September 2005 Archives

Let me just say, This Wedding Was Perfect. Bachelorette party: Perfect. Rehearsal dinner: Perfect. Weirdly large limousine that brought us to the wedding: Perfect (great mix of marble and neon!) Wedding ceremony: Perfect. Toasts, choreographed dance, wedding cupcake tier, fine wine and champagne: Perfect.

I have photos to share and stories to tell, but I am still without available internet at my home, and my coffee shop closes at 7. Sigh. Tomorrow I'll have some time after class to take advantage of college wireless, and I'll post some details then. Volume III will probably come on Friday. In the meantime, here are the hens at the hen party:

I am posting from Portland International Airport, thanks to Free Wireless. Woo hoo! It is very exciting. I am pretending to be not at all nervous about the news story I saw just before leaving my house. A JeBlue aircraft caught on fire today as it was landing, but everyone was okay, but still. I'm flying JetBlue. I don't want my plane to catch on fire, honestly. (And yes, I am flying JetBlue.) I don't normally get nervous, but man! I really don't want to miss Liz's wedding! Here is a link to my thoughts about flying.

Liz doesn't have Internets at her apartment, so the next time I post it will probably be a biggie with photos, sappiness, and tales of debauchery.

In the meantime, here are some brief updates:
*My crush list is done. There are no more names on it. What the hell? I always have a crush on SOMEONE, but suddenly I got nothing! Well, not in the "active crush" column, anyway. I got a couple dormant crushes on people who live in other states and stuff. But no one to flirt with or go on dates with. This may be a first for me.

*I am no longer sick. I like kids again.

*A have decided to go braless to the wedding. I could not find a bra that worked with my bridesmaid dress. Cross your fingers that I don't post next week with a "my boob fell out of my dress when I was giving a touching toast, and it was captured on film, and Liz's grandma fainted" story.

*I have a lot of homework that is not gonna get done this weekend. I am at peace with this.

*I went back to the concertina store, and my little squeezebox is gone. I'm sort of relieved, it was eating me alive! (Also I got a good lead on an $84 instrument on the WWW.)

*The plane is boarding, goodbye!

I'm going through one of my periodic "I miss all of my friends, even the ones I see all the time, and I am so sad that every single person I love doesn't live right on my street and eat dinner at my house every night" phases. Being in school makes me sorta lonely. I imagine all of my friends having constant parties that are really fun, and rapidly forgetting about me while I work through mounds of homework.

I know I've said this before, but I wish that Time was more malleable. I wish I could stretch out this afternoon to fit in another four hours, so I could finish all of my readings and go out on the town tonight with a clear conscience. I also wish I could move backward and forward on my own personal timeline, os that when I get stressed out and overwhelmed I could simply take a quick trip back to the summer of '99 when I was a camp counselor and was briefly and completely content with my world. And when I miss old friends I could return to happy times together, and just look at them. I would still want to live my life here in the present, and I wouldn't want to know my future, I would just occasionally dip into my past.

I don't know if I would want to observe moments or relive them. It would be great to experience those first kisses with Martin on New Years Eve again, or spend a couple hours watching a movie with my head resting on Liz's knees. But the logistics of that would get sticky, I think. Because would I be experiencing it as if it were the first time, or knowing that I was a Future Willow coming back for seconds? And if so, would that heighten or ruin the magic of the moment? That's something that would have to be worked out.

I would love to return to awesome parties or clubs that have since closed down. I'd love to have a real 3-D look at Stephen before he had dread locks, or Sam when her hair was still mauve. I'd love to see my younger self and touch her face and love her, and give her the sympathy and forgiveness that she couldn't give herself. (I'd love my future self to give me that gift now...) I'd love to pet my dead kitties and hug my dead grandparents. I wouldn't try and meddle with my life or anyone elses. I would be so gentle.

Instead I will try to finish my homework early enough in the day tomorrow that I can call some old friends on the phone and remind them of funny things that happened to us together, and tell them that I love them. And I will try to remember that in less than a year I will have my MAT and my friends will still be my friends and we will have plenty of parties and good times.

If anyone is working on a time travel machine though, do you think you could speed it up a little? Thanks.

