love is all you need

Moving On

2011-07-12T22:53:00.001-04:00

Dropping the blog, picking up the tumblr... Thanks for reading! =)

http://glassthreequartersfull.tumblr.com/

Overcome...

2011-05-03T20:41:00.013-04:00

In light of recent world headlines (...Headline), it has been fascinating to gauge the response of at least my generation on Facebook. Would I know how my friends were reacting to the news if not for status updates and note-posting? Is this something we would talk about in conversation? Perhaps because of the child-based environment or perhaps because 9/11 evokes a unique and diverse set of perspectives in this city, it has NOT been a topic of conversation at school.

I've found profile-hopping on Facebook to be oddly helpful in processing my own take on the events. A few of the most resonant:

postscript: it is really awkward to be both an Obama supporter and a non-violence advocate right now. people cheering over death is freaking me out.

Not sure how I feel about crowds of people celebrating an individual's death, no matter who it is.

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that"
~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(apparently this has been proven to be part-quote and part-eloquent-but-never-spoken-words, but the sentiment is a great one, regardless)

There is no way that justice can be done; justice is already dead when war begins. All that can be done is a necessary evil, and again jubilation is a shameful way to react to that. [...] It's like entering a room where people throw cow shit at each other. You wouldn't want to enter that room, but you're pushed inside and some sonofabitch starts throwing cow shit at you. If you throw cow shit back and win the cow shit fight, you're not "clean": you stopped being clean when you entered the room and now you're a cow-shit thrower as much as he is. Your only victory will be to escape the cow shit room, but once you do that, you can't say that what he did and what you did are fundamentally different. You've the moral high ground, but you were still a cow shit thrower in a cow shit room and THAT is tragic. Celebrating your victory in the cow shit throwing contest is monumentally stupid: you should be celebrating your escape from the cow shit room instead, while still ruing the fact that you were ever made to throw cow shit in the first place.

(can you tell this writer is earning a graduate degree in philosophy?)

And a link:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/03/135927693/is-it-wrong-to-celebrate-bin-ladens-death

(NPR, incidentally, was one of the only major outlets on Monday to cover the angle presented among the quotes above)

Closing thought: How would our national and personal responses to 9/11 been shaped differently had Facebook and other social networking sites been as prevalent (or existent) in 2001? Discuss.

K

Introducing...

2011-04-25T12:31:00.007-04:00

Hi.

My name is Kate. I love to run and complete crossword puzzles. I wear flat shoes most of the time. I do not eat meat, and I enjoy Mexican food, cereal, beer, coffee, and... chocolate. I follow the news. I listen to podcasts and TEDTalks. I do not own a TV. I have no idea what's happening on the current season of American Idol. I sing in an adult choir, where members are more than 1-4 years apart in age. I make budgets and fix toilets and make my own almond butter. I lead initiatives at my Unitarian Universalist church. I have many friends who are married, getting married, or close to getting married. I drive a car maybe twice a year. I use a calendar to keep track of my schedule.

How entwined are substance and label? Does a change of name facilitate or even precipitate change in personality or lifestyle? Opposite? (PS, go watch 30 Rock's 100th episode. Brilliance.)

Images from the life of Kate:

I sang with my adult, secular choir in D.C... at a Lutheran church.

AND I had a homestay in springy, colonial-tinged Annapolis, MD.

The parents came for a visit, and I walked them many more miles than they had anticipated... Totally worth this view, though! Little Red Lighthouse under George Washington Bridge, about 2 miles from my apartment.

Though not made of foam, we did still fly the traditional Easter airplane, this time in Central Park!

Love, Hugs, & SPRING!
K

2011-03-18T20:40:00.003-04:00

"I'll have to ask my uncle if I can use his Internet this weekend."

"Maybe my mom can take me to the library to look at 'The Cat in the Hat'; we don't have a copy."

"I don't think my child can join band next year... We have to pay to rent the instrument, right?"

Per a goal report created by my teachers and administration disseminated to us last week, I learned that my school (PS 43; the Monday school--Van Nest Academy--still seems like a pretend-job) is situated in THE poorest congressional district in the country. ...We're number one!...? 100% of our students receive 10 meals a week at school--likely MORE than half the meals they will consume the entire week. I see the same sweaters over uniforms (likely also the same) every single day.

I am so fortunate to have been placed at 43. It has been an ideal environment for my continued education, both of pedagogy and diversity of realities. In all likelihood, I will be traveling to multiple continents next summer. Some of my kids have never left the Bronx. When I nearly set my kitchen on fire (a story for another entry), I can go get a burrito at the corner stand and not have to sacrifice that trip to the grocery store or that new pair of mittens or whatever the need may be. Diversity of realities.

This is not a "pat me on the back for working in the inner city" appeal. It's a "pat THEM on the back" for thriving and maintaining momentum in their education despite tremendous obstacles. My afterschool group is so excited to research their Seuss-inspired roles for a Seussical medley. I know a really fabulous single mom with two girls (in our school at least) who has her older daughter taking piano lessons and playing trumpet in band--and she is GOOD. We learned about 12-bar blues structure in the general classroom today, and as she was waiting for our afterschool group to begin, she pulled out her trumpet and figured out the tonic notes of the blues chords and played them in flawless sequence. Parents take precious time off from work to attend conferences and concerts. For the most part, the students I see during the week are a smiley, social, well-adjusted bunch.

I hope that fourth grader does get to use her uncle's Internet this weekend, because she is going to make a terrific Horton when we perform at the concert. =)

Happy Weekend!!
K

Conference Discoveries

2011-03-15T21:11:00.004-04:00

My principal makes lollipops for special occasions. What.

Parents remember concert songs from December! Hooray!

My students have SO many dedicated parents and guardians who are sincerely invested in the education of their children, in music as well as the general classroom.

A baby touching your face at a baby shower means you are next to have a baby (like a bouquet at a wedding, presumably), and making delicious cookies means you can get married. Love my kooky teachers and their wives' tales.

Our crazy (no seriously, CRAZY) art teacher did not know one of our teachers was pregnant--8 months along at that!--until her baby shower this afternoon. The quote was, "Well, she's fat anyway, so it's hard to tell". [She is NOT.] Seriously, crazy.

Staying for the whole night of conferences is kind of fun when you're not truly accountable for academic promotion or standardized test performance. =)

Love, Hugs, and a Few Cups of Coffee Today,
Ms. Phillips

Yin and Yang

2011-01-20T21:47:00.002-05:00

A friend posted this magnificent TED Talk and I spent the entire 20 minutes rapt with the speaker's findings and message:

A commenter on the video site posted this apparently Taoist mantra in response:

To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.

Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.

To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.

Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity.

Traditional Taoism is a bit too mystical for my tastes, but I love these words. A LOT.

Today I...

2011-01-16T17:24:00.003-05:00

woke up at a reasonable hour (9:30) from a girls' night/sleepover with church friends.

brunched in Astoria with said friends with mimosa and coffee.

ran outside in sub-50s temperatures for the first time EVER. Aside from regular tissue breaks, it was actually really refreshing and surprisingly easy. More, please.

will bake a vegetarian cheeseburger noodle casserole--a childhood favorite (minus the vegetarian part), and then consume a serving with bottled beer.

will lesson plan so tomorrow (day off!) can be set aside for chores and friendships.

will watch probably too many episodes of The West Wing on loan from the library (I only have a week to finish a half a season. Justified.).

The point is, the person living the day outlined above is practically a stranger to the one who inhabited my life even two years ago. She even goes by a different name sometimes. =) There are the obvious partitions between life segments (graduations, apartment, jobs...), and then there are the incremental shifts that occur daily. Community-building. Diet and exercise routines. Coffee! Of course, this duality of change is no revelation. But the occasional perspective check can be amusing, revealing, and promising of possibility.

K

Food Musings

2011-01-11T16:46:00.006-05:00

Chili is easy. Beans. Tomato something. Spices. Sweet. Vegetables. Tada!

Homemade fries are made crispier and tastier by the addition of cornstarch to the frying oil.

Corn tortillas are awful "raw" but mysteriously delicious cooked. Like eggplant. Fun fact: In addition to maintaining a lackluster flavor, raw eggplant is also mildly poisonous.

Why don't they typically market the French Press as a dual coffee-tea maker? It totally is.

Gouda is an acceptable substitute for almost any other type of solid cheese. Flavorful enough to cover for cheddar on a cracker or burrito, sharp enough to be swapped in for swiss on a sandwich, mild and soft enough to replace mozzarella in Italian fare. And the smoked variety can almost pass for a meaty flavor if you squint your tastebuds (is there a word to approximate "squint" for taste?). Anyway, it's the frugal shopper's best friend in the dairy section.

Sometimes, granola bar companies pass out free samples on the street. And sometimes they leave the sample in a bag on your apartment doorknob. Surprise afterschool snack!!

Here's hoping for enough figurative candy bars and milkshakes (as opposed to lemondrops and gumdrops--look it up) for a day off tomorrow...

Oh, and beware when selecting your free bagel from Planet Fitness. Minced garlic looks an awful lot like sesame seeds, but only one tastes good with jam.

Wonderful Life

2010-12-15T21:33:00.006-05:00

I am constantly at a loss for words to describe why I feel so content and at ease in New York. Generally speaking, the more you love something the more difficult (and, really, less necessary) it is to condense those sentiments into mere sentences. The events of the last 15 hours or so, however, come pretty darn close to crystallizing my relationship to my city...

Morning coffee is the best. Not so much for the caffeine, but I really like the taste of my half-coffee, half-soy milk blend. If I drink more than a half-cup, I get way fidgety. So I'm looking forward to the routine without the addiction.

First concert of the school year this morning, and everything was simply fantastic. Polished, energetic, musical performances from my students (PK-2), great parent turnout, gratifying teacher/administration feedback... Just good times.

Photos courtesy of Wilmer, 5th grade

Then I had 3 periods of nothing. I reset the auditorium for the next round (grades 3-5), which involved transporting boxes of instruments and 3 xylophones over 4 flights of stairs. I didn't even get tired. It was weird. And fabulous, because I am 100% set for the rest of the week. I just have to walk in tomorrow morning and boss people around.

My school afternoon finished with 3 teaching periods, all with classes of middling general behavior, all of whom ROCKED IT OUT today. I think the energy of their impending (2 days!) concert is finally sinking in; it's great to glimpse tangible progress and success after weeks and weeks of figurative tooth-pulling.

I was able to leave school at 3:30 (relatively early for me!) and hit up a number of New York's holiday markets to do some Christmas shopping. I doubted the soundness of my marathon-day ambitions... but I got most of my shopping DONE and got to enjoy a heaping dose of the lovely holiday atmosphere of the city in the process. And I did some light grocery shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, aka my favorite place in all five boroughs.

Bryant Park Tree (Holiday Market not pictured)

A leisurely, free (thanks, Mom!) dinner at Starbucks was followed by a choir rehearsal at St. Patrick's Cathedral (yes, THAT St. Patrick's Cathedral). Oh wait, I was 20 minutes early for it, so I wandered the vicinity of Rockefeller Center long enough to snap some touristy pictures of the tree and ice skating rink.

I am thrilled that my newest camera has the ability to take beautiful nighttime shots--a first in my history of camera ownership.

Then I caught the laser-timed-with-music show on the facade of Bloomingdale's. Then I went and rehearsed a bunch of festive Christmas carols in St. Patrick's Cathedral, which means I got to stand on the altar (and loop around the back), a perspective not afforded to many visitors. It was also neat to rehearse in front of all the unsuspecting tourists... I am tickled by the idea that our choir is now part of hundreds of vacation stories. Pretty neat.

To top it off, with all the commuting I logged today, I was able to take on a formidable chunk of my latest read, Skinny Legs and All (Tom Robbins). Whimsy, philosophy, religion, art, hilarity... Only a third through, but I highly recommend it!

So there you have it: my version of a perfect day in all it's coffee-flavored, concert-singing, xylophone-toting, progress-making, gift-finding, electric-lit, cathedral-performing, literarily-satisfying goodness.

Love. Love. Love.
KP =)

I only post on holidays now

2010-11-25T12:30:00.002-05:00

(Though last entry had nothing to do with Halloween...)

Since I have a half hour to fritter away before traveling to a Thanksgiving celebration of work friends, I figured I could revisit the tried and true November school writing prompt:

I am thankful for:

*6th graders who come back to visit PS 43. The best so far has been one boy who, despite having a lot of emotional/behavioral issues last year, was one of my favorites--a SMART kid who really wanted to succeed but couldn't always control his responses to his world... I asked him how middle school was going; he smiled with an expression of peace and answered with a genuine "Really well, Ms. Phillips." Cue tears of pride.

*An extremely successful inaugural service outing with the young adults of my church. Great turnout and all goals accomplished at the site! Love love love being engaged in a leadership role completely separate from school.

*Surprise packages and letters! Highlights from the past week include coloring book pages from Ellen's "best buddy" Maria (ELLEN-can I get an address to write her a thank you??) and frickin' BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on DVD from the fam. So. Excited. Also, did you know that the new Rapunzel movie is an Alan Menken-composed musical??? Why hasn't this been advertised? Poor marketing choice, Disney.

*A collective holiday of gratefulness that anyone and everyone can observe--it is warming in a small but significant way that I can wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my teachers and friends and not have to guess whether or not they celebrate it. True, most people I know wouldn't be offended in the least by "Merry Christmas" (I received many of them last year), but somehow this one is different.

*Mariah Carey's "Merry Christmas" album. I am choosing to reject the reality of her "updated" holiday release. Only the original, please.

*Generous friends hosting a Thanksgiving gathering that is likely a little too numerous in guests for their space... Bring on the coziness and feasting and laughter!

*The ability to completely avoid the Macy's Parade and the 3.5 million people who attend it. That's more than New Year's, folks.

*Staying connected with friends and family around the country as they celebrate with friends and family of their own!

*Grandma pie. The celebration I will be attending is set on desserts (as if that's a thing), but I made one for myself just the same. If you can make the trip in the next week, you're welcome to have some too! =)

Have a safe and restful and warm-fuzzy Thanksgiving, friends!

Love, love, love.
K

The best I can do...

2010-10-31T21:43:00.002-04:00

Every time I check blogs and cringe at the ever-widening period of time since my last update, I am more and more daunted by the prospect of a catch-up entry. So here's what I did today, because really that's all I am mentally capable of communicating at this moment:

10:00am: A viewing of "Waiting for 'Superman'" with teacher/social work friends.
The documentary explores the broken state of our schools and the various pressures and factors preventing the current public school system from effectively educating our children. I have been reading articles about the film for weeks--content aside, it is really wonderful how this movie is bringing education into the public forum! It is less biased toward charter schools than I imagined but still does not quite present the most well-rounded depiction of public schools... Audiences unfamiliar with the workings of the education system will likely walk away believing ANY charter school produces superior results to ANY public school, which is simply untrue (recent reports actually find public schools slightly ahead of charter schools on average in terms of achievement!). The personal stories were moving, though, and it was great to discuss the film and the education world in general with a group of knowledgeable professionals! And the group included church and teaching friends--worlds collide!

2:30pm: Planning meeting for an upcoming church young adults group service outing
I am super excited (and possibly starting to be spread too thin?) to be co-coordinating the newly minted service and outreach team through the young adults group at my church (ASYA, or All Souls Young Adults, from here on out). Today's meeting was in preparation for our kickoff event, an all-day service effort cleaning/painting/organizing a nearby church that hosts a slew of programs for the community, including Girl Scouts and various afterschool groups. The plan is to make these outings a monthly happening, each instance exploring a different need in the community. The prep is a lot of work--touring the building, compiling supplies/to-do lists, communicating with organizers, promoting to ASYA members--but already rewarding!

6:00pm: Bulletin board assembly
Oh, right, and I have a weekday job too. Between a steady social calendar of events, the service initiative, occasional babysitting, staying in touch with friends and family, choir, exercise (depressingly low on the priority list lately), and regular chores and errands, schoolwork sometimes feels like something I squeeze in when I can. Good thing concert season is approaching, that's not much work at all...

10:00pm: Completion of blog entry that probably should have been foregone in favor of sleep or lesson prep
When's Thanksgiving?

