Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The Melting Pot
NYC is truly earning that nickname this past few weeks, and especially this past few days: today is hovering all day around 100 degrees of good old concrete city heat!
And it is difficult to breathe outdoors. Ugly and bad. This City, already with more than its fair share of dirt, grime, and evil vibes, heating up to a nice simmering soup of hellish proportions.....ick!
And it remains between 66 and 77 degrees in gorgeous San Francisco....okay, okay...we get the point!
Before I launch into more ecstatic rhapsody about our time on the West Coast, I need to note that i had to do something today that made me sad:
I had to turn down the teaching job I had been offered at Queens College....when it became clearer to me that both current offers of time and money would not work to make it a job I could do as well as I would want to, I had to make the hard decision to not do it. SO ,a series of detailed and explanatory e-mails flew fast to both Susan E. who offered me the job initially) and the administration of the Drama Department (all of whom have treated me so nicely). I had to explain that Wednesday, with my morning class at NYU, would not be a good day for me to try to teach the class out there. I would be late for every class, unless the College could make it possible for me to get to and from Manhattan more easily and quickly. There seems to be no way for the College to help me out, either financially or with a car service, so I had to consider my health and sanity, and turn down the job.
Sad, but necessary.
NYU will keep me plenty busy, and I look forward to having more of the right time and energy to make those two classes the best i can make them! I look forward to them very much, and will begin planning curriculum this week.
Peter and have the privilege of going to see one of my private students in HISTORY BOYS tonight...Alex Tonetta, a general understudy, has arranged houseseats for us, and we are excited about seeing him in the show. Thank you dear Alex.
So, a hot hot NYC day contains both sorrow and goodness.
On Sunday, July 24th, I wrote in my journal:
"San Francisco is a city with the soul of a woman.She seems to accept all who come to her by taking them into her warm arms, the embrace of her Golden Gate.She nurtures and cares for her many children, sets them walking in their Sunday best, then provides photo op after photo op for her wide and historical family album."
"She is a city that loves to look at herself - she preens -she perches slyly, like the maiden on the rock, her silken shift of fog softly falling from one shoulder...she displays her innocence made of sunshine."
...and later that same day:
"Such a specific character to this City - the nature of its highs and lows, its hills, its delicious wedding cake houses on a slant....people live on the sides of steep hills here and think nothing of it at all! It's sort of strange really...like characters from a book. Like odd little more people burrowing into their hillside aeries - but the very Hobitt nature of the landscape and its creatures helps gives the place its innocent cozy identity and fun uniqueness The topography itself creates a coziness, interesting and magnetic, totally liveable."
I loved it there.
And it is difficult to breathe outdoors. Ugly and bad. This City, already with more than its fair share of dirt, grime, and evil vibes, heating up to a nice simmering soup of hellish proportions.....ick!
And it remains between 66 and 77 degrees in gorgeous San Francisco....okay, okay...we get the point!
Before I launch into more ecstatic rhapsody about our time on the West Coast, I need to note that i had to do something today that made me sad:
I had to turn down the teaching job I had been offered at Queens College....when it became clearer to me that both current offers of time and money would not work to make it a job I could do as well as I would want to, I had to make the hard decision to not do it. SO ,a series of detailed and explanatory e-mails flew fast to both Susan E. who offered me the job initially) and the administration of the Drama Department (all of whom have treated me so nicely). I had to explain that Wednesday, with my morning class at NYU, would not be a good day for me to try to teach the class out there. I would be late for every class, unless the College could make it possible for me to get to and from Manhattan more easily and quickly. There seems to be no way for the College to help me out, either financially or with a car service, so I had to consider my health and sanity, and turn down the job.
Sad, but necessary.
NYU will keep me plenty busy, and I look forward to having more of the right time and energy to make those two classes the best i can make them! I look forward to them very much, and will begin planning curriculum this week.
Peter and have the privilege of going to see one of my private students in HISTORY BOYS tonight...Alex Tonetta, a general understudy, has arranged houseseats for us, and we are excited about seeing him in the show. Thank you dear Alex.
So, a hot hot NYC day contains both sorrow and goodness.
On Sunday, July 24th, I wrote in my journal:
"San Francisco is a city with the soul of a woman.She seems to accept all who come to her by taking them into her warm arms, the embrace of her Golden Gate.She nurtures and cares for her many children, sets them walking in their Sunday best, then provides photo op after photo op for her wide and historical family album."
"She is a city that loves to look at herself - she preens -she perches slyly, like the maiden on the rock, her silken shift of fog softly falling from one shoulder...she displays her innocence made of sunshine."
...and later that same day:
"Such a specific character to this City - the nature of its highs and lows, its hills, its delicious wedding cake houses on a slant....people live on the sides of steep hills here and think nothing of it at all! It's sort of strange really...like characters from a book. Like odd little more people burrowing into their hillside aeries - but the very Hobitt nature of the landscape and its creatures helps gives the place its innocent cozy identity and fun uniqueness The topography itself creates a coziness, interesting and magnetic, totally liveable."
I loved it there.
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