Dollar Pledge for MIT

This will mostly only be interesting to my MIT friends, but I thought I would post the letter I sent to the Alumni Association and assorted others when I made my dollar pledge (which all you MIT people better do if you haven't already!).

Dear MIT,

I am disappointed to learn of this year's decision to limit the Residence Exploration period to a single day of freshmen orientation. My residence hall formed the core of my MIT experience, and after I graduated and joined Teach For America, it was my residence hall that for two years in a row banded together to help me raise the money to bring my students from the Bronx to MIT for a day to experience college life. It was students at my residence hall that offered up their time to take my students on tours of the campus and of their laboratories, to do experiments with them, and to cook them a delicious barbecue dinner with liquid nitrogen ice cream for dessert. These two visits were absolutely life-changing for my students, and are what I am proudest of as an MIT alum. They would not have happened without support from my residence hall, including from students I never even lived with while I was an undergraduate. That support would not have existed without the strong emphasis on residential community and culture that was in place when I was an undergraduate, and it saddens me to learn that this vital component of MIT is being deprioritized for future generations of students.

I still care about MIT and its mission, but I cannot support the way that decisions are being made, or the way that student life policy is being set. I have donated $1 to the MIT Marching Band fund, and the rest of my donation, $60, is being given to StudentsFirst instead.

Sincerely,

Caroline Rubin '08

Updated: I got this form letter response from Julie Norman, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming:

Dear Ms. Rubin,

Thank you for your feedback. Though we are looking at orientation, as a
whole, no decision have been made on the final schedule. While we are
reviewing our options, there is no plan to shorten the REX period in the
coming year.

We appreciate your support of MIT and hope that, with the correct
information in hand, you will continue your commitment to the Institute.

My best,

Julie

Basically, what she said is not actually true, so I replied with:

Hi Julie,

Thank you for your response. My understanding is that while REX will not technically be shortened, it will overlap significantly with FPOP's and ASE's, and that students who are not participating in an FPOP will not be able to arrive on campus early (when REX officially begins). These changes do in effect shorten REX, even if on paper it appears to be the same length.

I cannot continue to support the Institute until I know that fully participating in the entirety of REX is possible for all incoming freshman, and that it remains that way not just "in the coming year," but in all the coming years.

Caroline

So if you did the pledge and got the auto-reply, I definitely encourage you to reply back and call her on trying to fudge the truth!

Martha Stewart Living

I had a very 1950s housewife kind of day today. I spent three hours at my new sewing class learning how to make a skirt - it turns out clothes are really complicated. I'm quite proud of myself so far, because by the end of the day I did manage to correctly install a functional zipper (although I had to pick out the stitches attaching it and try again a few times before I got it right). I'll theoretically finish the whole thing next weekend, and once I can make a skirt it's only a matter of time before I'm making all of our clothes.

On my way back from sewing class I stopped at the grocery store for the week's food, and inspired by Sam's visit a few weeks ago I decided to try something outside my typical culinary comfort zone:

Vegetable risotto!

It turned out great, despite violating all my typical cooking limitations:

• It took more than 20 minutes.
• It had more than three distinct ingredients.
• It involved cooking multiple components separately from each other, then combining them in a time- and temperature-sensitive manner.

Since I knew the risotto would take a long time to cook, I decided to do the laundry in parallel for maximum efficiency. Now it isn't even seven o'clock and I have sewn (half a) garment, cooked a fancy dinner, and done the week's laundry, and I am exhausted. And I had access to machines to sew, wash and dry the clothes, and do the dishes for me; I can't imagine how anyone got all this stuff done by hand back in the day. It's tiring just thinking about it... I'm going to take a nap.

PANIC!

Last night TFA hosted a really big event at the University of Pennsylvania, and the entire staff was on hand to help run it. I was one of the people who sat in the box office and took people's tickets as they arrived, and it was very exciting to sit behind glass in the special box office room and talk to people through the little microphone, just like I worked at Disney World or some other cool place that you need a ticket to get into.

Anyway, right under the counter where I was sitting there was a little piece of white plastic that you could flick back and forth. It seemed like it was just a partially broken piece of the counter itself, and since I like to fidget I sat there and flicked it in between people arriving. After I'd been there for about 15 minutes, a squad car with flashing lights pulled up and a policeman came running in yelling, "where's the box office?!" It turns out that little plastic switch was the "Call 911 Someone Is Holding Us Hostage" signal. Oops.

The policeman was actually pretty nice about it, since the switches (there was one at each seat) were totally unlabeled and actually at exactly the right height to get bumped by a knee. I was too mortified to fess up that I had been sitting there flicking mine the whole time, so I just played dumb and went along with the theory that someone (impossible to tell who!) had accidentally hit theirs.

In conclusion, if you are ever designing a box office or bank teller station, the emergency 911 button should be clearly labeled, and it should probably have some sort of plastic cover protecting it from fidgety idiots.

I am the Valedictorian of Sewing Class!

Several of my work friends know how to sew, and I do not. They invited me to take a sewing class with them at this really neat Philly fabric store, and since I didn't want my domestic incompetence to interfere with my friendships I said yes. But first, since the class we are taking together involves making actual clothes, I figured I should take the Beginner's Sewing class to prevent embarrassing myself.

