You say you wander your own land
But when I think about it I don't see how you can
You're aching, you're breaking
And I can see the pain in vour eyes
Says everybody's changing
And I don't know why

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game, I
Try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same

You're gone from here
Soon you will disappear
Fading into beautiful light
Because everybody's changing
And I don't feel right

-Keane, "Everybody's Changing"

....two months.

This seems to fit:


The Mark Twain: A leisurely paddle steamboat
navigating the Rivers of America in the 19th
Century! A venerable Disneyland institution,
you date to opening day in 1955 and respresent
stablity, tradition, and a healthy dose of
Americana. You never make your passengers
seasick (in part due to the fact that you role
along your secret underwater track) and always
offer some great panoramic views of a Frontier
mining town, New Orleans, and back woods
glimpses of wildlife and injuns straight out of
a Samuel Clemens tale! Small children and old
folks like you best, but that doesn't mean you
don't know how to get out and enjoy the
nightlife, you play "Steamboat
Willie" in the nightly production of the
Fantasmic! Spectacular. Just one question,
just how is that you are always managing to be
headed "down river"?

What Disneyland attraction are you?

I love my little house in Mountain View. Especially when its crammed with about thirty members of my family and our friends avoiding the downpour of rain that fell on Easter. We made the best of it, and instead of a huge confetti egg fight in the yard, my living room was filled with the sound of our laughter and cheers as we watched recorded newsclips of the meeting and vigil. As my aunt proudly exclaimed, "See! We ARE a political family!"

Finally, it's not just me and Chris. Haha.

But the day couldn't end without some type of confetti egg fight. We were just supposed to take one egg and crack it on the head of the person of our choice for the traditional polaroid photo....

Ya right!

All those pent up confetti-egg cracking urges could not be contained and spurts of stealth attacks and confetti egg bombardments occured while the photos were being taken. Chris got one down his pants courtesy of Auntie Rosemary (...the confetti is still littering our bathroom floor from whe he shook it out of his underwear). I got my Auntie Becky, who was not happy about it and put me on cookie probation. God I love her chocolate chip cookies, I hope she's not being serious. After all, she already bruised my arm after I GENTLY cracked an egg on her head. My baby cousin Peyton got baptized earlier in the day. ...but he wasn't officially baptized into our crazy family until his mom cracked an egg in her hand and gently sprinkled the confetti over his head.

Ahhhhh. Gotta love my family.

An e-mail from my Mom to the extended familia:

We made a Difference!

For years, all of us have heard about events that happened in the City of Mountain View that affected our family. From closing of schools to the moving of our house. We always talked about what happened and why but the end result was - those things happened regardless of what people said to try to change that particular event. It always seemed that "our" voices of the minority community were never heard.

Yesterday that changed.

Some of us have been more active than others in trying to get involved in events that affect the community. (I usually like to sit back and watch - but due to the dynamics of being influenced by Nick & Chris - or my old age - I'm changing!)

Anyway, hopefully you all have heard about the politics going on in Mountain View lately regarding the decision to close a school. First it was Slater (until the parents protested) than it was Castro (the school I went to). Understand that Castro is largely a non-english speaking community and we felt this school was targeted because it would beeasier to close due to the assumption that "voices" would not come forward and be heard. Boy, were they wrong.

True, I started paying attention to this issue because of Rosemary but it was because of Oscar stepping up and taking the challenge of being the voice of this "silent" community that I got a little more actively involved. Never did I know how Oscar's charismatic personality could impact so many people! It wasn't a one-person show - it just took one person to be the megaphone for the community. So after a 26 hour vigil that mostly occurred in the rain - our voices were heard - the school board decided to delay implementation until next year and then voted to close Slater (still a sad event). Thru the coordination of the new "Mesa de la Comunidad " - a press releases was generated and every major news station was there recording these events. A few tried to insinuate that the only reason Oscar was there was because of his relationship to RoseMary but he set them straight with the right reasons. Another important factor is that parents and community leaders outside of the Castro community came together for the good of the kids in this district.

So why am I sending this out - I want us to all to remember that in our family history there was a victory. And we, each in our own way, can get the silent voices heard for the people that need a megaphone. I am truly impressed with both RoseMary's perseverence, that her fellow board members make the right decisions, and Oscar for putting himself out for the community with no rewards in return (besides seeing his face TV!).

Funny - one of my fellow protesters (during the 26 hour vigil) and a friend of Rosemary said to me, "RoseMary told me not to worry because 'my family is a part of the community'. I didn't know what she meant - but now I do - it must be great having family nearby because I don't have that support." I thought - yeah IT IS GREAT to have family - something I think we all take for granted sometimes. (As Oscar, Lisa, Marisa, Marco, Elena, David, Angelica, Nick, Chris & Mark all participated!)

That's all - see you at Easter!

WE DID IT!

The community came together and made our voices heard! The Mountain View-Whisman Elementary School District Board of Trustees decided to keep Castro School and Slater School open one more year, and close Slater at the end of next year. The extra year gives the whole community time to adjust and plan the transition.

Most importantly ( to me , at least) is that the awful plan to close Castro School was thrown out the window. Thank god.

I can't even begin to express how proud I am of the Mountain View segment of my family and how involved we were over the past month, and especially over the last 48 hours. The CBS news blurb in the previous post was/is just the beginning of the media coverage.

