Sesame

I am reading "Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street" by Michael Davis and it is spectacular! First of all, it has all the stuff I ever wondered about. Secondly, it is bringing back amazing memories of watching the episodes in the 70s that he keeps referencing. (I still think I should work there. I've always thought that, and come to find out, lots of the people who have didn't have any more experience than I have when they started.)

I came back from lunch and was playing around looking for classic clips (God bless YouTube and the bored people that populate it). Orange Oscar from 1969 singing "I Love Trash" for the first time with the original Gordon! Amazing.

Then I found this and just felt all warm and fuzzy remembering how VERY MUCH I loved and understood Ernie. (I was also a bit of a crazy weirdo - still am.) This is from 1988, so not totally classic, and I was 15 when it aired (I was still watching then after school - cried when Mr. Hooper died in November of 1983 when I was almost 11).

Enjoy this. Sesame at its best.

United We Serve

President and Mrs. Obama have announced a new White House initiative, United We Serve. Officially kicked off on June 22 at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service by Michelle in a brilliant speech, and running through September 11, which as been declared a day of remembrance and service, the initiative will ask Americans to serve - in whatever way is best for them - and then add service to their lives in a permanent way.

The goal is to reach a time when service is a given in our lives. When we help our neighbors who need it, when we choose to give time and energy to those causes we care about. Self-directed service is encouraged: clean up a park in your neighborhood or town, have a potluck for the elderly on your street, do an energy audit of your home and change out your lightbulbs and start unplugging the toaster when you aren't using it. Whatever you do, register it on http://serve.gov.

You can also contact a local nonprofit that needs help. But be prepared if that soup kitchen or homeless shelter or kids program is inundated with volunteers and isn't sure they can use you. Don't get annoyed. Nonprofits are struggling to keep up with everything going on, are less funded than last year, and often don't have the infrastructure to take on more volunteers. (Perhaps they need someone to organize the volunteers! Do you have that much time? Do that!)

Families! Encourage your kids to volunteer. Volunteer together as a family. Outdoor projects are perfect. Park clean-ups, invasive species removal, beach clean-ups, and graffiti removal are just a few ideas. If you'd like to do something RIGHT NOW without having to book it with an agency, find a nonprofit nearby your home who needs something, and make it at home! This is called portable volunteering and it's a great way to get the whole family involved. Contact the local animal shelter: could they use catbeds? If so, make no-sew catbeds stuffed with recycled plastic bags! Contact the local soup kitchen: could they use dental kits for guests (travel size toothpaste bundled with a tootbrush?)? Make them and deliver them. Just make sure that you ask what an organization needs first (don't make something and then try to figure out where to donate it) and how many they need. And once you make a commitment to deliver, make sure you do!

Perhaps you are already volunteering and you don't really know it! Are you the coach of the T-ball or little league team? Your daughter's Brownie Troop mom? Register those things and that time on serve.gov! Let the White House know how much you do for your town.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, the first state to have a cabinet position dedicated to volunteering and service, says that he didn't serve until he was asked. (Of course, those doing the asking were his in-laws Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics and Sergeant Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps, so he didn't have much choice!) Ask someone else to serve. Ask them to come with you, or ask them to help with something. People often don't know how to volunteer until someone else helps them to do so. The number one reason in the U.S. people give when asked why they don't serve is "Nobody asked me."

Talk to your local Hands On Network affiliate. These volunteer centers are across the United States and can get you connected to service. Find yours here. Boston Cares serves Greater Boston, and we will have a United We Serve volunteer challenge which will kick off right after the Independence Day holiday. Join us!

And 9/11. Finally, we know how to honor 9/11. On that day from now on, we as a country will remember those lost on that day and serve in their honor. We will come together as communities and neighbors and help. What better way to commemorate a tragedy than to work together for those who need it most?

That we have an administration this dedicated to service in the United States is no small thing. We have had a culture of service in the U.S. for many years, and in fact it is how we even came to be in the first place. But in these times, the worst we've seen economically in almost a century, it is up to us to renew that culture. To remember where we came from and help each other instead of shoring up alone to weather this storm. And the goal this time is for it not to be temporary, but to become a way of life for all of us. Coming out of 8 years of war and revenge and "if you're not with us, you're against us", into this feels lighter somehow. It's still a lot of work, though. There's a lot to be done. But the more people who do it, the more who help, the easier it will be.

I for one, am signing up to join the White House in changing our nation. Won't you join me?

San Francisco

I love San Francisco, almost as much (it's a VERY close second) as Boston. I got to spend 4 days there this week for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service and remembered how much I love it.

And, Michelle Obama spoke at the conference. What's better than that? More on United We Serve, the White House's new initiative later.

