PAVEing a Blog

My Next 30 Years

http://www.facebook.com/danesmusic?sk=app_178091127385

COMING TO BATTLE OF THE BANDS from NEW YORK! 🙂

And, my birthday today – and 316 hits on my blog on March 16th! How cool is that? WAY COOL!

Life – I find so many overlapping venues of life, then when they come a part of an event such as Battle of the Bands, isn’t it exciting to see people come from all around towards one competitive vent that benefits so many people?

My students are here, together, and we here this “awesome guy” come in and play the guitar and the harmonica, and I wondered, would HE come to Battle of the Bands? When yes came across as the answer – I had these thoughts –

A day filled with meeting Michael Arad, meeting the members of the 911 Tribute Center, on top of the amazing job our students get together and create something that touches each of us somewhere in the middle, is there a better way I could spend my birthday? I am sure there MIGHT be, yet, tho sis one of the best. The best would be with my family as well, but, these days from the 13th to the 18th – AMAZING!

Wait until you see the sister and brother of Camila de la Parra – one of many talented students we have….

Camila’s brother:

Camila’s sister

Life is funny – I will have so much more to say this day – as I turn 40 – so many things to express – and I just want to say, thanks for everyone allowing to turn 40 be wonderful and memorable! 🙂  I truly forward to my next 30 years!

🙂

Plan for the day (at 7:41 AM) – head to the conference – last day! Mail items to friends and family – call my Mom! 🙂 – eat lunch and a great dinner with great students – what goes in between? NO idea – I love it! 🙂 we are done at 12:00 today!

From Monday:
New York City!
TUESDAY! March 13, 2012

Just arrived in Jazz on the Park NEW YORK CITY – 70 degrees! What the heck?! Going out to eat and will update tonight, promise! All was safe, transition from airport to hostel easy! 🙂

TUESDAY

We arrived Tuesday – easy easy through customs! 🙂 🙂 We arrived, checked rooms, and then went to MEL’s BURGERS! For all of us, (six) appetizers, main meals, and fried Oreo desserts – ohmygosh, the fried OREOS with ice cream – OGMYGOSH!

The students and myself dug in and KILLED that meal! 🙂

What a great night coming into New York! We settled in for the night….

HOLA!
Wednesday update!

Okay, let’s down some specifics for you….:)

Wednesday MORNING! We have to make sure we all had our times ready for American time, not Mexican time! 🙂 LOL — We get there, and we were the first group to checkin, get organized, and line up the sessions we were going to attend, to the lit staff is the best – so organized and ready to go! I am so proud of them! They are so awesome! 🙂

🙂 As they processed info to make our magazine better and more organized – I waited in line to get the tickets for a possible broadways show! After 10:00 AM – and then at 3:30 PM! WE got it! Tickets to Warhorse! OHMYGOSH! This long for great seats? Or are there? More on this later….:)

We meet finally after the day in convention, back at the hostel, the staff able to eat at a Thai restaurant, and then we get it together, and off to the broadway show!

WOW! The seats were AWESOME! I mean AWESOME! We were right side lower level, 500 section, and EXCELLENT. I have to admit, and did not to the students, I had tears in my eyes. This was an AMAZING production!

This was my first Broadway show, and fitting as the staff that came with me this year is amazing, and I am glad I am sharing these quality things with them of the first time. They are so appreciative of the things that make our trip so quality – and I appreciate them so much! They are gems!

We make our way back, Camila needed to make a pitstop at the pharmacy to get refills on supplies for insulin, finally made it back, and we crashed for the night, exhaustion from the example and responsibilities of the day. The staff is WONDERFUL, they have become my kids without knowing it, lol. 🙂

Attached is the very brief highlight of the things that they have acquired :

SCHOLASTIC PRESS CONFERENCE IDEAS

THURSDAY

I am excited, today is Day 2 of the Conference, we broke down the interview we will do for the 911 Memorial Tribute Center and architect, and it should be a great day! 🙂 WOW! I now have a Kindle and Nook, and the students will test them out today! 🙂 🙂 ALso, we have a digital recorder for the interviews – I am excited! 🙂

I think we will have QUITE the literary magazine!

