hooray for tirrc!

I am always glad to hear good news from my good ol pals back at TIRRC. I used to work with david back in the days when we were just getting things off the ground and these issues are near and dear to my heart. So i was thrilled to learn that all the the nasty anti-immigrant legislation in the state senate sank like the titanic (for now...I realize this stuff could get revived any time and show up on a bill calendar near you). Just to save you any suspense: A: I know, like, and respect many immigrants, refugees, migrants, etc. B: I'm totally fine with these people being here whether documented or not. and C: angry hatemail will not change my mind about this so don't bother. With that disclaimer out of the way, here's the scoop:

On Saturday, the TN General Assembly completed its two-year session. During that time, a record twenty bills were introduced that would have restricted the rights of immigrants and refugees in Tennessee...EVERY ONE OF THESE BILLS WAS DEFEATED!

While many of the bills collapsed under the weight of their own misguided intentions, many others came dangerously close to passing.

Failed Legislation

State/Local Government Employees as Immigration Enforcement Officials

Repeal of Driving Certificate Program

Discrimination Against the Foreign-Born and Limited English Proficient

• SB 0303 Ketron/HB 0242 DuBois — PROHIBIT TRANSLATION OF DRIVER'S LICENSE EXAM
  This bill, if passed into law, would require the written driver license exam to be given only in English. This would erase the progress made to translate into additional languages such as Arabic and Vietnamese. It would also erase languages currently available such as Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.
  
• This particular one pisses me off because I worked really hard on doing the ground work research on getting documents translated into these languages!
  

Denial of Access to Public Services for Immigrants

Punishment for Employers Who Hire Undocumented Workers

Anyhow, not that you probably care one way or another, but I'm kinda relieved that most of these bills got kicked to the curb. Especially SB0303 because well that's my baby. Besides, every country I've lived in or visited has an option to take the driving test in English, so I figure we can extend the same courtesy and stop acting like college level English proficiency (which well over half of TN's adults lack anyway) is so damn critical to the driving experience.

And all this good news is a nice contrast to crap like THIS. I realize this is a free country and she has a right to her opinion too, but you know I feel sorry for her, it's gotta hurt to go around with so much hate inside of you. Wouldn't be surprised if she has ulcers or something, maybe someone could send her some maalox...It's just sad, I'm sure she really believes this stuff and thinks the kids I work with every week are here to "dumb down the American children and overpopulate our schools." Umm suuuuuure. No offense but I don't think most native born US kids these days lack for innovative ideas on how to slack off at school whether it's playing video games all day or fooling around with their cellphones, or just drinking sodas and getting all hyped up, frankly they come up with this stuff on their own and if anything corrupt the immigrant children with all these lazy habits. ;)

That being said, I'm glad to see all this hysterical reactive legislation has been put in the big time out chair. Maybe all of these so-called "leaders" will spend some time thinking of PROACTIVE legislation that might actually provide real solutions to some of the more vexing problems our economic system has perpetuated on the global south, now that the chickens are coming home to roost...but I won't hold my breath. We like kneejerk solutions in the estados unidos, don't we? Anything to get out of thinking...well that reminds me of some students actually...;)

ursula

holy shit, ursula's in town. haven't seen her in years. awesome!

rain rain and more rain

it quit raining this morning, but it's supposed to come back sometime in the afternoon and do the wet thing. (what??? It's going to RAIN??? AGAIN???? I'm like SOOO in shock here!)

our poor camping trip has been utterly undermined by water, courtesy of an all-too-predictable blast from mother nature, but we're gonna go back this evening just to hang out and cook dinner over a fire (as city folk, we don't get to do stuff like that much). it's gonna get down to 40 tonight, so we're just gonna come home instead of trying to increase our patronage at medical clinics. (everytime I set foot in a medical establishment it's as if I'm forfeiting 2 days of pay. can i afford to do this regularly? no.)

what a thoroughly discouraging weekend. the one 3 day holiday i'm gonna get ALL YEAR and i might as well be at work. figures.

retreat!

after being rained on all morning and afternoon, we gave up and came back home to dry off and regroup. it continued to rain steadily for the rest of the afternoon and for most of the evening as well so we didn't miss anything, and it's just as well because i was starting to get hypothermia from being so damp and cold. tea and soup weren't enough to keep me from getting cold again, I had to climb into a tub full of hot water to shake off the chills.

the neighbor had his party yesterday and a jazz band serenaded us for a few hours. that was a nice bonus. we spent the evening shovelling wet things into the dryer and watching movies and eating popcorn...i guess it could always be worse.

being this cold and wet makes me feel pretty darn sympathetic towards all the homeless people I see around here. imagine feeling that way all the time! (something to think about)
next time i see a brother out in the rain, i'm gonna remember...

here goes nothing...