Love, Hugs, and Airborne to combat sleep-deprived immune system deterioration!
KP =)

Recipe for a Perfect Weekend

2010-10-04T19:07:00.004-04:00

-2 full days of blue skies after a week of rain and clouds (and before another similar week)

-1 perplexingly legit bar 6 blocks from my school in the Bronx that fills up with teachers on Friday afternoons for phenomenal happy hour and karaoke fun. Let sit for 6 hours with 4 other ETM music teachers (plus the 50 other ones already in the know about this place) and arrive home by 11pm.

-5 apples, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 1 large bunch broccoli, and 1 carrot for $6 at the local Greenmarket. Cheap, healthy, and delicious is my favorite.

-3 hours of marathon apartment cleaning. Annoying, but always incredibly calming and mentally cleansing afterward.

-2 hours paid babysitting. Layer lesson planning and tasty ravioli over the top.

-1 long-awaited sermon on the necessity of outreach and service (and a commitment to new, real initiatives) from the pulpit of my regular church. Follow up with several conversations on the need to jump on board these initiatives and the general wave of intent. Finally!

-1 tall pumpkin spice latte and 1 multi-grain bagel, toasted, with cream cheese. Leisurely consume over the entry of 450 names into the gradebook.

-6 miles of energized (perhaps due to the aforementioned latte) running. Combine with crisp fall temperatures and a random Renaissance Faire. (What, Inwood?)

Et voila! It was quite the productive and enjoyable weekend. And then...

It was going to be a great Monday. I baked pumpkin bread for my new school. I had all my lesson plans and materials set the night before. It didn't even rain over my morning commute! Then my traveling teacher cart ran into a corner, projectile-flipping my water bottle onto the floor, the result of which materialized in said bottle leaking, unbeknownst to me, over my cart and phone which normally wouldn't have been there but I kept out to make sure my visiting field supervisor would find me in the school (she never came) and now the keypad is becoming increasingly temperamental so it's sitting in a tub of rice. Also, since the clouds held in their fury over my afternoon commute as well, I didn't notice when I left my umbrella bag, umbrella inside, on my first of two buses and failed to realize the oversight until I was off the second. I then learned that Target umbrellas are (unreasonably?) expensive but now I have an umbrella. Whatever. And my library said it had a book I planned lessons around this week but in fact did not so I had to go to the one in the next neighborhood which proved a longer and more frustrating and wetter excursion than I had anticipated. Then I got free pizza from my gym. That was handy.

I'm not sure to which side of karma the last three days have delivered me, but I would like to call it even. I would also like to call from my phone in the near future. C'mon, rice...

Love, Hugs, and a case of the Mondays,
KP =)

UPDATE: Phone is in full working order. Brown rice + vacuum = one less item off my plate. =)

Just the Way I Left It, Part II

2010-09-13T19:52:00.004-04:00

A few more for the file of the familiar...

I ran in Central Park for the first time in months on Saturday... I've developed such a routine with my glorious neighborhood parks that I forgot about the Park that started it all. The loop was fantastically calming and just as picturesque as I remember. Never mind that I wove in and out of a random 4K race for something... Fortunately the teeming masses only ran through part of my route... As a sidenote, I'm fairly confident competitive running is not for me. I run for leisure, not for a time or a t-shirt.

Later Saturday I pulled out my college vocal repertoire binders to recover a copy of a well-rehearsed aria for my upcoming choir audition. I sang through it (still memorized!) and then another piece as a backup... And then the entirety of my senior vocal recital. I could not believe how much muscle memory I've retained from last March's performance, particularly as I have sung NONE of it since then! Even the 7-page, diarrhea-of-the-mouth Russian piece it took months to memorize flowed more easily than I expected (unsurprisingly, however, this one did not prove as memorized).

As a parting gift, I will share a gorgeous panorama (several pictures cropped together, in fact) of my classroom last spring, just the way I left it... Before taking everything down and putting it in boxes. =) Click through for full size!

Photo by Chris Marolf, ETM program staff member and picture-taker extraordinaire!

Love, Hugs, and Happy School Year!
KP

Just the Way I Left It

2010-09-09T15:44:00.004-04:00

When I was little I had a dollhouse in my room—the snazzy Playmobil Victorian home with rooms and furniture whose beauty were not nearly matched by its figures (seriously, a dollhouse with ugly dolls?). I meticulously arranged every room’s scene and I knew the house backward and forward. Every time Grandma visited she would alter one thing in the dollhouse and I would have to sleuth out the difference. From reshelved flatwear to bathroom towels to flower gardens, I was always able to return the house to its original state. There’s a comfort in the order of “the way things were”.

I’m happy to report post-vacation New York is largely the way it was pre-vacation, summer-city smells, Dominican music, and all. I had the opportunity to enjoy it in higher doses when my computer succumbed to the evils of malware and spent a stint with the Geek Squad. For the minor inconveniences five days without regular computer and Internet access bring, I quite appreciated the silence and imperative to fill my time with activities that don’t start with an inbox or a Netflix search.

Much money and concern later, I received my computer back, free of viruses AND completely reloaded with all of my files and settings. Considering I had spent the repair period collecting software CDs to reinstall and compiling settings and passwords I would have to reprogram, this came as welcome—downright glorious--news.

Last week brought the first ETM training day of the year, complete with smiling faces, friendly conversation, and a lovely rooftop barbecue. If the pay weren’t so lousy, I would work with them forever. Seriously.

Last week also brought me back into my classroom at PS 43. If you recall, my first glimpse of the same room last summer included roughly 20 extra desks, 50 extra chairs, and 4 broken iMacs. Oof. This year, I unlocked the door expecting a similar scene… And the room looked like this:

What. A. Difference. And they had not locked my instruments (or keyboards!) in storage. I had everything I needed and no more (even the 2 remaining dud iMacs were removed by this week!). Cleaning and furniture consolidation aside, the room was just the way I left it at the end of last year. I nearly cried tears of elation. Pictures of the reconstructed—and slightly redesigned—classroom to come!

In the short-lived spirit of restlessly empty late summer, I have decided to audition for that choir… The actual audition is next week but I participated in their first rehearsal last night. Sight-reading “real” (read: “intended for ages above 11”) choral music requires cognitive muscles that are a little stiff after a year and a half hiatus, but it was so great to SING again. And, truthfully, to use those “muscles” again. Like the first run after an elliptical winter, the technique is a little rusty but the energy is through the roof. Now I just have to dust off an old aria for the audition… Eep.

Lesson planning, a full week of training, then a new school year! Ah, the 5am alarm… Good to know that the view out my window at the crack of dawn is also just how I left it:

Love & Hugs!

Kate =)

Timing

2010-08-22T17:28:00.003-04:00

I finally (after a year of cursing the New York City skies and streets every rain) purchase a pair of rain boots on Saturday. On Sunday my errands are accompanied by torrential rainfall. Yay boots!

I carry wine and regular glasses aaaaaall the way from Brooklyn IKEA, through 2 hours of bus and train and aforementioned torrential rain. I place the boxes on my kitchen counter and one slips, resulting in 2 broken wine glasses. Boo irony. (4 survived, thankfully)

I spend a significant part of Saturday afternoon revisiting Wartburg Choir music along with a nostalgic tribute notebook reading. On Sunday the girl sitting next to me in church invites me to audition for a legit city choir. No member fees, Wednesday evening rehearsals, decent sound (pay no attention to the non-synced video)... I'm outsourcing this one--what do you think??

Also on the topic of timing but a little less specifically anecdotal, two weeks is the perfect length for a summer vacation, particularly when that time is split between two locations. South Carolina possessed all the calm and warmth (temperately and personally) and space I remembered, and I am very pleased with the copious friendship rejuvenations that took place back in the Midwest. It is so, SO comforting to reconnect beyond the limits of phone and Skype sessions. Additionally, the Anderson family (of ", Stephanie Pippi" fame) IS a wedding reception. Prepackaged. =)

And I suppose a well-timed sermon fits into this theme... Guest minister on the topic of salvation in the context of Unitarian Universalism. I'll post it when the link goes up, but it very adeptly frames the issue in a way that strongly aspires to reconcile "traditional" and "liberal" religion and/or faith, an aspiration that has been on my mind more than usual lately.

Last but not least, I replaced the battery in my kitchen clock so it keeps time as well as it did back in June. =)

KP

Productivity

2010-08-07T07:20:00.002-04:00

40 minutes to kill before I leave for vacation...

I wish I had mornings off all year--I get SO much done between 6 and 10! This week, for example, I used my mornings to exercise, clean the apartment, pack (TWO DAYS ahead of time--new record), lower my Internet bill, work out a 5th day job placement... and paint toenails. It's been a good week.

5 days in wooded, lakeside, isolated South Carolina country followed by 8 days in sparkly, standardized, homey North Shore? Yes, please. =) I am ready for a brief sojourn away from the relentless pace and density of my beloved city, and spending quality time with family and (COLLEGE) friends only sweetens the deal!

And you read correctly... I'll be working 5 days a week come fall--a first in my adult life! Tentatively, my additional day will be at P.S. 484 (Van Nest Academy) in Central Bronx. The gig may or may not require an hour-plus, multiple-bus commute and lacks a classroom (my very first cart!), but I'm nonetheless excited to step into a school with a "fresh start" as it were. It's K-2 so I'll be teaching my favorite (and easiest) ages--a definite plus. And I think a cart might be freeing in some ways... Although I'm grateful I'll only have to use it for 20% of my week. =)

Recommended Reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
Two years ago I would have tossed aside a book about the benefits of organic, local food culture, citing irrelevance and/or boredom. Not now--this book is a revelation. Between my newfound love of cooking and the copious farmers' markets in NYC, I can apply so much of the new information I'm absorbing directly to my purchasing and consuming habits... Homemade cheese, anyone?

Love, Hugs, and Summer Vacation!!!!
KP

Community

2010-08-01T22:21:00.002-04:00

Has it really been over a year in New York City?? This Saturday will mark my one-year anniversary at 75 Thayer, 4F. Ironically and/or poetically, this Saturday will also mark the commencement of my a two-week vaction this Saturday--AWAY from the city to reconnect with family, friends, and open landscape. Skimming the trajectory of this blog from its inception last summer, I can outline trails of whimsy, stress, accomplishment, personal growth... and community.

Like any recent college graduate, I've struggled to build community. Though my locale has a few million people more than, say, rural Iowa, the challenges of fostering a network of genuine support remain the same. Maybe moreso--many of those who have lived here for a while already have extensive and sufficient networks of their own and aren't readily seeking new bonds. Yet somehow I can count relatively close relations I've established in the past year on more than one hand.

It's happened so gradually, but taking a step back in reflection I stand in awe of the satisfying community I have built in year one. In just the last month, I celebrated my birthday with friends from high school and college, visited a teaching friend at her apartment, hosted a young adult event at the church, and attended a really fabulous and laid-back house party of church people... Obviously there are always "next steps". I hope to expand and deepen these relationships and new ones. But I leave New York for the brief hiatus a much more personalized city than it was upon gaining my address a year ago.

In Libertyville August 12-20... With an epic wedding/college friendship experience the 13th-14th. Let me know if I should be seeing you!!!

Kate =)

Tides of the Season

2010-07-16T11:53:00.006-04:00

Passing: the days of summer as the calendar devolves into a relic of the working year

Still: palpably saturated, oppressive air refusing motion and insulating heavy heat

Passing by one another on the morning sidewalk, two school-aged boys share a moment's handshake and knowing nods.

Still remain the friendships of former years--high school, college--enough to sustain full weekends of reminiscing and talk of present and future.

Passing gradually as a "real" teacher, I feel infinitely more competent and prepared for summer school instruction...

Still, I miss the comfort of "my" school, students, and teachers and await with enthusiasm a non-inaugural year after

passing the remaining weeks of summer at "surrogate" school, then in gloriously un-urbanized South Carolina, and finally in Illinois among the familiarity of locale, family, and the best of friends.

Still: a weekend of relative, welcome calm amidst eastern seaboard roaming, action-packed visits (brother shortly!), and anticipated vacations.

Passing: the mellifluence of an (over)ambitious conceptual entry...

=) KP

You know it's summer when...

2010-06-24T16:30:00.008-04:00

-Greenmarket produce is actually cheaper (and much more delicious) than the grocery variety.

-Someone pops a fire hydrant. The function I observed was more car wash and less kid sprinkler, but still.

-You get flashbacks (heat stroke?) to the barely bearable heat of my very first month in this 4th floor, non-cross-ventilated apartment.

-You have time for volunteering and babysitting and actually hanging out with friends... So much that you kind of forget this is "vacation".

-You can truly wish teachers and administrators a happy summer and thank them for a fantastic year because your 5th graders have graduated and you will not be returning to the school until September!!!! A note on these 5th graders: Throughout a good portion of the year I found this grade the toughest to engage and relate to, in part because of their bigger class sizes (28 compared to around 20 in every other grade), in part because of my difficulty in lesson/unit planning for older grades. Between a really successful spring concert and a half-dozen graduation rehearsals, I complete the year feeling most bonded to these soon-to-be-middle-schoolers. They stepped up their game for these ceremony songs (and all other procedures for that matter) in a way unseen in the rest of the year. They delivered each piece in strong, clear, projected head voice with expression and pride. Witnessing Miguel and Ashli and Eric (what a voice--who knew!) and others get so INTO the songs in their faces and performances... Mind-blowing. I'm in the right profession. =)

A few long-overdue pictures...

PS 43's auditorium, "decorated" for spring concerts

This is what it looks like when a kitchen self-destructs.

No more pesky cabinet! Or usable drinking glasses for that matter.

Gorgeous Wave Hill (of septuagenarian-oriented Mozart concert fame)

A few of my proud, deserving 5th grade graduates

PS 43 in all its stately, UNOBSTRUCTED (just in literal time for graduation) glory!!!!!

The happy feel-good moments are becoming a bit cumbersome to the flow of the blog... Consider them integrated (i.e., Greenmarkets, fire hydrants, 5th grade pride, unobstructed schools) unless otherwise noted from here on out in your readership.

Love, Hugs, & SUMMER!!!
Ms. Phillips, with pride

Fresh Start

2010-06-13T09:41:00.011-04:00

PS (As in pre-script): Here's the sermon I referenced last blog. If you can make it through the extended exposition on the migration patterns of geese it really does all tie together. =)

Inspired by the blog of Miss Emily DeLong, I decided to switch up the design a bit... Like just about everything else in my life (particularly shoes and coats), I wish I could draw what I wanted it to look like and then magically have it appear that way, but alas, I'm not savvy enough to venture beyond templates and colors. Still, a change is refreshing.

Speaking of refreshing change, I need some. Though I've been foot-busy (as opposed to brain-busy) in my first week of summer vacation, I feel a little restless funk sprouting within me... I'm definitely ready for some new projects. These might include:

*Starting curriculum planning for next year

*Collaborating to jumpstart and lead social justice initiatives within my church's young adult group--I'm leading a "Food & Fellowship" (our bimonthly get-togethers centered around a discussion topic) in July on service and volunteering as well as participating in a joint committee between the young adults and the church-affiliated (though confoundingly not directly supported by the church) community outreach organization that funds the efforts of a variety of services and programs for underserved groups in New York City, I'm very excited about the opportunities that await me in the coming months.

*With all the service-/volunteer-related talk, I figured I should actually get back into volunteering, something I've let slide over the course of the school year. I have a few food pantry/soup kitchen type projects I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks, so that will be energizing. I have yet to find a volunteer-ready organization in my neighborhood, however... If I could find one that didn't require an hour of travel I think I'd be more likely to continue participating come fall.

*Painting and/or redecorating--In all likelihood, the latter half of this initiative probably won't happen. I only have so much space and furniture can only fit in a room so many ways. But with the very likely prospect of remaining in my apartment another year, I think a multi-wall paint job could be a fun way to rejuvenate the space and make it more my own. Details to follow...

*Running--The weather of late has been weird and unpredictable... Combined with my train hopping to graduation rehearsals and babysitting gigs and summer fun activities, I have not been running as frequently as I would like. That's changing--I know from experience that a large part of this spirit restlessness could be fixed with some consistent aerobic activity.

*New and delicious recipes--ideas, please!!

Happy Feel Good Moments

*Free half-pizza from Planet Fitness, my gym. Irony never tasted so delicious.

