Thanksgiving Day!

I find the winter holidays in the US strangely depressing. Thanksgiving and Christmas demand the kind of attention that disturbs my routine quite obnoxiously. I don't want to make huge meals and hang out with people. What a waste of a day.Let's not even talk about all those millions of unsuspecting turkeys callously murdered for the sake of some ridiculous tradition.

Admittedly, it was nice not to have to go to work yesterday (Wednesday) and today. It rained most of yesterday - a nice, steady drizzle quenching our parched grounds. I spent most of the day by the fire rereading Obama's DREAMS FROM MY FATHER. This morning the sun shone brightly and the sky was blue and cloudless. I started the day by reading the blogs on Huffpost I enjoyed Jamie Lee Curtis and Erica Jong expressing what they are thankful for. It helped lift me out of my depression. Paul Krugman's article defending Obama's choice of economic advisers was a good read too. I'm so glad he wrote this. It's so weird that folks on the left are being so critical. As Obama himself pointed out yesterday at a news conference, with the current economic crisis, experienced advisors are necessary. He cannot risk hiring all new people under these extraordinary circumstances.
Last Tuesday I went with some friends to a talk by Maureen Dowd who is a columnist for the NYT. I have mixed feelings about Dowd. I used to enjoy her clever, insightful criticisms of Bush, et al. but during the primaries she turned me off with her constant and consistent cattiness and pettiness toward Hillary Clinton. So I wasn't sure if I would enjoy listening to her. The talk turned out to be quite enjoyable. Maureen Dowd seems very gung ho about Obama. She was part of the press crew who accompanied him on his trip to Europe and Israel in the summer. When someone in the audience asked what she thought of Obama's appointees she expressed support. She thought it was wise to hire people with diverse ideas. She also mentioned that a lot of the people from the Clinton administration that Obama is hiring are the best and brightest who hadn't been able to do the work they hoped to do under Clinton. They now had another opportunity to use their talents. After the talk I decided I liked Maureen Dowd after all!

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends, Premi and Sri. We prepared tofurkey (tofu turkey), roast potatoes, brussels sprouts, and other veggies. Premi prepared roast leg of lamb, shrimp and crab, and a rice dish. Earlier in the day we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a walk on the beach. It was fabulous. The air after a good rain is so exhilarating.

And now it's evening and I'm glad for it all to be over. But starting tomorrow I'll have to endure godawful Christmas music and jingling bells and flickering lights and stupid snowmen and Santa decorations. Is there anyone out there who would like to join me in petitioning to abolish this ghastly holiday?

Another Big Fire!

Friends,

Just wanted to assure you that we are safe. The fire is about 10 miles from us so we aren't in any danger. This fire that started yesterday (Thursday evening) grew rapidly and destroyed about a 100 homes in the wealthier part of our area. My school, Roosevelt Elementary, is closed and is in an evacuation warning area. So all my students live fairly close to the fire and many of them could be evacuated before the day is over.
We are still recovering from the July fire so it's frustrating to deal with a huge fire again.

Post-election elation

It's Tuesday morning, Veteran's Day, and I'm home taking things easy. I'm listening to Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now". Her guest is Alice Walker, who just read out her letter to Barack Obama - an open letter which she has posted on the WEB. It's a sort of "mother giving son advice" letter. She's a passionate supporter of Obama. During a short break in the program Amy played Miriam Makeba's "Click" song. I'm very saddened by Makeba's death. I have all her albums and listen to them frequently. I'm so addicted to her voice and music that I go through withdrawal if I hadn't listened to her for a while.

Today I feel I can finally breathe again. I feel like I've been holding my breath for two years and now I can turn my attention to mundane matters. I'm about to go into my garden and check on the broccoli and chard I've recently planted. The sun is shining, the sky is deep blue. There's a chill in the air. Winter is definitely on its way.

Woohoo!

It's late. I'm tired. But, what joy! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! We are happy. So, so happy. We hung out with our friends Adrienne and Bisi and a few others and watched with increasing excitement as the results came in. and exactly when the polls closed in California at 8:00 an Obama victory was declared. Bisi opened up a bottle of fine champagne and we celebrated.

I'm still worried about how things turned out in California though - especially Proposition 8 - banning gay marriage. Tomorrow we'll know the final results. But tonight I will go to bed with a great big smile.

Just 2 more days!

Two more days. Long, long days. It's beginning to look like nothing's going to jinx things. But we always remember '04 and '00. So we stifle/suppress/compress our optimism. Should we buy champagne and expect to be celebrating? And if things go badly how on earth are we going to face the world on Wednesday?

For Halloween this year I was Joe the Plumber. When I asked my 3rd graders if they knew who he was someone said "Obama's vice-president?" I was going to make my sign "Joe the Dumber" but you know, got to be professional and all.
It's the first day of standard time when darkness descends at the ungodly hour of 5:00. I hate it. At 6:00 it feels like midnight. Jeez I find this depressing. The weather's been amazing, though. It's still warm and I'm still in my summer wardrobe. We haven't had to turn on the heating yet. But it is November and any day now the air will turn chilly.

