Day 79

Had a really good weekend. Omaha sponsored a free concert in Memorial Park. Feist was the headliner. She was also my least favorite, she kept expecting the crowd to do stuff. Sing along, whistle like a bird, pat your head and rub your tummy while hopping down on one foot! Plus, the kids just wanted to hear 1234, and by 10pm they were done, so we left (she didn't play that song until 10:45). Her music is ok, but a little mellow for my mood that night. I was energized by the first act of the night, The Good Life. When the lead singer exhorted the crowd to show the older generation that young people will vote and to have the most Democratic votes in Nebraskan history, it sealed the deal.

The crowd was mostly young with various archetypes of outdoor concerts - the hacky sack guys, the devil stick person (this time in the guise of Chloë Sevigny), and a gaggle of self absorbed adolescent girls. Missing was the smell of pot (or even very much patchouli.)

On Sunday we went to Dixie Quicks for breakfast. It far surpassed my expectations. Upon entering it kind of reminded me of The Lucky Platter in Evanston. When told it would be 15 minutes for a table we were invited to wait in the gallery. The restaurant has a contemporary art gallery attached! The food wasn't bad either.

Maybe Omaha isn't too bad...

Except for that night when the kid's listed their litany of complaints against their elementary school. Some of them were minor, but it kind of reinforced my questions about how good the school was. I guess I didn't appreciate Romona enough when I was there. For instance, in Piper's Spanish class (which all grades get only twice a week) they watched a Dora the Explorer video. The school just doesn't seem very progressive.

So now I've started thinking about private school. Their is a Jewish day school here called Friedel Jewish Academy. It is very small only 50 or students in K-6, but they have a good emphasis on art and music (two complaints against the school from the kids and when I toured the facilities were a little underwhelming). I think we could get in for this year, and bonus of no Sunday school.

or, we could wait out a year and do and open enrollment for next year at a different district that I liked better, but I'm nervous about waiting a year and 3rd and 1st grade seem like such watershed years. And we did only give the school 3 weeks.

I've been reduced to reading Have You No Shame? by Rachel Shukert, a memoir about growing up Jewish in Omaha (perfect huh?), for clues about Friedel. (She went there). On the negative side, she says that school population is split among, "...children of harried yuppies" wanting an all-day Kindergarten, the ultra religious, and the borderline autistic. We fall in none of those categories. (Ms. Shukert didn't mention which group she fell in to, so maybe there are some others?) On the plus side she says, "It felt more like a large odd family than a school...the experience was a extraordinarily kind one, free from bullies and cruel, rough play, remarkably lacking in cliques and cattiness."

Undecided,

Kelly

Person Rachel Shukert

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