Another walk through the city to cap off my week. The dogs tugged hard on the leash, and it was a walking meditation in not sweating the small stuff. Dusty diesel dries the rain that is to come. Night falls, and the pachucos call from the sidewalks--Teatro Aldama has a show, and every young joven is barking at the passing traffic. Every man for himself, they hustle cars into public spots for small wages. They cry repetitive mantras of "Teatro Aldama! Pasele! Pasele! Adelante! Boletos!" Between the mantra, the distinctive Mexican whistle slices the night air. Its all one big titanium symphony: the barkers are the melody, the exhaust backfire the bassline; the rumble and screech of the local buses provide a tumbling brass section. Somewhere a dog dodges the wheels of a brakeless taxi, and the night presses on.
Week one is done, and on the whole it was good. My sophomores finally figured me out. My Freshman, got me right away--maybe my humor is geared towards 14 year olds and not 15 year olds. In any event, the classes went well. I spent this week doing nothing but introductory group bonding activities. My classroom is now decorated with personal flags made by each student. The flags are filled with symbols to represent their respective lives. From the light fixtures hang baby photos and quotes from each pupil. We finished the week with an "I am From" poem, in which I implored students to embrace the beauty of abstract descriptions. On the wall I posted a quote from Robert Frost, "No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader." On the whole, the students really went for it.
Every class will have challenges--deuschbags, braggarts, know-it-alls and ring leaders. From what I can tell, that is just life.
The English department got together today for drinks and snacks. I truly think the English Dept is a great bunch of people. We hung out, drank some mescal, had some chips and dip, and talked a whole bunch of trash. Like any other school, gossip seems to be a favorite pass time. Some of the juicy bits were face melting material (I wonder if I will ever find the words in Spanish to translate such a sweet slang ridden sentence?). Tomorrow a few of them, and a bunch of other upper school folks will head out to play some ultimate frisbee at the high school. It should be a damn good time. I am excited to enjoy some physical activity. Tonight the party pressed on, but I kept my drink to a minimum and departed at 6:30. Somehow I just can't feature getting really wasted with coworkers, not yet at least. It is exciting, but it is also prime territory to be the talk of the town. I am keeping it reserved for this first round of "how do you do's". It seemed as if they intended to make it an all night thing, but I felt obligated to get home and let the dogs out, and to just decompress. I don't think any offense was incurred.
The Librarian gave me a rad book for my Sci-Fi class, The Matrix and Philosophy. She also gave me a few movies: Bladerunner, Total Recall, The Matrix, and KPAX. I am excited to watch some Sci-Fi tonight and mellow out.
I started a painting, FINALLY, yesterday. It is not quite right yet, so I have hung it up to look at it for a while. I think some layering of new colors is going to provide the clarity I want.
I live with mosquitoes, and I have the bites to prove it. I also really like scratching them in the middle of the night.
Well that is all for now. I need to sweep, sweep, sweep, and clean, clean, clean...tomorrow!
Here is to Friday and no spell check or rereads...perhaps one day I will be a no-typo kind of guy. Tonight is not the night.
Blessings
dude, blade runner the movie is awesome. I'm gonna read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? next. That's the book the movie is based on. I read a really trippy book called Flow my Tears, the Policeman said. Another Philip Dick book, i think it's right up your alley.
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