I have a cold. Remember when I mentioned that I was getting a cold? Well, now it is here. Full throttle. It's not that bad-just sniffles and sore throat, really. But still. I bet if I was working in a sterile lab I would not have a stupid cold. No sir. I would instead have a HotNerd scientist boyfriend/lab partner and we would be working on a cure for something or something. Instead I've got germy 6 year olds touching me all day with their germy hands and now I'm a big snotty germ. Gross.

In non-germ news, Liz's wedding is Coming Right Up. In addition to the great honor of being a bridesmaid, I also have the following honors to look forward to:
*Reading a effing rad poem during the ceremony (I campaigned for a recitation of the words to "In Your Eyes" by Eric Clapton or whoever, but Liz incredibly declined. I know. I was like, "what?")
*Sharing a fancy hotel room with Liz the night before the wedding. Just the two of us. This will allow me the opportunity to a) talk her out of it, b)convince her to marry me instead, and c)promote the idea of kibbutz living. Or maybe we will just watch movies and talk about the old days.
*Two other honors that involve bachelorette party plans and other secret plans that I cannot post on the Internet at this time. I will (maybe) reveal the execution of these plans in a future post.

I'm so excited. I know it seems from this entry that I intend to sabotauge this wedding, but nothing could be further from the truth. Heh, heh. Hmm.

(It is possible that I am feverish/delusional at this moment. Please excuse me.)

Yesterday I met my Internet friend, Allison at the Belmont Street Fair. Her band, Best Friends Forever performed in a light drizzle to wild acclaim by the fans and random street fair perusers. I gotta tell you, Best Friends Forever is my new favorite band. They have songs about ghosts and President Lincoln, and crushes on boys you've never talked to. Their showmanship is fantastic, stage banter divine, and they are the nicest girls you ever met. For my Denver friends, you MUST go see them on 9/16 at the High Dive. I swear to you, BFF will make you pee your pants with joy. Well, I don't SWEAR, but I'm pretty sure. Anyway, go see them and you will know what I mean. Here they are:

They played at 1pm, which was a change from their original gig at Foxes. Steve saved my hide again by keeping me up on the venue swap, and he became my date for the day. We hung out for about twelve hours yesterday, and it was wicked fun. Can I take this moment to remind everyone that I. Love. Steve. Schroeder? Well I do.

After the set I met Allison face to face for the first time. We were both super nervous and hugged for a long time, but then didn't really have a chance to talk until hours later at a sponanious house show/dance party. (Before the party we went to lunch at the Paradox, where I had an AMAZING spice sweet potato soup. Mmm...) At the 4pm party, Allison taught us how to Step. You know, like R Kelly is always singing about? Steppers? Well, Allison has honed her stepping skills in all the Chicago sweet spots and she gave us a lesson. It was so fun but deceptively hard. Shayla and I managed to figure out one move, which is simple but looks really cool, and we felt pretty good. Here is a photo Steve took (that's Allison leading the pack):

Anyway, Allison and I got to talking, and Steve and I decided to kidnap her for the rest of the afternoon. We took her to Tiny's coffee shop, and learned about her synchronized swimming skills, her push-up skills, her vegan cooking skills, and lots of other awesome skills. She's amazing. She's a great conversationalist, really interesting, and just super fun to be around. I love Internet friends! After coffee we:
*Tried to go to a fabric store so Allison could buy snaps for the fabulous BFF armbands she makes and sells on tour. They were sadly closed.
*Went to see Grizzly Man, this crazy documentary which I highly reccommend. It will remind you that:
1. Bears are cute but also ferocious and scary,
2. Foxes are your favorite animals,
3. Timothy Treadwell is an insane man,
4. Voice over can be awesome.
*Picked up Rebecca and had dinner at Dots.
*Went to Portland's annual Time Based Art festival and enjoyed Adam Forkner's orb of warm vibes music/video installation.
*Said goodbye to Allison with more hugs and good feelings and promises of mix tapes to arrive in the mail.
*Said goodbye to Steve in a way that involved me climbing /being pulled by Steve and Jona up a six foot balcony and hugging over a railing. Lots of "jokes" about dropping/pushing me off the balcony before Steve graciously lowered me back down. Wow.

