Five years of teasing come to fruition

In the fall of 2000, I taught an Honors Geometry class that remains legendary. Two Ken's, Two Chris', an Ali and Allie, Conrad the 8th grader and the smartest kid I ever taught and Becky, Elana and Sarah. Ahh, Sarah H. You've met this family before, actually about this time last year, her father invited me to play Cypress Point. Well, ever since Sarah and I have known each other, I have given her a hard time due to the fact that in 9th grade, she wanted to be a socialite, be written up in the Nob Hill Gazette and dreamed of her Debutante Ball. We all know that I can and could not resist giving Sarah a hard time. To her undying credit, 9th grade Sarah took it in stride and it became a constant source of laughs. Well, last night, the big night occurred. Sarah was presented to society and I had a massive cultural experience.

First off, here is me in a tuxedo, just after I had dressed myself at the base of Nob Hill.

First time in a tux in probably a decade

The evening started crazed because of a goodbye dinner for a friend who is moving to LA because of a job transfer. After getting dressed right there in the street, I was dropped off at the Fairmont. Except the ball was at the Westin St. Francis, so I had to catch a cab and I arrived to watch the presentation of about 25 young women with five minutes to spare.

Sarah and Alex (her escort and another one of my former students) during the post-presentation walk, which was quite complicated.

There were about 500 people in the room, many of them classmates of the women being presented. The presentation is exactly what you think. Each young woman comes out center stage and is met by an escort of her choosing. She curtsies, is escorted down a short flight of stairs and then handed off to her father for official presentation. Done.

Our protagonist and her two time high school math teacher

I need to no longer be in front of the camera, especially when next to Melissa B. (FYI, Dad, this is Frank's neice)

It was a wonderful evening as it was a look into San Francisco Society. Let's chalk it up to anthropology!

The first of three

This week has been and will continue to be a busy one. Two stints as a medical patient, trying to sort out the medical issues regarding my foot surgery and the visit of three, count them three, of my out of town friends, and there is little down time. Well, except for right now.

Ian M. is a long time friend of mine from my Seattle days. Currently living in NYC, he was out on a West Coast swing, San Francisco being the last stop before heading back to NYC and a career in real estate. Last night, he, Jennifer K. (the longtime roommate but alas, no longer) and I went to dine at a San Francisco institution, The Original Old Clam House. We ordered a clambowl and a meleneza for the three of us and the piles of mussels, clams, crab legs, prawns and scallops was massive. For those of you locals, I highly recommend this place. I've been wanting to try the Clam House since I moved here since I drive by it every single day on my way to work, but it took six years to finally go inside. I should have done it earlier.

Ian and Jennifer at The Original Old Clam House

Afterwards, we continued our dining pleasures to get ice cream at another San Francisco Institution, Mitchell Brothers. For those of you who followed the link, check out the flavors. It's a good thing I have some will power to resist ice cream because I live a mere three block walk from this shop.

Lastly, on the medical front, Kaiser has officially denied my request to have my hardware removal done by Dr. B in Seattle. Since the estimate I received were I to think of paying out of pocket for this surgery was $9,000, I'll go ahead and meet the doctor Kaiser has contracted to work on these types of surgeries. This Kaiser doctor is a former president of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, I have to believe he's the bees knees and can do my removal without much difficulty.

Emily, Alicia and others

Can it be that it is already four years past 2001 and my first set of graduating advisees from HRS are now college graduates? Oh my! So last night, two women from that group, along with one of their friendboys and Scott went out to Moki's for dinner.

Emily and Alicia

A sign that they are growing up and maturing? They were only four minutes late. So for those of you who have been waiting with anticipation, here's the moment you've been hoping would come sooner rather than later:

Scott (aka S&M) revealed

I am a medical conumdrum

The first year medical students have spent the year working on learning the practical aspects of being a physician. Every doctor has to know how to give basic examinations, such as taking a medical history, cardio-pulmonary or neurological just to name a few. To test what they have learned, UCSF sets up mock-clinical exams for the first year students. So, last Thursday, yesterday and tomorrow, I have and will spend four hours in the afternoon being prodded, poked and touched by first year medical students. I was selected because my friend H. Carrie Chen runs this first year class and knows my medical history and thought I would be interesting for the students to examine because they end up finding things that throw them for a loop.

The first years perform a musco-skeletal exam on me in front of a teaching doctor who evaluates them. As they perform the exam, they are palpating (touching and feeling) the bones, joings and ligaments along my shoulders, back and knee all while asking me if I have any pain. In addition, they ask me to do range of motion exercises as well. I am wearing a hospital gown as we do it, but during some portions the exam, I take it off.

One of the last parts of the exam, is to test for reflexes in the knee and ankle, which I have learned tests for spinal cord function in the L4-L5-S1 area. This is where things get interesting. As they hammer at my knee, nothing happens. It totally throws them for a loop because everything else has been going so well up to that point. After five or six whacks at my knee, the doctor or I will tell them that they are doing it correctly and that I have dimishished reflexes in both areas, bilaterally.

When the exam is done, the doctor, student and I sit and talk about techniques they could have used or if they tried to inspect something in the wrong place. For example the students always miss the biceps tendon. When they say they've found it, I am looking at them knowing that they've TOTALLY FAKED it when they said they found it. But what the doctor asks them to do is to make any other observations about me. What the doctor is trying to get them to do is ask about the huge scar on my left side. Only 25% of the first years even ask about it and if they do, I am allowed then to tell them the story of my accident. Once all that is on the table, the first years have a context for the lack of reflexes because my spinal fusion is at L1-L2-L3 and my reflexes are controlled by the spinal cord below my surgery. The moral of the story for first year doctors? If you look and ask, you may have the answer given to you.

