment" A woman walks up to me at my bus stop and calls my name. She is visiting her daughter for the week. Her daughter and I were good friends back in the days of my ballet-mania (we called the school, lovingly/hatingly Bolshoi on the Hudson). Weird. Old friend (JB) is living in DC now and really wants to be an ESOL teacher. What are the chances.

Double or nothing? I come into school and am all buzzy about the coincidence that I mention it to my coworker C. It turns out that JB and C went to Tufts together and lived in the same dorm. C did not know that JB was in town. Small F-ing world, eh?

I love it.

Media Exposure

2007-02-01T19:48:00.000-05:00

A good friend read my last blog post and brought up the question of media exposure for lesbians. I love love love love love After Ellen.com (weren't they changing there name? what happened? now they're part of logo... ok, whatever...) so I've been able to keep up to date on the portrail of lesbians on tv, in the movies, magazines, whatever. It isn't a good climate. So my friend's thought was that the internet is the cooshy place to see non-scary representitives of my "own kind" that's neither the L Word or Rosie or One Tree Hill. Interesting thought. Nice work other JT : )

Speaking of media exposure what do you all think of this Mary Cheney stuff. She freaks me out a little bit. Will W send a shower gift? Will she Easter Egg Roll with the other Family Pride folk? If the kid grows up and joins COLLAGE will she be scorned? It's weird. But republican queers, especially republican lesbians, freak me out. I've got to blame it on self-hatred and denial but then again maybe I'm just making excuses... I let this blog post sit all night on my computer (oh! two nights!) so I guess it's time to post.

Happy birthday N. I love you!

One more day left for this week. Hopefully A will eat fewer cupcakes at work tomorrow (you should have seen her flying down the stairs this afternoon M : ) Double hopeful that we'll get a little frosting of the non-cupcake kind.

Being Discovered and Having to Explain Myself

2007-01-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

Well it was only a matter of time, about as much time as it takes to Google "jewbian" in fact, you can find me. This is nice. I guess I've always been a bit lonely over here writing to myself and my loyal followers (um, my best friend, and some of the people I've put in my sidebar). But you know, not even N reads this blog. So I was kinda surprised when my new work friend mentioned that she googled jewbian and found this pretty little blog. Does that mean that all the other NJGs signing up for our group are also googling and finding me? Wow. I should behave better. Or post more often. Or at least tell entertaining stories or tell dirty jokes. Well, maybe not dirty jokes. Don't want to send the wrong impression to the new coworker right?

So now I feel like I need to explain myself. Are you listening coworker A and girlfriend M? What's with all the baby blogs. Right? You've got to be wondering what my little nagging thing is with mommies... Mostly queers, but not all. I'm not pregnant/adopting/planning (nor is the N), not in the ballpark, not even in the same city as the ball park... What I am is curious about families. The different ways that families document themselves and how they see themselves. Also I think babies are cute and make for good conversation. I didn't grow up with any kids with queer parents and I don't have that many good queer coupled role models. I want to see it done. I want to see the problems and the perils. I want to know what I'm in for (in 5+ years). I want to see "normal" "functioning" boring families that look queer or biracial or multicultural, or big and loud and whatever else. I like to see the similarities in all the moms- straight moms, queer moms, city moms, country moms, biracial or bicultural families, moms who adopt, moms who birth, moms who have partners who birth. Cute kids all around. Sweet sometimes, bad sometimes, but family all the same. It inspires me. Thanks mamas.

I see all these women as family and teachers- their blogs help me understand myself and our world. The writing is out of this world- these are women who can write! They help me see what sort of world I'll inherit when it's time for my own kiddos. So thanks blogging moms- I love your blogs. It's with envy that I keep you on my sidebar. You make me laugh and smile, you make me worry, you make me think. I don't mean to be (and hope I'm not) a stalker, just a lurker. I hope you know that each blog has made an impact on my life. Thanks for sharing your stories.

And welcome A and M to my blog. I wonder if you'll keep reading?

Update

2007-01-25T16:21:00.000-05:00

Robin reminded me- Dan won! That's getting out the gay masses!!! Dan, maybe you should work for the Democrats! (Actually, maybe he does already, this is DC after all)

Nice jewish boys! VOTE FOR DAN!

2006-12-29T17:37:00.000-05:00

A Nice Jewish Boy who lives in Arlington, Virginia is one of 8 finalists in the Washington Post's Date Lab "Re-date for Charity" contest. Here's the story:

The Post sent him and Robert Falk on a blind date back in October, and they interviewed them and wrote about it in the Sunday Magazine a few weeks ago. They had a great date and both gave it a perfect score- even though they didn't match romantically. I loved reading this Date Lab in particular (I love em all, but this one was gay and fabulous).

Anyhow, they asked him back, with a twist. Instead of a completely blind date, if he's chosen as the guy who gets to go out on a second date, he'll get to choose from 3 candidates. But more important than that is the fact that, if he's the top male vote-getter, they'll donate $500 to his favorite local charity. He chose the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington (he's been a member for 16 years!)

To vote, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/datelab/redate/index.html

Dan also runs an awesome small grass-roots campaign to help fight the dehumanization of the GLBT community. Check it out at I am Your Neighbor.

Mascots

2006-12-11T16:25:00.000-05:00

Have I ever mentioned my bad luck with mascots? I was just talking with a few friends about this um, contentious, topic. In high school we were the Indians. I grew up in northern Westchester county in a town that has a history that include american indians. And when I can sometimes understand (but can never condone) the "we call our team the Indians because we love and respect the Indians who helped make our town special" excuse, I cannot get behind the stereotypical representation that was the Ossining Indian.
How the hell did a Sioux end up in Ossining? Other things I can't get behind? Our school store. Called Teepee. Our newspaper (edited, quite well, I must say, by many a smart kid), Smoke Signals. Could I make this up? The marching band, led by a another smart kid (namely, me, on this one, among others) played a song called Cherokee. Daaahh, Daaahh, DaDaDaahhhh! DaDaDaDaDahDahhhDahhhDaaaaah! Seriously. Our war chant. What the hell?

To make this worse Ossining was (and still is) a hugely diverse place that had some history of race struggles. To fix these "struggles" the school board instituted a complete busing plan to integrate neighborhood schools. The Ossining Plan created mini communities of learning on grade level clusters. It also created a sense self that leans towards multicultural and progressive. Ossining was a great place to grow up but the Indian stereotype, long a hero for the high school, didn't have a place in the community.

In 2001 or so Governor Pataki insisted that all public schools in NY State who currently used the Indian as a mascot needed to switch to something less racist. Ossining chose the Riverhawk. The townies revolted, started pro-Indian clubs, protested, groused and all together spent wayyyyy too much time and energy fighting to keep our town Sioux.