I was nervous going into it, since the last time I used a sewing machine was in my sixth grade "Life Skills" class (I made a misshapen lunch sack!). But it turns out the fact that I can follow directions and am not afraid of touching electronics was enough to put me at the front of the class, and today I triumphantly walked home with my very own handmade tote bag!

Things I am proud of about my creation:

1. It looks like a bag.
2. When I put something in it for the first time, it did not fall apart.
3. Even up close, it looks pretty decent.

4. It is lined, and reversible!

I am going to take it grocery shopping next weekend, so that will be the true test of its durability!

Blast from the Past

One of my former kids called me today! I was in a meeting so I missed the call, but she left me a funny message starting with "HEY MISS!! Do you remember meeeeeeeeeee??" She actually never identified herself, but I'm 95% sure I know who it is from the voice. It was beyond bizarre to be addressed as "Miss" again.

Unrelated: everyone at work is very excited because TFA was just named one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For (specifically, we are the 82nd best). Pretty good for a nonprofit, since we can't do all the "free daycare and massages and food and laundry!!" stuff that some of the tippy top companies do. Also, I'm almost certain that I know one of the girls in the photo that accompanies our blurb, so I'm basically in the photo too.

Master Manipulator

Since apparently nothing interesting is happening in my current life, here's another 20+ year old clip. I think it demonstrates that I was a precocious child, at least when it came to staying out of trouble.

(It should be noted that this comes on the heels of a solid 10 minutes of my mother trying to get me to do something, anything for the camera.)

One more step towards obscure fame...

Those of you who read my teaching blog might remember that on my very last post, a grad student commented and asked if I would let him use my blog in his dissertation on identity formation in beginning teachers. I said okay and basically forgot about it, until this arrived in the mail for my review:

 

(Sorry it's fuzzy, it's hard to hold the camera still so close)

That's not his full dissertation, that's just my chapter. All 78 pages of it. Apparently it took so long because mine was the "most intimidating" so he saved it for last.

Now that's two obscure academic works my writing will appear in this year! I'm basically a grad student myself at this point.

Wedding Overload!

We went to Boston for our college friends' wedding this weekend! It was basically a reunion of all our best friends from school, and there was a photobooth:

Ben is wearing a tux because he was the best man, and also because he is a very snazzy dresser. And as if this wedding wasn't exciting enough, at the after-party two more sets of college friends announced they are engaged! That means two more mini-reunions in the upcoming year or two, and I get to be the maid of honor at one:

It's good to know that I will still have something to look forward to in my life after the last Harry Potter movie comes out, or I probably would have lost the will to live on July 16.

Winnie the Pooh

First, for reference:



Now, my version:



I don't know which contrast is better - the one between the real version and how I sing it, or the one between how I sing it voluntarily and how I sing it under duress from my mother.

Guest Star!

My friend Sam came to visit! This is regular great because Sam is awesome, and double great because he promised to cook me dinner. He is a master chef and I can't read his blog before meals because it makes me too hungry and sad that I don't know how to cook, so he kindly narrated his whole cooking process so I could learn. I learned many things from him, including:

• What blanching means, and how to do it.
• What brown butter is, and how to make it.
• How to not be scared of chicken bones and use them to make delicious stock.
• That the list he keeps of mean things I've said isn't just in the back of his head, but is actually written down for posterity.

I had always thought that Sam's drool-inducing food pictures were a result of some fancy food camera he had, or at least some fancy food photographing technique. But it turns out you just need a regular camera and regular photographing techniques, because his food really is that beautiful:

Have you ever seen such good looking brussels sprouts?

What a perfect chicken!

Sam is an expert chicken carver.

Can you believe I got to eat this for dinner? At home? On a Tuesday?

I think the limiting factor in these pictures is that I don't have fancy enough plates to properly showcase Sam's work.

After we ate, he put the bones and a bunch of random food scraps in a pot and cooked it overnight to make stock.

Even Sam's food scraps look great!

Now I have frozen stock to eat in Sam's absence, and my whole house smells like magic. Thanks, Sam!

Farm Fun

Today we went to a farm!

Ben is pretending to whittle.

My parents' friends decided that they wanted to spend their retirement farming (which to me seems to defeat the purpose of not having to work anymore...) so we spent the day visiting them and their animals. First we got to play with the goats:

And then the chickens:

Ben was really excited because he got to test out chicken head stabilization in person, and it works just like in the video!

My sister was really excited about the chickens.

Before we left, we all got to take a turn driving the tractor. It was very scary because it had a clutch and other things incomprehensible to someone who has only ever driven automatic. It was also huge.

I don't have a picture of me driving it, unfortunately.

I think the best part of the day was a conversation I had with Ben's mother via texting.

Me: [picture of Ben holding a goat] Ben and a goat!
Her: I hope this isn't like Ben and the chicken [which is the only other picture message I've sent her]
Me: [picture of Ben holding chickens] The chickens are alright
Her: Okay. What about the cows?
Me: [picture of Ben on the tractor] There are no cows, sorry
Her: Where are you?
Me: [picture of us in front of the cabin] Maryland, of course
Her: Oh, of course!

I particularly love the fact that it took three pictures of unusual situations before she asked where we were. Because a picture of Ben and a goat or Ben holding live chickens wasn't enough to pique her curiosity.