Messed up or what!

Recently the federal appeals court struck
down the 1st law requiring airlines to
provide food, water, clean toilets and
fresh air! Huh! Can u believe that!
What's more, NorthWest airline has
stopped serving meals on domestic flights.
So if I travel from NYC to LA, a 6 hr or
more plane ride for usually $400 or so RT,
I don't even get a free half ounce bag of
pretzel bc that airline wants to save $$.
Huh? How cheap can they be!

This morning @ Penn Station I got there
just in the nick of time to catch the
7:19am train to NJ but I had to haul ass.
I of course was rushing and excusing my-
self left and right when I got stuck by
this 40-50 year old man who wouldn't move 1
side or the other. Well I had to get by him
and he had the nerve to TRY & hit me. Oh
you bet I gave him a tongue lashing. How
dare he, after I repeatedly said "excuse
me, I need to catch the train b4 I miss
it" several times. Grr but other than that
I'm feeling a little less congested today.

Last night watched a fun movie with
Tommy Lee Jones called "The Man of
the House." It was a cute, fun movie
to watch and I laughed a lot. Also last
weekend I watched "Wilde" a movie
about Oscar Wilde. It was so slow in the
beginning but after 40 mins, the 2nd half
was pretty good. Jude Law is in it and
even tho I'm not a major fan of his, he
does a great job playing a spoiled brat in
this flick. We also watched "Badlands"
made in 1973 with Martin Sheen and
Sissy Speck about a couple who committed
murder spree in TX and SD in I think 1956.
Jack thought I looked somewhat like Sissy
Speck? I think its only bc I have
freckles and a red head complexion and
a small nose. Since Jack & I don't have
cable yet, we're living on our Netflixs.
The cable fairies arrive this Friday :-)

Dunno if you Deafies know about a service
called simulscribe.com. Its a cool service
that allows people to call ur ph nbr (&
if you don't have one, they will provide
you with one) and leave msgs. Those msgs
are within mins transcribed to text
format and emailed to you. This is great
idea. I don't know about you all but many
times when it comes to doctors, legal
or job related issues and giving a ph nbr is
always problematic bc unless they know
how to use relay or you need to be contacted
its hard for us Deafies. But this program
allows for us to get our calls from the
banks, doctor's follow up etc etc and its
all converted to txt and emailed! I'm loving
this service. I think you can try it for 1
month free to see if you like it or not?
The web addy is simulscribe.com, check
it out. I myself give it 2 thumbs up!

This weekend is the MICA teen audition.
I will be helping a filmmaker name
Beato with the filming of this project.
Her work can be found on the internet
under www.beato.tv I'm looking fwd to
meeting her this Saturday. I'm been
hankering to get behind a film lens once
again. Its my nature and Baba sums it up
well, I need to have a creative outlet.
Otherwise I get depressed and despair
that my life is stuck in a rut. Filmmaking
is awesome and I love seeing mine or
other's stories come through the end
product. I also love working in a team
environment!

Pah I passed!

*ding ding ding* yep I passed, I am now able to teach FT in any public school here in NYC and its about damn time. Ironically my score exceeded the min by 56 points, which is so weird because I swear I didn't do anything different than before. But the Gods must be smiling on me because I feel so pumped about my future opportunities. My biggest problem to date is having several PT jobs and no benefits or stability. Where I am currently student teaching there's a high probability for a FT job with them next fall for the school year. I would like that very much. Next stop is to meet with the principal and show him my scores :)

In other news, Ive come down with a cold and its left my poor nose a wreck already. Thank goodness for DayQuil, it helps take the edge off.

Recently I've been using this website called MySavings
If you like freebies and samples of new products, check em out. I love getting shampoo or body lotion samples, they're great for traveling and hell its FREE!

Jack and I are settling in quite nicely in our new 1 bedroom apt. Its a darling apt, and I love it because its OURS. Jack has been so good to me this past weekend with my mood swings. I give him so much credit and most men credit when it comes to their women and pms. He has been teasing me a lot more, we've become playful. Last night when we went to bed, I was sneezing like mad and I joked, "I must be allergic to you!" which resulted in a playful poke in the back. Its nice to see Jack smiling so much. He's smiles a lot more now. We are doing so well. I'm so happy he's my man and I feel so lucky to be with someone as bright and as handsome as he is. He has made a huge difference in my life and for a long time I didn't see it as a positive thing but the truth of the matter is. We lacked a stable home environment for the entire time we've been together and it was such a huge stressor.

enjoy

Very interesting

Everytime I write about a famous person I spotted or met, there's always a spike for my site meter. Two different websites picked up my story about David Blaine. You can read more about them at the two links below;

ITricks

Myspace "David Blaine World"

Cool how the internet links us all together :)

A piece a Perlis History

Baba sent me this email about her and Papa when they were young couple with small children that I wanted to share with you all a little about my family history;

Dearest,

I have a story to tell you that I hope won't bore you. It's ancient history yes, but still applicable to your situation, so hang on.