Anyhow the point of the story is not the Indian. It's not the Riverhawk. It's the Big O. Yes, ladies and gentlemen the students of dear old, Ossinin' High have voted to change the mascot to, well, a letter I guess. Minimalist. As my friend Matt said, "Oh no! We're one step from becoming the school formerly known as the letter O." Another friend made a Sesame Street reference.

And then ofcourse is the orgasm. It's no wonder I'm a dyke. Have I ever told you about my college team? The Conts (say it loud and proud folks, conts!conts!conts!conts!conts!)

Could I make this up? If you could see the back of this swimmer's speedo? You would see it plastered right there- CONTS

Wow.

More wedding pictures

2006-12-04T19:14:00.000-05:00

The bride (Amy) and youngest sister (Sam)

by bgood15

My gramma boogies

by bgood15

Can you say kippah with a chin strap?

by bgood15

Emily (middle sister of the bride), her baby Jakob, Cruise-Ship Rabbi Marvin (could I make that up?), and Grandpa/My Uncle Bruce.

by bgood15 Here's to another baby named for my grandpa Ray. In Hebrew they call him Yurachameal- a mouthful, eh?

Amy's Wedding

2006-12-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

I went to my cousin Amy's wedding back in early November. My dad flew in and we three drove up to Columbia together. Well, we started to go together and we got there together but my father had to leave pretty much immediately to drive up to the Delaware/MD border to rescue my aunt, uncle and two cousins who were stuck on the road. My dad, ever the big brother went and made the rescue and made it back in time for the ceremony. Here are a few pictures.

The first is from the nephew of the bride the day after the wedding. He had a baby naming ceremony where he got his Hebrew name. Interesting that they waited, but with family from so far away it really made sense. He's a cutie, isn't he? And that plaid skirt? Mine. :) He's in that 9-month, I'm obsessed with my reflection phase. Cute!

by bgood15

Teaching (pt. 1)

2006-11-28T22:41:00.000-05:00

So my best friend from high school called me today. and emailed. wondering where I've been. I looked back in my calendar and email and oh my goodness- I've been totally MIA for 2 weeks.

Where have I been? Work! Yippee!

Tomorrow will be my 6th day of teaching and so far it's been pretty good. I'm glad to be at the school. I'm learning to be much much much more flexible (and I was pretty flexible to begin with). I'm hoping to finally finalize my schedule (as an ESOL teacher I can, in theory, service PK-6). It looks like I'll be doing almost all push-in. This is good since there isn't room for me to pull out. Most time will be in 2nd grade, topped off with some 3rd and 4th grade writing. I'm also going to do some behavior mod with some PK and Kindergardeners. We'll see. My coworkers seem nice and are super welcoming. I like the kids a lot and am looking forward to building stronger relationships with all of them. : )

Anyhow. Teaching means I need to get up early. I'll post teaching pt 2, etc. I'm sure.

Any teachers out there want to send me advice? : )

Accents

2006-11-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
North Central
The South
What'>http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have">What American accent do you have? Take'>http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Take More Quizzes

Um, whatever, my non-descript accent can't be anything but non-descript.
Here are the places and years I've lived- this all equals a midwestern accent...
Born Philadelphia (parents from Philly/S. Jersey and Long Island/S. Jersey)
Lived S. Jersey (Sweedsboro) until 3
Lived Baltimore County Md. (Timonium)until 4
Lived Ossining, NY (on the Hudson, 1 hour North of Manhattan. Downstate. Really) until 7
Lived Tokyo, Japan until 9
Lived Ossining, NY until 18
Lived Clinton, NY (Central NY, north of Albany, east of Syracuse) until 22
Live Washington, DC (but my parents now live 1/2 in Madison, WI and 1/2 in Sarasota, FL- does that make me a midwesterner enough to claim the accent???

Family wedding last weekend. Stay tuned.

Team Sports (or Politics!)

2006-11-09T18:48:00.000-05:00

Yehaw Dems!

Well, the hometown just got a bit friendlier. As you may know I am afraid of jinxing things so I wasn't even holding out for a house takeover, let alone the senate. Some might call me a cynic but I'd just rather be pleasantly surprised than to be disapointed.

::sigh:: I'm super excited about the committee and subcommittee leadership changes--- strict corporate oversight, reapeal of tax cuts for the super-rich, control of the judiciary committee (try to pass those nasty anti-choice, anti-gay court nominees W, just try). NCLB needs to be reauthorized in 2007- hopefully we'll have some good changes to this hefty and unfortunate education law.

Speaking of education. I got fingerprinted today. FINALLY!!!! All I need to do now is take my oath and I'll be able to teach- yippee! By next Friday I hope. Not by Halloween (as I originally expected) but it's looking more and more likely that I'll be in well before Thanksgiving.
PHEW. I won't talk to bad about this process with HR, but it was a bit of a nightmare (to say the least). I am sending a letter to our mayor-elect who wants to fix DCPS. Mr. Fenty, look out for this one.

Anyhow, on to basking about the Senate. My dad arrives tomorrow and he and I and N are going to my cousin Amy's wedding up in Columbia. It should be interesting.

Yippee!

politics

2006-11-08T08:12:00.000-05:00

I live in DC, so therefore there are ALWAYS adventures in politics.

So, we won't know about the Senate for a while. If Testor loses, then we know that the Dems don't have the Senate- but if Yellowstone County comes through then we just wait for this Webb/Allen recount. Come on Yellowstone!!!!

Yay for the House. N and I went and campaigned for Lois Murphy (PA-6) this weekend- no decision yet on that one. I'm excited about NY. Elliot Spitzer! Also, I'm looking forward to Acuri out of the Utica/Rome area (that's my college district)- they haven't had a dem in that spot for a longlong time.

In non election news- New York City plans to allow people to change their gender on their birth certificates without surgery. This is fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.

Once again, yay! I love NY.

new disability blogs

2006-11-02T10:46:00.000-05:00

This is very cool- I'll be adding blogs from here to my sidebar as soon as I find some I like- very neat AOL.

Happy Disability Employment Awareness Month (hey, it's good to be aware........)