Okay – whew….6:40 PM – how are things?! 🙂 Okay, so we JUST finished doing so many things I am trying to calm down, lol. We met after the conference – headed south thanks to Camila’s directions to the 911 Memorial itself. I was amazed to see it was nothing like I remembered it when we were here from Delaware, I mean nothing. I went into panic mode, it was 3:30 and no call made at all, I gave Michael my cell phone and confirmed him being there, BUT – I was outside the memorial and no show, and I literally fell apart with crazy stress and worry. I had worked so hard to get this set up, and I want it to be AWESOME of the ASF staff, and now, it would look like we would be standing the ARCHITECT up for the 911 Memorial, as well as not getting the students to see Michael Arad, and I was so mad at myself. He called, on my crazy track done, but it showed up as a private number, one thing after another, I felt it was a disaster, and poor Ana picked up on my stress-ridden panic, and I am sure it scared her… but she was a major awesome confident trooper (sounds so old fashioned) assuring me it would be FINE, and to CALM DOWN for crying out loud, lol, and believe it or not, thanks to John the security guard at the main gate, when I told him our plight, he arranged for tickets for all of us into the Memorial, as well as getting us to finally into the Memorial….we found Michael, INSIDE THE MEMORIAL – and wow, SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY! – Ana, Mel, Ji, was right on the interview questions, direct, to the point, and all Ji, and EVERYONE was right to it, they did a magnificent job, MAGNIFICENT. The memorial is AMAZING, and the trivial info about the Memorial was just – well – amazing…the order of the names on the wall, the way it was created out of over 5000 entries for the idea, MIND BLOWING. I am glad the students had the chance to get this opportunity.

Moving to the Tribute Center, we met with the individuals in charge of this great initiative, Caroline Bevan, Meriam Lobel, and Clarissa Wallace, who gave us some great background, as del as some interesting ideas other schools, individuals, and groups have done to help interpret the 911 event. Again, words cannot explain this. We were able to enter here for free, and again between the tickets for the Tribute Center and the 911 Memorial, we saved over 195.00 for fee! It was such a great experience for the students, and we learned so much. I like the fact that they met and saw things that no one would see normally – and that is just way cool!

I let the staff go separate from me from the Tribute Center as I thought they needed some time away from me as an adult – and since they were all together, in the middle of downtown New York, how exciting! 🙂 They need some time away from the protecting self I am….:)

I am so looking forward to their ideas put into action and what they are able to do coming say from this trip. 🙂
Again, very proud of this young group…to say the very least….:) The pictures will be AMAZING!

FRIDAY
WOW! The 16th! I am 4 years old (Did I forget a zero?!), lol. The Facebook telethon started on the 15th, and my friends have been amazing. If I didn’t respond individually, it would have been a crime, completely as I felt every well wish and birthday wish. We trudged to the conference, trudged mainly because we were exhausted! – but we ate at Tom’s Diner (site of Seinfeld) and I think that Sophie was on Seinfeld Heaven! The breakfast helped alot, we got to Columbia, and began! – Mr Schwatrz, who I did not realize the time, is an advisor from Daedalus, a lit mag in Connecticut, I met from NCTE on Connecticut! 🙂 Camila texted me to tell me to come to Hamilton as a speaker knew me. That was comforting to see him there and we chatted and talked! 🙂 The day progressed, we missed the awards at the end to eat, plan, and organize over pizza – and it was worth it, we made some GREAT strides as a staff! 🙂

We shipped until 4:00 (Mel – WHERE ARE YOOOOUUUUUUUU) and thanks to his quick thinking, met up back at the hostel. Dinner at 10:00 PM! 🙂 I did some shopping, gathered some clothes, and cleaned myself up 🙂 We headed out at 8:15 being picked up at the hostel with a taxi – and headed to

The Union Station Cafe

Okay, here is the brief, we get there early, wait outside and then (I know I am early) Sophia and I go in and are tad we will be seating you shortly. Yes, all restaurants like to say this, I had NO PROBLEM coming back at 10:00 – I was just checking in. They checked in out coats, we waited, and waited, and waited, half the group pout side, half the group inside. Somewhere amid this, I sensed an “artificaleness” that cut to the core. Whether it was a forced smile, a sense of authority, no idea, but we were definitely surrounded by people in the billionaire status. However we left and gather dat the Starbucks to wait until 10:00. Something kept settling in, not wanting me to go back, I did not like the vibe AT ALL, I was mad, angry, and just well, this was not worth the hassle based on a feeling I felt when I had walked in there.

