NYC Day 2

Foggy Monday Morning....

CitySights NY bus - a hop-on hop-off bus tour. We bought the discounted price for 3 days through Priceline when we did the airfare. This was a good way to get off in different parts of town. Good for first timers, ESPECIALLY good if you get a good tour guide. Josh and Alyssa jumped on it one day and had a great older Bronx New Yorker who told them the good and the bad of everything he passed! One time we had a younger guy who told us only stuff about TV shoots, movie locations and celebrities. CitySights only has an upper deck, sometimes covered in plexiglass or partial plexiglass. The red busline has all open air top, which looked breezier. Also, ours stopped running at 6 p.m, and the red one seemed to keep running.

Paesano's on Mulberry Street in Little Italy  was delicious and not outrageously priced for lunch.  Outdoor dining was full, but indoors was quaint and old world feeling.

New York Film Academy (SoHo Campus); we walked there and met Barron, Katie's new counselor. Did a tour, sat in on an acting on stage class. Chaotic, but fun. It's going to be pricey, but Katie liked it.


The 1760. We hopped in a cab because we were trying to make the 3:30 tour of the dorm where the NYFA students have 2 floors. We had to get from SoHo to 97th street. We made it with 5 minutes to spare, and $20 cab fare. Really nice safe neighborhood. Typical dorm room, but it does come with TV, microwave, fridge. There's a doorman, weight room, study rooms, library, laundromat, mail room, community kitchen with convection oven and stove.

  Rockefeller Center Walked over from the Marriott.  Lots of people there for Easter.

 We had Top of the Rock tickets, but the line was really long on Sunday. So we decided we'd do it Monday or Tuesday night. That never happened because THICK fog rolled in on Monday night, then Tuesday night, we were just worn out! The idea of waiting in any lines for a great view of the tops of buildings didn't really appeal to us at that point. Another time. ;)

John's Pizza for dinner. Chris Romano's recommendation. They have 4 restaurants now, and Chris's fav was on Greenwich/Bleeker, we ate at the convenient one near Times Sqare. Viewable from our room. Really great pizza! Service was not so great, probably better in the original location. Still, we'd do that again. 

Hershey Store. Went over thinking there was a tour of some kind. But there wasn't. Just a lot of chocolate for sale, shirts with M & M, mugs, Reese's lunch boxes, etc. Not great.

NYC Day 3

Finally a morning with no fog! Our plans were a little up in the air, hinging on the weather. So we were off and running!

Harbor Cruise.
A 90 minute guided tour down the Hudson River, lots of explanations about the viewable buildings, history, skyline, bridges, and then up the East River. Up close to the Statue of Liberty. GREAT tour!! Booked it through Priceline with the Airline tickets. This might have been our favorite tourist attraction.

These two pictures are blurry because I haven't figured out the scanner yet. They were taken by the Harbor Cruise photographer as we boarded the boat.  Not to worry, we took a lot of pictures from the boat - pictures of each other, shots of the skyline and the bridges.  So I just created a slideshow for it. Seems a little dramatic, but I'm just learning how to do this.

If you click a picture, the video will open at the beginning in another tab/page. Otherwise, it starts rolling the minute you enter the blog. If you place the cursor over a photo, without clicking, it will show whatever comments we have about that particular photo. We're not really sure about the buildings and the bridges, sorry, we just took them when we were on the Harbor Cruise. The captain was wonderful, explaining everything...if only I could remember what he said!!

City Bus
The Harbor Cruise offers free shuttle back and forth to Times Square. But we wanted to go to SoHo to see the NY Fire Museum. We considered walking, but Michael and Josh spoke to the Cruise Captain who showed us where to just hop on the city bus for free and go to Bleeker Street. We stood at first, then rode a little past Bleeker. We did see Cydney's recommendation of Two Boots Pizzeria , but we got off and walked on to Spring Street.


