Bad to the Bone

I suffer from a minor obsession with shipping cranes, as I may have mentioned before. I’ve done a bunch of research online about cranes and watched videos. But there’s nothing like seeing something in person, particularly if you’re trying to write a book. So I ventured to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park today which lies sandwiched in the middle of the Port of Oakland. It was a beautiful, clear, chilly afternoon and when I arrived, there was a ship docked just feet away from me. A chain link fence with razor wire separated me from the dock and I pushed through a few barren bushes to get close enough to the fence to take pictures and videos with an unobstructed view.

I was absolutely in heaven watching the cranes unload the ship. I was taking notes about the sights and sounds on my phone when I suddenly heard a voice behind me. I turned around and there were two cops (US Customs and Border Protection: Field Operations) standing there looking at me very seriously. They asked what I was doing and told me I looked suspicious (I had on sunglasses, a baseball cap, a backpack, and sweats. Very unabomber meets soccer mom, I guess).

I explained that I am interested in shipping cranes and that I’m writing a children’s book about them. They asked who employs me and if I had a business card. I explained that I’m self-employed and unpublished. They looked so skeptical that I threw down the teacher card. I said, “Not only do I write, I’m also a substitute teacher.” Then they asked me where I teach and I explained that I work in two districts and that I used to teach full time but now I’m taking time off to write. Then they asked me where I used to teach. And where I live now. And told me that taking pictures and watching the cranes looks very suspicious. They also told me that if I had been sitting on a bench about ten feet from where I was standing that I wouldn’t have looked so suspicious. They told me that no one ever walks up to the fence to watch the cranes and so therefore I looked very suspicious.

I could tell they wanted me to leave the fence and suspected that they were just going to stand there until I did so. I smiled brightly and said, “Oh, I’m just so excited that I got to see what I saw!” And then I went to sit down on a bench and took out my laptop. They walked away and I started typing up the encounter. I assumed they had left, but I just looked over to the parking lot a minute ago and they were still hanging out at their car. I guess not much interesting happens at the Port of Oakland. Oh and one of the cops said, “Don’t be surprised if you get a call from the Port about this.” Well I actually would be surprised since I wasn’t able to offer them my business card. “Get questioned by cops” is now something I can cross off of my bucket list.

A couple of weeks ago I got scolded by a principal for using my phone while I was subbing. I spent a day subbing for a teacher who had a student teacher in her classroom. She left plans for the student teacher, but nothing for me. The only purpose I served in being there was to be a credentialed body in the room. So I read on my phone all day. And apparently got ratted out. Can’t take me anywhere.

Over the long weekend, my fiancé and I went hiking at Marin Headlands. It was a gorgeous, warm day and we ate lunch on the rainbow sand beach and hiked on the bluffs above the ocean. We poked around the deserted WWII batteries and had a blast.

We also went bouldering at Indian Rock in Berkeley. It’s the first time I’ve climbed outdoors since last March (before I had shoulder surgery). It was a humbling experience. I know that the grades I’ve been climbing in the gym aren’t representative of what I can climb outdoors, but I didn’t realize how far off the gym grades really are. I’m guessing a V5 in the gym is about equivalent to an outdoor V1. That being said, I climbed two V0s and a V1 and felt like a rockstar. I hadn’t realized how much I missed climbing on real rock. I had also forgotten how scary it is. video of me on a V0

What I’m Reading: I finally finished Confederates in the Attic. I really enjoyed it and found it to be an eye-opening glimpse of the South. I’m still reading The Emperor of All Maladies and Outlander. 

Not So Glorified Babysitter

If you’ve never gone to a Cirque du Soleil show you really should go to one. A few weeks ago my fiancé and I took his mom to see their show called Kurios in San Francisco. It was incredible as usual. I first went to see one of their shows almost eight years ago. My fiancé told me he had gotten tickets and I remember thinking, “Seriously? You’re taking me to the circus?” But wow, Cirque du Soleil is so much more than a circus. The feats that the performers do are just amazing.

I went on a brief trip to Pasadena to visit friends and take a much needed break from wedding planning/stressing. I stayed with a dear friend and her husband and their darling four month old daughter. As usual on my travels, I met up with friends and ate way too much food. It was perfect!

I subbed two days last week at a school I had never been to before. The first day I was a floating sub, moving from classroom to classroom to relieve teachers to work with the principal to write a grant. At least, that’s what was supposed to happen. I did go to three different classrooms, but I was only alone with students for about an hour and a half in the first teacher’s classroom. After meeting with the principal, the teacher came back and told me that I’d stay for another hour with her before moving to another classroom. But since she was back, she would teach and she wanted me to re-alphabetize her library… So I did. Then I went to the next teacher’s class only to find that she was there (no idea why) as well as a cooking/art teacher who was teaching a lesson. I guess the idea was that I would help out with the lesson. But there was nothing to do except pace around the classroom (ME: Do you need any help? STUDENT: No). When I got to the third teacher’s room, it was a repeat of the situation in the second teacher’s room. Super lame, but I guess the best way to look at it is that it was an easy way to earn $92 (the take home pay for a day in that district).

The next day I went back to that school and actually got to sub for a teacher who was out sick. The class was pretty nice and it was another easy day of subbing. It was a minimum day and when I went to the office to ask if there was anything I needed to do before signing out, I was informed that I should go ask some of the teachers if they needed any help before I left. So I wound up having to grade tests for another teacher, who then kind of took pity on me and talked my ear off for the last 30 minutes before I was allowed to go home.

For some reason it’s hard for me to keep sight of the fact that subbing is not teaching. It is not so gloried babysitting and “helping out”. It is also a pretty good way to earn a little bit of spending money and have a completely flexible schedule. But god is it boring.

What I’m reading: I’m still working on Confederates in the Attic and The Emperor of All Maladies. I finished Gone Girl and I can’t say that I was a fan. A lovely friend sent me a Kindle version of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I haven’t read very much of it yet, but so far it is quite enjoyable. It takes place in the Scottish Highlands so it’s really fun reading it with a (bad) Scottish accent in my head.