Contact High

The big box store was not too busy when we flashed our membership card and entered the enormous warehouse this afternoon. It was time to replenish our bulk stock of some of the staples we buy there, and after a busy day at school, Heidi was up for a little retail therapy, too. 

She was hoping for some Valentine's Day lights or decorations but was pleased to find a pair of Gap cargo pants instead. As we made our way back and forth across the aisles, I noticed that while they didn't have much for Valentine's Day, they were flush with Lunar New Year goodies. As I looked around at my fellow shoppers, I saw many couples or families who appeared to be shopping for that very holiday.

"When is it?" Heidi asked me when I pointed out my observations. 

"Wednesday," I told her as a woman with the happy air of someone on a joyful errand pushed her cart loaded with dumplings, wine, and other treats past us, a little boy and girl skipping excitedly behind her. 

I could actually feel their holiday spirit and that of others around me, and it was wonderful! Before I knew it, there was a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Welcome to you, Year of the Snake!

No Matter the Movie

We met Bill, Emily, and Treat at the movies a little before noon today. We were there to see The Brutalist and knock ten Academy Award nominations off our list. The film was long: three hours and 35 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission, and it depicted a lot of hardship, cruelty, and some resilience, too. 

The five of us blinked in the sunlight as we exited the theater, unsure what to make of it. We all agreed the acting was good, but we stood in a tight circle on the sidewalk, processing for several minutes, sharing observations and questions. Then we agreed to meet again next weekend for another movie. 

Oscar season is here!

Thrifty Thrifting

I usually end up tossing the discount coupon they give me at the thrift store donation center. At those times, my mind is on clearing out rather than acquiring more, and I never get around to using it when my attitude is otherwise.

Today, as I waited in a line of cars driven by folks with a similar disposition of dispossessing, I saw three high school-aged girls walk up with a couple of items each. They dropped them into the bin, accepted the coupon, and proceeded into the store. I admired their shrewd saving sense, even as I waved off my own coupon. 

Books for the Dub

I love listening to an audiobook while I'm cooking, and this evening, it was The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, a story spanning decades from the 1950s to the 1980s and crossing oceans from Iran to New York City. The novel was well recommended, but I think I chose it in part because last year, I listened to Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. I was profoundly moved by that story of a young man who had moved with his dad to the States from Iran after his mother was lost when her plane was shot down by the USS Vincennes. 

When I was in high school in Switzerland in the late 1970s, several Iranian students were attending the school, too. Scions of wealthy families connected to the Shah, most were enrolled at our American school to learn English abroad, but not so far away as the United States. Those kids were a cultural force, and knowing them, living in the Middle East myself, and following the political upheaval of 1979 and beyond is definitely a draw for me when it comes to an Iranian setting.

In high school, we all learned Persian cussing. To this day, I could call bullshit or tell someone to go fuck their mom in Farsi, a skill I'm marginally proud of. At any rate, tonight, the main character in the novel describes her love of learning geography, and one of the examples is Portugal. "In our language the country is called Burtuqal," she says, "which means orange."

I've been to Portugal, and I know that vocabulary; the word for orange is the same in Arabic, which I learned in school in Saudi Arabia. But I never made the connection. How can it be that Portugal is named after oranges, or oranges after Portugal, and I never knew it? 

But how glad I am that I know it now!

Foxsplain Me

Who likes this shit?

It's a fair question in light of this week's news cycle, right? 

Who really thinks it's a good idea to pardon violent insurrectionists, gag government health agencies, conduct personal loyalty tests of federal employees, and install a Diet Coke button in the Oval Office? (And let's not even get started on the environment, reproductive rights, immigration, and transgender issues.)

I just don't get it, but although I'll never agree with such perspectives, I can't live the next four years condemning 51% of the electorate as selfish, ignorant morons. So, as a critic seeking clarity, I'm adding to my news providers. 

We'll see how that goes.

Eyes in the Sky

There's been a lot of helicopter traffic around here lately. 

Such roof-rattling whomp, whomp, whomp is not unheard of in these parts: Washington, D.C., is right over the bridge; we can see the Monument and Capitol from our balcony. The Pentagon is even closer, only a couple miles away. Even so, there seems to be an uptick in activity this week.

I've done my best to limit my media consumption and stay as positive as possible as a democratically elected president takes office and implements policies with which I disagree profoundly. Still, the sight of the wealthiest man in the world giving a Roman salute in celebration of this administration and witnessing the merciless codification of the hateful, revenge-driven rhetoric that framed the campaign has been hard to shake off. 

And then? 

There are all those helicopters.

A Poor Substitute

I debated long and hard when a friend and former colleague asked me to take the long-term sub job when she goes out for a month to recover from a hip replacement in April. I would be teaching science on my old sixth-grade team in the room right next door to mine, which is as tempting an offer to substitute as I can imagine.

In fact, that very room was the site of my first ever substitute job, back in the spring of ‘93, when I was subbing and looking for a full-time teaching position for the next school year. That particular sub job was not memorable other than being the first and also being located on the team at the school where I was eventually hired and stayed for my entire career. 

The same cannot be said for other sub jobs I took. There was the one where the 8th grade at another middle school girl lied about her name, pretending to be somebody else. That was hardly surprising, but the lack of support I got when I reported the incident did take me aback. “That’s unlikely,” said the teacher next door. “It really doesn’t sound like her.”

Another memorable interaction happened when I was encouraging a student at the alternative high school to do his U.S. History assignment, which was using crayons to shade a map, basically coloring. He refused to even take the handout. "This seems like a pretty easy job," I told him, "and you're here, so why not just do it?"

He sucked his teeth. "I'm here because it was this or jail," he scoffed, "but I'm not doing any work."

Three decades later, I have a broader skill set, but I'm not sure if I could do anything other than what I did then, which was to nod and walk away. A substitute has limited leverage, and students know it. 

That brings me back to the deliberation at hand. As much as I detest the idea of trying to teach with all the drawbacks of a temporary position, I wanted to help my friend out, and her co-teacher, another good friend, was applying intense pressure. I also liked the idea of being back at my old school for a few weeks and having the chance to catch up with my former students, now in 7th and 8th grade, and I was curious to see how the ephemeral nature of such a job might change my perspective on being in the classroom. 

And so, I agreed.