826

A few weeks back, I went to a fundraising event for 826 Boston. I've known this center is in Boston for a while now. I am also familiar with the history of 826. I can't remember now why I know this. Perhaps because I'm a little bit fascinated with Dave Eggers.

I read Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius way back when it first came out. I think my mom may've passed it along to me. It was odd and interesting and I liked it. Then Eggers, the author, fell off my radar screen for a good long while until one day, in the mail from Amazon, I received a gift from my book-giving friend Robin, What is the What. What an absolutely amazing book. I loved every minute. And then, my roommate at the time had McSweeney's lying around.

Around this same time is when 826 Boston came on the scene. Okay, a brief history of 826. Dave Eggers and some others wanted to start a writing center in San Francisco in the Mission District (one of the San Fran neighborhoods most in need of this kind of thing). They found the perfect space at 826 Valencia Street. But it was zoned for retail. So they all put their heads together and decided to sell pirate supplies. In the back of the store was the after-school tutoring center for kids in the neighborhood. The pirate store did so well, it paid for a bunch of the needs of the center! As other 826 centers have opened up around the country, they each have a store out front. Boston is the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute, where one can purchase all your needs for hunting bigfoot and other mythical creatures. It's pretty cool.

So, back to this event I went to. It involved Steve Almond, Julia Glass and Dave Eggers. They did the intros of the student authors who were published in 826 Boston's first book, 2% of 2% of All the World's Stories. Each child came up to the stage, sat in a big easy chair, and read their story to the over 300 people in the room. One kid was 7! It was so wonderful. It made my soul lighter. I asked that 7-year-old to sign my book afterwards!

Then I heard about a special screening of Away We Go, a new Sam Mendes film starring John Krasinski (the Office) and Maya Rudolph (SNL), written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida. So of course I bought a ticket to that. All the money went to 826 Boston. And I knew that Eggers would be there to do Q&A at the end, but lo and behold, so were John and Maya. So cool! They are doing special screenings all over the country to benefit 826 centers, just because Dave Eggers wrote the movie. Pretty awesome.

Another note. 826 Centers only serve the schools right in their direct neighborhoods, that are often the most in need in the city overall. 826 Boston is in Egleston Square in Roxbury and serves elementary, middle and high schools (specific ones) in Roxbury and JP. They also don't serve any kid that wants to come in. The kids are selected, and the Boston center serves about 35 right now. Once they have some more money, they will double that number. The kids all have a binder that tracks everything they are doing while in the center. They finish homework first, and then have to read for 30 minutes, and then they can work on a creative project. It's all very structured and very results-driven.

The Center does four types of things. First, the after school tutoring. Second, field trips, where a class comes from the school to the center to write a book together with an illustrator, a publisher, and them. Each kid goes home with a bound book of which they write the ending. Third, programs in classrooms - volunteers go to the class in the school and run a program there. Finally, workshops, held on evenings and weekends in the center. They also run summer "writing camp" programs.

I went last Saturday to a volunteer orientation at the Bigfoot Institute (826 Boston). It was great. I can't do after school tutoring because it's 3:30 - 6:30 during the week and I can't get there from work. But, they need workshop presenters. You create the workshop and then teach it to a group of kids on evenings or weekends. Right up my alley. I submitted a proposal that same day for August (when they noted they need workshop presenters every day for the summer camp program). I heard back from them yesterday and we're going to finalize everything next week. I'm very excited to share writing and creativity with a group of 8-10-year-olds.

And what do I get? That lighter soul feeling again, if I'm lucky!

Dating in the Dark

I am sitting here, minding my own business, drinking a glass of white, having just finished a chicken burger from Trader Joe's that I cooked up on the grill and ate on toast, not having hamburger buns in the house. I am reading my Entertainment Weekly magazine, an issue of which I have not missed in about 10 years. And there's a little note, under the Summer TV Preview section, about a new show called "Dating in the Dark."

Yes, this is exactly as it sounds to you. A reality show in which two people "meet in the dark room to get to know each other emotionally and physically, while viewers watch via night vision." Then they turn on the lights.

Great. Just great. This is where we are as a society. And, before you even say it, I realize that there are a lot of other things that could make me question where we are as a society other than this. So shut up.

Course, the little EW blurb goes on to say that the executive producer of this show says that these folks in the dark room form a connection, but do looks change that? And EW says "We're gonna go with yes." This, dear friends, is the problem.

The show has set us up to further realize that looks are the end all and be all of everything. And this being television, they are going to find the hottest dude ever who has the personality of a noodle or a velocaraptor, have the normal, fine looking chick hate him, then the lights come on, she changes her mind, and the ass decides she's not good looking enough for him. And they'll definitely have the total dork guy or the woman who isn't even as overweight as I have been, and their partner-to-be will love them, declare them the best kisser ever and will get one look and back out.