When Papa got his Ph.D., he couldn't find a job. A lot the returning Vets went back or started college under the G.I.Bill. (Btw, G.I. stands for Government Issue). Your grandfather had spent enough time overseas, 3 1/2 years, that it took him all the way through college and graduate school. The problem was, all these guys started at the same time and then, more or less finished at the same time. So, the market for Ph.D.'s was glutted. The only job offer he got was in one of the Carolina's for $3800/yr. So when he was offered a Post-doctoral fellowship at Cal Tech, we jumped at it. It paid $4200/yr. Wow! we had been living on so much less for so long, we thought we would be on easy street. What we didn't realize was that everything on the West Coast cost double what it did here in the East. A loaf of Wonderbread cost 30 cents a loaf, which was a lot then. Well, we found we couldn't really live out there. We had to pay too much rent in the apt. we rented in Alhambra. It was a beautiful place compared to what we had been living in in Illinois. (An old WWII barracks for officers and their families.) We had no furniture as we sold it all before we left Stadium Terrace. I had a few dishes (courtesy of my mother), some pots and pans, a few lamps but nothing else - nada. My mother sent us $1000, which is probably equivalent to $5,000 in today's money. We went to a furniture store in LA and that money bought us: A table and 4 chairs, (the one that was beside the washer on Brookfield Rd.), Three beds, a double for me and papa and twin beds for your mother and John. A washer, and a refrigerator and I think that's everything. We bought a chest of drawers in a second-hand store (the old maple chest. Papa and I used the linen closet to put our clothes ). And later on, I bought a lamp I fell in love with in a furniture story with some birthday money my mother sent me. It was the one with the spots on it. Rob has it now.

So, we were pretty much in the same situation you are in now. Except, everything had to be paid for with cash. There were no credit cards and no stores where you could get things cheaply. We were thrown into a world we weren't prepared for. Papa got out of there after one year and we came back east for the job with General Cigar. It paid, $6800/yr in a much lower cost of living area. When I told people we had paid 30 cents for a loaf of bread, they gasped! We only lived in the City for one year; it was awful. We lived in an apartment that was so dark that Chris Bennett joked when they came to visit that we needed miner's lamps. I turned 30 that year. Then Papa had to have gall bladder surgery. While he was in the hospital, I looked around at various new developments. At that time, you had to have 30% down in cash to get a mortgage from a bank, which, of course, your papa and I would never be able to get together. Then I found a new development of ranch homes out in Landisville that with the G.I.Bill, you could purchase with 5% down. As soon as papa was well enough, we went out to look at it and we bought it. We lived there for 9 years and we loved out little home.

However, it wasn't so easy for our kids who were picked on as we were the only Jews living there. The rough kids down the street even pelted the twins with snowballs when they were too little to even know enough to duck. I think that was the final straw as your mother and John took a lot of grief. John used to get beat up regularly and I made a habit of leaving the boys in their cribs and driving to the High School to pick up John so he wouldn't get beat up on the way home, though my heart was in my mouth to leave the twins unprotected. Those were hard times for me. Then we moved to Brookfield Rd. Your papa and I loved that house and our kids didn't get picked on so much, at least, not because they were Jews, as there were many Jewish kids in Manheim Twp. Schools. Anyway, I've kind of run on with my story. The fact that you were picked on so, we never knew, as you never told us. Grown-ups are kind of dumb that way. We should have suspected something was going on. So, all the above is the reason I'm glad to help you to get some stuff. In doing so, I'll feel that I have repaid my Mother for all the help she gave us all the years papa was in grad school and afterwards. And now it's up to you, to pass this on to any children you may have in the future.

Where do I start???

