Nice. Really nice.
So I have both apartments right now. I thought I'd bring over a couple of car loads of stuff to the new place. I pull into the driveway and find out that there isn't some obnoxious little yapper dog next door to me. Nope. Now I have one above me. What is with this freakin island? The little rat barked at me every time I went to the car to get a box...both trips.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Muuule Train!!!!
What? You think because I'm a few thousand miles away that everything is going to change?
I'm moving!
And only a half mile away.
Click here to see where.
I'm actually closer to the beach. Ironically, I'm never there. My address is now:
275A Olani Place
Kihei, HI 96753
I actually have the apartment now, so I have the week to move & clean.
Other Note: I'm on the air this Friday & Saturday nights - 8pm to Midnight HST.
I'm moving!
And only a half mile away.
Click here to see where.
I'm actually closer to the beach. Ironically, I'm never there. My address is now:
275A Olani Place
Kihei, HI 96753
I actually have the apartment now, so I have the week to move & clean.
Other Note: I'm on the air this Friday & Saturday nights - 8pm to Midnight HST.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Falafel Girl
Uh...OK...I've been relatively good about this. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a student come to school with a library book. "That's good. She's interested in reading," I hear you say. Well, true. But we may have an issue of quality vs. quantity here. You see the book was the Bill O'Reiley for Kids book (whatever the title is). Sigh My work is never done here.
So today, during a down moment I had a chance to ask her if her Grandfather (that's who's she's staying with while going to this school) knows that I'm a left-wing commie pinko, yet. I could tell that she didn't exactly know what I was talking about but had an idea.
Good Lord, I'd rather she was reading porn...I mean, erotica...erotica...that's what I meant. No! I meant to say Harry Potter! Wha? Oh...uh...Seuss???
So today, during a down moment I had a chance to ask her if her Grandfather (that's who's she's staying with while going to this school) knows that I'm a left-wing commie pinko, yet. I could tell that she didn't exactly know what I was talking about but had an idea.
Good Lord, I'd rather she was reading porn...I mean, erotica...erotica...that's what I meant. No! I meant to say Harry Potter! Wha? Oh...uh...Seuss???
Monday, January 21, 2008
Newspaper and Forum
As I mentioned that reporter who was nosing around last week. Well, a bunch of people came up to me tonight and congratulated me on the story that was in today's Maui News. I haven't seen it yet. But here's a link to the article.
So tonight was the Future of South Maui Forum. At first, I was invited to participate, but then they had the bright idea to have my students instead. Like...what...ever.
Seriously, it was cool. The kids did great and I have to admit, made me look pretty darn good. The two of them volunteered to do it and (on purpose) got no coaching from me...oh, except when I reminded one of the girls that she's wearing a skirt on stage and sitting at a table with no tablecloth...so she should make sure she keeps her legs closed. Go ahead and laugh, but the whole thing was taped for cable access.
God damn, though. There were some people on some of the panels that made me want to scream. They were seriously worried that we were going to hurt the multi-millionaires-who-lied-to-all-the-Hawaiians' feelings. Man, they were lucky I didn't participate.
I haven't been the best Greenman in the world lately, but I may have some news in a few weeks that...while not "green" per se, would be a huge step in my activist career. Taking a page from The Rome Celli Playbook....details soon.
So tonight was the Future of South Maui Forum. At first, I was invited to participate, but then they had the bright idea to have my students instead. Like...what...ever.
Seriously, it was cool. The kids did great and I have to admit, made me look pretty darn good. The two of them volunteered to do it and (on purpose) got no coaching from me...oh, except when I reminded one of the girls that she's wearing a skirt on stage and sitting at a table with no tablecloth...so she should make sure she keeps her legs closed. Go ahead and laugh, but the whole thing was taped for cable access.
God damn, though. There were some people on some of the panels that made me want to scream. They were seriously worried that we were going to hurt the multi-millionaires-who-lied-to-all-the-Hawaiians' feelings. Man, they were lucky I didn't participate.
I haven't been the best Greenman in the world lately, but I may have some news in a few weeks that...while not "green" per se, would be a huge step in my activist career. Taking a page from The Rome Celli Playbook....details soon.
New Podcast
Here's the mp3 for the new Stuart Bedasso Show. It was just me tonight so it's mostly music.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/bedasso/TSBS_January_21_2008.mp3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/bedasso/TSBS_January_21_2008.mp3
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Plantin Stuff
OK, turns out I'm not in some kind of haze...I'm sick...again. Thursday was horrible, but I sucked it up because that reporter from the Maui News came...I thought she was going to be hanging with us out in the field, but it never happened.