All proving to all those young, impressionable girls and boys out there that in the end, it doesn't matter a whit whether you're nice, or smart, or have a super personality. And even worse, it'll prove to all those unpartnered 20- and 30-somethings out there that they're justified to reject the person they really dug over email or on the phone the minute they get a look at them (even if they, themselves have some relatively good sized flaw either physically or otherwise).

It's embarrassing. And disgusting. And it's shit for those of us out here still looking, in the dark, for someone who gets us.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this show will be the best thing ever and people will overcome their prejudices and go home with the girl with acne to live happily ever after. Maybe. But I won't be watching to find out.

Note: Half-way through writing this post, I thought to myself "Who are you? Don't you judge guys by what they look like? Haven't you rejected someone because they were just too much of a dork for you?" And then I tried to figure out what to do. Go back and insert a paragraph? Write a disclaimer about how I too have done this? Psychoanalyze myself about why I do that and then try to either justify it or explain it away by society's influence? Then I decided to just name it here. Say I've done it. I'll do it again. We all do. But let's not make it voyeuristic. It hurts every time someone does it to me. Or you. So let's not watch it happen to other people.

FitCamp

This morning, I lunge walked up and down the basketball court in front of Stony Brook T station in the South West Corridor Park at 6 a.m. After that, I ran back to the other side, and then walked back down the court, raising one leg in the air touching the toes with the opposite hand like a tin soldier, alternating legs. Then I squatted down, put my elbows inside my knees, raised one arm, then the other, and then stood up. Repeatedly. Then I did 5 divebombers, which is where you put your hands and feet on the ground with your butt in the air (downward facing dog for you yogis) and then lower yourself down using your arms but without your body touching the ground and then up again.

That was the first 10 minutes.

After that, I got inside a giant rubber band (literally - a giant rubber band) with another person. She braced herself while I ran back and forth in the band touching her knee, alternating sides for 20 seconds. Then she went. Next I turned sideways while she stayed frontwards to brace and I side-walked back and forth, with my body low and knees bent back and forth. Then we turned so my back was to her and I ran in place, back and forth closer to her and further away. All while fighting the resistance of the band.

My awesome trainer is the only fully certified trainer for the full bands (not the kind with the handles) on the East Coast! And she loves to show us how good she is!

Then we had to do wall jumps. Literally jump with both feet from the ground up onto the stone wall. My guess? A foot and a half? Two feet? Not sure. I just know every time I jumped, I wondered if I would miss and crack my face open. I didn't. We alternated that with arm presses with the bands again. Three rounds. Then we had to do wall push-ups. Hands on the ground, feet on the wall. Push up. For 30 seconds. Sure, right. Push-ups are one of the only things that I can't even fake doing. I held the position most of the time for those.

There was a bunch more stuff after that. I can't even remember all of it. Then we finished up with "burpy" runs. What the hell, you ask, is that? We had to run the length of the court, then do 3 burpys, then run, 2 burpys, then run, 1 burpy, then run, 1 burpy. A burpy is going down into the push-up position, then keeping your hands on the ground, jump to your feet being under your chest, then finally, jump up into the air! Crazy.

I am a total convert to FitCamp. I've convinced a friend to join me for the June session. I am perhaps going to go bankrupt staying in this program. Although, it's actually pretty affordable. Two weeks ago, I could barely walk because my quads hurt so much. Now I'm much better now, except today my lower back hurts (must be from all that impact of jumping up on a wall). I love my trainer. She's no nonsense, but has the ability to read when you need a bit of motivation "Go, Karen!" or prodding "Keep it high! Keep working!" She plans out the workouts - they're in a notebook. (I'm a big fan of people who don't wing it.)

Join us in JP June 1 - 26, MWF, 6-7 a.m. Sign up here. It's the best $150 (for 12 sessions! a bargain!) you'll ever spend!

Resiliance & Grace

Four months today. Four. Since my world supposedly crashed down around me. That's what it felt like. And two months later, it still felt like that. But here, here on the mark of four months, it feels almost like that never happened. Like it was a story someone told me. (Perhaps this is an indication that I'm not in touch with my emotions enough?)

I still wonder. And I still have moments of extreme sadness. And I still think about when the inevitable "bumping into" will happen. But those moments are fewer. And they're farther between now.

Resilience is a skill. A talent. A blessing. And I've always had it. Thank god. Grace is also a skill. A talent. A blessing. I've not always had it. I'm learning it, though. To take things with it. To understand things with a sense of it. To move through world with some. It'll come.