Sometimes businesses do ASININE things

All of you are briefed on the oven saga. My part, ordered from Sears sight unseen (let's hope it is the right part), was to arrive LAST Friday, the 10th. I got a call on this past Tuesday morning from DHL, the delivery company, asking to confirm the delivery address since I have all packages sent to work in Oakland. After confirming the fact that I wanted it shipped to Oakland, they told me that they would have it to me the next day. At the end of Wednesday, I still didn't have the package. I called the number I called Tuesday and they told me that it had been shipped over to the Oakland/East Bay sorting center from the South San Francisco center (where it was sent due to my billing address) and it was out of their hands. They were nice enough to give me the Oakland center number. I called the Oakland center and they looked into the matter and confirmed the package had left South San Francisco and had not arrived yet in Oakland. They she rolls out the kicker. "Your package is probably in Fresno." I went "WHAT???" The woman then tells me that any package in the state of California that moves from one sorting center to another sorting center is sent to Fresno, where DHL's statewide sorting center is. I'm still waiting for my part and my range is still sitting in the middle of kitchen waiting to have the hot surface ignition replaced. Argh.

One a happier note. I am flying up to Seattle this weekend to attend the Seattle Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign's auction/gala. My friend Dean is one of the leaders of the chapter and so I am going to support him. It will be cool and interesting to hang with the A-List gays of Seattle.

Yalie, Ashley and Anya

One of the great things about being a teacher is when your former students come back and hang with you. Yalie K., Ashley J. and Anya B. came over to San Francisco tonight and we all hung out and talked about their new college lives, gossip about the Head-Royce school and most prominantly, the lack of good men (notice we didn't even try to talk about great men) and ate papusas at El Zocolo, my neighboorhood El Salvadorean restaurant.

Ashley, Yalie and Anya

This girl KICKS ASS

The Head-Royce school walked its talk this past Spring when it admitted a new ninth grade girl named Alva G. Head-Royce purports itself to be a school that is all inclusive and welcoming of every person. Alva G., you see, is a girl with cerebral palsy and gets around in a motorized wheelchair. She chose Head-Royce because, even though it is on a major hill, it was the most wheelchair accessible campus in the East Bay. Here is a picture of me and Alva.

Alva Gardner and her Geometry teacher

Alva has no control of her right hand, but she does have command of her left hand. So she writes, drives, does everything with her left hand. These first couple weeks as her Geometry teacher have been a learning experience, but since Alva is SUCH a great advocate for herself, she has told me what she needs and with what she doesn't. For example, if I know our class is going to be working on diagrams or with lots of lists, I make sure to photocopy my notes for her, as her writing, is as she fully admits, atrocious and it is also difficult for her to write. I have learned that on short quizzes, she needs no special treatment, but when it comes to whole-period tests, she will need extra time. It is now habit for me to clear out the chairs around the table she sits and I also am the person to put things back into her three-ring binder and then put her Geometry binder in her backpack and get out her English/History binder and put it in the sidebag she has. Alva and I are becoming a well-oiled machine. I am so amazed that this young woman has such spark and determination to live a full life. If her first couple weeks here at Head-Royce are an indicator, she is going to kick some major booty during her lifetime.

Friends in the News

My dear friend Tim (who I dated while I lived in New Jersey) is an incredibly talented and successful person. Here's an article about the company he works for that was printed recently in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The article featured Tim quite a bit. I wanted to say prominantly at the end of the last sentence, but I'm not sure if could spell it right, but now you can see if I actually can spell it. But, I digress.

Here's a picture of Tim, it was the one printed in the newspaper.

Tim A. in action on the left

Oh, you'll notice that I've changed the look of the page here. The key new thing is the comments section at the end of every post. Please feel free to comment on things I write. I enjoy hearing feedback.

Swimming in San Francisco Bay?

All San Franciscans know that our true summer is during the months of September and October. It has something to do with the lack of both morning and afternoon fogs that leaves the days clear and gives the sun an opportunity to heat up the air and raise the temperatures around the Bay. True to form, the first week of September 2004 will be remembered for its heatwave temperatures. Yes, we are lucky here in California not to have the compounded issue of humidity, but man, it was HOT.

The long prologue about the heatwave culminates in my conversation with my friend Matt. He mentioned that he had been going down to Aquatic Park (right by Ghiradelli Square) everyday to go swimming in the Bay. In the same moment, I was both horrified and throughly jazzed at the idea of swimming at such a lovely spot.....in the Bay. So I took Matt up on his offer and met him down at Aquatic Park and took a dip into the Bay.

A birdseye view of Aquatic Park and the Fisherman's Wharf Area of San Francisco. I swam in the tidal basin enclosed by the circular jetty.

I have to admit that it was pretty warm. Matt and I were quite adept at finding those areas in the water that were almost bathwater temperature. Apparently the sun heats up the upper layer of water and because it has been so warm of late, the water has had to retain the heat, thereby making it pleasant swimming. The only downside to the experience is that I forgot that the Bay is NOT a body of freshwater and I unfortunately took in my share of seawater.

This past weekend I also hung out with my friends Michael and Darren. We gorged on pizza and watched a COMPLETELY DISTURBING movie. It was called Elephant. It's a movie by Gus Van Sant. All I can say is that it was definately not a mainstream film.