stress + music = supergreat

Spent this morning at an early meeting where we presented our budget woes to the OUSD Principals - how would YOU cut $28 million from a budget of $252 million?

Spent more of the morning helping with some tedious details at a deep east middle school - and busted two girls cutting school on pajama day.

Spent the afternoon helping with some tedious details at a shrinking elementary school - found some small space to laugh.

THEN, got a surprise gift from one of my favorite colleagues - the newest Cecilia Bartoli CDs PLUS the accompanying 100-page castrato dictionary!! Opera nerd SCORE!

THEN, I didn't get stuck on the Bay Bridge. Again. Scary.

neighborhood excitement

A mysterious event happened across the street this morning. I was completely puzzled, until these two finally emerged from the apartment (red umbrella for luck and protection), off to celebrate their lives together.

Maybe I'll still find that Chinese quincenera someday...

ladies

I don't think I've laughed that much in such a short period of time. And ate and drank well too.

challah + me'shell

Friday night fun: shabbos dinner with one of my favorite families plus a mind-blowing show by one of my favorite musicians... plus homemade challah and the continuing success of The New Parish.

Killer.

success!

Tonight, we celebrated the 3rd annual Oakland Unified School District Expect Success awards. I was honored to be in the room with so many incredible people, committed to the daily success of Oakland students and families.


From our small corner of the district, Operations Support was pleased to honor Linda for her hard work and passion for what's right for kids.

Onward!!

oakland nature

Busy day (mostly in my car). It's fall.


And we have rainbows.

special time

I'm pretty transparent about my love for Isaiah. We've been special friends for about three years now and I only hope that I get to be his buddy for a long long time to come.



Tonight, over dinner, music time, and bedtime, Isaiah:

• had a Shock-G moment ("I like my oatmeal lumpy.")
• sang me a song about all of his fingers ("How are you doing today? Very well I thank you.")
• tried to convert me to bananas ("But we have very very delicious ones in our kitchen.")
• asked attentive questions ("What is a vacation? Did you fly on a Southwest plane? Did you go to nee-ew yohk city?")
• rocked out with me
• read a lot of stories about how things work ("Why does a miller use a grindstone? Why are all of those pigs sleeping in the same bed?")
• named and re-named all of his stuffed animals
• successfully convinced his 4-month old brother that spinach in a tortilla was actually an ice cream cone
• yelled things to make me laugh ("Shabbat hooray!")
• left me with a cliffhanger on how pumpkins grow
• willed me to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in Spanish (arcoiris!). Twice.

Definitely made it easy to forget the early morning anxiety and endless work day.

lake music

I woke up crazy early this morning and went for a walk around the lake. Beating the sun to the day makes me feel smart and powerful for some reason.

Besides the killer views, the soundtrack really makes the difference. Many thanks to the podcasters (etc) known as Matthew Africa and Sake One for the morning accompaniments.

mantra

I had a rough September.

Thanks to Jamilah for the help with kicking off October:

True. True.