Am I a geek yet?

I've been working on the Lord of the Rings books, partly as a favor to Ari (he has been asking me to read them for years) and partly because I just want to finally read them, and I figure summer is a good time to do it. I've finished book 1 and 2, and got about 60 pages into the third book before realizing that I just need a break from Tolkien.*

Despite feeling the need to take a break, I have gotten pretty involved in the story. There have been multiple points in both books where tears have been shed -- usually on the subway, which is when I get most of my reading done. I am not ashamed to cry to public! That's actually part of becoming a real New Yorker, I believe.

So this week, now that MAD MEN is done (*sob sob sob*) and we are not ready to try watching Breaking Bad again (it's gonna happen someday!), I suggested to Ari that we watch the first two LOTR movies, so that I can compare them to the books so far. I asked his permission to speak over the films and make comments about how the movies diverged from the books, and which parts I thought were done well, or poorly, and he agreed to let me talk during his precious movies. So last night and tonight we watched the first movie: The Fellowship of the Ring. And it was pretty darn good. Too many battle scenes and the orcs are really ridiculous, but otherwise, quite well done! Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) is still my favorite. I had a crush on him in high school, and I have a crush on him now. He's pretty without being too pretty (like Legolas).

Anyway, that is my deep analysis of the movie. Once I finish the third book, I think I'll be done with fantasy for a while. Or who knows, maybe I'll give Dune a try. But first, I'm going to read something by Nora Ephron. I feel like that's about as far from Tolkien as I can get right now.

*To be completely honest, I also took a break midway through the second book to read The Girl on the Train. 

30-day challenge

Have people heard of the 30-day challenge? I heard about it from a coworker, who uses the TED talk as a jumping-off point for getting her students to set English goals for themselves (write a journal entry in English for 30 days, watch 20 minutes of an American TV show for 30 days, etc.).

Anyway, I decided to use that TED talk for my class, and also set a challenge for myself that I would try to do along with my students. Since I already speak English pretty well (most days), I decided I would try to walk 10,000 steps every day, according to the pedometer on my iPhone. Apparently that's the number doctors recommend for maximum healthiness?

That turned out to be SUCH A HARD GOAL. 10,000 steps takes me about an hour and a half of only walking, if I go at a very brisk pace. Yesterday I shopped for 4 hours in SoHo and just barely got to 10,000 steps. So...I did not succeed at my goal. I'd say I walked 10,000 steps about 70% of those 30 days. In the end, I still took more steps than I would normally!

All of this is background for my next attempt at a 30-day challenge: writing one blog post per day. Yesterday was my official start. Today is day two! I'm off to a great start! Some of the posts might be extremely short, but I hope I will have more success with this challenge than my last one.

Here goes!

These emotional times

I am an emotional person. I think I inherited this trait from my mother, who sees a front page picture of basically any disaster and gets tears in her eyes. It has been an especially emotional last couple of weeks--not only for me, but for the country.

June 17, 2015: The Charleston, SC church shooting. I actually saw this news when I was taking a 10-minute break from my reading class. I literally looked at the headline on my phone, started to tear up, and then realized that the break was over and I had to start teaching again. It took me another minute to get ahold of myself. This shooting really upset me because it seemed like proof of a combination of issues that so many Americans are unwilling to face: there is still so much racism in our country, and there is still way too little gun control. How do I, as an individual, do something about fixing those two problems? The video of Obama singing Amazing Grace at Pinckney's memorial recently broke my heart again.

June 25, 2015: The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. I will admit, I didn't actually cry about this news. But in the days preceding the decision I was very nervous about the outcome, partly because I am enrolled in "Obamacare" myself, and partly because it just about damn time that we made insurance a little more accessible to middle class and poorer people. I am so relieved that I don't have to worry anymore about politically-motivated hindrances to the ACA.

June 26, 2015: There were several periods of tears today. First, on the subway when I checked the news on my phone on the way back from teaching my morning class. Then, when I saw everyone's joyous responses on Facebook and Instagram. So much support, from both straight and gay friends. I woke up this morning thinking how happy I was to be able to take part in this moment in American history, and looking foward to telling my children what a big deal this decision was for our generation. Hopefully, my children will view gay marriage the way that we now view interracial marriage -- as as right that is so obviously basic that it shouldn't have been an question in the first place.

So, it has been a couple weeks of emotional highs and lows. Most recently highs, thankfully, but as Buddhist philosophy holds, the only permanent thing is change. So I'll just keep on shedding my tears of sadness and joy as those changes come.