The Skies Belong to Us, Brendan I. Koerner (++) Go Tell it on a Mountain, James Baldwin (+++) Me Before You, Jojo Moyes (+) Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (+++) Paulina and Fran, Rachel B. Glaser (+)
I had to drive to and from Raleigh twice this week for grad interviews, and as much as I hate traffic and highway driving, I actually really like commuting. That is, being alone for a period of time before starting my day. I can do things like sing really loudly to the Les Mis soundtrack and talk to myself.
This morning I was thinking about L learning to read. More specifically, I was thinking of a song that my friend Wes made up while teaching kids to read.
He made up this song, for vowel sounds. (Sung to the tune of "Lollipop" by Lil' Wayne.)
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah says the short A Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah says the short A Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay says the long A Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay says the long A I can learn my vowels I sing them out loud A-E-I-O-U You know what to do You can sing them too.
Okay so this is genius, and you repeat the song for all the vowels, and it's great for getting reluctant readers to remember the vowel sounds, but the song is fairly salacious, and what if I teach Lena this vowel song and then she realizes one day that it's about...well, you can figure it out for yourself. (The original lyrics for those not in the know are lick-lick-lick-lick-lick it like a lollipop.)
**
Lena really has started to grasp the whole letters and sounds thing. Which is great! I am pro-literacy. Except now all our conversations go something like this.
"Lena can you please put forks on the table?"
"Fuh-fuh-fuh-forks."
"Lena, do you want Nana to read to you next?"
"Na-na-na-na-nana."
"Lena, can I wash your hair?"
"Huh-huh-huh-hair."
I luh-luh-love this kid, but I'm not sure I can survive her learning to read.
Yeesh, it's been so long I don't even know how to begin. I guess I'll just jump right in.
I've been lax about blogging lately for a lot of reasons. I've been busy with grad school apps. I've got a self imposed deadline of November 5th (before I fly off to San Fran!) for having all of my applications finalized, so I can just hand off my CV and my personal statement to my letter writers, and smooth sailing from there. Fingers crossed, knocked wood, etc.
After that's over, I can get back to my other endeavors which means creeping myself out with Stephen King books.
I read On Writing the other month, which was amazing. Half-memoir half-writing-on-writing, it was wonderful and inspiring manual for any writer, reader, or liver of life. Which also made me realize that I had never read any of Stephen King's books. Since then I've made my way through Under the Dome and The Stand. (No small feat, The Stand was 1000+ pages.) I've started on The Cell, (cellphone induced zombie apocalypse yesssssss) but then I had bad dreams so I'm taking it as a sign to lay off the Stephen King. At least for a week, and at least for the nighttime hours.
Speaking of writing...
I've been writing a lot more in my journal. I'm not quite sure why--but there are things I'm just not quite ready to share yet. All the quiet smiles, the bumps of mini-heartbreaks. Figuring out what kind of girl I am. This morning, in a split second decision, as Lena asking about her heritage, Am I Chinese? Am I American? I told her that yes, you're Chinese, you're American, and you know what? You're also half Mexican.
I am! Lena answers so gleefully, I feel silly even being worried about it. But that's something I was thinking, Gosh, who can I tell about this moment. I don't need to tell anyone...but I just wanted to share it. What we choose to share. Hmm.
I've been watching this show Nashville, and it's really awesome. I've been listening to more country music now. So...there's that.
