Happy Passover

I'm working hard on putting together a Passover Seder for tonight. The Gentiles are going to out-number the Jews seriously. Usually we have Andy's aunt and a couple of her sons, but cousin Sam has organized a Cousin's Party for the first week of May and Aunt Rosyln-- a life long poet, very active in the Brooklyn poetry scene and in the Institute for Retirees in Pursuit of Education at Brooklyn College-- wasn't up to the long subway ride followed by the long train ride into Jersey. Anyhow, we're having Bill and Lorraine Graves (that's one secular Jew) and the Harringtons from across the street (that's two adult and two child Episcopalians). I'm trying to do it all right, a Fleishig meal with Sherry's brisket (actually from G'ma Emma). a potato kugel and a veggi kugel, matzoh, charoseth, and all the fixin's. I even made (from a mix) matzoh balls for the soup.

April 10

As red as autumn,
Bud tips are about to burst
Into green, green, green!

April 6
A super busy several days: Tuesday night the Schools Committee of the Coalition ran a Candidates’ Forum, successful, with Carol's leadership and Jane doing a fantastic job of facilitating and I had the fun of waving the signs “thirty seconds” and “Time.” Hard work, but nice to be part of the thing and not in charge. A great team: Alice and Linda and Nadaline and Dorothea and Audrey and Nancy and all the others. It took place in the Marshall school multi-purpose room: colorful and welcoming, big signs, little kids, “If it’s to be I have to do it,” or something like that. Then yesterday my hour and a half at Ramapo College, an extremely pretty college, a decent crowd, given that it was late afternoon on a Wednesday. One who class came, several professors, elements of other classes. I made my dinner afterwards (and saw a lot of students doing the same thing) on little tuna sandwich, cheese, fruit, and petit fours! The reading itself was in a lovely theater, full sized but intimate, and I was in spotlights unable to see the audience but I read very well, good mike, and I introduced (this is a new idea that I like) by saying how people used to listen to stories read and told for entertainment, often with some work for their hands. At least one student told me at the reception that she had wished for her knitting, said how her family always talked instead of watching t.v. I read “Tales of the Abstract Expressionists." Not a lot of questions afterward, but one student said he had an aunt who supported her husband, a musician. Questions about authenticity and inauthenticity from the philosophy course and students.
And today, my best day yet at Park Ridge High School. I don’t know why–I guess I'm getting comfortable there, but also figured out what lessons I wanted to teach. Now that I only have one more day of course.
And tomorrow we're going to see Ellen and then on Saturday to see Joel.