yes yes - I'm certain that was meant to be there = Citizen Cafe is my new favorite place!

WIt was a long LONG  - difficult week

new class, projects - from 8am - 5:30 + all performance based, and dancing under the flying bullets of young, smart, and "I'm DONNNNNEEE" minds.

 

sSo.............  if there is something that is stuck to me that I am un aware of - what ever.......  I meant to do that.  yes.... um...... yes, i like it there.

Sooooooo - the Citizen CAFE = THE BEST!!!
http://www.thecitizencafe.com/

 The best Portabella  mushroom sandwich and chips in the world.
Great pre-sa-tizers
and the price is too good to be true


But what I really want to send my LOVE out to is - the service!


so When Ben and I decided to go out -  turns out our waitress use to be a camp councilor -  and I use to have to be a waitress - wait wait - no, not as cool as that.  I learned that working the down town lunch hour for the Legal and Government people was worse than being a "lunch lady". There were no tips.  pennies shuffled out of fists like a tight accidental shit when the opposite of "broken heart-ed" occurs.


So when we sat down, and the waitress goes  = "Oh, is that part of your uniform?"
me - thinking  - handprint on my butt?  smudge? someone's name? a glob of paint, clay?..... boogers, pink eye..????

"I'm certain what ever it is, yes"

"a beetle?"

"I was teaching Egypt camp - let me tell you about Scarabs - i.e. - the dung beetle"

at that point, the little girl behind me turns around, and jumps out of her chair into her father's arms

"what to - right away  - what ever is cheap please - I can''t do anything - so cheap - oho ooh  -Malbec I love that!"

"i.d.?"

Ben gets out his, I'm seeking mine.... girl is pointing............
I hand her my I-D- thanking her.

at this point she realizes the June Bug on my back is not art - but a stowaway.

MyID = Insect get the fuck off her.

and now is a friend of he Citizen Cafe

Now - Why are they the BEST??

#1) THE FOOD
#2) THE QUALITY AND PRICE
#3) - They did not blame me or make me feel bad about the critter crawled on me
#4)  even better - the waitress TOTALLY understood that kind of tired where you figure "if it's on my body, a child put it there, and they just want to be cared about - care of you - and will die for anything to know you care back. Hence why - never EVER hurt a child.

#5 )  -extra pour for the day I had and the mutal understanding

#6) - she's willing to give up Friday night tips because her kids are in sports / after school whatever  now.

that takes soul

so Citizen CAfe - I LOVE YOU

"all this work, you don't get paid for this? You are being disresepected" - Then PAY YOUR TAXES!!!!!!

The #1 complaint I hear from friends and loved ones 

"SOOOOOOoooooooo - do you get COMPENSATED / PAID for this work?"

No we don't.  This is part of the job

This is what we do with all that "time left in the day"

this is what we SHOULD be doing with PAID summers off

This is what we should be paid for

but education can't afford to pay us for - because people think we need to be "tested ourselves" if the kids are being tested. We are over paid.  that schools "NEVER HAVE ENOUGH MONEY!"

Really Jesse Ventura???? 

TO ALL OF YOU WHO ASK ME IF I AM BEING PAID FOR THIS

That think i won't be respected until I prance into an office and demand more money?

Have you EVER TAUGHT before? SERIOUSLY.  no one watching  - except when they come in because the class volume is at 11?

Have you ever had the thought?  - what do i expect my kid to leave this class with knowing?

and have you ever been a teacher knowing that most of a 3 - 5 hour class will be distilled into 2 -3 sentences to parents at the end of the day  - on your best CLASS?

Have you ever been in a job where being a "minority" (woman) makes you less hire ready because there are too many of you (*thus said minority) in the business?  

and the areas where who and what you are naturally LENDS to making you better at the business pays 1/10th of what the big paying jobs are?