NYC Fire Museum
Great museum. Operates on donation, so bring cash. Lots of photos, old equipment, engines, gear you can try on. Clearly a "school trip" kind of place, but we liked it a lot. Very moving videos about 9/11 taken by the firefighters there.
Michael took a bunch of pictures in there, so we'll probably add another slide show! lol

Union Square
My foot was hurting, so Alyssa, Josh and I took a cab to Union Square. When we got there, we found a great Chocolate Restaurant, Max Brenner's http://www.maxbrenner.com/home.aspx although we had a rather rude Russian waitress. Still, the restaurant smelled FABULOUS, and the desserts were totally decadent! Michael and Katie wanted to do some more exploring, so they took the subway to Union Square. They got on going the wrong direction, hopped off, then got back on going the other way. They ended up at TGIF, because it was familiar and we didn't know what street we had turned off the square to get to our restaurant. So when we finished, we met them at TGIF.

NYFA Union Square campus
We walked over to the campus where the behind-the-scenes classes are held, as well as the counselor's area and where Katie will have to go when she first "checks in" in September. We met Barron there and also met the Housing coordinator for The 1760. They let us sit in on an acting course. Katie felt like she'd be just fine in those kind of classes.

Subway
Since Michael and Katie had already ventured into the Subway, we decided we'd take it back to the hotel. We tried to use the credit card to purchase single pass metro tickets, but it wouldn't take it. So we put cash in one at a time, which took a little while, and I'm sure made it clear to one and all that we were tourists. Josh and Alyssa watched a drug deal, while local kids were clearly letting friends in and out the emergency exit. The alarms were being ignored and live music was being played around the corner. So everyone got there cards and we started through the turnstiles. I mistakenly pushed mine forward because I didn't want to have to squeeze into the smaller area. But unfortunately, I was then trapped in between, unable to go either way. So Alyssa ran her metro card and I went on through. That left her on the opposite side of all of us, unable to get through! So initially I handed her my credit card and told her to get in line for another card. Josh noticed that drug dealer was still watching us and this did not sit well with him. So he reached over and opened the Emergency exit we had seen people use, pulled Alyssa through, alarms sounding, and we were off to our train!  We were still a little unsure which train we needed, but we made our best guess and we were right.  Upon arriving in the midtown area, Michael found musicians to photograph. Then we headed up to the hotel. Quite an adventure!

Wonderland
Katie bought her own ticket to see this show. She played Alice when she was 13, so she feels she should see all things Alice in Wonderland -related! She liked the show and it was right in our hotel, so that was great! Her seats were in the 6th row!

Pompeii
Michael got tickets to the Discovery Museum which was also right off Times Square.  Great exhibit!!



Shopping on Times Square
Josh and Alyssa went shopping for a purse and phone cover from the street vendors. Success! The purse was huge, the phone cover was pink - all was right in the world. The streets were packed because all the shows were running on Tuesday night. (None on Monday, and only a few on Sunday night)

Bubba Gump Restaurant 

We decided to splurge on seafood in Times Square. Drinks, dessert - the works! Alyssa even got a glass that lights up!  Service there was great. Food was delicious. Desserts were HUGE!  Yes, it was fun. Yes, it was waaaay overpriced. But...New York...

NYC Day 4 (Last Day)

WEDNESDAY
Preprinted the boarding passes in the Business Center at the Marriott. This is such a great time saver - plus you can change your seats around a little bit if you need to.
Starbucks in the hotel for coffee and croissants.
Carmel Car service back to pick us up. Got us to the airport in about 20 minutes.