Me, Renee & the kids hung out on the beach and took some notes then went back to the school and did some Haikuing. (yes, I made that word up) I did this with all the kids over 2 days and on the second day...I don't know...I just wasn't feelin it. The kids were writing stuff about waves, sky and sand...yada, yada, yada. So I'm sitting on the beach, getting sand in places you don't want sand and this idea came to me...what if I get the kids to sit in front of me - facing the ocean - and guide them to use their other senses (uh, except for taste, I don't want them tasting anything on the beach). Nah, it's too corny, too new agey. But it was bugging me, because the kids just weren't getting the whole experience. So I decided to give it a try...what's the worst that could happen?
It fucking worked. They sat, listened, answered then stayed sitting and started writing. It was if I actually knew what the hell I was doing.
Quick update: it seems that some of the stuff I got put into the program are going pretty well. The other staff seem to be digging the individual advisory meetings and the recognition committee and the sign classes are showing glimmers of helping with English. Jeez, I've been feeling so lousy this week, now that I type all this, I guess I had a pretty good week. I didn't realize it until just now. More below.
So Friday, I got to take a group of kids to the beach for service learning. We met up Lise Richardson, who's been working on restoring a part of the beach that was messed up by the Kona storms from last month. We planted native plants and collected rocks that are going to help build up and preserve the dune there. The kids really did well. At the same time, another group of kids went to this...uh...bunker-type thing near one of the main highways that had gotten tagged with graffiti. Seeing as it involved painting, it was a good thing I did the beach thing. So here's a few pictures:
Me, Renee & the kids hung out on the beach and took some notes then went back to the school and did some Haikuing. (yes, I made that word up) I did this with all the kids over 2 days and on the second day...I don't know...I just wasn't feelin it. The kids were writing stuff about waves, sky and sand...yada, yada, yada. So I'm sitting on the beach, getting sand in places you don't want sand and this idea came to me...what if I get the kids to sit in front of me - facing the ocean - and guide them to use their other senses (uh, except for taste, I don't want them tasting anything on the beach). Nah, it's too corny, too new agey. But it was bugging me, because the kids just weren't getting the whole experience. So I decided to give it a try...what's the worst that could happen?
It fucking worked. They sat, listened, answered then stayed sitting and started writing. It was if I actually knew what the hell I was doing.
Quick update: it seems that some of the stuff I got put into the program are going pretty well. The other staff seem to be digging the individual advisory meetings and the recognition committee and the sign classes are showing glimmers of helping with English. Jeez, I've been feeling so lousy this week, now that I type all this, I guess I had a pretty good week. I didn't realize it until just now. More below.
So Friday, I got to take a group of kids to the beach for service learning. We met up Lise Richardson, who's been working on restoring a part of the beach that was messed up by the Kona storms from last month. We planted native plants and collected rocks that are going to help build up and preserve the dune there. The kids really did well. At the same time, another group of kids went to this...uh...bunker-type thing near one of the main highways that had gotten tagged with graffiti. Seeing as it involved painting, it was a good thing I did the beach thing. So here's a few pictures:
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Hazy Days
Yeah, it's been a few days since I've posted. I've been in kind of a fog lately. I'm not really sure what the deal is - if it's mental or physical or a combination. I just know that I haven't been feeling that great lately and I've been pretty worn out. Quick updates, though:
*We've started incorporating some of my stuff into the daily routine at school. Sign class is going OK, the kids seem to be digging it. We'll see what happens once the novelty wears off. We're doing the daily advisory meetings with kids 1:1. They don't quite get what it's supposed to accomplish, but they will.
It's a boring story how I ended up doing this, but tomorrow and Thursday, I'm taking kids to the beach to write Haiku's. It's not really my style of teaching, but I kinda got roped into it. And Thursday, a reporter from the Maui News is supposed to be tagging along. Great...look at Mr. Sensitive writing about sea shells by the sea shore. Wait until Friday...I'm going to be doing some cool stuff...I'll post then and with pictures or video.
