September 9th, 2011

At the WTC site

It seems that we have recovered from the last wave of warnings just in time to brace ourselves for the next one. Hurricane Irene was preceded with lots of prodding from the media to be prepared for the worst, and the worst never came. Now, with the ten-year anniversary of September 11th on the horizon, people in the city, myself included, are debating just how careful we need to be. NYPD has called in reinforcements from the National Guard and will be working overtime this weekend, patrolling potential targets like the World Trade Center site and transportation hubs. Apparently they are also searching cars, leading bomb-sniffing dogs around the city, and waving radiation-detecting wands at people. This is the force that successfully thwarted the plan to car-bomb Times Square a few months ago, so it seems that, in at least some ways, they know what they're doing. This is sort of comforting, but I am still a bit edgy.

I am not alone; people everywhere seem similarly unsure of just what to do. Mayor Bloomberg has advised everyone to carry on as usual, but to be especially vigilant. I am unsure of how to handle things. Ed has volunteered to give me cab money for the weekend because he thinks I should stay away from the subway. (This from a guy who has decided to fly to London on the 11th...)

BUT

Some people will be avoiding Manhattan, or at the very least steering clear of places downtown that could be dangerous. I can understand that inclination, but on the other hand, it's going to be a pretty significant time to be in New York, and I'd like to be a part of it. I'd feel pretty silly sitting in my apartment all day - which is pretty far away from landmarks important enough to attract negative attention - if it turned out that nothing happened. However, it also seems stupid to take unnecessary risks. So what's my strategy? Well, I'm undecided at this point. But whatever I do, I'll be crossing my fingers that, like Irene, the city ends up over-preparing for an empty threat.

Phew. I faced fewer of these situations when I lived in Visalia.

Labor Day in Austin

After several years of persistent nagging, Alex, one of my closest friends from college, persuaded me to visit him in Austin, Texas. I left right after work on the Friday before Labor Day and spent the weekend relaxing with him and his brother, Will.

Everyone says that Austin is a very cool city, and I'm happy to confirm that everyone is right. It's not a very big town, and I got to see most of the major highlights during me three days there. Austin is getting bigger as more people discover it and move there, so while 6th Street is still the most well-known area to go out for a drink or a meal, East 6th Street and the warehouse district are starting to become hot spots, too. Alex took me to all of these places. We had tapas at a chic Spanish place downtown, a southern-style brunch complete with grits and biscuits at a quaint restaurant called Moonshine, and martinis at a gritty hipster bar. Food trucks are all the rage in Austin, so we visited one of those too (it was outstanding) and I attended my very first Texas tailgate. I have never seen so much burnt orange. We also drove out to Barton Springs, a natural spring filled with icy ground water, where we ventured in only waist deep despite the triple-digit temperatures outside.

One of the best parts of the trip (and just about the only part I photographed as it turns out) was Monday morning when the three of us got up early to prepare for the barbeque Will was hosting by the pool at his apartment. As Puerto Ricans, the boys took great pleasure in showing me how to cook plantains. I was less attentive when it came to methods for cooking chicken, though I must admit it smelled pretty good... I was in charge of guacamole. It was fun to cook for a crowd in a big kitchen. In my bathing suit.

Plantains for a crowd! Will says the browner (or blacker!), the better.

Alex cuts them out of their skins and slices them into strips.

Mmmmmm.

 Alas, I got to stay at the barbeque for only a few hours before it was time for me to head back to the airport. From the air, I got some pretty dramatic pictures of the wildfires that had just started blazing their way through tinder-dry Texas. My hopes that the fire is put out before it does any major damage are partly selfish; I haven't had nearly enough of Austin, and am anxious to go back again before too long.

Brew, Baby, Brew

Two of Ed's friends, Deron and Scott, decided to try their hand at brewing earlier this year, and they invited us for the big unveiling/tasting of their two newest attempts, an IPA and a porter, last night. So we went over to Scott's girlfriend's apartment, not sure what to expect. I've sampled a few home brews, but they were made by my younger brother David, and some of my other brother's friends, all of whom had a pretty good idea of what they were doing. These guys, I wasn't so sure about. Happily, it all turned out quite well. 

We started the evening with a few professionally-produced beers (Scott was eager for us to dull our palates) and stories about brewing, which were hilarious and involved things like emergency trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond for cheesecloth and extra-flat beer with nary a bubble when it was uncapped and poured. Apparently it is tough to find step-by-step instructions for brewing that are actually usable, though Deron and Scott have made friends with the guys in the home brewing department at Whole Foods where they get their supplies. Soon, the big moment arrived, and we cracked open their IPA. It smelled like and IPA, looked like a Belgian wheat, and tasted...well, it was a bit tough to decide what it tasted like. I can't stand IPA's, so I was pretty glad it didn't taste anything like one, though I'm not sure they were so pleased. They recorded our observations on a clipboard. It was deemed a successful beer, though not a successful IPA. Next on the agenda was the porter, which looked dark and syrupy. It actually tasted like a porter, though, and Scott and Deron seemed pleased with it. They were full of ideas about experimenting with other flavors in future porter batches, like chocolate. And both beers were carbonated, which apparently has been one of their biggest challenges, though we all agreed that more carbonation would be better.