*Wave Hill Park--Free Mozart concert (of whose attendees I was the youngest by roughly 40 years), beautiful gardens, exploring a completely new part of the city... This is what summer's about, kids.

*I get to play "good cop" at the 5th grade graduation rehearsals, which is awesome.

*A subway guitarist interrupted his regularly-scheduled Latin music to play "Old McDonald" for an enthused toddler.

*FIGMENT Art Festival--a free, gigantic collection of participatory art exhibits/installations/performances. Most unique and thought-provoking attraction: Unseen Dances.

Love, Hugs, & Links!
Kate

PS: I have lived in this city for over a year. Over. A. Year.

PPS (or is it PSS?): A tangent of the FIGMENT experience--reintroduction to the wonder of Dippin' Dots.

PPPS: I sang at a piano bar for the first time. "On My Own," for simplicity's sake. Fun stuff...

Summertime...

2010-06-07T13:17:00.002-04:00

And the living is indeed easy! I have just experienced my first weekend since August without any lesson planning or bulletin board making hanging over my head... It's awesome. I completed a massive apartment clean-through on Saturday, hosted a get-together Saturday evening, attended church (with a marvelous, this-is-why-I-choose-this-church-as-homebase type of sermon; link to come but enjoy an equally as pleasing one from last week here) and brunch, and then made an afternoon out of unplanned clothes shopping with a friend from church. H&M is dangerously inexpensive, btw.

For the moment, June has remembered it's not August and temperatures in the 90s have subsided to pleasant summer 70s, so the outside is much more fun. Ran this morning, walking to the Bronx tomorrow for a free Mozart strings concert, enjoying a packed Wednesday of school stuff, lunch with Meghan (Hey, Meghan, I'm coming for lunch Wednesday), Buddhist meditation in the evening... I. Love. Summer.

Happy Feel-Goodery of the Week:

*A successful and lightly bittersweet last week of classes included several of my most non-participatory students fully engaged--singing, volunteering answers, the whole shebang. I do not know what happened.

*There's a conductor on the A who makes additons like, "Have a beautiful day and a very pleasant evening," and "Each and every one of you is beautiful. Thank you so much for choosing to ride with us," to her standard/mandated announcements. Great way to end the day!

*After sharing her summer travel plans involving Honduras and Peru, Yasmine is beyond impressed that I get to spend part of my summer in... South Carolina!!!!!!

*I received flowers and the cutest-ever book of "Thank You/I love you and music" notes from one of my first grade classes... And then more flowers and a card from a fourth grade class. If that's bribery, I'm eatin' it up. =)

*All three Kindergarten classes chose to listen/dance to African Children's Choir over a previously grooved-to funk song... and then they all sang along to the Swahili the best they could. My work here is done.

It's June, kids--ENJOY IT!!!
KP =)

Memorial Day: Remembering my glassware...

2010-05-30T21:28:00.004-04:00

Every summer I've been in New York, I've suffered at least one glass casualty... this summer the tally climbs by 11... So my kitchen cabinet fell off the wall. Yep. Just fell down. Also, I was in front of it. Good thing it was the one with... all the glasses... After a brief few minutes of shock, checking for injuries (minor knuckle grazes thankfully the extent), and bewildered staring, I was able to clean up all the remains (and the busted cabinet) with surprising rationality. Then my super came and remedied the issue by drilling in screws of appropriate length in appropriate studs--two measures that the last super had failed to account for. He continues to drill (and nail gun!) as I blog. Love my super. And the fact that I have a super whose pre-paid job it is to fix things like this... Yet another reason to leave "home ownership" off the lifelong to-do list.

An eventful finale to an eventful few weeks--my concerts are done!! They went well although the upper grades suddenly decided they wanted to try stage fright... With some post-dress rehearsal discussions and my feverish attempts to look like a goof while conducting, they got past it and delivered a solid concert. The littl'uns--ease breeze. They don't know the meaning of stage fright. Love it.

Overnight at Meghan's, followed by a refreshing church service and summery walk through Central Park, finished grades, CRASH!, glass/etc. cleanup, caprese-and-blogging-as-mental-distraction... Maybe dinner as well. And cookie baking! For my teachers. And me. And possibly my super because he's awesome.

Full disclosure: my happy feel-good journal has not received its deserved attention in the last week. Concert exhaustion wipe away a lot of memory capacity at the end of a day. So know that I experienced much happiness, it just wasn't all recorded. A few that made the cut:

*Someone has moved a real piano into an apartment on the 2nd floor and has been playing, at least on one occasion, beautiful repertoire. All the more reason to continue taking the stairs!!

*Celebrated the end of the first dress rehearsal day by dedicating 4+ hours to the Lost finale and related reading/viewing. Worth. It.

*One of the 1st grade song involves sign language on the refrain; when they finished the piece in dress rehearsal one of the 2nd grade classes watching gave sign language applause. Neat.

*We had to run 100 more program copies for the lower grades concert--And we started with 50!!

*One year after graduating (this weekend!), and I walk the halls of my New York City public school after the final concert of the year sporting post-concert flats, a shirt tucked into a skirt, and a lanyard keychain ("I <3 Music", of course) around my neck. From student to full teacher in 365 days. Wow.

(Exact quote)
*"I am able to recover from and appropriately clean up after a cabinet full of glass decides to detach itself from the wall. No signs of concisssion yet. Except I just wrote 'concussion' like that..."
(Really, I'm ok.)

Love, Hugs, and Cheap, Replaceable Glassware,
KP =)

Rain Day!

2010-05-18T08:56:00.003-04:00

Yep, they cancel school for wetness here... Oh, how I wish that was true. No, due to a teacher meeting/prep issue that I don't entirely understand, my Tuesday classes this week are moved to Friday, giving me a peculiar "second weekend" to recover from a grueling... one day of teaching. Actually, I'm digging it--I have a lot to catch up on for school and life and today is the perfect day to get things accomplished (she boldly asserts at 9am). It's rainy, so I won't be tempted to play outside, and it's Tuesday, so I'm not Friday-exhausted. And I don't have shows to watch this early in the week. This no-TV thing is not quite working as well as I'd imagined for productivity... I keep finding new and fabulous shows to watch on Hulu or Netflix...

Things that need to happen today:
*Programs (this one's almost done, I just have to enter in the Spanish translations that one of my teachers so graciously provided. So that's another one--*Write a thank you note.)
*Drawing little stage diagrams on teachers' dress rehearsal/concert cheat sheets with class blocking and entrances and exits and such
*Cleeeeeeeaning... Maybe this should be first so my brain will feel cleaner too
*Tackle a chunk of assessment entry (as in, I've already collected the data, I just need to enter it into a spreadsheet, which takes much longer than one would care to think). Teaching would be a lot easier without this learning accountability thing...
*Exercise. Less appealing with the weather, but Idol performance night at the gym sounds adequately motivating...

Happy Feel-Good Moments (Something else I need to stay on top of... The current trend involves approximating memories after realizing I haven't written anything for several days)

*For a while I didn't have an iPod (the story involves a forgetful music teacher, shady construction workers, and the school reimbursing me for a stolen iPod), but I still needed to enjoy the weather and run outside... I actually now prefer running without music. Quite enjoyable.

*My music theatre club loves Pippin, which is great because I love Pippin.
Jennifer (out of breath from a full "Magic to Do" run-through): "That was FUN!"

*I have had two students in the last two weeks share original songs (more like lyrics but it's a start) with me. Way cool.

*Between helping to decorate/cook for a young adults event at church and feeling more and more like a "veteran" at coffee hour and brunch, I'm really starting to feel substantial connections to my church community.

*When you feel like no grade is going to be prepared for the concert, all you need is one class of rockstars to turn your thinking around.

*The highway trombonist returns... this time practicing riffs much more complex than the octaves he was drilling last I jogged in on rehearsal. Great improvement, sir!

*At my request, the professor who leads Wartburg's May term NYC trip (who sadly is leaving Wartburg next year!!) came to meet with my principal about including PS 43 as a partner school for field experience... It was surreal to have Dr. Fiene and Dr. Delucchi (my principal) in the same room sharing laughs and setting up logistics that will very likely lead to Wartburg students being in my school this time next year... Awesome.

*With the arrival of my high school friend Tim to the "neighborhood" (15 minutes on the train), I realized I have quite a few close friends in the area... interesting as many New Yorkers label anything above Central Park as the "boonies" of Manhattan. Seriously, I don't really know anyone who lives BELOW 110th...

Love, Hugs, and Productivity!
Kate =)

Blog=Metaphor for Life?

2010-04-29T23:51:00.003-04:00

This update is roughly 3 weeks overdue, will surely leave out important life happenings, and may not be entirely coherent or well-structured. Welcome to concert season.

I feel as though I should just plan the year's programs up-front, in the summer, and avoid all the unproductive stress and vague sense of foreboding that swing in about a month prior to these relatively inconsequential (in the grand scheme of things) concerts. I experienced the same anxiety around Thanksgiving, so I should know that all will be memorized, the kids will pull off a professional showing, and the parents and teachers will just be thrilled that there's a music program in the first place. But with three weeks to go and so much more to rehearse and organize...

Maybe I should start interspersing the Happy Feel-Good Moments now...

[Angel, age 4, has been fervently trying to communicate something to me, first by calling out my name incessantly then by waving his hand until it looks as though it will fall off]
"YES, Angel--what is your question?"
"I didn't have a question."
"Ok, what did you want to tell me?"
(Long pause; he clearly has lost all memory of original intent)
"...Rainbows..."

Mmm much better on the stress levels... =)

So my parents visited, and it was awesome. I love love love showing people around the city (hint hint hint...), especially when they have no interest in the touristy stuff. Yes, we went to a show--Next to Normal--fantastic--but other than that brief glimpse of Times Square we dwelt among the locals, wining and dining our way through Manhattan. Way fun, and a great respite from the chaos of... well, you know. =) We won't mention that part of life any more.

Another HFGM for your reading pleasure

A few weeks ago a very well-mannered and poised 5th grader from PS 75 (one of the schools at which I have subbed) approached me on a weekend train to say hi and tell me he missed me. This after a 2-week subbing stint in January. I. Love. Teaching.

In other news, I really feel like I'm beginning my role as "active participant" at my church. Between steady attendance at young adult events (and services for that matter) and a few opportunities for minor leadership, I finally am comfortable taking a little ownership in this community. In general, I tend to take a little while to warm up to a new atmosphere, but once I feel I can put my personality out there my involvement snowballs and suddenly I can't remember that time I was too timid to speak more than a few words. Let's hope this follows suit...

And rounding off the HFGMs of the last... MONTH (seriously, another one on Saturday??):

I scored free Columbian rice at a street fair by being discerning and maybe a little adorable. Mm, the sweet taste of handouts.

I've been taking to running along the Hudson River for the gorgeous views and relatively light traffic... Part of the route runs next to the highway, where I recently encountered a fledgling trombonist practicing his scales. On the side of the highway.

Apparently Tork and I should simply plan our "dates" at the 190th A train station, where we randomly encountered one another for the SECOND time in 6 months despite neither of us actually claiming the stop as our own.

And last but certainly not least, this quote:
"I want someone who will be monogamous and nice to his mother. And I want someone who likes musicals but knows to just shut his mouth while I'm watching Lost. And I want someone who thinks being really into cars is lame and strip clubs are gross. I want someone who will actually empty the dishwasher instead of just taking out forks as needed, like I do. I want someone with clean hands and feet and beefy forearms like a damn Disney prince. And I want him to genuinely like me, even when I'm old. And that's what I want."
Watch out Liz Lemon, we're after the same dude.

Love, Hugs, and ...Rainbows...
=) Kate

Where to begin...

2010-04-09T09:26:00.002-04:00

The problem with having so much fun in over two weeks that you forget to blog is you have a lot to blog about after those two weeks... If crunched for time, I suggest reading one section a sitting. =)

Waverly: Rejuvenation. Comfort. Perspective.
And to think, I wasn't planning on visiting until summer... now I'm trying to organize my summer so I can visit again in a few months! The weird part of being back on campus is that it didn't feel weird at all... It's as if I had just returned from a break; no flooding nostalgia, no conspicuous changes... Wartburg remains pretty much how I left it, minus my graduating class. But really I got to see a lot of them too, and what a treat! It was refreshing to chat at length in the Res and Kdit with friends I had spent the last four years getting to know and love--those 4-hour fishbowl-style conversations just don't happen as often after college. It was exciting to hear stories of jobs and grad school and future plans and the general transition to being adults (are we there yet?). Also, $3 beer outside of happy hour. All in all, a highly successful trip. =)

Libertyville: Respite. Expanse. Cleanliness.
After my Iowa road trip, I spent the remainder of my break back "home" (I'm trying to condition myself to say "Libertyville" instead of "home" these days), enjoying the suburban oasis in my year of urban living. Whether I was jogging the neatly arranged neighborhoods or enjoying the warm night air over fire and wine (that's how we do "roughing it"), I was struck by the contrast of environment. Waverly didn't throw me because the population is so small; North Shore boasts a high population more (but not exactly) comparable to a city, so the differences are more acute. I experienced strong Tanzania flashbacks the whole week... At first I thought it was merely the smells of suburbanites lighting up their barbecues to celebrate the weather--in the villages everything is cooked over fire--but in discussing the nostalgia with my mom I discovered it was simply the space. I could more or less see a horizon in any given spot in town. Buildings are spread out, trees are more homogenously dispersed. Not quite Africa, but certainly not New York either.

New York: Energy. Ease. GREEN.
Yes, everything is green and blossoming here, seemingly overnight!! I left New York with bare trees and pale green grass patches; I return to find the city in the midst of a spring revolution. I am always, always, always in a better mood when the weather is beautiful, so thanks, New York, for making spring concert season much more bearable. By the way, the second time through the concert machine is a LOT easier than the first. Although still stressful and time-sensitive, I feel slightly more confident this time around. Slightly. On a teaching-related note (pretend I'm not a music teacher so that doesn't have to be a pun), I learned on a visit to my organization's office that my boss is trying to negotiate me a full-time, Department of Education teaching position at MY school next year! And if not that, then "definitely" (his words) the following year. He's a highly idealistic kind of kid so I'm not banking my future on it, but it's still an unexpected surprise! That revelation added to a pretty successful interview for a summer job earlier in the week (I'll know just how successful it was in the next two weeks), and I'm generally feeling good about being back.

Happy Feel Good Moments of the past 17 days (Oof.)

*It's hard to stay mad at a naughty fourth grader when he breaks into the Queen of the Night aria.

*Girl on the street to her little brother marching determinedly to a beat in his own head: "Do you realize you're the only one stomping like an idiot??"

*I saw Manhattan from the air for the first time in two years--I've had a knack for flying on overcast days I guess. But good news: I can locate my school, apartment building, and former Staten Island sublet from hundreds of feet above.

*You know you're driving in small town Iowa when you pass a man riding a tractor on the sidewalk and a giant inflatable Easter bunny on the lawn.

*They just don't make vocal harmony like the Wartburg Choir in elementary school... =)

*Pad Woon Sen: the new Pad See Ew.

*Eggs blowing up on the stovetop is always a good time.

*The nectarine I had accidentally left on my kitchen counter for the duration of break was not, in fact, moldy and bug-infested upon my return as I had imagined. So I ate it.

*One has not enjoyed life to the fullest until one witnesses 20 kindergarteners grooving to a funk version of "This Land is Your Land".

Aaaaand, debt to blog: paid in full.
KP =)

Done (Almost)

2010-03-23T19:49:00.003-04:00

But really, I checked out this weekend. So did the kids, so ultimately things are ok, but I am so ready for a break from the city. Last week's weather was GORGEOUS (70!!) and involved much time outside; this week is back to rainy and people on the streets seem angry or maybe I'm projecting my restlessness or the fact that my ear did that thing again where it temporarily shuts down function (at least I hope it's another temporary deal) or my general disdain for concert season... Anyway, winter weather or not, I'm adequately (read: extremely) prepared to visit the Midwest and more importantly all the lovely PEOPLE who live there!!