Summer Break and taking one for the team

The Monday morning after graduation is when the final faculty meeting occurs. We say good-bye to those who are retiring or leaving the school. Faculty recognition awards and chairs are presented to those teachers who have served in an extraordinary capacity and the following years committee assignments are revealed. In the past, I have served a two-year elected stint on the professional development committee, one year of two-years on the faculty compensation committee and three or four years on the admissions committee. In addition, when I was serving as department chair, I served on the curriculum committee and department council. Next year, however, I am chairing the Annual Fair. For many years, it was headed by my wonderful colleague Mr. Chu, who left this past year for greener pastures. To give you an idea as to how much of a headache bring the point person for the fair is, I have been relieved of EVERY OTHER outside of classroom duty. All I have to do is the Annual Fair.

So, what is this Annual Fair? The fair takes place on the evening of third Friday of October. The clubs and groups of the Middle and Upper Schools organize booths and games for our Lower Schoolers (K-5). In talking with some of my students who were at one time Lower Schoolers themselves, they remember the Annual Fair being one of those things they greatly looked forward to. What's in it for the older students? Ahhh, you see, the fair operates on little red tickets. Lower School parents purchase both an entrance fee to the fair as well as wads of little red tickets. Every red ticket collected by a booth or game represents money in the operating budget of a groups account. So, months of September and October will be all Fair, all the time.

As I left school Monday afternoon, I felt my annual tinge of sadness at the school year being over. As a kid, I was that kid who cried when school was over in June because I loved school and I always found summer kind of boring. I still feel that now, but at least now summers are usually filled with things to do. So, stay tuned for some of my summer adventures. Can it be a year already that this blog has been in existence? The genesis of this blog was to provide family and friends to keep track of me during last years cross-country road trip, but now has taken on a life of its own.

A week in the life

Since I last wrote

•Get a haircut
•Attend faculty retirement party
•Go grocery shopping at Trader Joe's (a task made much more tolerable with Scott)
•Proctor the Extended Time Testing Final for History Department
•Get Subaru's oil changed
•Proctor Math Finals
•Grade Math Finals (2 pages of 50 Honors Geometry and all 35 Geometry)
•Calculate, determine and submit Spring Semester and Year grades
•Attend Senior Project Presentation Evening
•The Congressional Quarterly's 2006 Guide to Congress arrives
•Little sleep as Ernie now knows Gwen Moore (D-WIS) is a new congresswoman
•Fly to Seattle
•See all the nurses and Dr. B in the Foot and Ankle Clinic at Harborview
•Dr. B and Dr. Schuberth (Kaiser's Foot and Ankle specialist and is former president of the Association of Foot and Angle Surgeon's) talk, Schuberth agrees to work on allowing Kaiser to allow me out of network surgery
•One hour later, word comes that Kaiser denies out of network surgery
•Fly back to Bay Area
•Have first misunderstanding with Scott (the Ernie Operating Manual is more complicated than first thought)
•Find out from Dr. Schuberth's nurse that she is filing paperwork and so there still is hope for out of network surgery
•Serve as model patient for 1st year UCSF Medical students (musco-skeletal exam)
•Say goodbye to two colleagues at a dinner
•Gather further evidence that the Math Department is weird
•Attend graduation rehearsal
•Get confronted by Shahana about my crappy treatment of her and discover that the issues come down to ones of boundaries (S, if you're reading this did I cross one by posting here?)
•Final Math Department meeting of the year
•Order Dad the most PERFECT Father's Day Gift
•Attend advisees graduation party
•Get up at 5AM to set up mile markers (and directional arrows) 5 through 18 for Scott's training group's 23 mile run
•Attend graduation and well up with tears for the first time EVER
•Take a breather and write this posting......

What was that all about?

I was up early today because Scott had to set up the course for the marathoners he is training. So I made breakfast and sat down with Sports Illustrated (I read it every week cover to cover, it's a true weekly pleasure) and came across the fact that Johns Hopkins beat Duke this year to win the Collegiate Lacrosse Championship. The strange thing was, I ACTUALLY felt a pang of nostalgia and sentiment for Hopkins. It was fleeting, granted, but what does it mean that I actually felt something for my graduate school? Maybe there is a slow thawing of my anitpathy for that time in my life. Whatever it is, doesn't mean I'm giving them money anytime soon.

Art's Crab Shak

There is NOT a misspelling in the title of this post. Met college friend Hans for dinner tonight, it's been a while since we've gotten together. He and Teresa recently moved from Berkeley to the wild streets of Oakland. He and I walked four blocks to 40th and Broadway (a stones throw from the Oakland Kaiser Hospital in which I had my first surgery after my infamous accident) to eat at Art's Crab Shak. The place looks like it has been stuck in time since the 1960's. And truth be told, it has. The house specialty is garlic crab and it's amazingly good. Much of my enjoyment of the crab can probably be attributed to the inch thick pool of melted butter at the bottom of the plate that Hans and I shared. All you who live in the East Bay, it's well worth checking out. The Shak is at 4031 Broadway (at 40th). Tell them Ernie sent you.

In case you didn't know yet

I give this marriage six months, tops!

Off the grid

Gary D., a former rowing buddy, is a person that in the craziness of life that I lost touch with, until today. Before I lost touch with him, there was mention of purchasing a home that was off the grid in Sonoma county, a place where he could work and live away from the hectic life in Berkeley. Note the words "off the grid" which I took to be "a little out of the way".

Car batteries to store excess generated solar power

Off the grid really meant off the PG&E power grid. In a complicated buying scenario, Gary now lives in a house that was once owned and occupied by a "kooky woman" (Gary's words) that built a self-sustaining home. Gary now is "on the grid".

Thomas (an ex of Gary's), Thomas' current boyfriend Y (pronounced "E"), Scott (you all know who he is) and I caravaned up to Gary's too have what was advertised as a "country brunch". Let's say, hmm, it was more than country and less than brunch. In all seriousness, Gary had contractors over doing work and so we went out to brunch.

