Elaine's Responsibility Code

First of all, the inspiration for this post's title :

1. Always stay in control.
2. People ahead of you have the right of way.
3. Stop in a safe place for you and others.
4. Whenever starting downhill or merging, look uphill and yield.
5. Use devices to help prevent runaway equipment.
6. Observe signs and warnings, and keep off closed trails.
7. Know how to use the lifts safely.

I saw this posted near the cashier at the Park City Mountain Ski Resort yesterday when checking out my ski rental equipment. It comes from the National Ski Areas Association and is called "Your Responsibility Code." I found it most helpful to have start-off guidelines for etiquette and safety in an area I had never been and where I had no idea of what to expect. Many of the code items were similar to what I observe or expect when hiking, so this immediately put me at ease. But the first one on the list sure made me smile! Stay in control. So, here is my "Responsibility Code" of sorts; these are my suggestions for how to "stay in control."

What I learned the first day :

1. This is not a comfort sport. Don't expect to be comfortable when learning; it will hurt! As I read on one site, "Get in shape to ski. Don't ski to get in shape." I found this amusing more than annoying, because honestly, skiing is a luxury sport. The lifts and runs and equipment are all expensive to maintain and make available. So I found it amusing to put my foot into that first rental boot, only to look around me thinking, people pay for this kind of discomfort? (see what I learned day 2 for better news) But how could I feel annoyed? Surprised a bit, but perfectly ready to take a deep breath and think about something else ... like the fact that I would soon be learning how to ski down a mountain of snow!

2. Don't take your skis inside restaurants. People look at you funny. This is why there are complimentary ski racks to lean them against right outside the restaurant doors.

3. Learn how to walk in heels. (again, see what I learned day 2 for better news) I spent all of the first day thinking I should go home and practice walking in heels more often ~ toe-to-heel, toe-to-heel, like an elegant princess! I used to walk like this, "to practice being a princess," when I was a little girl ... but I never did become graceful, I always looked like a fool doing it! I also looked like a fool all the first day of wearing those rental boots.

4. Do yoga. I should have done an hour of yoga the night before my first time skiing ~ you wouldn't think it looking at those people all bundled up the way they are, but you want to be flexible if you're going to be a skier.

5. Skiing can be very much like ice skating.


What I learned the second day :

1. Wake up early, eat delicious and filling food, drink plenty of water (and go to the bathroom), and don't be opposed to warming up the insides with an early afternoon cocktail! I luckily learned each of these things simply by being grateful I did them, not by experiencing any mishaps like having to go home early because you peed in your getup.

2. Rent equipment from a place that gives you amazing-quality boots that don't hurt and beautiful blue Salomon skis! Then you also learn that your toe-to-heel endeavors didn't actually make any sense whatsoever, so scratch that bit about learning to walk in heels ... there still remains no reason I can think of for that kind of torture being a good idea.

3. Don't cry when you fall. It's not so bad, and then once you have fallen, if you went on something super-challenging for your level, you learned exactly what you should work on next so you can do what you just did again, later, without falling.

4. Always stay positive. Look around you and learn. Even if something's hard or it hurts, you're still skiing! Keep moving (and be willing to move SLOWLY) and you'll get better.

Sixty cents per glove

This is a post about the Homeless Youth Resource Center at the Utah Pride Center. TINT stands for Tolerant Intelligent Network of Teens, and the group serves youth ages 14-20.

This amazing resource available here in Salt Lake City gives me hope for the future. Lesbian, Gay, Besexual and Transgender youth are much more likely than their heterosexual or non-gender-queer peers to be thrown from their homes, abandoned to the streets. But with places like this, they have a place to go - to be accepted for who they are!

In this cold weather, I think more and more each day of the times when I barely had enough to eat, and how grateful I am that I never had to be cold out on the streets. Salt Lake City can be so harsh in the winter! But not only do I have plenty to eat and a warm place to sleep, this morning I was particularly reminded of how lucky I really am.

I sat down in my car and it had frost on it for the first time this season. It's a brand new Toyota Corolla, so the heat works spectacularly. But of course it takes a few minutes for the heat to get going in the morning. Let me repeat that . . . a few minutes. That's it! And yet I'm shivering, complaining to myself, etc. I start thinking I will stop at Smith's Marketplace after teaching this morning, and pick up a pair of their gloves I've seen near the front doors for $1.19.

Let me repeat that . . . One dollar and nineteen cents. I started thinking just how lucky I really am, with my heater blaring within five minutes of walking out my front door, and a few dollars available to myself to purchase a cheap pair of gloves for cold-steering-wheel blues.

When I got to Smith's this morning, I picked out 11 pairs. One for me, black with cute white string sewn around the sides, and 10 others, of all shades and patterns available. I took the bag to the TINT at the Utah Pride Center, hoping to offer the teens there some colorful comfort this winter.

I would like to encourage you to the the same ~ I think we can all spare sixty cents per hand to warm!

Des Cannibales ~ Michel de Montaigne

Tonight I re-read Michel de Montaingne's essai, Des cannibales. I can't count the number of times I have read and researched and re-read this essai, and yet tonight I caught and learned things that brought new life to it. I chose it as a topic for the final French paper of my undergraduate degree for a reason; it spoke to me, as I expressed in a prior post. It spoke to me about the arrogancy of assuming the culture we know is "perfect" and all others are "barbaric." It spoke to me of what we can learn of our own selves and culture through observation and appreciation of other cultures.

But tonight I found lines I don't understand how I could have missed! Entire passages, pages even, have changed how I see the whole piece.

