1998

1998
Stroudsburg, PA

My age: 42-43

Work - I was the Principal- Stroudsburg High School.  There were 1350 students and 120 staff.

Home- I was renting a 3 bedroom house in the Borough of Stroudsburg. I had a small hot tub in my kitchen.

Music- for years, I would spend Sunday mornings in bed, listening to Kasey Casum and his top 40 hits.  I knew every song on the radio.  But around this time, I stopped listing to the Top 40 Hits.  Instead, I spent time at Border's Book store and spent hours in the music section, listening to all types of music.  I bought a CD or two every week.

Here are some albums I bought this year from artists that I've seen a few times:

• Taming the Tiger- Joni Mitchell.  I bought every Joni Mitchell album released on the market.
• Fundamental- Bonnie Raitt
• The Philosopher's Stone- Van Morrison
• Sonnny Come Home- Shawn Colvin
• Hits- Joan Armatrading

Movies

• The Truman Show- I thought this was a very clever movie.
• Pleasantville- I wanted to show this movie to all of my high school students because  I tough it had a great message that high school kids struggle with.
• Shakespeare in Love- I loved this movie.  I bought the screen script.  I bought the movie on iTunes and I've watched it a few times.
• Mulan- I liked the strong female character.
• The Parent Trap II- I took my niece to this movie and I liked my 1960s Parent Trap movie better.
• You've Got Mail- I'm not sure I had yet received an email when this movie was in the theatre.
• Great Expectations- good movie.
• Wag the Dog- this movie was awful.. I went to see it with my father and less than an hour in to the movie, he just turned to me and asked, "you want to go?" And awe left.
• City of Angels- life can really be a drag for some people.
• The Odd Couple II- a mindless movie.
• Sliding Doors- I liked the premise of the movie.
• Dr. Dolittle- mindless entertainment.
• Smoke Signals- this movie didn't get much coverage but I thought it was great.
• Madeline- She was sweet.
• How Stella Got Her Groove Back- I didn't like this movie.
• Beloved- OMG, i hated this movie.  I read the book and couldn't understand it.  So I thought I would go to the movie to see if some of my questions could be answered.  OMG, thank god i read  the book first because the movie was so confusing.
• Life is Beautiful- this movie was just too damn hard to watch.
• Rushmore- I didn't watch this movie when it was in the theatre but I have since become a Wes Anderson fan and have watched everything he has directed.
• Saving Private Ryan- I didn't see this movie and am not sure I could watch it now as my nephew is deployed to Iraq.  I think the theme of the movie could hit too close to home.
• The Big Lebowski- I didn't see this movie.  I think I am one of two people who have never seen this movie.

Books

A Walk in The Woods by Bill Bryson- OMG, I loved this book.  I’ve read it several times and I listen to it on audio CDs and it is funny every damn time I go back to the story. I can pop in any CD at any point in the story and pick up the storyline.  I can and will listen to this great tale again and again and again.

Travels-

• In June I went to Spain and Portugal to visit my sister and her family. I took three nephews and a niece with me and we had lots of fun.
• In October, I went to Branson, Missouri with my dad and sister.

News events

• Bill Clinton is impeached for lying to a grand jury about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.  Why couldn't he just be honest?
• The Belfast Agreement was signed and years of killing and rioting and anger began to subside in Northern Ireland.
• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission worked to heal all of the injustices committed against black people in South Africa.  The fact that this country didn't have a civil war is a miracle.

Family 

• o   After a four-year battle with cancer, my mother died on May 9, Mother’s Day weekend. Coincidentally, my brother, Jim was born on May 9^th so this is a bittersweet day. She fought a good fight.
• o   Sharon, my sister, and her family were living in Spain.
• o   I took three nephews and a niece with me to Spain and Portugal to visit Sharon and her family.
• o   Jameson McGirr Kelly, my nephew, my brother Brian’s first child is born in July. And within a month, Brian and his new family moved to Raphine, VA to be with Cindy's family  They lived in a trailer on her parents' property.  They moved from South Street, a busy street in in Philly to a rural spot in central VA.  As Brian told me, "I am not taking my son in s stroller down that decadent street."

Gloria's Greeting To Me

Gloria’s Greeting to Me  
Thanksgiving
November 2012

Georgia was my student at SIAS University in China during the Spring 2012 semester.  She was wonderful and I hated to leave her.  She sent me this email on the following Thanksgiving

Hi Bridget!