Okay...It wasn't raining when we loaded up the truck (but that was just a well timed break). It rained pretty much every minute after we pulled away from the curb and got on I-5. I had taken the liberty of wrapping everything in huge plastic bags that I've heisted from work for several months. That totally saved our butts because it rained buckets all the way across the Vancouver Bridge into Washington. I'm suprised the road didn't totally flood. The traffic was bad, but I've seen worse...

We arrived and were able to set up because the rain had tapered off somewhat, but it rained pretty steadily once we got the canopy up. After getting more or less situated, we went on a walk around the campground and found a trail that lead down the the E Fork of the Lewis River. One one side there were salamanders everywhere and a path that led up to a waterfall. On the other side, there were huge slugs and the chorus of frogs. Looks like the trail went further, but the river was flooded and we had to come to a stop. On the way back up I scoped out all the nice raspberries and salmonberries, wild dicentra, trillium and dozens of unknown woodland plants.

Back at A-Camp, I busted out the emergency soup (glad I brought that) and made some grilled cheez on the new campstove. (Boy do I love the new campstove, it works soooo well).
It was wet and chilly, and after reading for awhile in the dark, we had some hot chocolate and called it a night. The rain did not abate, if anything it rained harder over night, but our brilliant plan of putting the tent in the bed of the truck, with a canopy over it kept the rain out.

in the true oregonian spirit of things

well not that we're dying of shock or anything but it looks like it's going to rain this whole d&*&* weekend. not that we expected anything less after reserving a campground space a month ago when it was 70 degrees and sunny every day.

can't say i wasn't warned by a homeless lady who oughta know a thing or two about weather...

so in the spirit of oregonian stubbornness, we're going anyway, rain or shine. i hope i don't have to come crawling back in defeat, but it may come down to that.

wish me luck, or better yet, send me some non-rainy thoughts.

not all bad...

"So what positive thing happened in your session today?", Nicole says as we walk back into B27. "Apparently a lot of you had a bad day." In my experience, I wouldn't say that it was a bad day...it was just kind of a weird day.

M----- lost his book.

D---- in spite of trying REALLY HARD didn't really manage to get on my nerves (last time I saw this kid, I had to say "Quit messin' around with them video games about a hundred times". I'll be happy if two things that I said were retained for later. Especially the part where I said you can't escape math, and believe me child, I've been trying. I HATE math. But it is always with you.

I saw H---- and D------- foolin' around in the hall and didn't think H----- would grace us with her presence, but later on she shuffled in with some Spanish homework--and did work for about half of the time she was there. Considering who we're talking about that's a major achievement.

K------ announced she had failed all her classes, and it was pointless for her to be there. I redirected this negative start to the session to getting her to work on planning a service project. I think she did a good job considering that there isn't any real benefit to working on it in terms of salvaging her grades. We went and found a suitable subject and planned out the materials and resources needed. Now all they've got to do is get approval.

So it wasn't a total loss, at least not on my end. We ended by getting really into a game of family feud that L----- downloaded once homework lost it's charm. What can I say, it was semi-academic (in the way that trivial pursuit is). And sometimes I'm just happy enough to see these guys engaged in something that's not myspace....

on a completely different note, we've decided bistro is french for "really expensive".

feelin' rainy on tuesday

in case you ever wondered, if you are caught driving minus a license (and insurance) they put your car in impound and make you pay hundreds of dollars in fines. ouch. not a personal happening but it hits close to home just the same...these days i'm strictly legit (but that wasn't always the case, y'all).

brian spent the day getting stuff for our camping trip. i spent the day quietly doing research on ESL program models while ostensibly processing packages. it was a slow day. it rained all afternoon and kept it up for most of the evening too. My peas have never looked happier...i picked a few after i got home--the first of the year. and here it is, almost june.

liz says school in texas is out at the end of this week...we still have a couple of weeks left, but they're probably a lost cause. we'll see. I'll go ahead and admit it but i'll miss this gig. it isn't always easy but the two days I get to work at schools are definitely the highlight of my week, and there's definitely never a dull moment.

just got done watching part 3 of the apu trilogy. makes me wish i could find part 1 and 2, but it's a library video, so i wouldn't hold my breath. india is the theme of the day...i also had mattar paneer for dinner...yay india chaat house!

can't wait to go camping, i just hope it doesn't rain the whole time...we'll see.

the other side

what i was thinkin' of? lord, what was i thinkin'?