A view of Gary's home and it's view

Gary D.

We drove to the lovely little town of Occidental to have brunch at a cafe called The Naked Lady Cafe.

Thomas, Y and Gary post brunch

So, the most shocking moment of the day occurred on the drive home when a car reached a four way stop intersection with no cars anywhere in sight and came to a full and complete unprovked stop. This, in California no less. The timing of this incident was particularly bad due to my almond sized bladder.

We have a winner!!!!!!!

Those of you who are regular visitors to my blog will understand the the joy and vindication when I saw the following in my mail. After seeing two friends of mine get married (well the ceremony was formality due to the fact they eloped last summer) an hour later than scheduled.

Justice is served when one follows the legal system and works within it in a courteous and professional manner. NAH NAH NAH NAH Subaru of America

More like Mom every day

This post should make Mom happy. Everyone reading this give a shout out to Ernie's Mom!!! Anyway, I had friends Tim and J'Tao over for dinner last night. I was planning on meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but for some reason my oven is on not working correctly again and emits gas as it heats up. My garbage disposal is also not working but that's irrelevant the story at hand. Doing a bit of improvising, I end up heating up some of these spinich quiches for appetizers and for dinner I cooked Trader Joe's Mandarin Chicken (you all need to try it, it's great) with some green beans and steamed rice. But for dessert? I pulled ouot watermelon, strawberries and grapes. Fruit for dessert? My mom was pulling this stunt for years saying how fruit is the best dessert and I always wanted something with artificial sugars. Well, at 35 years old, here I am, serving fruit for dessert and LOVING it.

Punt

I have to say that Kaiser Permanente has been quite impressive of late. I have registered to have my prescriptions filled online and sent to school. Ch-ching. But since I last wrote, much has happened in the hardware removal storyline.

On Monday 5/23/05, I called the Dept. of Orthopedics and left a message in two places for Dr. Gorek to either see me or to figure out how to get a referral for Dr. B to do the removal. At 2PM that afternoon, I got a message from one of the nurses saying that I should expect a call later from Dr. Gorek's assistant. The assistant's call came this morning (5/24/05) at 10:30AM stating that Dr. Tang, my PCP, be the one to deal with finding someone within Kaiser or refer me out. Dr. Gorek punted due to the fact that he's a spine surgeon, not and orthopedic surgeon.

I called Dr. Tang to relay the message to him after I called Dr. Gorek's office asking his office to send an official message to Dr. Tang. This all occurred around 3:30PM this afternoon.

At 6PM this evening, Dr. Tang calls and tells me he has referred me to see an Orthopedic Surgeon within Kaiser San Francisco and I should receive a call from them in day or so.

All this in less than 36 hours. Amazing. More posts to come in this ongoing saga.

I consider my self a political moderate....

but this is over the line.

In my mailbox Tuesday 5/24/05

I have to wonder how and what mailing I got myself onto.

Why I get up in the morning...

Things between Scott and I go well. A good sign is that we split nights at each others houses. We live a mere 8 minutes and one stop light apart since I discovered a cool backway to each other's homes. Anyway, on his counter sits a juicer, not a blender, but a juicer. Since I've been taught how to use it (as well as take it apart and clean it) every morning when I get up from his house, my first thought is "JUICER". I love the fact that this spinning blade/sieve type thing can extract juice from fruits and vegetables and all that is left over is shredded organic bits. Todays morning mix was grapefruit, orange, kiwi, apple and carrots.

Morning Motivation

Setting off metal detectors at the airport

An x-ray of my right heel after surgery and the way it is currently

I won't rehash the details of my accident of August 2002, but the most difficult and longest recovery was from the essential destruction of my calcanei (the heel bone) in both of my feet. Pictured above is the "erector set" of plates, pins and screws that Dr. Stephen Benirschke constructed in both of my feet in order for them to heal properly and eventually allow the joints around the shattered bone to function as "normally" as possible. As witnessed by my only slightly impaired mobility today, Dr. B's work was of the highest order.

The metal is serving no purpose and Dr. B suggested that I schedule a day surgery with him to have the hardware removed. I would need to avoid putting the weight of my body on the foot for the five days following surgery. I have scheduled to have Dr. B perform the surgery to occur on June 23rd, 2005.

All great plans must at some point go awry. I got a call from Dr. B's billing clerk and she said that she would need to have Kaiser (my HMO) to sent a letter to Dr. B's office in Seattle stating that they approve of my having this operation outside of the Kaiser network. The very nice woman in Dr. B's office named Emmy, told me that I would need to contact my primary care physician, Dr. Tang, to start the paperwork in motion by contacting Kaiser San Francisco's outside services office. When Emmy told me the name of the woman handling my case, I knew I was going to be for a tough battle. This woman, who shall remain nameless as I have learned that naming names when not talking about them nicely does get one in trouble in some unforeseen way, was the 800 pound gorilla that stood in my way of being released from Kaiser into the care of the doctors in Seattle back in 2002. Let's just say the word "NO" doesn't cause her any pain or guilt to say.

So this morning, I headed over to see Dr. Tang to get the ball rolling. Even though I didn't actually get anything rolling due to the fact that Dr. Tang isn't himself an orthopedic specialist and therefore wouldn't hold any sway in the decision making process. However, he did suggest that the person who may be able to make a decision and have that decision carry weight with outside services be the attending physician during my stay in Oakland, are you ready for this blast from the past, Dr. Josef Gorek. Dr. Gorek performed the initial surgery to fuse the L2,L3 and L4 vertabrae in my back. The scar I have from that surgery is still a sight to behold here on the left side of my body. Anyway, Dr. Tang said that since it was Dr. Gorek and his group that released me from Kaiser's network to the more experienced and specialized surgeons that I needed to see who were in Seattle at Harborview Medical Center.