Hmm so much to write about, the past week has been very exciting for me. Jack and I found a darling little 1 bedroom uptown (just above 125th st).. We're located in the middle of it all (between the 2/3 trains, the 4/5/6 train) as well as the fact that my apt is on the west side, but cross the avenue I live off of, you're now on the east side. So as you can see, I am truly in the middle in all directions. The apt appliances are all brand new, new floors, paint job etc etc.. And its quite affordable *whew!* We hope to move in by the end of the week. Really its only a matter of when we can get Jack's futon/bed there for us to sleep on. I'm just so excited because this is the 1st apt of MINE in a LONG-ass time! Technically its OURs but no longer do I have to bend over meeting my "roommates" needs in fear of being kicked out because theyre the lease holder and I'm not. It made me feel very powerless as back in MD I always was on the lease so it was an adjustment when I moved to NYC knowing I was not able to get a place in my name.

Ironically last Thursday as I was on my way to meet Jack to look at our apt for the 1st time (Jack had seen it the night before and raved about it) so I was done student teaching and headed uptown on the 6 train when I saw this handsome couple sitting across from me. The train didn't have many passengers so there wasn't much to look at. But the more I looked at the man, the more familar he looked to me. I couldn't help but wonder if it was the famous magician David Blaine? He was wearing sunglasses, but I could see his eyes barely through the lens. He always has this "deadpan" eyes that look right into you, I've noticed that on tv. So I go from 23rd st, to 42nd (I planned to switch to the express 4/5 train) and as I started to exit the train and passed the couple I spoke "Sorry for staring so much, you look like the magician David Blaine." And he replied "That's because I am." at first I wasn't sure cuz no hearing aid (lost it since I was packing for the move, somewhere in a box in storage). But then I realized it really was him so I exclaimed "well now, I am gonna wait till 59th st to change to the express!" and promptly sat back down across from them, grinning from ear to ear. He beckoned me to sit next to him and pulled out an unopened deck of cards. He then did like 4 or 5 different card tricks, he had me choose a card which I picked as the 8 of club (8 is my lucky nbr because it represents infinity). As we neared 59th st, I thanked him for his time and told the couple I hope I didn't intrude but they were most gracious. His girlfriend was gorgeous and I think its the model Josie that hes been dating for the past few years but I could be wrong? He was totally cool about me being deaf. He handed me a card which had a spade on it, and I thought it was one of those standard joker cards that come in all decks of cards. I was surprised because I figured he would give me the 8 of clubs since most of his tricks involved that. But when I went to his website I realized the significance of his card. Its his logo (db for david blaine) as you can see from my pictures. How cool is that! When I exited the train at 59th st, I felt so weak, very tired. Now you may think I am loopy, I know Blondie does when it comes to ESP but I swear to you, I was drained after meeting him and I had to wonder what it all means? I read on his website he is preparing for a new stunt, man the last few were quite amazing, remember last year I think it was, he was frozen in ice at the Rockfellar Center? I can't wait to see his next major performance and I promised myself, it is something that takes place here, I will go!

What else is new, last Saturday the girls and I met up to work on some art projects. It was so nice to see them and just be with my friends ya know? Next week is spring break. I thought I would be off from all of my jobs but I found out today, thats not true. My student teaching is still on for next week but not my 2 jobs at the college level. Bleah I was hoping for the free time off but its ok, I can use the hours for student teaching. Besides we're now focusing on making movies with the middle school kids, totally my forte!

Boycott the circus!

I got on the NJ transit train today to find
the seats covered with flyers for Ringling
Bros & Barnum Bailey circus is in town. UGH!
I am against the circus bc of the fact they
are notorious for animals abuse. Did you know
when you see elephants standing that's due
to how the trainers train em. You know how?
By hitting the poor elephants with a heavy
object to their knees till they finally stand.
Its not natural for them to stand on their
legs. I think its horrible the circus relies so
much on the animals to bring in their revenues.

Speaking of animals, the other day as Jack
and I passed 60TH ST (near the Lincoln
Center) going east we passed Central Park
where there were lines of horse drawn
carriages. Ugh, again another example of
humans prying on innocent animals to make
a living. Those poor horses, being forced to
walk around a polluted car fumes-ridden city
in all kinds of weather just so tourist can
experience the "novelty" of what I consider
animal abuse. Jack summed it up well as we
passed these horses "they sure don't look
happy." Well would you, being force to
work day in and out, wearing horse blinders,
inhaling fumes and dealing with the driver
and their whip, reins!