"Voices, a thousand, thousand voices, whispering, the time has passed for choices...Golden days are passing over"

Thousand miles, wood and steel, trains moan into town from here and everywhere. Born on trains, raised on trains, been runnin' after them trains and seen more railroads than you can shake a stick at...
sticks and stones, sticks and stones cain't break ma bones but words, words...
words can make you cry rivers, chile.
Trains pull in and out of my dreams. I hear 'em now singin' their low down rainy night blues...singin' them songs of long long ago.
Those were different days, but the same times.
But they are gone to you chile, gone, you can only see them in the world of dreams.

"But I know I'll see you once more, When I see you, I'll see you on the other side."

Sometimes you go and put things in boxes and forget about them. But then you open the box, and suddenly remember...everything.

"Hold me, hold me tight, I'm falling, Far away. distant voices calling..."

If I had nothing to hold on to, I'd spin out of control and fall out all over the universe, you'd be picking up pieces of me all the way over in Georgia. Still I couldn't tell you just what it is I'm holding on to in these days of mobility. I really don't know, but whatever it is I'm hanging on tight, and I ain't gonna let go no matter what. Everybody got to have a dream or somethin'.

"I was down, but now I'm flying, Straight across the great divide"

Sometimes that wind still gets to me. ..makes me want to hit the road. I was born on a move, and dealing with "place" and staying put has never been my forte. I'm a vagabond, always have been. Probably always will be. It's in my blood, as real as anything. But the freedom of moving on means the freedom of being able to go back, as long as there's something to go back FOR.

"I'll see you, see you on the other side"

a brief reflection on my first day in SPED

...is a big ol' sweetie in disguise
...doesn't talk much, but he's huggy as all get out, and kicks ass on puzzles
...is inquisitive, insatiably curious, and wants to know about everything
I really can't imagine being this vulnerable--or this happy
I really don't know what quality of life means in this context
I've never seen such fragile children, such sweethearts, such a tightly woven fabric of caring and community in one room
I'm not here to judge anybody, just observe lives in progress
"You are so patient"
"It's easy to be that way--I'm used to much worse"
In a world where such basic things can't be taken for granted
Except love and happiness, which flow in abundance from a wellspring of good hearts

the joys of boys

today i was in the math room instead of doing english tutoring as usual. imagine being in an unairconditioned room after school with 6-7 high school boys, none of whom want to be there, much less doing math.
let's just say things can get interesting...

who knows why J--- and M------ are always nitpicking at each other. but i do fully appreciate how frustrated these guys are because i can't for the life of me remember how to do this stuff either. i did explain scientific notation to M----- and spent a lot of time working with L------ but yeah, math isn't my strong suit either, and if i were in high school, my butt would be right in there with all them wild boys. ;)

intake was much less eventful (unless you count having gojo all over your hands as eventful). i was late again but what are you gonna do trying to get to beaverton all the way from outer SE portland? but i'm starting to feel right at home over there in admin.

i decided to ditch the max stop and check out the nature preserve instead, since i didn't have anywhere i had to be right at the moment. what a nice cool shady place on such a hot day. i walked along silent as a deer and watched all the birds and hawks and snakes and squirrels do their thing under the canopy of all those tall oaks and cedars. there are a lot of wild flowers poking up everywhere right now and coming out around the ponds i smelled the grass drying in the sun which reminded me utterly of my days at circle t, surrounded by the heady perfume of wild roses and wild grasses and thistles baking in the sun as the wind carried their scents up from the valley...

ahh i can never get enough of being alone out in the woods. now i know where to go to deprogram after work on rough days...or days where the joys of boys get to be a bit much.
ah boys, and by boys i do mean high school boys...reminds me of the saying, about how you can lead a horse to the water...mamas i don't know how you do it, day in and day out. ;)

Did you ever know that you're my hero?

