January 21, 2006
heap of adorable
So my first week in the school was a success. I am very pleased with myself and I think the staff at LMDC is pleased as well. So now I am catching up on my sleep and my immune system is on high alert having been around those sneezing and coughing children. I wrote out an extensive report and I will turn it in next week sometime for their records. I have hundreds of masks to prepare for the next venture. We are following up on our Chinese New Year unit with mask making. I know all of the kids will like that. I think I might even make one to show them the different things they can do. I have one day next week in a classroom so the rest of the week will be preparing. I have to also do some research for the next unit I will be doing. I think it will be "respect". I believe that is the next thing they are doing in Character Ed. Yesterday I went to PetsMart to buy my monthly supplies and saw this adorable kitten that the humane society had brought in with the few other animals they hope to adopt out from the store. I fell in love with this kitten and talked to Joel about her. I couldn't get her out of my head. He finally gave in and agreed that we could get another animal. So I went back to PetsMart today in hopes that the kitten would still be there. Indeed it was, but alas, someone had been there just before me and adopted the adorable thing. However, just beneath her cage was an adorable fluff ball of a puppy. She was playful and cute and I fell in love with her as well. So, here she is, the new addition to our family. We get her on Monday. They are fixing her and micro-chipping her and we can pick her up that afternoon. She is a Shar-Pei mix. They are not sure with what, but the vet should be able to elaborate more. She won't be very big, medium size at most. She is about 8-10 weeks old. We don't know what to name her yet, but a couple of things are floating around. So look at the adorable puppy and fall in love as I did.
January 16, 2006
Day 1, right...
So I survived without any hair pulling, name calling, crying, or severe shaking. It turned out well, and I have a report with kids, apparently. I dove in headfirst and came up thoroughly soaked, but smiling. I then came home; wrote up my thoughts in the journal Lynn Meadows provided me (the part I really like, next to playing with the kids) and then proceeded to sleep for over two hours. Some of the kids even gave me their projects. They just met me and they already wanted to give me a part of them. And these kids really need something out of the ordinary. They all looked so ridged and bound by school rules and expectations. We have to abide by the general behavioral rules of the school, of course, but the children are encouraged to talk to each other and us and do whatever they want with what we give them. They were excited to express themselves through art and were very considerate and thoughtful and always surprising. They all wanted to share everything with me, who their siblings are, where they go all the time, who their cousins are and why they are so close, their crazy neighbor with her ten dogs that bark all the time. By the end of the day I had the routine down, so tomorrow should prove to be a bit easier. I know I will be tired of the program come the end of the week, but then I get to plan another one, along with helping out at another school or two. The one thing I am really going to have to work on is developing a relationship with the children. That is going to be the hard part. I only have them forty minutes a day every other week and I only have until May. That and there are a lot of children. I am going to try my best to get as close to them as I can. Some already connected to me, hugging me before going back to class. I know they are looking forward to the next time, and so am I.
January 11, 2006
rant of the day
Finally my yard will be clear of tree stumps and debris, and the remains of what the storm did to my house will nearly be gone. I still have to get the gutters repaired. Trust me, I am not complaining. Not in the least. I talk to people every day that live in FEMA campers (yes, campers, those things are not fit to be called trailers) because their homes are gone, washed out, or under a gas station, and I try to find a way to make myself smaller so they don’t ask me if I lost everything.
In Gulfport and Long Beach (at least the small stretch of Long Beach that I drove on today) highway 90 is four-lanes. Some of the lights are up and working and I was excited. It was bizarrely normal-ish. Funny thing was, everyone stayed in the right lane when it divided into the four-lane highway. How easily we forget. Joel gave me this really good editorial from our newspaper yesterday about how New Orleans is throwing a shadow on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in the aftermath of Katrina. Most of us here are tired of it. And it isn't like New Orleans pulled in most, if not all, the tax revenue for the state of Louisiana. You know, like the The Coast of Mississippi did. The casinos made so much money for the state, not to mention the entire city of Pass Christian was wiped out, so they have no tax base, most of Long Beach's buisnesses and homes were wiped out so there goes their tax base...You thought Mississippi was poor before...well, that is another rant entirely. No, it wasn’t their fault, and yes, it sucks, you can ask 90% of the population here what it feels like and they can tell you. It was lack of response of the state and city leaders. It was also New Orleans acting under the false conception that those levees were going to hold. Now, I am not an engineer. I have a liberal arts degree to tell the truth, and I could have told everyone that those levees were going to fail. I knew those levees were going to go about, oh, probably fifteen years ago. Two things my parents taught me about hurricanes. 1. Don’t live south of the tracks. 2. If a hurricane goes up the Mississippi River (or damn close to it like Katrina did and at high tide, which Katrina also did) New Orleans will cease to exist. Not a category three or higher hurricane, just a hurricane in general would have probably done a good number on New Orleans. Now, I understood that when I was a ten-year-old kid learning about what my parents lived through during Camille. So how come no one else thought about it?
Here is the editorial if anyone is interested. That is my rant for the day.
January 04, 2006
New Beginnings
I love my job. No, not waiting tables. That chapter of my life closed with 2005. Oh, 2005, we came to know you so well. If we ever see another like you it will be too soon. So fuck you, so long, and thanks for all the rotting smells. But I digress. I have a new job, well, not exactly new, I am back with LMDC but doing an outreach program to schools in Gulfport: schools with no art classes, schools with stressed out teachers and children who have lost everything. So I get paid to do arts and crafts with elementary school children. (or as we like to call it: arts and farts and crafts, well, not really, but once again I digress) How cool is that? 2006, so far, in my book, you are okay. To say that LMDC is big in the arts is an understatement. They are of the firm belief that literacy, music, and art are the foundations for everything. Books, music, and art? Where do I sign up? They are laid back, super nice, would bend over backwards to help, and they gave me this awesome job after only knowing me for three weeks. I only worked with them a little over two weeks before the storm hit. Joel and I even helped board up the windows, not that it helped any, but we tried. After the storm I had time to step back and look at my situation. I loved working at the Pass Christian Library, but there is no room for me there at the moment. I loved Lynn Meadows, but I thought I would not be able to get back with them (on a paid job basis) for at least a year, but here I am representing them in the schools. We are a museum without walls. You can’t come to us? We will come to you. Lynn Meadows is the only place around here I can see myself advancing in and working at for years to come. The director absolutely adores me and has full confidence in my abilities and me. I haven’t had a challenging job like this, well, ever. I have to come up with programs in the general theme of dreams and hopes for the future in the realm of art and literacy. I have a box full of construction paper, markers, paint, clippings, and my imagination to fuel me. My first program is already set. A story quilt with a “new beginnings” theme to go along with the "Expressions- Katrina" story quilts we did at a couple of schools right after the storm. So I have to sketch out how I want to do it and I think I have it. I am very excited about being challenged and learning from the kids. I am sure my eyes will be opened in all kinds of ways and I can’t wait.