:)

AOL Introduces Blog Targeting People with Disabilities
"AOL Ability" Site Provides Specialized Content in the Areas ofEmployment, Entertainment, News, Family, Health and TechnologyAvailable October 2006: http://ability.aol.com/

In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, AOL has
introduced a new AOL Ability blog site and forum(http://ability.aol.com/) dedicated to millions of people with disabilities, and their families, friends and colleagues.Designed to provide focused content for people with disabilities and to heighten disability awareness with mainstream audiences, the AOL Abilityblog will bring together relevant news, stories and information in thekey areas of employment, entertainment, family, health and technology.AOL is partnering with The Paciello Group (TPG, www.paciellogroup.com) and recruiting bloggers from the disability community to provide the majority of content in these areas.By reengineering corporate software, TPG is focused on results tosupport technology vendors, government agencies, e-commercecorporations, and educational institutions to build community, foster interaction through social networking and deliver accessible communication services to make their technology equally accessible to all people with (and without) disabilities.The site incorporates specific features to increase accessibility among users with disabilities and functional limitations including the ability to select a high contrast view (yellow text on a black background) and increase fonts to a larger text size for blind and low vision users."Our goal with the AOL Ability blog is to provide a unique venue wherepeople with disabilities, family members, friends and the generalaudience can come together to share information, access resources andview disability in a positive light," says Tom Wlodkowski, AOL's director of accessibility. "The goal shared by TPG and AOL to provide a dynamic "port-of-entry"into the world of blogging for people with disabilities of all ages isthe cornerstone of the AOL Ability concept," said Mike Paciello, founderand principal of The Paciello Group (TPG). The AOL(r) Ability blog also provides links to other resources on theAOL(r) network that offer additional features for people with disabilities, including direct access to free, daily CNN videos withclosed captions from the AOL(r) Video portal (http://www.aol.com/video) to enhance the online media experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. As the AOL Ability virtual community grows and evolves, so will the Website with more features that are important and impactful to those withdisabilities. The AOL Ability blog is an extension of AOL's Accessibility Policy, acompany wide priority that aims to address and meet the technology needsof people with disabilities. More information on AOL's accessibility efforts is available at http://www.aol.com/accessibility.

(or at) Rasika

2006-10-31T11:27:00.000-05:00

After seating us a little late (about 35 minutes after our reservation) the owner, Ashok Bajaj (also of the Bombay Club and the Oval Room) brought us complimentary some appetizers quickly (we asked him to pick and he picked well- the spicy and flavorful Reshmi Kabob and the quirky deconstruction that is the Palak Chaat (um, yum!) to make up for the inconvience. Our waiter was a sweetheart and told us we ordered perfectly (Goa Shrimp Curry- the shrimp were delicious and enormous; Palak Paneer- creamy but not too rich, earthy tasting; Dal Markhani- the best lentils ever; and the Bread Basket). We asked him to pair a wine with the shrimp and he did. perfectly--- and it was the cheapest wine on the menu (all the wines are boutique so I was glad to have the help- this wine from South Africa was a combo of Chenin Blanc and Pinot Grigio grapes and was soft, medium bodied and a little sweet. It was refreshing, a little citrusy and went perfectly with the spicy, lemony shrimp curry.) I was shocked that he offered the least expensive wine on the list. Not that it was that cheap ($7 a glass); but by the fact that he cared enough to get us the BEST wine for the meal, not the most expensive just adds to the professionalism and the deep love of food and wine. He also recomended his favorite dessert- a fried apple with cardamom ice cream- not something I loved, but I was already full from dinner so N got to choose). We also had drinks at the bar while we were waiting for a table- N chose a yummy,yummy,yummy pomegranate margarita and I got a gin and homemade ginger syrup martini. : )

What a gentleman Mr. Bajaj was- he even insisted on helping us on with our coats (N was a little confused as he would not give her the coat, instead holding it out to put it on her. I had to say "Honey, he's helping you put on your coat" cute : ) As he was helping with the coats (nearly 2 hours after we were seated) he was still apologizing for the lateness of our seating. Dude, you made up for it. The food was great, your staff was great, you are a charmer and a half. Don't sweat it : )

Deserved all 3 stars Tom Sietsema gave it in the Fall Dining Guide.

When are we going back N?
:)

Halloween

2006-10-31T10:24:00.000-05:00

So it's Halloween and I'm not yet teaching- I sorta thought today would be the day. Pretty much I'm waiting for HR to figure process me so I can take my oath and get fingerprinted (in that order??) so I can start. ::sigh:: My principal is super supportive and I know that she wants me in ASAP so I'm just trying to be patient and doing whatever she tells me to do to further my case at HR (which is hard and of course I'm not supposed to talk about work here but let me just say, HR voicemails... always, always, always full). ::sigh::

So maybe this week? I hope so- all good and positive in-the-classroom thoughts are appreciated.

I am excited, but anxious about the whole thing. I'm a new teacher. I know I'll be spending about 50% of my time with the second grade- I've met with the teacher (Ms. K) and spent some time with the kids- I hope that the co-teaching and supportive teaching and scaffolding goes well and that Ms. K and I get along. I am planning on going in and staying humble- always important for me. :)

On the non-teaching side:

-My irises (planted about a month ago) are sprouting in the front garden. oy.
-We did not carve the pumpkins. Yet. Maybe I will tonight before N gets home.
-We did have an amazing amazing amazing dinner last night at Rasika. I'll write a little review in a separate post. N took me to celebrate my impending employment. Thanks sweetie!
-I'm making a special halloween dinner- Brazilian Black Bean Soup (the recipe I use is from the -New Edition of the Moosewood Cookbook and it has carrots in it) and Pumpkin Muffins that we have left over from the housewarming.

One last thing. We had a fabulous, boring weekend. We went to a sortaboring Halloween Party (as Ernie and Bert) and just hung around the house- just loving being here and being together and it being pretty outside. I want more fabulous boring weekends just like that. mmmmmm. : )

So I'm off to on a walk. Will post the mini-review too! : )

Jersey

2006-10-26T10:18:00.000-04:00

Anybody up for some Jersey? My natal home made me proud yesterday.

Let's see what the legislature does with this directive.

Employment

2006-10-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

I have a job! A real, live, full time teaching job!!!! TESOL, of course, since that's what my degree will eventually be in.

The school is great, the principal is full of energy and she's "thrilled" to have me on board. I'm going to be spending the majority of my time working in the second grade classroom (push in) and the rest TBA. It's a public school in DC but it's pretty a-typical--- low percentage of students recieve free or reduced price lunch and a high percentage of test-passers (high enough that the Principal doesn't count testing as one of her priorities- shocking, really, for post-NCLB...) It's not the school I expected but I am excited and think it'll be a great place to have a start in education. It's great that she's giving me a chance- and hey, maybe I'll have a use for my teeny bit of Russian (finally!).

Hopefully I start the 29th...

Will let you know!!!!!

