Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

So much keeps happening, I just can't keep up!

Dr. T graduated from Medical School over the weekend. There was much celebrating. His mother and brother came, as did his dad and some friends of the family. We all met up at the convocation, then everyone came to my place for a bbq. It definitely had a different feel from when I have a party, but that is probably because I don't know these folks as well, although they are all really nice. We did some sight seeing with Dr. T's mom and brother--hit the Seattle Center, the Ballard Locks and stopped in at the Fremont Sunday Market. It was a good time and I am so proud of my baby. Good job Dr. T!

On Sunday we also said farewell to our interim manager, who was with us for almost a year. We had a little picnic at the local park and talked around the circle. It was a nice evening, even if it was a little cool. The Boy had to miss all of the outings besides the graduation ceremony due to homework avoidance.

On Monday I had a driving marathon. It was a real test for Lady Gray, but she ran like a champ. I guess if she can get me to Nevada and back, she can get me all over the Puget Sound. I took The Boy to school in BFD in the morning, had about a half hour at home before I drove to Shelton to take my mentee to a bbq in Auburn. I dropped her and Little D off at the bbq, then ran some errands. She reminded me that she was a teenager when it was time to go home. She tried to talk me into leaving her there. To her credit, when I showed up at 6, she was ready to go and didn't argue at all. We had some good talking on the way back.

Rode to work this morning. Actually, to Roosevelt HS where I met 4 other librarians in an attempt to woo high schoolers into coming to Summer Reading programs--FREE BOOKS! You know you want one!

A Long Way Gone

This morning I hosted a presentation by Gansango Music and Dance at Garfield High School. It was amazing! The dancers were energetic, vibrant, and able to draw out the students. Many students got up on stage and danced with them. The music was both melodic and rhythmic; I don't think my feet stopped moving once during the performance.

If you get a chance, go to their LaCalabasse performance at the Seattle Art Museum. They will be there Friday 10/5 at 7pm and Saturday 10/6 at 2pm. Tickets are $12 at the Sam box office.

Prior to the dance performance, Josh Fields got up and talked about the correlation between hip hop and everyday life. He tied this in with the 2011 Reads book that Garfield's 9th grade is focusing on this year: A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. He was a great warm up for the dance performance and really caught the students attention by representing popular artists such as 2 Pac and Grand Master Flash, playing snippets of music and showing clips of Ishmael Beah speaking. It really brought the subject of Sierra Leone's rebel war home for me, which I hadn't give much thought to before.

Education!

This has been my week for outreach. Yesterday I went to the school district's secondary bilingual school, where immigrant children (and a few adults) learn English. They were having a Science and Literature fair and I put up a table in the main area. The fair was pretty successful with over a hundred students attending. There were drummers during the first half and a play after the contest they held to encourage the kids to visit all the exhibits. The aquarium attended and had a workshop where kids could dissect squid. I brought The Boy and his two friends and they loved that and the owl pellets exhibit. They also went out in back of the school and played basketball with some bigger Latino boys. When I came out to gather them, they were hanging out, listening to them speak Spanish. I was really impressed with how their attitude changed between when we went in and when we left.

The Boy and his friends live in Darrington, where everyone is white and speaks English. When I told them where we were going, they started making jokes and pretending to speak a foreign language. When we got there, they were very respectful and impressed with the activities available. They found out how cool the other kids were, especially when they whooped them at basketball. It was a fun transformation to watch. (The also thought that any people walking were bums and women together were lesbians--2+2=5!)

Should be fun at central today. I hope they will lose some more of their preconceived ideas...