Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Er?

I just got a call from a Dr. at Santa Clara University. He wanted to offer me a job at a middle school in San Jose. Why? Because I passed the CSET. I haven't even been through a teaching program!

Is the state of education so bad in this country that they would resort to calling anyone who's passed their qualification tests to offer them a teaching job? How do they know I know how to teach?! It's no wonder kids these days get a crappy education, if they're filling the schools with people who haven't been trained in education. *sigh*

It is still sort of amusing to me though, that they would flip through test scores to find me and then offer me a job out of the blue. He was sort of confused when I told him I was doing neuroscience research. :) What did he expect?

Friday, May 18, 2007

Fireworks!

Saturday was the annual Kaboom! concert and fireworks show, put on by KFOG, a San Francisco radio station. The concert was fine. We saw Guster, and someone called Kenny Wayne Shepard. It got ridiculously cold, because we were down on the pier in SF, and it hadn't been all that warm during the day. But, we braved the weather by huddling inside the blankets we had been sitting on, and made it through to the fireworks.

It was one of the more impressive shows I've seen. It was well choreographed in time with the music, and the fireworks matched the themes as well. But the fireworks themselves were what were really impressive. They had smiley faces, and hearts and stars, all of which I've seen before, but they also had cubes! It's a ballistics feat! I have no idea how difficult that would be, but it seems like it would be really hard. They also had these amazing gold ones that sort of reminded everyone of jellyfish. They sort of bobbed their way up into the air, burning the whole time. Then of course we had all the chrysanthemums of various colors, which were gorgeous. They even had chrysanthemums which burst into strings of little glowies which stayed in vertical lines as they floated down! We decided those must have been connected somehow, but again, not sure how they did that. It was an awesome show. If it had been warmer outside, it would have been better, but the fireworks were amazing even so. I don't even want to know how much it cost them, because Fireworks are not cheap! But it was pretty! Yay fireworks! And soon I'll get to see more! Fourth of July! Yay!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Concert Weekend Trip

Sandor and I drove down on Thursday to LA to go to Lindygroove. We got down in time to have dinner with his brother, which was fun, and then went out dancing. It was fabulous to be out at a club with tons of people again. The music wasn't fabulous, but it didn't really matter because people were having fun anyway. I miss that a lot. The best part of the evening was seeing and dancing with friends again, but the other highlight was dancing with Bill Nye the Science Guy. Who knew he was still living in LA, and swing dancing at LG?! It was fun. I felt sort of old though, because I was realizing that probably only people of my generation and possibly a few years younger ever watched Bill Nye, because he's not on TV anymore. *sigh*

But it was a great evening. Friday we hung out and played computer games with Sandor's dad and Lori, and also watched the movie version of "Proof," which I had seen live with Camille as the star in Claremont. The movie is actually very true to the play, sort of surprisingly. It was good, and I recommend it.

Saturday we drove into LA to hang out with Adam and Becca, had dinner with Ian joining us, and then went to CCBDC's Concert. It was quite good. Impressive were the paso, Troy and Can's solo, Paul and Sarah's solo, and the campus team, who apparently has been putting in lots of extra practice and has gotten quite good. We all cheered so loud and consistantly for everyone that the people in front of us moved rows so that they were no longer sitting in front of us. Which was amusing. But really, the dancers appreciate it, and what are alumni for?! It was strange to watch Concert, although not as much as I had thought it might be. I did very much want to be on the stage, but, everyone gets their chance to shine, and the team certainly did this year. Unfortunately, Chis is also leaving Claremont. He's going to a faculty position, which is a great move for him, but it is sad for CCBDC. Hopefully they'll find someone to take the position and keep the team running. It's such a great thing, it would be sad to see it die. But we'll see I guess.

Anyway, it was a great weekend. I got to see friends, and relax. What else could you ask for except a little more dancing and pretty dresses? ;)