So, here it is. Today was the final Monday I will be working at BU Housing. So far everyone seems to be pretty understanding/encouraging/proud about me leaving this job, even without future employment lined up. I think its the right course. The less tense I've been feeling and generally more easy-going I've been feeling has been a huge gain. Even if I temp for the rest of the year (highly doubtful) it will have been worth it.

Friday Harvard e-mailed me and confirmed that they want to set up a fourth (and I hope final) interview this week. Keith supposedly will be offically hired next week. Here's hoping.

Also on Friday a piece of enamel essentially cracked off my left molar, which was fixed in an emergency appointment today (thank goodness). The earliest I could get an appointment for a crown was DECEMBER. I literally have apoxy filling the part of my tooth where there should be a hard enamel shell. Hopefully Harvard has a dental plan where I can get an appointment a wee bit quicker.

So do keep your fingers crossed that the interview a) happens this week, b) goes well, and c) I get hired. I'd like to avoid the whole temping thing if at all possible...although I know that it is a distinct possibility.

Chaos currently reigns in the City of Boston. In addition to the tunnel closures that are fast multiplying, almost as fast as the construction defects they keep discovering, there has also been a water main break in South Boston. The break was so bad, that end of the city lost water and Boston Medical Center was closed down due to flooding. Now Tropical Storm Beryl's headed our way....

At least the weather's cooled down. But its too cool in my office, where I now have a sore throat from the AC gone wild.

Keith and I are pretty hectically busy and stressed right now. Keith still isn't full time hired and supposedly it will happen in two weeks (meeting with President Brown next week) and a HR meeting the following week. We have to start planning our move, although we won't move right away---but rather paint. I'm not sure what I think of our landlord. He doesn't seem much more interested in us than the current guy, but he has lots of funny rules about the apartment (we can't even have air conditioners without permission). Grrrrr.

Hello folks,

I read this article and I just wanted to share. He makes a very good point about what our society values and what it ought to recognize more often. AB-G

"In Praise of the Menschadictorian"
by Rabbi Marc Gellman

May 12, 2006 - We are in the season of commencement, and I am happy and sad at the same time. I am happy and proud that despite our cultural predilection to give awards to bad music, worthless TV sitcoms and puerile movies, we still give awards for learning something. These moments deserve celebrations and deserve ceremonies because they remind us of the primacy of education in the moral and intellectual growth of our children. It’s all good. However, for me there is one deeply depressing note in this symphony of intellectual growth, and it is seen particularly in high-school graduation ceremonies. It is the honoring of valedictorians.

Honoring the person who got the best grades in high school establishes the value of intelligence over virtue and, in the long run, it is virtue that will determine the fate of the graduates with far more precision than their grade-point averages. I am not indifferent to academic excellence, and I do not mean to demean in any way the diligence and sacrifice of those students who actually take their studies seriously. But by sticking the kid who never got a B in front of the class at graduation, we make a collective statement that it is grades that we prize most as a culture—and that is one of the reasons our culture is in trouble. Getting the highest grades is just an entry-level drug to getting the highest salary and then to cooking the books to keep the stock price high, as at Enron, and then to jail. By transforming education into a grab for quantifiable returns, we produce a culture of grubby cheaters, plagiarizers and criminals who get the only barely twisted message that the bottom line is all that matters. I once asked a graduating class of M.B.A.s if they thought that cheating in business, though morally wrong, would make them more money, and virtually all of them said yes. Morality cannot always triumph over such cynicism.

Ironically, the cancer of cheating to get good grades affects our best kids the most. The kids running at the back of the pack are less likely to cheat to get a C rather than a D or a B rather than a C. But with their chances to stand up at graduation at stake, the temptations for our brightest kids to cheat their way to the front of the valedictorian line are too much for many of them to resist. I once spoke to the 4.0 club at a high school, and these kids had already divided their group of kids who never got a B into two groups: the ones who got all As honestly and the ones who were known cheaters. Many students matriculating at so-called elite colleges admit to have been regular cheaters in high school. Cheating is so common that there are now sophisticated software programs to help teachers discover if the outstanding essay they are grading was written by an Internet cheating service.

