Love with a giant furry bear

Today we had a TAKS pep rally to get the students pumped up about conquering the dreaded test tomorrow. Our principal got the Houston Rockets basketball team mascot, Clutch- a giant furry bear, to come do a little demonstration for the kids. It was actually pretty entertaining with a lot of audience participation. I was forced to participate a little bit too much. Clutch came over and kissed my hand and then pretended to make out with me. It was definitely my first time making out with a mascot. It was a little awkward.

Afterwards, the kids kept asking me about my new "boyfriend." I told them that he was really cool and he got me free Rockets tickets.

Tonight I watched part of the season finale of The Bachelor. I used to get really into that show but I really prefer reality shows with a trashier edge to them. Think Temptation Island, Love Cruise, and more recently, Momma's Boys and G's to Gents. Anyway, I like reality shows that I can watch to make fun of the participants. The Bachelor doesn't have a lot of that though it does have a fair amount of cheesiness. "This is the most dramatic rose ceremony ever!" Today's was simply painful. Jason, who was the runner-up on the last season's Bachelorette had to choose between two girls whom he said he was in love with. After he dumped the first girl, he cried like a little girl for several minutes. Very unattractive. I do not like a guy who is weepy and emotional. Then, he proposes to the other girl and it looks like they will live happily ever after (even though none of the couples made on The Bachelor have lasted.)

After the show, they had a special about what was happening to the couple now. They made it sound like someone had died with lots of dramatic music and disclaimers. When Jason came out, he looked like someone had died. It turns out that he had just decided that he no longer wanted to date the girl he had initially chosen and now wanted a redo with the runner-up. Unfortunately he had not told the girl he was dating this yet. He made a statement about not wanting to hurt her and then proceeds to dump her on national television. I am not sure what could be more hurtful than that! She doesn't see it coming and awesomely calls him a bastard.

Then the runner-up comes on and Jason tells her he wants a second chance. She can't even speak because she is so shocked. She stupidly agrees to try things out with him again even though it seems very likely that those two will break up on national television in the near future. So, basically Jason sucks. I would rather have Clutch any day!

A slip of the tongue

Tomorrow my students are taking a fake TAKS test all day long. This means I do pretty much nothing. This fact coupled with too much caffeine means that I will probably be staying up late tonight. Yes, tonight.

We had Young Life club tonight. That consists of some goofy songs, a game that is often embarrassing and/or messy and then a Jesus talk. Before and after involve hanging out with some pretty cool high school kids. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by trying to balance my real job and my volunteer job. One key to this balance is naps. I seem to be able to manage it all better when I take a thirty minute nap during the couple hours I have between school and Young Life. It makes me feel like it's two short days instead of one long one.

One of my co-leaders is a great guy but he sometimes inadvertently says awkward things when he's the one giving the Jesus talk. One time he was trying to make a point about how our sins make us "black." Then he says, but God can't be black! About half of the kids in our club are black so this did not go over well. I heard a lot of different confused and offended utterances. And the poor guy just starts sputtering and trying to clarify. It took a while to restore order in the room.

Today he did it again. He was telling a story about meeting a really good looking girl at a Young Life camp. He said he was interested in her but he was "just there for the guys." He meant that he was there to be with the high school guys he brought but it definitely sounded like he was saying he was there to pick up guys and not girls. I couldn't stop laughing. It was one of those times I knew I shouldn't be laughing but I just couldn't help myself.

It reminds me of a couple months ago when I was introduced to a friend of a friend. This guy seemed pretty cool until this conversation:
guy: I used to play the trumpet in high school and I still play it a lot.
me: Oh, are you in a band?
guy: No, but I play with myself every night
me: (giggling)
guy: (looks at me confused)
me: You just said you play with yourself every night
guy: (still looking confused)

It's hard for me to hide my amusement in general even if it is inappropriate in the situation and I am definitely easily amused. This happens at school a lot. The kids do or say something that deserves punishment and I giggle. One girl told my co-teacher that her dog ate her homework. How funny is that? Did she hear that on TV or in a movie? Who thinks they can get away with something like that? Haha!

The Evolution of the Bicyclist

I have been trying to get a bit more serious about riding my bike lately. I am riding the MS150 for the third time in April. The MS150 is a 180 mile bike ride between Houston and Austin that raises money for Multiple Sclerosis. The first time I rode it, I got about 3 hours of sleep the night before and the farthest I had ever ridden was 40 miles, which I did all of two times before. The ride was difficult but I persevered and did not walk even up the most daunting of hills.

Being able to complete the ride despite my lack of sleep and lack of training was not helpful in motivating me to train for my second MS150. I really didn't ride too much beforehand. It was hard work and I was slow. I rode a hybrid bike as I had in the first ride. A hybrid is a cross between a mountain bike and a rode bike. It's a good idea in theory because you can go more off-road than a road bike and you can go faster on a smooth surface than on a mountain bike. But unfortunately it doesn't do as well as a mountain bike or a road bike. I was very frustrated as I got passed by hundreds of people on their sleek road bikes with their skinny tires.

I caved and bought a nice road bike that I will be using in the MS150 this year. I rode in a practice ride yesterday. It was 36 miles which wouldn't have been near as grueling if not for the hills I encountered about once a mile. My legs were burning and my pace was slow but I managed to finish the ride without walking my bike. This was more than I could say for some wimps I saw walking up some of the steeper hills. I wanted to yell out a "HaHa" like Nelson on The Simpsons but I was too out of breath from my own struggle up the hill.

As I was riding, I reflected on some of the stages I went through as well as what I saw on this ride. When you first start getting into road biking, you might borrow a friend's bike or ride one you might find at Wal-Mart. This doesn't last long if you really want to get into it. You can try to find a good used bike or buy an entry-level new bike. Most new road bikes start around $1000 for a good one.

Once you have a bike, you have to get a helmet. I used to wear a skateboarding helmet because they are slightly less dorky than bicycle helmets. They are also much less ventilated. I have since converted to a real bicycle helmet. I used to hate wearing them but now they are just part of my ride like a seatbelt in a car. The other important thing you need is bike shorts that cost at least $80. I was told this by a friend and I was a bit skeptical. I have since tried cheaper shorts and realized that he was indeed correct. For some reason, shorts under $80 just don't cut it. Good bike shorts are gender-specific and the padding is designed accordingly. Padding is what makes these long rides bareable. At first I felt too dorky in my biker shorts (I blame the eighties) so I would wear long basketball shorts over them. In fact, this is what I rode for the first MS150. I think I was one of the only ones without exposed biker shorts.

Once you have those three things, you are ready to ride. There are a lot of other biking accesories and it takes a little time to feel like you need them. For me, I bought gloves next. Gloves are nice because they help pad your hands on the handlebars and can keep you warmer on cold days. For the second MS150, my dad gave me a jersey. Now I was no longer wearing a random old t-shirt. So far, I have not found a jersey that doesn't make me feel dorky but I have also learned to accept that feeling dorky is part of the experience. I also acquired some bike socks that just seem like thinner stretchier versions of socks I already have. I don't think they are worth the $10 they cost at the bike shops.

For the first two MS150s I used cage pedals. These are straps that go on yoru pedals to attach your foot to the pedal. If your foot is attached, you use your energy more efficiently on each stroke. Cage pedals enable you to use your own shoes but are also not as good as clip-on pedals. My dad bought me my first set of clips and pedals as well as the fancy shoes that go with them. It's funny how he likes to buy me bike stuff. It's how we bond. I got mountain biking shoes because they look cooler and are more comfortable for walking around. There is definitely a bit of technique involved in clipping in and out of your pedals. It took me a couple of frustrating days to get used to them. I really felt like an incompetent idiot. Finally I got the hang of it and can clip in and out with relative ease. Most people have at least one bad fall with clip-on pedals. If you can't get your foot detached from the pedal before you stop, you fall down. My dad says it's only a matter of time. This is coming from a man I saw fall over in a parking lot during the last five miles of the MS150.

