Summer's Steady Hum

Lots of people, mostly guys, ask me what I do when I'm not working in the summer, so for the record, let me tell you: I actually don't spend as much time sitting around by the pool as you might think. The summer months are, in fact, my best opportunity to live the dream of domestic womanhood with all its rights, duties, and privileges.

There's a touch of humor in my voice only because it's almost always there, not because the work that goes into maintaining a smoothly-running household is lightly taken. First and foremost, I make sure my daughter J is well-rested, -fed, and -clothed so we can get through her various camps, lessons, and playdates. Then there are the chores, daily and otherwise. Last week, I had the air conditioner serviced. Next week, it'll be the car's turn. In between, I check to see the beds are made, the laundry is folded and put away, the pantry is stocked, the flowerboxes are properly watered, and the dog is up to date on his shots. There are so many things to do and keep track of, both the BlackBerry calendar and push-email come in mighty handy.

I take on a big project for the house every summer as well. Two years ago, it was installing the air conditioning. Last year, it was repainting the inside and refinishing the wood floors. Incidentally, the decor around here looks so good now it could be part of a "Filipina In Provence" theme for Better Homes & Gardens.

This summer's project is nothing too drastic: We've had the piano moved from my mom's so my daughter can practice more. It hasn't been tuned in so long (like decades), the guy said he will need at least three visits to get it to standard. The money is worth it, though, because my daughter has talent and deserves the best equipment to continue learning. As a bonus, I am now treated to little bits of "Camptown Races," "Yankee Doodle," and even "Surprise Symphony" when the commericals come on the TV in our living room.

Enjoy the splendors of summer, everyone!

Free Maria Shriver, Too!

There's been a website recently put up directed at the actor Tom Cruise, who I guess has been pretty over the top with his scientological preaching and professions of love for his new fiancee, the actress Katie Holmes. Check out freekatie.com where you can buy shirts, mugs, hats, and other items with the FREE KATIE logo. I don't know what the site organizers intend to do with any profit, but hope it will go towards a worthy cause. After all, how much can it cost to "help" Katie beyond the messaging?

I mention the site here because I am thinking of starting a similar one for Maria Shriver, the California First Lady. It would be called freemaria.com. Having always been a fan, I've become increasingly concerned for her of late. How could you not? She's a respected journalist, mother of four, devoted wife, and Catholic from a charitable family. As First Lady, Ms. Shriver (who is so modern she didn't take her husband's name), has put her energies into promoting those cute California bracelets benefitting the Women's History Museum in Sacramento, writing an inspirational book for recent graduates, and cycling for cerebral palsy. She's also led the charge to prepare our citizenry for civil emergencies by lending her image to the red backpacks with first aid kits and supplies now sold at grocery stores statewide. All of this is great stuff, but when it comes right down to it, SHE IS STILL MARRIED TO ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER.

Despite my deep sympathy for her causes, I just cannot bring myself to support them in any way. In fact, I wince every time I see the red backpacks on sale at Safeway. Simply put, until Maria Shriver is free, or at least better hitched, I'm not sure I can trust her.

Riding In Style

One of my best friends from high school K had a pre-midlife crisis last year and got a new car very similar to the one she used to drive us around in back in the day:


Our other buddy P and I were lucky enough to catch a ride with her to the Homecoming Dinner last night. Needless to say, we made a grand entrance by circling the parking lot three times waving to whomever would dare look. And then, upon departure, we did a final victory lap with P intermittently yelling out "Eighty-five!" before riding off into the sunset.

Guess who had to sit in the jump seat? Just like old times! For more details on our reunion, you can check here.

Sisterhood Deluxe

This weekend is my 20th high school reunion, so except for a momentary lapse hanging with my brethren at the Elks a couple of nights ago, it's been a week to celebrate The Sisterhood.

There were 66 of us who graduated from our all-girls Catholic high school 20 years ago and we were a diverse bunch. One of our classmates gave birth our senior year and went right to into working and raising her son as single mom after commencement. Others were married and became housewives. Some found jobs. Many of us went on to attend local colleges and universities while a couple, like me, went clear across the country to continue our educations.

