Grandmother’s Interment

I spent a day with a sales associate from a “marketing firm”. I thought that this was ironic because we were actually walking around a suburban community trying to get people to switch cable providers. I couldn’t really understand how this made them a marketing company. They called it my first “interview” and told me at the end that I was hired and would be paid on commission. I suckered myself into believing that I would take the job even though I knew I would change my mind after I came to my senses.

I later met up with a few friends. It was fun but old. I had a tie on and was bored and tired. I went to my grandmother’s interment the next day with my family. Since then I have been separating the chapters for my thesis and developing a set of steps to finish it. I like to use my blog as a sounding board in the process.

This is a regular series chronicling my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life. I wrote this on the 26th of May and posted it to the blog on June 13th.

My Next Steps

I received an email from my advisor and am trying to work out my next steps. I need to reenroll with the university. I am barely finished with my first three chapters and am looking into how to approach chapter four. I have been dividing my time between a job search and the thesis. It has been rather easy since I don’t have a regular job. The marketing firm that called me had me come to an interview and afterward I went out with a few friends for dinner. There were some visitors from out of town. Most of my notes seem to be a stream of consciousness on my priorities and they are somewhat useful.

This is a regular series chronicling my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life. I wrote this on the 26th of May and posted it to the blog on June 13th.

Cheese, Muffins, Eggs and Ham

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to put these basic ingredients together in a way that is easy and fast. Unfortunately, the fastest way to put them together involves two separate instruments: a toaster and a microwave. However, I always have an easy time making a delicious mid-day treat and it usually only takes a few minutes. Plus, it only involves four ingredients and a little bit of butter or margarine.


First I cut the muffins in half and toast
them since this takes the longest amount of time. Then I coat a ceramic ramekin with butter or margarine and break an egg into it. I always make sure that the egg is a bit scrambled because it may actually EXPLODE! However, if you break the yoke, cover the ramekin with a standard sized paper towel and let the egg cool every twenty seconds while it is cooking it usually turns out all right. About, one minute should start the eggs out nice at first.














Now, the muffins may have made it to being toasted by now. So, this is where I usually spread a little bit of butter and then place about one slice of Swiss cheese per muffin half and put the muffins back in for a bit longer.














Returning to the eggs, I always check inside the ramkin to make certain that the eggs aren't going to explode. Placing it inside the microwave for one minute is alright to begin with but after about one and a half minutes it is necessary to open the microwave about every twenty seconds and let the egg cool for at least five seconds. Here I am raising the paper towel to listen to the light sputtering noise the egg makes that indicates it is nearly done. After checking on the eggs, I can see that the cheese has melted on the muffings and this is where I layer some ham on top.














While cooking the egg without making it explode can be a chore it can also yield a wonderful surprise as you might be able to see from the picture below. The process usually produces a hockey puck shaped lozenge for lack of a better word which will fit tidily inside of a muffin sandwich.

Cycling Class in Glendale

On April 30^th this year three cyclists from the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition held a two hour cycling safety skills class. Called Cycling 123, the class went over several essential elements to cycling safely (learn more). The students, ranging in ages from 5-12 learned the ABC Quick Check, starting and stopping, scanning and signaling and hazard avoidance. In the last half hour of the class they also had opportunities to use all of the techniques together and make complicated maneuvers such as riding in a figure eight. Parents had the additional opportunity to watch their children participate in a snail race where the last cyclist across the finish line is the winner.

In all there were five students, three boys and two girls, and each came to the class with their own background and equipment. The idea behind the class is to use these differences as a point of departure for learning and to provide students with an opportunity to learn from one another. For instance, the moment a student recognizes the different ways that their classmates start, stop, scan or signal is when they begin to understand how it is connected to the over all experience. The same can be said for other cycling elements such as the variety of bicycle types or even reasons for cycling.

