Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Appear
When I meet someone new who appears to differ from me in some obvious substantial way, I must first remember to look and see how they are enjoying their lives which be imagined freely by the spirit universally.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Hello!
I know I haven't been writing on this web site very much lately. I am still writing though. I am also still teaching and learning and living each day in a way that helps me find a balance which enables me to stay alive and when possible, thrive.
I love how the universe picks up on intentions from time to time and sometimes does the work for you. Take today, for example. I was thinking that I really needed some more hours each week to balance the budget, and then I got a call this afternoon asking me to take over a two-hour evening class from 6-8 pm for the next month. And it's in the Bronx! I haven't been back to the Bronx branch since I worked there from October to May of this year (not counting one day of substitutions a week or so later). The thing was, they needed me to start tonight. So I put on my tie (they don't make us wear ties in midtown. I haven't missed the ties) and took the familiar route to work.
The first person I saw upon climbing the stairs was the janitor, who immediately gave me a fist bump, which he does to pretty much all of the teachers, but I'm happy he recognized me and was happy to have me back. That appeared to be the sentiment of most people there, from the receptionists to, most importantly, my old angel of a supervisor.
Teaching the class was easy, albeit different from what I've been doing in midtown lately. First, the class was 90% Spanish speaking, with almost all of the students coming from either the Dominican Republic or Mexico. Spanish is still the predominant language in midtown, but most of the speakers are from South American countries, as opposed to Central American or Caribbean countries. There were also individuals from Honduras and Panama tonight, but Yemen and Hungary broke the Spanish monopoly. Strangely, this morning I met my first student from Hungary, and then later met another student from Hungary the same day, but in the Bronx.
I enjoyed meeting the students and remembering the old commute. One year ago I was packing to move across the country, and in three weeks I will reach my one year anniversary. I haven't worked anywhere for a year straight in my entire life. I'm not worried about padding my resume, as I consider myself a writer more than a teacher, but I feel good about seeing something through.
Speaking of seeing things through, I am still working on publishing stories in book form for you.
And, as always, I'm living stories. I'll share some more tomorrow.
In more ways than one, it's good to be back.
I love how the universe picks up on intentions from time to time and sometimes does the work for you. Take today, for example. I was thinking that I really needed some more hours each week to balance the budget, and then I got a call this afternoon asking me to take over a two-hour evening class from 6-8 pm for the next month. And it's in the Bronx! I haven't been back to the Bronx branch since I worked there from October to May of this year (not counting one day of substitutions a week or so later). The thing was, they needed me to start tonight. So I put on my tie (they don't make us wear ties in midtown. I haven't missed the ties) and took the familiar route to work.
The first person I saw upon climbing the stairs was the janitor, who immediately gave me a fist bump, which he does to pretty much all of the teachers, but I'm happy he recognized me and was happy to have me back. That appeared to be the sentiment of most people there, from the receptionists to, most importantly, my old angel of a supervisor.
Teaching the class was easy, albeit different from what I've been doing in midtown lately. First, the class was 90% Spanish speaking, with almost all of the students coming from either the Dominican Republic or Mexico. Spanish is still the predominant language in midtown, but most of the speakers are from South American countries, as opposed to Central American or Caribbean countries. There were also individuals from Honduras and Panama tonight, but Yemen and Hungary broke the Spanish monopoly. Strangely, this morning I met my first student from Hungary, and then later met another student from Hungary the same day, but in the Bronx.
I enjoyed meeting the students and remembering the old commute. One year ago I was packing to move across the country, and in three weeks I will reach my one year anniversary. I haven't worked anywhere for a year straight in my entire life. I'm not worried about padding my resume, as I consider myself a writer more than a teacher, but I feel good about seeing something through.
Speaking of seeing things through, I am still working on publishing stories in book form for you.
And, as always, I'm living stories. I'll share some more tomorrow.
In more ways than one, it's good to be back.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
I am happy today.
Why am I so happy?
Well, to start, you have a wonderful smile.
On top of that, I slept more than eight hours last night, which is a rarity.
Furthermore, I just finished reading a quick book about World War I, and I'm feeling pretty great about not having to walk through any trenches, dodge any bullets or shells, or put on a gas mask to save myself from mustard gas. More thoughts on this later.
Why am I so happy?
Well, to start, you have a wonderful smile.
On top of that, I slept more than eight hours last night, which is a rarity.
