Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Crash and Burn. But, In A Good Way

Hello, all. According to my most esteemed mother, you all have been clamoring for a new installment. Well, be it true or not, here it is. I am currently prone in bed with my laptop after a harrowing day with an early gym workout, vastly varying temperatures, a little too much employee birthday wine, a little too small a lunch, and, of course, Aunt Flo. That really tops it off. After barely dragging myself home, Adam promptly fed me linguine and put me in bed. What a good man, that one.

Ok, here we go. WARNING: This is going to be a long one.

So, let us take a step back in time, to...oh, two weekends ago. Adam and I traveled via the Jewish Bus (no, really) back to Maryland for Rosh Hashanah weekend. Upon our arrival, we were picked up by the Ilkovitch family in their fabulous new motorcarraige. Three rows of seating, a DVD player, enchanted rims made from ancient Mayan silver, and a trained monkey in the back! Crazy. But no, it was really nice. Adam and I don't ride in cars anymore, so it was sort of a treat. We hung out with the fam for the afternoon and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I've never been so fought over by children in my life. It was nice. Then we met the folks for delicious kabobs, and went back to their place to sleep. The next day I went with Mom to see some of my UMBC pals (sadly no Julie or Kazumi...sniff sniff) and was so tickled at how happy they were to see me. I miss you all! On a somber note, it was terrible to look into Barbara's darkened office and see her elephants and bright pictures still in there, and know I'd never see her again. It's one of those things about life I just can't abide; lovely, beautiful people stolen for no reason. I am, at least, grateful to have known her.

After that, the usual Jabes feast occurred, after which we all languished in food coma and smiled to ourselves. I drew pictures of peacocks and unicorns with the girls, and we finally said goodbye. I always leave those nights wishing I could have more time with Nikki. But we've been calling a lot, and it's fun listening to her taunt me about having babies so they can wear her pristine and forever-in-fashion hand-me-downs. I love hand-me-downs. It comes with the territory.

The next day Mom and Dad took us to Rehoboth Beach. We booked a suite in at The Breakers, and walked around our old stomping grounds all day, looking in shops and petting people's dogs. I did my usual routine: buy gummi [fill in the blank]s at the Candy Kitchen, inhale them indiscriminately and in an open-mouthed, immature fashion, remove shoes and stomp through the wet sand, taunting waves and then running away, laugh at how the sandpiper birds run away too, eat Grotto Pizza, eat Boardwalk Fries with half a bottle of vinegar...you get the point. It was awesome.

We got back with an hour to spare before having to go meet the bus to return to New York. We were dead on our feet by the time we got home, but it was a good trip so it could have been much worse. There will be some new pics on our website, so you should check 'em out.

The week went by without incident, and this Saturday was Yom Kippur. Now, Adam always fasts with me, of his own volition. This is very, very sweet of him. However, the result of us both being without food is often violent and involves foul language. Heck, what am I supposed to do? I don't function well with low blood sugar. Also, our apartment was a sty and we had no food in the house, so we had to clean, do laundry, as well as Manhattan shopping on empty stomachs. This was not very smart. So, around 3 p.m. we caved and had a slice of pizza, each. It was heaven. Then I had the energy to both purchase and cook dinner (whole roast chicken with rosemary and lemon, as well as farm fresh carrots and finger potatoes, thank you very much), which was delicious. Mazel tov!

Sunday we ate at Eisenberg's and jogged in Prospect Park, which was lovely as usual. That night we got a call from our lovely new friend Charles, who lives in Hell's Kitchen. We met up in Chelsea where he greeted us: "Welcome to the Gayberhood!" (i.e. there are a lot of homosexuals in Chelsea. It's very clean!) He introduced us to Pinkberry, a tasty, fashionable and overpriced fro-yo shop where skinny people can eat no-guilt ice cream with fresh fruit and cap'n crunch on top to their heart's delight. It was funny. Charles is a wonderful young man.