The class is a good way to introduce parents and children to the importance of cycling safety and the curriculum is designed so that even the slowest learners are able to master the techniques and understand the concepts. During the course of the class students developed a new appreciation for how to ride between the first and last runs of each course element. They quickly learned that their original conception of bicycling needed to be changed since cycling as an activity requires critical thinking as well as hand eye coordination. Though all of the students understood what the various parts of the bike did, all of them were surprised to learn how different bikes can be from one another. For instance, while every student understood the basic idea behind stopping their bike the process through which they learned how to stand, break and step off of the bike differed from one to the other.

This class is special in comparison to other classes which have been taught in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area in that decision makers and city administrators had a role in making the class a reality. In mid-2010, one of the instructors, acting in his capacity as a coordinator to the City of Glendale for the LA County Bicycle Coalition, originally conceived of the class as a way to do better outreach to local schools, parents and children. He dedicated many extra hours of work and months of planning that went into it.

To begin with there were several layers of city administration and local community awareness that needed to be addressed even before a curriculum was considered. He worked closely with city leaders and in turn administrators with the school districts and parks and recreation. In time the class was listed in the Recreation Guide, a catalog containing a plethora of other classes that are similar in nature. He then approached the other instructors to help with the class because they had organized in Santa Monica and South Bay cities such as Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. The three organizers then made certain that the class was accessible and kept to a minimum amount of time.

While promoting social change should necessarily include community leaders such as elected officials and administrators it is also necessary to approach other relevant social groups as well. This meant that specific community leaders who had a direct relationship to the classes specific demographic needed to be informed about the classes as well. The organizers settled on the local parent teacher association which enthusiastically contributed by distributing flyers to individuals and supporting the promotion of the class.

Since attendance for this class was remarkable in comparison to other classes that had been organized in the past in LA County it was a stunning success. However, it should be noted that the class had capacity for at least five more students. In the event that another class is organized in either Glendale or elsewhere there is evidence to support that a broader conception of relevant social groups should be part of the process of organization. This may mean outreach to additional parent teacher associations, church groups, environmental groups and even some of the groups which are advertising in the Recreation Guide.

A Big Ride

I went on a big ride with my friend from LA who was visiting the city for the weekend. I have also begun a serious review of my jobs search and have basically finished putting together all of the emails and applications. The next thing is to develop a description of these items to show my progress. I have some theories that could bear some serious thought. For instance, I have had a number of experiences at non-profits and agencies and think that these might be leveraged. I also think that I might be able to ask for help at some of the local universities. I also consider job lists specifically to be especially valuable. Finally, I have discovered that there have been a number of incidental experiences where I heard about companies having jobs on offer.

These are the people that I helped on Bike to Work Day 2011— on my BIRTHDAY!

This is a regular series chronicling my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life. I wrote this on the 26th of May and posted it to the blog on June 13th.

Grandma’s Memorial

I have decided that my grandmother’s death caused me to put off my job search. However, in preparation for beginning again I have identified a set of jobs search criteria that may be useful. My whole family came down for the weekend of the memorial. My siblings and I hung out at my little sister’s house in the Parkside. The next day many of us went to a Giants a game. I had a couple of guests and we agreed to go meet at Bike to Work Day.

The memorial was at a home in San Mateo County and many people came to pay their respects. We had dinner with my uncle. I noticed that while many are sad about the death of our 104 year old matriarch there are few tears. My siblings and I ended up having a real discussion about our relationships and this really sparked an understanding of who I am in relation to everyone. I remember a discussion of “doing" over “talking about” things. We also had a funeral at Lillian’s church and a reception in Parkside.

This is a photo of my brother David after Grandma’s memorial.

This is a regular series chronicling my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life. I wrote this on the 26th of May and posted it to the blog on June 13th.

Write and Search

I took the time to document all of the different things that I did to get a job. I am trying to get my mind around what I am dong to get a job and how effective I am being. I thought of it as starting again because I felt that there were a bunch of events that had kept me from working towards the goal of full employment. There are two things that I am finding I need to do regularly: write and search. I hit on the idea of looking at old applications and what types of jobs I think I should be trying to get. I also hit on the idea of listing out firms I might work at. I find that the blog is great way to evaluate my progress.