Meanwhile, we prepare for Tuesday. Signs all over the place announce who and how to vote. Obama/Biden bumper stickers far outnumber the other out here in California. We are a solidly blue state. But we have some nasty measures on our ballots that could go the wrong way. Proposition 8 to my mind is the worst - banning gay marriage. Hopefully the number of sensible people will outnumber the dummies.

Last Weeks before Election

We are all so excited. Should I be even thinking this? I should wait just in case the bad luck gods are listening. Okay, I'll wait until November 5 to jump for joy!
Meanwhile, we are sailing along, embracing fall, bravely saying goodbye to oh, beautiful, beautiful summer. Last week we went to listen to Paul Theroux give a hugely disappointing talk. What a downer to discover that somebody you've 'known' for years - in his personal narrative style books he has a way of making the reader feel like you and he are real good pals - is actually boring on the stage. He seemed to go off on tangents A LOT and the audience was left wondering if he actually spent any time preparing his talk. I do recommend his books, though. I loved SIR VIDIA'S SHADOW and MY SECRET HISTORY.

We also went to a few local concerts recently. Jennifer Terran is a local singer/songwriter and performs for a select audience at her home in a converted barn. She has loads of talent and the atmosphere at her place is warm and friendly. Another concert we went to was at a cafe - Muddy Waters. We saw Scott Ray, the brother of our friend, Vickie Ray, a professional pianist. Scott does this slide guitar thing and creates very interesting, whimsical music. He happens to be married to someone from Durban! Vickie is married to Shaun, who grew up in Ladysmith! What a world of coincidences we live in!

Oh, another big event was me being a guest author at a local event called "Breakfast with the Authors". This is organized by the school county library and it's an opportunity for educators to meet and interact with local writers of children's books. Each author had to give a two minute talk so I tried my best to sound impressive and worldly.

With two months of teaching behind me already I have to say I'm really enjoying it all. Mostly because the students I have are really sweet and are very highly motivated. It's such a pleasure to go to school everyday and see their smiles and feed their brains. They are good, and I see them lapping up knowledge like hungry kittens.

Sunday Thoughts

Yesterday, Saturday, all of us in Santa Barbara were walking around with big smiles. The reason: it was a grey, drizzly day! The last time it rained here was in late February. so we were delighted. Trees and shrubs in our gardens are still covered with ash from the big July fire so we welcomed a downpour to rinse off the air and the plants and make it all clean again. By mid-afternoon the clouds had pretty much disappeared and the sun made its appearance. Today we woke up to blue skies and warm temperatures.

This past week we had a string of sweltering days. Not terribly unusual for us. It's as if summer is making a last burst of effort. You can tell it's all just a show, though. Kinda like Sarah Palin pretending to know stuff. Fall signs are all over the place. Am I ready for short days and crisp evenings? Never!

As I made my Sunday rounds - pool, hot tub, then market - I thought about delightful Sundays I experienced in other places. In the fall of 2004 we were on Sabbatical in Barcelona and there we used to start the day by going to the local bakery and buying breakfast pastries and a yummy cake for dessert in the evening. Often we chose 'The Opera', a layered chocolate cake. Then we'd pick up a newspaper - The Observer - overpriced, but we craved news from the English speaking world - and spent the mornings relaxing with coffee, pastry, and the paper. I would then go to the gym across the road and do my 'spa' routine - pool, hot tub, sauna. Around midday Daryl and I would take the metro into the city and have lunch at Maoz Falafels. This tiny place - right on the Ramblas was always crowded. They made terrific falafels and you got to stuff your pita pocket with an enormous selection of great fillings. A truly satisfying meal. Then we would head out to a cafe we discovered just past the market for coffee and a chocolate dessert. This was sinful indulgence. We would spend the afternoon sightseeing and afterwards head out to an atmospheric square for a glass of wine. Back home we'd prepare a dinner with the amazingly wonderful produce and mushrooms, etc we found so easily in Barcelona, and end the day with the delicious cake we purchased in the morning.

Other fun Sundays - like the ones in Cape Town and the ones in Oxford - scrolled through my mind too. But, Santa Barbara is such an uplifting city that I didn't find myself longing to be elsewhere.

Even though I feel resentful about not owning my time anymore, I can't say that my days are awful. I'm enjoying teaching third grade. The kids are so delightfully motivated and so full of heartwarming innocence. They love to read and would keep their books on their laps to sneak a quick read whenever they can. They are also so thrilled that their teacher is an author. One of my students checked out UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN from our school library. The kid who sits next to her looked at her other book and said to her, "Did Ms Moodley make this book too?" Cute, or what!!

And so life has slipped back into the 'normal' state. The university is back in session and so downtown is busier and grocery shopping at Trader Joe's on Sunday afternoons is impossible.

A month from now we'll know exactly how racist America is. The whole world knows who we should pick for a president, but will it happen? I think so!!