Monday, July 11, 2005

Sunny Days & Mondays...

Everyone returned to school exhausted by fun weekend activities, myself included. Sunday, a friend, my roommate, her sister, and I took the train out to Brighton Beach for a few hours of suntanning and trashy magazines. My guilty pleasure is a subscription to Glamour, but I didn't get the new issue yet, so we bought Cosmo instead. I assure you, there IS a difference. Glamour is much smarter and more classy. Brighton Beach is quieter, cleaner, less of a scene than Coney Island (which is really fun when you want a carnival, but the water is often full of trash... not as great, in my opinion, for sunbathing and swimming).

And then I spent the evening at March of the Penguins with another friend. The movie will slay you with cuteness and pathos. And don't underestimate the toughness of emperor penguins. I read in a book about Antarctica that there are fossils of six foot tall penguins! Anyway, the movie also raised a lot of questions for me about how penguins, who must depend on each other for warmth and survival while protecting their eggs, communicate and organize their vast huddle against winter. I think my kids will like this movie better than Winged Migration; anthropomorphism, nearly inevitable with penguins, is probably just right for middle school kids.

After the movie, we spent a few hours hanging out on his roof deck... it was a beautiful night. I must admit, I kind of forgot that the weekend was ending and I'd need to wake up early this morning, and stayed out much too late. Plus the evening was so beautiful - a light breeze but warm enough to jettison any kind of jacket, very clear skies - that it still seemed early even as midnight passed by.

So we were all, well, toast this morning. Others had gone to weddings, thrown parties, spent too much time outside...

I printed out a few more grant applications for the binder, and discovered that Balance Bar gives medium-sized grants to organizations promoting physical fitness in the community. I'm hoping this will fund a collaboration with Bent On Learning, which offers yoga classes in the schools. Yet another opportunity I am pursuing so that we can still provide PE classes next year while our "gym" is being renovated. Not to mention the potential for helping students chill out, handle stress, and increase their ability to focus. I wrote a first draft of our statement of purpose and tentative budget; once I get a few more details, I'll be ready to send it.

Other good news: my principal is really enthusiastic about the ballroom dance program and told me to go ahead and schedule a meeting with them, we'll find the money. I'm so excited!

And now, to the Post Office and then HousingWorks. I wish there were time for a nap.

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