LaGuardia Airport - hardly any lines. No extra security checks like there were on the way to NYC. I even forgot to pull out my liquids in my little quart bags, they just went on through. (Alyssa got through the Austin airport with a pocket knife in her purse, but both Josh and Michael had to let someone go through both their bags on the way TO New York.)  Funny flight attendant chatted with us all the way to Dallas. We were right near the galley. Then on the flight from DFW to Austin, there wasn't enough room for all the overhead baggage. Josh took his backpack out and let someone put their suitcase in his spot. He was wearing an Aggie hat, so everyone just attributed his kindness to that. ;) Then another man was pacing the aisles, getting angrier about not finding a place for his bag. He told the flight attendants to "shut up and do your job," along with a few more insulting comments. We were thinking he was about to pull down someone else's bag when he turned to the flight attendant and pounded his fist into his hand, as if to indicate he was about to punch her. Moments later, he was being escorted off the plane. Someone came back and got his wife and his other bags, and that was that. Very exciting though! lol

Parking
Last little surprise. We didn't pay attention to the prices for the parking garage. We were sleepy and Michael was parking the car after we were all dropped off on our way out of Austin. I realized he had parked in the covered parking and expected it to be expensive, like $40. Nope. Try $80! Probably won't do that one again.

Then Ron came to take Michael back to Texas State where he had to finish up a paper and start a take-home test. Katie had to be dropped off at Ballet Austin for dress rehearsal for her shows the next weekend. Alyssa, Josh and I came back to the house, unloaded and went out for some good ole Tex-Mex!

All in all a great trip!!!

Friends on facebook suggested a variety of things we never got around to. But we will in the future. Thanks! Here were the suggestions:
Art Student's League on 57th street; Mood fabrics, united nations tour, toysRus times square, life cafe (from Rent), NBC store, FAO Schwatrz, Union Square Cafe, Spirit for $10 flights, and
http://ask.metafilter.com/184245/How-to-Spend-My-MidSpring-Staycation

Choosing "My Word"

Every year, instead of making New Year's Resolutions, my friend chooses a word. It's a word she wants to concentrate on, to incorporate more into her daily life. I've always been a little envious, because I could never be decisive enough to find ONE word. Somewhere along the way, she sent me an article, because evidently lot's of people were doing this. Check out the article, Resolution Revolution, to help you understand what I'm talking about.
But my point about all of this, is that THIS year, I have found my word! FOCUS. When I thought of it, I knew it was MY word. 
FOCUS seems to be a strange choice, yet if you look at my life and my path, "strange" isn't really that strange at all! It's kind of my version of "normal" or "expected." Well, normal is a bit of stretch, but, you know what I mean.

Here is why I choose FOCUS. I have this feeling right now. This little voice keeps saying "Now or never" and "Fifty on Sunday, ya know." I have no negative connotations with that number. I have many people who inspire me that have long since passed that "marker." yet, for me, it's a wake up call. Time to FOCUS.

While I haven't chosen a particular word for my birthday in years past, I can look backwards and see several that jump out as a noticeable presence:

JOY             LAUGH             FREEDOM         ACCEPT

        WILD                PLAY           ADVENTURE      
                     FLOW            GIVE                                         

And I think each of these words have left an indelible mark on my heart, Many of which have settled into my core. They are as part of me as my height or my shoe size.  But with these core ideas and words that define me, that little voice creeps through. Wandering between words like WILD and JOY. Whispering to me that the clock is ticking, "if not now, when?"

So I choose FOCUS.

And yet, I'm not even sure what I am to FOCUSING on! But I have a sense of waking up. Rubbing my eyes, still blurry from a late night. All my past words still with me. All of them turning to me, smiling, saying, "ok...what next?"
My response? Ok, let's FOCUS.

FOCUS

"I'm Right and You're Evil"

It’s a little shocking to read it that way, right?  Yet that’s the position of so many people.  This type of thinking permeates the airwaves of radio and TV.  For some reason, we have come to tolerate a violent rhetoric in our society today.  Congressmen can shout “you’re a liar” at the President during a speech. Homeland Security committee members are spit upon. Talk show hosts scream at their guests.  This display of disrespect has reached a Jersey Shore level, even in places where we expect decorum and civility to be present during discourse. And these are simply the tips of the iceberg.

Everyone needs to repudiate these kinds of actions and ways of communicating. Openly. Without hesitation.  We need to eliminate visuals, such as putting people in crosshairs for visual effect. We need to openly oppose those who say, “if the ballots don’t work, we’re not afraid to use bullets.” That’s just unacceptable language.

