Flying!

Hey so we all will probably have big summer posts at the end of summer, we wanna live up the moment, but right now we are flying on the plane! I love airplane wifi :) So Anna and I just wanted to say hi, so ... HI!

Have a fun summer everyone!

Class of 2010

I know many people have been wanting this post. ("HEY DAD!" "What?" "I'M POSTING IT!") So as you may know I have just graduated middle school (dare I say the BEST middle school) and next year I am moving on to high school. My graduation ceremony was phenomenal. So below for you is my graduation speech, which was said at the end of the ceremony. I wanted to post a video of it, but for some reason that clip won't upload. Instead I'll add a video of me walking across the stage and accepting my diploma. Enjoy!

Goodbye Speech

Molly Waterman

Hello everybody... Or should I say... Goodbye. Next year really is going to be a mix of nerves and excitement. We will not know where to walk or who to talk to. We are going to have doubts and worries, even if we don't show it. We're heading into the unknown. But then, I think about the times we had here, and how this school used to be the unknown.

We had come to M.A.T. because it has engaging and dedicated teachers. Fun electives. Good academics. A rock wall in the gym. But that is just what we saw on tours. When we first arrived here we could not have known the true gratitude we would feel towards this school at the end of these three years. So in sixth grade many of us did feel nervous and unsure. But Willy Wonka had once said, "You should never doubt what no one is sure about."

Early on seeing the wide variety of people and personalities here was slightly overwhelming. But soon we were able to find our friends out of nowhere. By seventh grade we were surrounded by groups of phenomenal people. We stopped doubting ourselves once we found how easy it was to meet extraordinary friends.

Hey I might throw in a picture of me and my best friend Jasmen looking gorgeous :)

School's Out

I'm hoping Molly will write a post about her 8th grade graduation the other night. But for the time being, given that today was the official last day for both Anna and Molly and I finished teaching last Wednesday, we'll let Alice Cooper sing it for us:

Charlie :)

This is a video I made for my Technology Class. The link to the video is here, I think you'll enjoy! :)

Early bday present

Here's what Stephanie bought me for my 40th birthday, which will arrive in a couple months:





















You can find more work by the same artist here. I've been following his career for a while and really wanted a particular painting of his a few years ago but decided I couldn't afford it. We later learned that it sold to the bass player for U2.

Anyway, the most recent show just closed and the artist hand-delivered the work yesterday. Nathan and our friend Jason came over while we hung it.

I really couldn't have asked for a better present. I love the idea that it's something that won't go away: it will be passed down to my children and grandchildren.

Thanks, Stephanie!

Charlie on the Swings

Artwork :)

Hey everybody, I have been working very hard on art recently and I thought I would share it with you. Check it out:

Joy

Do me a solid and love life. Please.

I know I do.

And so does this elephant :)

What we've been up to (plus: RIP Lena Horne)

We're not doing very well keeping up this family blog! We'll see if we can get our act together and come up with a little schedule. Part of the problem has been the end of the semester, which has consumed all my time, and the girls' years are ramping up for the grand finale as well.

Everyone's had a lot going on. Last week we celebrated the publication of The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York with a release party at Bowery Poetry Club. Anna performed with her band at her school's Battle of the Bands. Molly has a play coming up this week in which she plays one of the leads. Stephanie and Charlie have started swimming lessons along with their twice weekly yoga classes. No wonder we all feel exhausted!

I was originally logging on to note the passing of Lena Horne. What an amazing performer! And what a terrific life, all 92 years of it. I posted three of my favorite songs by her over at PWHNY. If you only listen to one of them, have it be her performance with Grover from 1973, below. But they're all good!

Hi friends

We've been crazy busy the last month or so, from a trip to Albuquerque for me and Steph and Charlie, to two weeks of visitors, to a trip to DC for a medical study at the NIH. Somehow we still had to work through all that.

But we're still here! Maybe we'll get back into the posting groove. We have a lot saved up.

This morning I was watching Sesame Street clips with Charlie and he totally dug this one. Every time Bob sang "Hi, friend" Charlie would wave at the computer screen.

Grown up jobs

This is just plain great from the start, but 40 seconds in, with the lady driving the bulldozer, it really hits a higher level of awesomeness.

Cutie Patootie

Oh the relief . . .

Oh the relief . . .

