Last Minute Christmas List

I just found Cecily's wish list in her back-pack.  Here it is, with first grade spellings maintained:

*iphon

*sel phon

*500 bux

*swimming pool

*yoyo boll

*bendaroos

*laptop

*kamra

and, best of all:

*servint

I'm running out to the store right now.

Merry Christmas!

introduction/conclusion

Even though I cringe when my kids bring home their fifth/sixth grade five paragraph essays with the thesis repeated in both the intro and conclusion, a practice I have to undo in every writing class I teach later on down the road, this particular example of thesis restatement transcends with it's incredible cuteness:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Doesn't everyone love a family bike ride? Or a beautiful peace of art?

or even just a great pair of shoes? Well those happen to be the 3 things I want for christmas and I'm about to tell you why I want those things.

The first reason I want a bike is because we live in Provo and if I had a bike I could ride so many places like school. It would also be better for the earth. And plus I've always wanted a bike.

The second thing I want for Christmas is a set of markers. The first reason is Grandma and Grandpa always ask me to draw pictures for them but all my markers are kind of dried out so I gave them to Moses and Cecily. And if I get a big set of markers I won't have to get markers for school.

The next thing I want for christmas is simply a couple of pairs of shoes. The first reason is, winter is coming and I'm going to need some good shoes, and also there are these shoes called Uggs that I really want.

Those are the reasons why I want shoes, a bike and a set of markers.

Sincerely,

Lula

Hercules Beetle

I saw one of these today, a real one, dead, pinned against moth-repellent in a drawer of beetles housed in the Bean Museum's insect collections.  The most interesting things in the exhibit, however, were the boy specimens--four seventh-grade boys I was chaperoning on a tour of the insect collection guided by a nerdly entomologist who somehow captivated their attention for an hour and patiently tried to find specimens that would satisfy their curiosity about:

*the biggest insect in the collection (do you want wingspan?  no, just massive.)

*the smallest insect in the collection (fleas on alcohol slides)

*the most deadly (the bee, fyi, who is the most dangerous animal by far in the U.S.)

*the weirdest (these huge walking-stick type insects from New Guinea)

*butterflies with clear wings and owl moths

Suddenly those boys were the cutest things I've ever seen, their baby faces, that in three or four years will be handsome, animated and looking engaged  with the material in a way  that I don't often see in the classroom.  Being that I teach English.  (In my limited experience with Jr. High and High School boys, many of them seem particularly resistant to writing in the classroom, or maybe they're just resistant to me.)  

I wish I could make this happen every day, but for now having a beautiful moment among 2,000,000 specimens  of insects was just really, really good.

i heart

I'm stealing this idea from light refreshments, and wanting to hear what you all heart as well:

I heart:

*ice cream cones

*mystery novels, especially pd james, laurie king, george pellecanos

*super hot baths

*jean valentine's poems

*the new yorker, not their poems usually

*fall and spring

*vinyl records

*emily dickinson

*spiderman

*all shades of red

*green vegetables, especially salads

*eva's curly hair and heart shaped lips

*brainstun

*gertrude stein

*the mountains in provo

*grandma beth

*momo's extra strong hugs

*savory breakfasts

*thomas bernhardt

*machaut

*jimmy stewart's interviews

*jon stewart

*on the media

*mom's dinner rolls

*williams and sonoma

*the provo farmer's market

*pizzaria 712

*the ladies in book club

*the ladies in my rs

*the ladies in primary

*sistahs

*ingrid's eyes and letters

*simpsons

*heirloom varieties

*clifford farms' eggs

*wall-E

*cecily's laugh and her stories

*kurasawa

*nyc

*the entire west coast

*moss

*mushrooms

*christian's profile

*the autobiography of red

*michael moore

*archie mcphee's

*bombay house

*lula's angel face and her projects

*blow-outs at the salon

*dresses

*family dinner

*heritage pork

*michael jackson

*mozart

*the frick

*the marriage of figaro

*house

*bedtime stories with the kids

*simon schama

*law and order, classic only

*olive oil

*john freida's brilliant brunette shampoo

*the dining room table where i write/the view out the dining room window

*insects

*rings

*diet coke

*lipstick

*driving

*tithing and food storage

*babies

*christian's profile and grey temples

*sea creatures

Max Roach, Ghandi

Also, if you want even more inspiration:

-Watch "Ghandi"--King got many of his ideas from Ghandi

-A Ghandi quote for Obama: "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

-Read the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

-Listen to Max Roach playing with the "I Have a Dream Speech"

-Three Ghandi Quotes for me, creeds for 2009:

(All of these quotes are mantras to keep me on track for my New Year's resolution to be a better parent. And for one of my children (she knows who she is) I vow to not even THINK sermons to her, passively, passive-agressively, or otherwise.)

1)"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."
2)"We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study." and
3)"Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience."

Required MLK, Jr. Day/Inauguration Eve Reading

This is the end of the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. It's a great one. It always makes me weep. What do you think of it in the context of this week's events?

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood—that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

crazy beautiful moon

i'm sitting at my writing place looking out the window at 7.13 am.  every couch is occupied by relatives who got stranded here in a snow storm. i can see the entire moon, but only a tiny sliver is lighted.  a shred of grey clouds is passing over it, but the tiny sliver shines through, and then it emerges again.  i'll stay here with the moon until it's gone.

No Excuses

Check out this post from Bittman:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/weekinreview/14bittman.html?ref=weekinreview

I heart him so much!!!!!

Blood

Last night I felt a little let-down after all of the election elation. I'm haunted by the interview with John Lewis that night on CNN--did anyone see it? The interviewer asked Lewis, with visible damage remaining from his severe beating in the sixties, if he had cried that day. Lewis said yes, he had cried that day, but that sometimes he felt that all his tears were gone. I'm so happy that we elected Obama, but still so sad that this election was bought for the price of so much blood, so many lives. This week created such a tangible arc between the Civil Rights movement and present times--it's never been so vivid to me before.

Obama Blue

Today Kindra and I went out for a celebratory pedicure, choosing blue for our nails. Then a celebratory Costco run, then a celebratory Kneader's lunch. I couldn't sleep last night I was so psyched. Eva called last night from Harlem (maybe a post about it, E.?) in the midst of a parade or street party or something. It was so moving to hear John Lewis speak. I also finally got my Obama bumper sticker and yard sign today! I put them up. All the haters can talk to me directly about Obama now, instead of whispering about it behind my back.

xo!!!

Lara

potpourri

A potpourri is different from highlights. I sense that the highlights are not a hit, and the potpourri format allows for more flexibility than the hi-lite format. It goes like this: bam's bouef borguignon-conference/confrince-tamales thrice-ingy twice-eva thrice-grey target dress-cecy's front tooth exit-lula's stations of the cross in bam's basements-matt's waffles w/a quart of whipping cream-nap at matt's beneath the skylight-marni's truck w/extended cab-kindergarten poem recitation-enchanted-mozart's skull-charlotte's buttermilk cake with almond whipping cream-siri hustvedt-tomatoes (almost garden-gone)-Mark's itouch-fabric from india-emily's bacon/eggs with chives-grandpa noel's roasted chile salsa-sundance-mormon democrats-the book of mormon as a guide to social justice-david letterman/tina fey-80's photographs-dieter uchtdorf-mel torme-whoopi goldberg-paul newman-chatting (i just learnt how!)-momo's pj's-fall break-ny plane tix.

Sorry if this is overly long. Haven't posted for a while. Or have I? So great to see the rockin' Mom and Dad and Marni and Mark. So sad to be without Eva and Ingrid. Tell me how you like the potpourri.