While I know many people are not Bill Clinton fans, he said this:
It’s not that we should reduce our passion,  But we have to think about our word choices. They fall upon the serious and the delirious alike. The connected & the unhinged.

We have stood by while radio personalities and politicians have uttered incredibly hostile comments.  All in the name of Free Speech.  But free speech has its limits. You can’t yell “Fire!“ in a movie theatre, or make comments about bombs in airports.  So when those on the TV and radio cannot stop with the vitriolic speech, then we simply have to speak up and say “Enough.”  It’s wrong. And there IS fallout from it. The media is about ratings - and screaming banter draws a crowd.

Maybe it’s as simple as mothers standing up and saying, “Don’t talk like that.”  or “if you see/hear something bad and say nothing, you are now a part of the problem.”  Or maybe just turning off the Talking Heads who rail against others in a way that does nothing to create solutions.   Instead, it entertains those who are evidently so frustrated they are wishing for some bully to come in and do their dirty work.  Real solutions are difficult to find and create. But we need to stop tolerating the banter that only creates obstacles.

 It is up to us to have conversations with our families about acceptable and unacceptable ways to communicate. We need to be clear about ramifications that come from sitting by quietly when those with opposing views are demonized. No solutions can come from that style of communicating - whether it’s an altercation on the playground or among politicians talking about our economy.


originally posted on Facebook after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot by someone who was apparently caught up in all the drama in the media.

Halloween 2010

We started Halloween weekend with a 3 a.m. Call Time for Katie on the "Bone Boys" set downtown. Ron went with her since it was so late, met the directors, the costume people and the caterer! It was all pretty impressive. They were filming at the jail on Guadalupe. Later that day, Ron went to San Marcos to pick up Michael, who is without a car but in his last year at Texas State University.

Friday night was Pflugerville High School’s last home game, and the Lady Panther Dancers had their “Bone Dance” to do. Everyone was excited to see it.  Ron and Michael met up with Julie and Allen in the stands.




Grandma, Cydney Romano, and Jose Benitez met up with Sue & Katie at the house. Their plan was just to come during the 2nd quarter and leave after the Halftime Show.  The show was great, Alyssa had a stunt where she had to be held up in the air in the splits and spun in a circle! Temperatures dropped and we buggaloo’d out of there when the show was finished!

While the game continued, we picked up Chocolate cake, microwave BBQ, mashed potatoes & macaroni (mainly for Jose since he had had oral surgery that morning). Grandma stayed back at the house to warm up with some tea, and Katie crashed on the couch.  (She had to go to Friday morning classes right after shooting the movie, so she was operating on about 45 minutes sleep!)The game ended and we all converged back at the house. 

On Saturday, Alyssa had 3-4 parties to go to as a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.
Michael’s Druid celebration was held at Mt. Bonnell on Sunday night. He thought the candles and dark clothes might have been a little spooky for passersby. Ron ran him back to San Marcos afterwards.
Katie helped hand out candy at our house, then left for a Cast party Halloween in South Austin.
Alyssa was originally going to have people over to trick or treat, but that fell through. Halloween falling    on a school night, curbed a lot of people’s plans. So she went to Vicente Rodriguez’s house and met up with a lot of people there. Then she went visiting people and came home.
With Sue hobbling around with a broken foot, we were lucky to get any Halloween decorations up at all this year!  And we never even carved the pumpkin that Katie brought home.  So we added some orange and purple lights to the front porch, plugged in our fake jack-o-lantern, and embraced another Halloween.

NOTHING is ever simple

“Professor Garbor, I have some bad news. I never checked the expiration on my passport and it expired months ago. So we’re working on getting a new one and it looks like I’ll be on the flight on Thursday, instead of Monday. I am soo sorry. Is this going to mess everything up?”

I don't believe in Revisionist History. So while Michael's trip to Belize was wonderful in many ways. it wasn't perfect - not the trip, not the days leading up to it, not the people involved.  But if you're reading here, you'll know I'm going to simply tell it the way it happened.

