i haven't sat in front of my computer for so long in so long (?). given that i had so much time today, i decided to do something i haven't done in a while: catch up with friends, e-style. what i think i need to create are links to my friends' blogsites/xangas. ok, even better, i think i should call them more often. given that i find myself in the kind of life i have been waiting for, which is to teach and surround my life around teaching and the struggle for social justice, i think i have sort of shed myself of the people who have come along with me. i need to hang out with them more, re-connect with folks, catch up with them before they leave me forever! davy is leaving for NY, tei is already there. he's been there. lotsa friends are back up north. actually a good number are coming here to LA. =) that makes me happy. but not like i'm doing a great job maintaining relationships with them, although it is a two-way deal. i guess i can't be the only guilty one. it makes me sad, but at the same time i need to understand and accept that big changes like these will happen. it's just hard to let go of friends and old familiar things. i guess i just kinda set myself on one course and went full blast. i'm completely happy with where i am now, and the people that i have in my life. my students are wonderful, and one of them just called me today to just talk to me. she ended it with "i love u", and i said i love u back. the only other person i say that to is my mom. i do love my students, i tell them at least once a week. i dropped by one of their houses yesterday to give some mangos cuz some dood was selling them on the corner. i took some of the to lunch and a movie, utilizing my third row seat. =) tomorrow i'm taking more to watch another movie. kids are expensive. i also utilized my seats to take students to the collective workshop on saturday. i'm so glad my car is so useful to my students. =)

i keep picking up the yearbook that i made for my students and looking through them. i miss my kids. they were my first class. i was their teacher. now they're going to have some other teacher. i'm so proud of my students. =) when i took them to the movies and they were showing commercials, the "army of one" commercial came up. then i asked my students, what are they not showing on these commercials? and they said "the people getting killed and dying." awww, my lil 6-year-olds. =) in our yearbooks, i included "important poems" that they wrote. here are my favorite lines:

"If i could change the world I would... be like Martin Luther King"
"If i could change the world I would... start a strike"
"If I coudl change the world I would... wish that the world would stop killing" (deep, huh?)
"If I coudl change the world I would... make the whole world good"

now i have to go to a meeting where we discuss overthrowing our principal cuz he's such an f****D up asshole. he's in the wrong profession. all these teachers coming together while on their summer break to mobilize, strategize, and organize for a greater movement says something. i only hope to hear that our efforts, combined with the strength of parents and community members, will prove successful when we hear news in august. i hope to return to the school with new administration, for the sake of our students and the community members.

on another note, people need to stop acting shocked when i tell them i'm a teacher and when they ask where, i answer "watts". all those stupid images the media chooses to show about watts is messed up. i'm tired of it. yes it's all black and brown folk, and what? it's just a neighborhood like any other. yes i truly love it there because it's the kind of community i need to be in. i love my students and i miss them. =( i can't imagine what benji is going through, putting his teaching career on hold to pursue his phD in urban ed. i guess i'll know in 5 year's time...