Walk for Justice

I know I haven't posted in a long time. I've been busy trying to celebrate a holiday everyday (www.adriellealdrich.wordpress.com) but I wanted to post an update about my life here too. I am still teaching 2nd grade, still gardening, still making jelly, and still being awesome (and awkward). I am also training to walk a half-marathon! Yep this chubby chick is gonna walk 13.1 miles...and all at once not just like 1/2 a mile per day for 2 weeks (and yes I realize that's only 7 miles if you do the math...you get the point though!)

So why would I walk for that far for no good reason....well I wouldn't. I would however, walk that far for a great reason! The reason that I'm walking so many miles is to bring awareness to the topic of sexual violence. There is a group of teachers at my school who have committed to raising money for a program called Jeans 4 Justice. This program goes into high schools and colleges and creates a place for students to find their voice and become leaders.

It's important to me because I see my students with so much potential and hope and statistically speaking there will be a lot of them that will be abused and victims. It's mind-boggling that in America (we're not talking about some third-world country here) it's acceptable for 1 in 6 women and 1 in 10 men to be the victims of sexual violence. What's even more ludicrous is that no one is talking about it. It's almost as if to be the victim makes you the one at fault. You would never tell someone who was robbed that they were asking for it by they way the looked or acted, but the shame stigma for people who have been abused by sexual violence is the acceptable norm...not for me, not anymore.

You can help support me by going to my donation page and donating some cold hard cash. If you don't want to do that then hopefully you will consider doing something in your community to become an advocate for those who don't have their own voice about violence.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -E. Burke

The Smell of Fall

Today I walked around the golf course near my house. Living in San Diego there are some things that we don’t have here that I forget about. Some of them are unpleasant like what shivering to the bone feels like. Some of them are delightful like how it feels to go outside without a jacket for the first time in months or the crunch of day old snow when the temperature is hovering around zero and the humidity level is about 1.2%

On my walk today I realized that I had forgotten what fall smells like. I mean real fall, not just pumpkin pie and hot chocolate.

Last week we had a cold snap, and I am talking cold for San Diego, in the 30’s. For people like me who don’t have central heat in their house that is freaking cold! So all of the trees dropped their leaves, usually this is gradual with different trees doing this throughout the fall to the spring so there is always a few trees bare but they usually bud right away without much dead branch time. Anyway, all of the trees dropped their leaves so there are PILES of leaves! I haven’t seen a pile of leaves since I moved here over 8 years ago!

As I was on my walk I passed a grove of bare trees and it was then that a smell that I haven’t smelled in nearly forever hit me and it all came back. It was the smell of slightly damp decaying leaves. It rained a little this morning so there was the earthy smell of the somewhat dried mud on the path and then the wet leaf smell. The smell that makes me know there are little worms eating up all of that delicious plant matter. The smell that makes me think of the last few days before the first snow when squirrels are frantically scampering with no discernable purpose. The smell that reminded me of waking up and seeing shockingly blue skies backing the reds, yellows, and browns.

The smell was so sweet and so rich that it felt like it was wreathing my head in memories and connecting my soul back to the ground. By breathing in deep to the bottom of my lungs I was filling myself up with the way things should be. I was almost euphoric as I breathed in the sweet leaves, the damp soil, the menthol of the eucalyptus, and the comforting pines. Every breath that I took felt like I was filling up on the good things in life, the things that are pure in the most basic of ways.

Somehow those olfactory sensations had reconnected my inner self with the bigger picture. I get so wrapped up in things that are silly and passing that I forget to enjoy the everyday, the pedestrian, the common. I think at the end of my life I will have wished I had enjoyed the everyday things….well…not to sound cliché but….everyday!  How petty some of the things I get worked up about are! But oh, how joyful to be outdoors and one with this dynamic place that is cycling around us, and with us, and in us. 

Happiness Is....

A Happy List for Juliette Low 2012.

