PAVEing a Blog

I have to say, my favorite month, March.  Favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day.  Girl Scout Cookies.  And not just because my birthday, my brother’s birthday, or alot of cool other people’s birthday, Camila, Alice, Ana, and more occur in this month…but just so many awesome things occur!  We travel to New York to represent Repentino. at Columbia, there’s Green Shamrock shakes, (Can I still have one on the 18th or 19th in New York?) – I love green almost, ALMOST as much as blue…just something about St. Patrick’s Day, love it more than anything else, so here’s to March, St. Patrick’s Day, and the approaching of Spring!  🙂

Life – can anyone try to explain it? Sure – I see every day 9th graders that think they have it all figured out, adult feeling they have enough experience to tell others exactly how and what life is – and amidst these extremes – I find myself at a crossroads.

In listening to Alan Watts, I am not ready to go to sleep and never wake up, I want to look at landscapes and have tears continue to be brought to my eyes, because of the things that I thought I knew would happen, and was caught off guard but the moments I did not see coming.

It’s hard to explain, lately, I find myself walking somewhere, anywhere, and my memories of my friends are so strong, so intense, I have tears in my eyes for no apparent reason at all, I mean none.  Just out of the blue.  Let me back up a minute,

…for some unexplained reason, which I can’t say I am minding, I have been having these walks where memories, snapshots, moments of my father keep coming back to me as if he is standing right beside me every day.  This is so comforting, as I always worry I am going to forget his face, but I know, I will NEVER forget his life.  I am still in awe of the sacrifices he made not only for his children, but for everyone he came into contact with that he made feel like his children, people he did not even know, this amazes me.  His touch and ability to reach into this void of someone he never met, and make them feel like family, is well, a gift I could only HOPE to ever reach…and amid this wanderings and musings, tears well up without warning, catching me off guard.  So people that might see me in those awkward moments, might think I am deeply sad. Actually the opposite.

In an ironic twist of fate, I find myself surrounded by students, adults, family, friends that have become family, students that have become family, and I realize, on my very worst days, days I rant and rave about the immaturity of 9th graders (my rant this week), ranting about people who cannot appreciate the simple things they have to be thankful for, I find myself truly unbelievably lucky, and yes, tears have been welling up lately more often than not because….well, because my experiences in looking back have been AMAZING because of the people in my life I have come across, I can’t possibly put it into works, not even.  It causes the only emotion my body can try to keep up with, tears.  I am surrounded by my Dad so much with the amazing people that represent so many parts of him – that I did not see before, because I was so busy.

If I ever get to busy to acknowledge these people truly I feel I won’t be justified to stay alive anymore, because I will cease living.  So no, I am not ready to sleep and not wake up, I haven’t been able to thank and enjoy these people these experiences, these moments that override the bad every day, although the bad manage to peak their head through.

Life…sometimes too much for words, but oh how grateful I am for the people who I have been lucky enough to cross paths with, despite my rambling, ravings, and anger at times, I am so incredibly lucky to have this life, with the people that have made up what is known as my life…:)

I wanted to post this as I am fascinated with the predictions, and new tales woven this year, and though I pledge not to watch the Oscars each year, I do find myself curious about the results, so here is the predictions set by my friend, Steve Givens:

Category: Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: 

Amy Adams   The Master

Sally Field   Lincoln

Anne Hathaway Les Misérables

Helen Hunt  The Sessions

Jacki Weaver  Silver Linings Playbook

Who I think will win: It will be the biggest shock of the evening if Anne Hathaway doesn’t win an Oscar for her performance in Les Miserables.  In fact, I will go so far as to say that her win is the most assured of any category, even Best Actor.  There’s been some last minute rallying for Sally Field, but I seriously doubt it will be enough to derail the train of awards Hathaway has been collecting the last few months.

Who I want to win: Although I found Les Miserables to be a very flawed movie, Hathaway just owned the screen for the short time she was on it.  Unlike the other actors in the cast, she was the perfect marriage between stage-quality vocals and screen-caliber acting.  In her big film moment, she made the most of singing live and created five minutes of raw and blistering emotion.  And. she did this while singing a song that has become such a Broadway cliché it often elicits groans when the opening chords start to play.  She is the only actress I’ve heard sing “I Dreamed a Dream” in such a way as to invoke the reality of the lyrics.  And, she deserves the Oscar because not only did she sidestep boring the audience, but she moved us with unfettered emotion.

