Yes

Buckle up

2010-06-08T02:12:00.004-04:00

Just got back from a lovely week back on the best coast and am about ready to set off again for EPIC ROAD TRIP 2010. Stay tuned for some awesome pictures to come (there might be matching road trip shirts involved!)

View EPICOSITY in a larger map

crossing some lines

2010-05-26T02:48:00.006-04:00

The classroom is empty, cleaned, and prepped for next year. The weatherman is speaking of three-digit temperatures. Yep, summer is here!! The plan, thus far:

phx --> celebrate parents' anniversary and my bday in la --> phx: prep for road trip --> cross some state lines into ut and co --> phx: pack up the residence, pay some movers to move it, and unpack in new residence --> southern ut: wwoof it up near capitol reef --> slc: enjoy being in the same state as crys for more than 3 days since like 5 years ago...

I wish my plans included some overseaing but I'm happy with gettin friendlier with the southwest. Amping up with some good reads - West With the Night and Blue Highways. Also some sweet tunes

new girl crush

2010-05-22T19:26:00.005-04:00

West With the Night

Benefits

2010-04-28T22:17:00.006-04:00

Holy guacamole! 16 more teaching days left for the 09-10 school year. What???? Yes....

Seems like the time is ripe for a sweet reflection on the joys of teaching and how kids are full of giggles and glittery surprises...

...but I'd much rather just talk about all the compliments and fashion advice I've received recently from my four-year olds. To add to my list of awesome compliments, I have been complimented on:

- my eyebrows; MC: "Teacher, I like your eyebrows." Me: "[pointing to my eyebrows, and thinking 'These things that I haven't touched up in weeks??"] my eyebrows??" MC: "Yes, that's what I said!"

- my glasses

- my black Vans; ND: "Teacher, cuuuute!! New Vans??"...shows up two days later with a pink version

- my wolf shirt

- my drawing of corn (for our plant journals); DJ: "Teacher, the corn you made is beautiful!"

Awesome, random, genuine compliments are probably the best unexpected perks of this job.

Also appreciated is the fashion advice that usually extends from the mutual compliments on wardrobe choices. I'm not sure if this is common to hear from four-year old boys but E.D., after receiving a compliment on his Transformers shirt today, suggested I get one and told me I could get it at Walmart. I'm 87% persuaded to get one but I'm scared that walking into my class with a Transformers shirt just might blow my already-high cool factor through the roof. But as of now, the benefits of a Transformers shirt might just end up outweighing the risks...

Sunday School

2010-03-09T18:43:00.002-05:00

Today, during lunch...

Me: Whoa it looks like it might rain again!

ED: The weather changed!!

Me: Yea, it changed quickly. I wonder why...

DJ: I know! God changed it!

Me: Oh yea?

DJ: Yea cuz God live in the sky!

YN: NO! God lives in your heart!

DJ: He lives in the sky AND in your heart!

DJ is also the one who once answered my question "How does food get to the grocery store?" with "God put it there!" Looks like Sunday School is working!

rhyming

2010-02-25T18:30:00.002-05:00

One of the literacy skills we've been working on in class has been rhyming. We've talked about it in circle, read books, etc etc and we also play this game (by which I mean it's used for transitions) where the kids listen for a word that rhymes with their name. So like,

Me: Job. Whose name rhymes with Job?

Kids: Bob! Bob! Bob!

Super. So to jazz it up a bit, this week we started asking the kids to think of the words that rhyme with their name. Some have been getting it...others, not so much. Nothing surprising there...BUT!

Smartest Kid Ever: Teacher! I know a word that rhymes with Celeste!

Me: Yea? What?

Smartest Kid Ever: BEST! Celeste and Best rhyme!

Me: Um hell yes it does!!! And let me teach you a secret about rhymes - anything that is true rhymes! So Celeste is the Best! You pass with flying colors and you are set for life kid!

I actually didn't say that but I communicated those sentiments in my big teacherly smile and high-five. I guess I'm doing at least one thing right!

rise up

2010-01-24T17:22:00.001-05:00

Help Haiti - Drop the Debt - The Petition Site

&/or

Churches Helping Churches

yo quiero

2010-01-11T22:37:00.005-05:00

Close friends* and stalkers know that:

1. I love books. I have always loved books. Not just the content but the covers and fonts and smell of books. I am like mama bear when someone mishandles my books. Neurotic much?

2. I collect things...or more like, I hoard things. And books, being at the top of the list of things I love, are my most frequent acquisitions regardless of available funds or shelf space.

3. Of the books that I love, I have a special place in my heart for The Little Prince. Whenever I (or lovely generous, adventurous friends) travel to other countries, I try to find a copy and currently, I have it in French, Italian, Mandarin, Korean, and of course English.