The more I thought about it, there were omens, having to call ahead of time several time to find this location, everything seemed “complicated” – and when we switched choices, things changed…

I wanted to change venues – we walked around the corner and hit The Blue Water Grill in Union Station. OH MY! 🙂 RIGHT CHOICE! 🙂 The people as soon as we walked in, we were seated, and were shown the hospitality of kings and queens. The feeling was right, our waitress spoke Spanish, and all was well in the world. We had found the correct place 🙂

I made some comments I want to clarify. In my rant against The Union Station Cafe – I stated “I hated people with money” – swell, I have to say – I do. I came from none of it, and yes, appreciate the fact I can make my own – yet people that make alot of money, and that act like they own others because of the fact they have alot of money – it makes me fell just – down, upset, angry, and just overall – unsettled. Weird, eh? Yet, the students I am surrounded with are amazing – they might be surrounded with families lucky enough to be content an taken care of, yet they earned it, and the students have hearts of gold, hard work, and determination. This does not fit them into the money category, whether they want to be or not, lol. Hard to explain, but easier to see and feel. The students ARE money – worth their weight in a million people that feel their money allowed them to be short and quick with their clientele, and crzy, but that us how I felt within five minutes of being in the company of this restaurant!

I was quiet I guess this night compared to my boisterous self, yet, I was contemplating how lucky I was to be part of a group of students that had so much potential, and appreciated the night. The night was BEAUTIFUL – the roses given to the students were well deserved, and they took care of my on a birthday DAY that I would never forget. 40 was a very special day thanks to the patience, determination, and just overall generosity of students that rivaled, and excelled about any category of students I witnessed at Columbia, Princeton, and many many places. I made me value the parentage and group of friends I have been lucky enough to acquire.

Ana, Sophie, Mel, Camila, her friend visiting, as well as Ji were stunning – dressed to the 9’s 🙂 , and I could not have been in any more country. You are dying for the pictures, right? They will be coming, and well worth the wait. Was it a night worthy of Kings? Oh yes, the ride home in the limo Hummer with JP from Hait was memorable, and when he said “MOVE THE FURNITURE” and cranked the music, I DIED laughing and realized how good life can sometime when you have the right people to fill it. I laughed until I cried back to the hostel, but relayed how much we had seen and how much we had experienced during out time in New York, compared to the half glimpses we had caught in years’ past. 🙂

On top of it all, we came back to the hostel realizing what a great family of friends we had made here, they welcomed us, asked about our night, Dane who will be coming to Seaford will be arriving and rocking the stage, overall, I am blessed and very lucky in all things. 🙂

The lit mag students seem to have good karma wherever we go….:)

…to get involved!

Sorry for the delay in the blog, but I am sure your email is grateful!

Events have been pushed fast forwarded and many many exiting things on the horizon!

Since talking to Ms Dixie’s classes and Mr Alaniz, we have started to gain support for writing grant, creating projects,and putting grants into action for several exciting projects! 🙂 If you are curious, and just want to tap into the exciting things students have to offer the world – take a look at :

http://www.p2pu.org/en/groups/student-grant-writing/

I am thinking there many good things on the horizon! 🙂

Some ideas and events coming up:

Columbia University trip to New York with the literary Magazine March 13-18th

National Writing Project Spring Meeting March 28-March 30th Washington D.C., then The National Cherry Blossom Festival!

BobAyuda2012 interest form
National Volunteer Week – April 15, 2012 – April 21, 2012

This is exciting, you could participate in this awesome venture on the eve of April 19th, 2012 :

For 30.00 – you get a kit that can be prepared on April 19th and show the world on April 20th you are a part of National Volunteer Week in the United States, and impact this African effort, no matter where you are at!

Choose a local event and contribute to that the week of April 15th- April 21, 2012

If in Seaford, signing up to help reinvest in the Soroptomost Garden. PAVE needs VOLUNTEERS FOR SOROPTOMOIST GARDEN DURING National Volunteer Week, representing students from all over the world!

