Things in Perspective

My friend is a 4th grade teacher and her class is made up of mainly Latino Spanish speaking students. I once saw a picture of her class and thought they looked like an Indian tribe, hence why we call her students "the tribe". She sent this to me yesterday because she knows I'm a sap when it comes to poor little Latino kids.

From her...
Hey John,

The tribe has been working on an essay with the prompt, "If you had lunch with President Obama, what would you talk to him about?" I was reading through some of their papers today and found this little girl's writing to be really honest (and somewhat sad). I have left in the grammatical errors for authenticity!

(Her final paragraph)

"Eventually, if I had dinner with Obama I will ask him how will you help my family? If you could help my mom with the bills because she is frustrated. Or get us a new house, because we only have one room and my mom has to sleep in the living room. Or get us a new car because we have a car that is crush from the back. If you help us I will prefer a house for my mom for she could have a room to sleep. It's just three people me, my sister, and my mom."

Hope you enjoy reading my kids' work as much as I do...it makes me love them even more :-)

Skunk Attacks and Speeches

As you all know, yesterday was an amazing day for politics. Barry O became our 44th president and delivered an inspiring speech.

Locally and later that night in Venice, our next great political leader, Kristopher Valentine, delivered another brilliant speech to the Venice Neighborhood Council in hopes of being appointed to the newly vacant seat on the council board. He gave by far the best speech of the night. I like his chances of being appointed. The VNC meeting was such an educational experience. Despite my difficulties getting there, ie. avoiding an attack by a skunk on the way to the meeting, I had an enjoyable and memorable time. I can't wait until next month's meeting.

Would "Valentine's Day on Inauguration Day" be a better title for this post?

Bonus Picture of Obama's New Caddy