Happiness Is...
Harry Potter Night
Road trips with friends
The Conners
Milk and Honey Macaroons
The Eisenhower Museum
Volleyball late at night
Sinking Annie
Santa and Stacy
Unit 1 Staff
Being the worst pranksters ever
Hoe-pocolyps and the Mouse-acre
Trying to sink a tub full of balloon
Dot's package
BRGR with Mary
Slide's mad skillz
The Infinity Pool
Ben at the Bleeding Hart Tattoo
84 and Rhubarb table dancing
Making positive changes even though it's uncomfortable
Glow-sticks!!!
Are You Smarter than a UL?
Love Cheese
The Evil Zucchini and the stolen dinner
Taking the golf cart 4-wheeling
Rhubarb's first hoe
84's seizure dancing
Joy-riding to the OP
Thad's many faces of disapproval
Crashing the Boy Scout's Cracker Barrel
Plotting with Laurie
The beautiful gate
84' AM meeting objects
Spooning with Pancake
Ella's hugs
The mustaches
Tramp stamps that lasted forever
Daisies on our toes
Sonic trips
Record breaking tempertures
The UL gifts
T-Rex Drink Shaker
BBB my BFF
Stan the Tree Man
Brandy's seining
The giant water bag 'o fun
Snape Snape Severus Snape

Chopped...Dinner Edition

My friend Ada, of Christmas Crack fame, had a wonderful idea. She decided that it would be a great idea to have a dinner party with the theme of the T.V. show Chopped. Chopped’s premise is that there are several chefs that are given mystery ingredients, which are generally a cacophony of flavors, and a short amount of time to make something gourmet.

She asked several people to bring a mystery ingredient so she could make an appe-teaser, entrée, and desert. The rules were simple:

-There’s a strict time limit

-She must use the secret ingredients

-She can use any ingredients to supplement the mystery ingredients

Sounds good in theory. I am usually an optimist but even I ate a snack before arriving…just in case.

The following were the ingredients brought by Ada’s “friends”

-1 Raw Chicken Thigh

-1 Bag of Cheetos

-Small Bottle of Tarjin

-4 Questionable Carrots

-Ham and Cheese Hot Pockets

-Shock Top Lemon Shandy

-1 Large Jar of Enchilada Sauce

-1 Costco Can o’ Chicken

-Raspberry Pop-Tarts

-1 Bar of Lindt Chili Chocolate

-A Handful of “El Scorcho” Hot Sauce from Del Taco

-Vanilla Ice Cream

The Tossed Salad and Hot Pocket Wonton.

The Appe-teaser Round:

Ada had 20 minutes to concoct a first course. She made a tossed iceberg salad with carrot shards and Cheeto croutons, served with a balsamic vinegar and Tarjin reduction dressing. She paired this with a Hot Pocket wonton. She food processed the Hot Pocket in its entirety and then lovingly folded the mixture into wonton wrappers and fried them. These were topped with a spicy “El Scorcho” cream sauce. The flavors were layered nicely and there was a depth of flavor that permeated the dish and tied the tastes together. 

Tortilla Chip Enchiladas.

The Entrée Round:

The Entrée was to be completed in 30 minutes. Ada was a culinary wizard basically. She made a Mexican Lasagna, layering tortilla chips, chicken, cheese, and enchilada sauce. There were notes of heat and flavor that burst on the tongue like little tiny fireworks. Click here for a video with a more detailed description of the entree by Chef Ada!

A House Divided Dessert

The Desert Round:

Like a champ, Ada finished the desert round in 20 minutes. She named the dish “A House Divided”. It was a modern twist on the pie a ’la mode. She used raspberry Pop-Tarts as the base and top, a scoop of ice cream in between. Then she made a chili chocolate reduction and caramelized it. Drizzled a little of that reduction on top and served individually. Delicious!

All foodies, young and old enjoyed this dinner.

The Best Advice...

As a teacher, occasionally I get parents that ask for advice. I, not having children, feel extremely qualified in dispensing as much advice as possible because I am clearly qualified. I have said things to parents (and a few strangers) like the following:

-Read everyday with your child and let them see you enjoying reading.
-Don't put a TV in their bedrooms, that is asking for troublesome bedtimes and tired kids.
-You're the parent! Not their friend! You get to be the boss!
-Double check their backpack, they might be lying about not having homework.
-Talk to your kid, that is the most powerful thing you can do for her right now.
-Control your child in a restaurant, no one likes to eat with animals. 

All of these pieces of advice were well-warranted, even if they were not always asked for. Ok...the last one was definitely not asked for, but it was also definitely well-warranted.

This is the best piece of advice I can give parents, teachers, aunties, grandparents, anyone really who works with children.

"Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you do not listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has been big stuff." -C. Wallace.

I say this to myself most of all. I get so trapped in what needs to get done that I often half listen or just nod when my students tell me about their loose tooth, their shoe that has a floppy sole, the rock they found at recess that looks like a president, the plans they have for their birthday that is 11 months and 3 weeks away, and a million other things that seem inconsequential at best and straight up annoying at worst.

