F-Minus to Uber and Lyft

 

In NYC, a Lyft ride cost me $43. Same return trip, in a regular cab cost me $18.
Used Riverside Co.

I compared prices between Lyft and a regular cab to airport and Lyft was far more pricey.

One regular cab driver turned the meter off by explaining “traffic is bad, I will not use meter.” Fare was so low I tipped him heavily; he God blessed me.

A NYC local explained that on rainy and snowy days, Uber and Lyft will charge over 100%.

A friend was charged $50 in Boston using Uber, same return trip in a regular cab was less than $20.

In Sacramento, a person on Uber was charged $20 to the Arena, return trip was tripled. They must know one is eager to go home late at night, especially if fare is a woman.

I was so pleased to see the yellow cabs in full force in NYC.

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Why We Teach

Thank you, Melinda, Mary and Carmen of Brookdale National Respite and RAPP for inviting me to give a workshop and to address  your conference held in New Jersey. One of the high lights was…

I stepped down from the stage, sat on one of the chairs in the front row and something  made me look behind me.  “Teresa?” I asked the woman sitting behind me.

Yes. It was Teresa Ainsworth Todd of Maryland who had driven in to see me. I last saw Teresa when she was a first grader in my class in Jackson, Michigan more than 50 years ago. She wore the same face during my year in Michigan. Teresa was thrilled to have a teacher from Hawaii and every day, she looked at me with such joy and delight. I had to be the best teacher ever.

We shared stories at the conference: I brought in Hawaii and my Japanese culture into the classroom. One day I told the class  we were using chopsticks so to bring in a snack. Teresa’s mother wisely sent her in with a  bag of popcorn, explaining that it would be less messy should she drop her snack on the floor.

Teresa still has that photo of her dressed in a kimono. And here she was, the same Teresa with the special smile.

And yes, I have taught more than a thousand students and I claim to remember each by name.

New Jersey, Here I Come

Dear New Jersey,

Are you ready for me? The last time I was there, I walked the Boardwalk, singing “Here She Is, Miss America” softly to myself. Remember when?  I’ll be giving an address on Respite Care and a workshop for RAPP (Relatives as Parents Program) at the National Brookdale Respite and RAPP conference in Teaneck. I’m on my way so start pulling out the red carpet where the boardwalk used to be….

Wordsworth, meet a friend of yours

Seven year old Kollin was given my Wordsworth the Poet book and according to his mother, he kept rereading the book. You see, Kollin has Wordsworth inside him, too, because he wants to be an artist someday. Not a fiction artist, he said, but a non-fiction one where he will draw nature. One day his uncles took him shopping with “Buy anything you want.” Kollin chose a tablet and a box of crayons. His uncles told his mother, “Hey, something wrong with your son, we expected to buy him all kinds of electronic games but he only chose this paper and crayons.”

 

This is his book report on Wordsworth the Poet: He used a pumpkin to reproduce Wordsworth.

No wonder Kollin feels so connected to Wordsworth. I have offered to visit his class as Share and Tell and perhaps help release the little poets inside each child.

A generation ago, Kollin’s uncle had the same dream but his immigrant Hmong parents told him this is not why they came to America…he needs to let go his artist dreams and get a real job and he did.

NY Times Oct 14

I have problems with numbers….my letter will appear in the Oct 14th issue.

Read my letter in the NY Times

Please go out and buy the NY Sunday Times this weekend. My letter to the editor will appear in the Book Review. Subject: Nobel Prize for Literature. And if you like my letter in this corrupt, fake news newspaper, do tell them ( or your own local paper)  to run my monthly Hawaii Herald  Dear Frances advice column for caregivers.

 

When I was in my 20’s, I was one of over a hundred in a group visiting the  Oslo building where the Nobel Prize for Literature is presented. The gentleman who was giving the tour looked us over and pointed to me and said, “Come.  You will go through the process of receiving the Nobel Prize.” Writing books were only a dream then and I thought for sure it was a premonition. So the premonition meant a letter to the editor on the SUBJECT of the Nobel Prize.  Do you know the steps up the building is very low so I wouldn’t trip over my gown?

 

Cancelled: My Sept 27 lecture

Caregivers: A Dignified Life is cancelled due to lack of participants.

Thank you to those who registered.