For yesterday's race, I felt like a real biker. I was wearing the biker shorts, a jersey, helmet, gloves, camelbak, and sunglasses. Because of the cold temperatures and gusty winds, I was wearing these spandex sleeves and leg warmers. They are very convienant because you can just take them off when you get too hot. You don't have to take off your pants. They are also small and easy to store. And who doesn't want to wear spandex leg warmers? I also had a special windbreaker that claimed to be "windproof." I don't know about windproof but it seemed to do the trick.

So, I have come a long way since my first MS150 with my basketball shorts, hybrid bike and skateboarding helmet. Now I only get mad if people her aren't dressed in all the gear pass me. If they don't have the right stuff, clearly they are not as hardcore as me and should not be overtaking me.

A party and a baby

Friday was a festive day at school. It was the last school day before Valentine's so we celebrated that day. We are in the middle of TAKS season so we couldn't do a whole lot. As a kid, Valentine's Day was such a fun and memorable event at school that I couldn't deprive my students of its pleasures. When I was a kid, we decorated elaborate little mailboxes to store our valentines. I didn't let the kids decorate boxes but they did exchange valentines and make a valentine craft.

It's fun to be a teacher at Valentine's. I enjoy candy and the kids give me tons of it. Not a bad deal at all! Luckily I didn't get too many stuffed animals this year. It's always hard to know what to do with the stuffed animals I get. I would regift them to other kids in my class but I fear that the gift giver would get his or her feelings hurt. My favorite valentine was a Homies valentine. For those of you not familiar with the finer things in life, Homies are these miniature Mexican people figures that you can get for 50 cents from one of those machines that give you the clear plastic eggs. I am not sure who came up with these things but they are hilarious! It is funny because a lot of the parents at my school resemble these homies. You should google them. Anyway, they have homies valentines and I got one! Yay!

I ate so much candy on Friday. I have gotten into the habit of eating candy at school throughout the day as a mood booster. When cramming for the TAKS test, I need a little pick-me-up. I guess I need to start keeping fruit or something in the room or I will soon be 300 pounds. Our school sold balloons, pencils and little teddy bears. My kids bought a ton of it. The school accidentally bought some balloons with turtle cartoons on them implying that the turtles were getting it on. It was funny to see the vice principal trying to snatch the offending balloons out of the confused kids' hands.

After my sugar fest, I hung out with school friends and then went to my parents house for my first solo babysitting gig with my nephew, Samuel. My parents and Sam's parents went to a play. It was kind of reminiscent of all the babysitting I did in high school. Sam is only three months old and is a little high maintenence. He is fine as long as you are holding him and sometimes only if you are dancing around with him. He was good at the beginning of the night and let me dress him like a thug. I put a Nike onesie, hat and booties on him and had a little photo shoot. Unfortunately I don't have the pics to post because I used his parents' camera.

Later he would only sleep when I was holding him. He would wake up every time I laid him down. I spent the last hour of babysitting watching TV while Samuel slept in my arms. I can't wait until Samuel is old enough to appreciate me for more than my strong arms and dancing ability.

Valentine's Day Travesty

I try not to talk too much about my school on my blog. I figure it's public record so I don't want to say something that could hurt me later. But I can't help but write about what's going on at my school right now. It's absolutely ridiculous!

I am not sure exactly how it all came to be. I think it was a collaboration between several people. The end result is hard to explain.

For Valentine's Day our school is having a Queen and King of the Valentine's Day dance as well as a prince and princess for each grade. I suppose we are giving the kids a preview of the Homecoming Popularity competition they will face in high school. The actual idea of a king and queen and a little court are not what bothers me so much. Each class was instructed to nominate a prince and a princess from their class. We teachers let the kids vote but made sure they voted for a kid with good conduct who does their work. Each prince and princess was told to make posters advertising their campaign for Valentine's Day prince or princess as well as a ballot box where the other kids can vote for them. The kids were also told that they could hand out items to get the kids to vote for them. Basically, they were told they could bribe the other kids to get them to vote for them. Great lesson!

Our school is predominately low-income, though there are a few wealthier families. This idea of bringing things to give out to the other kids to garner their votes is blatantly discriminatory towards the kids who don't have enough money to buy candy and pencils to give out. Another slight to the low income kids is that each kid has to pay a quarter to vote. Basically if you and your friends are rich enough, you can become a Valentine's Day prince or princess. What an awful lesson we are teaching these kids! I can hardly believe it. Some of the teachers have helped their kids a bit in creating posters and ballot boxes. I love my kids but I am so weirded out by this popularity contest, that I can't bring myself to help them. My prince hasn't even brought his ballot box to school or put up any posters yet. I don't really blame him.

Career Day 2009

Friday was Career Day at my school. This year my dad came as well as my best friend, Sarah. The way our career day works is that there are 3- 45 minute rotations with three presenters in each rotation. Each person talks for about 15 minutes.

The first presenter in my class was my dad. The kids were excited by the mere fact that he was my dad and he did a good job of explaining what a lawyer does. Luckily this year he did not have to follow the animal cops. The funny part about career day is that there is no really screening of the presenters. Some have really boring jobs and don't know how to talk to kids. Others bring free stuff and make it fun.

Unfortunately during the second rotation, only one of my presenters showed up. This meant the poor guy had to talk for 45 minutes. Even worse, the presenter was a guy I had last year who had bored the kids to tears and now he had the guy for 45 minutes. He seems like a good guy but he has a very technical job and doesn't have much experience with kids. He works in the Audio Visual field. He spent most of the time talking about his boyhood days in Chicago. He also asked the kids if they knew about physics and binary math. They probably shouldn't move on to either of those until they've mastered their multiplication tables.

I had prepped my kids before career day and told them to ask as many questions as they could so there was no dead time. Spending 45 minutes with the AV guy made for some pretty random questions. The kids asked him some questions about his family and he actually started crying a little because his dad passed away. The kids looked as shocked by his emotional display as I did. Whoah! The whole thing was getting painful after 30 minutes and we still had 15 minutes to go. I decided to have the kids teach him Spanish. Now that was funny! Really, the guy was a really good sport but just not that kid-friendly.

This career day I decided to write down some of the funny things the kids said. Enjoy-

When talking to my dad, the lawyer:

Dad- "Who do lawyers help?"
kid- "Lawyers help people who need lawyers.

When speaking to an accountant:
You work for Price Waterhouse Cougars?

When talking about college:
How many beds were in your dorm room?
What kind of clothes did you wear?

presenter- How long does it take to go to college?
kid- 20 years

presenter- What is a major?
kid- A major is someone in a higher grade
another kid- like a major problem?

Random questions to the AV guy:
When you were a little boy, did you make snowmen?
What does snow taste like?
Do you like multiplication and division?
Were you good at reading or were you bad?
Do you have a brother and what was his favorite subject?
Do you remember how many colleges you went to that didn't have mascots?
If you ever had kids, what would you name them?
What happened to your dad?
When is your birthday?

These were heard during presentation from an airport employee:
presenter- How many continents does the airport fly to?
kid-8
presenter- No there are only 7 continents

presenter- What makes an airplane fly?
kid- a pilot

kid- When it snows when you're flying, does the plane get heavier?

Why do we need to know a lot of Math?

My best friend, Sarah came to my class even though she wasn't scheduled and talked to the kids about her job at NASA. I had talked about her before and the kids had seen pictures of her before.

kid questions and comments for Sarah
- Are aliens real?
I noticed you cut your hair.
I thought the orange stuff hits people. (Orange stuff meant the large fuel tank attached to the shuttle)
You've been together too long. (about me and Sarah)

kid-Where you got that rocket from? (about Sarah's model rocket)
another kid- I want it.

(after absolutely no mention of California)
Have you ever been to Hollywood?
Did you see any superstars when you were there?
Did you see the Hollywood sign?

 
 
 
 

And the winner is...

 

Pizza Olympics

Tonight at Young Life, we had our 2nd annual Pizza Olympics. I am sure that most of you are very familiar with a Pizza Olympics but just in case you are not, here's how it goes:

At the beginning of our Young Life program (club) three students call three different pizza companies and order pepperoni pizzas. Then we sing songs and do our thing until the first pizza arrives. At that point, we drop everything. We turn on loud Olympic music and welcome the pizza man with out of control screaming and cheering. The first pizza man is awarded the gold medal and the second two are given the silver and bronze, respectively.