I think there are so may exciting things that can happen when you give something, eve a portion, of yourself to others – and we are only just beginning. This is what files me to speak to as many people as possible, and empower them to do things they only dream about now. Look at the journey we have made thanks to students that are no at The University of Delaware, Pittsburgh, and locations all over the world…if we can connect these students together, and with their parents, their parents’ friends’, and their friends’ friends’, can you imagine what could occur?

Kony 2012 is such a great example of one initiative that can happen when we reach our friends, their friends, and their friends’ friends….

I always said I felt I am living my life for two people – my father who believed in changing other people’s lives everyday, and a dear friend of mine who thought life was too much for him and decided to take his own, ironic, this is two opposite ends of the spectrum.

If we focus on the people we have in our lives that are still alive, then we have a chance to make a difference for the people we cherished that are no longer here.

I hope, that we make such a noise and change with so may talented students, youth, and adults working towards the same goal – to make their world a better place. I want to do that in education (helping to create an international curriculum that involves community service as a basis of measurement rather than a state test score, if we focus on bettering every single person alongside us, in this country, in that country, in this neighborhood, in that neighborhood, we begin to write grants, we begin to speak out, we being to write, whether in blogs, wiki’s, tweets, glogs, grants, classrooms, business offices, governments, schools, hospitals, doctor’s offices, debate, represent, vote, and change the world around us, isn’t that GREAT legacy to leave behind to that Junior, sophomore, Freshman, sister, brother, relative, friend?

Somehow, I see this is a mission given to me silently from my father, my from my lost friend, as each of you have someone that instills and inspires you to move and change. I owe this to my mother, to my students, to my friends, to my relatives – why? Why is this is responsibility? I always asked this and thought, “Maybe I AM taking on too much”, yet, I took a vow as a teacher when I decided to do this profession to do more than be the representative of pairs of paper stacks that will come back with a grade, but to be a representative of a living, changing, and inputting educator, we all know that is where the action is at – the gallant face of education.

I am excited I started this blog to help others when they make a move, but there is so much more – this along all the other TOOLS I mentioned, is JUST that, a tool, a vehicle. A vehicle that carries the most important item, you. You have the power to change EVERYTHING – I think this is one of the most exciting things there is in life, the possibility!

I feel sometimes I could do, only because there is so much NEED so many places. Nothing will ever stop my urge to want to help everyone, that often is recognized at my strength, as well as my weakness, but the most important asset I have is YOU. Just as in any job, we move forward, we trod on, we make a difference. 🙂

I LOVE this comment posted on our grant writing class:

Well, we are ASF high school junior students who really would like to take this opportunity as a way to grow up and now what real life actually is. We’re very excited about this whole idea and we have been plotting and disccussing our main topics for the project which has a lot to do with enviromental and humanity. Something interesting about us is that we have all participated in some sort of artistic department such as paint, dance, music and so on and we would really like to share those talents along with proving that living a green life is pro-life.

A STUDENT posted that – that is exciting! 🙂

Please join us at:

P2PU Grant Writing

If you’d like to join us!

We’d love to have you!

Check out the document and if you’d like to get involved! We would love to have you!

P2PU Mexico and Delaware

Unroll the surprises, here comes BOB’s Ayuda 2012 Concert… More details to come…:)

BobAyuda2012

I just read this and wanted to add this into my post, it makes so much sense.  I have another blog post that will be forthcoming as well 🙂

I have also seen that now a days, there seem to be many “envious” people out there, which I guess the common term today is “haters”. I learned a long time ago that envy and jealousy are rooted from insecurities that that individual may have and some of these insecurities can sometimes be very deep seeded from adolescence or even childhood. As a result, some of these people grow up and they tend to “hate” those around them who have worked hard to become happy with themselves. I recently had to walk away from a “friend” whom I knew for almost 18 years. Met him in 1995 and lost touch with him after he graduated in 1998. Saw him for one semester in 2000 and then lost touch and in 2006, found a number for a relative of his and thought I would try and track him down. Got in touch with him in 2006 when he was out in the southwest on a job. 

As long as I have known this person, even back to 1995, he would always try to pick faults and flaws with people that would befriend him in college at the time and it was only recently that I learned that this “ex friend” may suffer from “Superiority Complex”, which is a real psychological disorder. These people often make themselves feel superior around their friends but trying to put them down constantly and pick flaws and always emphasizing that they are right and everyone else is wrong. Eventually, their friends around them may start to believe the things that this person says and it starts to get them down about their own self confidence.

