New Orleans day 1

Back in . . . oh, probably December, I got an e-mail that said this year's NCTM (National Council of Teacher's of Mathematics) Annual Meeting and Exhibition was in New Orleans, Louisianna.  I thought, "Oh, that's cool.  I'd like to go to New Orleans.  Maybe one of these days I will go."  Then within a day or so I got another e-mail that said applications are due for the Laura Baker Grant in my district.  It's a grant that awards 2 teachers every year with a paid professional development opportunity of their choice.  I asked James what he thought about me applying for the grant and maybe going to New Orleans and he said something like, "If I get accepted into a master's program, it would probably be a fair trade for you to go."

In January, I found out that I got the grant!  

Now I'm here.

Plane information:

• Lots of math teachers on the flight.
• The lady next to me had her barf bag out and ready to go.  This totally creeped me out.
• The guy behind me talked loud and non- stop for the entire flight.  Everything about Bozeman, MT to oil rigs in Texas, to how much a head of cattle is, to why he doesn't eat chicken, to his accident in 2009 . . . . Ahhhhhhhhhh.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't focus on my book.  I finally just resorted to solitaire because it was all my brain could do.  It was painful.
• Shuttle ride next to two co-workers who were there to set up a booth for the exhibit hall - talking about their use of mary-joo-wanna - one of the guys gets it from his friend with medical benefits and it comes in the from of candy - $40 a week for 50 pieces of 10mg each - you get a 3-4 hour high . . . yadda, yadda, yadda, the usual

I was glad to finally be on the ground.

Here is the view out my hotel window (looking away from the Mississippi River).

I had about an hour before my first meeting started, so I decided to head to the French Quarter.

Trolley car on Canal Street.  

Cathedral at Andrew's Square.

Here there were lots of tarot card readers, a guy asking for money while his dog pretended to be dead in a coffin, artists, a band playing, a guy asking for money for kicking his hacky sack around, etc.  There was supposed to be a Hurricane Katrina exhibit in the building next to the cathedral, but it (and several other things) were closed while they set up a big French Quarter Festival for this weekend.

I decided to brave Bourbon Street.  It was . . .  what you think Bourbon Street would be like.

After this, I went to the convention center and started to get situated for a few days worth of meetings, starting with tonight's keynote address, "The Joy of X."  It was a presentation from a man who wrote articles in the New York Times (and later a book) with the same title.  It was all about infusing fun and interest in math.  It was a decent start.

I was hungry, so I headed to where a saw some food, asked to look at a menu at a cafe called Ernst's .  I met two other single ladies (one from Arizona and one from Texas) and we each had a po' boy.  I had fried chicken on mine.  It was tasty.

Jimmy Fallon Makes Me Smile

Grandpa Update

Today is my grandpa's 85th birthday.  My mom put his picture in the paper!  (Thanks Natalie for letting me steal your picture of the picture.)

• Grandpa's neck is healing nicely.  
• He had another swallow test done today and though they said he failed it again, there was some improvement from the last one.  The last two days they have tried giving him tastes of applesauce and pudding.  Unless the speech therapist is giving it to him, though, he can't have anything but the occasional ice.  
• The worst part is that he has continued to have some major issues caused by the initial ER trauma with a catheter.  He's been back in the hospital since Wednesday morning because he is passing either a lot of blood clots or isn't able to pass any fluids at all.  They've had to do some pretty painful procedures on him to try to get things fixed, as well as some blood transfusions.  Once a current infection clears up, they will likely operate, I guess.  

Kid Movies We've Sent to Willie

Princesses

I finally watched "Frozen." We rented it.  I will probably buy it.  Here are my thoughts:

.

• I thought it was cute.  I like the music.  "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" has been in my head for 3 days.  
• That crazy Mormon blogger lady who said it was a secret message about gay marriage . . .  what was she smoking?  It's like saying "Robin Hood" is trying to push a liberal agenda to socialize America or that "Shrek" is giving it's approval to obesity in America.  I don't know.  You can stretch anything to make it seem like what you want. (Did the woman who wrote that know that Idina Menzel, the voice of Elsa, played a lesbian character in the original Broadway cast of "Rent?"  Is that why she didn't approve?)
• I liked Kristoff and of course Olaf and Sven.
• And then my thoughts led to what could be a long dissertation on Princesses, but I'll try to keep it brief.

I really like Disney. I really like Disneyland.  I think Disney movies are by far the most wholesome, good, family friendly movies out there.  However, maybe it is my tomboyish nature, lack of interest in fancy dresses, or stubbornness to do things on my own, but I've never liked Disney princesses.  I think "Robin Hood" was one of my favorite movies growing up, not the "Little Mermaid" or "Cinderella."  I've always had issues with princesses.  I would go so far as to define them as stupid-girls-who-can't-be-validated-or-confident-without-some-dumb-prince-to-save-them.  I've always wondered why we would encourage little girls to fit the role of the helpless princess and in our home (though Molly does have her fair share of princess crap), we have intentionally tried to keep things 1) gender neutral and 2) non-princess. Molly loves books, toys of all kinds, and all sorts of things.  She likes Disney stuff and can identify most princesses, but it is only one small part of her 3-year-old repertoire.   

To my point . . .  I commend Disney for the new-style princess in more recent movies.  Here are some examples and what I like about them.

• "Tangled" - though she is a bit naive, she doesn't hesitate to stand up for herself and hit anyone who crosses her with that frying pan.  She wants to leave the tower to pursue her dream and not just to find a prince.
• "Princess and the Frog" - This character wants to own her own business, is extremely hard-working, and is skeptical of everyone.  Though she has to find a good balance of work and family in the end, she does it on her own terms.
• "Brave" - Merida, too, has her own thoughts and opinions on things.  She can be a little disrespectful to her parents, but she doesn't know any other way to get her point across.  She challenges tradition because it is not what's in the best interest of her generation.  In the end, she finds a way to still love her parents and choose her own destiny.
• "Frozen" - I think what I liked about this was that "true love" in the end was the sisterly love.  Elsa and Anna save themselves without having to involve a prince at all.  Plus, the hard-working middle class Kristoff is much more gracious to the girls than the prince ever was.  I liked that.

I could go on, but I will stop.

Basically, my point is that I liked "Frozen" and I like recent Disney movies that send better messages to young girls than some of the older classics.  The end.

I could go on about how this relates to crazy Mormon women protesting General Conference because the want to hold the priesthood, but I'll stop before you get the wrong idea.