*****

Category: Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: 

Alan Arkin   Argo

Robert De Niro  Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman   The Master

Tommy Lee Jones    Lincoln

Christoph Waltz   Django Unchained 

Who I think will win: For the first time in recent memory, the Best Supporting Actor category is the tough one to predict.  There is no clear frontrunner here, but I think it is safe to say the race comes down to Robert DeNiro and Tommy Lee Jones.  Right now, my money is on Robert DeNiro because he is a well-respected actor who hasn’t been nominated in a long time and hasn’t won in over thirty years.  I think the Academy will want to see him win again.

Who I want to win: I respect the performance Tommy Lee Jones gave in Lincoln because he managed to stand out and be memorable in a movie with a powerful performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.  Jones doesn’t really tread new ground in this role, but he does show that he is at the height of his acting prowess by doing what he does best.

*****

Category: Best Leading Actress

Nominees: 

Jessica Chastain    Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence   Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva   Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis   Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts   The Impossible 

Who I think will win: For a while there, Jessica Chastain was the frontrunner, but the buzz about her performance has died down in the weeks following the release of Zero Dark Thirty.  Now it seems like it will be a photo-finish between Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence.  I admire both actresses very much and see them as being Oscar worthy.  However, I have to give the edge to Lawrence here.  In many ways, she had the thankless role in Silver Linings Playbook since it could have been the usual understanding-woman-to-a-troubled-man role, but she flew with it by all accounts.  Plus, her movie hasn’t been tainted by recent controversy.

Who I want to win: I was positively blown away by Quvenshane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild.  Despite some detractors who say her performance was created more by editing and the director, the movie is filled with moments in which Wallis has to handle some very tense and difficult scenes.  The fact that she was around six years old when she filmed the role makes it all the more amazing.  She won’t win because she is too young, but hers was the most emotionally powerful of the female performances I saw.

*****

Category: Best Leading Actor

Nominees: 

Bradley Cooper   Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis   Lincoln

Hugh Jackman   Les Misérables

Joaquin Phoenix   The Master

Denzel Washington  Flight 

Who I think will win: Even money is on Daniel Day-Lewis taking home his third Best Leading Actor Oscar, and it would be well-deserved.  As always, Day-Lewis completely disappeared inside the character and created a believable and human portrait of one of the most famous presidents in U.S. history.  He has been racking up one award after another for this performance, and there is reason to believe he won’t take home the Oscar as well.  I will be very surprised if Day-Lewis doesn’t win.

Who I want to win: I don’t have a strong preference in this category except to say that I don’t want Hugh Jackman to win.  His performance in Les Miserables was okay and his singing only okay.  In order to declare him as Best Actor, he needed to have hit this role out of the ballpark, and that just didn’t happen.

*****

Category: Best Director

Nominees: 

Amour   Michael Haneke

Beasts of the Southern Wild   Benh Zeitlin

Life of Pi    Ang Lee

Lincoln   Steven Spielberg

Silver Linings Playbook   David O. Russell

Who I think will win: This will be the most anticipated category of the night because of who isn’t on the list: Ben Affleck.  Had he been nominated, most critics would be saying his win was a foregone conclusion.  But, without Affleck in the mix, it becomes anybody’s game.  I think it comes down to the old veterans: Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg, with a slight advantage to Spielberg because his film, Lincoln, has been more widely embraced by the Academy.

Who I want to win: This is another category in which I don’t have a strong preference.  If pushed, I would go with Ang Lee because I feel he had the more challenging story to film, and he did it magnificently.

*****

Category: Best Picture

Nominees: 

Amour   Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz, Producers

Argo   Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers

Beasts of the Southern Wild   Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers

Django Unchained  Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers

Les Misérables  Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers

Life of Pi   Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers

Lincoln  Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Silver Linings Playbook  Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers

Zero Dark Thirty   Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

Who I think will win: Conventional wisdom says that the film with the most nominations will most likely win Best Picture.  If that trend continues, then Lincoln will take home the big prize. However, that particular trend has been unreliable in recent years.  On top of that, many reports indicate that there is a huge swelling of support for Argo, driven mostly by sympathy for Ben Affleck because he didn’t receive a Best Director nomination.  With the influx in recent years of younger Academy voters, Best Picture wins have often been driven by emotion and the desire for dramatic moments.  I predict a win for Argo as a way of those younger voters thumbing their collective noses at the directing branch responsible for Affleck’s snub.  However, not to hedge my bets, I wouldn’t completely discount a Lincoln upset.