Last year there was some sort of miscommunication and only one delivery guy arrived. This year was much better with all three guys arriving with enough time between each to give them a proper celebration.

The first guy tonight was named Sam and looked to be from some other country. He was very confused by all the cheering and shouting and music. When my friend, Andres asked him how he was able to win the gold medal in the pizza olympics, he attributed it to respecting his parents. I am not sure about that correlation but a good lesson for the kiddos, nonetheless.

The second guy was a fairly young, built black guy named Josh. He seemed even more confused than the first guy. I was afraid he was going to run away. He said he was going to work more in order to get the gold next time. Apparently afterwards, he told another leader, Christie that even though he looked scared, he had a lot of fun and wanted to see the pictures we took later.

The bronze medal winner was an old white guy. He, too seemed confused by the whole production. I think he was a bit disappointed to come in last.

After the three pizzas arrived, we had a pizza eating contest. I thought our boys would be able to put away more pizza than they did. They would be no match for that little Japanese dude who wins all those professional eating competitions- Kobayashi or something. Anyway, after club we had pizza for all the kids. It really wouldn't have been too fair to make the kids smell the pizza and then deny them the pleasure of eating it.

All in all, with over 40 kids and a pizza olympics, I pronounce our first club of 2009, a great success. I am glad to get back in the swing of things.

Testing, testing yee-haw!

Today was the last day of the dreaded Stanford test. This is a test that my whole school district takes every January. It covers all the subjects and all the grade levels. It's supposed to calculate at which grade level a student is performing. It also compares their new score to their score from the past to see how much they've grown. Students' growth is how the district determines the teacher bonuses. The system is not entirely fair since the test is given in January and I have only had my current students for 4 and a half months. So, it really measures half of what I did with them so far this year with half of what their previous teacher taught them. It doesn't really seem fair to base our bonuses on only half a year's work. Oh well, I will certainly take whatever money they give me.

Testing week is super boring for the teachers. We have to walk around and make sure kids aren't cheating or sleeping. I used to look at what answers the students put but I got extremely frustrated by the dumb answers they put, so I had to stop. The best thing about Stanford testing week is that there are no after-school tutorials. Life just seems so much better and more productive when I get home at 4:00 instead of 5:30. Yesterday, I managed to take a nap, write emails, go to the gym, take a shower, watch The Bachelor, do a Chinese lesson on Rosetta Stone and have a little God time. Not too shabby! If only I could be that productive everyday...

I am trying to take advantage of this extra time I have before my 2-night a week Young Life commitment starts up full swing next week. February will be a bit crazy. The Reading TAKS test (the one I am responsible for) is March 3rd and the kids and I will be forced (against our will) to live and breathe that test until it happens. I am not looking forward to it but I know I can handle it. It's only a month, right?

I'm 27... no make that 28.

Saturday was my birthday. It started off really great! My dad had made some really strange comments regarding my birthday. About a month before, he told me to make sure I reserved Saturday for a family celebration. This seemed strange. I kind of forgot about it and decided to have a little slumber party that night. My dad said we could do the family celebration on Friday instead. My family goes out to eat together about once a week so I figured we had to do more. My guess was that we would go to a comedy club or something. My mom told me to wear something nice because we would be going to a nice restaurant. This is why I was very surprised when my mom called on Friday about an hour before I was going to be picked up, to ask where I wanted to eat. I thought the whole point was for them to surprise me with a fancy place. I was pretty confused. Then my mom drove me to the restaurant. My dad was going to meet us there and called about every five minutes. I knew something was up but I wasn't sure what.

When I walked into the restaurant, my dad was sitting alone at a table with an odd expression on his face. I sat down at the table and he told me to turn around and tell the waitress what I wanted. I turned around and there was Amy, my best friend from YWAM! I was speechless, which doesn't happen very often. I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that Amy had come all the way from Canada and was indeed standing before me. I don't think it really felt real until dinner was over.

What a huge blessing to start off my birthday! I had actually hoped that one of my friends from out of town would come surprise me since I had a 3 day weekend but I never guessed Amy would come down from Calgary! What a great friend! A lot went on this weekend and I will continue it in my next post.

Reverend Butter

This weekend I went on a date to go see this ice sculpture competition in Houston's newest downtown park, Discovery Green. Weird events are always good ideas for dates as there are plenty of things to talk about. Apparently ice sculpting is a sub-culture that I did not know existed. I muswt admit that most of my ice sculpture experience is limited to cruises. I have a feeling that these guys look down on the cruise sculptors. It seemed like most of the spectators were regular folk like us. There were a few groupie-ish angst-ridden teens. Some of them were wearing chainsaw t-shirts. Yay!

The sculptors themselves looked a bit like carnies, though some had stage names or personas. They gave the winner a trophy that looked like some sort of old bowling trophy that they covered in glitter and mardi gras beads. Talk about classy! After 8 hours of back-breaking ice sculpting, the winner got a trashy trophy. Well, and a $2000 check. The winning sculpture was called "Marlin and Me" and featured a large marlin being ridden by a cowboy. I liked the punny title.

After the winner was announced, they brought out Reverend Butter. Apparently he is a wannabe rockstar ice sculptor. There was a heavy metal-esque band on stage playing behind him as he... uh... performed. I felt bad for one of the guitar players who was one of those guy/girl rocker types with the coiffed hair and tight jeans. The guy was down wind of the sculpting and was basically getting soaked. I was freezing in my sweater and coat and this poor guy is being spritzed with ice water in a rocker t-shirt.

Reverend Butter took his art form seriously. His moves seemed choreographed to the band's set as if they had practiced in advance. He kept doing extreme pelvic thrusts at the block of ice with his chainsaw. I must say I had never seen that before. It was really cold but we wanted to see what Reverend Butter was making. In the end, we left before he was finished but we could tell he was making some sort of giant wings. So, I highly recommend that everyone witness Reverend Butter's magic sometime in your life. You'll never look at ice sculptures the same way.

Resolutions and such

It makes sense to make my first blog of the new year about New Year's resolutions. I don't tend to get very formal with my resolutions but I do like the idea of being able to say I have been doing something all year when it is January 7th and I have been doing it for 7 days. My strictest resolution this year is to read the entire Bible in a year. I have done this twice before and I always gain new insight as I read. If I don't have a concrete plan like this, my daily Bible reading often turns into a weekly Bible reading instead. This makes me more disciplined.

So far, it has been interesting. The day after I started, my dad brought up a theological subject that I had read about only the night before. Pretty cool. It felt like it was God reminding me that I am doing this for a reason and it will impact my daily life. I am also reading a book called "The Year of Living Biblically." It's an intriguing book about a nonreligious guy who decides to try to follow all of the Bible's commands, including the obscure and strange ones. Many of the passages he has written about, I have already read in my daily Bible reading.

My other resolutions are the usual "eating better" and "working out more" that we all vow to do at the beginning of each year. I've done pretty well on the working out so far; joining the resolution resurgence at my gym. I am also trying to use my Wii Fit (X-Mas gift) to gauge my progress. My parents were so into my wii fit that they are going to buy one themselves when they are in stock again. The eating better part is coming along pretty well mostly thanks to Lean Cuisine. It has only been a week in 2009 so far so I will have to see where I am at in a month.

Christmas Changes

Today is Christmas Day. My brother is with his wife's family right now and should be arriving later this evening, in time for X-mas dinner. We usually do a Christmas lunch but compromises have to be made when there are in-laws to be factored in. My mom is having a hard time adjusting to the change.

Our former traditions are as follows: Christmas Eve service at good ole' CLPC, the church I grew up with. Last night, I went there with only my parents. In the past, I would see my good friends, Jocelyn and Emily at church that night. Emily's parents have moved away and Jocelyn is with her in-laws. I don't like that change much.

On Christmas morning we usually wake up and open our presents. This year it seemed too strange to open all our gifts without Andrew. We didn't want to wait and open them all with our extended family. They would be opening two or three gifts while we opened a dozen. That seemed a bit too weird also. So, my mom, dad and I opened all of our non-surprise gifts. I'd opened my wii fit weeks ago at my dad's insistence but I did open my new slippers, iPod and biking shorts.

