Author: kathie

Bits of media filter through about the royal wedding.  So many reported the importance of the wedding dress.

The dress is the woman.  The woman is the dress.

One British reporter said that the wedding dress “is meant to say everything about who you are”.

On the day of my marriage, my own wedding dress expressed everything, both intimate and public, I had to say for myself.

My wedding dress was the creative center of our wedding day symbolizing ties from my ancestors and through the present moment to hope for my descendants

My heart and soul spoke through my wedding gown; “This is who I am”.

 

I remember when The Husband and I were planning our own wedding, we watched both versions of “Father of the Bride” the Spencer Tracey version and the Steve Martin Version and the Spencer Tracy/Elisabeth Taylor version was so much more sophisticated.  Compared to the Spencer Tracy version we could hardly stand the Steve Martin as SpongeBob SquarePants version.  It’s so poorly written.

So My Kid got out of school today.

She took the train to midtown during the morning commute with The Husband today.

She had a great time at the office.

It was a formal event.  Activities were prepared for the children by interns and junior employees.

Last time My Kid came to rehearsal in a studio with me she couldn’t run out of the building fast enough when The Husband came to pick her up.

Apparently she doesn’t want to be a clown.

It’s the beginning of the end for us 5th Grade Parents.  The wind down.  Everything that has been so important for the last so many years…

After 4 years of Lego Robotics it kind of broke my heart that is was all over.

I can’t believe My Kid stuck with this organization, FIRST Lego League, for FOUR YEARS.

My Kid was the senior member, the most experienced member, the member who had been on the team the longest, the Senior Veteran…

She joined the team in second grade when some of her other classmates didn’t make the cut because, “they threw the legos on the floor and cried when the other kids wouldn’t do what they told them to do”.  This either says a great deal or  absolutely nothing about my own child’s abilities.

Regardless,

We will miss the teachers who devoted so much of their own time to the Public School Lego Robotics Team of our rather small school which managed to make it to the City-Wide tournament two out of the four years My Kid was on the team.

Yeah! 8-Bots!  Yeah! Body-Builders!  Yeah!  Mission Masters!

YEAH! TEAM!

Most of the mothers standing in the schoolyard chatting about what they did on spring “break” were exhausted and thankful to have their children back in school today.  Some had just gotten home last night and had unpacking to put away.  Others hadn’t yet gotten to the grocery store and everyone had laundry.  Lots and lots of laundry.

We had a lovely day.

My Kid wore a yellow dress the color of a daffodil.

We attended mass at The Actor’s Chapel near Times Square.

Our friend sang in the choir.

After checking out the “Easter Parade” on 5th Avenue,

We had brunch on the Lower East Side,

Union Square.

Sun then rain.

It was a good day.

http://giantmagnet.org/

Apparently it’s over.

Apparently it’s one of the reasons it is coming to an end is because it can’t compete for time and funding against the state mandated testing.

Damn it!

I used to work this festival every year when I lived in seattle and it was called The Seattle International Children’s Festival and it was an excellent temp job for some of my friends and a “real job” for others.

Apparently, it’s dying because it  depended on bussed in school groups and now it can’t compete against the state mandated standardized tests that also happen during the month of may.

Two performances stand out in my  mind, a sweet and lovely actor/musician piece from somewhere like the Netherlands; two actors,  and two or threee musicians, the story created for an audience of preschoolers, about a lonely man who made friends with a dog and then they were together as friends and not alone anymore.  The second was Rennie Harris Puremotion Hip Hop.

The death of this festival is so wrong on so many levels.

It was such a good idea too– Me and Cathie Black. Like Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary Roger and Me about the filmmaker and the General Motors CEO.

We have so much in common, Cathie and I!  As adolescents we both changed the spelling of the ending of our names (not even our real names, just the diminutives or nick-names for our longer given names.) from “y” to “ie” as an expression of personal style.  For me the issue never again came after high school.  Cathie Black chose to include it in the first chapter of her self-titled book Basic Black, The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in LIfe) with veiled implications that this desire to be different somehow led directly to money and success as a CEO.

Hey, I did that too!  So how come I’m not a millionaire CEO?

Was is because I just let things slide –while she actively wrote people off????