I leave Friday morning, and before then I need to:
*Do laundry (Status: In Progress)
*Finish preparing materials for the remainder of the week's lessons
*Pack
*Exercise once more (Outside? C'mon, weather...)
*Make a packing list (this might be helpful to complete before packing)
*Mail things like rent and the Census
*Sweep and vacuum
*Clean out the fridge for things I won't want to smell upon my return
*Regain hearing in my left ear (at least it's a different one this time; talking on the phone is much easier)
*Attend a book club (The Red Tent, Anita Diamant)

Happy Feel-Good Moments of the Week

*Music Instinct--fantastic documentary about the biological evolution and argument for music. Reignited high-minded aspirations regarding my career in music education... (If you have Netflix it's free to stream)

*Great outdoor runs in shorts, around my neighborhood, etc... Summer is just around the corner, right?

*Piecing together student siblings on conference day is way fun and rather enlightening.

*Japhel: "Ms. Phillips, how do you KNOW so much about music??"

*I watched Lost (via Hulu) on my fire escape.

*Our school librarian REALLY gets into holiday costuming... For St. Patrick's day she wore a green boa and streaked her hair kelly green!

*Sometimes it's nice to walk through Times Square (without stopping) simply to appreciate everything that is not Times Square.

*I garnered an interview for a music teacher position at a summer school program downtown with a fabulous schedule and very decent pay... Fingers crossed!!

*Paul Torkelson is on Facebook, which is awesome. Maybe we'll finally set up another dinner...

Love, Hugs, and IOWA ON SATURDAY!!!!
=) KP

The Cost of Spring

2010-03-15T19:00:00.001-04:00

Lest we take for granted the gorgeous weathers of spring and summer, nature likes to remind us around this time of year that we must pay our dues... In the form of random cold spikes and multi-day marathons of raaaaaain (worse than "rain"). It has been raining non-stop since Friday, and the memory of last week's blue skies and jacketless temperatures quickly fade into "Oh yeah, it's still March". But sun and 50s soon...

This week saw a number of "firsts", mostly positive. A photographic log:

First unobstructed view of Manhattan from my classroom!!!! Though it remains on the other sides of the building, the construction netting and scaffolding has disappeared from my side, just in time for a beautiful week of weather (that would be last week, not this one yet).

First umbrella put to rest. 25 mph winds'll do that. Please note the bent handle, protruding spoke, and general deflation of the once curved rain shield.

First hockey game. I know, right? Meghan had free box seats at Madison Square Garden for the NY Rangers game from her agency. It was not as painful as I remember sporting events being when I was younger, yet I'm still decidedly a performing arts girl.

Also--first RUN of the year in Central Park last week! Unfortunately, I did not bring along a camera to document the occasion, but the proof is in the outdoor running high that just recently wore off =)

Happy Feel Good Moments:

*Aforementioned Central Park run (high of 59 that day!!)

*I fully completed a New York magazine crossword puzzle. Sense of accomplishment: fulfilled.

*One of the second grade classes wrote 100 "acts of love" for Valentine's Day/100th Day of School. I am the proud owner of a delightful card from Leah. =)

*Luis: "Whoa--Ms. Phillips, how do you know who Sonic is?!?" [Answer: Andrew Dougherty Phillips.]

*When "What a Wonderful World" drifts into the subway tunnels from someone's boombox, you just can't help but smile.

*15 out of 17 concert pieces selected--way ahead of last concert's curve. Themes are proving essential to ease of concert planning.

*My naughty 3rd grade class gave me some truly first-rate singing today. Too often I forget I should be deliberately working on molding these kids into highly competent performers, not just filling their minds.

Love love love!
Kate =)

So Far So Good

2010-03-07T22:05:00.003-05:00

I've been doing rather well on the goals I set forth for March...

Concert music is 80% selected (now I just have to track down all that sheet music...)

More art--check. I'm sketchin' on subways and pickin' away at the guitar in my free time, and it feels great to be doing creative stuff again that has nothing to do with school children!

Smiling on subways... Working on it. I'd say 30% success so far.

Love love LOVE recording the happy feel-good moments (or HFGM) of my day!! Not only am I a happier girl at the end of the day, but I also find myself looking for great moments to record--heightening my consciousness of the beautiful little things that happen all around. Highlights from the week:

*Nyshia: "Ms. Phillips, can I use this picture of President Obama and Ms. Michelle to represent Marriage of Figaro on the Mozart collage?"
[So many things to love here: The fact we're making Mozart collages, her recognition of a now iconic photo--slow dance at the Inauguration--even when intentionally blurry, her use of "Ms. Michelle" to address the first lady...]

*I made a pretty delicious broccoli-egg-ricotta souffle.

*On Thursday I miraculously encountered the elusive no-wait commute--in BOTH directions.

*Later in the day I had a subway car all to myself for an unprecedented four stops. So I sang loudly.

*I found a variety pack of construction paper that included purple. More difficult than one would think.

*Drunk girl at bar: "Hey, guy, the bathroom is behind" (Sober translation: "Excuse me, sir, the line for the bathroom starts behind us") Cue a comical conversation among the rest of us in line on how to properly address a stranger in a bar.

*There are some quality programs out there to aid urban educators. Thank you, Project Cicero, for facilitating the near-tripling of my music book library!!

*Indian spring, the psychological effects of which are somewhat regrettable in late March, is a welcome phenomenon in early March. And by Indian spring I mean the converse of Indian fall.

*Today I cut out pictures for my next bulletin board on the subway. I hope it looked as awesome as I imagine it did.

As for the goal of holding off Waverly excitement... 4 out of 5 goals isn't bad. =)

KP

March Goals

2010-02-28T16:26:00.003-05:00

If I post them, accountability is likely to improve...

Select concert music
Lower Grades Theme: Land, Sea, and Sky
Upper Grades Theme: Composer Spotlight

More art
Drawing, songwriting, instrumental improv, photography, etc.

Pleasant disposition on public transportation
I've noticed my "neutral" face is a frown... And that needs to change, for my own sake and the sake of those around me.

Recording the positives
Though I tend to maintain a pretty positive/optimistic attitude as a general rule, I'm interested to see the stories I can compile by writing down one smile-inspiring moment each day. Greatest hits to be posted...

Consistently diverse lessons
Movement, listening, and performing every week. Tall order, but I think I'm finally to the point in the year where this one is attainable...

Holding my anticipation for Midwest week to a manageable level
Perhaps the most difficult of all. March 27-30: Waverly. March 30-April 5: Libertyville. Let me know if I should be seeing you!!

=) KP

So summer is when?

2010-02-19T15:17:00.002-05:00

As anyone who has ever lived in a climate of seasonal change knows, February is the worst. Dull, cold, snowy/slushy, and no festive street decorations or holiday cheer to break up the monotony. That is precisely why I believe NYC schools are genius in establishing this "midwinter recess" for the third week in February... This is time off so greatly needed by teachers and students alike, and I think it'll make March much more productive than it often tends to be. The chance to step away from the "trenches" for a week allows for some perspective not easily attained amidst the bustle of Christmas break.

That said, I haven't really accomplished much of what I had mentally designated for this break... No concert rep selection, no in-depth unit planning for the remainder of the year... I'm not even done with lesson plans for next week yet! I suppose I still have the weekend. =)

But the break has not been totally wasted. I've been able to catch up with a lot of friends and remind myself that there is, in fact, a lot of city that exists beyond the route of my school commute.

Highlights:

Night Out with Meghan & Friends
Brewery tour, free pizza, quality time at a favorite West Village piano bar.

Lots of Babysitting
Extra cash and the opportunity to hang out in types of apartments I'll never be able to afford...

First (and likely Last) Cabaret Experience
At least I got to see my friend Tim perform two songs for the price of a cover and two ridiculously expensive drinks. Emcee was tragically untalented, staff was rude, and Tim even had to pay to participate. A lesson learned for all involved. =P

Teacher Talk
It's both comforting and slightly stressful to chat with other music teachers... Though students and environments differ vastly between schools, I can't help but compare my program to others'--for better or worse. In some areas I'm very confident in my curriculum and methods, some I'm not and panic that I'm letting my students and school and organization down. I'm really looking forward to a whole summer off where I can really revamp my whole-year plan and organize units and strategies into a unified blueprint. Despite week-long breaks and the gradual amassing of resources and ideas, I feel like I'm struggling to meet my own expectations/standards for my teaching this year for every grade. But then I realize I essentially plan nine lessons a week. Nine distinct trajectories of content and objectives spread out across seven grades. I need to find a way to consolidate units to apply to 2-3 grade levels while still teaching unique lessons to each grade. That's the summer plan. I hope.

Field Trip!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Meghan's agency in East Harlem. For those of you who don't have her blog on your reading list, her organization basically provides any family-related service you could possibly imagine for a set of zip codes in East Harlem. Since she works in nearly every department for at least a few hours a week, I was able to talk with a wide array of knowledgeable individuals about the various programs Little Sisters of the Assumption provides for the neighborhood, including (but not limited to) a food pantry, environmental (molds/pests/etc.) home visits, tutoring, nursing, language classes, immigration aid, child advocacy, family advocacy... It's amazing to see such a thorough and comprehensive approach toward serving and empowering a community, especially as the East Harlem neighborhood it serves resembles closely my school's surrounding area in terms of population and socioeconomic status. I'll definitely be looking into similar organizations (supposedly the Dominican Sisters have something running) that serve my students.

Outside Time
Between a snowy wonderland up in the Cloisters (pictures to come) on Tuesday and a springlike air (40s!) today, I've appreciated a number of simple and relaxing walks through the version of nature that presents itself around these parts. I miss the ability to simply enjoy the outdoors in this beautiful city. Spring and summer cannot come soon enough.

I suppose I should put an end to work-related procrastination and just deal with the reality of a return to the ol' routine on Monday. Once again (and this will be a regular reminder in this blog for the next few posts), I WILL BE IN WAVERLY MARCH 27-30!!!! Please be there? =)

KP

For Your Consideration

2010-02-05T16:37:00.003-05:00

Not much of interest going on this week... So allow me to take this lull in activity to offer some various recommendations in the realm of media and beyond

Film

Google Me
Another great Hulu find. Amateur documentarian sets out to meet every man in the world sharing his name through Google searches. Six agree to meet and be interviewed, and what ensues is an amusing and often thought-provoking series of human profiles. From priest to adult swinger, each man tells his unique story... The filmmaker is actually the least engaging of all of them, but the documentary on the whole focuses on the rest of them so it's not a problem. =)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/119970/google-me

Hotel Rwanda
One of those that's been on the "I should see that sometime" list practically since it was first made. I'm glad I viewed it after Tanzania; I'm better equipped to place the events and locale in context than I would have been without the experience. I do, however, recommend it even if you have not been to the African continent.

Literature

The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
Similarly, my enjoyment and understanding of the content was greatly supported by my May Term sojourn in Africa, particularly as this novel relates the saga of a family called to serve as Christian missionaries in the Congo. I glimpsed bits of Pastor Hafermann and the other missionaries we met--both positive and negative--in the various narratives. Again, obviously still to be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the Christian movement in Africa, but this one I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone who has been on the trip.

"A White Teacher Speaks Out"
Meghan passed this gem along to me. You so desperately want to applaud what appears to be a vicious satire on racism in education and cultural relations incompetence... And then you realize the truth could not be further from the appearance. This is a real person, living and spreading these ugly ideologies in 2010. Sick.
http://www.amren.com/ar/2009/07/index.html

Television

Lost
Duh.

Culinary Arts

Greek Eggplant Panini
Baked and seasoned eggplant with feta, sundried tomatoes, and hummus on a buttered and pan-fried pita.

Raw Broccoli and Bleu Cheese
I'm really into snacks now...

Spaghetti Primavera
Whole wheat pasta with olive oil-sauteed mushrooms, artichokes, carrots, and zucchini. Actually, that sounds like dinner tonight.

Break in a week! When I first looked at the 2010 calendar, I thought, "Psh, why do we need a week-long break 5 weeks into school?" And then I had to make five behavior-related calls home this week. Bring on the vacation.

=) KP

Do Re MOUSE!

2010-01-29T20:47:00.003-05:00

Yep, that's how my afternoon 5th grade class commenced on Thursday. Having observant students is a mixed blessing. Great when they're into the lesson, less desirable when all their focus shoots directly to the mouse scurrying behind me. Also less than desirable: the fact that there was a mouse in my classroom. One custodian, several sticky paper traps, and a backward classroom later--trapped mouse. And a room full of 5th graders captivated by its demise. So glad this all coincided with my boss's first (surprise) visit of the year to my classroom... He did dispose of the mouse, though. That's a plus.

Combine that with a classroom fistfight (albeit ultimately harmless) on Monday, and you've got a great week for the memory books. The kids are ok, and I now know how to file an incident report. Oh, paperwork...

So it's been fun. Between a "regular" Friday subbing job until March, a boom in babysitter demand, and not much opportunity to spend my money in these winter months, money's a little looser (as opposed to tighter) than it has been, although I still wouldn't rate my income as much above livable. Whatevs, I'm in New York. New. York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of... Damn you, "Empire State of Mind" and your uncanny suitability for both my 5th grade hip hop AND notation AND NYC music units. PS, "where dreams are made of" does not make sense. It doesn't.

I'm a little busier these days what with these five day work weeks and TWO day weekends (What??), but chats always welcome!

Love & Hugs,
Kate

Woosh...

2010-01-22T15:36:00.002-05:00

That's how January seems to be going thus far... These full work weeks (I subbed both last and this Friday) really make the days fly by, even with MLKJ Day squeezed in there! As I'm too impatient with myself to organize by topic, I'm going with a chronological rundown of life since last blog.

Friday I (See II after "Thursday")
First time subbing ever!! What a strange and delightful experience. Working with a totally new group of students for the first time in 5 or so months provides much insight on my progress so far as a teacher. It took a while to settle into the rhythm; my class knows my routines and pace and I know their personalities (and names!) and abilities... Though both part of the NYC public school system, my school (PS 43) and the other one (PS 75) are run very differently. At 43 we have uniforms, very structured hallway procedures, school-wide rules to reference... 75 doesn't seem to have any of those. Obviously different populations require different educational atmospheres, but I'm pretty confident in saying my school is better than their school. =) Hard to succinctly communicate the comparisons here, so as always, I'd be happy to provide further details upon request!

Saturday
Marathon friendships! Lunch with a teacher friend formerly of ETM (she recently was offered and accepted a full-time position in NJ... actually makes her commute shorter!), coffee with a friend from high school (Timmy!), and dinner with Meghan at Sally's. Goodness I love sustained human contact. =)

Sunday
More enjoyment of people at the monthly (free!) bagel brunch at church. For the first time I really felt part of the group, like I was contributing to conversation and general atmosphere as opposed to being the new kid that everyone's nice to because she's the new kid.

Monday
Laundry, lesson plans, Laura Skype, Lincoln Center concert. "L" day. The concert was pretty sweet, particularly insomuch as I haven't really done any cultural things in the city since about summer. Meghan got free tickets to the otherwise moderately pricey event from her agency and invited me. The performance consisted of two hour-long choral works with orchestra and soloists and loosely thematic video clips... All in all an intriguing multimedia display. I discovered I had never before witnessed a full choral work--orchestra, band, sure, but extended choral compositions? That's a first. Thanks, Little Sisters of the Assumption in East Harlem!

Tuesday
Professional Development. SOOOOO nice to actually be friends with teachers now!! Not surprisingly, the sessions didn't so much pertain to me, but I love a good puzzle, so I always have fun coming up with connections to the music classroom. Expect more writing and reading comprehension activities to find their way into music lessons from here on out. That is, if you visit my classroom. (Takers??)

Wednesday
Supervisor visit (all good), crazy testing schedule switching, and probably my best lesson ever with my most difficult class. Some days I feel like I have this teaching thing down...

Thursday
...And sometimes not. No epic fails, just less engaging lessons than I anticipated. There's always next week.

Friday II
Another day subbing at PS 75. Sat in on a lesson from one of the position's candidates... Let's just say some people click better with middle school & high school and some with elementary in terms of style and content goals. We'll see how she pans out...

Aaaaand scene. Three weeks until another break (what?) and I'm feeling energized about my lesson arcs for that duration. And my developing social life in the city. And my cooking skills and products. Life is good. =)

KP

A New Chapter

2010-01-14T19:12:00.002-05:00

As of approximately 8:40 pm on Tuesday, January 13, 2010, I am over American Idol.