So yeah, it was a great day. Today, however, I feel sorta sick. Ugh. Only a week into teaching and I'm already filled with nasty kid germs. Also the weather has suddenly become awfully autumn-y, and I always get sick when the seasons change. I slept for the bulk of the afternoon and I'm packing in the vitamin C and fluids. I'm hoping this will be a mild and short cold... sigh.

Oh by the way, on Friday a parent brought us an ENTIRE pecan pie. Apparently he owns a fancy restaurant or something and does the fancy baking himself, and will be bringing us fancy desserts every Friday for the rest of the year. In the words of Kool-Aid Man, "Oh Yeah!"

One nice thing about my fancy-schmancy private school is that they feed me. All the time. One parent brought me 1/3 of a chocolate cake yesterday. Fancy-schmancy chocolate cake. At our faculty meeting yesterday they fed us quiche and strawberry shortcake. In the morning there were bagels. There is always fine coffee and tea available for teachers to consume. For lunch yesterday I bought a really tasty veggie sandwich from the cafeteria. It was $1.25. I'm starting to see how private schools lure teachers away from public ones. Last year working in Portland Public we got Maxwell House with powdered creamer. And sometimes leftover birthday cupcakes. Oh, public schools! How can you compete? It's all about the snacks...

First graders make me laugh. All day. On the inside. Their self-portraits? Wonderfully amusing. Their pet stories? Hilarious. The way they squirm and wiggle because they really have to go to the bathroom but don't want to stop playing? Solid gold. I'm committed to being a teacher because I believe that education is the most fundamental tool for creating social justice. But I'd do it anyway because the kids are so damn cute.

This weekend I will meet my newest Internet friend, Allison. She left some nice comments on Perfect Heart, and we've sent a couple of emails. Her band is touring through Portland, so if you don't have plans on Saturday night come see Friends Forever play at Foxes in SE. I can't wait to meet her!

Thanks to Josh who emailed me a nice photo from New Years and also gave me the idea of mining flickr to piece together my library. Good idea!

Sorry these last few entries have been sorta boring (i.e. no boy gossip.) I did go on a couple of dates recently, but I'm not ready to blog about them. Soon, though, I promise!

Well, despite Steve's valliant attempts at ressucitation (thanks, Steve!), my iphotos are indeed gone forever. Sigh. I'm going to rebuild my library as best I can, so I'd like to make a request. If you have any fun digi photos from events you've attended with me, will you send them my way? If you were at What the Heck Fest, friend's birthday parties, Blogger brunches, other fun shows, etc., I would love copies of your nice pictures. I think it would take the sting out of my iphoto disappearence. (It's possible that talking about my "loss" is in bad taste, considering Katrina. I hereby acknowledge that losing my library is one mighty small peanut. But still.) My email address is wonderwillow@gmail.com. Much obliged.
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In other news, my students arrived today! They are so little, and they all showed me their loose teeth, and a group of boys went really deep with the pattern blocks, and all in all it was a success. It was just an open house today- a meet and greet if you will. Tomorrow we start classes for real, and students and teachers alike are PUMPED UP.

We had a faculty meeting this afternoon about the possibility of hosting some Hurricane refugees at the school. It's sort of a big deal because we would waive the bazillion dollar tuition that families usually pay to attend this fancy private school. Each grade level decided how many students they could take while still maintaining the quality that comes with a small class-size. I think the expectation was that we would each take one or two kids. I was really proud when most teachers offered up spots for four or five students. It may not seem like much, but at a K-12 school it adds up. We're also talking about fundraising for relief organization and other ways we can help out as a school community.

Liz's wedding is coming right up! I bought my ticket yesterday, and it's starting to feel real. I can't wait to see old friends and do the funky chicken with my bestest ladies.