Well today I will hand out the midterms for
my undergrad students. I hope I am not ex-
pecting too much? I have the midterm divided
into 2 sections. The 1st section is the videos,
where students will be paired up and they will
create 2 dialogues, do physical descriptions
and contrastive sentences with why's. The
2nd part will be based on their videos in a
Q&A format, the videos will be shown and
the students will answer questions related to
the videos for reception skills. If any ASL
teachers are reading this, pls lmk if you think
I'm expecting too much or is this reasonable?

Lastly Keri has started a new blog called
ASL Junkies, a Think Tank for us Deafies,
Signers to brainstorm new ideas for needed
signs that do not exist in ASL. Boy I couldn't
agree more. One area I find lacking BIG time
is Astronomy. I mean how many times can
a person use the sign for STAR to represent
the numerous abstract as well as iconic
ideas found in deep space. The sign for
EARTH/PLANETS/GEOGRAPHY, plus
SUN, and MOON are the only known signs
I know of, besides HEAVEN/SKY. I want
to be able to discuss Quasars, Black Holes,
Solar Flares, Craters, Orbit.... Not have to
spend the entire time fingerspelling aka
The Rocherster Method sucks for
deep discussions. So I applaud Keri for
starting this site up!

What else is new? Well Jack has been sick
with an ear infection and I took a nasty fall
on Monday when my shoe came flying off
as I was running to catch the train, and I flew
down onto the sidewalk pavement with my
knee and shoulder breaking my fall. Ouch!
At first I thought my knee was ok, just my
hand and 1 finger hurt from the scrape of the
fall but by the time I got home I was limping.
Missed work Monday nite, and hobbled
around yesterday student teaching. Today it
feels a lot better but still some swelling
and as time passes, the knee becomes more
and more sore... The nurse said I don't need to
see a doctor but simply use RICE and wait
for time to heal it. So tonight I will miss 1
more day of media service work. Unfortunately
that job requires a lot of walking, stairs and
pushing carts, a big No No for moi!

Cain seems to be staying out of town 1 more
week, which works for Jack and me. We haven't
had much luck with apts. I'm amazed by how
many scammers post apt ads simply to
obtain your information such as emails,
some are bold enough to ask for ssn!
Puhleeze! As if I would give it out over email!
Some of the stories in these scammers
replies include absurd stories like "my wife
and I are missionaries and plan to re-
locate to South Africa and are excited we
found someone to take over the apt..."
Another one talks in details about how
you should explain how you would keep the
apt clean? Then adds a sob story about the
"renter" being in the hospital... Lame. Ignore
these ads if you're looking! And I agree
with Jack, if the ads have NO PICTURE
its more than likely a scam. Sad but true!

Waiting for Malcolm

The other day I was reading an article I think on CNN and it mentioned robotic pets for the elderly, saying research shows these robotic pets are just as good as the real thing, minus the mess. Read Fake Dog, Real Benefits. I looked online and found out there is all kinds of robotic pets such as dogs, cats, birds and yep, even fishes! So I pounced on Jack and demanded we get one for ourselves since weboth like futuristic things and him being a technology junkie we decided to order ourselves a robotic dog whom I've been calling Malcolm. He's Black ofc, wouldn't have it any other way :)

I will take pictures of Malcolm once he arrives and let you know if its worth trying out for yourselves? But it's gotta beat the old ones where the robotic pet would take a few steps, sit, bark (more like a yap yap yap) and then flip. Only to start once more of the walking, sitting, yapping, flipping....

Dunno if you deafies read about "Moment of Truth" scandal? You can watch it at Youtube but of course no captioned, instead Jack typed it up for me, so here's the translation below; ENJOY

HOST: THIS IS YOUR $100,000 MOMENT OF TRUTH, BUT IT WON’T BE ASKED BY ME. IT’S BY A SURPRISE GUEST.

WOMAN: OH…MY…GOD

HOST: LAUREN, CAN YOU TELL EVERYONE WHO THIS IS, OR DO I NEED TO DO IT?