Coming together now, we are still a crazy-quilt of interests and occupations. Most of us are mothers. Many are married and a few are remarried. One lives with her girlfriend and kids. Some of us have graduate degrees. A former classmate works on the Hill in DC and another is a screenwriter in LA.

Being of the kind who usually has plenty to say, I was mostly silent last night at the restaurant where we met for the first of a series of reunion events. It was just that much better to sit back and listen to stories of The Sisterhood.

Ladies Who Lunch

Speaking of Mr. Big, I have a group of friends who I would liken to those on Sex And the City except we are not as glamorous, our playground is not NYC, and a few other things. We are college girlfriends who get together, usually with our kids, every couple of months.

Yesterday, the group went power lunching minus our kids and one member (who was, and perhaps continues to be, having the ultimate professional emergency -- I hope she is okay). Our topic of discussion: climate change and global warming. Here is a link to a decent source of information on the subject.

Our plan is to raise awareness of climate change and global warming as a significant issue requiring immediate, concerted action. What this really means, however, we have no idea. We're set to meet again next month, kids in tow, to discuss next steps, if any.

So now you really know what good ol' gals talk about when having lunch. There's no sex mentioned at all. It's just another day of saving the planet, one carbon dioxide molecule at a time.

Mr. Big

About a year ago, I went to my college reunion and had a fabulous time meeting and catching up with classmates.

Walking back from one of the events, I ran into a group, some of whom I knew, some of whom I didn't, and some of whom I knew too well. Putting my best foot forward, I gave a confident "hello" and was informed that they were about to have a drink. Would I care to join them? Hmmm, sure. A nicely dressed classmate pulled out his fancy phone and called to coordinate a place. I made a mental note: blue with funny keys. Nokia? Check on this later.

We got to the arranged bar and I was promptly asked what I would like. Red wine. Moments later, which kind? I was offered a wine list. The Rioja. "Oh, you made that selection so quickly!!!" I did? Okay, now I was on to something, or at least, someone was onto me. I interested myself in other conversations.

My wine was brought to me. "Now, I remember you from the paper. Who did you hang out with?" asked my someone. The two of us really had worked fairly closely back in the day. I threw out a couple of names, at least one of whom I heard he'd slept with. He appeared unfazed. We discussed my friend, another colleague on the paper with us, who recently had himself been the subject of much unfavorable press. "A Nazi," my someone called him. We chatted about our careers, his in finance and mine in teaching.

Then looking him straight in the eye, I threw the dog a bone: Moving in the sophisticated circles he did, would he know anything about the Miller Sisters of late? And somewhat shockingly, he proceeded to tell. My Mr. Big not only knew who the Miller Sisters were, but had actually had dinner with the older two and their spouses for work. The youngest was divorcing. Holy **** -- it was like a bolt of lightning hit me -- I was in love!

This summer when I go to NYC, Mr. Big and I have a plan to meet for another drink. I am a little nervous having been warned that my would-be date "is to be avoided by single women," but still hope to see him. Rumors aside, there is absolutely nothing in my personal experience that would lead me to consider Mr. Big anything less than a perfect gentleman. And a guy who has better dish than HOLA should at least be designated a worthy risk. If it turns out he's an incorrigible SOB, I might later re-edit to include his URL here, but that probably won't be necessary.

Happy Father's Day

It's a glorious morning and J will be coming home soon. I will go to the nursery so I can replant the snapdragons in our flower boxes.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I wish we could be playing golf.

Some of my favorite memories of my dad come from our weekend trips to the driving range when I was just five or maybe even four years old. "Nice little swing there" is what the teaching pros would tell me, and my dad would beam. His dad, my Lolo L, was a famous golfer in the Philippines. I'd give you his name here, but I guess I like being coy. Anyway, Lolo L was born a sharecropper's son in Bulacan. As a teenager he got a caddy job at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club. There, an Australian doctor who met him was so impressed with his work ethic that he sponsored my then 17-year-old lolo to take his game around the world. After two years of playing in all the big tournaments, including the British Open, Lolo L came back to dominate the Asian circuit. He won the Philippine Open 13 times! My cousin V still has our Lola N's scrapbooks with the old newspaper clippings detailing Lolo's exploits. He was even in San Miguel Beer ads!