Who I want to win: Out of the nominated films I saw, the one I enjoyed the most was Life of Pi. It’s a highly imaginative and visually beautiful film that had every opportunity to fall flat and didn’t.  Plus, with the pervading political themes of many of the other nominees, Life of Pi stands out for tackling spiritual and philosophical issues, topics not usually dealt with in mainstream movies.  In such a strong year for movies, I won’t be upset if Life of Pi doesn’t win as most of the other nominees are worthy contenders, but it is the only one that consistently sparked some very deep thinking and conversations out of movie goers, myself included.  That alone makes it the choice for me.

Sunday – I love Sundays, I mean TRULY love Sundays!  I just sat down to take in the dog behavior class, then met someone from the UK that works at Greengates, he was awesome and had three stray dogs (ahem, I am not the only one!)  – then ran into Amy Gallie going to Yoga, and well overall, a great day!  I have begun to take advantage of the things that I often say I do not have time for, – seeing movies, reading whole books, enjoying the view of the air in a park – this is what weekends are all about…As usual, I’ll go backwards a bit…

Saturday, sleeping in, trying out the drink Chai Chiller at the nearby Origenes, then Saturday night  (a GORGEOUS and warm evening for February!) – seeing the movie Mama in Balderas, when was the last time I saw a scary film? Irony – in the middle of a climatic scary moment, the film breaks!  No kidding, all light go down, everything stops, and it was humorous for all that this occurred.  However, in 5 minutes (maybe 10) all was restored, and though I jumped many, many times, it was pushing yourself to go on a rollercoaster – you know it is going to scare you, maybe make you sick, yet you do it.  Hence, scary movie for me, plus that was the only thing that seemed the most interesting at the Balderas theatre.   The day before, Friday, what a beautiful evening again!  I love this weather!  Friday was full of just not hurrying anywhere, heading eventually to the best pizza joint in my area, sorry, this was is on the lowdown as a promise to someone that I’d keep this place a secret, and then headed to see Les Miserables.  Let me say one thing, I NEVER read the book, NEVER read anything about Les Mes, and going to this not knowing anything – was better to me than having studies it for ages, the experiences was amazing and I walked out truly enlightened – LOVED IT! In some instances, ignorance is bliss!

Looking back to Thursday, our February Open Mic, whoa.  It is amazing to see how in one year the volume of people has grown so much – I counted 55 people, FIFTY-FIVE PEOPLE – amazing.  Yes we were a bit rushed having it at 4:30 but, the amount of talent, diversity, and culled events since we started this a year ago is amazing and makes me so proud of the performers and Repentino. staff. Tired and exhausted the day after?  Absolutely – but so worth it!  J  Looking even back to January’s – many sick individuals at this point but we had a full night, and for once ONCE, we actually finished early – so another first in another format – as the deadline gets closer to the due submissions (MARCH 1^st – please submit your photos, writing, art, before March 1^st – we want tons! – and the time comes to when we present at Columbia University as an international magazine – I have to say – I LOVE IT.  I love the apprehension that comes with NOT knowing what this year will reveal as a magazine – that is the whole reward and strength of it each year – not knowing then working through to get to knowing – but if you have staff surround you that are uninterested in personal fame or something just to put on a resume, it doesn’t work so well, so that is why I have come to appreciate the staff so much, their true colors regarding art and their commitments to representing a wide audience come out and do need to be recognized.

I am seeing myself progress through my graduate school classes, my last semester of two courses, then one over the summer, and my portfolio being put together for the Fall, and my gosh!  Could it be? No school for once?  No kidding… Thinking of my friend Natalie that just had major surgery, and already again, I see March coming and going and in a blink, the year will be my second at ASF, new staff coming, a new year new individuals at ASF, and the one pervading theme that helps as a constant, relax, sit back, give time to take it all in, and simply enjoy the days we have been given to bask in the sunshine of the awesome people around us.  I am SLOWLY, slowly learning to slow down the list of things looming over my shoulder called to be done and remove them one by one… or is it I am being able to delegate things better and have awesome people around me?  I say it is a little of both, but maybe more of the second.

VERY excited for the Seaford run-a-thon series occurring starting with the Vince Morris and Dr. Betts 5k Walk and run MAY 11, – Dr betts and vince morris app– this is a personal favorite of mine and I look forward to this a meeting a longtime acquaintance I haven’t seen in ages.  So many things to look forward to so, it is vital and important to bask an take these memories and events in one by one.