All of that hopefully sheds some light on how f l i p p i n excited I am about this:

I didn't think you could improve Saint-Exupery's original but um, yea, pop-up books are awesome and excuse me while I go wipe my drool off the screen.

*Don't feel like less of a friend if you did not actually know any of the above about me. I still probably love you.

backwards glance

2010-01-11T14:09:00.017-05:00

It's twenty ten! How futuristic. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw all the months of 2009 skipping away hand in hand towards the rosy horizon of nostalgia to snuggle with all the other memories of years gone by. Tra la la farewell!

rang in the new year (yesteryear) in ocotal, nicaragua with some epic adventures and even more epic characters

a piece of my heart remains in ithaca. more specifically, on a wall at dunbar's.

what is better than biking with friend friends? biking with beer on your head, your handlebars, and in your bellly.

ventured down south for a little 13.1 mile run

i's officially edumacated - go look at my B.S. diploma!

second cross-country road trip. learned america loves giant things

initiated into the world of teachers by teaching kindergarten while melting on a daily basis in the oven that is phoenix

the american dream - my own (shared) preschool classroom

kids are hard. but kids are funny. funny > hard

hallo weenie

finally gaining some sense of sanity and balance - dinner partay with the ECE girls

best part of being a teacher is following school schedule which means WINTER BREAK!!

there's no place like home...

just another day...

2009-10-13T17:51:00.002-04:00

The other day, while playing outside on the playground, one of my 3 year olds came down the slide, stood up, whipped out his little friend and took a piss. On the playground. In broad daylight. Totally unperturbed...just takin care of business.

I swear...with 17 kids, every day is a new flavor of crazy....

resume

2009-09-12T12:13:00.003-04:00

This thing has been just sitting here gathering some cyberspace dust! I feel like I walked into the attic I never had/still don't have and found this relic from a life I used to have a long long time ago....like 4 months ago.

Not to be all "pshaw life after college is soooo different (insert world-weary hair flip)" but it kind of really is. Not necessarily in a bad way. I think I was born to be middle-aged so easing into 'adulthood' is happening with less trauma/drama than easing into 'young adulthood' involved. Sometimes it's really tiring and frustrating and discouraging and infuriating to be responsible for 17 three- and four-year olds but life in the desert really is a new season in my life, and I'm super grateful for that.

It's great because I stumbled upon this nugget of wisdom the other day, that God surrounds you with people who reveal the kind of person you have been to Him. I mulled on that thought for a bit and was like "awesome! I have great people in my life!" and then during the middle of a particularly zooish day at school, it hit me that I'm surrounded (literally) everyday by 17 three and four year olds who can be so mindblowingly selfish, self-centered, and reckless. W.h.o.a....I mean they can also be flippin hilarious and sweet and surprise me everyday but right now we're all still learning how to be in the class together and it is super humbling that 1) I am responsible for preparing these kids for kindergarten/life in general and that 2) I have a visible reflection of what I look like in my relationship with God. But everyday there is growth and there is hope. For example, the other day I nearly cried when one of my particularly difficult kids (a really young 3, very few words, super active and reckless) was able to fix his mistake (our number one rule in class) and asked a friend he had accidentally bumped into, "Tu OK?" He resumed running around after that but progress nonetheless!!

Random postscript: The lady at Lux read my mind and brought over some gorgeous flowers in a vase for our table. Soy latte, catching up on my feeds, a good book, and flowers...what a grand way to start the morning!

today, i is stupid

2009-05-04T22:25:00.003-04:00

Flip!! By which I mean another four letter word. Talk about a manic dumbday!!
...Except I don't want to talk about it...so onward ho.

Study week! One exam next week, one project due this week and then I am home free!
...Except I don't know what to turn in for my film class project...
But no fear...this stress will only make the awaiting freedom taste that much sweeter.

Progress to date: a ridiculous amount of unread books stacked precariously by my desk, a research report written half-asleep, some half-baked ideas for the creative portion, and some great graphics for the non-requisite title page -

images - top to bottom: subbooks | atthemovies | soundtrackcollector | allposters

1/2 marathon weekend highlights:

2009-04-28T12:20:00.006-04:00

Driving down/up the 71 through beautiful Kentucky and Tennessee
Free on-the-road entertainment/laughs

