ESL-Free

well so much for the fabulous afternoon of ESL...I fell down the stairs last night so it's been a KWALITY day of staying home with my leg propped up. No, I didn't break anything but I am dreading the prospect of having to walk *anywhere* tomorrow.

On the plus side I have finally dealt with some shit I've been putting off forever. It's amazing how much easier that is when there's zero distractions.

moving to woodstock

It's official. We signed the papers today and are moving to a house out in the Woodstock area around the first of the month. I'll post pictures as soon as I remember to bring my camera along with me.

Don, you got that no vacancy sign yet? a response

It seems like I've gotten this from a couple of what I will assume are well-meaning folks...but frankly these little xenophobic rants annoy me...please don't send me this stuff and assume that I want to receive it. I don't.
Why? The primary reason would be that the whole basis of the argument is flawed. As a conniseur of rational thinking, I hate illogical reasoning. The secondary reason is of course that it contradicts everything I have experienced in my own life. They say experience dictates your reality, and my experience has obviously been profoundly different from that of most in a lot of very important ways.

On a related note, it's endlessly annoying how everyone assumes that as a white person, I automatically would be inclined to agree with this stuff. I can't tell you how many times some closeted racist person would come up to me and feel like I'm some kind of safe space for them to dump whatever's been on their chest...it gets real old. And while we're at it, I'm not impressed with people who think it will impress me when they make fun of people who can't speak English. Also people who make fun of people with cognitive or neurological disabilities tends to piss me off too. In life we tend to deal with our uncertainities in some very unproductive ways. If yours happens to be making fun of things you don't get, it makes you look like that much less of a person.

So on that note...

The whole premise of the analogy is that the author basically equates immigrants with "people who are breaking into HER house". She assumes that I would not want "immigrants" living in my house. That by not opposing immigration, that I am thus required to let "immigrants live in my house and personally provide them with all the services which I currently consider myself entitled to.

That all sounds quite nice, but here's the heart of my problem with this analogy. I don't personally consider ALL of the United States to be "MY house". The only place I consider to be "my house" is the space I am currently leasing. I don't begrudge my neighbors the right to live where they do. I don't care who lives dowtown, in the countryside, in LA or NY. It's no concern of mine. In fact if my neighbor happens to be a crack dealer but isn't personally bothering me in any way, then we're cool. Perhaps the author of the piece DOES consider ALL of the United States to be their house. In which case I better be careful or I might walk out into my kitchen and see them digging through my refrigerator or helping herself to my socks. Seriously. I think most of the rest of us figure out by the middle of elementary school that only certain things belong to us, and others do not.

Problem number two is what do we consider the United States to be? The continental United States (which we all know is a huge land grab)? Or all of the territories and possessions (an imperialistic land grab). Hmm when you add the latter category this line of reasoning is easily inverted and one could rightfully say that Americans have a bad habit of coming into other people's homes and taking their shit. For a really extreme example of this, let's briefly consider the recent Iraq war. Install dictator. Depose dictator. Take oil. Repeat.

Problem number three which I personally find most interesting is that there's a 99% percent chance that the author of this lame analogy is an immigrant as well. There's an annoying human tendency of conveniently forgetting that sometimes you share a lot in common with the very same person you are vehemently lambasting. For anyone in a country of immigrants to claim to be anti-immigration is a rather confusing position from a logical standpoint. I don't care how long you've been here, you still came from somewhere else originally (unless you have a tribal membership). Assuming the vast majority of people currently dwelling in the continental United States have origins elsewhere, if you find you don't like the state of things, feel free to go back to whatever place it was that you or your father or your great-grandmother came from, learn that language and live happily in a community full of people who look and talk exactly like you. Otherwise get over it. Cultural difference won't kill you.

Problem number four: The list of services that I am presumed to be unwilling to provide to immigrants are remarkably similar to the services I currently expect to receive myself just by virtue of falling out of bed every morning. In fact, there is nothing special about this list of "special treatment" options. It is the basic list of all things one is entitled (or should be since in fact we fall short in many ways of meeting our own needs in this country) to when one comes to live in the United States:
1. A place to live. A radical assumption in some circles but I happen to be one of those who does believe shelter is a basic right.
2. Public health. Again here we fall short in practice but we do assume most of the time that we won't be left to die in the streets.
3. Education. Is there any obvious positive benefit to denying anyone education? If so, please name one. I'll be breathlessly waiting for your response.
4. Public Assistance. Most people who assume immigrants use public assistance are clueless. They are ineligible. They have to take care of their own business unlike the native born who are free to accept handouts from my tax dollars.
5. Social Security: Am I the only person who has figured out that this is the obvious solution to our so called Social Security problem? An entire cohort of able-bodied workers paying into social security who currently are more likely to return to their country of origin than stay on to retirement age and collect benefits. Duh. I don't know why I'm the only person who sees the obvious benefit here.

