On my Nightstand

Currently, I'm in the middle of several books . . . I justify it since they're all so different:

The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri

I'd been meaning to read this one for a while (ever since I saw the author speak at San Francisco's City Arts & Lectures a few years ago).  I'm thoroughly enjoying it, despite having interrupted it upon the arrival of my next book in the mail:

Hell's Angel, Sonny Barger

By now you all know why I'm reading this.  Love it.  Wanna know everything about MC culture.  I also ordered a book about a federal agent who infiltrated the infamous Mongrols MC, so I'll let you know about that one when I'm done, too. ;)  I know you're all chomping at the bit.

the new black, Evie Shockley

I stumbled upon this new book of poems on a trip to City Lights, and I LOVE IT.  She uses a lot of traditional form (even a ghazal!) but modernizes them into a collection of poems about gender, race, identity, history, etc.  Evie Shockley might be my new fave.

Next up is this:

First they Killed my Father, Loung Ung

Kristin sent me this (along with two others!) for the book swap, and I can't wait to read it.  It's obviously going to be really intense, but I can balance it out with:

Something Blue, Emily Giffin

Novels the color of Easter eggs = guilty pleasure.

I know it's Friday, but I couldn't resist linking up with Meghan since her Top Five Thursday topic was books, so here it is a day late!

Friday I'm (Daydreaming)

Instead of yammering on about what's really going on (let's just say that after paying $722 in parking tickets last night, today I have to go to San Francisco Superior Court to pay $383 for a "tinted windows" ticket . . . and yes, I bought my car with the windows as they are from the Honda dealership), I'm going to talk a little about what I would be in love with if I could do as I pleased this weekend:

1. Reading

on my nightstand

2. Lying on the beach

Baker Beach in San Francisco, taken with my iPhone

3. Working on my apartment

outside of my apartment building/my back deck

Being as busy as I am, I rarely have time for things like framing prints, decorating, rearranging, etc.  Lately I've been longing to fix up my apartment a little bit . . . cause after all, I may be spending a bit more time there after I lose funding for my job!  

But tonight I'm going to see this, which I'm pretty excited about:

A Way Out consists of three short plays that offer a glimpse into the lives of women struggling to break away from cycles of abuse, incarceration and codependency, written by the women of Rising Voices.

What's going on with y'all this weekend?  Happy Friday!

Summer B.

A Slow Weekend is Good for the Soul

It's quite rare that I get to enjoy a laid-back weekend.  But it's so nourishing, and I'm ever grateful when it happens.  Here's what I did:

Friday night:
My friend Anna came over with take-out Thai, and we chatted on my couch over wine and delicious food.  It was great catching up with her, and it was also great being in bed by midnight. ;)

Saturday:
I slept late!  Then read some of this:

which I love so far, and then eventually moseyed on out of the house, and hit up the Jeremys 60% off sale!  Bought this little dress and this robe:

Goodness I think that robe is pretty.  And both for a grand total of less than $30, thanks to the megasale. It was worth wading through the crowded aisles of women clamoring at designer deals!  Although my heart is crushed that I missed the 60% off SHOE sale the weekend prior.  People, Jeremys carries Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Louboutin, Prada, etc. etc. . . what did I do to piss off the gods enough to miss the 60% off shoe sale?!  Then again, had I known about it, I very well might have emptied my bank account, so perhaps it's a blessing in disguise.

After shopping, a bunch of errands, and darting around dodging raindrops all afternoon, I came home and stayed in by myself Saturday night, wearing slippers that Summer sent me and watching a movie that Micaela sent me.  So cozy!

Sunday:
Despite wanting to sleep in, I woke up early and ate some yogurt, granola, & raspberries so I'd be energized for yoga with my friend Audrey.  We went to the Berkeley lululemon's free Sunday morning class, which was mellow and energizing at the same time--just what I needed.  I managed to hold my crow pose for about 2.2 seconds, but then toppled over and twisted my wrist.  Eh, no pain no gain, right?

crow pose, from

Can y'all do crow pose?  I can get there, usually, but I can't hold it for long.  Something to work on, I suppose.  My favorite pose is pigeon, cause it stretches my hips so gooooooood . . . 