Michael is a lot like me. He's a People Organizer. When he first starting seriously planning his trip to Belize with his Anthropology class, he set up a Facebook Group. This would allow pre-trip information and post-trip pictures to be shared easily. No one would become a bottleneck. He posted reminders they had received at meetings, so no one would forget important deadlines. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Airfare was purchased a month in advance, suitcases were nearly ready and we were sitting around on the last Sunday afternoon before Michael was to leave. Julie, her boyfriend, her kids, her dogs, plus Grandma, plus our five. The topic of passports comes up and how the prices have risen significantly.  Julie and her ex-husband had traveled extensively and she was certainly the most "in the know." As we’re all chatting, Michael flips to his own passport.   The color drains from his face. He goes upstairs to show me, “Expiration: 2/28/10.” In all of his prepping for the trip, he never thought to look at the expiration date!  His plane for Belize was to leave in 48 hours - possibly without him now.

But we're all problem-solvers. So Ron grabs the laptop and I gets on the PC, quickly looking at passport renewal information. Many of the sources look like it might take a month to renew - 2 weeks at the minimum. Finally, we both stumble on “Same Day Passports.” And they have an office in Austin. Interestingly, they boast that they are available 24/7. So I find the number and Ron makes the call. And, on a Sunday night, a man actually answers the phone. Ron describes the situation and the man thinks he can get a passport for Michael by Wednesday. Ron and Michael would need to be at their office on Monday morning at 8 a.m.

As solutions are being found to the passport problem, I move to the airline issue. The roundtrip air flight was booked through Orbitz. Finding the itinerary, I look to see if anything is available on Thursday and what the costs will be to change the flight. With only 4 days advanced planning, the available flight is only $100 more! Tack on the “change of flight” charges and the Orbitz charges and we’re at $280 more. But Michael now has a seat on Thursday morning flight. There *were* some Wednesday night flights, but since he’d have to take a water taxi for the first time, it seemed best to not do that at night. Plus, if there was a glitch at the passport office, we’d be frantically doing this all over again.

Next, Michael needed to reach his teacher. The first numbers were not working. So he dug through is suitcase to find alternate contact numbers. His teacher was already in Belize and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to reach him. But, success! Professor Garber answered the 3rd number.

To say that Professor Garber is laid back, is an understatement.

Dr. Garber

“Maaaan. Shit happens, ya know? Especially when it comes to traveling. It won’t be a problem. We’ll probably still just be setting up! Call me if it changes, but we’ll look for you on Thursday."

A few more pleasantries were exchanged and that was that.


Monday, Ron and Michael went to Same Day Passports and completed the paperwork for the passports. The total charge was going to be $525. This would get the expedited passport to us on Wednesday morning. If there was a snag and the expediting is denied, we would have to pay an additional $290 but we could have the passport by Wednesday night. At this point, we had already invested about $6000. If we had to add another thousand to it, it’s better than walking away leaving $6000 for nothing. So we did.

Michael and Ron came back. Ron went back to work and Michael went back to house-sitting. (He was in the middle of a weeklong house-sitting for a house FULL of pets in the nearby neighborhood) With passports on the brain, Ron started looking up the regular costs, so the rest of the family could have passports. He noticed that there were extra steps if the applicant applied for a passport before reaching age 16. Michael’s expiration date was one month before his 21st birthday, so it seemed likely that he HAD applied before he was 16. So Ron called SameDay Passports, and she pulled up the date for the original passport issue date. Sure enough, Michael had completed the paperwork at 15, before he went to Japan. This meant they had completed the wrong paperwork at Same Day passports.

Nothing could be done locally to fix this.

New instructions: Ron had to call the State Department in Houston to make an appointment. We had no idea whether this would be the next day or weeks from now. Luckily, he got an appointment for 1 p.m. the next day, Tuesday. I had to get to Same Day Passports to pick up the passport and the other paperwork that was there for them to TAKE to Houston. They close at 5 p.m. but agreed to stay a little late since it was their error. What time was it when Sue found out she had to go across town in rush hour traffic? 4:55 p.m.

