The L.A. Dime

Over the past few months, we’ve been researching and visiting preschools. While we love our home, it’s not surrounded by any schools we’d like to send Sophie to and so our search has expanded to a 15-mile radius, some public, some private options.

Growing up, I went to a Waldorf school (similar to the Montessori philosophy where children learn at their own pace, there are no grades until Jr. High and the focus is on tapping the child’s artistic, linguistic, philosophic and socially-conscientious potential) and always hoped to one day make that education available to my children. I was therefore thrilled to learn that there’s a Waldorf school not to far from our home. We signed up for Orientation and were unfortunately somewhat turned off by the feeling of superiority and elitist behavior that irononically enough shouldn’t be part of that world. After considering the fact that our experience might be the parents, that’s how LA is, or maybe I don’t have the best recollection of it all, I sadly had to come to the realization that we might need to look at other options.

After numerous visits to all kinds of schools and being disappointed time and time again over the carelessness of the teachers, the limited amount of curriculum even talked about for “this young age” or the overall feel we got when walking in, we’ve found 3 more options that could work. We haven’t made a decision yet as the earliest she could start at our top options is 2.5 years, but are on the wait lists. Yes, wait lists.

Our top 2 choices are still Waldorf and Chatsworth Hills Academy. We’ve been to Chatsworth Hills twice already and love the fact that it’s situated on this incredibly beautiful campus, where there are tons of trees, room to run/roam and even a goat. The curriculum includes a ton of hands-on experimental activities, like this morning, the class Sophie would be in was on a Pirate scavenger hunt!

In any case, this process is certainly one that has given us an opportunity to talk about what matters to us both regarding Sophie’s education, weigh the options and start to slowly eliminate ones that we don’t feel 100% comfortable about.

Brad and I decided it was time to provide some “social interaction” opportunities to Miss Sophie Bophie, and a friend at work told me about MyGym. I did some research, liked some of the activities my friend told me about, and decided to sign up for a free class. As always, I worried about what should we wear, will the other parents like me, will Sophie learn how to share, etc. With a little anxiety still lingering on Saturday morning, we both put on our stretchy pants and off we went.

Once we arrived, Sophie could barely contain herself, seeing all the balls, swings and kids coming in to play, and couldn’t wait for me to finish all the paperwork. The first few minutes were spent just trying out the various toys, activities and watching other kids. Everyone kept telling me how “super active” she was. Well, that level of activity turned out to be quite a challenge once the official session began with…circle time. All the parents were asked to sit in a circle, with their child in their lap. The instructor then led us through a series of exercises….well, I spent those 10 minutes getting my exercise and chasing Sophie around the entire room rather than following along with the rest of the group. Then there was a time for free play, which consisted of Sophie trying out everything, climbing, running, making a few baskets with a basketball and “talking” at the other kids. She seemed to like the trampoline the best.

The next group activity was a puppet theater where (again) Sophie decided rather than sitting and watching the show, she’d climb on the instructors lap and try to grab the puppets. Next came a “separation time” where the kids are supposed to play without their parents in a group/circle….that wasn’t an issue for our little one and she even managed to share a puzzle with a little boy. Then came some bubble blowing where the kids ran around and tried to catch the bubbles. Of course, that’s when Sophie decided it was time to sit and found herself in the middle of the circle with the other kids running circles around her. The session ended with a nice “good bye, it’s time to go” song (which we of course didn’t know the words to) and a nice t-shirt for making it through the first session. The instructor told me as we were leaving not to worry about circle time, that every kid starts out that way and Sophie will get the hang of things soon enough.

I’m not worried and look forward to going back next week.

For this year’s visit from Opa Manfredo, we spent lots of time “reading”, playing with stackable boxes and checking out the Long Beach Aquarium. It was awesome for Sophie to have her Opa to play with for many, many hours and I was so happy to see them interact like they were long-time buds.

On a side note, Sophie has added the words “book” , “shees” (cheese), “no”  and “hase” (rabbit in German) to her vocabulary and calls every phone she sees a “hello”. See below a recent pic of her on the “hello” and jumping on the bed (2 of her favorite, nightly activities).

Big news for you patient bargain shoppers!  American Pie Presents: Band Camp, which sold 2.5 million copies despite only receiving 5 stars out of 10 from IMDB users, is now on sale in the $4.99 bin at your neighborhood Best Buy!  You, too, can own a piece of cinema history!   Don’t wait, they’re going fast!

Most of you never knew her.  Maybe all of you.  But last night, I spent two final, wonderful, exciting, and frankly, sad, hours with her before she flew into the sun. I’m talking about the Battlestar, Galactica, and her host of human and cylon occupants, neighbors, and enemies.  This gritty, contemporary, and often topical reimagining of the 1978 series unfortunately concluded its four year run last night.

While some of our most enduring fiction and cinema is Sci-fi, as a genre, it still orbits the outer fringe of mainstream entertainment.  Battlestar, though, like any good story Sci-fi or otherwise, was about human drama at its core — about the relationships between people, their hopes, dreams, ideas and fears, far more than it was about laser beams and hyper drives.  I will miss this show like I still do Cheers and The Sopranos.  Yes, it was that good.  Fortunately for you, the Sci-Fi Channel will continue to air episodes (but may never recover from this loss), and of course, it is available on DVD.  Fortunately for me, I was able to visit the set in Vancouver, and see a bit of its creation first-hand.