Audrey and I walked across the street for coffee after class, and sat for an hour chatting about boys and work and all those kinds of things.  I love girlfriends, seriously.  They make life infinitely better.  Female solidarity--can't get enough.

I got home a little after noon, cooked up some delicious veggie curry, and worked on my San Quentin lesson plans/critiqued last week's homework before heading to babysit Freeman in San Francisco at 5:30.  Slow weekends with free afternoons make me so happy.  It makes a world of difference in my energy level.  If I had time for yoga, savoring coffee, and reading every morning, I'd be a much more balanced person.

Butttttt . . . here's to Monday!

Christmas Pressies Part 1

I totally want to hear about what all of you got for Christmas (what was your favorite gift you gave?  What about your favorite gift you received?).  There are a few gifts I want to tell you about, starting with just one today.

Meet my friend Kimberly:

me on the left, Kimberly on the right

at the Brick Store, one of my favorite Atlanta spots

Kimberly and I met ten years ago when we both worked at a very trendy European bar/restaurant/cafe in Atlanta called Cafe Intermezzo.  I was home from college for the summer and Kimberly was getting ready to head off to Columbia in the fall (we're both from Georgia).  We've stayed friends through all these years and several moves, and I think she's come to visit me pretty much everywhere I have lived!

After finishing her degree at Columbia in New York City, Kimberly joined the Peace Corps, spent a couple years in Africa, and is now in her third year of a Ph.D. program in cultural anthropology at Northwestern.  Don't I have such interesting friends?

She gave me this book of poems for Christmas:

We Don't Know We Don't Know by Nick Lantz

The incredible first book of Nick Lantz, We Don't Know We Don't Know is a collection of poems sprung from quotations from Donald Rumsfeld and Pliny the Elder.  What a duo!  I read almost the entire collection on the plane ride back to California (thank you so much Kimberly, totally made my long flight bearable!).  The poems deal with a lot of eerie "what ifs," cause & effect, mythology, and the grittiness of rurality.  Pretty incredible how Lantz incorporates these bewildering quotes of Rumsfeld and turns them into fascinating poems that, at their core, aren't even about politics.  

I love discovering new poets--thank you Kimberly!

Now tell me about some of your Christmas gifts!  (I have another one to share soon).

Friday I'm in Love!

Whew! Today marks the end of the infamous first week of school, so needless to say . . .

1. I'm in love with the Happy Hour that awaits me at Cha Cha Cha in the Mission in just a few short hours!

I'll be here

drinking this

2. I'm in love with all the beautiful birthday mail y'all have sent me. More on that later. Just know it's made my week so much more fun. The happy birthday gifts I've received in the mail this week include but aren't limited to: the prettiest and Claire-est postcard collage I've ever seen, a weighted hula hoop, a sweet, sentimental necklace, Sprinkles cupcake mix from the famous Southern California shop, a tiny colander, flowers, and a gift card to my favorite store (the two weirdest things on that list were from my mama). I'll share pics soon!

3. BOOKS. Now that I've finished Friday Night Lights, I've picked up an old habit again . . . reading! I'm revisiting Surviving Justice right now, as I'm preparing to shape my interviews into personal narratives. Surviving Justice is the first book in the Voice of Witness series, and is a collection of narratives from people who were wrongfully convicted, served time in prison, and were exonerated. You can order it by clicking the link above . . . it's a pretty unforgettable book.

After I'm done with this (again), I'm going straight to Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series. (I'm all about teen lit these days, ha!). I tell you what: Hunger Games was so good. All the adrenaline and excitement of *other* popular YA book series, but without the horrid, cliche-ridden, angsty, somewhat misogynistic writing (I'm talkin' to YOU, Twilight!).

4. This:

love letters sheet set from Anthropologie

It's pretty much everything I love in one: text, love, gorgeous sheets, romance, ohmygoodness. Do you think my interest in everything bed-related has something to do with school starting back up? Ha. Just a wild guess.

Check out my girl Summer B. to play along and tell us what you're in love with!

Progress!

So the Progress! playlist has at last been finalized . . . and here it is (Lane, it will be in the mail tomorrow!):

Dancin' with Myself--Billy Idol

Pursuit of Happiness (feat. MGMT and Ratatat)--KiD CuDi (thanks Miss!)

