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September 27, 2006
Gravy-gasm
My absolutely lurvely friend Jeff and I went to dinner last Friday evening. I would like to point out that the whole time in Texas, I had NO CREAM GRAVY. I corrected this error on Friday by having chicken fried steak with two servings of gravy.
One could say that I enjoyed the gravy a wee bit.
Some people say that Jeff and I look alike. I have no idea what they're talking about.
Posted by G at 08:45 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
September 26, 2006
Flaming laptop of death
This didn't happen to me, thank zod. I was just suitably impressed it happened to someone else. I received my brand new battery via special delivery today. I followed the petulant directions from Apple, and I was a bit alarmed by the vague threat that if the battery wasn't defective that they might charge me over a $100 bucks.
My old battery only had about 90 minutes for a charge. This new one is predicting 3 hours. That would just be crazy!
Posted by G at 09:39 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
September 24, 2006
Mental block
Nothing like looking at a 20" TV screen with a closeup of your own ass. Even better, nothing like looking at a 20" TV screen with a closeup of your own butt with a mixed audience. The only way it could have been more traumatic/comical, the TV could have had a picture-in-picture of the expressions on my face. Some people would probably be thrilled. I wasn't thrilled at all.
Primetime ass was due to atypical cells from my physical last month. What are atypical cells? Well, they just aren't typical, darn it. They told me this over the phone while I was in CA on vacation. Could be pre-cancerous, could be cancerous, could be HPV, could just be atypical. We have to go in for an inspection, first available in September.
Something like this preoccupies my mind, to say the least. Everything takes on a different shade of significance, adding a melodramatic tinge to all of my thinking. I can't write on the blog beforehand, as I'm terrified. I couldn't write anything else afterward, as everything else seemed really trivial. Hysterical laughing wanting to bubble up, John Wayne busy shoving it back down.
So there I am last week, awkwardly positioned to receive a camera and other pieces of equipment. The doctor is still talking to me during the procedure. How's school? Fine. Loving it. Tell Lisa about this school. Well, Lisa, my school is yadda, yadda, yadda. The whole time, I can see the inside of my own body. I'm waiting for a little man to appear somewhere deep inside, screaming in a very crazy way. The doctor checks out some samples, declares that I don't have HPV, I don't have cancer, I don't have pre-cancerous cells, at least for now. What do I have? Well, atypical cells. Apparently I'll continue to be monitored every six months to make sure that they remain, like me, atypical. How typical.
Posted by G at 11:13 AM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
September 15, 2006
First full week of school
I've chilled out at the house this evening. Pint of Black and Tan, finished off the hummus, the sketchy guacamole, and melted cheese with dipping bread. Obviously Derrick is not here this evening. I have the music blaring, Law and Order is on with subtitles, and I'm watching 80's videos on Youtube. I am exhausted. I am happy.
I feel so glad to be back in the classroom.
Things to bitch about: Still not having a complete set of keys. That's really about it. We can blame that on the custodians.
Things to rave about:
My feeling of pure pleasure over the last days watching my new kids connect to math. It isn't perfect, and numerous kids have serious deficits, but a large chunk of the kids CARE about their educations. Why? Because their parents care, the administration cares, and the teachers care. My school had a Saturday meeting for parents, and more than 2/3 of the parents showed. That is 90% of the battle.
This administration works at 110%, and they make sure that their work is effective. I've seen so many administrators spin their wheels, so it is nice to see administration with passion and clear goals. They spent a ton of time making sure that all teachers can regularly meet as departments, as grade levels, and as a whole group. They also helped instill the importance of this to the teachers. Their meetings are productive, their instructions are clear, and they don't fuss too much.
My own teaching feels so good. I've come a long way since that novice years ago. I know how to help kids make sense of math and take charge of their own learning. Because of my training from last year, I can help the new teachers, but unlike last year, I can show them by having them look at me teaching in a classroom. I feel so much more secure, walking around the room, working with individual students, knowing strategies that only develop over time. It is far from perfect, but for the first time in a long time, I feel really good about being a teacher.
Now I'm going back to finding weird things in the fridge that Derrick never lets me eat.
Posted by G at 07:51 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
September 12, 2006
A little something from home
Don't call them chilies, chilis, or chillies. When they come from New Mexico, they're called chiles. Just like California has certain valleys that are perfect for growing grapes, NM has a latitudinal belt that is perfect for growing chiles.