Usually after we have our little family Christmas, we head over to my grandma and grandpa's to have Christmas lunch and present opening time with my mom's family. The family always has to eat before we open the presents. This proved painful during most of my childhood. I am not the most patient person especially when I see presents stacked under the tree. The only thing standing between me and my presents was always my aunt Kathy's painfully slow eating. It was excrutiatingly painful to wait. I would go to the tree and sort all the presents paying special attention to how many I had versus how many my brother had. Now my grandparents live in a fancy old folks home and don't have room to host. My parents have become the hosts.

After lunch, I would distribute the presents and we would all unwrap. Gifts from extended family are always random and usually amusing. This year, my brother and his family won't be here until later so we will have a Christmas dinner. A few years ago, we started going to the movies after our Christmas lunch/ present unwrap. I don't think it will work this year with our Christmas dinner. Well, change is not all bad. I did get to watch Home Alone today, which is not a real tradition yet but may become one.

We just have to get used to the end of old traditions and the beginning of new ones.

Cool Christmas Story

Those of you who get emails from my dad might already know this story.

My parents got an unexpected check due to proceeds from their Arkansas land's mineral rights. Since it was essentially found money, they decided they wanted to donate the money to a deserving YWAMer. A few months ago, my friend and current YWAMEer, Joey fell while hiking and got seriously injured. He has recovered more quickly than the doctors expected which I fully attribute to the many prayers lifted up on his behalf. Despite his accelerated healing progress, he has an upcoming knee surgery to repair damage to his ACL and insurance does not cover all the expenses.

My parents wrote Joey a check and I sent it at about 2pm on a Saturday. I knew Joey was going home for the holidays so I was praying that the check would get there by the end of the week. On Monday afternoon, Joey left a message on my phone that said that he had some news for me and my parents. I immediately thought that he had received a check from someone else and no longer needed my parents' money. I knew there was no way that my parents' check had arrived on Monday since I had only sent it Saturday afternoon. I lived in Maui for two years and it usually took about 4 days minimum to receive anything from the mainland.

I finally got a hold of Joey and was astounded by what he told me. On Monday, he had gone to his pre-op doctor's appt. He was told how much his surgery and the fancy brace he would need afterwards would cost. He didn't know how he would pay for it but felt God would provide. Then that afternoon, he received my parents' check as some sort of mail miracle and the check was for $5 more than the cost of the surgery and brace. God gave Joey a little extra for a cup of coffee at Anthony's. How cool is that?!!

There were too many coincidences to deny God's involvement. The quickness of the mail may not make much of an impact on most people but anyone who has lived in Maui knows how long it takes. How could it get there in one day? How did my parents know almost exactly how much it would be? This is the kind of stuff we need to remember when we question God's existence. He always provides for His children.

Oh yeah, I have a blog...

This may be the longest stretch of non-blogging ever by me. I am tempted to try to catch my blogging public on all that they have missed but I fear that it would be far too long. I will just catch you up on what's going on right now. I have less than a week left of school before Christmas break. Hooray!

I went on a Young Life retreat this past weekend, which was fun but wasn't really relaxing. I am excited for longer time off. I have been spending a lot of time at my parents' house lately. Shella, Andrew and Samuel have been in town and spending the night at the same house as them is the easiest way to see them. It's been really nice to hang out as a family. It's been too long.

Tonight we all watched a delightful new reality show called "Momma's Boys." It is a dating show ala The Bachelor but with another twist. There are three bachelors and each one is on the show with their mom. One of the moms is absolutely ridiculous. She is blantantly and ignorantly racist. She makes a bold statement that she does not want her son to be with anyone who is black, fat, mixed race or asian. She explicitly wants a white girl. This seems ironic since she is from Iraq and therefore middle eastern, I think.

There has already been a huge clash between the mom and the black girls on the show. One of the girls confronts her after the TV producers wisely decide to show all the ladies the tape of the mom's racist ranting. The girl tries to be civil but ends by shouting out how she is a "Nice Ass Woman." The mom says that her skin is blacker than the girl's anyway. This causes the girl to throw a glass. This was only the beginning! This could be the next best thing to Temptation Island! Temptation Island!

Fortunate Misfortune

I seem to be suffering from some sort of tire curse these days. If there is someone out there with a voodoo doll type model of my car, they must be poking that needle into my tires on a daily basis.
A few weeks ago, I was driving to Young Life when I heard a weird clank noise. I pulled into the Young Life parking lot and stopped to talk to my friend,Ann. We could both hear a loud hissing noise like someone deflating a pool float. It turns out that it was not a pool float rapidly deflating but my tire.
Upon further inspection, we found a large bolt protruding from my tire. Ann thought we could try fix a flat. Apparently fix a flat is not for gaping holes and the liquid quickly flowed out of the tire.

At this point I remembered that I had a full-size spare. David, a fellow Young Life leader, came to my rescue and changed my tire for me. I love nice boys.

I intended to get another tire to replace my spare. I figured that flat tires were not common so it wouldn't be a big deal to wait a month or so. I didn't want to add more to my already busy schedule and figured Christmas break would afford me plenty of chances to get a new tire.I was wrong.

Last night Sarah came over to watch OU versus Texas Tech. With two highly ranked teams, we were sure it would be a good game. We were wrong about that too.

We decided to go to Fry's Electronics before the game started. There was traffic on the freeway so I decided to go another way. We were driving down Airline near 610. The road was not in the best shape and I didn't see the pothole before it was too late. There was a weird noise and the car seemed unbalanced. I feared that the tire was flat and the gesturing of a man next to our car only confirmed my suspicions. We pulled into a nearby gas station to survey the damage.

The man who had been gesturing to us, came over as we got out of our car. It was pretty clear that the tire was a goner. I didn't know what to do. My parentsn my usual saviors, were out of town and I couldn't get a hold of my roommates or nearby friends.

Sarah and I are not car experts so we really had no choice but to let this guy help us. I took off my tire and said that there was a tire place only a couple of blocks away. He had his girlfriend watch our car while he walked with us to the tire place, wheeling my tire along as we went. During this time, he told us a bit about his situation. It was the kind you hear people tell before they approach you for money, though his seemed very sincere. He was from Louisiana and trying to get enough money to go back home. He works at a Buick dealership detailing cars but was between paychecks. He and his pregnant girlfriend were trying to get a room at a nearby hotel but we refused for lack of I.D. Apparently cheap hotels in this part of town require I.D. in case something shady happens involving prostitution, drugs, violence or all three. They want to know who to blame it on. So, this guy, Gary and his girlfriend were hanging out near the Shell deciding what to do with little money and no place to stay when we drove up.

We get to the tire place and some guys who don't speak English patch my tire for $10. Not bad! Gary chivalrously rolled the tire back to the Shell station for us. I never felt unsafe with Gary, though I can't vouch for Sarah. He never did anything that seemed shady. I had already decided I would give him some money. He really deserved it for helping us so much. My only fear was that he would demand more money than I felt his help had warranted.

We got the tire back to the car and Gary put in on for me and everything. I gave him $40 thinking that was fair for the amount he had helped us. Again, I was afraid he would try to get more. Instead, he seemed genuinely surprised by the money and defintely grateful. His girlfriend said she was going to cry and Gary said "God Bless You." It was the perfect reaction.

Getting a flat tire in a shady part of town was definitely not my plan that night and I hope it does not happen again. But, I can't help but think that maybe God put me and Gary together that night for a reason. I definitely wouldn't have given him that much money if he asked. Clearly, he and his girlfriend were in a jam. I was able to pay him for a very needed service that he provided for me and he showed me that there are genuinely nice and helpful people out there. Hopefully Gary and his lady friend found a better place to stay that night. It was worth the extra trouble to have this experience.

Really, Oprah? I mean, really?

I recently read a quote from Oprah Winfrey in US Weekly magazine. About Obama's election victory, she said, "There's never been a night like this one on planet Earth." Talk about being self-centered! And people wonder why the rest of the world sees the citizens of our country as prideful, arrogant, and self-absorbed. On planet Earth? Uh, what about when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa after years of Apartheid? What about the fact that there is a female president in Bangladesh, a Muslim country that oppresses its female citizens. I am sure there are plenty of other examples that I don't know about.