Furthermore, I just finished reading a quick book about World War I, and I'm feeling pretty great about not having to walk through any trenches, dodge any bullets or shells, or put on a gas mask to save myself from mustard gas. More thoughts on this later.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Today I taught the students what I could, and then took a few of them on a field trip to play mini-golf. I haven't played mini-golf in years, but they were going to pay me to take them there, so I signed up for it. Then it started raining as soon as we left the office, so the activities coordinator suggested we go to another place named "Fat Cat." Since I'm currently reading a biography of Andrew Carnegie, I thought that was a good sign.
This place is in the village. You walk down these stairs and enter a room full of ping pong, billiards, and foosball tables. There is also a stage where performers play late at night. I realized immediately upon entering that I had been here before, once, six years ago. I was on a third date with a girl I had met the year before at a friend's party. She'd lived in Paris since, but remembered me and called me when she got back.
We had started the evening at a nearby restaurant that featured performers from Woodstock, NY. When we were there we ran into one of her co-workers who had just returned from teaching English in Japan. I'd told him that sounded amazing, and he told me to do it. So I did. But that's another story. Afterwards we moved to this place "Fat Cat" to see live jazz music. I was only 24 then, so the young crowd didn't bother me. It was an open free-for-all on that particular night, so anyone could play as long as they could keep up with everyone else. I recall that one of the performers was a guitarist who meandered on his own and played absurdly long uninteresting solos, much to the visible chagrin of everyone else on stage. There were no other guitarists though, so the leader couldn't boot him. My date was incredibly angered by this, and even said she wanted to "murder" the guitarist, which obviously put me off a little. She couldn't enjoy any of the other musicians because of him. Maybe if you're playing jazz with them you could understandably be upset, but we were just hanging out at a place for young people. I was already unsure about this girl after the last time I'd seen her (she'd been rude to the cab driver two weeks before). Like everyone she had her good side and her other side, but the other side involved being truly unkind to strangers, and that's not a turn on for me. I never saw the girl again, but I did make my way back to Fat Cat this evening, unintentionally, and they were playing some excellent John Coltrane, Billie Holiday and strange Cambodian music.
After a few games with strangers and students from Ecuador, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Brazil, I said good bye to the students and went to midtown east to meet some friends for happy hour, and had a great time.
On the way home I went through Times Square, carrying a copy of the Andrew Carnegie bio: The Richest Man in the World. There was a band playing music, as there often is. They were singing, honest to God, "Can't Buy Me Love."
I love the world.
This place is in the village. You walk down these stairs and enter a room full of ping pong, billiards, and foosball tables. There is also a stage where performers play late at night. I realized immediately upon entering that I had been here before, once, six years ago. I was on a third date with a girl I had met the year before at a friend's party. She'd lived in Paris since, but remembered me and called me when she got back.
We had started the evening at a nearby restaurant that featured performers from Woodstock, NY. When we were there we ran into one of her co-workers who had just returned from teaching English in Japan. I'd told him that sounded amazing, and he told me to do it. So I did. But that's another story. Afterwards we moved to this place "Fat Cat" to see live jazz music. I was only 24 then, so the young crowd didn't bother me. It was an open free-for-all on that particular night, so anyone could play as long as they could keep up with everyone else. I recall that one of the performers was a guitarist who meandered on his own and played absurdly long uninteresting solos, much to the visible chagrin of everyone else on stage. There were no other guitarists though, so the leader couldn't boot him. My date was incredibly angered by this, and even said she wanted to "murder" the guitarist, which obviously put me off a little. She couldn't enjoy any of the other musicians because of him. Maybe if you're playing jazz with them you could understandably be upset, but we were just hanging out at a place for young people. I was already unsure about this girl after the last time I'd seen her (she'd been rude to the cab driver two weeks before). Like everyone she had her good side and her other side, but the other side involved being truly unkind to strangers, and that's not a turn on for me. I never saw the girl again, but I did make my way back to Fat Cat this evening, unintentionally, and they were playing some excellent John Coltrane, Billie Holiday and strange Cambodian music.
After a few games with strangers and students from Ecuador, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Brazil, I said good bye to the students and went to midtown east to meet some friends for happy hour, and had a great time.
On the way home I went through Times Square, carrying a copy of the Andrew Carnegie bio: The Richest Man in the World. There was a band playing music, as there often is. They were singing, honest to God, "Can't Buy Me Love."
I love the world.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