Do yourself a favor and check Battlestar Galactica.  You won’t be disappointed.  So say we all.

For years, I’ve dreamed of a breakfast cereal tournament bracket, and Colin Cowherd from ESPN has finally made it happen.  I’m thrilled with the effort, even if I can’t eat most of them, and he excluded a few solid contenders I’m partial to — but I guess there must always be some snubs.  Go here to vote.

I’ve been asked many times why I’m teaching. People say I’m relatively young for the profession (in terms of teaching writing, anyway, but by no means am I an unheard of aberration), and should focus all my effort on building the most successful writing career I can muster.

Well, truth is, I could have probably done a good bit more writing by now if I weren’t teaching, but whether that writing would have sold, or led to new work, or faded away after a weekend read around town, or simply gathered dust in my manager’s “maybe once you’re more established drawer” — no one knows. And while I have many writing/filmmaking dreams left to accomplish, and while the teaching may slow my advance toward those goals in some ways, they’re going to have to pry the dry erase marker from my cold dead hands before I’ll ever quit. And here’s why–

The most rewarding moments of my career have been in and around the classroom. Helping a student crack a story, see the light, understand the stakes, change their tune, relax, fess up, buck up, break out, take the hard path, dig deep, commit, endure, persevere, grow, and ultimately, hopefully, “get it” — those moments are soul-satisfyingly good. And, the most rewarding of those rare moments are not the ones for which I have lesson-planned, but the ones that crop up on the fly, where inspiration strikes mysteriously much the same as it does on a good writing day, and I know exactly what to say (or not) to help someone climb one more step toward their dream.

I often lament that I rarely see or feel the physical product of my day’s writing work — a few electronic pages, a couple of new ideas, a problem solved, worsened, or created….. It’s not like plowing a field where the end result is visible. (And believe me, I know a writing life beats digging ditches on most counts.) But with teaching, if I’m patient and I pay attention, if I plow as hard as I can every day (especially on the bad ones, of which there are plenty), eventually I can see growth and change spring up from that tilled earth, and in a cold, calculating, soulless industry such as Hollywood, it’s the time I spend in the classroom, at the plow, that sustains my writing and reminds me of my craft and to practice what I preach.

Ultimately, if I am ever to achieve any of my more lofty goals, I’m sure those successes will come in some way as a result of teaching. And if I fail to advance my career further, certainly there will be disappointment, but not regret, as I hope to always have a white board, a marker, and a field to plow.

Right now, and for the next 20 days, my heart beat is being monitored and sent via a cell phone in my pocket, to my doctor’s office. Yes, there’s always something new with the West Coast Riddells.

The reason for the 3 electrodes attached to my chest 24 hours a day is because 2x over the past month, I have almost passed out, have gotten very shaky, seen stars in front of my eyes and felt like throwing up. Both times it came out of nowhere but literally brought me to my knees. After the second time, Brad decided it was time to look into things. My doc took an EKG, I’m going in for an Echo next week and this little event recorder will serve as more insight into whether anything is happening with my heart.

Of course, I haven’t had any symptoms since the last episode and am hoping that all this can just be explained as basic anxiety. In any case, I’ll keep you all posted.

Yesterday, my family spent almost half the day acquiring a medical device for Tina that was nearly impossible to get, and once we arrived home, turned out to be improperly set-up, causing her to be on the phone for yet another hour with the manufacturer.

Today, I spent $110, and worse, three hours of my time, to go see a registered nutritionist at Cedars Sinai (the pinnacle of L.A. medicine), who, I swear, knew less about Celiac Disease than I’ve learned by myself in three weeks.

I personally know wonderfully gifted doctors, nurses, specialists and technicians working all across the field of medicine, and have benefited from a great many more in my lifetime that I can’t possibly remember. And yet, sometimes, it seems those folks are an unfortunate minority hidden amidst a swell of growing incompetence and buck passing inundating the entire health care industry.

And please, don’t even get me started on insurance companies…….

I’m a pretty avid sports fan, but with a busy life writing, teaching, and being a family man, I don’t watch nearly as much as I once did.  It’s a good bet that I’ll always be watching the NFL, USC football, and (until lately) Kentucky basketball.  Those withstanding, here’s a list of events that I always try to catch if I can:

March Madness: the best all-round sports championship, and perhaps even our best televised sporting event.

The Olympics: I’ve always been a sucker for the games, and hope to maybe visit Vancouver in 2010.

The Kentucky Derby:  the fastest two minutes in sports gets me even more amped now that I’m an expat.

The World Cup: I never watch soccer.  Never really even think about it.  But when it’s World Cup time, footie is on at Hamlin House.

Wimbledon: somehow, the finals never disappoint.  Federer/Nadal 2008 was maybe the best match in the history of the sport.

The Masters: not a big golf guy, but the stakes here are high, and like the playoffs in baseball, it’s the only time I really care to watch.

The NBA Finals: but only if the Lakers, Celtics, or (now) the Cavaliers are playing.  It’s a star-driven league, and really, there are only a handful of true stars.

Carolina/Duke: I hate them both, but having lived in the triangle, the intensity is second to none as far as sports rivalries go.