The election of Barack Obama, the nation's first biracial president is an important event in America. It definitely signifies that our country has come closer to equality among all people than ever before. But Oprah, to say that there has never been another night like on planet Earth is a display of egocentric ignorance bordering on hyperbole.

No matter what your views are on Obama as America's next President, Oprah's comments are just another example of America's dominate ego and lack of concern or attention to the rest of the world. As someone who has been to several other countries and has plenty of friends from other countries, I find her comments borderline offensive. I know there is plenty about the world that I do not know. That's why I would never make that sort of bold claim. America is a great country with a lot to offer but every country has value and America is certainly not unanimously and unequivocally the bestor most important. Sorry Oprah.

voting

This is a bit late but I have been meaning to write about my voting experience. This was my first time to vote for president. The only other time I voted was in college for the mayor of Austin. That was only because I wanted to vote for Leslie, the transvesite homeless mayoral candidate. He was running on a platform of creating teepee communities for the homeless. Pretty original, huh?

My lack of voting stems from a general feeling of apathy and laziness when it comes to voting. I never feel very passionate about candidates or issues so I don't think my uninformed vote should count as much as the people's votes who are actually passionate. I know this logic is flawed but it is how I feel.

This year I knew I needed to vote. This was not because I had lost my apathetic attitude towards voting. I hadn't. It's not because I had strong feelings for either presidential candidate. I didn't. In fact, if a suitable third option was unveiled minutes before I voted, I probably would have chosen him. The sole reason I voted was to be an example to my students.I was in charge of our school-wide election and thought it would be quite hypocritical to not vote after strongly advocating that the kids do it.

I voted early at a polling place near my school. It was an interesting mix of people. I was really struck by the fact that everyone's vote counts the same. There were clearly people there who had a lot of money as well as people who clearly didn't. There were white people, black people and Hispanic people. No Asians, as they are not very prevalant in that area. That all being said, it was a very diverse crowd. I was relieved to see that the line wasn't too long. It was just long enough for me to make these insightful observations but not long enough to make me want to scream. The most amusing part of the whole thing was the way we stood in line.

When, I walked in the room I noticed a sort of waiting lane marked off in tape. It made a giant L. The natural human response upon seeing taped lanes on the floor is to stand in them. For some reason, one of the election workers kept making the people make their waiting line outside of the tape. It was really funny to watch people try to stand between the tape lines and then watch the older gentleman make them stand outside of them. No one could understand right away. They would look down at the lines and then at the man and then back at the lines and back at the man. It was super amusing, though I am not sure my account really gave it justice.

When it came to the actually voting. I am not going to say who I voted for to be our President. As I told my students, it's private. One asked me to just give him the first letter of his first name. Nice try! I decided to vote in every possible race despite my lack of information. My thought process during the voting process was decidedly random. My dad detests Sheila Jackson Lee so I made sure to vote against her. I voted for one guy because his name was similar to that of one of my students. I voted for another person because they sounded Indian and you don't see a lot of Indians in politics. I voted for someone named Sam Houston. I really didn't have a choice on that one. He just had the perfect name for Texas politics.

It felt more meaningful than I thought but I will probably have to fight that same apathy four years from now. Who knows? I may not even be in the country.

Auntie Liz

So, I am an aunt! It's actually a cooler feeling than I expected. My brother and I are pretty close so I already feel a great fondness for this unseen nephew. I have only seen a mini-sized pic of him on my phone but he seems pretty cute so far. I have to give some serious props to my sister-in-law for a whopping 36 hours of labor! That's really intense!

Samuel Christopher Hightower was born November 9th and weighed 6lbs, 13 oz and was 20 inches long. According to my mom, this is how much I weighed and how long Andrew was. I am not sure the significance of these facts but my mom seemed amused by them. I haven't gotten any word on who he looks like. (It was hard to tell on the pic on my phone.) Most newborns look more like aliens than either one of their parents anyway. Shella and Andrew look nothing alike so I really want to see who he looks like. Andrew was really hoping that he would have Shella's blue eyes. He always wanted blue eyes and even wore some ridiculously fake looking blue contacts for a period of time in high school. What a dork!

The baby's name came about because Andrew and Shella wanted a Bible name for his first name and both liked Samuel. The Christopher part is to honor my cousin, Chris who died about 12 years ago in a car crash at age 19.

I should get to see him in early December when they come to visit. I didn't think it would be a big deal to wait only a couple of weeks to see him but now that he's born, I wish I could see him sooner. Hopefully I will at least seem some larger pictures of him soon. It seems unreal that he really exists. I am super excited to be Auntie Liz. I figure I should go with the Hawaiian tradition and be called Auntie. My dad is still trying to figure out his grandpa name. I am pushing for Pop Pop. If I keep telling the kid when he starts talking maybe it will stick.

Hooray for little Samuel! I am so thankful that he and Shella are healthy.

Scantron 3

 

Scantron 2

 

Scantron!

 

Halloween

Last year I was the winner of our school's costume contest. I was hoping for a repeat win this year. I knew I couldn't top last year's Hot Cheetos costume. I mean, that stuff is used as currency at school. I thought about being a giant pickle. The kids love those too. They like to put a Hot Cheeto in the top of the pickle and suck on it. Then they drink the orangish greenish juice. It's pretty disgusting.

The only way I could envision a giant pickle costume was stuffing some green garbage bags and trying to wear them. It didn't sound very feasible. I also thought about being Lucas-this tamarind candy that they love. There are too many different varieties to be able to pick one recognizable one.

I decided to be a scantron. In case you are not as school-saavy as I am, a scantron is basically one of those answer sheets you bubble in with a number 2 pencil. I was a little nervous about getting the vote of the below 3rd grade crowd. They are not very familiar with scantrons. To try to win them over, I created a giant number 2 pencil. The costume turned out pretty well. I got tons of great reactions from teachers and students alike.

I thought I had a real chance to win despite my costume's lack of lower grade appeal. The winners were announced at the dance and there was only one winner for individual costume and two winners for group costume. Much to my dismay, I lost to the Joker. His costume was decent but not as out-of-the-box as mine. I mean, Joker was the number one costume in America. Where's the creativity? Those kids don't know creativity when they see it! Several of my kids from last year were around me when the votes were announced. They were all wishing and crossing their fingers that I would win. It was pretty cute. They were definitely disappointed when I lost. One of them tried to console me by saying, "It's okay. You did your best." Hey, at least I was a winner in their eyes, right?

Field Trip De Ja Vu

On Tuesday I went on a field trip to the Bayou Wildlife Park. I planned this particular field trip because of my own field trip to the place in fourth grade. All I remembered was getting to feed exotic animals from buckets while riding around on a tram. I think a camel slobbered on one of my friends. What more could a fourth grader ask for?

The place was just as fun as I remembered. It has all types of animals including: camels, llamas, longhorns, emus, ostriches, lemurs, and just about every type of deer known to man. The tour makes several stops so that the animals can come and feed out of the buckets of food that each child is holding. The children's faces when the animals first started eatiang was simply priceless. The emus were hilarious. They would look around with bugged out eyes and then suddenly dip in their head in the bucket. The kids could barely contain their excitement.

I like field trips because I can let some of my teacher guard down and interact with the kids on a more personal level. We get to have fun together. Sometimes when I am in my classroom, I feel like I am some sort of dictator in a totalitarian regime. I am the boss and they all have to do what I say. Sometimes the power is fun but I get tired of it.

The downside to field trips is that they are exhausting. Having to make sure the kids are not running off or getting eaten by camels takes its toll. My parent chaperone fell asleep on the bus as did I. All in all, though, it was a good day.

Kids are entertaining

Favorite student quote so far this year:
One of my students was commenting on the fact that my nose turns red when I am sick. He said, "Is that the way white people skin do?" I took advantage of this teachable moment to explain to him that white people's skin is like white shoes. Our skin shows stuff more the same way white shoes show more than black shoes. I think he now understands the complexity of race. Don't you think so?