Two minutes in a room with Scott is enough to persuade one that he is a character. Deron is more soft-spoken, but he's got some pretty interesting quirks too, if you talk to him for a while. He has made it his mission to visit as many bars in the New York area as possible, and he keeps a record of all the places he has been. Because Deron doesn't count the visit unless he has consumed at least three adult beverages there, these trips are nothing to sneeze at, especially when he decides to try to hit several in one night. He has been to several thousand bars during his years in the city, and recently started a blog, where you can read about his travels and his brewing experiences with Scott.

Much of our conversation, of course, circled around different kinds of beer, brewing beer, beer gardens, breweries, etc. Deron and Scott and their respective girlfriends (Meghan and Genevieve) have been to tons of breweries in this area that I've never visited or even heard of, so many that at one point I leaned over and whispered to Ed that I felt I'd been squandering my time in New York. The important thing, though, is that this problem has been identified. I look forward to amending it over the next few months.

In the Eye of Irene: A Survivor's Story

First, a disclaimer: Communities all along the East Coast suffered serious damage from Irene, and I don't intend to diminish what they are suffering by making light of my experiences. But the whole thing was such an anti-climax it is hard not to see the humor in it. Without further ado:

After very reluctantly canceling my trip to DC, I set about preparing for the hurricane. Between what I read and tips from concerned friends (who kept calling and texting and making me even more nervous), I knew that I needed to close all my windows and bring everything in from my fire escape. I wonder how many people have had to move a garden... This was more for the benefit of people walking below, as my plants are pretty much done for the season. I also moved my laptop away from my window, thinking that if anything broke through, I didn't want it to get water-logged. I was glad I had sprung for renter's insurance several months before.

I had decided to spend the weekend at Ed's apartment, which is an infinitely nicer place to hang out than mine, though it is lower (both in terms of the floor it's on and it's geographical altitude) and therefore perhaps a regrettable choice. In fact, technically he lives in a zone that was marked on a map as at risk for flooding if the storm was enormous. We were betting that it wouldn't be. I packed candles and matches, non-perishable food, board games, and rain boots, and headed over Friday night. On Saturday morning, we eventually located a restaurant that was actually open for breakfast, though they were closing at 11:00 that that morning.

Nasty Pig, supplier of edgy clothing for gay men, was also closed, as were most restaurants, bars, and stores in the neighborhood.

After eating, we walked to Whole Foods to pick up supplies. No such luck. It was closed until Monday. The only places open were neighborhood bodegas. As you can see below, we weren't the only ones who waited until the last minute to shop. There was quite a lot of selection, though - none of those empty shelves I keep seeing pictures of - so we chose hummus, cheese, and other things that wouldn't need to be cooked and headed back to his apartment to wait it out.

 Just as we left the bodega, it started to pour rain. Here we go, I thought.

Pumps outside Ed's building, in anticipation of flooding (minor flooding based on their size).

 Just as quickly, however, it stopped. Odd. I had expected a steady escalation. Still, we prepared for the worst, by filling Ed's Brita with water, digging out headlamps, etc. Todd, Ed's cat, supervised my filling the bathtub with water, useful for flushing toilets and the like if water supplies suddenly shut off.

 We watched a movie, then peered outside. Nothing seemed to be happening yet (it was around 3:00), so we decided to take a walk.

Pre-Irene, there's less traffic on the road and on the sidewalks.

It was interesting to see the ways some people had prepared for the storm. In my neighborhood, people were buying sandbags, which seemed ridiculous since we're somewhere between 50 and 100 feet above lower Manhattan. My street is actually sloped. It seemed to me that the water wasn't going to be doing much pooling up. We walked through Ed's neighborhood to the Hudson River, where there was more legitimate cause for concern.

Some precautions, like this waterfront building, looked reasonably effective. They'd secured plastic sheeting with a solid, and attractively painted, board and propped that up with sandbags to prevent water from seeping in through a vent.

Some was less effective. I'm not an expert, but shouldn't the caulk follow the bottom of the door, like, all the way along?

We saw a lot of taped windows, even some in a parked car! These guys did a good job, but the tape on a restaurant right around the corner from Ed was already coming off the windows hours before it even started sprinkling.