Just watch the news tomorrow morning if you're in the Bay Area. You'll likely see my Aunt RoseMary (A recently elected School Board Trustee) and my cousin's husband Oscar being interviewed. You'll see me, Marisa, Angelica, David, my mom, Chris, Marco, and Elena all holding signs at the 26 hour vigil that started at 4pm on Monday (Marisa and I were there from 4pm to 9pm, 4am to 11am, and 3:30pm to 6pm!) We were on CBS, ABC, NBC, KRON, KCBS Radio, Telemundo, Univision, and who knows what the papers will show, even the New York Times was snapping a lot of photos!

But the media blitz is all really second fiddle to the meeting, and the School Board Trustees and my Aunt Rosemary, who all really pulled through for Mountain View. It feels amazing to have been a part of this, and even more amazing to be a part of this with my family...who I'm so proud of and love so dearly. I think this will day will always be one of the best days of my life.

Craziness. Beautiful, wonderful, craziness!

Vigil Staged to Protest South Bay School Closure
Mar 22, 2005 10:12 am US/Pacific
(CBS 5)

Opponents to an expected closure in the Mountain View-Whistman School District staged an all night vigil that began on Monday evening.

Parents and students took shifts in front of Graham Middle School in Mountain View to protest a school board vote that was expected to call for the elimination of a local elementary campus. The district’s superintendent had previously announced that either Castro or Slater Elementary will need to shut down in order to balance a growing budget deficit.

Early Tuesday, students pitched tents and waved signs to draw attention to the their cause. Vigil organizer Oscar Garcia says he hopes the event will make the school board reconsider the closures. He says he wants officials to work with the community to better serve the area’s diverse population.

Opposition to the closures has grown steadily leading up to the final vote. Last month, a school meeting ended early after hundreds of concerned citizens started a heated debate. The vigil was expected to last until 6pm on Tuesday, when the Mountain View School Board was set to reconvene at the middle school to decide the fate of the two campuses.

By Anna Duckworth

WATCH THE VIDEO (I'm in it!) :
http://www2.cbs5.com/localnews/local_story_081141438.html

Hey Sabrina-

Took Inda!

It's been a while since I could wake up in the morning, and not feel the need to:

a) finish up a paper/project I didn't get done the previous night
b)contact a person to interview for a project/or interview them
c)worry about what the latest news is on Castro School
d)worry about what the latest news is on Mountain View preservation
e) rush to class

My life of course, would be boring and some what unfulfilling without these things.

But...even though I'll be spending a lot of Spring Break doing field work/research, god it'll be nice to just have a few mornings to lie in bed as long as I please.

...I'm pretty happy with the way I handled myself in a tough situation yesterday. But you know...in an argument or debate, you always play things back in your head and think about what you would have said if you had the time to think about it.

Here's what I would have said to the guy who right off the bat said to me "Our admits keep getting younger and more precocious" and then while in SF started to rail on me for not being up to his standards of "real world" experience and intellect:

"Look man, if your going to approach me from such a negative and biased perspective, to make me feel so unwelcome at a "welcome event" that you organized, than hey, you're not worth it. There are reasons why I have been accepted to Cal, twice. If you want to talk about who I am and where I've been and what my "real-world" experiences are, I'm more than happy to do that. But not if your going to confront me like this."

That's what I would have said. I came close to saying that, in a very simplified form by telling this guy that I didn't want to have to read him my personal statement. But his response was "read it" so there I was walking down the streets of San Francisco trying to explain why they had admitted me into their program. Screw that.

Any how, things went fine for the rest of the afternoon and the other grad students I met were cool. Unfortunately what happened at the onset of the event left a bitter taste in my mouth and I really needed some people to vent to.

So... much love to all my friends (and my parents) who have just been this amazing network of support and encouragement. I can't tell you how much you all mean to me. I know its cliche, but I wouldn't be where am today without you all. Thanks.

May 23rd is going to be, I'm sure, one of the most difficult and emotional days of my life. That's saying a lot.

I don't know how I'm going to deal with graduating, saying goodbye to everyone, and all the while stressing out over going to Portugal the next morning.

Gar. Hopefully by then I'll have a place set up here when I come back, that at least some of you will still be around, and after the craziness of my first trip to Europe, I'll have some time to adjust to Berkeley, Part II.

I just hope that my grad school career here, isn't some pale shadow of my undergrad years because you're all gone. But hey, I guess that's up to me.

...and before I start cramming for that econ midterm, let me just say thank you to Candice for getting us all to come down to the Bear's Layer last Friday night. (and thanks to Steph for giving me the normal Friday lunch guilt trip about going home every weekend).

That was a lot of fun. I'm glad I stayed for Friday night and went down to the bar with the gang despite my cold. The fact that Erik, Kat, and Lauren have all devoted an entry of their infrequently updated blogs to it just goes to show that its something we should try to do more often!

Woo:
My prof really liked my term project progress report on Stevens Creek Trail!
BUSSA's grad-undergrad mixer went well
My cold is getting a little better...i think
Lauren made us cookies tonight
I got the city of MV to put a long overdue plaque at the site of old MV High.

Ugh:
Econ midterm on thursday
Big preservation midterm project due monday
ArchHistory midterm on tuesday
I still have a cold
I have research and interviews to do up the wazoo
Between MVPA and Castro School, there's plenty of non-school work to be done too

All in all, it felt like things balanced out today though. I'm a lot less stressed than I was on monday. And after tuesday, it will be much smoother sailing. At least till April.