At Young Life last night, we played a game called "Eat or Dance." It was a strange mix of hot potato and musical chairs with a twist. The kids had to walk in a circle and whoever was the closest to Andres when the music stopped, had to either eat a mystery item from a bag or dance. Some of the items were harmless like an apple. We also had two types of baby food- sweet potato and corn as well as sweet potato and Alaskan salmon. The worst food by far was the one I contributed. One of the girls ended up having to eat a piece of durian candy.

Durian is hard to adequately explain. It is a fruit found throughout Asia. It is a spiky melon looking fruit that is about the size of a football with a yellow slimy inside. The worst part about the fruit is its incredibly foul odor. It smells like raw sewage mixed with gasoline. The smell is so bad that it is banned on most Asian subways. There are usually signs that say "No durian." It's hard to imagine how people can like a fruit that smells so wretched. But somehow they do. I bought some Durian candy in China to feed to unsuspecting friends. This seemed like a great way to do this in a public way.

The candy looks harmless but you can smell the stench through the package. The girl who ate it didn't actually react as adversely as I would have thought. She tried to pretend it wasn't awful. The funniest part was watching the crowd's reaction as the smell hit them. Some of the guys literally ran out of the room. People were acting like they were going to puke and one actually did. Everytime the poor girl opened her mouth, the stench wafted out. It was pretty hilarious! I gotta get some more of that durian candy! And quick!

Timelines

When the opportunity presents itself, I like to put some of the funny things that happen to me as a teacher on my blog Our recent timeline project definitely created some humorous memories, mostly involving the content of the students' photographs.

The kids had to make timelines of their lives using photos. It was really fun to see what my students looked like as babies and toddlers. Some of these pictures are just priceless. One little girl has pictures of her on some ride at Chuck E Cheese at age 2. She is sitting next to a plastic Chuck E that is bigger than her and screaming her head off.

My absolute favorite picture is from one little girl. Though her parents do look a bit humorous, the real beauty of the photograph comes from what the family is posed with. I have to believe that they were at a circus. They are flanked in the photograph by two dyed giant poodles. One is dyed pink and the other is dyed green. They are real poodles and they are incredible! I already greatly dislike those giant poodles. They are just unnatural to me. But these were ridiculously wonderful! It's very tempting to try to scan the photo into my computer so I can look at it whenever I need a little pick me up. It seems like a bit of a gray area morally, though so I probably won't. I need to find some of those poodles!

Oh yeah, I have a blog don't I?

I kind of forgot about my blog this week. Normally I think about how I should be writing on it more but this week I didn't even think about it. Oops.

As far as college football goes, I really couldn't be happier. The season was already fun because of all the top teams being upset but with the OU/UT game this last weekend, I can hardly contain my excitement. For those of you who missed the game, it was awesome! There was a lot of back and forth and some brilliant athleticism. Colt McCoy was adequate last year but that's about as far as I would go in praising him. This year he has put on 15 pounds of sheer awesomeness! He is very fun to watch. He has brains and athleticism. And with Major Applewhite on the offensive staff, there's really not any more I could ask for. I am very aware that there are several more games to go and we could easily fall from our top spot. But, wow, it sure is fun while it lasts! The Missouri game this weekend should be pretty good as well.

School isn't going quite as well as college football. I am still feeling a lot less pressure than last year but there is still a lot of pressure to deliver the numbers my boss wants to see. I feel like I was able to do it last year with similarily low kids. This year I know a lot more and I have more help. I think it will all be okay. I can see why so many teachers quit within the first five years these days. This wasn't the case when I was a kid but things have changed a lot since then.

Last Friday night my school had a "Reading Sleepover." It is this big event where kids spend the night at the school and do various reading-centered activities. I didn't attend last year because I was out of town. Overall, the time went pretty fast and it was more fun than I thought.

I always enjoy these more informal times with the students. I get to joke around with them and get to know them more as people. I also got to spend some time with my students from last year. I definitely know them better than my current students. I miss most of them. I was fine until the last hour from 9pm-10pm. I just wanted to run out of the school. From 7:30am-10pm is clearly too much! Some teachers spent the night. Crazy! I try not to let my work life overrun my personal life. Sleeping at the school would definitely be counter-productive for that particular goal. They may take my weekdays, but they will NOT take my nights and weekends!!!!

Cancer Sucks!

I should really be working on my lesson plans right now but I only have four days of school next week so it doesn't seem like it will take too long. We inexplicably get Rosh Hoshana off this year, which is a Thursday. I am afraid that my kids will go out of town and skip school on Friday. We'll see.

This weekend was a pretty good mix of fun time, lazy times and productive times. On Saturday, I did the Race for the Cure with my friends, Sarah and John. Sarah, is my best friend, who was diagnosed with cancer last year.

We did this event last year about two months after she was diagnosed. That was super emotional. This time was a lot better because she is cancer-free. The women with breast cancer wear special pink shirts so it's very easy to pick them out. They also walk down this special chute and get pink carnations as well as get a goody bag and free food. The only part that almost brought me to tears is when Sarah left me and John to walk down the survivor corridor. It's so symbolic of how cancer is. You can definitely walk your loved one through it but there are some parts where they just have to go it alone.

We spent most of our time at the race trying to find other cancer survivors who looked our age. Last year I remember seeing a few but this time we only saw one other girl who looked about five years older than us. It's crazy to think that Sarah is in the .1% of women who get breast cancer. It looked like the majority of the women with breast cancer were between 50-60. They say 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer in their lives. Sarah says I am safe because since 1 out of 8 of our friends will get it, she's already that one. I hope she's right.

We say some great clever t-shirts and hats at the race. Some ladies were wearing what we called, "boob hats." They were these baseball hats with lacy bras wrapped around them. They were pretty funny! We also saw "Save the TaTas" shirts, "Save Second Base" shirts as well as "Save my Rack" shirts. I appreciated the cleverness.

At the end of the month I am having a party for Sarah. Unless you live under a rock, you have to notice the plethora of breast cancer paraphernalia available during the month of October. Ever since Sarah was diagnosed, I have been buying her the weirdest, most random breast cancer stuff I can find. The party will be a celebration of Sarah's cancer-free status. Guests will have to bring the most random breast cancer gift they can find or a breast cancer related food. I am hoping to solicit Marti Harnly to make one of her infamous boob cakes. It should be good times for all. Maybe I need to get some sort of breast cancer ensemble prepared. I did see some pink ribbon crocs at the race. Talk about tacky!

Injustice

Today my students suffered an injustice. I can't go into specifics since that's not wise to do in such a potentially public forum like this. I thought things were looking better this year but it seems that the same problems are beggining to surface. I am quite frustrated but all I can really do is pray.

On a lighter note, we had a faculty volleyball game today. It was one of the strangest volleyball games I have played in. Although now that I think about it, I have played in some strange volleyball games. There were the games against trannies in Maui and a game of tequila volleyball in Mexico with my dad, brothern and a 14 year old boy who was the only one drinking the tequila.

This volleyball game was only for the staff. Though I am really just decent at volleuyball, I was a referee in college so I know the rules very well. It can be frustrating to play with people who hit the ball illegally on each hit. In those circumstances, I try to disconnect myself from my competitive nature. This can be very difficult.

So, this strange volleyball game was played on a very irregular court surrounded by about 600 cheering children. The net was low enough for an average fifth grader to spike over and the ball seemed more like a slightly rigid but soft cloth beach ball. The ceiling above the net was far too low and two teachers had to act as anchors on the ends of the net so it wouldn't fall down.

The game itself lasted about two hours. It felt like we were really just trying to give all the children enough time to buy snacks while we played. Due to a lack of organization only about half the school was able to get snacks in that amount of time. The poor older kids got screwed. I was on the white lightning team and we dominated. The final score was something like 38-55. Ridiculous.oh well, it was fun!

Longhorns kill Razorbacks

I haven't blogged in quite a while. I was on quite a streak with all the hurricane updates. I went back to work on Monday and the kids came back on Tuesday. Getting back to work was not as bad as it seemed the night before we started back. I feel relatively back in the swing of things. Houston is recovering. It was only a couple of days ago that the majority of the lights in my neighborhood came back on. Most street lights are working again, which makes traveling around a lot more quick and less painful.