This is a regular series chronicling my life at regular intervals. This Memo series is meant to be a retrospective of what I have written and experienced. In each of these posts I use my notes in conjunction with memory, mementos and souvenirs to create a snap shot of my life. I wrote this on the 26th of May and posted it to the blog on June 13th.

Lillian Constance Foley 1906-2011

"What are you doing out there?" she said one day to a group of us, her offspring. Lillian, our "Nana" was always prone to asking embarrassing questions of us and this was the case on that particular holiday evening maybe a dozen years ago. She went on to relate to us a story about her youth in the twenties. It was New Years eve, she said, when the boys she was with (she always ran with a big group of boys) closed all of the windows in their Model-T in the big city of Chicago and "the car filled up with all this smoke." I don't think she was referring to cigarettes.

The comments weren't always embarrassing of course. However, along with my father's comments, Nana's running commentary was a major element to the way that I interacted with society. After all some of my earliest memories of her revolved around my mother's deferential attitude towards me. I will never forget how terrible I always felt at the dinner table when she was around and while as an adult I wouldn't necessarily trade anything on the dinner plate now for cottage cheese, I still share my mother's appreciation for its nutritional value.

I remember in the nineties when she was trying to get better value out of her assets, she would make other dry comments. This time to smokers she would say, "have another one," since at the time she had been making quite a lot off of her stock in R.J. Reynolds and/or Phillip Morris (I don't remember which). More recently, I remember how she simply volunteered information. Like when an appraiser came by to view her gigantic butterfly collection. After looking at her assortment of pins and broaches the man had suggested a price for the whole lot. She turned him down saying that he had undervalued it.

I made my comments too. I think I was maybe ten years old when my siblings and I were getting into the car to go shopping with her. In reference to her penchant for thrift stores, I pointed out that everything that Nana buys is "old". I was severely dressed down for that and will always remember how she categorically explained in front of all of us how important she was to our well being. It was because of incidents such as these that I will always have an appreciation for frugality.

In her old age the tables began to turn for her and I. I got an education and her fiery comments cooled. I think that had things been different we should have been friends (although even now I am struck by how ridiculous it is to say that). I have found that the best friendships I have ever known involved us talking at at each other rather than to. Lillian's tendency to simply ad lib non-sequiturs and volunteered information fit this paradigm to a "T". It never ceased to aggravate everyone in my family and those around us but I have taken much away from it.

Questions tend to shed old ideas or personal situations in a new light and inevitably cause a person to doubt themselves. I believe that this type of introspection was a necessary element in my own development. It also allowed me to regard my own life and mentors in a critical matter. Like who was this old woman, born of immigrant parents and what caused her to come out west in the twenties and start a family during the worst depression America has ever faced?

Over the past few years the student has had an unprecedented opportunity to ask questions of the teacher since the butterflies had at that point all been itemized and stored, her award winning orchid collection sold off and she no longer even had the energy for a trip to the hairdresser let alone the YMCA for a game of bingo. It was in that period that I would ask her about the period when she had first arrived in San Francisco. She lived on Haight Street, she said, on Baker with two old ladies--her landlords-- who had taken a liking to her. Pressing her further I asked about how she had met the man she would eventually marry-- my grandfather of whom she had separated so many years ago. "I know what you're trying to do," she said and that was that.

I spent many hours with Nana in her final years or at least tried to since I was living in Southern California at the time. I eventually moved back to San Francisco and began to fill in for my mother father and uncle who's lives had become ever more directed towards Lillian's well being. I am glad that I had that time, I had multiple opportunities to offer her advice from everything concerning whether she should eat to how I thought she should move in with her daughter.

...and she did finally move in to mom's house and lived there for a few days until her death at the age of 104 in the city of St. Francis, Wednesday May the Fifth, 2011.