So my modest suggestion is that instead of a valedictorian, whose virtue and honesty cannot be definitively confirmed, high schools ought to select a menschadictorian to give the graduation keynote speech. A menschadictorian is the student who showed the most moral virtue during his or her high-school years. The Yiddish word mensch is untranslatable, but at the very least it means a person who is good not just on the surface but all the way through his or her bones. A mensch is the kind of good person who ends fights, embraces the outcast, organizes children of privilege to help children of neglect. A mensch is the kid who has achieved not an elevated academic achievement but an elevated human achievement. These mensches are the ones who not only deserve to be honored but also deserve to be heard. We should be hearing from our best kids—not just from our smartest or craftiest or most sycophantic kids.

I would have nominated Jacob to be the menschadictorian of his class.

Jacob (not his real name) had multiple sclerosis, but by diligence, training and guts he could ride a bike. One day as he had stopped into a local supermarket to get a bottle of water for his ride, he saw a homeless man who was dirty and smelly enter the store with a sack of cans and bottles to redeem. The manager of the store yelled at the homeless man and kicked him out of the store, not allowing him to cash in his cans and bottles. The man weakly pleaded with the manager saying that he needed the money for food and that it was very hot outside and could he please just redeem the cans and bottles and then he would leave. The manager threw him into the parking lot scattering his aluminum and plastic treasure onto the hot asphalt. Jacob was watching this and immediately started helping the man pick up the cans and bottles and stuff them back into the torn plastic bag.

Jacob then took them back into the store and redeemed them himself and brought the money back to the man who was sitting in the gutter crying. Jacob then took the man with him to a pizza place. Jacob loved pizza. The owner of the pizza place refused to allow the homeless man to enter the store, and so Jacob bought a whole pie and some garlic knots and a big salad and some soda and the two of them sat in the parking lot on the curb eating supper together.

Jacob died the next week after riding his bike on a day that was just too hot. He died just before graduation. In Jacob’s class there were several kids who never got a B but not a single kid who ever bought a whole pie for homeless man and ate it with him on the curb. Jacob would have been, Jacob could have been, Jacob should have been a terrific menschadictorian.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

Yuck.

I can't stand this weather. Normally the advantage to living in New England are that the summers are pretty nice. Not the cold wet winter nor the hot humid summer of my home state. Lately its been opressively hot and sticky or raining. Its gotten so bad that I shower at night now, because walking to work simply means that rivets of sweat will be pouring down my face and beading on my scalp as I walk to work from 8:30-9:00.

Currently I am also a work widow. Keith has been working mad sick hours over weekends to launch the new BU Law website and they are driving him considerably crazy. Not getting him stuff on time. Adding stuff at the last minute (as in the day before launch). So I miss Keithy. :-(

So much to plan on. I'm dreading our move. I hate packing and moving. I'm trying to devise all these ways to make the move as easy as possible, but its going to be a lot of work, period. No way around it.

You will be able to visit Keith & I at:

65 Ashford Street, Apt. 3
Allston, Massachusetts 02134

I am not sure if we will have to change our landline number, so we'll keep you posted on that. I hope we can just keep that number.

After July 28th, please use ak_bittner@yahoo.com or alyssa@alyssaandkeith.com for reaching me by e-mail. I don't think I'll get to keep my BU e-mail account. *sniffle*

Its official, my last day at Assignments is July 28, 2006!

In three weeks I am either at a new job or unemployed. But we're sure I'll land on my feet somewhere. Hopefully. :-)

Today is Day 1 of our weekend in Pittsburgh, the Steel City. The family isn't congregating until Monday, July 3rd, for Steven's graduation, but being that Keith and I are traveling from Boston, we came for the weekend.

After going to Denny's and hanging at Steve's apartment with his roommate, we all went to "Superman Returns" showing at the local IMAX theatre in 3D. Yes, 3D. The iconography and cinematography, special effects all make it a worthy film to see. Kevin Spacey was made for the role of Lex Luther and pulls it off flawlessly. I'm happy to see Kate Bosworth was a brunette for her role as Lois Lane, and Brendan Routh I thought made a fantastic Superman. He is also way good-looking (definitely blows Christopher Reeve OUT of the water in that department) and I like the fact that I have no clue who he is and where he came from. But it'd be great to see more of him!

The movie started a conversation in the car on the way back to Oakdale between Keith and I about which superheroes we liked the best/identified with the most. Keith is a Spiderman kinda guy. I am a Batman kinda girl.

