Recently Read

Reread:
East of Eden, John Steinbeck (****)
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood (****)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (****)
American Gods-Neil Gaiman (*****)

Newly Read
Confessions of Max Tivoli, Sean Andrew Greer (**)

That rating system is:
* - AWFUL DEADPAN WASTE of TIME
** - Made no impression
*** - I enjoyed this read! Fluffy bit of goods that it was
**** - Wow! YES! Fantastic!
***** - life changing, will now pack up my belongings to duplicate the plot of this book, or to camp out on author's bookstep

I'm still muddling through:
Rereading:
Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (****)
Nine Stories - JD Salinger (*****)

Reading
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susannah Clark

It's December?

What happened? Just last week it was August, and I was starting a new job. Now it's december, I have 23 kids, a great new class, a renewed sense of peace, and Thanksgiving is already over. WTF?
As much as I enjoyed my time in Atlanta, ever since I've been in DC I've just felt like, wow, I'm home. My new apartment and my old apartment kind of illustrate my feelings. My old apartment was shiny, spacious, newly renovated, squeaky clean. But it never felt lived it, despite the futon, the cats, the attempts to decorate. My new apartment has crazy leaks, clogging toilets, rattly heat, but it's also got CHARM, and feels comfy like some old tired shoes. REally cute shoes, but they've seen better days.

I will post pictures soon, I promise, I'm being quite stingy about that.

Work at Two Rivers is awesome; I just absolutely love the environment. It's totally positive; NO Ms. SATs here at all. What's funny about that is all of my kids now call me Jane now, no Ms. Y, not even Ms. Jane (which i loathe!).

I think there's no hidden authority there, the kids know my role and they know their role, they're polite and kind not because of any kind of power struggle, but because that's just how we treat each other. It's like, amazing. It's beautiful man!