Since Dr. Gorek is himself an orthopedic surgeon, and the surgery to remove hardware from my feet would be classified as an orthopedic surgery, it would be up to him to decide whether or not a surgeon in the Kaiser network can do the surgery or whether or not it is in my best interest (and note I'm going to get him not to say in Kaiser's best interset) to have Dr. B, the surgeon who inserted the metal, to do the removal.

I tried calling Dr. Gorek today, but the Oakland Kaiser Facility's Department of Orthopedic Surgery is closed Friday. I will call Monday and leave a message with Dr. Gorek. I don't think he has thought of me since my final checkup with him back in August 2003.

Lastly, because it would be Dr. Gorek making the call to send me out of network, I would work through the Oakland Kaiser's outside services office and avoid dealing with "the woman" altogether. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

No news yet about the ruling on my claim against Subaru.

Sorry for the radio silence

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!! Due to various circumstances, I had to be mute for a couple weeks, but that doesn't mean I have been a hermit either. Since we last met, I've participated in a focus group about a new venture. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you. Seriously though, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to participate and earn the $75 for two hours of feedback I gave them. I am going to end this by saying I was thoroughly uninterested in the product and one that I would never use. I hope they found valued my genuine boredom.

I organized a group of people to go out to dinner on the night of Dining Out for Life. On this night, partcipating restaurants donate up to 25% of their nightly take to the Stop Aids project. Our group which had a mix of my friends and Scott's friends dined at Moki's right here in my neighboorhood of Bernal Heights.

Scott made his HRS debut by attending the school musical Cabaret. Shahana grilled him. What else did I expect? Scott has also met Senator Kefauver. She gave him the thumbs up to. Her email was "keep him." And to the Senator, according to DrDr Brakeman, if you screw it up with the guy your dating now, "you're an idiot." Enough said.

I had my day in Small Claims court in my case against Subaru of America. A representative from Subaru didn't show so I had a one-on-one with the judge and at first it was looking like she was going to throw the case out due to the issue of venue. This meant that she couldn't determine the presence of a contract between me and Subaru of America. After I explained to her my story, she asked for my exhibits and then asked me more questions about it. When we were finished, the judge said that she would need to go and do more research on the laws in my case and then I would receive a judgement by mail. Since I was suing for $5,000 (out of the $6,000 in repairs, labor and expenses) I would either get a negative judgement (no money), a full judgement (all the money) or somewhere in between. So what were the issues at hand? First of all, she needed to determine the issue of venue again, and if I win on the venue issue, the next thing to determine is whether or not Subaru is to be held to the "Replacement Parts and Accessories Warranty". This is what I believe to be the breach of contract. CK and I found this provision right on the Subaru.com website. Here it is (make sure you scroll to halfway down the page), the warranty.

Scott and I attended the return of Gay Bingo. It's not what it used to be without Sister Betty.

Scott and I went to play Texas Hold 'Em at the Sarkar/Kadlic's. I cleaned up.

My friend from high school Kristin S, her husband Jeff, and their six week old baby were in the East Bay for the wedding of one of Kristin's college friends. It was great to have a quick lunch with them.

I called my Mom for mother's day. And on the actual day, Mom, my sister and my Grandmother flew to Taipei. My grandmother was so excited to go and visit her friends to be in a place where she feels comfortable. She was even willing to forego watching the Mariners, who suck this year, by the way.

And that's a summary of my life since the last post. And next on Chen's life.....The Prom.

By the way, I hope that you all noticed that S&M has been revealed to have a real name.

Let me use my "I" statements

All of us who graduated from high school/college/graduate school are by default, alums of those institutions. I attended and graduated from The Lakeside School in Seattle, WA. Class of 1988, thank you. So today, there was a Bay Area gathering of alums held at The University Club in San Francisco. The address, 800 Powell, should have given me enough warning to stay away. Why is it that I feel that I am never going to enjoy these events. Against my typical anal retentiveness, I showed up 20 minutes late, which is the outer parts of the margin or error for me. I walk into this stately ballroom and there is no one (out of about a dozen) there that I know or even recognize. I lounged around the food, looked at the spectacular view, glanced at some of the Lakeside literature and talked to the Director of Planned Giving for a couple of minutes. Then, the Director of Alumni Affairs was free, she is someone I know as she was a year younger than me, and after the typical small talk, there was the awkward silence. She broke it by telling me that she saw a bunch of my classmates, you know the ones who always hung out together and lived in the same wealthy neighboorhoods and belonged to the Seattle Tennis Club, that morning at a breakfast held by one of my 1988 classmates. That took me RIGHT back to being 16 and feeling that I was always left out. I know that I should be proud of my life and what I've done and to be happy with who I am, but to hear the names of those classmates of mine in that context once again made me feel inferior. At the time, I didn't understand the feelings, just that I had to get out of there and fast. I know that the unresolved issues of high school are complete and utter BS. There is NO ONE to blame except me and I'm sure all the breakfast eaters are perfectly nice people now that they are 35 as well. I need to suck it up and let it go.

I see those friends of mine from high school and college, the people near and dear to my heart. So, a vow. I will give money to the institutions that I hold so dear, but alumni functions, for the time being, are out of the question.

You know the Apocalpyse is coming when

ummm, yeah, read here.

From Bayview/Hunters Point to The Muir Woods

These two geographic locations were the places I landed Saturday night and Sunday morning respectively. On Saturday night, Hans, his friend Nina and I went to a fundraiser for Public Glass which is a hot glass facility run by a small group of dedicated artists. For a $20 donation, you got a free glass, free beer, a band, some belly dancers and some demonstration glass blowing. It was really a cool experience but I truly felt I was back in college in a fraternity party. What was of particular interest/apprehension about attending this event was the fact that it is located a mere half mile from Candlestick Park, thereby placing it in the southeastern quadrant of the city, Bayview/Hunter's Point, which you are told to never go to at night. It's as if that knowledge is imparted to every incoming resident of San Francisco. But, as was to be expected, the journey to and back was uneventful.