Anyway, this week has been good, but seriously tiring. With Aunt Flo visiting, I feel like there is a small dwarf beating on my head with a cudgel, and some type of disgruntled goat head-butting my abdomen. Really, it feels just like that. However, today was full of surprises. I was coming back from running an errand and went to the ladies' room, where I heard a couple women (one a young editor I know, and an unknown one), talking about hand washing length to a very young, very adorable little girl, probably about 4. I didn't pay much attention to all this, but looked at the little girl, who smiled and left. I heard a lot of commotion coming from one of the ladies' offices right down the hall from me (I'm talking 10 feet) and saw that they were having some kind of meeting. I just glanced in, but that was all. They were there for a while, and around the time I noticed the voices fading, I get an e-mail from my boss: "Don't think we're going to have the meeting today...got a lot of work on my plate, and frankly, I'm a little distracted by the fact that [a certain A-list celebrity, a la Suddenly Susan] is here with her daughter."

Uhm, what?

So, yes. I was in the bathroom with this celebrity's daughter, and possibly the celebrity herself. I called Nikki to mourn the fact that I missed all of this, and she replied, "Oh, she'll probably come back. If you see her, tell her I loved Blue Lagoon."

Oh, life sure is interesting. I hope this was satisfying for you all. Also, if anyone is interested in Josh's fantastic recipe for Fennel Soup that I just tried, let me know. Fennel is in season!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Two little things


Every once in a while, I feel the urge to post a little update in this blog. Recently, there's been plenty for me to write about, but there's only two things that keep resurfacing in my mind. These are 1) Michelle's happiness and 2) my job.

Both are very important to us, but since the former is slightly more significant, I'll start with it. Michelle is finally happy. It's not that she's been depressed or anything. The happiness she feels now though, just seems to be such a distinct shift in her emotional state. I haven't seen her this happy since college. And I include our wedding. Not because she didn't enjoy our wedding. Far from it. Heck, she was in a delirious state of ecstasy. No, the difference is why. She was happy on October 6th mainly because it was October 6th. It was her wedding day. The day was all about her and she loved it. And she should have. But back then, our future still was uncertain and she certainly wasn't fulfilled by her job, so she still carried alot of stress around with her. Even through the honeymoon her happiness wasn't like it is now. It was different somehow. There's a calm about her now. I'll look over at her and she'll smile as if saying "Hi. I'm good now. Nothing to worry about." As opposed to before when her smile was a grin and the message read closer to "I'm managing." So is it because of the job? Sure, of course. But I think it's more than that. It's our lives now. There's goals in mind now and we're finally in a place that can help us recognize them. I feel Ellicott City was suffocating us very, very slowly. New York gave us fresh air (figuratively and literally) and a fresh start. Yes, we still miss all of you deeply (Ben, Nat, Jamie, Chris, our families, Jen... well, maybe not Jen) but I think Meech needed the change. We both did. So those are my thoughts on Meech's happiness. Keep in mind, I haven't run any of this by Meech, so she may disagree with all of it. But I feel fairly confident she'd agree. At least mostly.


The other I've been meaning to post about is my job. Mainly because it is SO different than anything I'm used to. Allow me to explain: First, there's the culture. It's a poor neighborhood, almost entirely African-American and the rest mostly Hispanic. (Although there is this one white kid in our school who looks quite out of place). The building we work in is HUGE and actually houses TWO High Schools along with our Middle School. It is not the safest neighborhood, but it's far from a ghetto. Keeping all this in mind, I spent my first two years teaching in Howard County.

Next there's the students themselves. A few years older than I've ever taught. Most have never seen anywhere outside of their neighborhood and almost all of them are not used to strict discipline eight hours every day. Some of the cadets (what we refer to the students as) are as big or bigger than I am. They come from poor educational backgrounds and many with little parental support. (Again, keep in mind... Howard County).

And then there's what the Commandant (Principal) is asking of me. I teach every student General Music and Band. That means all 150 cadets are learning Theory, Music History and by the end of the year each one will know how to play some instrument, whether they want to or not. I also teach Math to one of the 6th grade classes every day (Well, not Fridays, but I get them twice as much on Tuesdays so it evens out). Math is 90 minutes every day, so Tuesdays gets to be 3 hours of Math. This of course, from a Music teacher who has literally no Math educational background whatsoever. Also, every Wednesday afternoon for the last period, each Professor (teacher) takes about 15-20 students for Advisory period. This is when we teach them a different lesson about life every week, the cadets pretend they care, we pretend we don't know the cadets are pretending to care, and each Professor gets to waste 45 minutes doing what our Guidance Counselor was hired to do, when we could all be using that time to prepare for the enormous amount of work WE were hired to do.

Not that I'm bitter.