I suppose it's been coming more or less for about 8 years... I've grown increasingly impatient with various aspects of the show--emphasis on appearance, lack of technical critique, predictable and often low-flying banter and punchlines, aggrandized sense of self-importance--but 10 minutes into the viewing and the joys of a knockout performance or a particularly witty Simonism just couldn't provide enough counterbalance any longer. I noticed headlines regarding an earthquake in Haiti on the neighboring screen (no, I have not increased my TV ownership from 0 to 2; I was watching whilst ellipticizing), and with a flip of the channel I was listening to coverage of a devastating natural disaster in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Probably one of the starker contrasts of programming one could imagine, right? The situation just shot squarely into perspective what an ill fit American Idol has become in my current, ever-evolving worldview. Natural living, service-oriented vocation, substance over style... Of course, I'll still tune in occasionally if there's nothing better to watch on a Tuesday exercise night; right now that's not a problem because of the witty, under-watched (like, Quick--WATCH THIS SHOW before it experiences an untimely demise ala Arrested Development), brilliantly written Better Off Ted. But I have no problem missing out. In the wise words of Meghan Smith, "Sometimes it's easier to let go of old skins we've already nearly shed with a little nudge." Or an earthquake. =P

Onto material a little less self-serious...

Things That Are Awesome (An Ongoing Series)

Elementary school assemblies
I find myself perpetually beaming with pride over my students, both in and outside of my classroom. Reading poems and short paragraphs--and RAPS--on Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't on the whole the most riveting piece of programming I'll ever see, but it's so fascinating to witness my students' performance in areas other than music. So. Proud.

Fruit that ripens after cut open
That was an oops on my part; I misjudged the readiness of the avocado. But 3 days in tupperware, slice off the browned flesh, and voila! Guacamole.

Meeting friendly neighbors

Mastering the art of cooking eggplant so it tastes like something

Garnering my first subbing job...
Filling in for another ETM teacher tomorrow. Actually, we'll find out if this is awesome or not. But I have high hopes.

Sally
More free dinners, more babysitting jobs. Love this woman.

Three day weekends followed by a professional development day
2-day teaching week!

March 27-30 in Waverly
Plan accordingly. =)

Responsibly assembled lists of organizations working to provide relief to all involved in the Haitian earthquake... Please consider offering your support!
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

Love & Hugs!
KP =)

One Up on New York

2010-01-09T19:04:00.002-05:00

I know I occasionally come down hard on the Midwest and especially the state of Iowa for all sorts of perceived deficiencies in the realms of culture, transportation, open-mindedness... But seriously, y'all are winter champions. In this winter of mid-20s and 30s defined by local newspapers as an "unusually frigid cold spell", I salute to the Iowans and often Illinoisans who brave weeks of frozen eyelashes and perpetually chapped lips and apocalyptic winds for what seems to be the entirety of January. And sometimes February. New Yorkers may have their museums and ethnically rich neighborhoods and superb (if not infallible) public transportation system... but they are wimps when it comes to cold weather. Kudos, Midwest. Kudos.

Back to school and getting back into the rhythm with surprising swiftness. I actually started writing next week's lesson plans at school this week--a new method I hope can become a semester trend... makes weekends a lot less stressful! I can't help but stand in awe at the contrast between my first week teaching in 2009 and that of 2010... I feel like a totally different teacher: confident in my lesson plans and discipline strategies; familiar with the names, personalities, and abilities of my students; friendly and talkative with teachers... I like not being the new kid. =)

Things I am looking forward to in the next few weeks and months despite the inevitable winter blahs:
-Developing my repertoire of delicious/healthy/vegetarian recipes
-Music lessons totally free of concert preparation
-American Idol. To be sure, my enthusiasm has waned significantly since college and the departure of Ms. Abdul, but you can bet I'll be on an elliptical for the season premiere!
-TWO week-long breaks before April, the second of which will include a visit to both my childhood AND collegiate homes... Yessss.
-Surreptitious giggles at the habits of literal fair-weather New Yorkers

Love, Hugs, and Mild Winters!
Kate =)

Oh Hey, Blog

2010-01-01T19:40:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year, kids! 2010... That's a weird one.
1) It seems like one of those years everyone has always referenced as "The Future"--like, "In 2010, we'll all be riding hover cars".
2) The last-two-number abbreviation is not multisyllabic.
3) We've gone back to saying years in terms of two-digit numbers. Twenty ten.
4) It's one year past 2009, a year beyond which I had no need to fathom for the duration of my school years.
So yeah, it's weird.

It was GREAT to be home, although it definitely feels more like "home" than home. My home is my apartment, and my old room is now a redecorated guest room (stepping into which was the weirdest moment of my LIFE, btw). I feel I've moved on, literally and figuratively, so while it's great to have a break and spend time with my family, I don't cling to it the way I did in college.

Other musings from the past week or so...

I missed walking everywhere. Seriously.

I drove a car for the first time in over 6 months--in snow, no less. Just like riding a bicycle. With four wheels and an engine.

You know you're a grownup when a vacuum and a blender are among the most exciting gifts of Christmas.

Old apartment building boilers are designed to literally roast tenants. At least that's what it feels like--even with both windows wide open. Jose, my super (read Super Jose), says the settings cannot be altered, so currently my at-home wardrobe consists of tank tops and shorts. If only I had bags of sand and an inflatable pool...

Christmas letters next year.

Roof=Best possible location to countdown a new year.

I'm partway vegetarian now... I've cut out purchasing meat from the grocery store and ordering it at restaurants (with the exception of sushi--sorry, eels). Delicious recipes welcome!

I should probably start preparing for that teaching thing that starts up again Monday... Or watch Pirates. Or both...

KP =)

Things That Are Awesome

2009-12-17T15:55:00.003-05:00

#1: Being DONE forever with my first concerts ever!!!!
They were pretty amazing. Dress rehearsals--crazy, crazy, crazy. But that's how it goes, right? Although next time, I would like to have a stage for my dress rehearsal; let's not double book it with a music dress rehearsal and H1N1 vaccinations next time, ok? Thanks. But seriously, I could not be prouder of my kids! They were so professional and definitely delivered all those invitations we wrote out because there were LOTS of parents at each concert (my principals were all surprised, that's a good thing!). And my teachers and supervisor all seemed impressed with the performances. Also a good thing!

Other things that are awesome, in no particular order:

Sing Off
A nationally televised acapella singing competition with Ben Folds as a judge? Neat. Don't spread this around, but I may or may not believe it to be a far more legitimate operation than a certain other seasonal, singing-based reality show... Mr. Lachey, however, is no Seacrest.

Listening Lessons with 4th Graders
They're really astute listeners--it's so interesting to hear them communicate what they hear in a piece of music. Also, when you are told that Usher is singing when it is, in fact, Clay Aiken, that's always a fun time.

Purchasing a week-long Metrocard instead of a month-long pass
Because a week from today, I WON'T NEED ONE!!! ...for 7 days. =)

Homemade pizza: Half-White, Half-Caprese edition
Delicious. Although, I must add that baking pizza and pumpkin muffins in the same sitting makes for some interesting flavors licked off of one's fingers...

The smell of pop-up Christmas tree vendor fences
Mmm, pine.

Celebrating the conclusion of concert week with apple strudel and Chardonnay
Self-explanatory.

=) Kate

End in sight!

2009-12-12T18:39:00.002-05:00

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... and it's a string of Christmas twinklers =)

I'm actually really getting into the holiday season this year... In college it seemed to get lost in finals and CWW (burning out on endless rehearsals and interdirector passive agression does not exactly put one in the holiday spirit), but now in full-on concert mode and all of New York decorated, I've been given the opportunity to embrace the season. The pinnacle may be tonight, when I decorate my apartment while watching Elf. Now if I only had the energy to make cookies...

The Week in Review

The catalyst for my newly discovered holiday cheer would have to have been the Christmas Spectacular Day on the Town in which Meghan and I partook Saturday. Though the Radio City show was as cheesy as I'd imagined, it did have some nifty special effects and nostalgic musical offerings of the Christmas variety. After the (9am) show, we hustled ourselves around the city for the rest of the day--in the rain. I think for about 10 minutes it was snow... that's kind of festive, right? Anyway, we walked our way through many a holiday market and bookstore and surprisingly made a number of satisfying gift purchases. Best part: entertainment and food ALL paid for by my lovely grandparents. Good times =)

It's cold here. Winter accessories cold--but I do love winter accessories! Regardless of the temperature and wind though, it has yet to compare to Midwest winter. Every time I feel my thighs start to numb, I think, "How much colder would it have to be for my eyelashes and/or boogers to freezy?" The answer is always "Tens of degrees," so we're good.

I learned that the simple act of visiting a doctor cures most ailments. Well, that and getting a prescription for Z-pak (it's like my very own interactive Advent calendar!). But the ear thing DID solve itself. Thanks, ear. Also, thanks Duane Reade (think New Yorker Walgreens/CVS) for providing a walk-in doctor's office for those of us who don't have real roots. Yet.

I've consumed 2+ seasons of 30 Rock (for the second time, of course) in about as many weeks. I do have to say, the brilliant show is even better once you live in New York. So many geographically oriented inside jokes.

99 Cent Stores are a waste of time. I went to 3 today looking for stickers, construction paper, and non-religious wrapping paper (for my classroom door) with no results. Then I went to Target and got all of them for 99 Cent Store prices. Suburban-oriented amenities: 1. Urban-oriented amenities: 0.

Concerts this week! I do have an accompanist (that happened Monday--it's generally been a very good week!) and my kids seem excited and adequately prepared to perform. And that's the most I could ever ask for my very first concert endeavor.

The next door neighbors just began to belt Tiny Dancer. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night. =)

Kate

We'll call the glass half-full...

2009-12-04T14:44:00.006-05:00

Let's take a look at the week... Through BRIGHT rose-colored spectacles...

At least some songs on my concert will be accompanied... by children on bells and percussion...
Lost my accompanist on Tuesday due to some switching around of teachers at ETM. T-minus 10 days until the first dress rehearsal and I am totally without pianist. I have many inquiries out but no bites yet. Trying very hard to avoid panic...

The human body adapts well to a 50% reduction in aural capacity.
That's right, deaf in one ear. Sinus congestion? Wax? Infection? Hard to tell. But I can still hear things moderately well, so that's a plus...?

I could pretend that the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is attempting to be ironic and/or satirical in its zealous presentation of holiday consumerism and outdated gender stereotypes.
The grandparents have surprised me with tickets to the leggy, saccharine-filled production and I have no way out of it. A detailed review will be forthcoming with contributions from my colleague in viewing, Ms. Meghan Smith.

Feces on the floor... I'm going to chalk this one up as a teaching rite of passage.
Much thanks to Ms. Brewster's Kindergarten class (I'm looking at you, Priest) for facilitating my induction into this privileged circle of educators.

Ufda.

Program polishing and concert procedures today, much Christmas fun with Meghan tomorrow (after Radio City we're hitting up pretty much every outdoor holiday market in the city!), and errands on Sunday... Well wishes for my sanity--and an accompanist!--are greatly appreciated. =P

KP

Wah wah

2009-11-30T19:40:00.004-05:00

I don't seem to be in the mood for anything but sleeping right now... Not school work, cleaning, exercise, DINNER... So maybe a blog will help get the mopies out of my system?

School Update:
Good news bears--I'm back in my classroom!
Bored news bears--I've gotta come up with new ways to present the concert songs or I am going to drive the kids and myself insane... All over in 17 days!

Thanksgiving:
GREAT day! Meghan came over here in the morning to cook, and then she and I brought our respective dishes (green bean casserole, apple pie) to Sally's for an all-around delicious meal. And evening for that matter. Thanksgiving from now on will not be complete without an all-guest instrument jam led by a baby. Good food, good friends, good wine, good self-made music... And to top it off, we ran into none other than Dr. Paul Torkelson as we entered the subway station on our way home. Impressive.

Since then...
Not really anything to report. Definitely feeling the end of the year slump/exhaustion/lack of motivation kicking in. I'm more tired, the weather is generally dull, concert preparation is sometimes like waiting for water to boil (and sometimes not--the preschool teachers have actually been practicing the songs with their kids and they knew soooo many more words than I expected of them today!!), and I'm basically ready to be home, even if it is for a whirlwind 7 days. During which I kind of have to plan 5 more months of music curriculum... Oh well, February break is right around the corner, right?

I suppose I should feed myself something. They say eating is good for you. Any suggestions on kicking myself back into gear are much appreciated =)

KP

Penguin slippers, Pie, and Police Investigations

2009-11-24T21:34:00.004-05:00

Got your attention! But first, DC...

What a WONDERFUL and overdue weekend away from the city--my first since June!! I think my commuting or European choir tours or something has made me immune to bus bore; The 4.5 hour rides there and back didn't feel like any labor, especially with a ton of Hulu courtesy of free wifi (Megabus has it now too!) on the way there.

Friday and Saturday were full of adventure and activity... And LOTS of walking! We estimate 10 miles on Saturday. That's including a 3-mile walk for the DC Metro Area homeless, but still. 7 is a pretty good amount of trekking as well. Lots of great restaurants and enough site-seeing (They emptied the reflection pond! We walked in it!) filled Friday night and Saturday during the day. Then we (Meghan, Fraz, Cheeks, and I) had some good ol' Gato and mostly passed out from exhaustion and wine sleepies for the rest of the visit. Meghan somehow mustered up the energy to stay out 'til the wee hours of the morning though... Power to ya.

So the weekend was the perfect balance of fun and relaxation. Epic success.

Still plodding along with concert prep. Generally it's going well, despite occasional snags such as not having access to my classroom for an entire day of classes due to an overnight break-in at the school. I was informed by the police that my classroom was a crime scene and I couldn't touch anything, take anything from it, or teach in it all day. Nothing was stolen from my room (still have yet to hear the school-wide report), but it's suspected my 3rd floor, construction-obstructed window was compromised to provide an entry point into the school. That's effort right there. So I traveled the school as a musical hobo, complete with winter coat, cumbersome bag, and useless lesson plans. Got stuff done though, could have been worse. Seriously, I'm not sure if the appropriate response to the whole situation is anxious paranoia or naive amusement. For the sake of my psychological well-being, I'm going to go with amusement...

But now I'm in penguin slippers listening to Christmas music (screw you, day after Thanksgiving), having recently put into the oven my very first solo attempt at the famed Grandma Pie for Thursday. Meghan and I are going over to Sally's for dining and hopefully some wining as well... Though she's lived here with her fellow New Zealander husband for 6 years, they've never celebrated Thanksgiving. She's starting this year out of curiosity and has a lot of cute questions, among them, "So, what day do you folks do the eating?" Basically, way pumped.

To take a page from the Thanksgiving assemblies at my school this week, I will conclude with a list of that which I am thankful for this T-giving:
-Restful and joy-filled weekends with college friends
-A cultural background involving Christmas to appreciate the season of widespread holiday-themed decorations and grocery store music
-Generous, established friends with the ability to host a full-out Thanksgving meal
-The ignorance of burglars in the area of Orff instrument market value
-Penguin slippers after a day of hiking up and down stairs and across town in some of the less comfortable heels I own
-Grandma Pie.
-Conversation of all kinds
-A lovely family
-The promise of being with said lovely family in LESS THAN A MONTH!
-You. Cliche? Whatevs, it's true.

=) K

Things I've learned this week

2009-11-18T16:25:00.002-05:00

Gym membership makes for some amusing anecdotes.
1) I saw a guy walk backwards on a treadmill. Like, I was in the row behind him and he was facing me. That's a first.
2) Bones is always on TNT. There is never any other show on that network. All hours of evening, weekends, Friday mornings... Always.
3) The CW has some negligent and/or genius editors. When the actors-on-greenscreen juxtapose with the title of its newest Twilight-inspired series in such a way that the viewer reads "VAMPIRE DIAPIES"... No wait, that actually sounds like an intriguing show. Much moreso than "Vampire Diaries". Touche, CW, touche.

I should be an opera singer.
On hoarse voice, singing a song entitled "No School Tomorrow (If It Snows)". Please see Stephanie for a reference letter.