So with paperwork in hand, Ron and Michael trekked to Houston Tuesday morning. They found their way, with the help of Katie’s GPS, without problems. As they were chatting with the man completing the paperwork at the State Department, Ron and he discover that they KNEW each other. Both were stationed together at Sheppard AFB. That’s all fine and good, but now he has to get someone else to come swear Michael in, since he “knew” him. At this point, what’s another few minutes?

But the Same Day Passports people were again incorrect when they said he would be able to leave the interview with his passport. In fact, it would take 24 hours. And they could not mail it to us, they would have to pick it up there. So, that meant Ron and Michael would have to stay overnight in Houston. This turned out kind of fun, since I found online that the Museum of Natural Science was actually easily accessible to where they were. And, Tuesdays are open late until 8 p.m., so they were able to spend a decent amount of time there.

Is it too soon to say maybe luck is changing? As I type, it’s Wednesday morning. We are waiting for the 2:30 pick up time for the passport. And, if all goes well, they’ll get back tonight and Michael will board his plane Thursday morning for Belize.

Just to toss a few good things out:
- Michael was really lucky his teacher is laid back and not caring if he arrives late. This trip is for credit that he needs for his upcoming senior year.
- We were lucky to get a flight on Thursday, and it was only $100 more. I thought the point of reserving your seats way in advance was to keep costs low? Hmmm.
- Same Day Air returned all our money, and going to Houston to do this looks like it will cost a fraction of the “convenience” of doing the passport thing in Austin. Of course, we had to add on gas (but they took the Prius!) and hotel fee. But still, it’s not going to come up to $1000. More like a $500-$550.
- Ron and Michael got to have a little time at the museum together in Houston. They have similar interests so that works.

Gratitude Journals

Let’s face it. Teenagers are on a roller coaster when it comes to their emotions.  It’s so easy for them to get swept up in the drama of day to day living.  This easy tip will help raise their spirits if it’s a particularly low day, and help reinforce the good if all is going pretty well. Not to mention, it's a good life skill to carry you forward into adulthood. It's not like rocky roads happen only in adolescence!  Parents just need to give teens tools to help them cope.

Start a  gratitude journal. Maybe something nice from the local bookstore. Or maybe just a spiral they can keep near their bed. But the ONLY thing that should be recorded in this particular journal is gratitude. 

The whole process should only take a few minutes before bed. Sit still and think about how the day went.  From start to finish.   If you begin to think of something that went wrong, for this little span of time, put that aside for now and keep the focus on what went right. After walking through the entire day, list at least three things to be grateful for.

Here are a few questions to maybe think about.

Who did you see?
Who did you talk to?
Did you read anything that made you feel good?
How was the weather?
How were your pets when they saw you?
Did you exercise? How did it feel afterward?
Did you watch anything funny happen?
Did you see anything beautiful?

Our entire attitude is affected by what and where we choose to focus.  Hasn’t everyone had the experience where all was well until ONE person did or said ONE negative thing? And then all the good was tossed out the window and replaced with an overwhelming feeling of discontent?  So, instead of being swept away by the squeaky wheels in our lives, let’s get back in the driver’s seat. Let’s deliberately pull the positives to the front of our minds.

Try this for a month. See if it helps.

This is THE YEAR

I turned 49 on my last birthday. You know how kids always want to be older? So when mine would have a birthday, they would quickly remind me that that meant they had COMPLETED that year and they were actually in the next.  Seven wanted to be  Eight, Thirteen wanted to be Fourteen, but Forty-Nine... she KNOWS what's just around the corner. She isn't so quick to jump to that one.

I'll just say it out loud. Fifty. 50. Five-O.
And when my dad turned 50, I told him if he were furniture, he'd be worth more as he's finally an antique. Not so with humans. Wasn't I cute? Not so funny anymore.

I've never been the type to hide my age. Maybe it's too many years of Popeye saying, "I am what I am!"