Ernie, Nina and Hans with our new favorite drinking vessels

The selection of complimentary glasses

On Sunday morning (4/17/05), S&M, his mother Mrs. Weller and I took a journey over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County (Yes, I did get my visa and passport all squared away :)) to make a visit to the Muir Woods. Here are some pictures:

So as a tease, here is a picture of S&M's mother. The family resemblence is a strong one, but alas, still no official picture of S&M.




S&M's Mother hails from Athens, GA

S&M's mother leaves on Tuesday to return to Georgia. Safe travels!

Documentation

Every new teacher to Head-Royce is assigned a mentor. I was asked to be a mentor this year and my mentee is Sonia G. Because Sonia is a veteran teacher (Northwest School in Seattle), I've actually had very little to do in this role. I also served as a mentor to a long term substitute Spanish teacher last year, when Senora Galligan went on maternity leave. Every mentor is given $50 to spend on some social activity with their mentee. Last year, I pocketed the cash and then never actually used it. Oops.
This year, Sonia and I were talking about getting a pair of mani/pedi treatments with the money. However, things fell through and it never happened. In January, I made one of my grand sweeping statements about my disdain for modern art and she said shockingly in her very cool British accent, "WHHAATTTT?". The next thing I knew, I spent $85 on a dual membership to SFMOMA. Here is proof:

Chen and Gomez 4/16/05

What about the art? Umm, I looked at it.

The Mother-in-law

Even though S&M and I have recently started dating, it just so happened that his mother had already planned a trip from her home in Athens, GA to visit her one and only son. The implications? It meant that I had dinner with S&M, his mother and his cousin who also lives in San Francisco. Me, being the charming, witty and scintillating dinner guest was well received by S&M's mother. It helps the cause when she is, herself, loud and full of life. Oh, and by the way, to all you single straight women reading this, S&M's cousin is a single straight male. In San Francisco? This breed of male is almost extinct!

I'm being stalked....

.....by the mother of one of my students. Well, stalked has the wrong connotations. How about, admirer. In my ten years of teaching, I have seen the spectrum of students and have a good sense of when a student has something about them that is seriously out of whack. However, I have some to realize that there are some parents out there who have one child and that child is their sample size. So this mother, has a son, who she adores, but has no idea whether or not what he says or does is within the realm of normal. Therefore, I occasionally get calls from her on my voicemail asking me to check in with her to give her feedback on what her son is doing. I'll say that her son is a great kid and as a 9th grade boy, being monosyllabic to one's mother is completely in the realm of normal. In fact, I told the mother that if he told her everything going on in his head and life, he would be abnormal. What is abnormal, however, is the fact that about once every two weeks, I get a Hallmark greeting card to the affect of "just for you" and the like. I won't mention the Valentine's Day greeting I got, however.

Two for One Posting

I met my friend Carl, from Sacramento, at the FTE conference last summer in Chicago. He is constantly checking Air-Fare.com for cheap flights, so he can accumulate miles to take international trips sitting in first class and not having paid for the high priced ticket itself. He invited me to join him on a quick overnight jaunt to Washington, DC to go and visit the new National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian, which is located right near Dulles Airport. He and I were going to both leave Sacramento at around 12:15PM Friday and arrive into Dulles late Friday evening. See the museum Saturday morning and then fly back to Sacramento that evening. The fact that we were flying on separate flights is key.

Side note: What I really wanted to see at the museum was the Dash-80, or what became known as the Boeing 707. It was the commercial aircraft that revolutionized air transport and ushered us into the modern aviation age. That original aircraft, pictured below is housed at the museum.

The original Boeing 360-80, aka the Dash-80, aka the Boeing 707

You could probably say that this plane is the reason I am in the place I am today. It's launch brought the Boeing Company to the fore of commercial aviation, this is the corporation that both my parents worked until their retirement. It's stock increaed in value over three decades as well as split numerous times and left me in the enviable position of leaving college with no debt, allowing me to choose teaching as a profession and not having to worry about making money in a more lucrative profession. I guess it all started with the Dash-80.

Returning to our story. I left San Francisco at 845AM, giving myself two and a half hours to get to the airport. The trip should take no more than an hour and fourty five minutes. Who would have predicted that a torrential storm would track me from SF to Sacramento and also at times include tornado warnings. The traffic was hellacious. At one point, I called Carl and left him a message telling that I might not make my flight. I roll into the airport and go to check in and my reservation had been cancelled. Apparently, Carl had thought since I wasn't going to make the flight, that he would do me the favor of canceling my reservation and therefore be able to use the money I paid towards the ticket as credit instead of just losing it. Oops. So, I hung out with Carl all afternoon and that evening returned to San Francisco and got a bonus night with S&M, the guy I'm dating. Shall we say boyfriend?

For those of you who have read this far, yes, I am officially announcing that I am dating a great guy who will for now be code named S&M, it's an inside joke between the two of us. You will find out more as time progresses as I allow myself to be more comfortable with all of this and make sure that I don't do something stupid to mess it all up. So far so good.

The quotes keep pouring in

I'm online chatting and one of my students messages me to rub it in my face that he's in Italy and I'm not. Here is a part of the exchange....

laxdude82504 (11:44:34 AM): i'm in italy and you're not
echensf (11:45:03 AM): you're also in 9th grade, have 3 years of high school, 4 years of college all ahead of you, think of all that homework
laxdude82504 (11:45:13 AM): wow, you're an ass sometimes :D

If you want to know how I treat my students (and how they treat me back), here is a classic example. And Sam M., if you are reading this, remember what everyone's homework assignment it. If you want me to tone it down when you get back, you better start grovelling, a lot. Or, something expensive from Italy will also suffice.