Protecting Farmworking Women

2006-10-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

Here's something awful, write letters friends. Farmworkers (particularly women are really some of the most vulnerable folks in this country.
Though Threemile just produces milk and potatoes (mostly for McDonalds) seeing these alerts from United Farm Workers, and then of course being reminded of unbearable conditions during the "spinach scare" remind me to think more about where my food (and wine!) come from:

Threemile puts pregnant woman at risk

Threemile Canyon Farms in eastern Oregon is back to its shameful behavior of discrimination against women.
Threemile's latest intimidation of women is to avoid providing them with a separate changing area--a necessity as workers must wear coveralls to protect them from feces and urine. Laura Garay repeatedly spoke out on this issue and won. Now the company is making her pay for protecting her rights and the rights of other women.
A couple of weeks ago, Laura found out she was pregnant. One of Laura’s jobs was to bathe each cow’s udder with chemicals—which brings her face directly into the chemicals’ fumes. As no masks or protective gear are provided, it made her dizzy and worsened her morning sickness. Her job also required Laura to go up and down stairs. In order to protect her unborn child, Laura requested to be transferred to one of numerous other jobs at the dairy. Management said, if she could not do her job she would be fired.
A week ago, Laura slipped on cow manure and fell hard on her tail bone. She was sent to a company doctor who told her to take a day off and cleared her for reassignment for five days to a different job. On the sixth day, despite Laura telling management she was in a lot of pain because of the fall, they sent her back to her old job. When the pain became too much to bear and Laura felt she was going to faint, she demanded to be allowed to go to the hospital.
At the hospital, Laura discovered the company doctor misdiagnosed her. She likely had a fracture in her back and was told to avoid any physical activity. The doctor told Laura she couldn't understand how the company physician sent her back to work so quickly.
Laura is now at home recovering, waiting to see when the doctor at the hospital will let her return to work. She told us, "I'm really afraid that because of this fall and the hard work that they assign to me that I'll have some problem with my baby. I'm also worried that they're going to fire me because I'm pregnant or retaliate against me because I fell." Please help Laura and all the Threemile employees by writing a letter to McDonalds and ask the giant restaurant to use its influence to stop the problems at Threemile. McDonalds gets products from at least three different companies that buy milk and potatoes from Threemile. McDonalds’ code of conduct says, "We hold our suppliers responsible for ensuring adherence to our standards in their facilities and in subcontractor facilities that produce products for us...We will not do business with suppliers who fail to uphold our standards, in action as well as words." Yet McDonalds has repeatedly refused to take action. Please take action to help Laura and the Threemile workers!

lots of stuff

2006-10-16T08:40:00.000-04:00

Haven't updated in a while and I'm sorry about that. The job hunt continues to escalate and I'll let you know when I've recieved/accepted offers, startdates, etc. I hope. We've had visitors (including my mom this weekend), we're planning a house warming (this weekend!) and I've been doing some work in the garden. It's been fun, just busy. My class is going pretty well but it's not particularly invigorating....

but until I am more inspired to blog here's an interview by the Daily Pennsylvanian with Dan Savage. I really like the books he's written (Hey! Amazon's selling these in the Bargain Bin! 6 bucks! Get 'em while they're hot!)- you might know him better as the syndicated sex-advice columnist whose campaign leads here: http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

Though vulgar, he's a smart cookie (really, read his books to see what I mean) on marriage. And no, I do not endorse anyone being dragged behind a pickup truck, at least Dan Savage gets the irony of the recommendation. And Santorum, if anyone, deserves a foe like Savage.

Spring Planting

2006-09-29T16:12:00.000-04:00

No really, I've been planting and buying plants for spring. And it isn't officially fall yet. And I don't want fall to go away (because I love fall, I mean, all of me but my sinuses, but whatever) or life to move too fast (it does that on its own, I do not need to encourage it). But I would love to wake up next spring and have a garden. Not just soil that needs to be weeded (and de-clayed, but that's a whole 'nother story). So here are pictures of everything I've planted or will plant before frost. Except my butterfly bush. Because I can't find the exact picture. But it's dark magenta colored and small at the moment. Does anyone know if you're suposed to dead-head butterfly bushes? I have been because otherwise the old ugly spent points just sit there in perpetuity. Let me know. My father can't answer this one and neither can the internet. And if it's stumped Dad and google it may be a question no one's answered before.

genotyping

2006-09-25T10:44:00.000-04:00

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html

I'm curious what JW thinks about this? It's good to have a friend who knows about this sorta stuff.

Radical Math

2006-09-24T21:37:00.000-04:00

This is really cool http://www.radicalmath.org/
I'm going to definitely use this resource. Anything to make math relate to people and people to relate to math.

The ideas and philosophy of radical math come from Bob Moses who happens to be Hamilton College class of 1952 or something. He was one of the very first African Americans to graduate from Hamilton and he has made a huge impact in the world of education and multiculturalism and social justice and power through public education.
Here's a great Bob Moses quote that the Radical Math folk have on their site.
"The most urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color is economic access... [and that] depends crucially on math and science literacy."
- Bob Moses
Isn't that the truth?

Inviting my favorites from the real world and the blogworld to my Rosh Hashana Dinner

2006-09-22T17:04:00.000-04:00

We're having the DC Jewbians over for dinner tomorrow night. If any of you find yourself in DC without a place to eat and want to join us we'll be chowing down around 5:30. N and I would be happy to have you.

Email or post a comment, ok?

L'shana tova.

SMOOCHES

cooking for Rosh Hashana

2006-09-22T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, my kitchen is head to toe in spinach (frozen, don't worry! not the bad ecoli fresh stuff!) and lucky green is her color.

The green comes from my mom's famous fritata. It's not like a fritata you get for brunch (unlike plain scrambled eggs- fine for plain breakfast, those fancy, "i'm at brunch" fritatas are just for that weird weekend uppermiddle class meal- "brunch"). It's like a yummy spinachy, cheesy holiday special thing. It's not a real holiday without it. It started out as a Pesach recipe and I think it could be considered the worlds most sucessful Pesach food. Here's the recipe.

1 cup cottage cheese (I usually use 2%)
1/2 cup monterey jack
4 eggs
1/2 cup matzo meal (you can use flour when it's not Pesach)
2 of those frozen boxes of spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 357 degrees f

Defrost the spinach. If you have time do this in the fridge for 8-12 hours. If you buy your spinach at the last minute (um, like me), put it in a colander and run warm water over it.

Squeeze all the water out of the spinach- you don't want it too wet.

Add cottage cheese, monterey jack, eggs, matzo meal, salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Pour mixture into a greased brownie pan (or for appetizers, a cup cake pan, sans cupcake papers).

Bake for 45 minutes untl top is nice and brown. Let cool for 5-10 minutes. Eat. Yum. Great cold the next day, Great warmed up the next day (and shoved into pita for school lunch...)

YUM. YUM. I smell my fritata cooking, can you?

