Looking for some addresses~

If I do not have your address (that's many of my college pals), and you would like a Christmas card from me, send me an email with your contact info!
Also, if you know of a good place to buy some eco-friendly cards, I would appreciate some tips. I have already started looking online and some of these places are ridiculously expensive (but probably meant for business customers).

T-minus 10 days until Turkey!

The documentary has aired!

My Japanese television debut was a smashing success, apparently, and if you know Japanese, you can check this out. If you don't know Japanese, you can still see this picture of me skyping with a teacher in CA from my beautiful green office.


The crew said that there was no way a television audience would believe that that was my actual home, not a film studio. I guess they don't have Slimer-green paint in Japan. My self-critique: my posture in that picture is horrible! If only I could have channeled my inner Amber.
Next time.

I still haven't seen the film, but I should receive it in the mail soon. My students want to have a red-carpet premiere. We'll have to see about that...

If I had a flag right now,

I'd wave it. Can't remember the last time I could really say that I was proud to be an American. I mean really, truly proud. I have always thought of my nationality as more Irish, or German, or English than American; I have also always thought of nationality as something that you're just born with, that you didn't have a say in. Like, am I proud to have brown hair? Myopia? Size 8 1/2 feet? Being "American" has been like that to me. To some people this is perhaps blasphemy. Love it or leave it. Yeah, I've heard a lot of those sentiments in the past 7 years. But I like to think I have a more adult love for my country.

Remember when you were a child and your parents could do no wrong? You would yell at any kid who said something like, "Your mom is a dork," or "Your dad smells funny," or whatever stupid little kids say. You would lose recess privileges for a week because you threw mud at him, or kicked her in the shins. That's the way I feel a lot of people love their country. It's a blind love, not rooted in what our country really is, right or wrong. Lash out at the naysayers. If you don't like it, then get out.

But then when you get older, you see those flaws in your parents. You realize they lied to you about your cat running away (it still hurts), or that they lose their tempers too easily, or whatever. But you love them anyway. For who they really are, not some idealized Normal Rockwell portrait. That is the love I think people should have for their country; it's deeper, more meaningful. Real love means seeing someone's positive and negative qualities. You love them in spite of the negative, and always with the notion that there is potential for greatness within all of us. We may not always treat the other countries all that nice on the playground of diplomacy, and our policies may hurt those who are most vulnerable, but every once in a while, we really do get to be that "shining city on a hill" that Winthrop hoped we would become. And I think Lincoln was on the mark when he said that we should work to form a "more perfect union" because we're not perfect yet. And it's the hubris of blind patriotism that says that we already are.

Yes, there have been moments when I have felt that warmth deep down in my gut, and a wave of patriotic sentiment has swept over me. The Olympics always seem to do that for me, for some reason. But now as I feel tears of pride looming constantly just under the surface, I have a real reason to be proud. Because today, the nations of the world look again to our country as a leader, an agent for good in the world. The country that I always loved, in spite of the bad things, has that potential for greatness once again. And I knew that it would redeem itself, so my faith during the dark times has been justified.

An update - on several themes

Since music is just about my favorite thing on the planet, I would be remiss if I failed to blog about my recent musical adventures.
In the past few weeks, I have attended a few lovely concerts (all at different venues, even).
First was The Fratellis at First Ave. The show was lots of fun, except for the women standing in front of us who danced in a horrible way that suggested little control of their bodies and poor coordination (think Elaine on Seinfeld). Concerts would be so much better sometimes if it weren't for the other fans. Sheesh.

Then it was off to the Weezer show at the Excel. For those of you not from this neck of the woods, it's the same arena that recently hosted the RNC. So it was big. But since I got awesome tickets via iTunes presale, it was phenomenal. I would even venture to say that it was better than the last Weezer show I saw - in the same arena with Kaiser Chiefs and Foo Fighters. We came fashionably late so as to miss some Angels and Something-or-other band and Tokyo Police Club, which we obviously had no interest in seeing. I was grateful that the band played lots of old mixed in with the new, and I saw them play some songs that I had never seen live ("Suzanne," "Pink Triangle," "Across the Sea(?)" etc.). But like the previous show, there were some d-bags sitting near us. Namely, this guy who kept telling me, "Oh, they're going to play [song] next. I saw the set-list before the show." Well, he was never right, and I just rolled my eyes. I guess when you get great seats, putting up with a toolshed is unavoidable.