I don't color my gray hair. Although my kids beg me to. I finally got them to admit that they simply think I'm that much closer to dying by having gray hair. Irrational? Probably. I'm not ruling it out, but it's not high on my list. Plus, Ron is 10 years older than me, and has white hair. He has for a while now. I think my little gray "highlights" seem appropriate! ha!  But I will say that a plus to having gray hairs is that they come in wavy and thicker. I've always had limp brown hair...this is simply making it more interesting!

I've spent a lot of my adult years raising kids. I'm still not done. And now my mom has moved here, so I help her as well. I think they call us The Sandwich Generation when this happens. It's easy to just go with the flow and spend the day putting out other people's fires. But time keeps going. And now there are probably more years behind me than ahead of me. I think it's time to work on my own personal Bucket List.

Maybe the winds are all about to change...

What Should They Learn?

I read a blog about "What should children learn?" They were trying to think outside the box. They wondered if the focus on traditional subjects is really all that important. Seeing the responses was interesting. I had an inkling that my list would not resemble too many others, but with 3 teenagers, and 2 grown step-kids with children of their own, here's what I think are the most important things children should learn:

• Kindness and compassion. Learn how to put yourself into other people's shoes.  When everyone else jumps on a bandwagon against something someone did, hold back a little bit.

• Live in the moment. Realize that there are about 16 waking hours in a day. And when they're gone, they're gone. There's nothing wrong with having a little "down time" but make sure you have some "up time too."

• Listen to people when they talk to you.  Give them your full attention.  Think about what they're saying but also why they might be saying it to you.

• Learn healthy eating choices and find exercise that you like and can do nearly every day. You're going to be in this body for a while - longer if you take care of it

• Learn your strengths and your weaknesses. Do something about or with both. Take time to get to know yourself.

• Learn about the nature of advertising and marketing. 

• Learn how to pursue your interests. Learn how to find information on the internet.

• Be brave. Try new things. You never know what you might actually like.

These are what come to mind when I think about what children should be taught.  In school curriculum, I think they call these "threads." They are supposed to permeate different subjects year after year. I like the idea of these topics being the important threads.  I believe the reading, writing, and math will present itself.  And if you need these more traditional "subjects" for a job you'd like to pursue, that's why we have community college.

Sleep Issues & Real Life

 For years, I've let my children sleep however late, and go to bed at whatever hour. It worked well for our homeschooling lifestyle. We got up early when we needed to be somewhere. We went to bed when we were done with our day. But I would frequently be accosted by people saying,  "How will they be able to hold down a job - follow a schedule - adhere to expectations -- if I never impose any on them as children?" Well, it's a non-issue. It's like practicing the act of waiting in line. Or working on eating. Honestly, when they were younger, I'd think, "well, they just won't choose a job that conflicts with their natural rhythm." They seemed to be night owls and there are plenty of jobs that "start late."

But that's not what happened.

What actually happened is that they found a job they wanted, and they made their own rhythm cooperate. They are not late to work. I sometimes don't even get up with them! They have alarm clocks. They shower. They manage just fine thank-you-very- much (I don't mean that snappy tone for you all - just my long ago naysayers!) Katie proved this to me when she went to stay with her grandma in Dallas so she could attend a month-long intensive drama program. She got herself up at 5 a.m., checked her email, fixed her breakfast, showered, dressed, and caught the city bus to go downtown. She was 15. She's nearly 19 now, and if she needs to be at work or go to an audition or take a class, she gets herself there on time. She is aware that she needs to go to bed earlier than usual, and just goes.


Michael and Katie's first jobs were at Barnes and Noble. They had a lot of 7 a.m. shifts.  They were never late because they wanted to sleep in.  At 13, Alyssa started going to cheerleading competition on weekends. We frequently stayed in hotels and had to be at the competition by 7 a.m. That meant she usually needed to start getting ready around 5:45. She jumped right up and started getting ready. Now she's in school and has to be up by 7:30 every weekday.  She has no problem with it. Sure, she sleeps until noon on the weekends when she can, but she stays up late then too. And it's not because she had to practice to do this.

