Post Inauguration

In the past I never had the least bit interest in the inauguration of a new president. But this year, like many millions around the world, I watched the entire ceremony. I watched it in my classroom with my third graders. It was all very touching. Every few minutes I'd tell my students, "You are watching history in the making, guys." They were completely captivated. They even patiently listened to Obama's speech which they thought was great but couldn't tell me what it was about. The rest of that school day my students practised pronouncing the word "inauguration".

In these early weeks I flinch each time there's a criticism of Obama. Timothy Geithner not paying taxes raised a few sharp words. Nobody wanted any of Obama's appointments to have bumps, but alas, it isn't to be so. Geithner is the best there is, folks are saying, and so his appointment as Treasury Secretary gets approved. Now Tom Daschle is found not to be squeaky clean either. Jeez!

The NYT had an article with some details about the stimulus package Obama is trying to get passed. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a lot of the money will be used to help schools, universities, and other social programs. The NYT had a lot of enthusiasm for it, but was critical of the fact that there isn't any mention of money for high speed rail and other mass transportation programs. Well, it's already a hard sell to the Republicans.

Even though politics seems to dominate our conversations these days, we are definitely balancing our lives with other stuff too. Last weekend Daryl and I went to see Mozart's "The Magic Flute" performed by the LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Concert Hall. It was a terrific production. We spent the night in LA at a hotel - Mikayo - in Japantown. the hotel was reasonably nice, about a mile from Chandler - and the area filled with Japanese stores and restaurants quite interesting.

Later in the week I had some author friends of mine - Caroline Hatton, Alexis O'Neil, and Kate Hovey - over for dinner. They are all from the LA area and were the authors for an event called "Author-Go-Round" organized by Santa Barbara County schools. It was great to get my mind off teaching and to talk about writing. Caroline had told me about a YAbook called MANY STONES which is mostly set in South Africa. So we discussed the book a bit. She had a lot more enthusiasm for the book than I did. But, given that my current work in progress has some elements in common with MANY STONES I'm really glad to have read it.

We are spending the weekend arguing about fruit trees. Daryl went out and bought four fruit trees, and then decided to plant them in places that I, let's just say, found "unsuitable". So I huffed out of the garden and decided to update my blog!!