What do you say to something like that?
Sheeyit, I feel downright special.

rhododendrons rock!

Sarah and I went to the Crystal Springs Rhodendron Gardens. What an awesome park. Even if you aren't obsessed with rhododendrons, it's still a pretty nice place to kill the afternoon. Those lucky little shits over at Reed have this place right across the street from them...
Glad I brought my camera because even though peak bloom must've been last week, there's still a lot of rhodys blooming over there. We had a great time walking around the pond and walking along all the paths looking at all the different colors. I used to hustle these guys but they've got varieties I've never seen or heard of either.

I'll have to make a point of going back there out of season...the trees over there aren't too shabby either. And who ever gets tired of ducks?

attempted yogurt

tried making yogurt for the first time. i figure as much as i'm eating at the moment (a little preventative paranoia regarding the antibiotics), i should start saving some money and try making it from scratch...

so there's a gajillion recipes on the internet. They all basically say the same thing: acquire milk. Heat it but don't let it boil. Cool it to 115. add culture. Stir. incubate. So I did all that. The next morning I opened my thermos and had runny slightly yogurt-flavored milk. drat.
I let it hang out in the fridge all day while I was gone to work and it got a little thicker. It smells decidedly yogurty, and it tastes like yogurt, only it's in beverage format. I suppose I could strain the whey out but nahhh, I kinda dig it. I can drink it in a tea cup! so now i see why they add all those thickeners...

tuesday's ballot

Here's my top ballot picks for tuesday:

1. I sure am glad primary season is OVER! I'm so tired of corny political ads with dogs and babies and "my friend" and all that shit. Whatever...people pay damn near anything to hear someone talk about themselves on the radio. And no I'm NOT registered to vote. wasn't my choice, I tried to be...and got rejected! but you know it's just as well...ain't lived here long enough to know anyone outside my own neighborhood anyway, and it's not like any of these folks gonna be runnin' thangs.

2. Tomatoes are amazingly fragile little seedlings...it's a miracle they survive long enough to produce anything.

3. I sure am gonna miss workin' at the high school. Teens are crazy but I love 'em anyway. They're just the way they are...and it's not like the grown folks do that much better of a job anyhow, to be goin' round judging them.

4. it sounded like everyone had given up on declerye and were going to shut it down but now it sounds like they're gonna try to keep it going. good! (just make sure y'all get real selective about who you let live there, no more slackers and freeloaders) i know it's hard to make it work, but the really amazing thing about decleyre is that we OWN the house...we ain't rentin' it from no slum lord and can do whatever we want. unlike my stupid lease that says no composting, no this, no that. not that i pay it a bit of mind... we got a huge huge garden, how they gonna keep me from composting? i'd like to know? so y'all got a beautiful thing, please don't give up on it. we'd love to have a commune out here but there's no way on earth you could buy a house...and communes and renting don't go together very well.

5. india chaat house is the best!

6. going for 2 weeks without any caffeine is getting surreal, but i'm managing just fine.

7. hawthorne trees smell downright erotic if you think about it. now i understand the association with the month of may...

8. i'll be darn happy when my nose quits running.

days of blaze

Lord help me jesus it's been hot around here lately!
Just like that freak warm spell last year, as i recall. Seems like no matter where i'm living at, it does that thing, the one where it just jumps one day from about 55 to about 95, ready or not...Well we're havin' a whole week of that, this time. And I ain't really ready for it, just now. I don't even really have all my winter clothes put away or anything.

I seen a man walkin' down the street wearin' a coat in all of this, and I be thinkin' some people just crazy!

surrender

i finally gave up and went over to rite aid so i could get some antibiotics for this sinus infection. i can't afford to miss any more time at work and i definitely don't want to miss out on camping. i think the whole experience might've cost about $70 which means i'm gonna come up short somewhere but it's way cheaper than going to a real doctor when you don't have insurance. i just hope i don't have any reactions...i tend to have that problem with antibiotics...

we'll see.

homesick blues

"it's all oak chapparall because it's on the east slopes..." around the other side of the tangle of traveler's joy i heard them boys (just like the ones you see all over town falling out of every crack) sitting out on the front porch drinkin' their beer and talking about ashland...

sigh. it's too soon.