The third and most recent show was Ray LaMontagne at the State Theater. I won tickets, literally, by being caller 10 on The Current, and I brought my lovely friend Heather. The show was tons of fun, but I preferred the time we spent before the show at The Chambers lounge catching up and drinking the most delicious ginger-spiked margarita. This is one of those places that I dismissed as pretentious until I actually went there. Yes, $6 for a Miller Lite is quite steep, especially if you have ever been to NW Sconie, but the ambiance is worth the bit extra. In my opinion. I will have to go this winter when they have the outdoor Ice Bar open. If you haven't been, I would recommend it as the perfect place to bring a girlfriend when you need to do some serious dishing and pretty-people-watching. And the appetizers were superdelicious.

My next concert endeavor: Jeremy Messersmith at the Turf Club on November 7. If you want to go, too, give me a holler. You say you're unfamiliar with my darling Jeremy? He's only the most talented (aside from my beloved DW) singer-songwriter in MPLS. His recent album "The Silver City" is without a doubt my favorite album of 2008. And it's not just all the awesome Twin Cities references in his music. There is something amazing about his music and the way he sings it. If you didn't know better, you could easily mistake him for Elliot Smith (on Prozac). If you want to see the comparison, listen to Jeremy's "Franklin Avenue" and Elliot's "Pretty (Ugly Before)" or "Twilight." It always astounds me when great artists can marry an aching sadness with undiluted joy. It's like that clear beam of sunlight through an overcast sky. The result is some damn good music.
And trust me; if I were easily swayed by the Twin Cities references, then I would be a Hold Steady fan. And I'm not.

Aside from that, my current frequently played music includes the following:
The new and old Rachael Yamagata albums
Old Replacements albums
The new Kings of Leon (especially the track "Sex on Fire" - so good. Achingly good.)
Ray LaMontagne, since I saw him last
Cary Brothers (seems to be good fall music)
And Jeremy.

In non-music news, I enjoyed spending most of my workday today at the Metrodome watching my students win state in girls soccer. Lots of fun. And for those of you who don't work with teenagers, maybe you think they're hoodlums or scary weirdos in stupid baseball caps with flat brims. For those of us who do work with them, we know that there is nothing more heartwarming than the moments when they are just so cute. It could be the funny "rollercoaster ride" cheer-thing they were doing, or the student of mine who held up a banner that simply said "Awesome," but I am having one of those times professionally that I am finding so much joy in these amazing young people that I work with. Perhaps it is because my student teacher is taking all of the day-to-day "crap" off my hands that I have time to sit back, look at the big picture, and truly appreciate the career that I insanely felt drawn to.

So goodbye for now. Enjoy a warm fall beverage.
And don't forget to vote.

Boo!

Forget haunted houses. Check this out if you want a Halloween scare.

Surprise of a lifetime

I was in my usual 5 a.m. haze on the couch until husband was reading Twitter and said, "Your sister's engaged?" How's that for a wake-up? I sure hope I'll get to meet this young man sometime soon.
This has definitely been an interesting day.

I'm kind of a big deal in Japan.

This afternoon I played host to a film crew from NHK, Japan's version of the BBC, and my darling husband had to go elsewhere to watch football. Poor guy.
It's kind of a cool thing-- my students and I are being featured in a documentary called Education 2.0 about the use of emerging technologies in American education. They're interviewing me and my students and filming my classes for most of this week. So here's what we did today:
The crew arrived at my house at about 11, set up some lighting and such, and started filming. I answered a bunch of questions about Curriki, how I use technology in my classroom, and plagiarism with students copying things off the internet. Then I had a Skype video-chat session with a teacher in CA who has used some of my curriculum in her classroom. They taped everything, which will get edited down substantially, but our segment will play a prominent role in the finished product.
My students, as you can imagine are pretty excited to be "stars." In fact, when I told them that the documentary was for Japanese television, they were even more thrilled. I think they all have visions of being dubbed over in Japanese with wacky-sounding voices. They have also insisted that we get t-shirts advertising our new star status that proclaim: AP English Language - We're kind of a big deal in Japan. Now that things are quiet, I have to get a few papers graded. I haven't turned over those duties completely to the student teacher quite yet.
And there isn't a new episode of Mad Men on, so I should be able to do it without much distraction. Maybe.