How do I expect the next generation to be more thoughtful, reflective, genuine and interested in the world around them, when I am none of those things in my dealings with them?

Hmm...Interesting

I have been on a non-fiction bent lately. I decided to bridge the gap back to fiction with a book called Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. I picked it up last year when Borders was going out of business and promptly placed it on the "Summer Reads" bookshelf which has since become the "Thanksgiving Reads", "Christmas Vacay Reads", "Spring Break Reads" and very recently back to the "Summer Reads". I came across this passage in one of the chapters (Consider the Stars) that made me revel in the complexity that is social structures as well as the pointlessness of them. Here it is...

"Every night before going to bed, Hugh steps outside to consider the stars. His interest is not scientific-- he doesn't pinpoint the constellations or make casual references to Canopus; rather, he just regards the mass of them, occasionally pausing to sigh. When asked if there's life on other planets, he says, "Yes, of course. Look at the odds."

It hardly seems fair we'd get the universe to ourselves but on a personal level I'm highly disturbed by the thought of extraterrestrial life. If there are, in fact, billions of other civilizations, where does that leave our celebrities? If worth is measured on a sliding scale of recognition, what would it mean if we were all suddenly obscure? How would we know our place?

In trying to make sense of this, I think back to 1968 Labor Day celebration at Raleigh Country Club. I was at the snack bar, listening to a group of sixth-graders who lived in another part of town and sat discussing significant changes in their upcoming school year. According to the girl named Janet, neither Pam Dobbins nor J.J. Jackson had be invited to the Fourth of July party hosted by the Duffy twins, who later told Kath Matthew that both Pam and J.J. were out of the picture as far as seventh grade was concerned. "Totally, completely out," Janet sad. "Poof"

I didn't know any Pam Dobbins or J. J. Jackson, but the reverential tone of Janet's voice sent me into a state of mild shock. Call me naive, but it had simply never occurred to me that other schools might have their own celebrity circles. At the age of twelve, I thought the group at E. C. Brooks was if not nationally known, then at least its own private phenomenon. Why else would our lives revolve around it so completely? I myself was not a member of my school's popular crowd, but I recall thinking that, whoever they were, Janet's popular crowd couldn't begin to compete with ours. But what if I was wrong? What if I'd wasted my entire life comparing myself with people who didn't really matter? Try as I might, I still can't wrap my mind around it."

When I read this I thought about all the times that I tried to gain the approval of people who may have mattered to me then but now I can't even recall why. Or even worse, trying to gain the approval of people who really didn't matter to me then or now. How foolish. I wish I could say that I grew out of this foolishness around when my frontal lobe developed (yes both the dorsal lateral and the ventral medial) but that also isn't true. I have recently become a fan of old people because they do as they want and say what they think. Maybe the freedom you get when you live in a nursing home and smell faintly of urine and disinfectant isn't the freedom from reality but rather the freedom from worrying about what people will think. I'm not promoting anti-social behavior or a crime spree here, but just saying maybe this world would be easier to navigate if I stopped worrying about others and focused on loving what I do and doing what I love.

The Best Thing

There are days that I don’t love being a teacher. But most days, I love my job. This year in particular has been wonderful. Obviously there are a few days sprinkled in where I lose my shit and may be a candidate for early retirement but they are few and far between.

The thing that I love the most about my school is how very wise the students are. Most live in extreme poverty and I’m not talking don’t have a Wii and a DS poor, but more like don’t know if they will have enough food over the weekend poor. However, they know exactly what is important in life. They are the most generous and thoughtful kids I have ever met. They amaze me with their perspective because they are so very clear about what is important and what is unnecessary in life. They love school and may be the only kids in the world who don’t want spring break to happen because, “I want to come to school so I can learn!”

Yesterday, we were discussing immigration and how when people immigrated in the 1800’s, it was difficult but they did it so that their families could have a better future. Every kid had an example of something their parents do to make their lives better. It was amazing to hear 7 year-olds explain the difficulties their parents face in providing for their families. The consensus that they came to was, it’s nice to have things but things are what can make life wonderful. People, memories, and love are the most important things that you can have and those are free.

Our school raised 4,000 dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Pennies for Pasta. They collected three times as much as most schools even though our school is one of the very poorest in San Diego. The lady from Pennies for Pasta came to give out the prizes and announcing the winning. A student in 2^nd grade turned to his teacher, and in the sweetest little voice said, “The best thing is that we helped the kids with cancer.” I’m not as worried about the future of the country, not when there are still children who can see what the best things are.