Never, ever, ever lay down on any surface at 7pm.
Ever.

Dominican establishments make good Dominican food. That's it.
Pudin de Pan dessert = Success
Egg rolls = Fail

The makers of Sudafed deserve awards upon awards.
Seriously.

There is something in the water at PS 43.
ALL of my classes were on best of best behavior today. Even the self-contained BD class. Whatever has gone wrong, I hope it continues.

NYC's giant Christmas tree is in Rockefeller Center in Times Square in Brooklyn.
One out of three isn't bad... at least they knew the city.

In DC this weekend to visit Fraz and (surprise!) Cheeks with Meghan--way excited!

=) KP

Sometimes life doesn't lend itself to organized paragraphs

2009-11-12T22:35:00.003-05:00

My fifth graders learned a modified kick line today. Awesome.

The Office is back to its old self again! Congrats, PLEASE keep up the good work! 30 Rock, you also performed well tonight. Good work. (Also, am I the only one rooting for Jack and Liz as more than business partners...??)

Older kids learn music faster than expected. Younger kids not so much.

The bakery around the corner is the best and most dangerous neighborhood resource. I got something called Pudin de Pan today. It involved raisins and dense cake and sweet goo and I don't know what it's really supposed to be but it was a dollar and it made me full. Also, empanadas.

If I saw a purple and yellow sign in a foreign language covering up the display panel of an exercise machine, I probably wouldn't use that machine. Lady, it's ok that you don't speak English, but perhaps the reason your machine won't light up is 1) because it's out of order, and 2) because there's a large purple and yellow sign with some kind of message on it covering up the display so people know not to use it. Maybe.

Conferences were this week... Only had to stay for the ones during the normal school day but apparently a lot of teachers were surprised with the turnout--really promising news for our population!!

Steven Tyler has left Aerosmith. What.

Lesson plans are so much easier and quicker to plan--and more smoothly executed--when song-centered. Good to know, even after concert season. With my extra weekend time, I have decided to engage in much-needed creative activities. Drawing. Composing. Jamming. Blogging? =)

Love me some PJ's Wine store. Apparently one of the top ten wine warehouses in the nation, and I can walk there in about 8 minutes. Ask me about Gato Negro sometime... Best. Value. Ever.

I like babies. Other people's babies. And money earned from hanging out with other people's babies. But mostly the babies.

Sesame Street. So many fond memories, so many classic video clips resurfacing for the show's 40th anniversary. Love it.

Probs forgetting other things worthy of mention... Meh.

=) Kate

Is it December 23 yet?

2009-11-06T12:14:00.004-05:00

Let's break this week down...

Friday: Sick. So sick.

Saturday: Sick, but not as sick as Friday. Lesson plans done. Didn't leave the apartment.

Sunday: Sick, but on the upswing. Bulletin board decorations done... enough... Free wine and meal with the Catholics, got a music teacher's business card. And a reminder that Sudafed and wine are probs not the best combination...

Monday: Sick (seeing a pattern?) but I almost forgot whilst plowing through the day. Kids still squirrely from Halloween candy.

Tuesday needs its own space.

Professional development day... which should have been ease breeze compared to a teaching day but definitely was one of the more stressful days I've had this year... The content of the PD (educators love acronyms) was not specifically relevant to me, of course, but the experience was perhaps the most relevant I could ask for at this point in the year. PS 43 is preparing for a Quality Review by the Dept of Ed, so we discussed all day the current state of the school, its students, and what we could for both. It's disheartening to hear stories of endless and varied attempts to get parents involved and then only one shows up to end-of-the-year conferences. I found myself frantically designing plans in my head to use my program to support the goals of the school. Latin-themed concerts? Music room open house? Student-written invitations to concerts? When I have a lot of ideas but no immediate way to test them out or even bring them to fruition, the stress and tension tend to build up. I need to remember that this is my VERY FIRST YEAR TEACHING and I can't expect myself--now or ever--to save the world or school. Since Tuesday I've been able to take a step back and focus on a few little initiatives I can start next semester... It'll be a process and inevitably an evolution, and I'm grateful to have had the PD to kickstart the journey.

On a more readily positive note, I was able to connect with teachers on a personal level, observe teacher-teacher and teacher-administrator dynamics, learn something about my school and its student population (HUGELY helpful!), listen to staff assess the school and curriculum against a number of standards... Though I stayed until sunset to finish my bulletin boards, having multiple teachers tell me it was pleasantly surprising to see me at the PD makes it all worth it. Basically I feel much more a part of the community now and much better equipped to center my instruction--in technique and content--around the needs of my students next semester.

Also on Tuesday, I learned that my grades were allegedly due on Monday. Like, the day before Tuesday. So that made for a long evening of computing and printing, especially after that sunset departure. But I got them done, and most teachers didn't even know music was supposed to be on the report cards. So they saw it as a bonus. Win-win. Win.

Oh right, and sick. But tea was provided throughout the day.

Wednesday: Less sick... Had a VERY successful teaching day accompanied by a super positive observation session by my mentor. Kids learn music fast. Great news bears. The Yankees won the World Series, an occurrence I came to discover upon waking up at midnight to a stream of cheers, car horns, lasers (no kidding), and that grating Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song out my window. I get it, Inwood, you like baseball.

Thursday: A little more sick... Not as successful of a teaching day when you have lost 95% use of your voice by the third class. Which happens to be a self-contained behavior disorder class with half of the 10 students experiencing very bad mood days resulting in multiple physical fights. Verbal ones too. They recently learned the vocabulary word "veto" and were taking advantage of it. Ah, the empowerment of education... Then I left my stress at school and spent the evening with Meghan eating Wendy's and watching shows live on something called a television, thus reliving the good ol' days... Except in the good ol' days, a chicken sandwich combo did NOT cost $7.17. Ripoff.

Friday: Sickish, mostly because I have no voice. Laying low, cleaning, lesson planning, concert prep (I just realized I gave my only Hanukkah song of the concert to the only grade in the school with a Jewish teacher. At least I think he's Jewish. Go, Wiki, go!), and babysitting for Sally--more appropriately, her daughter Isabella--later tonight. And grocery shopping. And obtaining a copy of Beauty and the Beast from Midtown. What am I doing writing this blog...

Love, Hugs, and Honey Lemon Tea!
Kate =)

Not dead, Mom

2009-10-30T15:26:00.003-04:00

Dear Mom:
I am sick. But I am not dead. I repeat, I am not dead. I bought me some Sudafed and more OJ and chicken soup. I am taking lots of naps. Not. Dead.

=)

(Mom's a little bit of a worrier, and understandably so with her two children off in the real world and away from her all-encompassing medical care. Love you, Mom)

So my first sickety-sick-sick day in New York. Not so bad when you have Friday off. I have been working(ish) for about an hour at a time before my head or back or nose tells me I need to lie down, resulting in intermittent hour-long naps throughout the day. Not the most productive 24 hours, I'll tell ya that.

The lady at the drugstore told me to feel better after buying Sudafed... First I thought "How sweet!" then "Wait, I could have been buying it for someone else or to stock up..." then "Oh yes, I am sporting the controlled bedhead, no makeup, slouchy sweatshirt look. Right." Even so, more proof that New Yorkers aren't as far off from Midwesterners as some would have you believe.

If I didn't have to prepare a winter concert, I wouldn't. This next week of lessons is aaaaall concert rep in hopes that the kids learn it really fast and I can sneak in some real content sometime before January... Here's hoping =)

So I decide to go TV-less the year that EVERYTHING on TV is fabulous! Hulu, you are welcome to postpone those fees as long as possible... Please watch Modern Family. It's awesome. Don't let it go the way of Arrested Development. You'll thank me about 2 minutes into your first episode.

Well this has become quite the scattered post. Probs the virus. Cheese and crackers (do I have any crackers left? Hm...) and then maybe a little more lesson planning before my late afternoon nap. If I can kick this before Monday it'll all be worth it...

Love, Hugs, & Sudafed!
Kate =)

Simple Joys

2009-10-25T19:27:00.005-04:00

I Love:

Central Park
Especially in autumn. But you already knew that.

Fresh vegetables
Green beans last week, peas this week... and not from a can!! Good snacks and sides and you feel healthy eating them.

Cute kids on the subway
Mom: What's our stop?
3 year old: 1748.
Mom: 125th.
3 year old: I was VERY close.

My teachers
From swapping stories with some other music teachers, apparently school teachers can be very catty. Not mine--yay!! I also randomly ran into about 6 of my teachers on my commute home... Incentive to pack up for the day a little quicker to get to the train station a few minutes earlier than usual! And I have serious suspicions of a secret teachers' lounge. We'll see.

Great conversations with friends
SO many this week! It's good to talk through joys and frustrations out loud sometimes. And I love love love hearing about your lives as well... There's a very tangible feeling sinking in that we're squarely in the realm of adulthood now. The conversations reflect it in content and depth and I LOVE it!!

Streamlined lesson planning
I'm starting a new system where I write next Monday's lesson plans the preceding Monday afternoon and so forth. The classes' progress is still fresh in my mind and I only would have to do 2 plans a night max. And NO WEEKEND PLANNING!!! Big bonus.

Sweet summer evenings, hot wine and bread...
I anticipate Rachel Vickers and Rachel Vickers alone appreciating this.

Some things I could learn to like more:

Saving money

Choosing winter concert repertoire

Cleaning
SUCH a different state of mind when the apartment's clean... And less of a chance of encountering these guys:

But I'll leave you with a more pleasant image...

=)
K

Sometimes you just need real boots.

2009-10-18T15:41:00.003-04:00

So I've bought 3 pairs of shoes this month. Roughly 3 pairs higher than average, but all of them necessary buys. Flats for school so my feet don't die and rain/winter boots so I don't die. No more shoes for a while.

And so I'm back to having no money. Pretty sure the shoes put me over my monthly budget, especially since my tax percentage mysteriously increased by 17% between my last two paychecks. I'm working on figuring out why this is; hopefully the answer involves some kind of error...

All free food today (after breakfast I suppose, but already having purchased the items makes it seem like it's free...). Bagel brunch at church this morning--I'm actually making friends!!--and dinner tonight at Sally's. Hopefully dinner conversation can include babysitting requests and winter concert ideas. I was going to go for a multicultural holiday concert but it's too difficult to find that kind of repertoire for littluns, so I'm back to the drawing board with only 2 months until the performances. Theme ideas that don't border on any religious tones anyone??

And last but certainly not least, Homecoming. Though Meghan and I could not be in Wavetown to celebrate with our fellow alumni, we did...
-Wear orange and black
-Dress Brittany in an orange Wartburg sweatshirt
-Stop in a thrift store in honor of Trinkies
-Consume orange-hued pumpkin beer
-Spend the afternoon/evening on Waverly Place
-Attend a street fair (aka Ren Faire) complete with crafts and international munchies
-Eat at the Waverly Restaurant, a local diner reminiscent of East Bremer
-Patronize a bar with discounted pitchers (including one on the house which we still can't figure out how we "earned") and orange Christmas lights

All in all a pretty successful evening, even if I was way too full from dinner to truly celebrate Oktoberfest-style... It's ok, Meghan and Brittany had enough pitchers to make up for my stubborn stomach.

When it's rainy and cold and I don't have money and thus can't really enjoy the city as much as the summer, I really miss home. Libertyville AND Waverly. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and I can't wait to be in Illinois in December and Iowa in June/July... Although those sound impossibly far away...

Love & Hugs,
K =)

A beautiful day to be in love... with New York =)

2009-10-12T18:08:00.005-04:00

Central Park. It's all about Central Park. No matter how many times I go there to sit or walk or run, it never fails to put me in a better mood. First jog in a month and a half and it was just lovely, despite brisk(er) air and barely any foliage change yet. It's fun to be here in autumn--my favorite season anyway--and see what the city is like "at rest"... No tourists, no major festivities... This afternoon the park was full of natives with their scarves and dogs and warm beverages. Ok, maybe there were some tourists on bikes who couldn't figure out that bikes ride in the lanes with the other bikes, not the lanes with the runners. Wheels, feet, what's the difference...

This weekend was one of the best "normal" weekends I've had in a long time. Productive every single day--a little bit more glueing and cutting tonight and I'll have finished everything I wanted to accomplish over the four days! Highlights include:

Creating a lot of fun printouts for lessons and bulletin boards. My printer may be out of ink now, but at least HP offers online orders free of shipping!

Reconnecting with the magical world of Elmo over babysitting.

Yet another wonderful sermon at All Souls... one of those with affirming sentence after affirming sentence.

A packed but successful Sunday afternoon of errands. I now have a whole bunch more school supplies... And two pairs of flats. That's right, FLATS. Target prices padded the shock a little (though not the heels).

Seeing a three year-old on the subway hitched up criss-cross applesauce in a seat with a look on his face that alternated between pensive and jaded. Then he fell asleep in his mom's lap.

Getting a bargain on a huge bag of what may be the best almonds I've ever had. It's as though they're infused with vanilla extract... Delicious.

Baking banana muffins for the custodians. They don't need to know I made 28 when I bring in 20. Or that I consumed 29 and 30 in batter volume.

Love, Hugs, and Banana Muffins!
Kate =)

PS: Much thanks for the multiple "Your classroom is so you!" comments. It wasn't what I was going for, but I suppose it makes sense as I'm the one who decorated the room... =)

My Classroom! ...After the link =)

2009-10-09T21:49:00.012-04:00

Ok so Facebook won the upload race:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031766&id=123700012&l=0c848e4783

(Sorry it won't let you click on it...)

I entered 458 student names into my computer today. A few things I realized and/or remembered:
*I have 458 students, not the previously projected 600. Still a lot.
*I have a Randy Jackson.
*I have a Jaylynn Hernandez and Jalynn Hernandez in the same class. They go by "1" and "2". Awesome.
*The letter Z will never again be that key that my pinky can never quite find the first time... Not after typing hundreds of last names of Hispanic origin.
*There are too many parents willing to have their children's first and last names rhyme.
*I can envision faces for a good percentage of names!!!

Sleep now.
Kate

Stray Thoughts

2009-10-09T12:49:00.003-04:00

An organized apartment facilitates a (slightly more) organized mind.

A refrigerator cannot be to blame for 3 out of 4 yogurts being spoiled 3 days after purchase. I'm lookin' at you, Fine Fare. Don't make me go to C-Town for dairy...

I always forget how much I love grapes.

I think I watch Modern Family in part to vicariously continue suburban living. Also, it's pretty hilarious.

I think I wear Wartburg sweatshirts and fleece jackets to vicariously continue college living, especially since everything about fall reminds me of Iowa.

I have no subway this weekend. Or the two after that. My station better look freakin' spectacular in November, Metropolitan Transit Authority.

No matter what add-ins I mix with macaroni and cheese, nothing beats plain.

I HAVE 18 KEYBOARDS IN MY CLASSROOM!!! =)

Our country is in bad shape when our President wins a Nobel Peace Prize (deserved yet?) and my first reaction is not joy but wincing anticipation of the backlash. Love love love... please??

Pam Halpert. Nuff said.

My boss awarded my school "Best October Bulletin Boards So Far", which is a little embarrassing considering I'm putting up my October bulletin boards next week...

Love, Hugs, and Classroom Pictures in the next post!!
K =)

Should I be this busy if I only work 4 days a week?

2009-10-04T20:40:00.002-04:00

No. Probably not. But oh well.

Another crazy week at school... successful lessons, successful observation even though my supervisor came during the nuttiest self-contained behavior disorder class... victory! Been going a little crazy trying to prepare individual (read: 600) pre-assessments for all my students for the entire year... How do you assess 600 students on 25 benchmarks in one week? Without making copies? Personal printer and ink. And scratch paper and pencil. A little stressed out because assessments will take up about 2/3 of each class period so my lesson content is basically extending last week's content and I like to have fresh activities and content every week... But next week will be better. And I'll have 4 days to prepare (thanks Columbus!). Along with new bulletin boards and entering assessment data and developing a concert program. Good thing Meghan's on a retreat!