Montaigne tells us how Plato said that all things are produced in one of three ways ~ through nature, fate/fortune, or art. He said that the best and most beautiful are those that come from the first two, and that we find the lesser and most imperfect things in art. How opposite from what our culture seems to believe! We assume that all things man-made, all things "artistic," or all things within our sphere of recognition/understanding/knowledge, are the best things. The paintings, the buildings, even clothing, fashion, film . . . yet we overlook what is truly the best, the highest of what actually exists . . . that which is natural, or, as we would say, "barbaric." Wild flowers. A deep, passionate kiss. Cats tumbling together or one dashing up a tree in fear of a dog. Do we appreciate the real, most beautiful things around us? We think we appreciate art when it makes us reminiscent of these things, and yet we live in cities where we can no longer even see the stars in the night skies!

I am looking forward to crafting an essai of my own, hopefully learning in the process how to weave something beautiful and artistic in a language other than my native one. It is humbling to know that anything I may weave will be, in Plato's words, "imperfect," regardless of my attempts at artistry.

Listener's Community Radio

Listener's Community Radio of Utah, or KRCL 90.9 FM ~ All the Radio You Need, is one amazing place to work. I have now been their Administrative Assistant for a month and a half, and I've learned so much about how they do what they do. I have lots of cleaning and organizing projects to keep me busy, which I love, as I am able to listen to the radio live while doing them, or think my busy thoughts to myself. I've also been recorded a couple of times for "KRCL is supported by . . ." and "We would like to thank . . ." spots to be played on air throughout the days.

What Listener's Community Radio offers me is different and unique in every way. I feel that what this station offers each of their listeners is individually and collectively identifiable! What I mean is, I get something out of KRCL (RadioActive news and thoughts, a safe place to be out as a lesbian and use my skills to benefit a community) that not everyone else does. Many people listen for Bad Brad's Afternoon Show, to hear the weather and traffic and awesome music they won't hear anyplace else. Others listen for Democracy Now; many listen to our amazing weekend shows ranging from Strange Radio and a Science show to Vietnamese, Chinese and Native American shows. What an eclectic mix!

I am very much looking forward to meeting an eclectic mix of this community's listeners, at our December 3 Polar Jubilee. If you like live music and want to be part of Bad Brad's Hanukkah Harmonica Army, you had better buy your tickets here soon. It sounds like a riot to me . . . not something I would likely attend if I weren't working here, but an event I'm glad I won't be missing now that I am. KRCL makes me smile every day, for one reason or another. I hope you'll start streaming shows online, or listening during your day, to find your reason or another to be a part of the KRCL community! This is where Salt Lake City is found, through and through. I am KRCL ~ are you?

Salt Lake Arts Academy

A week from today I will enter Humanities Classroom 300 at the Salt Lake Arts Academy and teach my first-ever course to a group of 18 students. This week I am working feverishly to develop a course outline, and a course description to post on my homepage which can be accessed by the students, their parents, and other teachers. I have a full year ahead of me, and what will my Beginning French students have learned by June 2011? I will only have four hours of their time each week at my disposal, but I do believe we can accomplish and learn very much in that time.

This public charter school seems to be a place where I would be thrilled to send my children. Take a look at their Curriculum, and their Frequently Asked Questions. I hope to integrate their language-learning with the topics they are covering in their other classes. Can you imagine taking a science class, and learning the names of the parts of the body, then learning them in French as well? Or taking a math class and being able to count in both English and French? There are so many opportunities for cross-curriculum learning at this school. I will be pleased to meet these students, their parents, and their other teachers as I try to engage them culturally and linguistically.

~ Madame Ball ~

Proposition 8 at the Tower Theatre

Something big is happening around the world right now ~ something monumental for gay rights, advocating the separation of Church and State in Utah and the United States, and opening minds and promoting acceptance everywhere.

8: The Mormon Proposition is playing NOW at the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City - 876 E. 900 S.

Please buy tickets to see this film this weekend if it is in ANY way possible for you to re-schedule pre-made plans, or fit this new plan into your budget ~ tickets are NOT too expensive, this is open to the general public, and it will possibly be THE most influential thing you have done all year.

Why might I say this? The Tower Theatre is the ONLY theatre playing this film in Utah ~ Utah, where the film primarily takes place, and where, if people HERE saw it, it would make the greatest positive difference for change.

If we inundate the theatre this weekend, The Tower may be able to afford to continue showing this film for a much-needed extra week, or two, or three. PLEASE. Consider going this weekend to 876 E. 900 S. to show your support for the very vitally life-changing issues that are affecting YOUR Gay and Lesbian family members and friends.

Teaching Writing

This past Saturday I had the most amazing experience as a Writing Teacher. It was my fourth meeting with my newest student, a 12-year-old boy whose parents would like for him to improve his writing, public speaking, and debate skills. He is in his first year of Junior High, his favorite subject is Technology, and his favorite genre to read is Historical Fiction. I am basically trying to teach him as much as possible while having as much fun as possible. Over the next two weeks he will be preparing a Presentation on the Short-faced Bear, a prehistoric animal we read about in an Ancient World History Textbook we've been reading articles from aloud during our lessons. I'll be presenting on the Dire Wolf.

I felt that this lesson was such a success because I had white board markers and chalk, and a few fun writing ideas, and he was able to take up whole sections of the board, climbing over desks in the empty classroom we commandeered, and wrote what I thought was a great, entertaining story. What I love most about teaching is finding enjoyable, laughable exercises and topics that are of personal interest to the student. I learn SO much from those I teach!