Queer-Jewish Identity

2006-09-18T00:46:00.000-04:00

I saw Leslea Newman at the DCJCC today. The lit festival. She was talking about JewishQueer identity politics with two other doubleyblessed folks (though most said, not double! triple at least!!!)- Lev Raphel (he's the son of 2 holocaust survivors too) and Michael Lowenthal. It was... slightly disapointing I must say. I mean the reason why I go to see this stuff is to hear writers talking about writing. And this was just a bunch of queer jews talking about dual identity. which i didn't need to go to a literary festival to see. I mean. That's what I have the Jewbians for, right? Whatever. I love Leslea's writing- very very very authentic (and she mentioned something about that- something along the lines of her needing to come to terms with her jewishness if she was to come to terms with her queerness-- if she was going to accept the authentic lesbian leslea then she needed to accept the authentic total leslea- who was a Jew. I liked that.

Anyhow, that's what I've got to say about that right now. I'm going to think a bit more on the topic and right more when's it's not 1 in the morning. Ugh. A week a nightmares and now I've decided to become and insomniac? Oy.

Finding interesting music

2006-09-05T13:45:00.000-04:00

Hey all, take a listen here www.susanwerner.com and make sure your volume is on. "My strange nation" is an interesting song- it reminds me of something my mother would have played me growing up (aka, folk/antiwar/hippie music). You can download the MP3 and the lyrics on the site.

Good listenin'

Celebrating

2006-08-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

N and I took a little last minute anniversary trip to Rehoboth this past weekend.

We camped at the Delaware State Seashore Park (which is hard to find after sunset, let me tell you! N and I made it to Ocean City before we turned around). Which was a tad bit, um, how to say this politely? Um, well, here, I'll just describe it with 3 mini-experiences:

1. The RV closest to us was a Jagermiester RV
2. We woke up our last morning the the 10 year old in the campsite next to us yelling at his brother "I'm not a gay cracker! You're a gay cracker!"
3. The dumpster caught on fire. This was very exciting.

Anyhow we had a great Saturday (cloudy but do-able) at Dyke Beach. I tried to get into the water a bit but it was really wild- too bad but that's ok.We had dinner at a place called Claws. N had the crab cakes but I took the adventurous route and had the whole crabs. In their shells. Dumped in front of me. It was a lot of work. N, once again proved to be the smarter of the two of us : ) She also could have used a shield, as malleting those little suckers is not a neat job. Now I'm a real Chesapeake girl, right? Sunday we outlet shopped and came home. It was a great little getaway. We needed it.

N, I love you. Thank you for your sweetness, your love, your openess. It's been a rough month getting our home together for the first time but I think we've finally gotten it. : ) Thank you for never calling me a gay cracker. Well, except that once....

xo
This photograph was taken by Michelle Frankfurter at the Jewbian Picnic

Missing soccer games

2006-08-30T10:22:00.000-04:00

for a good reason (see above post)

However, here's a picture of my favorite giant.

Thanks for the image, as always US Soccer!

#1- If I was as close to Abby as those girls in the background I'd be a little more excited. Could they be anymore bored. Lord girls! Get roudy!

#2- Really, how dopey does Abby look? I'd love to photo shop a tutu and leotard on her. But that would be just.wrong.

some dudes least favorite bars in DC

2006-08-17T19:35:00.000-04:00

I thought this was pretty well written actually...

The Barbaro Memorial DC Worst Bets

laughing hysterically (and having to catch up!)

2006-08-17T11:14:00.000-04:00

So many adventures in the last few weeks. the highlights include:
-no job yet (waiting for "midyear vacancies" begining Sept. 1)
-visit to N's family on Cape Cod (including Tofu and beautiful blue sea at PTown)
(more on this later, I promise)
-The Rittenhouse House "defects" list
-Restaurant (Ceiba- yummy. I had the seafood soup. This is not a surprise. If there's one on the menu I'm eating it.)

And for the laughing hysterically... If you know what this photo represents, you can be friends with David (who plays bassoon with my symphonic band, who doesn't want to be friends with a bassoonist?!?!). He's cute (and single boys!!!)

inventing tasty drinks

2006-08-04T09:58:00.000-04:00

gin and pomegranate soda. a little lime. yum. perfect for 100+ degree days.

Shabat Shalom

hearing music I like

2006-07-31T14:40:00.000-04:00

I love music- mainly (contemporary) folk and new/bluegrass type stuff. I also like a bunch of my mom's music (older folk types, well known like James Taylor and lesser known like Steve Goodman) and some classical. Though I'm picky about music (shocking, I know) and bad about remembering names of artists and songs there is some country and some rap that I like a lot. I can sometimes singalong at the grocery store, but rarely do I like the sort of music played.

Yesterday however, something cool happened. N and I were walking out of Target and I heard a familiar guitar opening. I stop dead in my tracks and sing "Again I'm squinting, my demons are back and they're so convincing..." SAM SHABER. At Target. It was exciting. I danced and sang the whole way out. I wonder how she ended up on the mix... I know that song (Eldorado) is the single that she was trying to sell... I'll have to look into it

my monday morning

2006-07-31T08:18:00.000-04:00

wake up early
unpack some clothing
see my girl off (a kiss at the door, how domestic!)
wash the cat bowls. pet cats.
feed pig.
read washington post magazine
blog
unpack 2 boxes (really, i plan to)
go to old place and drop off keys (good riddance to the old place!)
come home
set up grill
install cabinet locks (so the babies, i mean the cats, don't live in there with the garbage)
unpack, unpack, repeat...

We're here! It's great! We've met our neighbors! We went to Target! A little scary, but good so far. And the house is just, just, well, just ours : ) and perfect : )

Learning about the urinary health of pet guinea pigs

2006-07-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

Oxbow Pet Products is proud to announce sponsorship of a 2 year study at UC Davis, which began Aug. 2004, to investigate risk factors and mineral composition of urinary tract calculi in guinea pigs

Good for them. Piglioni will be watching carefully. She loves Oxbow Hay.

Being a fan

2006-07-24T10:35:00.000-04:00

U.S. Beats Ireland 5-0 (and last week played a crazy game vs. Sweden and won that too)

I'm a women's soccer super fan. Love it. Love the US Women's National Team, loved the WUSA even more (come back soon please). Just was looking over this blog and noting that there has been, to this point, no mention of the USWNT- what a pity. Though I suppose their first domestic match of the year was last week (and we were in Wisconsin watching it with my folks) and the second game was yesterday (used it as a bribe to do a lot of packing) so I'm not too far behind.

Just wanted to share some soccer goodness with the blog. US Soccer gave us the beauty above.

Favorite Moment: Chulpney's beautiful bending ball in front of the goal that allowed Wambach to do what we all love to see her do- hit it hard on her head into the back of the net. A thing of beauty.

Least Favorite Moment: O'Reilly's nervousness which I believe costed her some goals. She needs to look up and see the goal before she shoots. But she was trying!

Player Most Missed: Lilly or Boxx, it's a toss up.