I say that because all my city fun lately has been with Meghan and Brittany. I probs wouldn't go out at all these days if not for them, so I'm simultaneously grateful and money-anxious and a little generally anxious even though I shouldn't be. But now I might be babysitting more regularly (charter school fell through) and I think I get to keep a lot more of my paycheck after taxes than I had originally thought. I continue to survive off the lowest possible amount it takes to sustain NYC living. I won't know what to do with all the extra money if I ever get hired by the Dept of Ed!!

I do feel a little better now that I'm beginning to establish communities out here. As I've mentioned before, I'm slowly getting to know my teachers--although it's unlikely those relationships will transcend school walls. But more and more time spent with the UU Young Adults is certainly helping to develop relationships. Wednesday night Meghan, Brittany, and I went to a Food & Fellowship night with (free!) dinner and a lovely group discussion on faith ideologies and questions that arise from them. Today we went out with the sameish group for brunch, and although a little spendy, I did meet someone who went to school with my cousin. And that's awesome.

I think I need to exercise more regularly. But I don't have the time. But I am paying for a gym membership. Oh, life.

=) KP

Compartmentalizing the week

2009-09-28T17:35:00.004-04:00

Let's break it down into life categories this week...

School
LOVING it. First week of full, distinct grade lessons with pre-assessment and teaching objectives... That may not sound fun to you, but I'm enjoying getting to the core of what I'm here to do! The kids are about where I expected them to be, but it's nice to know for sure where they are and what skills need work. The first class of every grade unfortunately is tending to draw the short straw; I make fantastic changes after I see what went well/wrong in the first section =) We'll fix that.
Also, I might have a Friday job! There's a charter school that operates out of the same building as my public school and they don't have a music teacher this year... but the principal approached me about working Fridays for her students!! The school is only K-2 so far so I'd probably be able to squeeze them all into a day. And I could double on lessons. And instruments. And classroom. Waiting for ETM's approval, but even if they can't take on another partner school I may still be able to work for the charter if they have enough flex budget... we'll see!!

Home
Taking care of an apartment is tiresome work. Today (no school--thanks Judaism!) I cleaned and swept and did (am doing--just got one load in) laundry all day in addition to finishing up lesson plans. And I still want to exercise tonight... we'll see if that happens based on when another washer frees up for load #2... Additionally, I've had pleasant, VERBAL exchanges with several neighbors today. Who says you never meet your neighbors in New York? =)

Fun
Meghan had quite the birthday weekend!! We went out 3 nights in a row with varying degrees of partying intensity. Add one more sunrise evening to the list =) In other news I will not be spending any more money on fun until at least November.

Commute (might as well get its own category--at least 10 hours/week!)
I love crosswords now. Also, just finished "The Handmaid's Tale"--EXCELLENT read!! One of those "Oh man I really want to finish this, but wait--that means there's no more book to read! Must put down... Must read..." books. Highly recommended.

Love & Hugs,
Kate =)

Cookies, Take Two

2009-09-22T17:58:00.003-04:00

Success.

Apparently it is not enough to simply offer cookies. They must be left out on a plate in the main office for a full day. Cookies gone. I even got a "That was you who brought those? Just for that I'm bringing you that ladder first thing tomorrow morning" from the custodian. Now, if you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know as well as I do that there may or may not actually be a ladder in my room any time tomorrow. But at least they've been bribed.

Also, I feel a greater sense of familiarity with the teachers now... the lack of a teacher's lounge for mingling certainly doesn't help with getting to know people, but at least they come to class with their kids so they get to know me a little. I say hi to them in the halls now, and I think I have most of their names down.

Also, the KIDS!! Since I arrive and leave school roughly when they do and am frequently in the halls tracking down late classes (and ones that, for lack of a sub, don't exist for the day because their students have been split up into other classes--insane!), I get a lot of face time with kids outside of class. They all call out my name and wave and hug when they can... not altogether astonishing (FYI elementary kids like attention), but encouraging nonetheless. =)

Also, I'm addicted to almonds as an afterschool snack. Craving food high in natural fats means...?

Also, I've been using "Also" a lot lately. Oh Dwight...

Love, Hugs, and Funfetti Cookies!
KP =)

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills...

2009-09-18T17:07:00.002-04:00

Though I spent 6 (unpaid) hours at school today, I accomplished very little. Why? Because it seems everything and anything related to the New York City Department of Education and its school system comes up a day late and a dollar short.

Exhibit A: Teaching License
Arrives! In September. 3 months after it's of any use for this school year...

Exhibit B: Class Schedule
It's made! Less than 12 hours before school starts. And it's got a lot of conflicts...

Exhibit C: Custodial Help
They finally filled my request! 4 hours after I made it. And not accurately enough to complete this project... Examples include finally unlocking a closet filled with musical instruments but failing to have time to help move any of said instruments (keyboards are a two-person job), finally arriving to slice off a lock to another closet only to interrupt a class period, finally delivering a ladder that is 3 feet shorter than I need to hang up posters. And seriously, none of these half-results occurred within 4 hours of the initial request. None.

So we'll see what gets done this year. The good news is I have all my instruments but keyboards, I have a good amount of posters up (although none higher than 6 feet), and everyone is friendly enough. Although no one ate any of the two dozen cookies I made for and offered to them today. Who are these people, and how am I going to eat 2 dozen funfetti cookies?? (If you book a flight now, you are welcome to share them with me =)

Also, I woke up late yesterday morning due to a faulty alarm clock battery--7:00 is the time I leave, not the time I frantically brush my teeth and assemble my belongings--and broke a flip-flop today. Good thing I can get ready in 8 minutes (new record!) and that Old Navy's on my route home. And that they had one--ONE--pair of flip-flops in my size. That happened to be the color of the ones I broke (white, FYI). Also, free bagel lunch today and wonderful Office premiere yesterday. I remain glass three-quarters full. I have to.

=) Kate

That was easy!

2009-09-14T16:33:00.002-04:00

Not.

But it could have been a lot harder!

First day of school ever done forever. Still winding down from the day but overall pleased with the way things went. It took a few periods to fully reconnect with teacher instincts and rhythm but by the end of the day I had things down. I have a very busy schedule--but let's not ignore the accomplishment of possessing a schedule itself. That I received last night. And then another one this morning that strategically avoided 9:00 lunch breaks. Great news bears.

Things I learned today:
*Curly hair means pretty teacher.
*Pre-Kindergarteners have no idea how to sing? (We'll fix that.)
*All classroom teachers are equal, but some classroom teachers are better at classroom management than others. HUGE effect on my classroom management.
*It's not easy to put a kid in time out on Day 1. But you gotta do whatcha gotta do.
*Commuting up and down 4 flights of stairs all day wears out feet. Also, dehydration. (Office is back this week! =)
*Must snap out of teacher mode on public transportation. I almost broke up a pre-teen near-fist fight on a bus but then thought better. And then moved.

Still no instruments, still no ETM-provided posters. Working on it.

Love, Hugs, and TEACHING MUSIC!!
=) K

Addendum

2009-09-11T23:31:00.003-04:00

So in reviewing last night's post I discovered I took on a much angrier tone than I intended in discussing music teacher qualifications and DOE expectations... Apparently the stress of not having one's classroom together plus long days and commutes plus an increasingly noisy upstairs neighbor puts on a bit of an edge... Apologies all around.

Mostly the situation of the musically deficient music teacher is more sad--sobering--than anything else. It's frustrating that the system would allow music teachers with little to no proficiencies into music classrooms with young, inexperienced, impressionable children eager to absorb whatever the music teacher sets forth as information and demonstration. It's sad that no one has told this woman that she probably shouldn't be a music teacher. I'm reminded of the plights of poor John Stevens or Sanjaya Malakar--it's not their fault that a panel of judges and a dumb voting public enabled their lackluster selves into the upper parts of the final 12... Their first, last, and only decision in the whole process was auditioning.

Omg this neighbor... I don't understand why anyone needs to watch what sounds to be news this frickin loud... Earplugs and moving my pillow haven't worked; trying fan as white noise tonight although it's rather cold. I'm giving this chump until Tuesday, then it's going down.

=) Kate

Trivia and a rant. And a sunrise.

2009-09-10T22:04:00.005-04:00

Facts you may or may not have known about New York City:

*People use the word "piggyback" frequently in conversation. As in, "To piggyback on that idea..." etc. I've heard it at least 2 dozen times in the past month, 4 times in the past 2 days.

*People use the term "bad news bears" frequently in conversation. Great news bears.

*9pm is domino hour on the streets of Inwood. Like, middle-aged men play dominoes on folding tables they set up on street corners.

*Ceilings and floors are paper thin. My upstairs neighbor watches the news, listens to heavy-bass hip-hop music, and may or may not play video games with machine gun sounds. Interesting fellow. I just wish he weren't so interesting at 1 in the morning...

*It's possible to lug around a guitar and a bag full of poster board through public transportation and not totally smoke everyone who comes in one's path. That may say more about my commuting skills than New York City.

*The Department of Education doesn't screen their music teachers for musical proficiency. Allow me to elaborate.

Our training days include a number of DOE (Dept of Ed) music teachers that are either co-teaching with ETM hires at our partner schools (schools with at least one ETM teaching artist) or working at schools formerly supported by ETM (who no longer need an ETM teaching artist because they finally got the DOE to give them a music teacher). Anyway. Many of these DOE teachers are just as competent as the rest of us--not to toot any horns but ETM is proud to be fairly selective in their hiring, and why wouldn't a music education organization?--but some... well... one...

Today I sat next to a DOE teacher who has been teaching PreK-1 at partner school new this year to ETM. They've hired a fabulous teacher for 2-5, but I will say that she definitely has her work cut out for her... The DOE teacher cannot match pitch (read: if tone deafness exists she's got it), cannot conduct a 4-beat pattern even with one-on-one instruction from four different people, cannot handle a guitar to save her life (guitars are hard to figure out at first... but not as hard as she makes it). Of course her incompetency reflects poorly on her own training (if she even has any credentials), but it seems that ultimately it reflects most poorly on the NYC DOE. How did this woman get hired??? Not every music teacher is going to be exceptionally proficient at every musical skill, but without the ability to sing, play a simple instrument, or display any semblance of coordination, she's going to have a tough time providing anything useful for her students. Littluns especially need superb modeling to assist in developing the foundation for the rest of their music education...

It's easy to second guess the situation and fall back on warm fuzzy excuses like "Well she must really be passionate about music" or "She must really connect well with the students". In reality, however, it IS important that a music teacher be a good if not great musician. Teachers who teach reading know how to read. Teachers who teach math know how to perform arithematic. Ridic.

But I digress... back to the illumination of little-known NYC.

*Sometimes waking up at 5:45am for an hour plus commute isn't so bad...

=)
KP

Work in Progress... minus the progress...

2009-09-08T22:08:00.003-04:00

Take that Wednesday, Tuesday won this blog war.

Today was my first official day as a teacher. No kids until Monday, but I got to sit through professional development that didn't apply to me (never will) and get down to the hardcore setup of my classroom. Kind of.

As mentioned previously, my room acted as storage for basically the whole school this summer. Extra furniture is allegedly being "taken care of" by the time Monday rolls around. "Ok, so if your room was storage, then clearly you at least have everything you need in the classroom," you might respond. False. No, friends, instruments are stored in a closet no one will access until later this week and music-themed decorations are in a closet (in my very room even) with a lock no one will slice open until later this week. Oh, and have I mentioned I'm not there later this week? That this was my one and only day to set up? I'm already anticipating a lump of instruments and a cascade of closet materials cluttering my room upon my arrival Monday. Welcome to music, kids...

In other news I do like being part of a school community, even if I'm not really an employee and everyone's too busy to tell me what the hell is going on. Although I did receive a school tour--unexpected and definitely helpful!! I <3 my assistant principal, way nice.

So I spent 9 working hours at school today, will get paid for 6, didn't take a lunch break until 3, and still have to get down to the main office some time to press out more die-cut letters for bulletin boards I didn't even know were mine until today. By about October, I expect my classroom and instructional organization to rock. But let's not expect anything grand until then.

Then I exercised (I was on a roll!), skyped with my Malaysian friend Ellen (so she's not actually Malaysian...), conference called Meghan into the action, and now am feeling suddenly exhausted. Every time I feel that way I remember the time my junior high French teacher explained to us that there are some words in French for which there is no English cognate. Her example: there is no single English word to indicate sudden exhaustion. Alors, je suis fatiguée.

=P
K

Not being able to think of a good title probs spells trouble for the post...

2009-09-06T18:12:00.003-04:00

Apparently blog inspiration only hits on Wednesdays and Sundays... or maybe those are the days that most frequently entertain boredom...

Meghan is here! We spent the last few days indulging in free and cheap NYC--success! Proudest accomplishment: receiving the equivalent of 2 beers and a personal pizza all for $6. PS: I kind of like beer now.

We visited my classroom Thursday... The room is huge, and clearly this fact has not escaped school administrators/custodians who have thusly used the space as a catch-all storage center for the summer. I have twice as many chairs, tables, chalkboards, and filing cabinets as I need, along with 4 computers (out of 4) that don't work. For whatever reason, the powers that be elected that the MUSIC supplies--a keyboard lab of 20 units and various other large and small classroom instruments--be stored in a closet down the hall behind piles and piles of general classroom teacher materials that won't be distributed until Tuesday. In general, I have my work cut out for me.

Tuesday will be spent in orientation and professional development meetings in the morning and classroom assembly in the afternoon. Between having to switch all my extra furniture for things that actually belong in a music classroom, decorating the walls with supplies to which I may or may not have access ("We'll either find you the key to that closet or slice off the lock..."), and putting up bulletin boards, it'll be a full afternoon. The first week of lessons may involve a lot of imaginative visualization of a nice-looking classroom...

I am a New York State Certified Teacher. Several months late and several dollars short, but good news for next year.

Continuing to carve out potential community... Meghan and I attended a young adult brunch after UU service today and met a lot of really nice people! Some slightly more awkward than others, but overall a nice bunch. =)

Hungry!
Kate

Blurbs beat paragraphs

2009-09-02T11:53:00.002-04:00

For some reason whenever I start typing in this box my brain tells me, "Look at all this space! You need to fill it with lots of words!" and I wax longwinded. Blurbs are more fun. So I present to you, in no particular order, a collection of status updates stored in my head over the last week but never published--until now!! =)

Kate Phillips...

didn't know broccoli could go so rotten so quickly.

singlehandedly fixed the leak in her fridge. Until the next time she changes the cold setting.

is fairly certain she does not have bedbugs but rather gnats. ...Hooray?...

walked from 91st St & 5th Ave to her apartment (Thayer & Broadway) in her least comfortable flip-flops simply because it was nice outside. Look it up, you'll understand why she currently is sporting blisters and achy quads.

went all New York on her upstairs neighbor with a pension for watching loud TV late at night by knocking on his door and requesting the volume be turned down at 1am. Then she went all Midwest and wrote a thank you note.

is super pumped for MEGHAN to come this afternoon!!

gets to visit her school tomorrow and hopefully rope MEGHAN into being her roadie/assistant mule...

loves Central Park under a cloudless blue sky. Or any sky, really. But particularly those without clouds.

smells Wartburg in fall weather. And misses it a little.

loves you all--come visit soon! Or at least call =)

<3 KP

Goodnight, sleep tight...

2009-08-30T17:30:00.003-04:00

I really like this moderate summer thing... Turns out when it's not 97 degrees or rainy, the outdoors can be quite nice this time of year! Today's events included reading in Central Park, an hour-long walk through Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters (5 minutes from my apartment!), and journal writing on my balcony (read: fire escape). Beautiful skies and sun and breezes... I could use a few more weeks of nothing to do but enjoy days like these!

And indeed, enjoying days like these means I'm finally over the initial relocation stress. I'm sure there will be recurring bouts, like when I go to pay rent and things like that, but for now I'm settled and at peace and enjoying New York again. A good mental space to be in considering I may or may not have a leaking fridge (it's been good for the past 24 hours; I may have fixed it...), a cockroach or two (no big thing, it's New York), and... bedbugs.

I really hope I don't have bedbugs. I really hope my itchy, eaten-up legs are from the outdoors (doubtful as I've not had much contact with it lately because of aforementioned weather issues) or an unexpected reaction to my regular bath products or a newly acquired allergy to my own sweat or anything that doesn't require an exterminator. I really hope I don't have bedbugs.