*Last night was my first double meeting night in a while. First, a steering committee meeting for a Future of South Maui forum that's coming up on Monday. That was a weird one. Half the group trying to figure out how to kiss a rich guy's ass and the other half (including me) keeping our mouths shut and trying to ignore them. One of the Hawaiian guys who was in the first video I did (the sign waving thing in Makena) was there. We're pretty tight. He's working on a Youth Center down there so I may be helping with that down the road. Second meeting was with the Save Makena group. It was long, but cool. And I started getting petition signatures to get the Greens ballot status here. I'm not really all that interested in it, but I did promise to help.
*Finding an apartment on this freakin island is hard! People here are weird - they don't return phone calls or e-mails. I'll find some place, but it's going to be cutting it close...that's for sure.
That's really about it. I've just been feeling pretty funky lately so I haven't been getting much done.
Oh...I almost forgot. I promised to send some links to people about the program I put myself on...well, I forgot who I said I'd send them to so I'll just post 'em here.
Here's the article that I first read.
Here's the book.
The program's been pretty cool...but I will say that I'm getting really sick of cheese. Not the person, the food.
*We've started incorporating some of my stuff into the daily routine at school. Sign class is going OK, the kids seem to be digging it. We'll see what happens once the novelty wears off. We're doing the daily advisory meetings with kids 1:1. They don't quite get what it's supposed to accomplish, but they will.
It's a boring story how I ended up doing this, but tomorrow and Thursday, I'm taking kids to the beach to write Haiku's. It's not really my style of teaching, but I kinda got roped into it. And Thursday, a reporter from the Maui News is supposed to be tagging along. Great...look at Mr. Sensitive writing about sea shells by the sea shore. Wait until Friday...I'm going to be doing some cool stuff...I'll post then and with pictures or video.
*Last night was my first double meeting night in a while. First, a steering committee meeting for a Future of South Maui forum that's coming up on Monday. That was a weird one. Half the group trying to figure out how to kiss a rich guy's ass and the other half (including me) keeping our mouths shut and trying to ignore them. One of the Hawaiian guys who was in the first video I did (the sign waving thing in Makena) was there. We're pretty tight. He's working on a Youth Center down there so I may be helping with that down the road. Second meeting was with the Save Makena group. It was long, but cool. And I started getting petition signatures to get the Greens ballot status here. I'm not really all that interested in it, but I did promise to help.
*Finding an apartment on this freakin island is hard! People here are weird - they don't return phone calls or e-mails. I'll find some place, but it's going to be cutting it close...that's for sure.
That's really about it. I've just been feeling pretty funky lately so I haven't been getting much done.
Oh...I almost forgot. I promised to send some links to people about the program I put myself on...well, I forgot who I said I'd send them to so I'll just post 'em here.
Here's the article that I first read.
Here's the book.
The program's been pretty cool...but I will say that I'm getting really sick of cheese. Not the person, the food.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
School Update
The kiddies come back tomorrow (or as you're reading this - today). But the last two days have been teacher days and some interesting stuff's gone down.
Monday started off with a meeting at the high school. The director, Mark, went through our enrollment for this year and projections for next. This actually was more of a State Of Kihei Charter School Address. We are adding a Performing Arts program next year starting with a 6th & 7th grade. Then an 8th grade will be added and so on until 12th - just like the program I'm in now. The high school may have a few more students as well and we add our 8th grade next year. But the stuff that was pretty fascinating was the problem we're going to be running into - facilities. The space we use at the high school is being sold from under us (though it's taking a while because the market is so lousy now). Plus, our lease at the Tech Park has only 2 years after this and we'll need more space anyway.
So, all of these ideas are being thrown around, by the school board, but we're also being told that our input is needed as well. It's literally - we have no idea what this school is going to look like in 2 years. Scared, Kids? Wait. Two years ago, they had no idea that we would have all these kids and starting a new program as well. There's going to be a KCS, but what it will look like? Who knows. It's pretty sure that the STEM & Performing Arts programs will exist. STEM is wanted by local & state leaders. The performing arts program has facilities that are dirt cheap from the Maui Association of the Performing Arts (MAPA). There's the possibility that the high school could go virtual, with very few classes actually taught. Students would be do service learning, internships and classes at the local community college. I could get sucked into that program, because....
I mentioned to some while I was home that I was preparing some recommendations for changes in the STEM system. Well, like my school board platform, it kind of took on a life of its own. It was a bit more extensive than I originally planned, but once I got going...and I even wasn't able to put in the research that showed why my stuff works.
