i''m procrastinating planning my lesson for tonight's esl class for isabel reyes and her family in dresden, ny...i'm quite nervous as this is the second lesson, and last week i didn't really need to plan much because it was mostly just introductions and stuff....ahh. scary.

i just read that a bill just passed one house of legislature in mexico, which would allow mexican citizens abroad to vote in the 2006 election, which i think could drastically influence things, assuming the bill passes the senate and goes into effect- if thousands of mexicans (many of whom are farmworkers and other low-wage workers) were to vote against the neo-liberal candidate (i don't know who the candidates are yet), assuming there was another candidate who was against nafta, which could be an entirely false assumption, it could have a big impact. maybe?
am i simplifying things?

i saw a great play on sat night- "death and the maiden" by ariel dorfman, in english. they are also doing the play in spanish in april, so i'm hoping to go to that too. he's a brilliant man, dorfman. the play, in true dorfman tradition, is about the ideas of forgivenss, memory and retribution, as expressed through a family struggling to come to terms with the human rights abuses commited against them and others during pinochet's regime in chile.

in other news, i'm still obsessed with twig tea, angels, etc.
hoping to start reading some marge piercy and to stop bitching about my bitch of an apartment-mate.

wish me luck tonite!

look what i did!

look what i did!

john stewart et al.

got john stewart tix this morning...yay :) it's quite convenient that while others stood IN line (note my use of the correct IN LINE) for upwards of four hours to get tickets, the addition of the second show allowed lazy bums/not real fans like me to get tickets from the comfort and ease of their keyboards with credit card in hand....(and a week later at that!)....mwahahaha!

i do feel a little guilty too though.

i sort of feel like that about a lot of things- that other people put in lots of work, and i squeak by the easy way with the same endpoint... which, i suppose, makes me feel like a bad person. my professor wrote that i am "an exceptionally good writer" on my grant proposal for his graduate class on poverty, public policy and the lifecourse, referring to a part of the proposal which i think i had spent an exceptionally SHORT time writing...while there definitely problems with the proposal, i find it ironic that the things that i seem to exert the LEAST effort on, often turn out the most fortuitous.

i'm afraid i'm counting on the same attitude of things sort of falling in my lap in my (not entirely existent) job search, and i don't think it EVER works that way with jobs. boo. maybe i should stop spending time on creating the perfect blog.

regrets.
i definitely regret not continuing to work for the Sun. now realizing that maybe i do have some talent at writing, combined with the fact that i really enjoyed writing for the sun, makes me think that maybe i only quit because it was one of the few things that actually DID motivate me, and maybe that scared me. oh well.

anyway.....chai notes has sort of been taking over my life lately, we had a skit-writing meeting last night at my apt and are singing at the kdh tonight (yay. can't you sense my excitement). Also had a meeting today to work on planning the study abroad photo exhibit coming up after spring break.

yumm, now i'm eating peanut butter-filled pretzel nuggets. yumm. better stop so i can fill up on crap at the kdh.

i'm supposed to see "Death and the Maiden," a play by Ariel Dorfman, who's beautiful mind i am in awe of, at risley.

NOTE TO READER: i apologize for any similarities this post may have had with a certain shoe-throwing AP's online diary, which often dwells on said person's talents and extraordinary abilities. this was entirely by accident, and i hope the point came across sufficiently that i don't think these talents have been particularly useful for or utilized by me thus far.

howard dean at cornell

howard dean in front of ATH at cornell

ya, that was howard dean speaking at cornell, with professor brumberg's husband's head peaking out largely on the right. dean, the new chairman of the DNC, came to Cornell, randomly, on Wed. to speak. while i couldn't go to his main gig, he also did a 5-10 min. "rally" on Ho plaza which was "brief" because he thought it was nippy up here in the cold north country (which is south of his state...hmm....)

douglas rushkoff is my hero

for those of you jews out there (or people who just like to read about jews), this is one of the most brilliant assessments of the current state of american jewry that i've ever read....

The Self Imposed Death of Institutional Judaism

rushkoff, the author, is also the founder of the open source judaism project and sub-project open source haggadah

"good fortune"

i think learning from our mistakes and from other people is really important...i was thinking about the cliche idea that "learning about other cultures helps us learn about our own culture" and i think this is really true of my study abroad experience - i think my obsession with the movie frida was really some kind of infatuation with another culture, perhaps some exoticization, that i was able to explore while abroad. as i've been discussing with RP#2 (for those of you who know who that is), the experience was really one of the happiest times in my life, and has now become some sort of reference point for my happiness. so if frida is to that experience and that culture that was not my own which i have in some way tried to stealorsubvert, then angels in america represents that cultural reference point for my own culture. there is so much in it with which i identify, besides the fact that both the play/screen-writing and movie production/acting are unbelievable--i think that is why i've become so obsessed with it.

in the same way that learning from other cultures helps us learn about our own, i think thinking about/learningfrom/analyzing other people's psyches allows us to gain insight into our own. now that my psychotic roommate has stopped talking to me as well, i think a greater understanding of how my other two roommates have dealt with this happening to them informs my own reaction to the situation. although i am definitely in general a rather non-confrontational person, i think seeing other people react to the same situation in a non-confrontational manner makes me realize the necessity of confrontation in certain (this) situation. can't really explain any further...we'll see....

but anyway, this week has been pretty good- actually today was quite excellent. except for my purchase of a "good fortune" salad at CTB to eat in the car, without the requisite purchase of a fork. but the name of that salad was pretty accurate today- i successfully scammed the campus store, bought this hip-and-slightlybutnottoohipsteresque wallet


hip-and-slightlybutnottoohipsteresque wallet

which was made by an indonesian community ngo that works with poor folks to create a practical form of recycled/found art, had lunch with some friends and later in the day had my first day of esl tutoring.

i had a lot to say when i started this post, but after spending nearly 30 minutes struggling to post picture of said wallet on server so i could link it here, i'm now quite tired, and will write more soon.

a final note, however, includes a lovely, calm, unproductive weekend, which included a brief yet nice pamela means performance at the around-the-corner abc cafe as well as some soothing twig tea and a viewing of annie hall was nice.....

are there angels in america?

the title of this new blog was inspired by the BRILLIANT film/play "angels in america" and the film's BRILLIANT soundtrack/score.

although it has been difficult to attempt great work as a college student at a huge-ass bureaucratic university, the only way i can propose ridding myself of senioritis and the slump of intense self-pity that this has caused, is to think about the great work beginning upon graduation. so, this blog will be about both the transition from student to worker, perhaps a sort of hodgepodge of ideas for contemplation by those making similar transitions, as well as a collection of plans for actually beginning the great work....someday...

my best friend, who has already begun her work, in an inspiring and courageous manner, may be joining me at some point soon...

thanks for reading :)