Some of my New Orleans memories:

*The trumpet player outside Cafe Du Monde
*Etta James grinding her hips at the Jazz & Heritage Festival
*Exploring a cavernous Catholic Church in the middle of the night on an Open School trip; discovering a swimmng pool in the basement
*Sleeping on a pew
*The palpipal feeling of Ghosts and Darkness on certain streets, even in the afternoon
*The heat
*Tarot card readers lined up around the plaza
*Playing the washboard with a cajun band on Bourbon Street, writing a little poem about it on a napkin
*Voodoo shop
*Hurricane stands (small storefronts that sold these sweet, alcoholic frozen drinks)
*Jazz funeral

This disaster is unfathomable to me. I cannot fathom it. When I get close to understanding, when I innundate myself with Talk of the Nation and the New York Times, I am filled with despair. Halfway through writing this list, I started talking to my friend Azmo who works at the coffee shop. He is from New Orleans, and he told me about his family. His parents house flooded, but will probably be okay. The grocery store they owned is gone. Literally gone. So is the neighborhood around the store. They won't rebuild. But still, he says they got off light. Many of his friends lost everything. It makes me so scared and sad.

Hi. I think I forgot to mention that I would be out of town/offline for about a week in my last post. Didn't mean to worry anyone or let y'all down. Sorry. Oh god. And just now I was on the ichats with my friend Steve, and I realized that I missed the Event of the Summer due to my internet absence. Apparantly the Bro Zone record release party/Steve's birthday party was last night. He posted reminders all over the world wide web, but cave lady over here missed them all. It sounds like it was so super fun. Ugh. I want to throw up! Dear Internet! I will never leave you again!!

Since my last post, some exciting stuff has happened:

Catch That Beat,
A rad music event took place in Astoria Oregon last weekend. I had an amazing time. Here's a link to Shayla's photos of the event. There is a Willow Wonder Action Shot in there that is pretty sweet. Basically there were like, 1 million bands, and lots of really nice dudes, and we danced and ate yummy food, and I got high on a pier with Jah (remember him?) We slept on the beach, and there were these organisms called "biolumnescents" (I think) that lived in the water and the sand. In the middle of the night we went down to the sea, and as we got closer a million stars exploded under our feet. That's right. These tiny glowy guys lit up each time we took a step. If I squinted my eyes the sand looked like the sky, and galaxies were growing from my feet. It's possible that this was the most magical experience of my adult life. Possibly.

Too bad that the next morning the cops came and busted everyone for sleeping on the beach. 22 dudes got $100 tickets in the early (really early) morning drizzle. I was lucky enough to have nature call just as the cops (okay, it was only one cop) arrived. I peeked my head out of the tent, assessed the scene, and uh, ran away. No ticket for me! I woke and warned as many folks as I could, but was sadly unable to rouse my friend Rebecca who got nabbed. We think the tickets will be reduced. People generally had a good attitude about it. Still sucks though.

Anyhow, many thanks and praises go out to executive/creative director Jona and managing director Steve for putting together an amazing event. Totally rivalled What the Heck Fest. (Wow. I can't believe I just made that statement. I'll stand by it though.)

Fancy Private School Retreat
So I returned from CTB on Sunday, then hit the coast again 16 hours later with the fancy private school that I am interning with this year. They rented three gorgeous houses in Arch Cape, and the stuffed us full of food and wine, and made us play embarassing games. It was great. I tried to sleep outside the first night, but this big ol' raccoon started advancing on me as soon as I snuggled into my sleeping bag, and multiple screams didn't deter him so I slept inside after all. The second night I shared a tiny tent with the second grade teacher. It was great. Some other wildlife I spotted:
*big crab
*pod of whales (well, their spouts anyway, off toward the horizon. They were migrating.)
*many bunny rabbits
*some dogs

We got back on Wednesday night, and on Thursday I won a gift certificate to Applebee's restaurant in a raffle at the Health & Safety Party Gras the school sponsored. Oh Yeah! I plan on taking Steve to this fine establishment to make up for missing his Most Important Week. Free Pepsi refills, here I come!

So life is good. On Tuesday my students will arrive (!!!) and I will officially be a 1st Grade teaching lady (sorta). I cannot wait. Oh, and I moved in with Will, Lisa and the twins, and it has been great so far. I still have a lot of unpacking to do, but the vibe is familial and awesome. We just have dial-up right now though, which needs to be addressed ASAP. I'm hoping to have (cheap?) wireless jams pumping really soon. If anyone has advice on good servers, let me know.

And finally, on a personal note, thanks so much for those who posted their emo calling cards. So brave and nice. I like you guys.