I think that's enough soap boxing for today, but as a person who has spent lots of quality time in foreign countries, and working with and socializing with recent immigrants, I think some of my native born peers need to check their attitudes at the door. Personally I think people (especially Americans) need to get out more anyway and broaden their horizons. It doesn't hurt you any.

oh yeah, moving time begins in earnest

Well today I got to renew my acquaintance with a couple of old trusty friends...a stack of cardboard boxes and some packing tape. Yep, it's that time again. The cat is already suspicious...

We officially got a cute little house in SE (after weeks of looking at shithole apartments and threatening to move to Beaverton) and we get to move into it any time after March 1. So now we need to start cramming our belongings in boxes...fortunately it's not that urgent, so I'm not as stressed out as I usually am during these episodes. But I can tell you right now, I still groan every time I think about what's on the horizon. ick.

chicken dance

Today was another fun day at one of my favorite schools. Probably the highlight of the whole day for me was taking the kids to music and watching them rock out...at one point they even did the chicken dance. I got into myself, it's really hard not to pick up on all that sheer exuberance that you get from being in a happy crowd of single-digit-aged kids. Good times.

doh!

Stupid stupid stupid me. I got a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt today. Doh!

almost there

man this has been a rough week...i'm glad it's almost over. it's been very good and successful in some ways, but pretty exhausting as well. a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've got a sinus infection going and that's draining my energy away.

i'm really digging the fact that Monday's a holiday and there's some downtime associated with that so maybe i can get some homework done. i've still got some tutoring but other than that, the day's free.

might go see serenity at laurelhurst this weekend but otherwise it's all work and no play...

bus shooting

PORTLAND - North Precinct officers are searching for
suspects who may have been involved in a fight on a
TriMet bus.

Around 6 p.m. Tuesday, police were called to the area of
Northeast MLK Boulevard and Failing Street. As officers
arrived they saw several suspects running from the bus
and heard shots fired.

Police attempted to set up a perimeter to contain possible
suspects but did not have enough officers on hand.
Police say no one appears to have been injured and have
not located a victim. One handgun has been recovered from the scene. The
Gang Enforcement Team is investigating.

2/13/2007

Shit...I was on the bus RIGHT BEFORE THIS (the 5:50). Damn, I got lucky. Life's crazy, yo.

New girl in school

We got a new tutor today for our crew. So far she seems like she can hang, but then again they went easy on her. I'm excited about having her around though, I need someone to help me whip these boys into shape.

test(es) 1, 2, 3?

Heh heh, I felt like making a bad Beavis and Butthead joke...

I'm proud to say that I must've done the right thing for a change. I went to the study session before taking my midterm exam and thanks to that and all the studying I've done, I think I probably did alright after all.

I've probably been blowing this thing way out of proportion, but hey, I'm trying to do some GPA repair, and with only a few homework assignments and attendance grades to offset my test performance, I think it's worth worrying about.

Education Roundup

I don't normally talk about schools I work at all that much or my students on here even though it's a huge part of my life. Mainly (and I've said this a million times before) it has to do with confidentiality issues. But it's been an incredible week, one of those times in my life that makes me totally sure I want to be a high school teacher. Everyone I have worked with this week has done a really good job of being responsible, thinking things through, staying on top of their work, as well as meeting my expectations. I feel like my crew has come a long way this year and just wanted to say that I think they're awesome.

Today I was back at a familiar elementary school that I've subbed at several times before. I really enjoy this particular school (in spite of the fact that I'm not looking to become an elementary ed teacher, but if I was this clearly would be a very good school to work at). It's such an inviting, cheerful, well-coordinated school, the teachers are all real friendly (they even talk to me and I am just a lowly sub), and the staff is real helpful and utterly approachable. The kids at this school are awesome, and I love coming and hanging out with them whenever I can. It's a fun break from my usual adolescent gigs, and I find the mix of demographics at work here kind of fascinating to observe. I hope that I end up in a place down the road that has this kind of sense of community, because this is what makes coming back here so much fun for me.