Peter Parker aka Spiderman is kind of a nerdy average guy, who is in love with the girl-next-door. Sounds kinda like Keith, doesn't it? ;-) He has some neat superpowers related to a freak accident in a science lab. He saves the denizens of New York when not acting as a college student/freelance photographer. He is a school newspaper geek. I think its cool that he's so young--late teens/early twenties.

Bruce Wayne aka Batman is a rich playboy with a tragic past. He is a man, who simply at his core a victim of crime--the murder of his parents. He has no superpowers, but chooses to use his riches to save humankind within Gotham City (supposedly modeled after Boston, but I don't see it in the Gothic looks the city always gets). Still there are some Lovecraft-esque influences which sort of give credence to the whole New Englandish setting. Yes, he is a bit psychotic and obsessed, but I can identify with it. I dunno why. I like the fact that he has no superhuman powers---he's just a guy who dedicates his life to martial arts and weaponry.

Now I like Superman, don't get me wrong. He can stop earthquakes, is bullet proof, can fly. Has laser beam eyes. Can see through everything but lead. None of the other guys can do that. He is a bumbling, shy, introverted man as his alter ego--Clark Kent. I admit I find this bumbling boyish kind of figure disarming in real life. The movie captures flawlessly gestures and motions from the original Superman movies (Note the way Brendan Routh ducks his head ala Christopher Reeve towards the end of the film as he gets into an elevator. You'll see what I mean.) Also note the gelled forlock on his forehead, ala the original comic. These folks didn't miss a beat. The voice of Marlon Brando and the clips used was also excellent.

I'll probably go to see the film again, after I go with Keith to see the second Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition to liking Spiderman, Keith is obsessed with pirates. I anticipate that with its frequent watching and re-watching that we will replace the DVD in the near future. My neighbor Corrie and I will also go to see "The Devil Wears Prada" soon. That's another book I haven't read yet, that's recently been made into a film.

Well. I am still alive, although a few of you have wondered where I've been with my weekly telephone calls (family), MySpace community, etc.

The bottom line is that I have been distracted. Very distracted. By a video game called Animal Crossing.

A couple weeks ago I caved and decided to buy a Nintendo GameCube. This really doesn't make much sense, considering we have a old school Sega Genesis and the original gray box Nintendo to goof around on when the mood strikes, and Keith wants the Nintendo Wii when it comes out at the end of the year, and I have a million other things to be working on (job search, recovering stolen property, arranging for our move in one month, going to the gym for a change, etc). This decision was somewhat un-Alyssa like since when I usually get gift money I tend to spend it on a dinner out maybe and then whatever items our household tends to need...at Target, maybe a few items of clothing I've been meaning to pick up, etc. I tend to be pretty responsible in this manner. I don't use the funds for groceries or anything, just things we've been meaning to pick up that make our life a little nicer. Generally the feedback on this purchase has been surprised and very positive. Like "Gee, never would think you'd do that, but that's cool. Wish I had a GameCube." They seem refreshed and like they gain a different perspective on me.

But frankly, I've needed a distraction. Badly. Work in June is pretty stressful, and despite the fact that Chocorua and I really met our assigning goals fairly regularly and neatly, there's still been a lot of pressure to account for vacant spaces (*each* must have a set purpose--even though I cannot predict what kind of issues might come up before August 31, 2006--yadda yadda yadda). All I can say about this is: CHILL. It will get done. We have ALL of July and August to make room changes. Rome was not built in a day. Now let me do my job instead of constantly (and I mean constantly) interrupting me. Geez.

Can you tell that I'm a little stressed? Well, I don't have much longer to worry about it, regardless of how my job search and the interviews I've had lately and the ones scheduled have gone and will go. Many of you will know exactly what I mean by that comment. Others of you will find out, in, oh, about a week. Ask me on July 8th.

So that's that. Animal Crossing is an awesome game. Its kind of like "The Sims" but is far more cutesy and there's none of the boring eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom that goes on in "The Sims." What's crazy is that it runs on actual time, versus simulated time. Some of the activities must be completed in a particular month, season, time of day...you cannot "beat" this game, and even if there was winning--you'd need about a year. Typical pastimes in the game include fishing, catching bugs, planting trees, plucking fruit, decorating your home, finding hidden money caches, and making the world a better place. I leave it up to you to check it out. But I warn you, it is video game crack for the first week you try it. Now I'm a little Animal Crossing fatigued.