Lolo L died about a decade ago here in the U.S. after playing on the PGA Senior Tour and teaching golf for many years. I hear you can still see him in the Philippine and Asian Golf Halls of Fame. A "secret" about my lolo: His favorite candy was lemon drops -- he had dishes all over the house and loved to eat them while watching the Lawrence Welk Show.

Why I Teach

Three other reasons to teach besides the ones above: June, July, and August. School is out! I will be picking up the fish and plants from the classroom today. There are some thank you's to write and an email or two to send. Then that's it for a little while -- see you at the pool! 

We Hangin' Loose, Bruddah!

For the record, we're not going to Hawaii this summer. If you've read this blog before, I've mentioned it a couple of times. Yeah, I know, poor me...

I miss the folksy ukelele music, the smell of plumerias in the air, and the cool tradewind breezes. My favorite ways to pass the time are swimming and snorkeling in the tropical water and checking out the hulas and island crafts. Papaya is my breakfast every morning and POG is my non-alcoholic drink of choice. I go to the mall for dinner and eat local fresh fish or Korean kalbi with rice and macaroni salad, then hula pie and kona coffee for dessert afterwards.

Hawaiians regularly ask if I am one of them, and when I say no, they keep on talking da pidgin anyway. I feel like I belong. My next island homecoming can't come soon enough, especially on days like today.

Mai tai anyone?

A Call To Serve

Have spent most of the weekend at the church festival runnin' da drinks an' makin' da food. Always a great time. Got to hang with J a bit, too. 

Demeter's Melancholy

My daughter will be away from me for a week, and though I will be busy taking care of other things, I have already started to feel the melancholy that comes over me when she is not here. The change is subtle -- few except those closest to me would even notice. I am more prone to rumination and must work harder to be happy.

From girlhood, I have been fascinated with the Greek myth explaining why our seasons change: Demeter's sadness at being separated from her daughter casts the earth into unbarren winter. When Persephone returns to her mother on Mount Olympus, the earth is renewed and blooms into the bountiful harvest of summer.

The seasonal metaphor for a mother's love is entirely appropriate. While my world does not go barren in just one week, I still cannot wait for the allegorical spring when my daughter returns home to nuance my life with sunshine and flowers once again.

We Are the Champions

Just had the annual student-faculty softball game. The faculty won (again). Not quite a shutout, but close.

And yes, we do get paid for this. 

My Summer Crafting

I am working on this afghan for my freshman college roommate's soon-to-be adopted baby girl. Would like to finish by the time we head back east so I can hand deliver. 

This shell pattern is basically 5 extended single crochet stitches in rows on top of each other. The border will be 4 rows of V-stitch with a single row of lacy loops to finish. Do you like the variegated yarn? It's aptly titled "Monet."

I will put another photo up when I am done.

Fw: Alerta club ¡Hola!

I am forwarding this to the blog in case my lolas are reading. Got this news flash yesterday. HOLA mag sends out weekly messages to its online subscriber list plus special notices (in real time via BlackBerry if you have ;-)) for super important gossip like the item below. I have found HOLA to be way better than People 'cause you get the scoop not only on David Beckham and his Spice Girl wife, but on Enrique Iglesias's sister Chabeli, the exiled Royal House of Greece, and all sorts of interesting others as well! [translation below]

-----Original Message-----
From: boletines@hola.com
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 18:35:41
To:lectores@hola.com
Subject: Alerta club ¡Hola!

http://www.hola.com

Última hora

Domingo, 5 de junio de 2005

-------------------------------------------------------------

La infanta Cristina da a luz a una niña,

sexto nieto de los Reyes y cuarto hijo de los duques de Palma.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Lea la noticia completa en: http://www.hola.com/

-------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

[Best I can do to translate: HH the Princess Christina gave birth to a baby girl, the sixth grandchild of the King and Queen of Spain and the Duke and Duchess of Palma's fourth child.]