Understatement of the day...

"This kid is taking up more time that I thought it would."

-Brian S on 4/7/05 in reference to his
newly born daughter Cora born 12/11/04"

Spring Cleaning

Before


After


So, this was a major project I've been dreading now DONE. Thank the lord for somehow giving me the motivation to attack the clean-up and organization of my office. You see the shredder? I put her to work HARD. It's interesting how during my shredding time I would ebb and flow between "oooh, I should keep this just in case" to "shred it, shred it, you don't need it".

Five new fans of Klaus Teuber

After I purchased the Teuber games at the HRS auction, I dashed an email to the friends here in the Bay Area who I knew played the games or would be interested in playing "Settlers of Catan". The response was positive and so nine of us played two separate games of Settlers were played. Here at table #1 we have:

(l to r) Thomas, Scott, Michael and Teresa

Here at table #2 (playing at a table brought into the kitchen) the particpants were:

(l to r) Hans, Larry, Carl and Dave (who looks nothing like this picture of him though)

The winners of the games were Michael and Carl. Nonetheless, all had a great time.

For the record: Carl's presence this night was by virtue of a favor swapping between his wife, Shahana and I. Shahana's father owns an athletic club in Orinda and twice a year they host a sprint triathlon and need volunteers to man the registration table the serve as a timekeeper. Therefore Shahana asked me to be a volunteer and payment for my services this morning at 745AM (with losing an hour to daylight savings time, so essentially being in Orinda by 645AM) she had to let Carl join us for game night. We're even

Making Tibetan Monks Happy

Every year, because the music groups take a big trip and miss the day before Spring Break, the rest of the school takes the day off to do community service or take alternative education trips. Think J-term. This year, and last, I took a group of Head-Royce students to assemble books for the Yeshe De Project (YDP), which is funded by the Tibetan Aid Project in Berkeley. Find out about the teachings of this organization at The Nyingma Center.

In short, every year in January, there is a large celebration in India at which thousands of Tibetan monks gather. At this gathering, the YDP distributes texts to the airport, that the Yeshe De Project have printed and put together back here in Berkeley. These are sacred buddhist texts that the monks have never had in printed form. This year, 2005, the YDP will be printing the first 30 Sutra's which are teachings of the Buddha. About 17,000 of each of the 30 Sutra's will be printed, cut, assembled and wrapped by November, which is when they will ship out. So, doing the math, the YDP must make one Sutra per week and a half, which turns out to be just over 1,000 a day.

Chanel B. (9), Naomi O. (12), Brittney T. (10), Katie R. (11th), David T. (11th) and yours truly

So our group had two tasks to perform. One needs to know the reason why our two tasks exist is because these sacred texts are not bound, but simply sheets of rectangular paper sandwiched between to pieces of tagboard. So task one was to take the texts and assemble them.

Putting the back cover on

Turn over

Put the front cover on and keep together with two stretchy ponytail things

Here is task two, wrapping the texts. Here our hand model is my Honors Geometry student, Chanel B.. Props to Chanel for being such a great wrapper.

    

We and the volunteers that worked along with us, assembled and wrapped 850 books. Here's a picture of one of the two pallets of books we finished.

I assembled books and stacked them on the pallets. Let's just say the my wrapped books had to be done over again regularly. I got the message loud and clear.

The Gross Domestic Product

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.

"GDP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our courage, nor our wisdom, nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
--Robert F. Kennedy (1968)

In Economics class, which I am teaching for the first time, we have just started our section on Macroeconomics and the first thing we study is how do we measure the health of our economy. It's the GDP. Think of GDP as a pie. For the US to continue to experience the high standard of living, we must grow our GDP at a rate of 2% a year. Or, we have to continue increasing the size of the pie. So the question came up today in class, but what if the quality of the pie isn't as good as it used to be? Food for thought!

Evidence that I'm becoming an "old person"

Actually, since writing the title of this posting, I took a trip to the kitchen and a second event happened that supported my theory that I am becoming one of those "old people" I used to wonder about.

When I first started my teaching career, it was back at Lawrenceville when I was 25 years old. My, can it already be my ninth year of teaching? Oh my. But I digress. Back then, I would be in my department office and I would listen to the veteran teachers complain about this and that and wonder to myself, "COME ON, CHILL out, who cares if the theater department needs to use the room for a performance, we'll just move our lecture to this room....", you get the drill. Something out of the ordinary happened and things needed to be rearranged and so no big deal.

Well that was the 1995-96 version of Ernie Chen. So, what happened today that the 90's Chen would have told the modern Chen to chill out? The long and the short of it is the chorus and bands are leaving at lunch on Thursday for their big trip of the year. I scheduled a test for one section of one of my classes for Thursday and they meet after lunch. I threw a hissy (have I been throwing a lot of those lately, eh) in my department office in front of my colleagues about how I have to rearrange things and teach an extra period on Tuesday for those seven students who will be missing class on Thursday. Ok, hissy might be the wrong word, how about I grumbled loudly. It's just interesting that my first reaction is no longer, "how cool for those kids to have the opportunity to take this trip to perform" and is now essentially, "damnit it, that sucks that I have to change things in my life" or more succinctly, "what about MEEEEEE???" Yeah, yeah, maybe it's not a growing old thing but there has to be something different. The real lesson in all this is that events that throw the ordinary out of whack IS the ordinary.

Oh and the second thing. I went to refill my water and got REALLY EXCITED that I had some cut up cantaloupe and honeydew. Hello 9PM snack!

"It's as if they built it just for you!"