Times Wagner mentioned sticking her head into a bucket of beer: 0 (but once last game)

Times my girlfriend was jealous of my drooling over Captain Wambach: 1,2, maybe? Fewer than expected. : )

Moving out. and in (together)

2006-07-22T21:45:00.000-04:00

So we're moving. Right now N is packing her first box (books, of course) and I think (know) how hard this is for her. It makes me sad to see her upset even though I know that she wants this as much as I do. This place has been her home, one she's owned, and come into her own in. Three years is a long time and I know that it's a place that holds a lot of meaning for her. She's so proud of it.

It would make it easier if there was a tenant, but the rental market is so friggin fickle that these kids waltz in, fill out the application and then procede stall as soon as N makes an offer. They stall and then they take another, meaning that by the time N can make a offer to a second set of folk, those folks have found other options too. It's taking a lot out of my girl and I know things will be better as soon as she finds a tenant. It's an awfully cute place- full of cuteness and special little details. Anyone in the market for a Columbia Heights Condo?? : )

As for our new place (emphasis on the our part!)- it's too cute. Just the house that we wanted. It's 2 bedrooms plus a tiny little office and finished basement. It has a nice porch in the front and a huge deck out back. The front garden has room for some flowers but won't take too much effort to keep it looking good. I'm going to buy a little hand mower. There's a japanese maple in the front that is awfully pretty. The back has a driveway (and garage, ohhh, perfect for the cars we don't have!) and room enough for a little (very little!) vegetable garden I'll plant next year and a small compost pile. It's all very exciting. Especially because it'll be our first place.

How do I feel leaving my place? I'm a big picture thinker so I started turning off my heart and head towards my place months ago. I think I'd rather make the transition long and drawn out (meaning I feel homeless for a while) than to suddenly realize I need to separate myself and pack in a day or a few hours. So yeah, I feel homeless right now. And going to Wisconsin to see the folks last week didn't help.

But that's for another post.

This has been a long month- classes (I'm done!) looking for a place to live (ditto!) trying to help N show her place (ongoing) visiting the folks and looking for work (I had an interview yesterday! yippee!).

But next week we move into our. own. house! YIPPEE!!!

Oh. yeah. The cats. They're gonna flip.

Girlyblogs

2006-06-26T17:13:00.000-04:00

Girlyman has a new blog! I love Girlyman... http://www.girlyman.com/blog/
And not only because Ty is a babe and a fellow Jewbian. Maybe we can ask her to write our theme song...

Pride

2006-06-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Pride from N and I

A New(ish) Family Member

2006-06-14T16:48:00.000-04:00

Cousins Emily (the mommy) and Jakob (the baby)
oh man is he cute. and mommy's looking good too.

and the next pic... he obviously takes after my homey brother... : )

Sleeping

2006-06-02T16:58:00.000-04:00

My sleeping pose

and yes, I do like 10 hours of sleep at night 10:30-8:30 please!

Find your own pose!

Being a know-it-all. And a foodie. Who schleps.

2006-06-02T11:38:00.000-04:00

Todays Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day.

This is the best one since schlep. I mean how much do I love this word-a-day service. And that they have rockin' cool words. Like schlep. And foodie
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foodie \FOO-dee\ noun

: a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads

Example sentence:
A serious foodie, JT reads cookbooks like novels and scours specialty shops in search of exotic ingredients. She also gazes lovingly, while on the bus, not at the Washington Post, but at spice catalogues and seed buying guides. (true. today. yesterday too, actually)

Did you know?
"Foodie" is a relatively recent addition to our language (dating from the early 1980s), but it derives from a much older word, "food," which has been with us for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. "Food" can be traced back through Middle English to the Old English form "fōda," which is itself related to Old High German "fuotar," meaning "food" or "fodder," and Latin "panis," meaning "bread." "Panis" is the source for "empanada," a Spanish turnover with a sweet filling, "panatela," a type of cigar, "panettone," an Italian bread containing raisins and candied fruit, and "pantry," a room used for the storage of provisions.
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No, I actually didn't know M-W! How nice of you to give me more trivia to fill up my head so I don't remember my 7s times table but I do know a lot of (useful, I swear!) trivia.

Yay for Foodie. And schlep.

Being an armchair activist OR Call-in Days for Justice

2006-06-02T10:46:00.000-04:00

1,500 Reasons Why We Need Marriage Equality

Monday- call your elected officials and tell them to vote no on the Marriage Protection Act. Remember to tell them you'll be calling about tomorrow
For more information try those silly schmoes at HRC

Tuesday- call your elected officials back. If I had two senators (or even one!) I'd plan on saying "Hey, Mrs./Mr. Senator! This is JT from yesterday. I just wanted to tell you to vote NO on tax breaks (all of them!) for millionaires and billionaires! With a trillion (omg, a trillion?!?) dollars you could feed a lot of people, fix schools up, give teachers raises, secure social security (interesting thought, eh?), pay for an unjust war................" (see my post a while on government priorities)For more information try the National Women's Law Center

Wednesday- I'm sure we'll call about SOMETHING... Oh yeah, call the EPA and tell them to stop pressuring scientists to allow dangerous pesticides. For more information (and these guys are ALWAYS calling-in or sending emails) go to the United Farm Workers (UFW) site. While you're at it, sign some petitions, help unionize a farm. Then you can drink your wine without being worried about the folks who picked the grapes.

There you go, wine, once again wins. Oh the work of being an armchair activist!!!!

Changing the Subject

2006-06-01T19:01:00.000-04:00

totally borrowed this from Jest and Dyke One at

Try it yourself- go to good and type your name followed by needs. It's silly.
________

Me:

JT needs to sing more
jt needs to brush his hair. he looks like a geek.
JT Needs Other Markers
JT needs places in the community where he is a "regular."
JT needs to get a tattoo in NYC
JT needs that love in a bad way
JT needs to get his ass back to Boston so we can run around singing Rilo Kiley together!
JT needs to stop putting negative thoughts in our minds like that
JT needs to take care of some stuff - but gives her a hug
JT Needs a Shave.
JT needs to explain his theory a little bit better because I am not understanding the point.
JT needs a really hott chick
JT needs a haircut
JT needs something to distort, sensationalize, and lie about
JT needs help and R&B and the guys need to quit doing this stuff to him
JT needs someone that won't hurt him and Darcy is Perfect!
JT needs a replacement for the public appearances position - I’d love the job.
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And a few for N, just 'cause. And I took out the one that recommended that N needs to be bitch slapped. Even though it was funny. Because N wouldn't find it humorous. It's ok love. You don't really need to be bitchslapped.
_________________________

N needs to stay current on the hot issues, trends and the day-to-day happenings in museums across the world

N needs to stay the hell away from those The Ring movies because they're starting to mess with her head. Mine, too. That sequel was horrible.