i just went down there, and it was soo hard because it felt like i had never left and the whole thing of me bein' up here was just somekinda crazy dream and i'll be sitting on the number 10 rollin' through talent on my way to work tomorrow morning...

except it's not...and i ain't.

i don't know what it is but that place is like star thistle...you can cut it down over and over and over and over, and it comes right back. i don't know how long it will take to get it out of my system but i bet it'll be years. i thought of this all afternoon while pulling weeds.

you know, i've lived here for about 9 months now and don't know anyone i don't live or work with. so i got plenty of time to notice that everyone looks vaguely like someone i know...but they're not, and i don't...

hmmmmmm....

the assessment project

I'm still pretty sick 私は病気だった. I've been killing the time by fine tuning the paper I have to write about testing アセスメント "assessing" ESL students. The nice thing about writing is that even if the topic is something like testing 学科試験, you can always make it more interesting with a good allusion. Here's an excerpt:

First it is necessary to distinguish between formal and informal assessments.  
Formal assessment can often be equated with “testing”, and informal assessment
can be equated with “observation”.  The difference between a formal assessment
and an informal assessment is akin to the difference between a photograph (a
single moment captured in time) and an oil painting.  They are both pictures,
but informal assessment is like the process of composing an oil painting, where
after a few hours of applying paint to the canvas the basic picture is there--
but since oil paint dries very very slowly, the teacher is free to modify and
record any new details about the subject that emerge over time--so that in the
end the picture may become more complete.  
(The photograph could be called: Juan Pedro, Test Center B 11:13 am Jan 4th. 
The painting could be called “A Week in ESL Period 3: Juan Pedro participates
in a 4 member group poetry feedback session).

yo

sometimes i gotta remember i'm the only one who be feelin' the way i do 'bout thangs...
if i slip up and forget that, and get to thinkin' fo' a minute that other folks might be on the same page, well then dat's when all the trouble starts.
bes' just leave well enough alone and keep my bidness to myself, yo.
fortunately i can say whatever i want on here. HA!

another one of those

another day of being 病気 sick. i can 寝 る sleep anywhere now, sitting or standing. even the sunshine has no allure to me. fortunately I have huunhuurtu (don't know what it is about 蒙古音楽 Mongolian Music, it just rocks) and some jcaliforniacooper to keep me company in these weird times.

poor brian is かゆい itchy and poor amy is 嗅ぎ嗅ぎ sniffly and 咳き咳き coughy. we're a sad bunch in portland these days.

not fair

urrgh, I'm sick and I hate it. I'd be fine if it were February but it's May...virtually summertime. This sucks. I managed to work all of about 3 hours and had to crawl home and sleep like a baby.
I'm awake now but I have no energy, but a vicious headache and a sore throat. I'd love to work on my homework but I can't concentrate. Once I'm done with this blog entry it's snooze time.

It sure was a day of weird weather, weird people and weird times. Then there's this quote that's not all that weird at all...on that note, here's the quote of the day: "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper." (George Bush)

I'm gonna go drink my tea now, you fascists. Don't make me cough on you...I'll do it!

wednesday's list

a list: waking up late, reading vagabond, crazy shit going down in the back of the bus, taking a new way to marshall, teens who are reluctant but can get work turned in if harrassed enough (sorry dj), spontaneous spring rolls, really amazing weather all day long, a crowded bus, losing track of where i am, forgotten tomatoes, pulling weeds, siphoning apple blossom champagne, walking down mlk, tired feet, bedtime.

just for the record

today really sucked. you'd think people would have better things to do than bug me all afternoon about some ridiculous shit, but it ain't so. by way of comparison i'm looking forward to quality time with teens tomorrow...way i figure no matter how crazy things get it just can't top what all happened to me today. (to be perfectly fair though, i have far fewer problems with my teens than i do rich white ladies who live out in the suburbs, oy)

hope i can recuperate from all this hype before tomorrow. my sense of humor is at an all time low. but i don't reckon it's anything the A-Team couldn't fix. Word.

thought #566

Tom Waits would probably say that you can't truly love a place until you've left it behind. But I'm starting to believe that's only half of the truth...standing at the top of Dead Indian Memorial Rd, looking across the valley of oaks towards Mt. Ashland, I have begun to believe that you really can't love a place until you've left it behind and gone back, but don't get to stay.