This was the subject line of an email I received from my college roommate/buddy Peter S.. In the email was simply this link.

He hit it right on the nose. Thanks, Pete!

I agreed completely with......The Republicans

As I was driving to school this morning I heard a story on NPR about voting qualifications in Georgia. If you choose to listen to the story, I think you will immediately fall on one side or the other of this debate in the Georgia state legislature.

I know that one of my big life lessons being a teacher is imparting the idea that we all are accountable for our actions and that inherent in all of us who live in this society have to take on personal responsiblities. So for the Democrats in Georgia who make the argument that not having a valid photo identification leading to a disqualification from voting will disenfranchise voters is bull. So there are people who live in rural Georgia counties who may have to go out of their way to get a valid ID outside their county. It is their responsibility to get an ID and not have laws be left on the books simply to accomodate their lack of effort (notice I did not use the work lazy). Perhaps I am missing something or do not know the entire story, but I really can't think of any situation in which someone could not find a way to get a valid photo ID. So in this case: Republicans - 1 Democrats - 0

Ode to my backscratcher

Bamboo Happiness


Everyday I come home from work, and you lie there just as I left you on my bed in the morning

Your simple existence can bring me such joy and physical relief/pleasure that I must simply yelp

Then yesterday, you were no where to be found. Where had you gone? Could a visitor have absconded with you, my Bamboo Happiness?

For a miserable two hours, you were no where to be located and I felt as if I had lost a great friend

But you are located under a large leather chair? What are you doing there? No answers required, though. It is good to have you back at my beck and call

Our Economy Must Be Healthy

This past Saturday, the Head-Royce parents association held its annual auction. I've always felt that if a couple is willing to spend (ok, let's be honest, it's a redistribution of cash between the already rich and wealthy) $7,000 on a homemade ceramic pig that was uniquely decorated, things in our economy must be good. The NY Times actually had an article about the correlation between school auction success and the US economy.

My guest for the evening was my beloved friend Kathryn K.. If that last name rings familiar to you older generation of readers, does this Time Magazine cover jog your memory? If not, the man on the Time cover is the late Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. He is best known for leading the Senate Commission that broke organized crime. Ok, back to Kathryn. She is a writer and I want to give a plug for being published in a book about travel writing. Here's a link to buy The Best Traveler's Tales 2005.. The two of us came home with loot.

Kathryn won the table raffle prize which turned out to be a couple gift certificates (Noah's and Jamba Juice I think) and a beautiful orchid/floral arrangement. She was very happy. I, on the other hand, put in a bid on a set of five Klaus Teuber board games during the Silent Auction. I bid on these games last year at the auction but was outbid at the end. This year, I ensured myself of not being outbid by enlisting a student volunteer to keep having me rebid if someone out bid me. Here's a picture of them.

The Settlers of Catan and four other Klaus Teuber games

Two new things today

At what location in San Francisco would you be standing at the highest elevation above sea level? Twin Peaks? EENNNHHH! Pacific Heights? What???? The correct answer would be little appreciated and oft forgotten Mt. Davidson. If you stand in Oakland and look across the Bay to San Francisco, Twin Peaks would be the pushy attention grabbing bratty twins right in the center of the picture. The dignified Mt. Davidson stands off to the side and behind Twin Peaks. At the top of the peak stands a large cross, which I found out to be a memorial to the Armenians who perished in the 1915 genocide. If you are inclined, here is a comprehensive history of Mt. Davidson

Since the mountain is in the, residential streets come to about 100 feet below Mr. Davidson's 938 feet. I took at stroll to the east ridge lookout and it inspired me to learn how to use the panoramic setting on my digital camera. Here's an attempt at putting them together!

Two for one. Mt. Davidson and the panoramic camera shots

Man, did therapy actually pay off....

Yes, there has been radio silence here on the blog for just over a week. The reason? The arrival of Mom and Dad. They were here from the evening of Thursday March 3rd and I dropped them off at the Oakland Airport at 6AM Monday March 7th. There were some good moments during the weekend such as our dinner with my cousin Henry as well as a visit to Frank Shen and his family.

Chens on left, Shens on right (photo courtesy of Chester Chen's mastery of the self-picture)

However, the weekend did provide some tense moments and I certainly was not an angel in all of it. I won't go into the details mainly because I am trying to preserve some dignity and not reveal how horrible of a son I am, but there was great relief when I dropped them off at the airport. But about three minutes later I began to feel so bad that I was so relieved they were leaving. I mean, hello, these are my parents and they are doing the best they can from the life experiences they had.

So I began sifting through my flareups during the weekend. The first conclusion is actually a rehash of an old learning moment I had as a teacher. At one point a female student was telling me about a problem, I tried to tell her what to do and she comes back with, "Mr. Chen I don't want you to solve my problems, just listen." ZOINKS!! And that has stayed with me for years. Unfortunately Dad (and to a lesser extent Mom) always have some suggestion, comment, improvement, etc. They may mean them with the best intent, but the fact that they are trying to tell me what I should do along with the fact that it's coming with that same voice I heard as a child causes me to go into a huge rage. So lesson #1 for M&D is to listen. If they continue to "make suggestions" they will find themselves even more shut out of the information they really want to know.

Then on Friday, Mom and Dad took the car during the schoolday and at some point went to K-Mart to get an umbrella and then bought lots of other things, one of them being a new area rug for my television room. The good son in me should have said thank you, accepted it, laid it on the ground when we got home and then removed it when they left. But NOOOO, I had to throw a hissy ove some arugment like, man I can't remember and it was so bad, and we had a huge fight over it. Again, I come across as ungrateful for not accepting a gift from my parents. However, this was one of many things that they changed while at my place. Some good, but the carpet stands out. So this solution splits the difference. I need to be more grateful for gifts given to me and my parents need to think about whether or not i actually might want something and then calling me. Lastly, after having a week away from all this, I realized that no one in my familly is good at receiving gifts. I mean, how was I supposed to learn how to be grateful and good about receiving a gift when my role models didn't themselves. Ok, this last part was a little harsh. My bad.