Rushing to pick up our race bibs and finding out that we were in a different time zone and technically were not late
"Run like you stole it" and other hilarious encouragement along the race course
Temperatures in the mid-80s
Finishing the race alive even though we had unexpected heat and hills
Not being able to cross the parking lot and sprawling out on a grassy divider for oh, about a half hour after the race
Getting our spirits back up with good food, good music, and some retail therapy
Finding out that even though it may take me a while to get back up after hitting the wall, I have it in me to get up and go at it again

a shot of warm & fuzzy

2009-04-21T09:13:00.002-04:00

tweenbots

back to basics

2009-04-18T14:21:00.006-04:00

My perception of time has been super off all of April. Weeks drag then warp ahead all of a sudden and now, somehow, the Country Music (Half) Marathon is right around the corner! (As is graduation! Aagggh!) I've been alternating between feeling pretty good after a month and a half-ish of preparation and feeling panicked/desperate for at least another month to improve strength/speed. Wednesday morning's long run went really well but today's 'easy' tempo run was not good at all for me. I always struggle with the first two miles (especially because all our hills are usually at the beginning of the run) but that ickiness lasted the entire run and to make matters worse, my shins started acting up again. But bad runs happen and the weather's much too fine and life too short to get my panties in a bunch about it. I need to learn patience and to not get so hung up on all the extra crap.

spring sprang sprung

2009-04-04T13:02:00.004-04:00

There is a wind advisory in effect for Ithaca - gusts of over 45 mph expected. I imagine this would suck if I were a bird or a big rig driver but right now, my view from the third floor window of Mann Library is pretty wild. All the trees are dancing around - big ones, little ones, medium sized ones...everyone is dancing! It's like a wild Ent party out there and I want in! Perfect visual summary of my mood:

*I love Ryan McGinley's photography and I love how this video is like almost like a making-of or behind-the-scenes vid of his I Know Where the Summer Goes series.

*Children wake up / hold your mistakes up, / before they turn the summer into dust..the words of Arcade Fire's Wake Up just unravels me a little..in a good way

dust it off

2009-03-26T10:39:00.000-04:00

I've been making dumb-dumb mistakes all week and I blame it on the fact that I went straight from plane to classroom on Tuesday morning. I also blame it on the cold, like always. Which is why I have been depending on coffee and visual caffeine below to wake me the f up.

thunderheist - jerk it from thatgo on Vimeo.

*My favorite aspect, aside from her tights, is that there was a chicken wrangler on set to make sure that no birds were hurt in the making...

Notte Sento (English subtitles) from napdan on Vimeo.

*I miss Italia! Even though my heart belongs to Firenze, the 4500+ pictures that were taken in Rome to make this stop motion video makes my heart cry opera style.

francophilia

2009-03-11T23:11:00.003-04:00

A lot of my current obsessions have their roots in the research reports I did in my elementary school days...

In 4th grade I did an I-Search report on South Africa. Actually, being the overachiever (read: dumbo) that I was, I chose Africa for my report. My teacher told me I couldn't report on a whole continent (what happened to dream big? reach for the stars?) so I chose the only country that had 'Africa' in it. To this day, I dream of visiting Johannesburg and Cape Town and climbing Table Mountain.

In 5th grade I did my states research on Rhode Island. The only thing I remember is that the man who painted the portrait of G. Washington that is now on the dollah bill is from RI...making our teeniest state another must-go-to destination for me.

Finally, and most importantly, our 6th grade report on a historical/influential figure: I chose Coco Chanel herself. I was intrigued and then seduced by the sexy shiny blackness of the Chanel cosmetics in my mom's drawers and the headiness of No 5. I legit checked out books from the library and dressed up in (what I perceived as) black chicness for my presentation. I loved her, I wanted to be her...not so much to sport those double C's (um, coincidence??) but because she was so badass in a super elegant way. So I am tres super duper uber excited to see one of my favorite actresses portray her in Coco Avant Chanel. The only way this could get better was if it was Coco herself in the movie with Audrey and me as her two favorite extras that she made custom outfits for.

Irrational Anger:

2009-03-05T16:42:00.002-05:00

induced when...

...I see people wearing summer-esque clothing, such as shorts or flip flops, in literally freezing weather. I want to scold them and ask them what they're trying to prove.

...bladder-related panic sets in. This usually happens at the most inopportune moment of a car ride but I also start seeing red when I've been holding it for the entire class and the professor goes over the class limit by another painful minute... or five.

...automatic toilets flush before our transaction is complete. I remember on Oprah once they were talking about how your toothbrush can be festering with germs because the force of the flush projects them out and up in like an invisible mushroom cloud of germs...I don't know if that's actually true but it seems plausible and so GAG!

girl crush #1

2009-03-04T23:27:00.005-05:00

I'm supposed to be writing about how Klute revises film noir but I can't get past Jane Fonda! Her hair! Her clothes! Her eyes! Her mood and the 'tude! and her walk! and GAH!! I especially want that coat...and to not have to write this paper at this moment...

images from: cinamemetro.com, sueddeutsch.de, sunsetgun.typepad.com, zimbio.com, ferdyonfilms.com

Seriously?!...?!?!?!?