I had a pretty full weekend. I went to some of my Young Life girls' volleyball games. I got confused and thought the JV game was at 6:30 but it turned out to be 5:30. I had come to watch the JV girls but I did get to watch the varsity lose. It was fun to watch my girls but it would have been more fun if they had won.

We have a staff volleyball game at school on Friday. I am ready to kick some butt! It should be fun. I can get a bit frustrated during non-competitive volleyball games, though. I worked as a volleyball referee in college and I know the rules pretty well. Non-competitive volleyball means that a lot of illegal moves are allowed and that can frustrate me. I have to keep the frustration inside, though, or I will look like an overcompetive jerk. With all that being said, it should be fun.

On Saturday, I helped my fellow teacher, Mr. Z pack up some things in his apt. His apt. suffered severe damage from the hurricane and was already growing mold. It's always interesting to go to some one's home for the first time. You get a whole new picture of them as a person. Mr. Z had at least 1000 DVDs and approximately 2000 CDs. Pretty crazy! He clearly loves movies and music.

In the afternoon, I watched UT annihilate Arkansas. I am sure my Razorback loving cousin, David was not happy. After the game, Sarah, John and I hit some golf balls at the driving range. I was better than I expected. The only other time I tried to hit a golf ball, it resulted in the ball somehow ending up behind me. This time I did hit some fairly terrible shots but there were some pretty good ones mixed in. I might have to try the real kind of golf one of these days.

Today I hung out with my rents for a bit. Then I tried a new church with a couple of my Young Life kids. I am not sure what I thought about the church overall. I wasn't too into the worship. I found it a bit slow and cheesy. The inside of the church was cool and kind of classy/trendy. The service had a lot of people around my age and is located near my house which are both pluses. I just don't know. It's like I am looking for some sort of perfect church and that's just not possible. I guess all ny time in YWAM has made me pretty picky.

Not Back to Normal

Hurricane Ike’s effects are still obvious around town. The most telling reminder is the significant amount of people who are still without power. Tonight was the first time I had been out at night since the hurricane. I drove about 30 miles south on I45 to Sarah and John’s house in Pearland. Some people claim that the hurricane basically followed I45 from south to north. There was certainly a lot of damage to be seen along that route. There were many signs torn to shreds or knocked to the ground. The sign for “The Ritz,” a seedy strip club was almost completely destroyed. I wasn’t too upset about that one.

I got a different picture of the area as I drove home on the freeway. It seemed as if there was a mile of stores and homes with electricity followed by a mile of stores and homes without. There was almost a pattern formed by it. I can only imagine that from a bird’s eye view, the city must closely resemble a checkerboard at night. My own neighborhood seems to have more people without power than with power. The sections without power are eerily dark and give me an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is crazy how dark it gets with no street lights.

I drove by my school and saw that it did have power. I am assuming that school will resume on Monday, though I won’t know for sure until Friday. My old school district, CCISD, which is further south sustained a lot of damage at several schools and won’t be opening for at least another week. I am not sure how I feel about going back to school. I barely got to know my students before this happened so I fear it will be like starting all over again. I found out today that the apartment complex where about 25% of my students live was significantly damaged during the storm. Even in the dark I could see pieces of the roof missing as I drove by. I hope my students didn’t lose possessions and weren’t traumatized by the whole thing. To be honest, I would guess a good number of them went to Mexico. Not a bad idea.

The lines for gas are finally gone. I am so glad I was able to hold out until today to get gas. What a waste it would have been to wait in one of those four hour + lines! I am still finding humor in the things that the stores are running low on after the hurricane. Frozen foods tend to be popular as many people are restocking their refrigerators to replace the food that spoiled without electricity. Board games have been cleared out at the Target near my house. I think that’s because young hipsters like myself, turn to board games when they have extra time and limited electronics. Snack food also seems to be a hot item, though the “hot” versions of chips are the only ones left on the shelves. I guess hot cheetos aren’t as popular post-hurricane.

People are doing fairly well at driving with all the broken, fallen or displaced traffic signals. Every intersection is pretty much a four way stop. This can be very tedious at times. My roommate’s twenty minute drive to work has turned into an hour drive much to her dismay. I am starting to have problems with the lights that are fixed. When I see a red light, I feel compelled to stop and then go. Luckily common sense has overcome this urge but it can be difficult to get used to the normal way of driving. I am sure it will take a while for all the traffic signals to get fixed. Some seem to simply lack power but others have been blown over, knocked down, spun in the opposite direction or tilted.

I have heard plenty of stories about people dramatically affected by this hurricane. Andrew Thompson, a friend from college, has lost his whole house. Apparently he lost all the shingles on his roof, which caused the roof to link and then to fully cave in. He and his wife just had their second baby this summer and also have a two-year old. I can’t imagine what this must be like. Please pray for his family. My parents know of a family that had eight feet of water in their home. This is true of several of the coastal neighborhoods. I can’t even imagine.

Hurricane Aftermath

I don't have internet at my house right now but I can't get too annoyed by that since I do have power, water and sewer unlike a lot of people around here. My parents' internet works so I am trying to come over here to check my email. I plan to try to write in this blog more for the people who might be interested in how Houston is doing after Hurricane Ike.

Things are a lot crazier than I could have anticipated. Though I was fortunate to get power back within about 24 hours, more than a million people in this area are still in the dark. This includes some people in my neighborhood, the Heights. It is clear that the power company is trying their best to restore power as quickly as possible, though the media is giving them nothing but grief. Apparently it depends on why your power is out as to when you will get it back. I feel very bad for the areas in my neighborhood where a tree wider than I am tall is resting on their power lines. It will be a long time before that can be fixed. All over my neighborhood, there are pockets of people without power. I almost feel guilty for having it already.

Stores that have power are open but more than half seem to be without power. I drove by my old work, Soundwaves and was surprised to see it closed. That place never closes but I guess without power, there are not a lot of options. I feel so bad for all the hourly workers that cannot work right now all across the city. I really don't know how they will be able to make up this financial loss. I am very thankful that I am on salary and don't suffer any sort of financial detriment. HISD is closed until at least Monday. Apparently a lot of their schools still do not have power. I heard that mine doesn't seem to be damaged but I don't know if they have power. It's weird to have this pseudo-vacation right now. I really don't know what to do with myself.

As for other Houston news, Allen Parkway where it goes under Studemont is still completely underwater. It's hard to believe that it hasn't drained like the nearby bayous. Gas is a precious commodity right now and I am doing my best to conserve it. The day after the storm, the lines were 40 cars long and could take more than 4 hours to get through the line. Now, the lines are about ten cars long. There are a lot of gas stations that are not operational due to storm damage or power outage. I am trying to hold off on getting gas until the lines end.

I went to Border's today and it was like a make-shift shelter. There was a sign in front that said people could use internet and charge cell phones. They had set up tables and chairs and people were everywhere getting their electronic fix. I would probably be camped out there too if I had no power or water. All the open restaurants are full of people, though I think many went out of town. The grocery stores have been ransacked of certain goods but have plenty of others. Apparently people primarily need chips and coke in these trying times.

Again, I will try to update this blog more regularly so that people can get a feel for Houston during these crazy time. Thanks for the concerned emails and phone calls. Cell phone service is very spotty right now so don't be offended if I don't return your call.

Hurricane Tales

So, unless you've been without internet or TV, you have probably heard about Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday night and it's been chaos ever since. Hurricanes have hit here before but none since I have become a semi-responsible adult.

School was canceled on Friday though the hurricane didn't hit until late at night. It was good to give us time to get prepared. We moved stuff away from windows and readied my prayer room as a safe place to ride out the storm, if necessary.

I was already running a fever on Thursday at school so I welcomed the break from teaching. I spent most of Friday resting and pretty much slept through the hurricane. The noise and chaos of the hurricane scared my roommates into my prayer room as I slept through the maelstorm.

Millions of people lost power. We lost power for only about 24 hours. My parents didn't lose it at all. They were one of very few that didn't lose it at all. Other people in their small little town home neighborhood are without power. Some of them have stretched extension cords across the street from their powerless houses to a giving neighbor's who had power. It's kinda funny. I have been staying with my parents so I don't have to go without internet and cable TV.