It was raining on and off, so we decided to head back, play Scrabble, watch a movie, and eat dinner. By the time we went to bed, it was sort of windy and still not raining much. 

The next morning...it was already over. Right after waking up, I noted that the air conditioning was still running and all the clocks were still set: We hadn't even lost power. Things outside looked a little worse for wear, but hardly. This fence was in better shape before the storm, which apparently came through around 4:00 A.M. I noticed that a bucket on someone's fire escape was knocked over. 

 We turned on the news, and watched newscasters desperately trying to make the situation in the New York area seem more dire than it was. They warned us to stay inside. So after breakfast, we went for a walk. Below is a picture of post-Irene Chelsea. Look familiar?

Although we were underwhelmed at first, we did notice damage that was at least worthy of a double take as we went on.

Leaves! Blown all over the sidewalk!

Pumping out a flooded basement. We saw this in a few places.

It was VERY windy, but only in gusts that lasted less than a minute. 

This impressive barrier wasn't needed, but it looks like they'd have been ok even if the nearby Hudson had decided to overflow.

Overwhelmed by the extent of the flooding.

Most trees seemed to have held up pretty well. This was the biggest branch we saw down.

All public transit was canceled until Monday morning, when it came back up in time, alas, for people's commutes. It may be just my imagination, but I swear the tracks look cleaner than they did before the storm.

We went out for dinner that night with Maggie and Leonard, and the restaurant didn't have several of the things normally on its menu because it hadn't been able to get any deliveries on Saturday. Similarly, the fruit stand I often visit on the way to work had only some elderly bananas and very sad looking apples this morning. Everything feels pretty normal by now, though. It did seem like a bit of a let down after all the hype, but at the end of the day I suppose I should be thankful that I wasn't blown away by Irene.

Hunkering Down for Irene

As if the earthquake weren't dramatic enough, New York is getting ready for another natural disaster. At least we have advance warning about this one. Hurricane Irene is predicted to start hitting our area on Saturday night, and most of Sunday is supposed to be pretty bad.

It looks kind of pretty from up here.

This will be my first hurricane, though I experienced a tropical storm or two in Tokyo. I'd planned to go to my dear friend Shannon's bridal shower in DC, but after reading predictions about 90 MPH gusts of wind, relentless rainfall, and near-certain flooding, I decided to call it off. I didn't want to be in a top-heavy bus in the middle of all this, nor did I want to use a vacation day because my bus was cancelled and I was stuck in DC. So I'll be staying here in New York for the weekend, equipped with a flashlight, extra batteries, a fully charged phone, and some books and games that do not require electricity. Several friends have contacted me to share tips or express concern, which has been thoughtful, but I'm not worried. 

While weather will be poor for sunbathing or kite-flying, I think as long as I stay inside and am prepared to lose power, I will be fine. It will be interesting to see what happens though. I wonder whether subways and buses will be running for people crazy enough to go outside. I think we will probably lose some trees, too, as all the rain we've had lately has made them a bit less likely to stay rooted in the ground. Part of me is hoping that power WILL go out and that I won't have to come to work on Monday! (Although if there is no electricity, I wonder how they will contact us to tell us to stay home...) Yesterday, I got an email informing me that the race I'd entered for this weekend - before I knew about Shannon's party - is not cancelled yet, but that it likely will be, and that we should keep checking the website and our email for updates. I also got an email from the tutoring company I used to work for encouraging tutors not to put themselves at risk to get to appointments and to reschedule Sunday appointments for other days whenever possible. There is a lot of speculation about how bad it will be and whether all the dire warnings are just media hype to get people to take it seriously. I guess we'll find out soon.

Either way, wish me luck! I promise to take lots of pictures and post about it as soon as I can.

Typical Work Week

Many of you have asked for details about my job, so I thought I'd give you a brief summary of a typical week for me. (I'll be writing about last week, which was a bit more indicative of  my usual routine than this one has been.) Quick introduction: I do an academic assessment, Paul does a neurodevelopmental assessment, and then we compare our results to come up with a learning profile for the student we're assessing that day. Once we agree on an explanation for the kids of results we saw, I share the kid's profile with them (so they go home feeling good about how well they did) and then write a learning plan for them containing strategies they should use to strengthen their weak areas. This is mailed to the family as part of a long, detailed, fascinating report about the student's brain function and how it affects his/her academics. I get to do some instruction occasionally, too, but not as often.Without further ado, here's last week:

Monday
I started off the week with a medical student. She failed her first year of med school (we have a partnership with a few med schools in the area and they send us students they think we can help) and her school would not let her re-enroll until we assessed her. Her problem, like most medical students we see, is that she didn't use any strategies for categorizing information. She was attempting to memorize everything, which obviously doesn't work in medical school; there's way too much information. The upshot is that they don't remember anything, so my learning plans for them end up looking pretty similar: strategies suggesting that they take notes, make practice tests, spend time thinking about what things are details and what things are over-arching themes, etc.