So, that's my real life experience with kids and sleep schedules. No one needed to rehearse getting up early. They did/do it when they need to.

Just an interesting little fact... at least to me.

IMPROV = LIFE

So today didn't start out great. Actually, it's been several days of not-good. But sometimes, when you get to the end of your rope, and you're just hanging there, you can look around. And if you CAN, you can see. Or you can hear. Or something you already knew can come back to the surface...

My friend Teresa just called to tell me about this great Improv Class that her kids are taking downtown. She said the teacher just had so much great positive energy she wanted to tell me some of the stuff she heard. Teresa said, "She's talking about IMPROV, but I think it's way more than that."

Instead, look what the Improv Teacher says...

....Say Yes to everything and then just add on to it.

....It's all about failure. It's gonna happen. It's what you do with it that makes it good. So laugh it off and turn it into something good.

...Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep moving forward.
No stopping and dwelling.
You throw stuff out and keep moving on.

....There are no Buts in Improv


Indeed. Life really is made up of Improv. One Improv act after another. The audience always thinks there are no rules. But there are. Because GOOD Improv follows a few basic steps. Just a few. I can handle a FEW rules.

I think I'm about to improve my Improv act. ;)

Katie and College

For years, Katie has vacillated about what she wants to do for college. Or if she even wants to go.  She liked the idea of Conservatories. And really liked the idea of living in New York.  She would read the bios on the playbills, see where the actors studied, and explore their option online.

Katie is still 18 but has spent most of her teen years pursuing acting, dance and voice. She has coaches and teachers and an agent. She drives all over Central Texas honing her craft. So we were in no big rush to "do college." She just didn't feel like it was a good fit.

She hadn't studied traditional subjects, so she felt like she'd be pretty far behind, if she tried to test for college placement. But last year, she started looking at other universities, like NYU or Carnegie Melon.  Since neither of these options are inexpensive, we decided she might want to take community college to knock out the basics and then she could just take the upper level courses at the university that fits her.  After all, who needs Carnegie Melon's College Algebra? or NYU's U.S. History?  Unsure of what plan to pursue, she thought it would be wise to keep all doors open. So she took the College Placement Test for community college.

The Compass Test, as it is called, has 3 sections: Reading, Writing, Math. She started with the Essay. She had to write a persuasive essay about whether freshmen college students should live in the dorm or be allowed to live off campus. Weird topic, right? But it just so happened her brother had JUST started college and had the exact dilemma when he found that all the dorms were full! So, she passed the essay with flying colors.  She didn't pass the questions section for writing, however. Nor did she pass all of the parts of the Reading section. And she didn't pass any of the Math - but we didn't expect much differently in this area. Actually, by the time she got to the math, she kind of blew it off expecting she'd need developmental classes for it anyway.

So, a less than stellar performance on the Compass. However, she was glad that her online writing had given her enough practice to do well on the essay portion.

Time passed. She worked on more shows, took more lessons. She back-burnered the whole "college thing." But this year, over Christmas, she decided she wanted to look at it again. It turns out, she was dreading the whole re-test option. When we saw a counselor at the school, she said Katie could retest, or she could just accept what she tested at and take Developmental courses. This option really made Katie happy.

The Developmental courses are each broken down into 3 parts. For instance, Fundamentals Reading, Dev.Reading I and Dev Reading II. She would need all three parts of the Math. But she would only need the last section of Reading and 2 of the 3 for Writing. If she completes the Reading soon, she can take other classes while continuing to work her way through the Math courses.  So she signed up for Developmental Reading and Writing. (By the time we got there, most of the developmental classes were full.) She will only need one more Writing after this, and her 3 Developmental Math courses.

I think it's interesting that you can complete all of the high school reading, math and writing in 3 semesters at Community College. It seems like a much better use of time. At least it has been for Katie and Michael.

So, Spring 2010, Katie is enrolled in College. She starts mid-February.
She's excited.