Hold Your Head Up High--Miri Ben Ari (feat. Lil Mo)

Fear and Love--Morcheeba

I'll Work for Your Love--Bruce Springsteen

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow--Amy Winehouse

The Way I Am--Ingrid Michaelson

Love, Come Save Me--Right Away, Great Captain!

To Start Anew--The Perishers

Woman Be Strong--Will Hoge

The Heart of the Matter--India.Arie

Love Will Come Through--Travis

Stronger--Britney Spears

Stronger Woman--Jewel

You Can Have it All--Yo La Tengo

So Happy I Could Die--Lady Gaga

You Move Me--Pierce Pettis

Hot Like Fire--the XX

Here Comes Your Man--the Pixies

I'm finally satisfied with its progression, and super excited to have a physical (and musical) manifestation of 2010's commitment to forward-motion and progress!!! Except that I fully intend to drink wine and watch the Bachelor tonight, which doesn't seem to be very progressive, huh? Whatever, after managing my 5th period hellions today, I deserve some time-wasteful indulgence. ;) Anyone else watching the Bachelor? This guy is such a Goody Two Shoes, gosh.

Another thing I did today: Make some pretty fantastic vegetable soup. I made it for my posse in Russian River last weekend, but I think that performance anxiety + cooking in a place other than my own kitchen yielded less than optimal results. I made it again today, however, and it's back to its delicious essence:

Speaking of my kitchen, that's another thing--it's so luxurious! For those of you who live in SF or another big city, you know how precious a spacious kitchen is. Ours is even bigger than it looks in this picture, cause it's L-shaped and juts out around the fridge. And we even have a separate dining room, so this bistro table is just extra! Here it is:

So this is how I make my yummy veggie minestrone for anyone else trying to endure this gross, chilly, rainy, wet weather:

Dice a large onion, red pepper, and yellow pepper, and saute in olive oil (in a BIG pot) until pretty well cooked

Add a little minced garlic to the mix

Add various spices . . . I use basil, oregano, parsley, Tony Chachere's, chili flakes, s&p

After all this is well sauteed, add a jumbo can of diced tomatoes (either just one, or a jumbo one and a regular one. sometimes I add a little tomato paste as well)

Fill the rest of the pot (minus a couple inches) up with water and 4 Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes . . .

(Meanwhile, cut a large potato into chunks)

Bring to a boil & add the potato

Let the potato cook for a bit, then add a small pasta (I usually use orzo)

Add a can of kidney beans and a can of corn

And that's about it! I usually check the seasoning & add from there. YUM!

I finally finished Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch (lent to me by my awesome friend Josh Klipp) and let me just say I LOVED IT. And highly recommend it. Imagine that . . . I loved a book about a southern girl in the big city who can't seem to find the right man. How funny! ;) In any case, it's well-written, engaging, relatable, multi-dimensional, quirky, and honest. I'll definitely look out for whatever's coming next from Katie Crouch.

I'm so grateful to have had long conversations with my sis and Lesley (my semi-sis) today . . . I miss my Georgia girls so much. I love California but it's so far away! Oh and speaking of Lesley, check out her ridiculously cute Etsy shop. OMG. Prettiest little girl clothes and accessories and toys you can imagine. And every single one is hand-made! Too bad all my little rascals are baby boys.

And now onto my favorite part of the evening: cheap red wine!

Feelingful.

So this has been one hell of a week, with regard to pretty much all aspects of life. All this strife has been mirrored (a bit too literally) by the rainstorms pouring down all over California. After self-pitying my way home from work on Tuesday, I entered my apartment (more specifically, my room) to find this:

Yes folks, THAT is my ceiling. Right above my bed. My bed was covered in rain water and plaster, and some of you may remember that this is the THIRD time that this very thing has happened in my room in the very same spot above my bed. The landlords have been at my apartment every day since then, but have yet to repair the gaping ceiling hole, as there hasn't been a long enough rain reprieve to get the work done. So alas, I'm still sleeping across my room, trying hard not to be preoccupied with the fear that more of my ceiling is going to collapse down on me.