2009-03-02T15:38:00.002-05:00

poetry and veganism

2009-02-28T13:36:00.005-05:00

I just finished reading Tao Lin's You Are a Little Bit Happier Than I Am. Actually I finished it last night but it triggered some weird dreams so the entire actual episode of experiencing it ended this morning. I don't know if he means to be funny but he is. So I Googled this cat and found an interview that was ok until they started talking about him being a vegan and everything he said was so funny and so true (to me) that I am going to devote some of my blog real estate to him. Part of his answer to a question about vegetarianism:

It takes something like 100 calories of non-meat substance to create 1 calorie of meat. Those numbers are wrong, but they are something like that. Also, factory farmed animals are fed corn and corn is grown, now, in a way that uses up energy inside the Earth and energy from petroleum, which is converted to fertilizer, as opposed to just naturally using the energy from the sun and being neutral in relation to the Earth's energy.

Therefore meat is not sustainable. In the future oil will run out, there will be no fertilizers to grow unnatural amounts of corn, and not enough corn to feed cows and other animals. By that time the toxic shit from factory farms will have destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and other places. Land where corn was grown will have no "energy" left in the soil to grow other crops with. Eating meat is a circuitous way of punching a small child in the face repeatedly, injecting someone with diabetes, taking a shit on an endangered animal, torturing animals in your backyard in a torture chamber, throwing toxic shit into a river, or creating a machine that converts soil into toxic shit and putting batteries in it and turning it on. Eating is very moral. In terms of “art” though the person who is healthy will have more time and brain power to create more art. People who drink and smoke and do drugs who also say that they are devoted to art would stop doing those things if they thought factually about their situation, if they are honest about being devoted to art. Eating meat isn't just about saving animals. Vegans save human lives and prevent human suffering also. It is irrelevant whether or not animals feel pain. If a meat-eater him or herself feels pain then they should stop eating meat, because eating meat kills humans circuitously, by ways I've described above. It isn't just about “being healthy” or “being compassionate to animals.”

272

2009-02-20T19:03:00.006-05:00

...the number of days I've been 'strict-vegetarian'....which, according to my counting machine, tells me is about 9 months. Although I feel more committed than ever to continuing towards a vegan lifestyle, it's honestly been a struggle dealing with the label itself because I feel like it boxes me in...into a philosophy...a style...a personality, etc. I am still overwhelmed everyday with how destructive we are in even our smallest actions and yet I still carry my leather Marc Jacobs purse to class in sheepskin boots. But to be fair, just because something is vegan doesn't necessarily mean it's as low-impact/healthy/ethical/pure as the nonviolent lifestyle would like us to believe. What about buying local, buying used, organic, fair trade, ethical business practices, etc? So I'm at the crossroads of all that and reflecting on what kind of Celeste I want to be. It's not a situation that I can neatly package/label but what's better than an organic, evolving, awakening, growing experience right?

The way I see it, every $ is a vote for an ideology/business/philosophy and so far my favorite candidates are:

♥ Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Blueberries - YUM! I love their slogan: "Savor chocolate. Save our planet." Woooorrrd.
♥ Sneaks/bags by Simple. They use recycled tires and plastic to create vegan shoes that aren't cringe-worthy ugly...they're actually really fun! Plus they have a really cute surf team!
♥ Accessories by Inder Bedi - Matt&Nat and Samsara. Conscientious brands that play nice with the Earth without being too loosey-goosey hemp-happy about it. Yet another reason I love Canada.

And because he's been playing on repeat for the past couple hours, I'll end with Amos Lee. "You get right down to the bottom of the barrel / And then you float back on top.."

birds of a feather

2009-02-19T16:21:00.002-05:00

Maybe it's simply my avian obsession or maybe it's the desire to flee from the return of super cold weather but I want more feathers in my life....

other side of the pond

2009-02-16T21:43:00.005-05:00

Chain reaction: Saturday I had a little too much of the bubbly stuff -> cut to utter sloppy recovery all day Sunday = balled up in painful comatose state until 5pm, when duty called me and my splitting headache to haul arse for some grading of homework -> end scene with grading half done by 1 am, recurring nightmares of not getting them done in time, and then waking up at 7 am to live out the nightmare.

I shamelessly share this embarrassing story of senioritis at its worst because it'll help you, dear Internet, understand just how seriously in need I was of some healing and how utterly perfectly Glen Hansard and Gemma Hayes saved my life and prevented complete unravelage of my being today. I am 100% aware of and grateful for the luxury of technology that allows me to walk alongside angels like glen and gem singing in my ears.

I would love very much for someone to obtain a one-way ticket to the UK for me so that I may frolic with poetry incarnate Daniel Day Lewis while Glen and Marketa croon in the background.