So I sent a rough draft to Peggy, one of the other teachers. She loved it, but gave me a couple of recommendations. I'm pretty sure I used them all. Then I sent it to Dan, our lead teacher, but he took a day or so to check it out. In the meantime, on Monday afternoon, all the staff were at school. And as we tend to go off on tangents and end up in improvised meetings together (the joy of being in a small school) I ended up getting the following changes starting tomorrow:
*I'll be teaching sign language every afternoon, focusing on fingerspelling and English grammar. Yes, I know. It won't be ASL and there may be a fatwa put out on me by the Deaf Community, but I'll worry about that as soon as I can find the deaf community here. It's an in to start teaching it, then hopefully make it a full ASL class next year.
*We've gotten rid of the external reward system that was just freakin brutal. There's going to be a rotating student committee that recognizes students for academic and social postitives. Each Friday morning, that committee will report their observations to the entire program. It will be specific, "On Tuesday, Johnny helped Betty with her spelling when she was having trouble." Etc.
*I started us down the road to getting rid of grades. It may take a million years, but I got the ball rolling. I whipped out some examples of School Without Walls progress reports and suggested we develop our own and work towards replacing number grades with them. The conversation was a little uncomfortable and I had to do some serious negotiating...and this was all improvised. The topic of how unsatisfied we were with what the grades were showing (and not showing) came up then BAM. So I will now be using a progress report (that I have to develop) for Language Arts for this quarter in order to show the team what I am talking about. We'll still have grades for the class, but I'll have a ton of extra duty to show that this is the way. It's huge. I'm psyched and a bit intimidated, but I'll make it work.
*This is what I'm planning on for our planning session on Friday... currently, we have something at the end of the day called Advisory. It sucks royal ass. Each teacher has 16 kids and we're supposed to be doing activities that creates a bonding amongst your members. Two problems. One is I've been assigned the group from hell. [warning: Hillside reference ahead] Think of the 16 most obnoxious Hillside kids you've ever worked with and have a daily community meeting. The second problem is, the middle schoolers are so over the place in terms of maturity level (which is normal for this age) we can't get a real coherent thing going.
So, I've proposed it already, and Peggy likes it, but Friday I'm going to drive it home. I'm proposing we still call it Advisory, but instead of doing group stuff, we meet individually with 2 kids a day for 15 minutes to create that student-teacher bond and have the individual kid work on goals that are specific to him/her. (Yes, I stole the idea from SWW) It'll kick ass.
If everyone's on board with that I will have my main goals for change that I wanted at least started. There was a ton of stuff left on my list of recommendations, but it looks like I got my main ones.
Quick Notes:
I don't know if you know this...I bought the domain name atias.org. (sorry family, it's mine...you'll have to settle for .com or .net) So if you want to see on occasion what I'm up to in class you can check it out.
That was a long one...sorry, not too funny. I'll try to tickle ya next time...oh, and I'll be on the air Friday night, 8-midnight my time. I wish they'd just give me the shift already.
Monday started off with a meeting at the high school. The director, Mark, went through our enrollment for this year and projections for next. This actually was more of a State Of Kihei Charter School Address. We are adding a Performing Arts program next year starting with a 6th & 7th grade. Then an 8th grade will be added and so on until 12th - just like the program I'm in now. The high school may have a few more students as well and we add our 8th grade next year. But the stuff that was pretty fascinating was the problem we're going to be running into - facilities. The space we use at the high school is being sold from under us (though it's taking a while because the market is so lousy now). Plus, our lease at the Tech Park has only 2 years after this and we'll need more space anyway.
So, all of these ideas are being thrown around, by the school board, but we're also being told that our input is needed as well. It's literally - we have no idea what this school is going to look like in 2 years. Scared, Kids? Wait. Two years ago, they had no idea that we would have all these kids and starting a new program as well. There's going to be a KCS, but what it will look like? Who knows. It's pretty sure that the STEM & Performing Arts programs will exist. STEM is wanted by local & state leaders. The performing arts program has facilities that are dirt cheap from the Maui Association of the Performing Arts (MAPA). There's the possibility that the high school could go virtual, with very few classes actually taught. Students would be do service learning, internships and classes at the local community college. I could get sucked into that program, because....
I mentioned to some while I was home that I was preparing some recommendations for changes in the STEM system. Well, like my school board platform, it kind of took on a life of its own. It was a bit more extensive than I originally planned, but once I got going...and I even wasn't able to put in the research that showed why my stuff works.