N needs to lay off the botox

Blogging for LGBT Families Day

2006-06-01T16:01:00.000-04:00

Well, today is as good a day as any to come out of my miniblog hiatus.

Why am I Blogging for LGBT Families today?

I am for traditional family values. Love, fidelity, honesty, faith. I am for traditions. I'd love to have a wife, kids, a house, a vegetable garden, big family holidays, and a dog. I'll pay my taxes, volunteer, serve on juries, spend summer weekends on the beach. I may consider taking time off of work to be a stay at home mom. At least for a little while. I'll gripe about my inlaws, get stressed out because of money (or the lack there of), scrimp and save so my kids can go to whatever college they want to. I'll belong to a synogogue and cry when my kids go off to kindergarden, become bar and bat mitzvahs, go to college and get married. We'll light candles most shabbats and I'll cut up oranges for the kids soccer games. My wife and I will enjoy each other, make each other laugh, hold eachother when we cry, grow old together. We'll spoil the grandkids. We'll have lots of hard times. There will be sadness and loss. There will be fear. But there will also be fireflies and moments of clarity and peace.

Thinking about these things and desiring these things are easy. But I know it'll be different for me than for my parents and my straight friends. My someday family can not take lightly what others take for granted. Like relationships, wife and wife and mothers (particularly non-biological or non-1st parent adoptive), like knowing that we need to have specific legal bits of paper to allow us equal access to each other in the hospital. About paying more taxes on everything from health care to homes. What should we do as advocats? What can we do in this environment? Will democrats be our salvation? (I tend to think not).

In the movies, love overcomes. But in this case love just makes things harder and makes it more obvious what inequity we're dealing with in this country. N has made me more aware in many ways- she gives me glipses of our future together and with that comes the typical unknown of new love but also the unknown that can be changed by the winds of congress for the better or for worse. I'm not sure that's what the wedding vows speak about but that's what I think of when I hear of gay folk legally getting married in Massachusetts, and when they briefly we able to in California, Oregon and upstate NY.

This turned into a bit of a downer blog. Sorry all. Let's try a little harder.

I'm in love with this beautiful, smart, funny, silly, caring woman known to this blog as N. We've started looking at houses for our family. Pretty easy for now. Just me, my girl, her two cats and my guinea pig. And my houseplants. Here I am blogging for us. And our future together. And fairness. And for real marriage laws. Because we can't only fight bread, we must fight for the roses too. And N and our dreams certainly are my favorite blossoms.

My sense of humor

2006-05-10T13:16:00.000-04:00

Is perfect since I'm soon to be a corny teacher. Otherwise it's not so great. More than a few times, after telling a joke, the joker has had to tell me, "you should laugh at that. it was a joke." Oh. I thought this was funny though....
from today's food chat on www.washingtonpost.com
____________

Washington, D.C.: How did you manage to go the James Beard awards. Were you in disguise?

Tom Sietsema: I went as Alton Brown.
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how cute!

naming us

2006-05-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

I have always been one for words. I love language. If you know me, you'll know that I have a tendency to go on socio-linguistic rants. Words and signs have so much imbedded meaning and the way that we use and interpret them can profoundly affect the way we view the world and the way the world views us.

In the last few days, three people have referred to N and I as partners or have asked us if we are such. It has made me think of what exactly that means word "partner" means to folk, queer and straight. I feel like in most of liberal society straight folk get married and gay people have partners. There's no assuption of action, it's something we aquire, or fall into. We have partners.

If straight folk don't get married, but have partners, people wonder about their actual commitment to their other. That assumption could have seriously negative affect on the idea of gay folk having partners. Is a gay partnership less serious than a marriage if a straight partnership is viewed that way?

And in the case of my boss, he just assumed that we were partners because we are 2 happy, inlove dykes and because he is a good liberal nonprofit president and so therefore he wants to use appropriate terminology. I appreciate his need and want to be appropriate and PC, but I feel no different than my collegue R and the boy with whom she loves and lives. She has no diamond on her finger (yet) and neither do I (yet). We are in the courtship phase. N and I are girlfriends. No one would call R's boyfriend her partner, that would be weird. It's the same with me and my N.

Eventually many queer folk do officially commemerate their own commitment, some in ceremony, some in other, less formal ways. Some folk call their co-commitee (oy, read that again...), partner, wife, husband, other half, ball and chain, etc, whatever. In my mind, and please, I do not mean to offend, I just do not like the term partner by itself. I've explained that I don't like the political connotation, but just viserally, partner, to me, is not a sexy term. It's about as romantic as commitment ceremony (once again, no offense meant, I prefer the term wedding, ahem, ahem). It all sounds a little belabored and PC. It feels like something you use to make sure that your health insurance is in order. As N said, it's pretty much a legalism (leave it to my lawyer girfriend to bring up Domestic Partner registries). It might make sense for folk who don't believe in marriage or who feel silly talking marriage when it's a right not available to so many of us. Me, and this I realize is a personal thing, I want to be married someday and I want to both be a wife and have a wife. I'm an old fashioned girl, what can I say??

I get why people like my boss want to call N my partner. We're in a serious relationship. He probably forgot her name. And he knows we're gay. But by calling us partners I feel like he is discounting the possibility that we could make a bigger, more official commitment to each other someday down the road. By saying partner he has already called us what we may someday be, not allowing us to have what straight folk have- a courtship, an engagement and a ceremony (be it a wedding or court marriage or whatever, it's some sort of commitment ceremony). Somehow, because we're gay and we are in love we must be partners. Which is sweet and very liberal of him in many ways. But then I am a traditional girl. And I call it what it is. And yes, I want all that marriagy stuff later on down the road. But there's no reason to rush into something. And there's no reason to call it something that it isn't. I'm head-over-heels-happy-in-love with my girlfriend right now. Why rush when so good and right.

N is my lover, my best friend, the one who I want to see everyday when I wake up and go to sleep. She is my lover and my biggest fan. Being with her is feeling safe and happy and peaceful and full and just so loved. I love her more than I can say on a blog. And definitely more than I SHOULD say in a blog. Let's leave it at I'm very much in love with her and the rest is between us. And you know what? I feel very much partnered. But she isn't my partner. Not yet. I think it's great that she's my girlfriend. I love this elongated feeling of courtship and the continual falling in love that I've been able to do with N for the last months. Why hurry something this good? Today I want only to breath her in and live our life and yes, think of the future- but not so much to cover our actual reality. Which is that we're in love, and we're working things out the way that people do. We learn and learn and learn about eachother every day. And everyday I learn something new about N that I love.

We're great girlfriends, lovers, and sweethearts and though someday I hope to call her my partner (when I'm filling out some health insurance forms or something) today is definitely not that day.