WOMAN: I…I CAN’T SPEAK RIGHT NOW…

HOST: THIS IS YOUR EX-BOYFRIEND, FRANK. HOW ARE YOU DOING FRANK? FRANK

HAS A QUESTION FOR YOU. AND I HOPE THAT IF YOU WIN IT, THIS QUESTION IS

WORTH THE $100,000. (LOOKS TOWARD HUSBAND) IF YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR THE ANSWER, YOU STILL HAVE THE BUTTON, I DON’T NEED TO REMIND YOU. THIS QUESTION IS FOR $100,000, WHEN YOU’RE READY, QUESTION 15:

EX-BF: IF I WANTED TO GET BACK TOGETHER WITH YOU, WOULD YOU LEAVE YOUR HUSBAND?
(AUDIENCE GOES CRAZY)

HOST: YOU CAN AVOID THIS BY HITTING THE BUTTON RIGHT NOW FRANK
(FAMILY HITS BUTTON, AUDIENCE BOOS AND GOES CRAZY AGAIN)
ASKS ANOTHER QUESTION, WARNS THAT IT MAY BE WORSE AND THAT SHE HAS TO ANSWER THIS NEXT QUESTION OR LOSE THE GAME

EX-BF: DO YOU BELIEVE I AM THE MAN YOU SHOULD BE MARRIED TO?

WOMAN: WELL…HAHA….UMM…GOTTA BE HONEST…UHH…AND SAY YES…
(ANSWER IS TRUE)

HOST: FRANK IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANNA SAY AT THIS POINT?

FRANK: YEAH THERES NOTHING ELSE I CAN REALLY HEAR, SO…YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST GO FOR IT…

HOST: HAVE YOU GUYS TALKED ABOUT THIS EX AT ALL?

FRANK: WELL UH…EARLY ON IN THE MARRIAGE BUT I DIDN’T REALIZE THIS GUY WAS STILL AN ISSUE…

HOST: I MEAN, WITH AN ANSWER LIKE THAT I CAN ONLY ASSUME THAT YOURE..UNHAPPY

FRANK: SOMETIMES…SOMETIMES….

HOST: LAUREN, WHAT DO WE DO HERE??

WOMAN: THIS IS UH…

FRANK: LAUREN, WHAT ELSE IS THERE…YOU KNOW I MEAN, JUST..GO FOR IT…

HOST: THIS IS A LITTLE BIGGER THAN THE GAME RIGHT NOW. SO YOU HAVE 100K, OKAY? YOU LEAVE HERE WITH 100k RIGHT NOW AND YOU GO HOME WITH YOUR HUSBAND FRANK AND YOU HAVE TO NOW, FIGURE WHERE YOU TWO ARE?

FRANK: I WOULD TELL HER TO GO, I MEAN WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO TELL ME? WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO REALLY TELL ME??

HOST: (HYPES THE 100k AGAIN AND TELLS HER TO CONTINUE)…BUT FRANK MAKES A VERY GOOD POINT, AFTER THIS BOMB, WHAT ELSE IS THERE? YOU KNOW, I DON’T. YOU KNOW THE QUESTIONS, WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

(FAMILY SAYS RUN, GO, RUN GO, RUN)
(MOTHER SAYS TO LEAVE)

WOMAN: IM GOING TO KEEP GOING

HOST: YOU PROBABLY KNOW WHATS COMING NEXT, AND YOU STILL WANT IT? HAVE YOU EVER HAD SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH ANY MAN OTHER THAN YOUR HUSBAND?
(AUDIENCE GOES CRAZY)

HOST: HAH, I WISH THE BUTTON WAS STILL THERE.

FRANK: (NERVOUSLY) HUH..YOU’RE TELLIN ME..

WOMAN: IM GOING TO HAVE TO SAY YES
(ANSWER IS TRUE)

(MORE HYPE ABOUT GOING FORWARD AND SHE AGREES TO)

HOST: DO YOU THINK YOU’RE A GOOD PERSON?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

WOMAN: HONESTLY I THINK I AM A GOOD PERSON
(FATHER SAYS “TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE”)
(ANSWER IS FALSE)

HOST SARCASTICALLY EXPLAINS THAT YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE YOURSELF FULLY IN ORDER TO BELIEVE YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON

Wow, the things people do for money and fame.

No we stll havent found an apt, but after we looked at one in Flushings, Queens last Sunday we Flushed the idea of Flushings right away! Too far and residential for us. The apt hunt continues....

I'm gonna be so glad when
student teaching is done with.
But I know in the end its for a good
reason...
My MA (Masters).
Don't get me wrong, I'm fortunate to be
set up in a flexibile environment but I do
not get paid during this time.
Again I remind myself.
Ill get an MA at the end of all this.
And I'm feeling a little stress because
I haven't had the chance to sit down
& focus on my thesis topic.
And I have to find a place to live in
between it all.
But, I remind myself that
by next fall, I should have it all
done, my MA! PAH!

[This concludes my rant, now go and
enjoy your weekend!]