So I sent a rough draft to Peggy, one of the other teachers. She loved it, but gave me a couple of recommendations. I'm pretty sure I used them all. Then I sent it to Dan, our lead teacher, but he took a day or so to check it out. In the meantime, on Monday afternoon, all the staff were at school. And as we tend to go off on tangents and end up in improvised meetings together (the joy of being in a small school) I ended up getting the following changes starting tomorrow:
*I'll be teaching sign language every afternoon, focusing on fingerspelling and English grammar. Yes, I know. It won't be ASL and there may be a fatwa put out on me by the Deaf Community, but I'll worry about that as soon as I can find the deaf community here. It's an in to start teaching it, then hopefully make it a full ASL class next year.
*We've gotten rid of the external reward system that was just freakin brutal. There's going to be a rotating student committee that recognizes students for academic and social postitives. Each Friday morning, that committee will report their observations to the entire program. It will be specific, "On Tuesday, Johnny helped Betty with her spelling when she was having trouble." Etc.
*I started us down the road to getting rid of grades. It may take a million years, but I got the ball rolling. I whipped out some examples of School Without Walls progress reports and suggested we develop our own and work towards replacing number grades with them. The conversation was a little uncomfortable and I had to do some serious negotiating...and this was all improvised. The topic of how unsatisfied we were with what the grades were showing (and not showing) came up then BAM. So I will now be using a progress report (that I have to develop) for Language Arts for this quarter in order to show the team what I am talking about. We'll still have grades for the class, but I'll have a ton of extra duty to show that this is the way. It's huge. I'm psyched and a bit intimidated, but I'll make it work.
*This is what I'm planning on for our planning session on Friday... currently, we have something at the end of the day called Advisory. It sucks royal ass. Each teacher has 16 kids and we're supposed to be doing activities that creates a bonding amongst your members. Two problems. One is I've been assigned the group from hell. [warning: Hillside reference ahead] Think of the 16 most obnoxious Hillside kids you've ever worked with and have a daily community meeting. The second problem is, the middle schoolers are so over the place in terms of maturity level (which is normal for this age) we can't get a real coherent thing going.
So, I've proposed it already, and Peggy likes it, but Friday I'm going to drive it home. I'm proposing we still call it Advisory, but instead of doing group stuff, we meet individually with 2 kids a day for 15 minutes to create that student-teacher bond and have the individual kid work on goals that are specific to him/her. (Yes, I stole the idea from SWW) It'll kick ass.
If everyone's on board with that I will have my main goals for change that I wanted at least started. There was a ton of stuff left on my list of recommendations, but it looks like I got my main ones.
Quick Notes:
I don't know if you know this...I bought the domain name atias.org. (sorry family, it's mine...you'll have to settle for .com or .net) So if you want to see on occasion what I'm up to in class you can check it out.
That was a long one...sorry, not too funny. I'll try to tickle ya next time...oh, and I'll be on the air Friday night, 8-midnight my time. I wish they'd just give me the shift already.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Follow up...
A couple of quick notes...or I may have time to blog as that little rat of a dog next door has been barking for an hour now and doesn't seem to be thinking about shutting up soon.
Late this afternoon I received a phone call from a business that works for the airline I used for my trip. They had my bag and were delivering it. When the guy got here he showed me what he had to deliver...those dudes lost a lot of luggage yesterday. The funny thing was that Jill had just left (we just finished doing the podcast) and all my headphones were in the bag.
Another thing I forgot to mention about my trip home, was my visit back to Hillside. Not that much had changed (it's only been 5 months) But the kids really reacted positively to seeing me. I wasn't expecting it, especially from the boys. I have to admit, it was a good feeling. Oh...and then...I had an oops I did it again experience.
I ran into someone who works there who I seemed to have had a Charlie-Brown-and-Lucy-with-the-football relationship with. And yes, I really thought that this time she wasn't going to pull that ball away. Dumbass.
OH! And somebody really needs to explain this to me:
I walked into the men's room at O'Hare Airport and found this. In picture number one, I find that my toilet seat is covered in some kind of plastic wrap...as if it were your grandmother's couch. Then I noticed that the seat had some weird contraption on it. In picture three you can see how to turn this thing on. You push the button on the wall and the saran wrap comes out of the contraption thus giving you a...uh...well...I'm not sure if it's new...or even clean for that matter...but it moves the saran wrap out one end of the contraption and back into the other end. And not to get too graphic, but boy was it comfortable. Uh, not. It was like trying to go to the bathroom by sitting on your kitchen garbage can. I can't believe that whomever thought of this ridiculous thing actually got the airport to put it in all their toilets. Freakin' genius. I'd rather use the plane bathrooms.