Once upon a time there was a girl named Molly Waterman. She had done a small admissions process to get into Middle School, which went quickly and easily. Now Molly is almost done with Middle School, graduating Eighth grade. But before she can do that she had to start off in October to prepare for her High School admissions. High School was more complicated than Middle School, there were thousands of choices, 5 boroughs, so many types of schools, but they could only be narrowed down to 12. Throughout many tours and words from other people, Molly narrowed her choices down to 8 schools, and the additional specialized school for the arts. Molly spent many hours practicing and preparing for interviews, auditions for drama and art, and waiting. She waited outside auditoriums, classrooms, and studios. She waited. She twiddled her thumbs and went over her lines and remember everything she had learned about acing an audition. When she was finally done with her admissions process, done with the auditions, she was not done with the waiting. She had to wait until February to find out her school, the one school that she had to go to. As she waited, she pushed these things into the back of her mind. She lazed around, did schoolwork, and relaxed. When it came to the day, February 4th, everyone who applied to a specialized and got in, were to get their letters. But no, she didn't get one. She did not get the special letter. But neither did anyone. The principal of the school decided at last minute to mail them. Everyone was furious, and parents couldn't take it. They texted their kids in class and told them the news. Kids were crying of joy, and some of sadness, everything that the school tried to get rid of, but only made it worse. After discussion with her mom, Molly was going to get her letter after school and open it to find out the news. Molly's parents arrived with the letter and she went to the nearest park bench. She struggled as she tried to open it, the glue on the envelope being strong. She finally opened it and looked at the letter. "She has a smile on her face!" Safyiah said. "What is it?" Jasmen said. "LaGuardia and Beacon!" Once these words passed out of Molly's mouth a huge rush of friends ran over to the next person to have received the letter and gave hugs and congratulations. Molly had until about the end of the month to decide what to choose. Molly subconsciously put this back in the corner of her mind and continued on until the month started to end, until the time had come. After open houses and packets and lots of thinking, Molly and her parents sat down at the local Pinkberry. Molly talked as she ate through a chocolate Pinkberry with as many cereals as she could fit on it. She talked about the two schools, her current school, her past school, her sister, her three years at her school and how she developed as a person, an artist, a writer, an actress, and a dancer, and many more things. She thought about what it would be like to go to the "Fame" school. To be accepted to LaGuardia is an honor by itself. And Beacon is a school where if you wanted to do something, there is a high chance you could do it. And the academics were solid and innovative. Both schools were in her opinion, excellent. But which to choose? She sat and wondered, and talked. She talked for 90 minutes until they had to leave and she still hadn't decided. Her parents were confused and didn't know what school she really thought was the one. Molly got home and watched American Idol, still keeping as far away from a decision as possible. Once the show ended, the parents had quit trying to get an answer. They sat and did their own thing, leaving Molly to think. She thought about which school to choose, which is better in the long run, and would be enjoyable to go to. She sat and thought again and again. Thinking over every aspect, wondering about what if . . . She made her decision. She got her acceptance letter. She unfolded it. She read it over to know that to do. She let it sink in. She grabbed a pencil. and Molly bubbled in the circle. The circle sitting right next to the words: Beacon High School. She had done it. She thought this through about 1,000,000 times more. She knew this was right. She handed the letter to her dad, he congratulated her and Molly gave it to her sister, and her mom, and whispered it to her sleeping brother. She had made the decision. She was done. Oh the relief . . .

THE END

P.S. I have one more thing to say. I am Molly, and this is my story.

A friend sent me this image

I thought some of you would like it. It was, apparently, found on a website that archives old Boston postcards. There's still a Waterman Funeral company there -- we used to pass it all the time and people would ask if we were related.

Charlie discovered standing up!

...and now he practices it everywhere. We really need to babyproof which is a side note, but the kitchen is now a new domain of wonder for him. PS to my family: I can blog. It is possible. Note #2: It's really hard for me.

Charlie loves this song

I did it!

I finally accomplished the perfect picture!

A pretty close approximation of Charlie's world

More from Charlie's world

Charlie's world

How many items in this picture are newly dangerous now that the kid is fully mobile?

Uncle Nate

Sometimes I actually call Charlie "Nathan." I was Molly's age when Nate was Charlie's. (And dad would have been the age I am now.)

New Sept 11 photos released

I noticed the headlines online today about new Sept 11 photos being released, but I didn't manage to click though to them until just now. They were released by ABC News, which obtained them via the Freedom of Information Act. They were taken by a police helicopter in the air that day. I do remember the helicopter: at one point I thought it was going to try to rescue people from the tower, and then I wondered if it had crashed into the second tower when it was hit.



These certainly offer a different vantage point from any of the photos I'd seen before. And it's kind of terrifying. The one above lets you see exactly how close we were when the planes hit. If you look in the lower right hand quadrant and see a park, then look just above that where you can see a flat square building with an enclosed courtyard, that's the girls' school.



You can see it in this one too, but now it's in the lower left corner. When this happened we were already gone from the school of course, but we were only a few blocks to the east, near City Hall. When the building fell we thought we were being bombed. We just turned around with the crowd and ran. Before long we were surrounded by people covered in white ash and dust.



And in this one you can actually see the building we lived in. The pointy building in the foreground is the Woolwoorth Building. In the upper left corner you can see the East River, over by the seaport. Our building is the second tower in, if you come in from the corner and move down at a diagonal. We wouldn't be back there, of course, for several weeks.

You can find the rest of the photos here.

Bright eyes

Uncle Nathan took this one the other night. This would be Charlie excited to see his uncle.

Professor Grover's Anatomy Lesson

Have I mentioned lately ...

... how beautiful Charlie's two big sisters are?

Nice color on you

This kid seriously has his mom's eyes, no?

Mr. Giggles

Don't question the giggles, just enjoy.

Somebody's eating solids

Molly can't wait until we get to take spaghetti photos. Here are some others in the meantime.

Out and about

Mom and baby outside the New Museum, in our neighborhood, chatting with another museum-goer/passer-by. Our friend Scott was in town from LA and took these pictures; a friend of his was installing a piece on the street: wallpaper on a Dumpster. Charlie has sweet potatoes under his nose, left over from breakfast?

Best sister in the world

2009, it was the last year of just the two of us. I know that Anna and I had a long time to get acquainted. Having Charlie come into my life made me think about all of the years that we had together. All of the pictures, the places, the teeth knocked out by elbows (well there was only one of those, "It was an accident!" I have to say every time). So this is for the 13 years I have had my first word , A.K.A. Anna, by my side. This is all about the love:

The fights:

Going crazy:

Going crazier:

And just flat out being the best sisters in the world:

Anna, 13 years of pure awesomeness is dedicated to you. Just like all of the books I made in elementary school, this is dedicated to the best sister in the world.

How lovely life would be ...