My "last week of freedom" is looking to be a very busy one... breakfast with Sally tomorrow (PS she is the best possible friend one could have in this city--day visits, evenings of food and drink and game, fun restaurant recs, psychological support from a fellow transplant), dinner with Tork Tuesday, Meghan comes Wednesday (!!!), and sometime this week I would like to get into my school to meet my principal and unload Round 1 of materials... Still haven't decided on the most efficient way to get a tub full of instruments and a too-heavy box of books to the Bronx...

Love, hugs, and bedbugless thoughts!
Kate =)

Tidbits

2009-08-26T17:17:00.002-04:00

I have a NY state driver's license! Not that I'll ever need it to operate a vehicle in this state...

How do I know if I have a spider bite and what actions can I take to remedy it?

Headlines on a Memorial Wall for Michael Jackson in Harlem:
We are the World!
We love you Michael!
RIP MJ
Buy Tshirts!!

My brother is now a college student. What?

Best possible email communication to receive from Dr. Paul Torkelson:
Ok. Maybe Moroccan. I'll see. Dr. T

Russell Brand may or may not be my new celebrity crush... Unconventionally styled and wildly inappropriate? Perhaps. Frickin' brilliant? Absolutely.

I live next door to the largest dog I've ever seen. Like, so-large-he-might-as-well-be-the-sole-tenant large. Fantastic.

I <3 music educators and music education!

=) Kate

I get paid for this??

2009-08-22T14:34:00.002-04:00

Training. Is. Awesome.

5 days of basically the best "in service" workshops a music teacher could ever ask for. Mock lessons, group discussions, TONS of resources (so far a songbook, dozens of ready-made lesson plans, a lesson planning book specifically designed for general music schedules...), and finally a community of my own!! This and next week's training is for new hires only, meaning we're all new to ETM and teaching and surprisingly most of us are recent transplants as well! That part is especially great because it's like college all over again... we're all super eager to make new friends because we don't have any!

I love love LOVE this organization, they are so supportive and knowledgeable and friendly... definitely makes up for the fact I'm making about 2/3 of a Dept of Ed salary... still looking for that Friday job... But we do in fact get paid for training, despite the fact we all feel we somehow should be paying for all these great resources and opportunities. I guess that's the teaching part.

It's fiiiiiinally cooled down a little, thanks to recent thunderstorms. It's just been so unimaginably hot, and with no AC it's stressful sometimes. Or all the time. But in time I will appreciate the utilities savings I suppose. Fans and no screens on the windows and refrigerated water and tank tops have been rather helpful, many thanks.

Good news bears: Spinach and feta combined make for some delicious meals.

Great news bears: I found a penny in the bottom of my grocery bag today.

Love & Hugs!
Kate

Fall, please

2009-08-18T19:21:00.002-04:00

My toes are angry. They're sweaty and itchy and sprained (ok, just one) and flaky all at the same time.

I'm boiling pasta in the kitchen. Too hot, so I open the window to cool things down. There is no difference between the temperature of my stuffy kitchen with a boiling pot of water and outside air.

My face is shiny all the time.

I greatly enjoyed my hour and a half at the DMV this afternoon due to its air conditioning. Subways are good for that too. My apartment is not.

77 on Monday, 77 on Monday, 77 on Monday...

=P
Kate

Back in the vibe

2009-08-16T14:14:00.003-04:00

I've kept entries surprisingly short up to this point... so please forgive me for indulging in another one of my famous essays...

I'm sure it's a combination of job stress, housing stress, and previous exposure, but this summer in general has not been as wildly fantastical as my last in NYC. Wide-eyed discovery, of course, is a one-time thing. As beautiful as Central Park still looks to me, I can't recreate individual moments of wonder like running around the reservoir for the first time (!) or stumbling upon a series of waterfalls on the north end of the park (!!). I've been too busy getting my life in order out here to truly enjoy the city or the summer. Plus it's been either rainy or icky hot for the majority of this summer...

But ah, what a difference a Sunday makes! Back to UU for the first time in a couple weeks and met--names, conversation, and all!--several really nice people... the beginnings of a church community?? As much as I doubt the absolute necessity of a "worship service" of any kind, I will say that I just feel good every time I leave that building.

As per my Sunday routine of last summer, after UU I strolled through Central Park since it's finally sunny and wasn't too hot at 12 (currently it's 89--chance of cactus weather). For the first time this year the park felt fresh and buoyant with spontaneity and life. I felt as though I had stepped into a Charles Ives piece (holla music majors!), meandering through overlapping aural tableaus (tableaux?) rich in diversity... A double bass soloist, dueling acoustic guitars, a self-described cello rock band, a jazz combo riffing scats on swing music, a saxophone-powered funk band, that hip-hop "Every Breath You Take" cover on radio, rhythmically bouncing volleyballs and basketballs, carousel themes, a violin sonata, the clip-clop of horse hooves, children's laughter... what beautiful reminders that I live in such a beautiful city--in all senses.

In other news, my apartment is aaaaaalmost unpacked. Maybe this spiritual lift will propel me to finish the whole thing this afternoon! Hm...

Gotta go!!
Kate =)

Mommy wow!

2009-08-12T14:26:00.002-04:00

Things I can add to my life skills resume:

*Signing a lease
*Opening utilities and Internet accounts
*Building IKEA furniture
*Calling a super for apartment-related issues
*Setting up a stereo system
*Setting up a printer
*Breaking a fan
*Fixing a fan (same fan)
*Playing phone pong between various departments of a single Internet provider
*Installing and accessing secure wireless (harder than it sounds)
*Accessing tech chat support for a wonky touchpad that may or may not have been exposed to hot tea
*Peaceing ("blowing off" for the unitiated) HP tech chat support by accidentally signing offline
*Harnessing the power of karma/magic/serendipity to fix said touchpad (until the next time it goes on the fritz...)

"Unpacking an entire life into a studio apartment" is still a distant goal... Whenever accomplished, pictures will follow!

Teaching assignment: PS 43 in the Bronx! 4 days/week, K-5 general music. Awesome!! The hunt for a Friday and/or weekend job is still on...

I may or may not meet John Stamos tomorrow. Wish me luck. In the meantime I will continue my Full House marathon. Goes great with unpacking FYI.

=) Kate

Stressed until October... but it's ok.

2009-08-08T20:21:00.002-04:00

First of all, I LOVE my family. They drove all the way out here with a U-Haul trailer hitched to the back of the van with all my stuff and IKEA furniture. They moved all of that stuff up four floors (with the assistance of an elevator, but still) and built furniture and cleaned surfaces and organized cupboards... I still have quite a bit to unpack and organize, of course, but seriously--this would have been downright unmanageable without their help. My family is awesome.

Second of all, I am moved! My address:

75 Thayer St, Apt 4F
New York, NY 10040

Nice studio with separate kitchen, elevator building, laundry in building, really helpful (if not totally English-speaking) super, lots of closet space, easy access to basic needs. It's totally sufficient. Which is going to be the operative term of the year. Totally sufficient. Because I'm not making enough to have any sort of luxuries--a lifestyle which theoretically I embrace but in reality becomes surprisingly scary. I've had everything provided for me for my entire life; I've led a conspicuously blessed life and for all my recognition of and ideological distaste for privilege, it is ultimately nice to have it. So I'm trying to frame the next year as a giant, totally immersive learning experience. I'll have a better understanding of the lives of those I'm interested in teaching. Kind of. So from that perspective I'm excited. But I still would like to eat out every once in a while...

Side annoyance: Do I really have to pay for Internet if I can steal wireless from my apartment? Psh security...

But really I still love this city. Though suburban New Jersey makes me homesick and I'm getting a little tired of public transportation, I know starting school will rejuvenate my energies. And finding a second job would be nice. So while I will make every effort to be pleasant toward you in all phone, electronic, and written correspondance, just know that I'm going to be a little off until around Halloween. Sorry in advance =)

Love & Hugs & Consciously plastered smiles,
Kate =)

I have two fingers. I have... four fingers.

2009-08-04T15:48:00.004-04:00

Oops, wrong quote. More appropriately:

Is this real life??

A few money orders, a guarantor letter, and a signature or two from today, I will be the leaser of a New York City apartment. Then I move in my life (which now includes a number of wonderfully cheap and efficient IKEA products) on Thursday. And start a job in 2 weeks. Hopefully multiple jobs. Right now I'm on track for working a 40-hour week but only getting paid for 25 hours. Iowa teaching salary on a New York budget. Here's to depleting my savings in the next 12 months...

Before Thursday, I still have a bit to do, including a full cleaning of my sublet, laundry, and some last minute purchases (granny cart here I come!). But great news bears--I finished the collage!! Here's a better-quality image (I hope) than Facebook would allow:

Ok, so not even as good as Facebook. Truly, it's more impressive in person, guess you'll just have to come see it! =)

Also, below is a link to Education Through Music's website for those interested in learning about the organization of my employment (again, ideally this is one of multiple employers...)
http://www.etmonline.org/
"Work With Us" will take you to my job description more or less

In conclusion, I am reposting my facebook status simply because I think it's hilarious. I'm not hilarious, just the situation.

Kate Phillips knows it's a good day when the Weatherbug icon for NYC roughly translates to "sunny with a chance of cactus"
http://weather.weatherbug.com/NY/New%20York-weather.html?zcode=z6286&zip=10040

=) KP

Is this heaven?

2009-08-02T13:58:00.002-04:00

No, it's IKEA.
(Apologies to my Iowans)

Oh man stepping into IKEA is akin to teleporting back to Europe. Starting with the food court. Cafeteria-style, just like those German foodstops, complete with wraps, sandwiches, Swedish meatballs (next time), and delicious almond cake! Big wrap and cake for $5. Sweet.

The way the store is run and organized is so epitomal of the European emphasis on personal responsibility for the good of all--something the US could certainly adopt more widely in businesses and other aspects of the public sector... Signs politely instruct diners to clean up their own tables--and then EXPLAIN that this practice allows for reduced prices and more efficient service to the consumer. I think in general people would be willing to adopt measures of personal responsibility despite the perceived "inconvenience" if provided logical and concise justification. But maybe that's just because I believe in the innate goodwill of humanity so very much... =)

The rest of the store is equally efficient, although if you step off the arrowed path to more closely inspect an item, good luck getting back on it. Way impressed with my first visit to the megastore, though--I'm convinced you could buy an entire house in there for about $2000. Walls and roof sold separately.

Today's been a little less heavenly between screwy weekend train schedules and an all-day torrent of patented city rain. Walking outside in the rain is much more bearable, at least from an emotional standpoint, when equipped with a sturdy umbrella, a chai, and Halal lunch (my official NYC comfort food). From a physical standpoint, however, I don't recommend carrying that many precarious objects through the rain unless you're firmly committed to enjoying their morale-boosting effects.

Love, Hugs, & Downpours
Kate =)

Simply Amazing

2009-07-30T20:07:00.002-04:00

Normally I don't like to post on consecutive days... But I'm pretty impressed with myself today.

Today I...

...decided once and for all on a studio apartment after learning that a one-bedroom is out of my price range because the pay works differently than I had though at this job of mine.

...caught 7 out of 8 subway trains exactly as they arrived at the station--that hardly ever happens once in a day!

...interviewed for another part-time job to fill my work week and learned I'm pretty used to interviewing now. No big thing. Except the school is on the fifth floor of another school... that'll be quite the hike if I land the job...

...ate no meat. Mostly because I'm low on it. Not really that big of a deal but I couldn't tell you a day in the last several months that I went without meat, even in Tanzania. So now I know I can!

...pondered finishing my collage. The night is still young...

=) KP

Oh wait...

2009-07-29T13:24:00.003-04:00

Beautiful run this morning, meeting with my prospective landlord (one or two days away from signing a lease!!), got some errands done... And then I return home and collect my mail that includes a big packet of info from my job. Yay--details!

Then the minor freakout.
[My internal monologue will appear in brackets]

2 days of 4th/5th general music on the Upper West Side.
[Way cool! Short commute, standard music teaching, ease breeze].

I read on: 3 days in the Bronx
[Mm ok not what I was expecting but that's cool]

I look up the commute
[1 hr 15 min... which means I have to allow 1 1/2 hours... Ugh ok...]

And then... Bronx assignment: 1 day general music, 2 days beginning band
[I did not sign up for this. I've never been in a band. I almost passed out playing the flute. 6 hours of commuting for band? Is this what a panic attack feels like??...]

A polite call to the employer later ("I have an interview for a one-day-a-week job tomorrow... Should I cancel this or would you still like to fill a 4-day position?") reveals that they had copied/pasted erroneous information into my letter. My placements aren't done yet and will likely be 4 days a week at one school, all general music.
[Ooook. We're calming down, let's eat some lunch]

=)
K

I'm not homeless!!

2009-07-28T13:42:00.002-04:00

If all goes through according to plan, I will have my very own living space as of August 1! It's in Inwood, the neighborhood of my current sublet and it has everything I'm looking for--close subway, grocery, laundry in building, and even a courtyard! To clarify, courtyard was not on my "must-have" list. But it's pretty sweet. Though I wouldn't have admitted it if I was still going for the West Harlem apartment I originally applied for, this one is in a much safer neighborhood, especially with regards to the nighttime crowd, so that's probs a good thing. =) I'll start giving out the address once it's *official* so I don't jinx anything... Nonetheless you will for sure have a place to stay when you visit beyond a cardboard box under a bridge. Great news bears.

August 1--and with it, the month of August--is this Saturday. That's nuts. I have to finish my collage, which at this point just involves glueing, but I feel it's going to take a while to get things "just so" with my decorative perfectionism... Perhaps having a deadline is a good thing with respect to creative neurosis.

Aaah AND all this moving business coming so soon means my family is here next week!! I'm so excited to show them the city and neighborhoods... and buy some sweet IKEA furnishings! =) Operation: Find Fun Stuff for the Family to Do is underway...

Love & Hugs & New Apartments!
KP =)

Big kid stuff

2009-07-24T17:24:00.002-04:00

Just filled out an application for an apartment in West Harlem... that's still being renovated... fingers crossed that it'll be done in time for the fam to move my stuff in! Otherwise it's back to square one...

It seems like busy things happen in clumps out here... like apartment hunting yesterday and today, dinner/show tonight, volunteer project tomorrow... and then nothing scheduled until Thursday. I suppose that gives me some time to work hardcore on the collage I've been planning for months now! I'll have pics of the ongoing process on Facebook soon (as well as some of the epic weekend party night), but I'm way excited for the finished product!!

In less than a month I'll be moved and working and a real deal adult. Which will be awesome once it's a month from now but remains ominously surreal (surreally ominous?) for the moment.

In other news, I like cooking. I've decided that purchasing the necessary items for high-quality meals is going to be my one and only splurge category here. I may forgo owning a TV, and I may never attend cultural events with a price tag, but I will eat pesto chicken and fried plantain chips and cous cous and whole wheat rigatoni carbonara and fresh fruit and soy milk. All together. All the time.

=)
K

Here we go again...

2009-07-21T13:40:00.002-04:00

I've decided to reboot the whole blogging thing in an effort to stay better connected... and saner myself... amidst the hustle and bustle of this new and permanent New York City life of mine. In other words, I keep thinking of good things to say that would look awkward in a Facebook status update.

A month plus into "real life" here and I have about half my life put together. Which I suppose is decent considering I have roughly half a summer left. Job--check. I'm working at least 4 days a week (fingers crossed for 5...) teaching music in one or more public schools around East Harlem through an independent organization called Education Through Music. Basically, I'm a public school teacher receiving my pay not through the Department of Education but through ETM. But the chances of getting hired by the school system within the first 2 years is very high, which is excellent news for my prospective salary and health benefits, both of which I will have with this job but would be improved once hired by the DOE...

So that's more or less taken care of. Housing not so much... Seen a few decent places but currently no one's returning my calls... If I were a broker I imagine I would want to, you know, stay in contact with clients who seem eager to pay me for my services, but maybe things work differently out here. Here's hoping that I won't have to venture into the sleazy world of craigslist...

Please please please keep me nice and updated with all your lives and I want each and every one of you to visit!!! ...Once I have an apartment. And please don't all come at the same time.

Love & Hugs,
Kate or Katie or KP or basically whatever you want to call me (within reason)
=)