Now, that's the bad news. The good news is this: I love my job. I'm also discovering I'm quite good at it. Considering my last school had enough money for just about anything, more than one copying machine, internet access in every room, huge community support and students that would never THINK of giving teachers serious attitude, I'm doing just fine. It really surprised me, but only recently when a fellow Professor pointed it out, did I realize I can discipline these students as well as any of the other teachers that carry a more experience with these type of attitudes. And remember, this is ME we're talking about. Last year my biggest concern was giving a nine-year old a disapproving look for not practicing as much as she should have. Last week I made an entire Squadron (class) of 7th graders practice walking into my classroom three times before letting them sit down and I wasn't happy until each one said "Yes, Professor Corpora." Where was this disciplinarian hiding?

I should also point out that the parental support is stronger than I thought. The rumors are that now that the returning 7th graders have gone through this school for a year and the parents are finally seeing what he have to offer (and that the Professors actually know what we're doing), the parents are finally taking a step forward, too. Apparently last year they were not quite as "present", but we're seeing a huge turnaround now. Also, every phone call I've had to make to parents (and there's been quite a few), I've always spoken to caring, concerned parents who really do make sure their son or daughter "gets the message." So thank goodness for them!

It's funny, when I came here, I was downright terrified of facing these students. I figured if there was one reason I'd quit, it was because of them. But now they don't frighten me at all. I'm completely comfortable about getting in their face and letting them have it. What stresses me out is the enormous amount of work I've been given to do, which was what I actually had been looking forward to before I came. I'll admit it's been exciting thinking of how I'm going to teach every cadet an instrument. It's a challenge. But I like challenges. It's something that, to my knowledge, has never been done before. At least none of the schools I know in Maryland has ever tried this. Band, not as an extra-curricular program, but as a required piece to graduate. And not just Music Theory. Actually learning an instrument. And get this. Right now, we have 23 instruments and 155 cadets. Awesome, isn't it? And Commandant Dalton wants a concert in December. HAHAHA. Time to get to work!

Speaking of getting to work, I should do that myself. I need to come up with what I'm teaching next week. See, cause unlike the other subjects, the Music program doesn't have a curriculum already outlined for them. Heck, it doesn't even have a textbook yet. So, off to the drawing board.

Hope I didn't bore you. Leave a message. We love reading them and hearing from our friends and family. Take care,

Adam

Sunday, September 9, 2007

*Bliss*

Time for an update, no? Well, Adam and I have had a lovely relaxing weekend. Friday night we stayed up and drank screwdrivers and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That was awesome. I ate too many pretzels, which was both awesome and not good at the same time. Saturday we got up and went to Eisenburg's Sandwich Shop next to the Flatiron building, where we first went with Joe and Lorraine. It may become a tradition. Adam had eggs and sausage and I had a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese and lox. And coffee. Can it get any better? Then we got Adam some new clothes at H&M and went to Union Square to pick up some cat food and new biodegradable litter. Then we went to Target and I got an awesome new sundress. It's a size extra-small, which boggled my mind. I assume a size large would fit a moderately-sized elephant. Today started with egga (a family omelet made with lots of onion and parmesean cheese) and a jog through Prospect Park. It was beautiful. Then home and cleaning. And bean burritos. Yum.

On all other fronts, things are going really well. Adam is doing extremely well in school and is shaping up those kids right straight. He loves all his fellow teachers, and enjoyed two pints of Guinness with the vice-principal and the science teacher at a bar on Friday, while discussing math. Oh, those New York teachers. He also came up with an awesome Music Chant, which the kids all sing before class every day. It goes like this:

Music moves us from our head to our toes,
It's the only language that the whole world knows!

Mozart, Beethoven, Handel and Bach,
Classical composers that will always rock!
Flutes, clarinets and saxophones,
Trumpets and the slide trombones.

By learning these we'll lend a hand,
To form the unbeatable K---- SIX BAND!
You know that you can't make us stop,
'Cause the drummers in the back won't let the beat drop!

Music moves us from our head to our toes,
It's the only language that the whole world knows!

The kids LOVE this apparently, especially when Adam, like some Beastie Boy, raps it himself. It's a sight to see.

As for me, GW is proving to be as amazing as I had hoped. I love every day I spend there. This week I got to meet award-winning illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, who was in the office working on a new book he's doing with poet laureate Jack Prelutsky. Part of my job is to check in new artwork that comes in, and I got to do so with his new watercolors for Awful Ogre Running Wild. They are really incredible. So, when I met him I said, awkwardly, "I saw your new pieces for Awful Ogre, they are really awesome."