Picture Test

Testing the picture setup on the blog with this photo of my beloved Lolo T who suffers from sleep apnea. This was from a party at my ninang's yesterday. 

My Summer Reading List

About two summers ago, I was still on my spiritual kick. I read some Henri Nouwen, Gloria Hutchinson's A Retreat with Teresa of Avila: Living By Holy Wit, and Timothy M. Renick's Aquinas For Armchair Theologians, basically stuff you could browse only at a Catholic book store. The most non-Catholic I got was Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life? or maybe DaVinci Code (haha).

Then attending my college reunion last June put me back on track with the power and money game. Began reading the NY Times every day (teachers get it 60% off) in addition to the local paper, and was hooked on Candace Bushnell (Four Blondes, Sex And The City, etc.) for a while. I also enjoyed Gretchen Craft Rubin's Power, Money, Fame, Sex as well as her father-in-law's autobiographical In An Uncertain World. Having just finished Steve Levitt's Freakonomics (the spring's "It-Book"), I wonder why his is so much more popular than Gretchen's. Both authors have equally sterling credentials and impeccable intellects. Maybe Steve hired a better publicist?

Instead of Hawaii we'll be hitting the streets of DC and NYC this summer, so I plan to continue on with the establishment reading list. Started A Matter of Opinion, an autobiography by The Nation publisher Victor Navasky. Other titles I might take traveling are Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, John Perkins's Confessions Of An Economic Hitman, and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud And Close.

In case I need something less insular (but with just as much cachet?), I might try Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life of Bees (so last year!) or Mark Brazaitis's The River of Lost Voices, stories about Guatemala that won an Iowa Short Fiction Prize. Isabelle Allende just rewrote the legend of Zorro, and that might be worth looking into as well.

So that's my agenda for now -- we'll see how much of this I actually get through.

Summer Reading - A Teacher's View

Time for teachers to put out their summer reading lists. I don't do this for my students 'cause they're just too little. But I do encourage them to read and write about their favorite books and experiences over the summer to continue honing their critical thinking skills.

Within the movement towards high stakes testing there has been a smaller movement focusing on reading "fluency," which in teacher talk means a combination of rate and expression. We have charts that show the correlation between words per minute (wpm) and percentage scores on standardized comprehension tests. Professionally, I like this information very much because, apart from moral and other judgments you can make about testing, the correlative data is quite accurate in telling me about my students. I have also found it helpful to parents in measuring their child's progress. Simply put, students who read faster are more likely to score higher on tests. They can do this because they are likely to be more efficient in getting through the test materials. Instead of expending energy on decoding, they focus on understanding and answering the questions correctly. Like an athlete who runs to builds her endurance, a student focusing on reading fluency develops mental vigor.

That said, I do not think there is enough emphasis on written fluency, the key to critical thinking. Not at all to editorialize about my school or school district in particular, but generally speaking, I would say that elite schools tend to emphasize critical thinking in the form of written response much more. I would cite the scholarly research supporting this, but don't have the energy to find it right now (sorry, only blogging). Just believe me, or if you need "proof," look at who makes the rules in society: judges and professors, maybe doctors and journalists -- the ones who can write! So if you want an educational tip, put aside the skillsy workbooks and have your child read and respond (verbally, or preferably in writing) over the summer. And then do some for yourself, so as to foster "a culture of literacy" in your home.

Tech Is The New Bling

The problem with having time away from work is that when you're not making money, you're spending money. Such was the case with me last weekend. I had three days off including Memorial Day, and though I spent at least half the time sick in bed, I also managed to get out and drop just about all the retroactive pay collected in last month's paycheck.

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but in this day and age, tech is the new bling. I got myself an iPod Mini for traveling and hanging out this summer as well as my first digital camera. It's been some work learning to use my purchases, but I'm having a great time -- the only bummer is thinking that within a year they will likely be obsolete.

In the meantime, however, I am dazzled by the advances of our technological age. So as to have the full experience, look forward to a picture or two to be posted to this blog in the next couple of months.