In her book she says:

“I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve received letters addressed to “Cathy Black,” or “Kathy Black,” or “Kathleen Black”.  It seems like a little deal, but it’s a big deal to me–and it’s the quickest way to lower my opinion of the letter writer.  After all, it takes about five seconds to go online or call Hearst and find out how my name is spelled and my exact title.  Anyone who can’t spare a little bit of time to avoid making a basic mistake has really damaged her chances.”

This from the woman Mayor Michael Bloomberg chose to put in charge of the largest school system in the United States?  The school system where 10-year-olds rank middle schools and middle schools rank only those 10-year-olds who were available to test or interview within an annual two or three hour window of time? Then a computer matches the top 100 choices and randomly assigns everyone else to schools they may or may not be able to locate on a map, much less commute to every morning?

I possess two university degrees.  English is my native language.  AND YET, I am OVERWHELMED by the system as I attempt to navigate the NYCDOE Middle School Application Process for my daughter which began in September 2010 and will not be over until after the day in May of 2011 when we receive a letter informing us to which middle school my daughter has been assigned by a computer…  Unless she is not assigned anywhere –which has happened before.  Or if she is assigned to a school in a building we are not comfortable allowing her to enter alone–in which case we will opt to go into the Appeals Process which means our summer vacation will be ruined and when the all important First Day Of School comes around my child may not have anywhere to go.  And that’s just middle school…

There are already wait lists for hundreds of New York City Kindergarten and Pre-K children, in all five boroughs, who did not get a seat in their zoned local school. And the lotteries for the precious few charter school seats will break the hearts of many when they take place this week.  And I’m not even going to talk about high school because I’m not there yet and from what I’ve heard, the middle school application process is merely practice for the high school selection process!

So there is no love is lost by people like me (with a Slavic last name that you-can-say-if-you-hear-it and spell-it-if-you-see-it, but, is almost impossible to spell-it-if-you-hear-it or say-it-if-you-read-it) when this lady who gives a %$#* how people spell her Crazy-A** Simple Name WRONG looses the job that was handed to her even though she obvously wasn’t qualified.

By the way, Mayor Bloomberg, there were other more qualified candidates for NYCDOE Schools Chancellor position, than Cathie Black.  Even if you insist upon limiting your search to millionaire female executives of a certain age who you happen know socially…

Gerry Layborne, the former CEO of Oxygen Media and the Nickelodeon children’s television network who BEGAN HER CAREER A CLASSROOM TEACHER(!!!!!!!!!!!!) comes to mind…

 

 

The moms of boys were talking about the upcoming baseball season.  They were looking forward to their sons being on the same teams again so they won’t have to buy new uniforms this season.

One mom made a comment about how the poorer people are the more they seem to spend on baseball.  I was reminded of the pageant moms on “Toddlers and Tiaraa” spending thousands of dollars on dresses and coaching.

Parents are willing to spend all their money if they think it is their best or only option.

Some people I know look down on parents who buy name brand sneakers and designer jeans for babies who can’t even walk.

But, I understand.

If you have a crappy job and a crappy apartment and there is not much chance of anything changing  –but you can pull together a hundred dollars in cash, why not outfit your toddler in name brands.  You CAN do that for them!  They can look good while they are your baby.  It satisfies the heart the way a minimum wage job never will.  You’ll never be able to save enough for a downpayment on a house.  You’ll never be able to pay for college.

At least you have the means to make your baby look good!

Why not do the one thing that  you can do?

Makes sense to me.

There’s nothing wrong with finding joy in one perfect outfit.

Today, on the phone my mother she tells me she thinks the New York City middle school application process… “is just over the top as far as I’m concerned.  Goodness sakes!”

Today, I talked to a mom on the playground after school whose son, a classmate of my child, will be joining his older siblings at Poly Prep after 5th grade.

AND

Today, I heard via facebook that a fellow mom from my kid’s preschool class is happy that her kid got into Poly Prep.

We can’t afford that kind of private school.

I also saw via “linkedin” that a fellow RBB clown went to an (expensive) Quaker prep school before she went to Clown College.

One mommy-friend said of private school tuition: “Who can think of money at a time like this?”

I can.  I do. We can’t.

Today, I feel like crying.