When they're in season, everyone sees them on burgers, on breakfasts, in dips, stuffed with ingredients, or eaten plain. Ask any transplanted New Mexican, and their eyes will typically glaze over when you mention Hatch Green Chiles. Furry Bryce understands this and he received some from his family. My aunt Kathy bought me a bag of them back in Houston and I brought them back to NYC.
LIke me, Bruce loves them, but he also didn't know how to roast them. We've always relied on other people, usually family, to do this task. Unprepared, green chiles can be quite spicy, as they have a thin skin where most of the capsaicin is stored. Roasting them removes the skins. Roasters in NM will roast them for you, so I've never had to prepare them. Thank zod I have an expert related to me- my aunt Kathy.
I called her, and she sent the following directions:
Put the whole fresh peppers over a high gas flame and turn the peppers as needed to blister the skin on all sides. Dont allow the flame to burn too long in one place or you'll burn through the pepper. After most of the skin looks burned, wrap the warm peppers in a wet paper towel, place it inside a plastic bag and set it aside to steam for 10 or 15 minutes. When you remove the towel, most of the skin should come off easily. Scrape off the rest of the burned skin with a knife. If you are making chile rellenos, remove the seeds carefully and try to keep the pepper intact.(it's not easy) Otherwise, cut the pepper into strips or chop it up, depending on the recipe. If you dont have ziplocks, just put them in a pot and cover them with the lid.
Obviously this merited a phone call. Open flame? Really? Yes, really, said my uncle. He then guided me through the first one.
Appreciate your yummy NM Hatch chiles. Remember to make appropriate worshipful sounds. I prefer the 'aaahaaahooohahhh' type of chant.
Place them on the actual open flame. Lock the door to prevent any expat New Mexicans from breaking in to smell them up close. I SERIOUSLY burned the first few, so be careful to act like they are durable marshmallows. Blacken, don't burn.
This is what a burned one should look like. I used the same tongs I would use to deliver babies to turn them to blacken them everywhere. The top layer blackens and loosens from the chile. Continue the holy chant, maybe mixing in a little Lionel Richie's Ambilitosetamo ya. Ya! Jamba, jamba!
Place them into a container/ziplock bag with some moistened paper towels. You can moisten them with your tears of joy that you actually are going to eat the chiles. Seal them up and let them sit in their steamy goodness for about 15-30 minutes. Feel free to do the chile dance.
Afterwards, the skins mostly just come off, or use a knife like Kathy suggested. I tried rinsing them off into the sink, but they filled with water, which was a bit disturbing.
I've frozen some, and I've used them in some quesadillas. I also have a recipe for shrimp/chile enchiladas that sound promising. I'm also going to find some burgers somewhere and bring along some diced chile. Everyone in the restaurant will wonder why I'm moaning and rocking, but people from the southwest will understand.
Posted by G at 05:11 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
September 11, 2006
Woken up by my mother
Serving in Peace Corps in Uzbekistan showed me a whole new world and challenged how I viewed myself and my country. I lived with two different Uzbek families, mixing my life with theirs. This was the 30th birthday celebration for me at the lycee where I taught.
Living in Uzbekistan was a little crazy, to say the least. Every Independence Day celebration in Uzbekistan was a time of lockdown for PC Volunteers, because this crazy terrorist guy named Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban had staged a terrorist attack on the capital of Tashkent back in 1999, and was continually staging on the shared border. We only knew that this nutcase tried to kill the President of Uzbekistan because of his secular government (not because of his horrifying human rights violations). My final winter in Samarkand resulted in serious weight loss and then my accident that ripped apart my knee. I was medically evacuated to DC, leaving behind my teaching job, my new family, and most of my belongings.
My knee surgeries in DC not only resulted in weird gristly bits of my knees repaired or replaced, but also in meeting my new boyfriend Daniel. I met him while getting off the subway looking for my doctor's office. Daniel was in DC for a job, but lived in NYC. We got close. I visited NYC.
(I was on a coffee drinking theme on this trip)
All I could muster was 'wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.' I'd live/visited in London, Moscow, Paris, LA, Tashkent, Dallas. Nothing compared to NYC. I knew exactly where I wanted to live. Even moving around on crutches, I was determined to see all of it. I had Krispy Kreme donuts for the first time at the base of the WTC complex. When you looked up, the sky blurred into building, although that could have been an effect of the sugar. Daniel and I debated going to the top, but the line was really long, and I was still on crutches.