Grab your best writing, photography, or at in general and submit to
Repentino. International, we’d LOVE to have your masterpiece

Two notes, Osseily and Daniela, two amazing individuals from opposite spectrums of the world, but yet, on one hand you have one person who has given up so much and sacrificed much to be able to simply write about music that is created around the world, representative of so many different cultures and beliefs, and the other a former ASF Mexico City student, yet maintaining contact with me, coming into the Middle school years herself, yet devoting so much time to her inner creativity.

I think both have a message that is worth carrying to everyone – be true to yourself, but do not forget that allows you to be yourself.  I think it is worth walking away from your job if you can’t seem to find yourself amid your dreams, desires, and what you are good at.  it is often too true of a “dream” to go where the safe haven is, to find a safe way of life, but I have found out, after so many years, too late I feel sometimes, I found out money, advancement, etc, often is not worth the missed and quality experiences that can be obtained by being the person you can be, and well as be in deep involvement of what it means to be true to yourself.  Is a pay cut, a raise in your own personal ladder rung worth walking away from and having those experiences?  YES .  I never regret the decisions I made when I began to see actions/employment compromise my values,  yet, my deepest regret is that I did not act sooner.  I have come to love all things involved in the risks that I was once afraid of, yet blindly walked into.  I realized that it is not worth second guessing or turning back…;)

Amazing things that have been going on in the world of Technology!

President Obama in Hang out in Google to talk to people, Learning Without Frontiers Conference (Noam Chomsky!), Digital Day, ALA live about the topic of REMOTE in the 21st Century, it has been amazing what ideas been generated!

Listening to Sir Robinson Wilson was AMAZING in talking about the revolution in education occurring now.

Correct me if I am wrong – but the real trick to having technology being effective, is how you take technology, and go back and make it personal – that is a trick but yet the art of technology, implementing technology to make it personal – these above links are AWESOME….:)

In retrospect, it has been an AMAZING, amazing two weeks – truly!

Let me  explain – remember that crazy week I went into last week, in a past blog, of the constant humming of events one after another, when you look closely, I realized the things that I didn’t mention that made these events, (aside from the fact that I survived last week) that the details that most might not see at first…

How amazing was it to see 3rd graders from ECC and my Advisory/Homeroom working side by side on a popcorn bracelet project – I mean – AMAZING – the fun those younger student had and yes, the FUN my Advisory had – I was MORE than impressed with my Advisory/Homeroom student, I mean, they were unbelievable and I was EXTREMELY, extremely proud  – What a GREAT way to start off Tuesday….

I love seeing the MUN occur at ASF, Model United Nations has been hands down one of the best events I have ever seen, I mean ever seen 😉  – and seeing the ambassadors, country representatives, and more, it was an honor to be able to be a part of all this and what an education about other countries and their connections to other countries, and so on…

Well I have to admit Thursday night last week was stressful for planning flights for my Magazine staff, I have to say, what a big pay off to have everyone finally booked and a relief, and I couldn’t help but think of the experiences we will have while there – very excited despite the hardships we’ve had to get there…

Personal Project – I have to say, the projects I heard, I was so proud of Alia, Alice, Miranda, Nicole, those I was able to hear – the determination, self confidence, and belief in what they did showed so strongly in their descriptions.  I means so much to me that they made these projects personal, and it seemed like I had seen them grow before my eyes just listening to them explaining their individual projects.  I was just so excited and I silently predicted how successful they would be as they get out of school, and I was so —  PROUD – of them   –  🙂

I have to say, looking back and in this week, for the first time I can remember, this was hands down the BEST Valentine’s Day I ever had, I mean E V E R.  Why?  Thing is, I think about my students from DE nonstop, and I am so lucky to have had the time and experiences with them, that keeps me moving forward, and wow, I am even as lucky to know I have the students surrounding me now, they are 100% amazing and just – well the best Valentine’s I think I might have ever stumbled on, so yes, they make the day the most amazing without a blink, and every time I look back on how lucky I could be more, I can’t because I am completely surrounded by creativity, talent, excellence and most of all, all around amazingness.  I want to hug them and do with a smile every time I see them and to put it plainly, they make the Best Valentine’s, New Year, and every holiday – they have become my best day when I need it most  😉