Comparison Shopping

2006-04-18T12:44:00.000-04:00

I do a lot of comparison shopping. Every week I check both the Giant and the Safeway flyers that come in the mail to see who has the better deals (almost ALWAYS Giant, btw). I sit for 5+ minutes in front of the eggs- what's more important? Price? Is it organic? Are the birds vegetarian fed? Are they free-range? Shade Grown? Fair Trade? Renewable? Sustainable? Do they come in packages that kill trees or use fossil fuel? Oh, and price. Can I afford these? How much am I willing to spend to be antibiotic free? Sometimes I decide to get egg beaters instead because of fat and calories. Sometimes I decide to get them because I have a coupon. Sometimes I just decide, after standing there in front of the eggs, not to get eggs. I decide to get bean sprouts instead, or something.

Our government does the same sort of comparison shopping... Tax cuts or Child care? Money for food stamps or money for abstenince only education? Fight for Marriage Rights or for rolling an egg down the White House Lawn (oh, no, wait, that was HRC, not the government... sorry!) This website is scary as hell http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

Watch the numbers go up! See what we could be doing with our tax dollars (Fully fund all hunger reduction programs GLOBALLY for 11 YEARS! Help 34 Million preschoolers spend a year in Head Start! The list goes on people) Holy Shit!

Maybe these people really know what they're talking about http://www.warresisters.org/wtr_menu.htm

"protesting" or "not protesting"

2006-04-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

Update on yesterday's blog:
According to the Washington Post Express (oooh, you're impressed by my high class primary sources, right?)

"The only sign of protest was a half dozen men who stood outside the gates with signs and a bullhorn they used to yell at families, telling parents their children would be punished with colds for coming, and that the Easter Bunny and gay families are all make believe."

Um, that's actually kinda funny..... Who were these guys???

Rolling Eggs with the Queers on the White House Lawn

2006-04-17T09:02:00.000-04:00

Ugh. This whole easter egg roll is annoying to me. And since I've already bitched about it to N at least four or five times I figured I should just write about it and be done.

First of all, if I haven't mentioned it before, I am queer. I have a large stake in queer civil rights. There are many things I am worried about that all people my age are worried about- money, health, education, security, acceptance and family- and then there are the specific ones I worry about because I'm gay and live in a country where, for the most part, I'm seen as deviant and therefore denied particular rights. There are 49 states where we cannot legally marry our same sex partner, there are many states where we cannot even write contracts that "look" like marriage. There are many states where we cannot become foster parents, adoptive parents (including second parent adoptions. The state where I'm doing my graduate degree (and a handful of others, and almost all if I were transgendered) does not protect me from being fired due to being a dyke. Internationally LGBTQI folk are imprisoned and sometimes put to death for being gay. Transgendered folk have fewer legal protections in even fewer places...

We have a lot of work to do. . So why the hell are our big time civil rights organizations (HRC, Lamda Legal, Family Pride, etc) wasting their advocacy time and money on something they are ALREADY allowed to do. No one is stopping two dykes and a tyke going on to the White House ground to roll an egg. The rules state that there has to be a kid under 8 and no more than 2 adults. That's the most general statement of parenthood and I've seen come from the White House this ENTIRE administration. 2 adults- gramma, grampa; mom and dad; daddy and papa; aunt and stepgrandmother; whatever. We are allowed to participate in the activity. And make friends with the straight breeders. Why do we need to organize and talk to the media and say "look at us! we're the same!!!" By saying we're the same, but acting like we're different (wearing rainbow leis) we look like we're making a political statement and that's it. Not participating in a "American Tradition" but making a statement. Uh, because we are dudes. That's why we organize. It's not like we're doing this as a big family picnic or something. We're raising awareness. Which is good. But it's political. As I said to N, if it looks like a rat, and smells like a rat (uh, yeah, I got the cliche wrong...)

And we're playing right into the hands of the right (religious or not). They will say, they have said, and I almost feel like we're TAUNTING them to say something like... oh I don't know "I think it's inappropriate to use a children's event to make a political statement," said Mark D. Tooley, of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Duh. That's the critism that they, the Antis use when they say that we're not fit to be parents, that we should stay in the closet. Because we use our children for political reasons. It's not that I'm not agreeing with the enemy here- I think the folks at Family Pride really have good intentions. But use your time and talent and skill to organize "Meet your neighbor" days around the country. Support programs like "Postcards from Buster" (remember that?) continue to support and work with GLAAD's work with media and society http://www.glaad.org/programs/csms/index.php to help see that we are portrayed fairly by the media. But don't go to a "Family event," organize, send buses, make sure we talk to the media, and then just say, "oh no, we're not being political, we're just hanging out and enjoying the event like all the other families." B.S. folks. And you ain't fooling anyone. And it's trashy.

For the love of pete, if you are a family, and you want to stand in the rain and wear a lei and roll and easter egg, go for it. Love it, make friends with the straight family on line waiting for your tickets. This is individual advocacy, the same advocacy we do when we come out proudly and loudly to loved ones and strangers alike. It's the same advocacy that we do when we tell people not to tell mean gay jokes or say "that's so gay" when they mean "that's stupid!" or when we tell young folks not to tease using terms like fag and dyke (those are terms only to be used lovingly by family only!). If you are a gay organization, encourage individuals and families, and groups to go out to community events, gay events, "straight events" (whatever thoses are, btw), alien events, whatever, and make friends. Recruit even (just kidding).

Dear HRC, you have called me 3 times this week asking me to renew my membership. I like you. I think you are an ok organization. Unlike some of my more radical friends I do not think I am a sellout for giving you $50 a year. But come on... The Easter Egg Roll? And Family Pride. You are important to me. I am not a parent yet. But I hope I will be someday. And I'll need your help. But grow a pair. Let's fight for stuff we need and we don't have, not stuff that we don't need but already have.
love and kisses, JT

Oh, and I wonder if they'd make such a big fuss about the National Matzah Ball Roll... Oh right... There isn't one. : ) OOps. ; )

Blogging

2006-03-30T15:17:00.000-05:00

So count me in. I want to blog too. As an avid blog reader (I allow myself 2 a day, thank you very much!) I've decided that maybe it would be good for me to have an outlet as I quit my job (June 23rd) and begin a weird summer of job-searching (if you don't know I've started school at GMU to become a ESOL teacher) and class-taking. I'm also looking forward to meeting the Dr. and Mrs. (aka, N's folks) and having her meet my Dad and brother. N and I have also discussed moving all of our stuff into the same space at the end of the summer. Big move, dudes and dudettes.

Partially I'm doing this so I remember this part of my life as it is- because really, it's amazing. Partially I'm doing this to make sense of the transitions to myself. The rest is just the need for an outlet. So, onward rambling and adventuring I go!