It happened to me with this “ex friend” and for 2 years I endured it, not knowing that this was a real disorder at the time. I did everything to help this “friend”…and even established boundaries, but those boundaries would be broken down repeatedly over and over again. So, recently, I “called out” this “friend” on some of the flaws of mines that he would pick on (such as me still being single in my late 30s and currently not having a girlfriend) and when I “challenged him” and told him that friends help build one another instead of putting them down and using the excuse that they are being honest with them….he then got very angry and suddenly cut off his friendship with me for good…just like that. 

I was initially quite “angry” at this “ex friend” for treating me the way he did the past two years, BUT after cooling down and taking the time to think about it, I realize now that people with this disorder can not see that how they are behaving is not acceptable behavior when it comes to making and keeping friends. Not surprisingly, he had ZERO friends. People tried to befriend him when we were young, but he would pick flaws with them and they would stop hanging out with him.

I actually NOW feel very sorry for this “ex friend” in that he was always quite “anti social” when I first met him in college when I was in my very early 20s, and he never went out to parties or clubs and was always a bit of a “loner” and always seemed to complain that he disliked the city atmosphere, as he was from a very rural part of the state. He disliked his college years quite alot and I feel sad for him, because college is often where you meet some of the best friends in life and I, like many others, have been fortunate to make some great friends who are like family to me and we all still let our hair down and party it up like old times, despite the life event changes in our lives after college and despite where we may geographically be located.

It was for the best, as now, my life has suddenly gotten MUCH better these past few days and I do feel happier with myself without this “friend” in my life anymore. 

Just wanted to share, but this poster is sort of how I felt from this “ex friend’s” constantly picking at me.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=168728963241267&set=a.107875849326579.10618.107856392661858&type=1&theater

Victory, venereal, Valentine’s !  All three I have referred to by friends on this February the 14th! 

This is my take on it:

From Facebook: “Thoughts on Valentine’s Day – I am treating myself to an awesome dinner, an awesome dessert and a film – going to try and make others feel better about not being with anyone – I always feel bad for those that feel like they HAVE to be with someone – I am MUCH happier without the baggage, and alot of people that are single – are MUCH happier! 🙂 Valentine’s Day is about the people you love anyway, and not talking JUST romantic relationships, LOL….”

I still agree!  I look forward to enjoying the silence and peacefulness of a relationship I maintain with some killer students who have managed to support me through many years, and an awesome family, and awesome gathering of friends that do all from help me MOVE, to relocate, to advice, to just put up with my ramblings and complaints, wow. – who needs a significant other when I have significant others!  🙂  

I find out today at ABC Hospital if the tonsils come out…I am still mourning the loss of Whitney Houston…when interviewed by Barbara Walters, she was asked, “What is your worst devil?”  She point blankedly said, “Me.”  Her honesty during that interview was amazing, and she did say, “I haven’t done anything I never wanted to do, I am my best friend and my worst enemy.”  She did not hide behind the shroud of celebrity status, and point blank was honest about her downfalls, as well as her life in general.  I love her when she had so many hits, and her voice could silence a room.  If many of us could show the compassion and honesty she did, everyone would feel loved on Valentine’s Day!

Welcome back Alyssa Casey from CHINA!  YEAH!  Your pictures were amazing and you sounded like you loved the experience.

I am excited for March 13th – 18th when we head for NEW YORK!  WOOO HOOOO!  We get to meet the architect of the New York Memorial as he went to ASF here in Mexico City, and we will interview him, and close the 6 year project we have done with taking students to New York, and wow, I am excited.  This will be an amazing account of the trek we have done over a 6-7 year period.  Oh yeah, we will tour the United Nations’ building, see a broadway show, and put together our lit magazine at Columbia University with some of the BEST students in Mexico, and it is my birthday while there!  Speaking of birthdays, put together something AWESOME for my Mom for hers February 5th, I knows she thought I forgot, I am just late as usual, but when she sees this, it will ROCK!

