At the risk of sounding heartless....

I am going to briefly weigh in on the Schiavo issue. I think a lot of people are nuts. In one article it said a musician woman who had been outside the hospital said it had "broken her heart." What?! I am sorry, but a promising teen killed by a drunk driver is heart breaking; a parent of three children killed by accident in a subway shooting is heart breaking; a four year old shooting his two year old brother is heart breaking; the MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITHOUT ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER is heart breaking. The passing of a woman who has been without cognitive function for 15 years - that is not, in my opinion. Granted, I do not have the right to say what breaks other people's hearts, but I will use my blogger to say that there are some crazy, short sighted people out there. All these people who are putting hours and hours of thought and effort into this issue probably don't think twice about topsoil erosion, water pollution, destruction of the coral reefs, or, even more relevant - overpopulation, the earth's carrying capacity, and a lack of resources. Maybe I am the short sighted one, but if I am without cognitive function, I would much rather the resources spent on bathing me, feeding me, medicating me, clothing me, keeping me warm, and everything else be put towards some children who don't own coats in the winter or towards installing more drip irrigation systems on farms to conserve water. Americans.... I can only just shake my head. Heart breaking....

On the set

I love teacher field trips!! Instead of the "professional development" activities other schools do, we got to go on a field trip to the new school site - Kaufman studios. They tape Sesame Street and Law and Order: trial by jury, along with other things, at those studios. I got to see the real Snuffle... umm... I dont know how to spell it.. snuffleupagus? Everyone knows who I mean. It is huge!! I got to see inside of Oscar the Grouch's garbage can too (3 monitors so the muppetteers can see where they are going). Also interesting, the men who play big bird and elmo are the original people from when the show began 35 years ago. They are apparently these crazy men in their 70's. How cute!

The Trial By Jury set was really interesting too. I dont know why, but I always would have assumed things like the tile on the floor were real tiles. Even standing on the set, I thought that they were real. It wasnt until one of the set designers explained that it is all just wood painted REALLY elaborately and textured, AND i bent down and touched it, that I believed it wasnt real. Quite amazing.

So, regarding my earlier comment, about that it is the future school site, that is exactly what I meant. Kaufman studios donated part of their land for us to build a school on. Right now it is used for a parking lot, but they have two others. We will have a partnership with the studios. How exciting! There will be stars all around my school! Neat!

The move isnt scheduled to occur until summer 2007, though. Who knows by then. AT least for now I got a free t-shirt and hat!

Visitors from another land

My mom and Katy (my cousin) arrived here yesterday. Katy is the best to have around! She has never been far from Idaho, except Canada once when she was in elementary school, so New York is quite the culture shock. Her eyes were so wide as she was looking around on the subway. Well, at least they were until the train started to move and she grabbed hold on a railing and held on for her life (at least the way she saw it). I wish I had more time to spend with them. I have a research paper due tomorrow that I am way less than prepared. Just a rought draft, at least. Plus I have a bunch of tom-foolery going on at work to deal with. People are all crazy here. Apparently, a teacher hit a student yesterday. I dont know the details yet, but reliable sources have confirmed that an investigation is occuring. Incredible. Back to the discussion on Arzhangs site a few months ago, there is no point in putting more money into education if you have monkeys at the front of the classroom. There is the argument that More money would mean higher pay which would appeal to better people but I dont buy it at all. The money being higher would attract more people of the lower caliber. At my school, I can work as much as I want doing various other activities like clubs or tutoring and I make around 40 dollars/hour. Some teachers work so much extra that they make Hundreds each month that way. But all of the teachers I know who are doing that, and making money the big priority, are not the teachers who have their heart in it. They are the leeching, scamming teachers. More money could improve other factors that affect teacher stress levels (buildings, classroom materials, benefits, etc.), but I still don't think it would solve enough problems to justify more and more going into education, unless it was a dramatic dumping of money to restructure the whole education system. Then maybe. But for now, I work with monkeys. I wear a raincoat all day in the hallway to keep my clothes clean while they are flinging their...

My Birthday!

I had a good birthday, full of people who care a lot about me. I got to see Josh, which was nice because I havent seen him in awhile. Matt gave me his present, which was a CD. Dating a musician rocks!! We are not talking about some mixed CD of other peoples songs that made him think of me. Oh no. He actually got together his friends (who are also professional musicians) and recorded 6 songs for me. The songs are "Fly me to the moon," "Hallelujah, I love her so," "Night and Day," "You may be right," "Joey (when she's not around)," and "Isn't She lovely." He used piano (him), bass, drums, and saxophone. After he recorded the music tracks, then he recorded all the vocals (him again) and then the second vocal lines for harmonies (and again him). THEN... as if that wasn't enough... he went out, took pictures, and made a whole CD case to go with it!

Speaking of super sweet gestures for my birthday, Frank showed up at my door! He had booked a flight, took off three days from work, and flew her from Chicago to see me for my birthday! Apparently everyone knew about it but me. Frank told mom and josh, and mom had the foresight to let Matt know so that he wouldnt plan anything with me that would interfere with Frank being here. Frank called me and said "I'm getting rid of T-mobile. The reception really sucks in New York." At first I didnt believe he was actually outside of my house, but then when I looked out my front window and saw him, I became a little more convinced.

All in all, a good birthday. Good people around me. Now, maybe LaDonne next weekend, Mom and Katy for the week after, and Dad the next weekend. I am going to call march the month of Idaho coming to me. (Instead of me going to Idaho). Anyone else want to visit?

Out on the town

Since I have been back from Brazil I have been going out quite a bit more than.. well.... ever before. I am quite proud of myself - actually taking advantage of the fact that I am in NYC. The day that I returned, I went to Matt's brother's senior recital on the clarinet. Very impressive. Then on Thursday, I got free tickets to see Little Women, the musical on Broadway! On Friday, Katie, Danny (my Venezuelan, Canadian friend), and Matt and I went swing dancing. Last night (monday) I had free tickets to go see the New York City Orchestra perform at Carnegie Hall with a 200 person choir.

Some upcoming events - my birthday is this weekend. Since my mom will be here with my cousin Katy a week later, I have told Matt that he can be in charge of the actual birthday weekend. So, Mom gets here the next weekend, which is also the same weekend that my Dad is moving to Pennyslvania (about 3 hours from me). My school's vocal department has their show this week and next week, so I will go to that at some point. At the same dance club, March 19 is country western night - partner and line dancing! I am there for sure!!! I really am excited!

Ahh... good times... If only I didnt have to go to work and to college so I had time to just play all the time. At least Im almost done with school.... just 3 more months!!!