And finally...no connection here, but here's a picture of my new cousin, Liam.
Fortunately he does not come with a protective layer of allegedly sanitized plastic wrap over him.
Late this afternoon I received a phone call from a business that works for the airline I used for my trip. They had my bag and were delivering it. When the guy got here he showed me what he had to deliver...those dudes lost a lot of luggage yesterday. The funny thing was that Jill had just left (we just finished doing the podcast) and all my headphones were in the bag.
Another thing I forgot to mention about my trip home, was my visit back to Hillside. Not that much had changed (it's only been 5 months) But the kids really reacted positively to seeing me. I wasn't expecting it, especially from the boys. I have to admit, it was a good feeling. Oh...and then...I had an oops I did it again experience.
I ran into someone who works there who I seemed to have had a Charlie-Brown-and-Lucy-with-the-football relationship with. And yes, I really thought that this time she wasn't going to pull that ball away. Dumbass.
OH! And somebody really needs to explain this to me:
I walked into the men's room at O'Hare Airport and found this. In picture number one, I find that my toilet seat is covered in some kind of plastic wrap...as if it were your grandmother's couch. Then I noticed that the seat had some weird contraption on it. In picture three you can see how to turn this thing on. You push the button on the wall and the saran wrap comes out of the contraption thus giving you a...uh...well...I'm not sure if it's new...or even clean for that matter...but it moves the saran wrap out one end of the contraption and back into the other end. And not to get too graphic, but boy was it comfortable. Uh, not. It was like trying to go to the bathroom by sitting on your kitchen garbage can. I can't believe that whomever thought of this ridiculous thing actually got the airport to put it in all their toilets. Freakin' genius. I'd rather use the plane bathrooms.
And finally...no connection here, but here's a picture of my new cousin, Liam.
Fortunately he does not come with a protective layer of allegedly sanitized plastic wrap over him.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Back to the Rock
I'm sitting in the Rochester "International" Airport, feeling like death warmed over. No, I'm not looking for your pity. I am going back to Hawaii. But as the cliche goes - I definitely need a vacation from this vacation. [Update: I had to finish in Hawaii. See below]
It was great seeing everyone over the past couple of weeks. I know that there's a few I wasn't able to catch - I'll see you in July. Here's the gist of what I've been doing since being back:
*You can see by my last post how I made it into town. The rest of the weekend was actually pretty uneventful. People were sick and/or dealing with family obligations so there was much less debauchery than I had planned.
*Christmas I did the family-thing. Mom's on Christmas Eve and George's on Christmas Day. Then I got to meet my new cousin - Liam. Ridiculously, unfairly cute. I'll try to get a picture up soon, but you will think I just stole a picture of the Gerber Baby.
*After a bunch of wrangling and me acting like a little girl, I finally got to see Keziah. At a gay bar of course. Nothing like bad, gay Karaoke. I would mention that there's bad, gay karaoke every time I'm there, but then you'll wonder what the hell I'm doing hanging around gay bars with bad karaoke. Oops.
*Mike, Erick, Keziah & I did a rousing Stuart Bedasso Show. I highly suggest you check it out.
*Made it down to New Jersey to see Brad & company. Cool, new house...the kids are great. We did our own in-house, kids' version of the Stuart Bedasso Show. Maybe I'll include it in the box set.
*Then off to Annapolis to hang with Keziah for New Years. Annapolis is cute. It seems like a cool place to see during tourist season...like an Old Spice commercial without the smell.
*I still don't think she believes me (and yes, I know you're reading this), but except for the hacking, coughing, fever, hives and other physical issues I'm sure she didn't tell me about- I really did enjoy myself on New Years. Keziah was really sick so we just stayed in. Maybe it means I'm old, but it probably was the best time I could have had - except for her being sick, of course. Yes, I knew that spending 2 days with a sick person meant I was going to get sick, but it was worth it. (and yes, I am sick now)
*After watching Keziah watch me for two days with the "why-are-you-hanging-around-me-when-I'm-like-this" face I decided to leave a day early. Though in retrospect I should have stayed. (sorry, Boo)
*The ride back from Annapolis really sucked. The weather got bad around the NY border and at Bath I did one of those wipe outs on 390 that make you see your life flash before your eyes. By some miracle, I didn't hit a thing and the car didn't end up in a ditch.
