When best friend CY began teaching, I pulled her aside, and told her, “When the holidays come, every single year, make sure you remember the custodian as well as the secretaries of your school. Your remembering them during the holidays is important. Show them your appreciation.” This was a lesson I learned when I was … Read more
To all the people at BIES and everyone else that came to help out! Our book fair is a twice a year event, with the opportunity to raise cash funds for our library, so that our wonderful school librarian can purchase books. Our book fairs make a fair bit of money for our library and … Read more
For JH – missing you It’s here. The final last day of school. It’s my last day of preschool ever, as Children will all be in elementary school next year. Tomorrow I’ll say goodbye to a community of teachers, staff, parents, and children who have loved my family and me for the past six years … Read more
I’m notoriously averse to making choices. I don’t like choosing much. I can barely make it through a restaurant without someone helping me along and choosing for me. In a group setting, I’ll often defer to those at the table to make the choices for food because I don’t like making those decisions when there … Read more
As I pushed my spin bike furiously towards some unseen goal at the top of some unseen mountain, the spin instructor intoned, “Sometimes you have to push yourself out of the way to get to the top.” He was speaking metaphorically of course, because at that moment pushing myself out of the way would have … Read more
For MC, RC, BK, HK, SH, ED, JW, EJ, SN and anyone else who has helped me move my children from one place to another I tried very very hard to avoid team sports for my children, mostly because I couldn’t get my head around the time commitment. Since all of my working hours are … Read more
When I was young, my mom’s form of entertaining my brothers and me came in a library bag. Once or twice a week we’d head to the library, fill a bag and come home. That was pretty much it. She fed my brothers and me, made sure we were clean, folded our clothes, helped us … Read more
For Dr. S and his family – for building my community in SoCal Fairly recently, my parents took a trip to the south of France, and this trip was special as they did not travel alone, but rather with friends of theirs who have made up the last 40 years of their lives as Korean … Read more
There is nothing like my kids, a group of “adults-in-development,” in my face for most of my day (summer vacation WHAT!) to remind me that I don’t have enough patience and strength to withstand the onslaught of craziness and $*$(%&*$$!! that comes at me. I’m just not that zen. I’m definitely not that mellow. I … Read more
About six months ago, after casually putting my phone on the table, my friend E grabbed it and gasped horrified, “Joanne! There are 34,134 unread messages on your email! What are you doing with your life?” She subsequently took pictures of it to send to her daughter, who was equally mortified, and then graciously allowed … Read more