Tuesday 
I spent the first part of the day writing a learning plan for the medical student, as well as finishing the learning plan for the student I assessed the previous Friday. Each one takes me between 90 minutes to three hours to compile. I also do a few other sections of the final report, so I finished that up for both students. Then I spent a few minutes editing an admissions essay for a friend of mine (I have enough down time to do things like this, which is great). After lunch, which I usually eat at my desk, I prepared for the student I was going to see on Wednesday, a six-year-old, by reading his file, looking over his test scores, and collecting the materials I would use to work with him. Finally, I did an instructional session with a 15-year-old I'd seen the week before. While Paul met with his dad, I taught him active reading strategies - like highlighting, making margin notes, and filling out graphic organizers - to help him improve his reading comprehension.

Wednesday
The student I saw Wednesday was the youngest I've worked with here. In addition to being immature because of his age, he had some pretty serious attentional/hyperactivity issues. He was very sweet, but we were all absolutely exhausted by the time he left at the end of the day. After the assessment and demystification (that's what we call the end of the day, when we share the kid's strengths/"challenges" with them), I had about an hour left before 5:00. I love it when this happens because I get to start the client's learning plan instead of having to wait until the next day. I got most of it planned out, if not actually written and formatted, before going home, which was great because all of the information was still fresh in my mind.

Thursday
I started the day with two back-to-back report consultations. I'd seen both kids about a month before, and the both families had gotten the chance to review the reports and start working on some of the strategies. One kid's parents came in to talk to me about the contents of the report and ask additional questions, and the other kid's mom called me. Both families are lovely, and I enjoyed checking in with both of them. We also talked about ways they wanted us to be involved with their kids' schools with the start of the school year. Each conference lasted about half an hour. When I'd wrapped that up, I spent a lot of time working on the report for the 6-year-old. His took me a bit longer than usual because he had a lot of different things going on - attentional issues, reading/writing deficiencies, etc. - and I wanted to be sure to address all of them. Then I spent a while editing an article I wrote for our quarterly newsletter. Finally, I prepared for a rising third grader who I'd be seeing the next day, and also for the 16-year-old I'd be seeing on Monday.

Friday
This was a strange day, because this kid's parents had divorced quite recently, and it sounded pretty messy. The poor kid definitely had learning issues - lots of trouble with recognizing and producing information in sequence, primarily - but he had lots of anxiety from being in the middle of this awful custody battle, too. We saw a lot of attentional problems, although anxiety can manifest as inattention, so we spent a long time after working with him trying to figure out what was really going on with him. Happily, his parents behaved themselves much better than expected. We were all relieved when it was over, however, and I spent the end of my day making notes about the third grader's learning plan and looking back over final information about the 16-year-old.

There you have it! As you can see, my day's are filled with variety, which I love. We see a huge range of students with a huge range of needs, and I get to see some of them multiple times; they may come in for instruction, reassessment, or both (or neither). They come from all over the place, too - today I'm working with a sixth grader from California, and I've seen a kid from Florida and one from Toronto!

Again, those interested in educational matters should check out the center's blog, available here. I write a lot of articles for it, though I'm not the only contributor, and I think it's rather interesting and informative. (I am also enormously biased.)

Shake, Rattle and Roll

A little after 2:00 this afternoon, I was prepping for my case tomorrow when the building started to shake slightly. There was a slight pause, then it shook a little harder. When it didn't stop for about 10 seconds and the leaves on my plant were trembling, I decided that it was not just me and headed out into the hallway to see if anyone else had felt it. They had, and our office manager Jeremy shooed us out of the building lickety-split. Of course, we are on the 12th floor, so the evacuation took a pretty long time.

To our surprise, there weren't that many people out on the streets by the time we finally got out of the stairwell. Someone passed around the message that a friend in DC had just called someone else, and he said they'd had a big one there. No one's phones were working, and we just sort of stood around waiting for someone to make a decision. My coworkers were all more freaked out than I was - I think it was the first earthquake any of them had ever felt. I pointed out that they don't tend to last all that long, and so by the time we'd gotten out of the building it would already have been over. No one else had heard that you're supposed to get under a table or desk; I guess I just took it for granted that you learn that in California.

Jeremy told us that we didn't have to stay if we didn't want to, and many of us, myself included, decided to take him up on it. I was fairly certain that nothing else was going to happen, and that if the epicenter had been somewhere around Virginia, even an aftershock wouldn't do much damage in New York, but it was a beautiful day and I liked the prospect of having an afternoon off. I relaxed for a bit, then went for a run. If this is a New York earthquake, I think I could handle a few more of them.