 

LEMME MAKE THIS CLEAR TO YOU

#1 - I LOVE MY JOB

#2 - IT'S BIGGER THAN A "JOB"

#3)  I IMPACT MORE PEOPLE IN A BIGGER WAY EVERYDAY THAN MOST PEOPLE DO IN A LIFE TIME

#4 - WHEN I FAIL - NO ONE FORGETS IT

#5   - WHEN I AM 200% AMAZING, I MIGHT BE A THANK YOU NOTE

#6  - Can you count your favorite teachers on one hand, if so, you are lucky, 2 you are SUPER LUCKY, not one, than that's heartbreaking.   

we may not remember your names  - given we have a 20 to 1 ratio, but  your faces, we don't forget

and we NEVER stop caring.

so no - there isn't a dollar amount you can give me that is what I am worth.

But I know what I do is worth more than I am

may you be as lucky to have a job like this

IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT THIS -  Seriously??? 

1) write your Senator, Congress person, House member

2) Run for School board

3) donate your time & Money 

4)  Offer to help teach your child at home & ask them about their day.  they LOVE to share what they have learned.

MOST IMPORTANTLY - 

Vote 

Vote for taxes.

that's what you are paying for

because right now - No, I'm up working on models because  - no, I won't be paid for this, but I WILL PAY for it if it doesn't go right.

How much does your job ask of you?

I will make your children Pharaohs!

This doesn't look like much - but with this - I will make Pharaoh mask for your child that will be worth a halloween's worth at least.  Here's to hope!

I just have a feeling that the students doing plaster masks of themselves..... nope - I just don't see that going well with the way I orchestrate a room.  I'm thinking worst case conditions - how can i prevent disaster?

I think this, some glitter glue and a pair of sticks - how cute???

Never done this before.  Here's to hoping.

 

students make you think twice - my HUGE nose!

today i was teaching about Ancient Egypt - and about how both Men and Women wore make eye - eye make up in particular.  We talked about the science of light deflection  / and being absorbed in dark pigment.... 
and then I mentioned.... "oh yes, and it makes your eyes pop - the window to the soul" to bring you to the gods - connect to the gods.  I wore eye liner today - to bring attention to your my eyes, was that one of the first things that you noticed?"



"NOOOOOOO!!!!"

"o.k. - most people then notice my earrings...."

"NOOO!"

"what did you notice?" I ask

"you're HUGE NOSE!"

most people would be offended...  most people would think and worry, most people .....  well, honestly,i have no idea what most people would do.  but my first thought was "wow, that is the smallest feature of myself, the one most ignorable.  My God!  this kid is a social genius!..  totally able to find the part of one self one worries about least, and make it a worry.... this is like a super power - cool".

my outward response was one who has worked this job too long.
"yup - what's wrong with that? people see what interest them."

walking away i think
"whoa....  brilliant.  terrible dangerous - brilliant"

and I have more work to do. My spider sense tell me this is going to be one heck of a week.  this was just a monday

HIghland Art Fest - was hot as hell

That was the most pain I've ever experienced because of heat and humidity ever.

but the show went alright.. I think?  lets see what happens with call backs

SHOW YOUR LOVE

 

DAMNIT  - THIS IS FANTASIC!!!!!!!!!!!

SHOW YOUR LOVE

GO USA WOMEN'S SOCCER!!!

touch of a deity

ahhhh  see  - the wrathful spaghetti monster -  marks it''s people in it's own way

zits
big puffy bags under their eyes,
a gaining gut
worry lines
natural failure in social situations 


this is the mark of the do-er
the try-er

  the one that knows she will not make it on her looks or social skills ever.

oh well.  18 Irises
small canvases prepped
glazing in the works - probably another feature length film and another glass of wine repeatedly swabbed for fruit flies.  I'm making another meal of crutons knowing this does not count as a salad

back to work

 

soundtrack to my night -  Kid Cudi

up late working - pondering the Patron Saints.....

the Catholic Church invents Saints to take care of the likes of me.......
that's what I'm thinking tonight in the likes of St. Henry.....

"the patron saint of the childless, of Dukes, of the handicapped and those rejected by Religious Order" - odd. so, i looked this up - there doesn't seem to be a reason. I hope it's more than the "catch all saint" - Reference:  http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=124

  St. Henry offends me at the moment  - but maybe just a few moments of sleep and turning off Tom Waits for the moment will aid in this.

 before I do - photos from the radio station while I get a drawing done