Two of my 5th period students are incarcerated, which has been another contributing factor to my hell of a week, particularly since final exams were last week and, obviously, they both missed them. One of them is a sweet, funny boy who, along with two buddies, got into a fight with some guys at a park and took their bikes. My student, G.M., is now facing 9 charges, 7 of which are felonies. I've been in back-and-forth conversation with his devastated mother, written a "character letter" to the court, and have spoken with the head teacher at the San Mateo County Juvenile Hall school. All of this is incredibly sad, but the silver lining is that I was able to fax my final exam to the school at the jail, the head teacher got it to G.M., and then he faxed it back to me. Technology, huh? In any case, I was grading G's final today and came across this in one of his answers:

Changes I think need to be made to the current prison system should be better judges who are feelingful and care honestly.

Feelingful! What a neologism! That word made me genuinely smile, and I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be and behave in a "feelingful" manner. How much better would our world be if we all followed my student's advice?

In happier news, Ji, our friend Paul, and I had dinner at Trattoria la Siciliana in Berkeley the other night, and it was fantastic! Paul had pesto shrimp linguini, Ji had some sort of calamari-in-squid-ink pasta, and I had eggplant penne. Delicious! Trattoria la Siciliana really has that "Italian grandmother's kitchen" feel to it--the shotgun setup, decor, authenticity of the menu, friendly Euro-esque wait staff, etc. We'll definitely be back.

I also want to mention this new book by young (and awesome) author Nina LaCour:

It was our first selection in Balboa's teacher-student book club this year, and we all really enjoyed it! The book is about a high school student named Caitlin who is entering her junior year in the wake of her best friend Ingrid's suicide. Despite the weighty subject matter, Hold Still really isn't a sorrowful book; in fact, having been through essentially the exact same experience in high school, I'd say that Caitlin's behavior, preoccupations, and mechanisms of grief are impressively authentic. The "Young Adult Fiction" genre is pretty nebulous . . . what is "young adult," really? . . . but it's certainly fun to read. Nina was generous enough to come talk to our book club at lunch yesterday (what a delight!), and she gave a tremendous little reading/presentation/Q&A session. Check out her website. AND her quirky new blog, Chelsea I Want My Flannel Back.

Good luck staying out of the relentless rain!

Spring Clean(s)ing

Anyone know anything about the Spring Cleanse? My friend Anna has coerced me into yet another cleanse . . . we're aiming for Monday - Friday. Unlike the last cleanse I did, you can actually eat food on this one, albeit an extremely limited selection of raw fruits and veggies. We are allowed spinach, dandelion greens, a couple other bitter greens, beets (though they don't do much good uncooked), avocado (!!!), apples, and citrus. Yikes. I'm still deciding whether or not I'm gonna cheat and keep my morning coffee in the mix . . . it's finals week at Balboa, and the kiddos deserve a teacher who is at least . . . human. Good thing I bought a big bag of DELICIOUS satsumas at the Berkeley Farmers' Market today.

Speaking of which, what a day! Anna and I are both dogsitting, so we went to the farmers' market and then took the pups on a gorgeous, off leash hike through the Oakland Redwoods in Tilden Park. So pretty! It was a pretty difficult hike . . . almost straight downhill into this deep canyon surrounded by creeks and tall, tall redwoods, and then, naturally, the almost straight climb uphill back up to the trail. Man oh man. I'm so lucky to live in an area that is full of gorgeousness. And I'm finishing up the day in Marin with Mr. Milo, whose backyard overlooks water, boats, and Mount Tamalpais. Seriously???

My friend Josh Klipp lent me this book, which I just started reading, and about which (thus far anyway) I am very excited!

Being a teacher and a poet means reading so much nonfiction and poetry . . . I sometimes forget how amazing it feels to read a really good novel. So here's to that. And to the stunning dress on the book cover. And to any recommendations y'all have for other amazing novels . . . cause I plan on making a practice out of some seriously good reading this year!

I think it's about time for me to settle in with some United States of Tara . . . the show my sister got me hooked on when I was home for Christmas. If you haven't seen it, it's about a woman (with a husband and two teenage kids) who has Dissociative Identity Disorder, and whose "alters" pop up unexpectedly . . . not only is the story line fascinating, but the husband is played by John Corbett. On whom my crush is almost debilitating.

Goodnight!