I miss the time we spent together. I miss the coach we sit together. I miss the meals we had together. I miss you…

I believe you know how deeply I appreciate the help and advice you’ve given me. However I still want to say it to you, especially on this special day! Thank you for being there with me and all the World Academy members! Thank you for being supporting us! Thank you for having faith in us! Thank you for loving us! Thank you for providing the opportunity for us to explore the powerful ourselves and tears!

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m hoping to skype with you soon.

Longing to meeting you as soon as possible!

Gloria

My response to Gloria:

Now you are going to make me cry. Today as my family sat at the table and named everything that we were thankful for, I mentioned that I was thankful for all my new Chinese friends. I am one lucky woman.

Bridget

Gloria’s response to me:

we're all lucky for meeting each other in this big world! no one minute late, no one minute early~ :)

I just love this last statement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Greetings From China

Thanksgiving Greetings

From Students @ Sias University

November 2012

In the spring, 2012, I taught at Sias University in China. I loved my students.  They were kind and loving and thoughtful  They cried when I left and I hated to leave them.  We stayed connected for the first couple of weeks but then I heard less and less from them.  

But that changed on Thanksgiving. I got emails all day long on Thursday from my Chinese students. They didn't really understand the day as it is not one of their holidays.  But the Chinese students understood that this must be an important day because on this day, the American teachers at Sias University only have to teach until noon.  They are then allowed to use the cafeteria kitchen and cook a Thanksgiving dinner for themselves and their English language classes are cancelled for the afternoon. All other classes on campus go on as scheduled.

 Here is a sample of emails I received:

Dear kelly
Have a good day for Thanksgiving day my girlfriend

Liam (Bush)

Hi, Bredget:

Hoe you doing? Happy Thanksgiving Day! Robert told me you two had a good conversation, and I am so glad that you will come back together. Looking forward to seeing you. Miss you! Haha~~

Carina

Hi Bridget there is a long time i didn't send you email . How are you these days. I guess you are celebrating the thanksgiving day. Hope you spend a good time . I miss you so much . Hope everything is going well with you . Maryann told me that you are looking for a job now . Do you find it ? And how was your new job . Hope to hear from you soon. I miss you! 

Emily

Hi Bridget,

Happy thanksgiving day!!!!

Enjoy it with your famliy and friends!!

Thank you for encourage me a lot!

My dearest coffee mother, Miss you so much!!

Love you ,

Olivia

Women's March 2018

Women's March 2018
West Chester, PA
January 20, 2018

I went to the Women's March in Washington, DC and loved every damn minute of it. It was re-affirming, uplifting, positive, grand, powerful, exciting, soothing, and empowering. It was a tonic for me. It was such a high. This march helped me get back on an even keel after our awful election last November 2016.

But this year, I decided that I wouldn't go to DC for the march.  I wanted to go to the march in Philadelphia and I signed up to volunteer my time. However, it was the day before the march and no one had contacted me to volunteer.  I hadn't made any plans with friends and I woke up that morning feeling lazy and cold and filled with excuses as to why I shouldn't go.

Then I saw that there was a march right in my back yard.  OK, only 300 people showed up but hey, there was a presence in the hood.

But whenI went on Facebook that night, I saw one posting after another from friends who marched in Philly.  I wished I had marched with them.  So next year, I am booking a hotel room in Philadelphia for Friday and Saturday night and I am having a big-assed powerful gathering of friends who stand for women.

Amy Tan

Amy Tan
American Author

Yet Another Obsession of Mine
One of My Favorite Authors

I love this author.  When I read her first book, I couldn't wait for the next book to be released and the three year gap seemed like a lifetime.

Her Books:

• The Joy Luck Club (1989)- I read the book twice; watched the movie twice and listened to the audiobook twice.  I showed the movie to my Chinese students when I was teaching in China and we started our own Joy Luck Club.  We met every Wednesday for lunch.
• The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)- I read the book and listened to the audiobook twice.
• The Hundred Secret Senses (1995)- I read the book and am looking for an audiobook copy in my library to borrow.
• The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001)- I read the book once and listened to the audiobook once.
• Saving Fish from Drowning (2005)- I listened to the audiobook twice.
• The Valley of Amazement (2013)- I listened to the audiobook.
• The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings- owned the book.

Her stories often tell the struggles of people caught between a Chinese world and an American world.  I think she does a much better job of painting a more interesting portrait of the Chinese struggles.

I love watching The Joy Luck Club and showed it to my Chinese students.when I taught in China.  After we watched the movie, we started our own Joy Luck Club.  We met every Wednesday for lunch at the Loi Bing restaurant in Henan Provence.

I have a few friends who are also Amy Tam groupies and they too have read and seen everything she has published.

I prefer her fiction to her non-fiction.

I think I need to move on to another author.