*I had the opportunity to see a couple of people I never thought I'd see again...like, forever. It was amazing to spend time with Jimena & Nina (and her Dad). The details aren't important for this silly blog, but it really blew me away.
*It's now the next day...I'm back on Maui. I would have finished this last night, but my trip back wasn't all that great. My great strategy to break up the flight with layovers was quickly messed up when my plane was late leaving Chicago, which meant I literally had to get off the plane in San Francisco and get right on the one to Maui. It was a good 10 hours of straight flying. They lost one of my bags and I found out just how much "fun" it is trying to get a cab at night in this place. I got home after 1am HST, exhausted, sick & starving. I took care of 2 of those 3.
So it's my first day back! I have a little work to do around the house, I've already e-mailed someone about seeing a new apartment in Haiku, I'm going to give the gym a try (though I'm still feeling a little funky) and Jill & I will be doing a new show later. Life is good and I'm ready to get back to work and kick some ass.
It was amazing seeing everyone over the past 2 weeks. It was just what I needed and gave me some great perspective that was missing.
It was great seeing everyone over the past couple of weeks. I know that there's a few I wasn't able to catch - I'll see you in July. Here's the gist of what I've been doing since being back:
*You can see by my last post how I made it into town. The rest of the weekend was actually pretty uneventful. People were sick and/or dealing with family obligations so there was much less debauchery than I had planned.
*Christmas I did the family-thing. Mom's on Christmas Eve and George's on Christmas Day. Then I got to meet my new cousin - Liam. Ridiculously, unfairly cute. I'll try to get a picture up soon, but you will think I just stole a picture of the Gerber Baby.
*After a bunch of wrangling and me acting like a little girl, I finally got to see Keziah. At a gay bar of course. Nothing like bad, gay Karaoke. I would mention that there's bad, gay karaoke every time I'm there, but then you'll wonder what the hell I'm doing hanging around gay bars with bad karaoke. Oops.
*Mike, Erick, Keziah & I did a rousing Stuart Bedasso Show. I highly suggest you check it out.
*Made it down to New Jersey to see Brad & company. Cool, new house...the kids are great. We did our own in-house, kids' version of the Stuart Bedasso Show. Maybe I'll include it in the box set.
*Then off to Annapolis to hang with Keziah for New Years. Annapolis is cute. It seems like a cool place to see during tourist season...like an Old Spice commercial without the smell.
*I still don't think she believes me (and yes, I know you're reading this), but except for the hacking, coughing, fever, hives and other physical issues I'm sure she didn't tell me about- I really did enjoy myself on New Years. Keziah was really sick so we just stayed in. Maybe it means I'm old, but it probably was the best time I could have had - except for her being sick, of course. Yes, I knew that spending 2 days with a sick person meant I was going to get sick, but it was worth it. (and yes, I am sick now)
*After watching Keziah watch me for two days with the "why-are-you-hanging-around-me-when-I'm-like-this" face I decided to leave a day early. Though in retrospect I should have stayed. (sorry, Boo)
*The ride back from Annapolis really sucked. The weather got bad around the NY border and at Bath I did one of those wipe outs on 390 that make you see your life flash before your eyes. By some miracle, I didn't hit a thing and the car didn't end up in a ditch.
*I had the opportunity to see a couple of people I never thought I'd see again...like, forever. It was amazing to spend time with Jimena & Nina (and her Dad). The details aren't important for this silly blog, but it really blew me away.
*It's now the next day...I'm back on Maui. I would have finished this last night, but my trip back wasn't all that great. My great strategy to break up the flight with layovers was quickly messed up when my plane was late leaving Chicago, which meant I literally had to get off the plane in San Francisco and get right on the one to Maui. It was a good 10 hours of straight flying. They lost one of my bags and I found out just how much "fun" it is trying to get a cab at night in this place. I got home after 1am HST, exhausted, sick & starving. I took care of 2 of those 3.
So it's my first day back! I have a little work to do around the house, I've already e-mailed someone about seeing a new apartment in Haiku, I'm going to give the gym a try (though I'm still feeling a little funky) and Jill & I will be doing a new show later. Life is good and I'm ready to get back to work and kick some ass.
It was amazing seeing everyone over the past 2 weeks. It was just what I needed and gave me some great perspective that was missing.
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