I made plans to move there, get a job as a teacher. I was going to move in December/January, once my doctor released me from physical therapy in Lubbock. Daniel and I did the long distance relationship thing. It was horrible. I wanted to be in NYC. I wanted to start the next phase of my life, but I was stuck in Lubbock limbo.
My mom woke me up five years ago by saying 'we've been attacked.' She then hung up. My mother was never anything but efficient AND melodramatic.
I watched in horror as it happened live on TV. I cried out when the first tower collapsed, woke up my roommates. We all watched, as I tried to call my boyfriend. When I finally was able to reach him, I talked to him, got off the phone, then went back to the TV.
My PC friends in Uzbekistan were evacuated en masse quickly thereafter, and I drove up to DC/NYC from Texas. I remember driving one of my friends around the Pentagon as she cried, drinking in the evening, talking all the time. We had lived in a place far away from the US, but it came to our home in a way that we couldn't have anticipated.
The boyfriend dumped me for another guy. I still moved here, the place that I knew I could really fit. The city had been injured, but so had I. I recovered after extensive physical therapy, and I knew it would recover too. I sometimes wonder what my life here would be like if the event from five years ago had not happened, both to me and the city. Maybe I would be working somewhere in Texas. Maybe I would be somewhere overseas, learning new languages, getting new food poisonings. I know that I look at my life now, at all the richness of my friends and family here, and I know things are good.
Posted by G at 08:22 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
September 06, 2006
Maybe this time Kingda Ka will be open
Since I missed Pride this year, I'm doing the next gayest thing.
Gay Day at 6 Flags in NJ. Who wants to ride the rollercoasters with me? Who else is going? I'll be the guy screaming at the back or the front of EVERY coaster.
Each time I've gone to 6 Flags, the rollercoasters I want to ride are closed. If Kingda Ka and El Toro are closed, there will be hell to pay.
Posted by G at 08:25 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
The first day of school
Thank you for the link, newly athletic Michael I would have preferred a 'yawp,' but a burning stick is good.Okay, the first day of school was fairly good. There were some snafus, but my new admin put a lot of thought and planning into making the school run smoothly. I'm impressed by everything- the admin, the other teachers, and the kids.
I'm excited about teaching again.
Posted by G at 07:32 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
September 04, 2006
What I wanted more than anything else
(Photo courtesy of Steve Conley's great comic website)
I used to love looking in the back of comic books at the ads. I didn't care so much for the x-ray goggles or fake rubber dog poo, although I did end up having sea monkeys. I remember being VERY disappointed that they didn't have crowns.
What I wanted, more than anything else in the world, was to build a hovercraft. It seemed like the ULTIMATE cool thing to make. It was cheap, too! Plans cost a paltry sum, and I would have gladly donated my dad's lawn mower to the task of transporting me on a cushion of air.
I became obsessed with the ad, dreaming all the time of how I would ride it to my elementary school. The kids would worship me, running alongside, begging for a ride. Would I let them? Hell, no! Where were they when I was a lonely geeky kid? This would be my revenge, watching them gnash their teeth and wail as I floated along, landing next to the bicycle rack.
My dad listened to my passionate plea, looked at the comic book, and sent me out to use the lawnmower for its intended purpose. I railed against the enormous unfairness of it all, and time went on.
Now I find someone who actually made it work. Make sure and watch the video.Hovercrafts are back in my dreams, but now I'm the cool math teacher crossing the Macombs Bridge into the Bronx on my hovercraft! Again, all the kids worship me, teachers gnash their teeth, and my nerd temple will be established.
Here's what I'm gonna buy:
All the plans are right here, and for the low, low price of 45 bucks! it was even referenced in Popular Mechanics back in 1986, so you know it would work!
Posted by G at 05:41 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
September 03, 2006
Every dining experience needs a giant armadillo
We had a discussion at brunch this morning with our friends Jerry and Patricio, as Derrick had told me on the drive to Austin that he could really live in Texas. Thank zod for multiple lanes, as I began swerving madly, both internally and externally. One shouldn't mention this to a person who basically fled Texas.
However, he is right. Wherever we live, we'll find people and places that are interesting. This does not mean that I will give up my campaign to have my liberal relatives move to NYC, however.
The pics in this link here include the pics in the redwoods, the museums in Texas, and the AMAZING dinner at Brennan's in Houston. My uncle and aunt took us to the chef's table, where I gorged myself silly. Such amazing food, but I really shouldn't have had all the desserts. No, really.
Posted by G at 02:48 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack