Mexico, Friends, and Schools

Monday, July 6th
After crashing in Alexandria, Virginia and I sat around for a while and drank some coffee. After a relaxing and enjoyable morning I took the Metro into Chinatown to meet Norm for some Texas style BBQ at Capital Q for lunch. After some good eats (it’s still not Memphis Style) I went over to the National Portrait Gallery to get some case study prep work done.

The Portrait Gallery was totally renovated about three years ago and I believe it’s the most underrated of all the Smithsonian Museums in DC. They have an “open air” café in the center of the museum that is perfect for a quiet lunch or in my case getting some work done. One feature of the renovation was putting a wave like glass roof over the inner courtyard of the museum. It’s all natural light yet enclosed so you get sunlight and air conditioning, an ice combination for sure. I worked for about three hours prepping for a case study called, “Mexico at the Crossroads”, that contains a debate scenario component for the students. The case study was put together through Brown University’s Choices Program. The fact that it’s the first time our program has used this material coupled with my general lack of expertise in Mexican History required double my usual prep time.

After I finished up with class prep I strolled over to the fountain area of the Sculpture Garden off of Independence and 7th streets to take advantage of the beautiful day. I joined numerous others in dangling my feet in the cool water of the fountain and napped for about an hour. After waking up I walked to Georgetown, grabbed a quick beer, and took the bus back to campus. I sat in on Mr. Eagles’ econ class and then spent the rest of the evening taking care of chores and getting an early start on sleep.

Tuesday, July 7th

The class and subsequent debate went very well. After lunch I took a quick nap and then got ready for our trip to the Mexican Embassy. We were lucky enough to not only get to see the Embassy but we spent the evening with the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan. The students were extremely impressed by his speaking and diplomatic skills. He spoke and answered questions on a wide variety of topics. The mornings’ class was perfect preparation for the evening. Both the Ambassador and the Embassy staff were gracious hosts.

Wednesday, July 8th
You know that sunny day that starts with an hour and half walk through DC is going to be a pleasant day. There would be no teaching or chaperoning duties this day. I went up to Bill and Amanda house to watch Isabella, she napped the entire time, and cook some dinner. After the two of them got back from running errands we enjoyed by hanging out and just catching up. Little Isabella “helped” me cook dinner. OK, she mostly watched and ate little pepperonis but it was still fun. I made a chicken pasta dish with pepperoni and olives with a side of prosciutto wrapped asparagus. Bragging a little here, but it was good! I ALWAYS enjoy an evening with Bill, Mandy, and their ever growing family.

Thursday, July 9th
The day was spent running errands and relaxing. I did sit on the afternoon speaker, Susan Schaeffler, founder of KIPP DC. She gave an energy packed talk about the state of public education and what KIPP schools are all about. I am relatively familiar with these schools because a good friend from college used to a principal of the first KIPP elementary school in Houston, TX(Article about my friend). Aaron, like Mrs. Schaeffler, was an alum of Teach for America. The results of both of these programs are remarkable. I feel especially proud because I have a number of former students from my SBA days that are now in the two year TFA program. KIPP is a fantastic program that is having fantastic results in parts of the country where frankly many people have sadly written off the population. It still baffles me how talent and resources are almost ignored in so many urban and rural schools in America.

The 4th July, Eastern Market, and Road House

Happy Birthday America!!!!

I spent the night in Alexandria at Norm and Virginia’s place. It was nice not waking up in a dorm. After a fantastic breakfast of Crab cake Eggs Benedict (Words cannot express how good this was, I literally made inappropriate sounds), I headed back to dorm for the late shift on the 4th.

Although in the five years that I have been associated with the program I have been able to effectively been able to dodge July 4th duty I was asked to help this year. I guess that’s fair. We packed a picnic dinner and headed to Antietam National Battle Field in Maryland for a concert by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and fireworks. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Some chatted, others played catch with the football or Frisbee, another group walked the battlefield, and I …, napped. The concert was great and the fireworks were spectacular!

Sunday, July 5th
I spent the day with Norm and Virginal. We ate lunch at the newest Matchbox location in south of Capital Hill. Their mini-burgers set the standard for all others to live by.

Afterwards we walked over to Eastern Market to shop for the fixings’ for the dinner I was cooking later that evening. The market area was incredible. So much to see, do, buy, and EAT! They have just finished remodeling the whole place after it burnt down in the early hours at the end of April of 2007.

Link to Washington Post Story about the fire

They had clothing, flowers, artwork, and all kinds of other things around the area of the enclosed market. Inside the market there was every kind of food conceivable. I had no problem picking up all of the items that I needed for the feast I was preparing.

Link to Washington Post Story about the reopening

After we returned the house I cooked up the food and we enjoyed our meal. The evening entertainment was the movie Road House starring Patrick “Pain don’t hurt” Swayze. Pure gold folks. I must have watched that movie a million times the summer after college. Dalton the Cooler (Bouncer) was part Rocky, part Buddha in a dumb movie sort of way. Long live the Double Deuce. I embedded a little Road House to wet your palette.

Update: Week of June 28th to July 3rd

I apologize to all of the blog readers, all three of you, for my lack of posts. My summer has been pretty busy and lots of fun. In year’s past I have used the blog to fill you in on the School of Public Service. Well the actual best way to keep up with that the official blog that our program keeps. It has lots of photos and background information on our speakers, activities, and case studies. (That’s one of the things keeping me busy). There is a link to it on the right hand column of this blog, but in case here is the link also.

http://www.schoolofpublicservice.blogspot.org/

Outside NBC Studios before Meet the Press

Sunday, June 28th
As always it was exciting for the students and I to watch a filming of Meet the Press. The guests for the show we watched were great. The first part of the show featured and interview with David Axelrod, then there was a discussion of the status of the Republican Party with Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham. The last half hour featured a political roundtable which featured Dee Dee Myers, E.J. Dionne.


The rest of the day students and teachers read up for their case studies and then broke into individual groups for dinner. My group went to 2 Amy’s, a great pizza place around the corner from the Albans. We had a great meal and better discussion.

Monday, June 29th

We celebrate Sanko’s birthday at the Quarterdeck in Arlington. Blue Crabs are good lovin’! That’s four years in a row!!!!

Tuesday, June 30th

Main Hall at the Naval Academy

Our group went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis for the day. We were hosted by Dr. Wrage, who teaches Political Science at the Academy. It was a great visit, we toured the school first then Dr. Wrage led the students in a case study about Navy seals in Afghanistan. The students were great and they really seamed to enjoy Dr. Wrage’s teaching style and expertise.

Dr. Wrage giving a tour of the Naval Academy before class

After class everyone was given the afternoon free to get some lunch on their own and tour downtown “Naptown”. (Annapolis). I met up with Chris Ch. We go back pretty far, his dad and mine worked together at Int. Paper and he and my sister worked together there as well. We met for lunch at the great little Irish Pub where we enjoyed a few pints of the “Black Stuff” and a sandwich. It was great catching up. I LOVE meeting up with friends in random cities and spots. It was great catching up.

Old Town Annapolis

Arlington National Cemetery

Marine Corps Sunset Parade

Wednesday, July 1st

Spent a day in DC leisure. I walked about three miles through the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Upper NW. Then after a faculty meeting prepped for the case study that I was teaching on Friday about General Patreaus in Mosul at one of my favorite book stores/coffee shops in DC, Politics and Prose. In the evening I cooked dinner for Norm and Virginia at their house.

The greatest bookstore .., ever!

Friday, July 3rd

After a great class I had the good fortune to have my students hear from Paul Ignatius, former Secretary of the Navy, and father of David Ignatius, author and columnist for the Washington Post. He sat in on my class, I thought I was going to brick my pants when he walked in, but after class he was extremely complimentary of the students and me. It was nice to hear.

The students made their way to a Nats-Braves game and I enjoyed some R & R at Norm’s place in Alexandria. I readied the home for the impending party. It was great to enjoy a teen free evening and morning. Met some cool folks. Fran, a friend through Norm, was hosting two thru walkers on the Appalachian Trail or AT. A friend of mine had done that and it was great to hear their stories.

The first week is done already?

After the Supreme Court Visit

The first week of the School of Public Service has passed and in my opinion passed well. The students worked three case studies that ranged from scandal and mistreatment of US veterans at Walter Reed hospital to potential ethical violations by the a major TV network. They researched, prepared, and argued a current Supreme Court case (their ruling nearly mirrored the real Supreme Court Decision). The class of 09’ visited the local federal court and toured the Supreme Court with the current Clerk of the Court, William Suter. They also took a twilight tour of the monuments along the National Mall led by yours truly. They are a splendid group, who are a joy to teach and hang out with. The only downer of the week was getting rained out from an outdoor showing of “Footloose” on Friday night.

The Jefferson Memorial right before sunset

I’ve been pretty busy teaching three case studies and prepping for another one this next week. I have managed to catch a showing of Transformer 2 and catch up with an old college friend for a little night life in the district. I’ve been “busy” but being able to squeeze a nap in every day while working is still quite good.

Outside the Washing Post after meeting with Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Priest

A decent diddy by TJ.

The Pulitzer Prize and the Transformers

Anyone who knows me, and specifically has lived with me knows my love of newspapers. I have always enjoyed the Washington Post and in the last five years where I “summer in DC”, I have grown to love it even more. Well today our group went to the offices of the Washington Post to meet with Dana Priest who won a Pulitzer Prize for her series on Walter Reed Medical Hospital last year, which we studied in class the previous day.

Her talk was informative and illuminating. She spoke of how she and her colleagues go about their research, establish contacts, and how release of the stories is sometimes negotiated with people all the way to the White House. It’s nice to hear from a reporter and newspaper that take their role as the “4th branch” of the government seriously. She spoke of the provisions that the US Constitution provides for the press.

She was passioned and the students asked great questions which makes me feel good as one of the teachers that prepped them for the meeting. She also spoke of the dedication of the Post’s staff, especially in times of crisis. She talked about the devastating crash that occurred on the Red Line of the Metro earlier this week and how those who were not even on the clock worked the story. I’ll include one of the stories from today that was both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

After returning to the Albans campus the students heard from Stuart Gerson prepped for their moot court case that they will be doing tomorrow. The case they are arguing is Safford Unified School District v. Redding(Click on the case for breakdown) which centers on the constitutionality of strip-searching a student at a public school in search of drugs. Every year the program picks a great case. The students really get into it.

I skipped dinner to meet up with Bill to continue a tradition started in high school. We went and saw Transformers 2: The Rise of the Fallen. Awesome, simply awesome. Although short on plot it was heavy on violence, special ops, and of course Megan Fox running. This makes the third Transformers Bill S. and I have seen together. Three? You say. Let’s not forget the first cartoon movie that came out in the late 80’s with the awesome theme song, “You’ve got the touch”. Well back in our Cathedral Prep days Billy, Phil K, and myself went to see the original in the theater. We were the only people there above 15 without children present. Two summers ago Bill and I saw the latest “Original” and tonight we completed the trilogy.

I am going to embed two YouTube clips for your enjoyment of the main them song from the true original movie and a scene from Boogie Nights, yes Boogie Nights. If you watch both you’ll see why.

The Stan Bush version fromt he original movie

Dirk Diggler's version

Let the learning begin!

After a wonderful stay/visit with Bill I moved into the dorms on Sunday morning. I can’t believe that we have known each other for almost 25 years. Wow, I’m old. I digress. I always look forward to meeting the group each year. Every year they are great and this year they are no different. These kids come from Massachusetts to California and Texas to Montana. A very impressive bunch.

I reprised my role as grill master for the opening cookout. SPS even bought a new grill for festivities. I love cooking in general and grilling specifically. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the acoustical stylings of one of the St. Albans added to the enjoyment of the evening.

Prepping for class

As of this entry I have already taught two case studies. The first was a collection of ten vignettes of where the group was to decide when, if ever, it was OK to lie in various scenarios. From government officials both elected and appointed to various quasi government operatives and even the press. The discussion was lively and intellectual.

Class time

The second case study was a collection of stories from the expose by Dana Priest on the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal that dominates the front pages of the Washington Post for weeks last year. The discussion highlighted the difficulties of inter and intra agency communication and how it adversely affected our nation’s veterans. The article also serves as a prep for our visit to Washington Post on Wednesday where we will tour the newsroom and having a discussion with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Dana Priest.

I’m very busy but having lots of fun!

Tales of the Road

It’s Tuesday evening and I’m sitting in the courtyard of the senior circle of St. Albans listening to bells of the National Cathedral chime away. It’s a glorious 78 degrees and some of the SPS class of 09’ is playing badminton.

After a crazy trip up to DC things have calmed down and made for a spectacular time.

I began my journey to DC last Wednesday afternoon. It was great driving weather until I hot Knoxville where I met with tornados and torrential down pours. It really only screwed with driving for about an hour, it seemed once I turned up I-81 the weather cleared. After vowing to get at least out of Tennessee on the first leg of the journey, that’s @7 hours plus, I found a hotel with my trusty iPhone in the hamlet of Bristol, Va. I got in, got to sleep, and was able to take off in the morning ahead of schedule, or so I thought.

About 15 minutes into the ride I noticed my BRAND NEW tires pulling heavily to the left and after about a minute of, “This can’t be happening” a car pulled up next to me and mimed, “your tire is flat”. I pulled off the highway as soon as safely possible and was able to park in an industrial park. The was a “Wide Load” crew resting and they were nice enough to offer help fill up my tire with air. The air left nearly as quickly as it was put in.

So I’m in nowhere Virginia with a flat tire, I’m screwed. I called AAA; they were as helpful as blind man in a scavenger hunt. So I turned to the love of my life, my iPhone, or iLeen, as I call her. I did a Google search for tire/auto shops and with the help of the iPhone’s GPS feature found a shop 4 miles away. The search results connect automatically to a phone number. I called; spoke to a helpful woman named Sara, and after changing to the spare tire made my way to Main Street USA in rural Virginia. Mel, the shop manager, and Sara were a breath of fresh air. They checked my tire and rim and realized that I needed a new tire because the last place did not replace the air valve. They were quick, efficient, and soooo helpful. They made a potentially horrible situation almost pleasant. I was fixed and on my way in less than 45 minutes.

Nationals baseball

The national pastime in the nation's capital. Harris won the game in the bottom of the 12th inning with a walk off home run. Since I have begun my trip to DC the Nats have won 4 in a row, coincidence?

A great Saturday in the nation's capital!

Having a great time in DC so far. I met three of my former students who live and work here out for a few drinks in the capital hill area of town last night.

Slept in and the we made put way out to the burbs for a going away crab boil for Rex and his family who are moving to Wisconsin. The maryland blue crabs were delicous.

I'm at the Nationals game right now on a beuatiful evening on DC. Good times.

Pete out.

On the road again

It's always bittersweet leaving Memphis for my ramblings each summer.
My summers are always fun and rewarding.

I can't wait for the School of Public Service to start at St. Albans.

Staying in Bristol, VA for the night after getting 8 hours on the
road. The weather was great except for torrential rains for about 45
minutes around Knoxville. The rains subsided and the storms made for a
fantastic night sky.

Peace out from Virginia! I'll be in DC by the afternoon.
Sent from my iPhone