Thinking about the contrasts between the two schools I've been at this week...One is a high school in a low-income part of town. The other is an elementary school in a wealthy suburban area. The things they have in common are really amazing staff, and lots of ELLs in the student body. But in all other ways they are completely different. I enjoy them both, but for entirely different reasons.
Pretty soon I'm going to give all of this up and play fulltime student, so I just wanted to set some of this down for posterity. This has been a unique time in my life and I've enjoyed it thoroughly. Starting in April, everything will probably be rather different from here on out, and I'm going to miss even the things I currently groan about (anchor papers!). I will definitely miss Special Ed...I'll have to be sure to keep some SPED in my life, it's a lot of fun.

moving up

Just a couple of notes: I think the whole point of moving might be to have MORE room, not less. And if you think I'm going back to hand-washing dishes, think again, foo'. If I gotta pay at least $750 to get something "decent" you better believe I want something to come with that. I'm about to get more uppity than them Beaverton housewives that used to come in and bug me on Saturdays... Lookout!

a whole week of mondays

This week has been kinda crazy. You'd think the moon was void-of-course for the entire week the way things have been going--or rather--NOT going. Two things are a source of trouble this week...getting places on time, and remembering things. Okay, to be perfectly honest, me forgetting things is normal, and I readily acknowledge that. But getting places on time has NEVER been a problem for me, I've always been really good at it...but yet I've struggled with it mightily all week. The short list of things I've totally botched this week: catching (ANY) westbound bus on time, going anywhere on time, telling Brian things he needs to know, remembering how to ride the bus effectively, leaving things at schools that should not be left at schools, and communicating effectively with "normal" people. (we'll attribute the last one to the fact that I have spent my entire week in the company of people with autism spectrum disorders and communication disorders so my way of "relating" may need to be reset for the neurally "normal".

I am sooooo very glad that today's Friday and I can only screw up things of moderate importance on weekends...

on a note of "suck"

i heard my friend jb's apartment burned down very recently. that sucks. she's got a place to stay fortunately, but losing all your stuff sucks big time. damn, life is crazy, yo.

self indulgence is lame

so i'm turning into a raging insomniac...well not exactly.
normally i don't have any trouble whatsoever falling into bed and shutting my eyes, it would be the pain and suffering that has me staying up late when the rest of the household is asleep. (by the way it's really all for the best if you refrain from typing your list of symptoms into google, the resulting answers are confusing and needlessly alarming) but that being said, if i still feel this way tomorrow, then perhaps immediate medical attention will be sought. i do have insurance now, it's very exciting.

this late at night, with no sleep in sight, I'm trying to decide if i want to be elda santiago tomorrow. being elda for a day is a possibility i'm willing to entertain, but only if I feel up for the trek on the max and a long day of conflicting emotions. they're fun bunch of kiddos though, if I fall asleep before 2am, I'll think about it...

last time i tried sleeping out here it was so cold i had to wear a coat and a hat, and was laying fully clothed under three blankets and was still cold. that's one of the reasons why i have to move out of this code violation infested house, but i have mixed feelings just the same.

while i may not have effective heat, i do have a really fabulous garden that i'm gonna have to give up. Anywhere I move to is not likely to come with a quarter acre garden plot. In fact I'd be lucky to have a porch with containers of tomatoes. How will I get through a whole summer without homegrown tomatoes? On the plus side, I might be able to move closer to PSU (because with the buses routes all messed up it takes like 30-40 minutes to get there now when it used to take 15). And I would like to be able to let all my piles of school stuff accumulate all over the place instead of feeling like I need to keep my messes out of sight. I've got a couple of piles going right now and I'm only taking linguistics. Just wait until I start student teaching and have all that shit piling up too. But moving also means I'm gonna have to buy crap like a couch and some appliances that I have just been using for free for about a year and a half. And odds are good that we'll end up in apartments (which I HATE) instead of a house, and knowing my luck I'll end up living next to some loud neighbors or crying babies. And I also have the fun chore of trying to find a decent place that allows pets. There aren't a lot of those out there. I don't know...I'm not wild about moving. But I can't imagine another winter without heat. And I'm really starting to feel like I need more space. Honestly I'd love to buy a house, but yeah right, the average price for a shack around here is over $250,000. I think even my PARENTS would find that hard to manage...I"m under the impression that this sort of thing was much easier in their day. In mine it's not, unless you live in Memphis. $250,000 there would get you a palace...

So while I'm not sleeping, I'll be thinking about how much finding a place to live sucks. If it were up to me, I'd start a collective house of English Teachers and we'd all buy shares in a funky house in NE and have tons of cats and fruit trees. It would be like the beethoven shack...Sigh...

Alright, let's try that sleep thing. It's waaaay past my bedtime.