He said, "You should say they are 'awful.'"

And that was our meeting. Funny. On Friday, Jenna Bush was in a meeting down the hall from me with another Harper group who's doing a book with her. Crazy! Other than that, it's all just fabulous. The group is small (11 people) and everyone is so funny and nice. In November, we're having our Art Preview party and I get to meet Kevin Henkes! He's one of the most famous authors GW has, and I do all his fan mail! Maybe I'll get an autograph.

This weekend we travel back to Maryland to celebrate Rosh Hashana with my folks and go to Rehoboth for a mini-vacation. Yay!

Monday, September 3, 2007

Guestravaganza!

Well, I'm REALLY busy right now, but I figure I ought to post SOMEthing about the last couple weeks before more stuff happens I just get horribly behind. I'll be quick about these...

Lorraine and Joe
Last weekend brought Lorraine and Joe to our happy home. They've been planning it all summer and now they finally got to see the place. It was a very enjoyable weekend, but unfortunately quite short. Because of the long drive, they didn't get here until late Friday night, then had to leave early Sunday. But still, we made time for fun. I can't seem to remember most of the stuff we did, but I do know we went to Rockefeller Center to check out a French library for Lorraine and stopped by the Seaport so Lorraine and Joe could buy tickets for Curtains (which they both enjoyed, but Lorraine more than Joe. I think.)

Anyway, it was a great weekend. And they were both so awesome guests cause they brought dinner for us that night (and it was GREAT!). I can't remember anything else, but if I do, I'll add it later.

Back to School
My job officially started this past week, but no classes yet. It was a full week of orientation for the cadets (students). This involved much running around, alot of manual labor, plenty of last minute plans and just a dash of hysteria. They new cadets were terrified, which is good, but the old cadets are already starting to test the staff. I'm freaking out a good bit because on top of my Music classes, I also have to teach 90 minutes of Math every day. And apparently Pete, the commandant (principal) wants me to teach every student a band instrument. So right now I'm teaching myself Pascal's triangle and looking up how to order 42 clarinet mouthpieces. Awesome.

I've already told the more interesting KAPPA VI stories to my friends and families, so I don't feel like repeating them again here. Maybe I'll add them later when I get a free second.

Mom and Dad
This past weekend was the final of 4 weekend visits in a row and I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing and enjoyable weekend. (In case you're wondering, it was Ben and Nat, Mania and Rick, Joe and Lorraine, then Mom and Dad). Fortunately, they had the long weekend, so we got in alot of activities all through Saturday and Sunday. Oddly enough, despite the fact that all our plans involved relaxing, every time we got home, we all felt exhausted.

Saturday was our wine-tasting voyage, where we headed out to Long Island and stopped at three or four vineyards. Oh, and we also traveled great distances for a magical restaurant called Legends. The food was great, but the service made me think the waiters had to travel the same distance to reach our table. The vineyards were amazing and Meech and my folks got some great pictures. It took most of the day and it was probably 5 or 6 when we got back. Even though all we did was sit, sip wine and talk, we collapsed when we got home and enjoyed a large Not Ray's Pizza pizza.

Sunday was equally as beautiful, but far less restful. We headed south to the Botanical Gardens. It was wonderful weather and the gardens were beautiful, but it was pretty warm and we got tired of walking. Of course, we couldn't leave until stopping by Prospect Park for ALL of our first look at it. Meech and I LOVED it there and we're already planning trips for our friends and us to hang out down there. That night we celebrated the perfect weekend by visiting our favorite Italian place in Little Italy, Da Nico's. The food, service and atmosphere were excellent. Even if they weren't, pulling Mom's invisible laughing cord would have made up for EVERYTHING.

I joked alot about how glad I was that this was the last weekend for guests. Of course, it's true I'll be looking forward to a quiet weekend at home next week, I'm still so happy for all our visits. It's been great seeing friends and family, especially after such a big move. In all seriousness, if we could do it all again, we would.

Just not next weekend.

That's it for me. I'm going to get back to lesson plans and such. Check out our pictures up there on the right. Meech has added a bunch of new ones for you.
Take care and talk to you later.
Toodles,

Adam