There were a couple more incidents like this over the weekend, but the revelations are not nearly as grand, so I'll leave them be. All of this brought to you by my two years working with a therapist, because I actually now do sort through my feelings. CONCEPT.

Rudy

I'm not talking about Giuliani either. This morning I found a copy of the movie Rudy sitting on the counter in the Math office.

"Rudy", the movie

Rudy, the story about a young man who's dream it is to one day play football at Notre Dame, is one of my alltime favorite movies. Just thinking about the final scene in the movie can move me to tears in an instant. It also doesn't hurt that Sean Astin is a major cutie. But I digress, the message of the perserverance of the underdog is what keeps me here watching the movie at 1AM.

Watching the movie now also has more meaning since I spent sometime last summer in South Bend during my car incident. I think back fondly of those two days biking around South Bend and the Notre Dame campus. Ahhh, Indiana!!!

What happens when your Internet dies for 18 hours

1) Go down to Comcast, as the customer support person suggests on the phone, and trade in my old modem for a new one to see if that works. Nope

2) Go and get those two new tires that was suggested by your Subaru Dealership during the 75K checkup.

3) While waiting for the two and a half hours for the tires to be properly mounted, schmooze with the woman at the mattress store and in the process lay on lots of beds and determine which bed you want Mom and Dad to buy for you when they visit next week.

4) Clean the refrigerator

5) Sweep and mop your bedroom floor.

6) Do all the little things you've been meaning to do.

7) Oh, and finally get this done..

I finally finished the chair that I started last summer

Peter Sagal Alert

Ok, my love for Peter Sagal has grown even moreso since July of 2004. Am I stalking him? Well, here's a picture what he looks like for those of you who have not had a chance to see him.

I want Peter Sagal or a clone of him will just fine

Thanks go out to Kristin D. for having a sharp eye last year and grabbing tickets to three Cal Performances series at Zellerbach Hall on the UC-Berkeley campus. The first we all remember was David Sedaris. I was unable to make the second one as I was in Seattle for the holidays. The third one of the trio was a live taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, the NPR new quiz show which regular readers of the blog know is the closest thing to sliced bread for me. The host of the show is a man named Peter Sagel who I find to be the wittiest man alive, well at least of those that I regularly meet and know. Since I listen to him weekly, I consider him a person that I know. Please don't tell me I'm turning in a lady with lots of cats!!

The show was taped in the same manner as the one I saw taped in Chicago last July. Listen here to the show for February 19th.

I must comment, however, on the trials and tribulations of being in an audience for anything in Berkeley, CA. Here's an example. At some point in the taping, there was a reference made to Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. The politically well-informed citizens of Berkeley, the East Bay and Greater Bay Area, immediately hissed and booed.

After the show is taped, the audience is asked to stick around for the taping of those parts which were unclear in the first taping. You knew that the Santorum part was going to need a second taping. Peter Sagel says Rick Santorum....hissing and booing. This happened at least two more times. At this point Peter (note we are now on a first name only basis) my Peter, is at wits end saying that everyone wants to go home and can't the people of Berkeley take the high road and cheer him? At this point you would think that people would have a fun time doing something they normally wouldn't do and that is cheer the name of a prominantly anti-abortion US Senator. The taping goes through and there was a mere trickle of cheering. Can't these people CHILL?

Lastly, most of you will remember that I too was once a contestant on my beloved show and had a conversation with my beloved Peter. Here is a link to the archived recording of my three minutes on air. Click on the listener bluff link halfway down on the right hand side of the page. This is my evidence that Peter and I are destined to be together.

A little something from the files of Jim J.

Jim, from Las Vegas fame, sent me this article on penguins, specifically gay penguins. To quote Jim...."you got to love Biology!!" Amen brother.

Roadblock

I filled out the paperwork to submit a claim in Alameda County Small Claims Court. I went down right after school today, to beat the 4PM closing time, to find out that it is California State law that a claim cannot be made on a person or entity outside the state of California. Since I was making a claim against Subaru of America based in New Jersey, I was denied. Hmmmm...

According to my legal advisor, I might have to go into municipal court. I'll find out more about all this on Friday evening.

What determines the answer to the question..

"Where are you from?" Ahhh, I love this question, because it's always such an interesting thing to find out where someone is from. But it means different things to different people. It means, for most people, and for me for a long time, "where did you grow up/where did you spend your formative years?" And that would mean Seattle, WA for me. However, if I were now to answer that question, it would be San Francisco, CA, which is now home for me. What is that tipping point that allows you to feel that a new place you reside becomes "where you are from"? Interesting to me in any case.

This all stems from a conversation I had with a group of people who ostensibly meet as a bookclub, but it's all about getting together. Shout out to Hans (and Teresa) for putting together the monthly gatherings. The "book" for this month was "Where We Are From" by Joan Didion. It sparked great conversation amongst us five who were there. Another question that intrigued me is "Are we products of the places we reside? Or do we migrate to those places where we are going to be of like mind?"

I am leaving out a lot of the nuances of conversation but you get the gist. Lastly, something interesting we discussed was those places in America where people who were born and raised there, always hang on to and take pride in saying that they are from. You may agree or disagree....in no particular order or ranking..

Ohio (yeah, think about it, all those people from Ohio are all about Ohio, Texas, Colorado, California, Maine, Vermont, Chicago (but not Illinois), Boston (but not Massachusetts), Seattle (and to a lesser extent Washington state). This is a partial list, but food for thought.

Oh, and lastly, while on the subject of place, here's a great website, called Epodunk I found on someone's blog. I think it's totally cool.