Done With Junior Year

THEY SAY JUNIOR YEAR is Stuyvesant High School's toughest, and Sara's third grading period attendance shows it. There were days when she had to bang out to do grueling homework, study for a test or just crash to catch up on sleep. But I guess attendance can't spoil overall performance. Here's to senior year and college applications!

An Unlocked Door

BUT RATHER HEAVY. Can she open it? Sara's first college invitation from the Ivy League after her SAT scores.

The Thing With History

SARA'S (BELLY DANCE) GROUP in this year's SING! and her fall semester report card. Kinda low in history and computer science, but Spanish and American Lit rock. So does the diversity of these Stuyvesant girls.

Shutdown!

I LIKE AMBROSE BIERCE for his sardonic humor and macabre stories, written before he vanished in Mexico in 1913 after joining Pancho Villa's revolution. Here is one from my $1 copy of The Moonlit Road and Other Ghost and Horror Stories from Dover Thrift, narrated by homeless Canadian Otis Jiry, to pass this ear-gnawing winter, pay freeze and unknown end to the government agency shutdown. Nonetheless, let's give no money for the wall, only the board for the window of the Congress House!

From The Skylands

HUMOR FOR THE HOLIDAYS as I mark my tenth year of service in the agency. And Sara's SAT score, out of a perfect 1600, on her first attempt a couple of weeks ago. Happy holidays to all!

Maspeth couch

Through The Years

I USED TO WORRY sick about Sara tackling the subway by herself some years ago, but I guess changes just happen, like the rapid growth of the oak and plane trees I planted in front of the house in Maspeth when we first moved in, and those sure to come (good or bad) when big resident Amazon  moves into the Queens neighborhood beginning early next year.

THE LOCATION OF AMAZON’S NEW HEADQUARTERS IN NYC. COURTESY OF AMAZON

SAT Progress Report

WE SPENT $3.6K of hard-earned bucks on SAT Summer Camp at Kweller Prep to help Sara prepare for college applications, and the investment is paying off very well. Her last practice test score is 90 points short of the 2018 perfect score of 1600, and she is determined to hit the mark when she takes her first actual test this fall, after a short trip with her cousins and Mom to Mindoro and Taiwan. Can't go; all summer vacations had been snapped up by coworkers with higher seniority.

Done With Sophomore Year

STRUGGLED WITH Algebra Honors, but still ended up in the '90s and won a gold in the NY Math Fair. Great job in Composition and European Lit. Here's to Junior Year in September!

Lost Then Found

GLAD TO REDISCOVER these lost sea marks from two of my endeavors. First, my gratitude to Linda Goin of La Grange, Kentucky for reuniting me with this issue of CARACOA IV: New Voices where some of my early poems saw publication in 1984, thanks to the Philippine Literary Arts Council, among kindred writers most of whom have passed on and are remembered today with respect, including one of the council's founding members Cirilo Bautista. (I lost my only copy after years of moving around in America.) Linda, also a writer, sells books and has acquired copies of the journal's back issues while on a business trip to Manila. The other is the five-year service certificate which the deputy chief misplaced and was presented to me only yesterday, almost five years later, with apologies. No matter, sir. The sea is still there, its shoals duly recorded. Here's to ten years in December!

Math Fair

SARA'S ZIPF'S LAW PAPER got a gold in the Greater New York Math Fair. Linguistics and statistics. What a mix. Maybe my writing can learn something from it. Way to go, babe!

Meanwhile, At The Port

HOW DOES ONE KEEP UP with an ever-changing work order? I got this assignment last week to cover for the day Stewart Airport in upstate New York 85 miles from the city, and drive through the sparsely-lit NY Thruway on the way back just before midnight to return the government car. Holy crap. Just to show that this job is not a joke.

SING!

BECAUSE BRAINIACS also need to chill out. Stuyvesant's annual musical production SING! is on tonight, Friday and Saturday. 100% written, produced, directed and performed by students, the event is always as spectacular as a Broadway show, for $20. Sara's group will be doing a belly dance routine which she also directed, and we are going despite the winter storm. UPDATE: Due to the winter storm, tonight's performance has been postponed for tomorrow, same time, same tickets.

A Heads Up

ONE OF THE VERY EARLY invitations Sara received last week.

Winter Reading

JUST DISCOVERED Alec Klein's book which I hope will help me better understand life in my kid's school.

Fall Term Grades (Sophomore Year)

KINDA LOW IN Algebra Honors and Chemistry, but still in the 90s. Great in European Lit and English Composition. Why am I not surprised? A final grade average of 91.67% in Stuyvesant is awesome enough, but let's see what happens in the spring term. Good job, babe!

Touched At Birth

BULOSAN HUMOR for the holidays, in time of relative peace. That this story and a lot of others collected in a book of the same title received attention only because America needed something exotic to laugh at during the war, as some people say, is bullcrap. And that a writer of such serious issues as racism and social injustice could write hilarious, self-deprecating pieces is amazing. The guy was good, and this Binalonan piece deserves space in the magazine, wartime or peacetime. A few days early for this post, but next week will be crazy at home and work. So as they say in Alabama--Merry Christmas, y'all!

Man Friday

BLACK FRIDAY POEM. Apologies to the gentlemen whose picture I used.

A Language Of Special Interest

I DID NOT KNOW when I started working for the Feds that speaking the wika would be a skill that pays. Tagalog is apparently considered by the agency as a "language of special interest" in the mission against terrorism. So around Thanksgiving each year (after the previous fiscal year ends in September), Uncle Sam pays me an easy Black Friday bonus just for employing it to process passengers and interact with cruise and container ships crewmen (90% Pinoy, they offer you food from the galley) when boarding vessels for inspections, Abu Sayyaf or ISIS operatives apprehended or not. The union says this is another program in danger with Trump; enjoy it while it lasts.

Tale From The Trip

TRYING NEW THINGS in a new poem.

Done With Freshman Year

DESPITE THE LONG commute to Manhattan on school days, sometimes with only five hours of sleep, Sara proved she can tackle work at Stuyvesant High School. Good job, babe. Enjoy the summer.