Let’s see, March 28th is the National Writing Project meeting in Washington D.C, I hope I can go there, and then I run in honor of my Dad’s birthday in the April 01 Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. 10 miles to think of all the gifts he had given me!  I get to see my great PAVE students from Seaford there, my cousins, and pick up my truck, and drive to Mexico to end my Spring Break, I am excited as this will be FUN!  🙂  Another adventure….then…

The Seaford Runa thon is on!  May kicks off the Dr Betts and Vince Morris 5k at Chapel, I am so there and way excited to be going!  🙂  This is dear to my heart just as Vince and Dr Betts and their whole family were, a fitting way to celebrate Mother’s Day and coming back to see my Mom!

Wow, do I dare mention the video that our awesome and adorable, as she herself put it, Mary made for the internet and our ASF school?  Look on Utube under “ASF How to check out a laptop and you will see plenty!  She did a great job!  🙂  

Tyler Meding’s concert for St. Jude’s, talking with Seaford students and helping them with grants, scholarships every night, progressing and getting all A’s in my Mansfield Library/technology course, lagging in my Spanish and I need to pick the slack up there…and wondering…are my tonsils getting yanked?  Ah. Valentine’s Day…just remember, the day was named after St. Valentine, performed marriages when Claudia outlawed marriage thinking all single men made better soldiers.  As his love visited him in jail, jailed for his defiance, he signed his last letter, “From your Valentine.”

Esther Howland began selling the FIRST hand written Valentine’s back in, what, the 1840’s?  No way!  WAAAAAY!   🙂  1 BILLION cards are sent on Valentine’s Day,(2.6 billion on Christmas) with 85 % of them bought by women, if you can believe that…:)  (yes, head nodding)….:

I decided to put no pics, no links today, and say, make sure you make someone else feel the love of Valentine’s Day…:)  Amore!

Okay, so in talking with some new individuals coming, I managed to scrape together the list of items I always manage to forget – but things I wish I would have brought….:)

So here they are:
In place of a small heater, as the morns and nights can get chilly, if I would have brought 2-3 more blankets, flannel sheets, maybe a comforter, wow, much better! I did not get a heater and am glad, as the electric is so cheap without one, and with the blanket and comforter I bought her, (total maybe, 150.00 USD), I could have saved even that with just bringing blankets and comforter.

I would suggest bringing a good set of sheets, maybe 2 – that you like, you can get any mattress you want here, so don’t worry about that. I had tons of good sheets, even flannel, and wished I would have brought them!

Curtains – YES! Even though I found places that you can get fabric for dirt cheap, it would have been MUCH easier to bring curtains, AND the rings instead of the curtain rod kind, that way you can use any curtains whether you need a curtain rod or you need rings that hang the curtains.

SHOES – OH MYGOSH – I would stock up on at least 2 good running shoes, then 2 good pair of comfy shoes for non running/walking, just the choices here are slim and they do not last as long as good shoes I liked in the U.S. One of my biggest forgets I wish I would not have!

A small radio/alarm, dock for ipod radio if you can. Anything electronic is expensive, this would have solved my radio, alarm clock, etc all in one!

Camera, I would bring two, just in case…:)

hard drive storage – you will want LOTS of pictures, grab an external drive in the states to store all your info on safely, and format it for a MAC and PC, if you use PC, since the school here is all MAC, I had files on my PC, I should have formatted my hard drive for a PC AND a Mac.

Items to drill into cement walls, I could have used a small drill to drill my paintings, frames, etc into the cement walls, as that is pretty dominant here.

Sweatpants, running shorts, yes, I should have brought those!

Come to think of it, this sounds strange, but I would have liked it. I wish I would have grabbed an digital audio recorder, those small, fit in your hand recorders that turn on when voice is heard. WOW, I could have carried that around with me and picked up on phrases around me and compared them to the Spanish I was learning.

I am glad I brought/had shipped my scarf, gloves, and hat – not winter here, but cold enough in the AM and evening when I first get that they make me comfortable.

If you want to tour places, a good pair of cross training boots/walking shoes that could be versatile enough for both could not have hurt.

Hmmmm, these things would have been great! 🙂 Hindsight is 20/20 – mine is usually 20/50, lol. 🙂

Oh, this is very strange but wow how useful. The SWIFFER with the wipes that come with them. This would have been the BEST mop (it folds up) and eliminates a bucket, and would be hands down, the BEST thing I could have gotten for cleaning, the mops here, um, well, no. Get a Swiffer, bring it, you will be a happy person. Trust me.