I rode my bike around my neighborhood and was astounded at the damage done to trees and plants. Thankfully, most trees fell onto streets and yards and not houses. There were definitely some that did land on houses, though. It doesn't sound like many people were injured or killed, which is something to be thankful for.

In my neighborhood, you can only go a couple of blocks before you have to detour to avoid fallen tree limbs or an actual fallen tree. Some of the trees have fallen across power lines, which is why many people in my neighborhood don't have power.

Many major roads are still underwater and I haven't really ventured beyond a five mile radius. People are walking and riding bikes to inspect the damage. There is definitely a community feel. There are lines and lines of cars at every gas statsion. There are also really long lines at any store or restaurant that has enough power to be open. It's crazy to think that people really need something from Walgreen's badly enough to stand in a four hour line one day after the storm. We have known that Ike was coming for the almost a week and we all had plenty of time to prepare. And I thought I was a procrastinator....

Tonight there was a ruckus outside my parents' place. The street in front of their place is narrow and parking is only allowed on one side for good reason. We heard a commotion outside and decided to join the other gawkers. Two giant fire trucks were trying to get down the little street but having trouble because some yahoo had parked on the wrong side directly in front of a no parking sign. There was a large group of people crowded around bad-mouthing the parking offender. The coward didn't come out and the fire engine was forced to do a 46 point turn. It turns out that someone's candle had caught their shower curtain on fire. Luckily it wasn't too serious since it took the fire truck ten minutes to navigate a simple turn with the illegal parker.

We watched the spectacle for a bit and then went inside. About half an hour later we heard more commotion and of course, we went outside again. This time there were three cop cars. Apparently someone called the cops on the illegal parker. Now that the cops were involved, one of the neighbors suddenly realized whose car it was and knocked on their door. A few minutes later the law breaker slinked out to his car. I made sure to point him out. I am surprised he didn't get stoned.

It reminded me a lot of the episode of Seinfeld where George parks in the handicapped spot and an angry mob trashes his car. He's too embarassed/scared to admit that its his car. Unfortunately we didn't get to trash it. That would have been fun after all this hurricane stress.

Getting Ready for Hurricane Ike

My school was canceled today. Hurricane Ike is on its way so everything is closing. I am watching the news right now and they keep showing Galveston. I love Galveston and I have spent a lot of time there. It's crazy to see the waves crashing over the seawall. The seawall is 17 feet above sea level. These are some huge waves and the storm has not even arrived. This could be pretty bad for Galveston, not Katrina bad but bad nevertheless.

I would be enjoying this free day off from school but I am sick. I guess chillin' at home sick is better than teaching a class sick. I had to miss a day when Hurricane Gustav canceled my flight and I can't afford to take a sick day anytime soon. I am annoyed that I am sick. I thought that my sinus surgery this summer would prevent this from happening to me. I have a fever and I blow my nose every few minutes. Good times! I am hoping that by resting this weekend, I will be all better on Monday.

Before I was officially sick, we had our first Young Life club of the year. It went pretty well. There were a lot more boys than girls which is a result of Andres and Bronson hanging out at the high school more than me. I definitely need to spend more time there. A couple of my favorite girls were there, though. We played a game where kids had to find specified things from among the people in the crowd like cell phone, chewed gum and Jordan shoes. At the end of the game, they were told to find a "Princess Diary" VHS tape. One of the other leaders held it up and the two contestants had to fight to bring it to the front. The contestants were an athletic girl and a small guy. The guy got the tape first but then the girl totally tackled him and took him to the ground. It was amazing!!!We all cheered. She won the prize hands down.

Busy Weekend

I have had two busy weekends in a row- so busy that I haven't watched a college football game yet. Now, that's a shame! I have had fun, though.

On Saturday my mom and I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Shella. We had good food and good times. Unlike most parties thrown by my mom, this one did not have a watermelon theme. The baby's room will be done in Noah's Ark so that was also the theme of the shower. Shella and the baby got a lot of loot. I have decided that I am only giving the baby mini adult clothes. I just really like it when babies look like mini adults. I got the kid who is supposed to be a boy named Samuel, four humorous t-shirts. "I'd Rather be Naked," "Don't look at me. That smell is coming from Daddy," "My mom is hot" and my favorite "Mi papa es macho." I am doing my best to guarantee that the kid is cool. That's an aunt's job, right?

We played a few games. Shella's friends, Erin and Jill were almost alarmingly good at the Celebrity Baby Name game. They won by a landslide. The middle aged woman really had no chance though Marilu inexplicably knew the names of all the Jolie-Pitts. We also played a game where three people had to race to finish Sprite in baby bottles. My mom participated and it was hilarious. She did get frustrated and opened the bottle instead of finishing it the legitimate way. Don't worry. I did get photos.

Then today my dad and I rode in the Tour de Pink. This is a bike ride that raises money for breast cancer research. This is clearly a cause near and dear to my heart after Sarah's experience with it last year. It's so much easier to ride long distances in a ride like this. It's easier not to give up when there are a lot of other people riding alongside of you and people cheering you along the route. There are also some great free snacks. One stop had mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some exquisite chocolate chip cookies. We rode 63 miles. I didn't feel like this was too shabby since it has been months since I have ridden more than 20. It was nice ot finally have a road bike for one of these events. It makes me excited about the MS150 in April.

Gustav, you little scamp!

It's Monday night and I am in Mississippi. I was not supposed to be in Mississippi tonight. I was supposed to be at home getting ready for tomorrow, my sixth day of this school year. But, my plans have been thwarted by Gustav (the hurricane, not my lanky, loveable YWAM friend from Sweden.)

Sarah Morgan O'Bryan and I came to Jackson this weekend to visit our dear friends, Emily and Van. We had a great time and even got to see Eudora Welty's house, something I had been hoping to do since I first read her stream of conciousness short stories back in high school. We didn't do much besides go out to eat and hang out. This was fine by me since other than visiting Ms. Welty's ancestual home, my main purpose for visiting was quality time with good friends.

Sarah lives in Savannah and works as a junior high art teacher. We were very afraid that she would get stranded as well. Tomorrow is her first day of school and missing it would be very difficult. Luckily Savannah is in the opposite direction of the hurricane so her flight was not canceled. I was not so lucky. One good thing is that I made sure my classroom was ready in case something like this happened. Also my students are taking a fake TAKS (Texas standardized test) all day tomorrow. My position as test administrator could easily be performed by some sort of trained chimp or possibly a well-bathed hobo.

Although I appreciate this extra time with Van and Emily, this whole unexpected absence is throwing me off. I really wish I could just be in class tomorrow but there's really nothing I could do about it. I looked at other flights and they were about $600. No freaking way! I also thought about renting a car and driving to HOuston. The rates were reasonable and I was seriously considering doing it when I realized that in order to get from Mississippi to Texas, you have to cross through Louisiana and that's where the hurricane is. Not a smart idea. So, again, I have to sit back and deal with those things God throws at you that you can't control. And I really like to be in control.

Two days of school down, Many more to go

Today was my second day of school. It went pretty well. I seemed to have a well-behaved class. Yay! They are definitely better behaved than my last class and those kids weren't too bad. I have enjoyed seeing my former students in the hallway. I miss them since I knew them so well. These new kids are still foreign to me so I am not attached.

I read to the kids from one of my favorite childhood books, "Sideways Stories from Wayside School." They loved it as all kids seem to. The book talks about how apples on a teacher's desk show how much the students like the teacher. Well, now the students have started giving me apples. I got one yesterday after lunch. Then, today the same little girl brought me an apple from home. Then, at lunch the same little girl got me another apple. Two other kids got me apples at lunch and one got me an orange. She didn't get the apple significance. I don't know if I should just ride the apple train for a while and see if it ends on its own accord or if I should put a stop to it. I do like apples so I will probably just go with it until it gets out of hand.

I have quite the routine going for the last two days. I hope I can keep up the pace, but I have my doubts. I have a quiet time before school, I do the whole teaching thrid grade thing, I come home and take a sweet nap and then I go to the gym or ride my bike. Once my schedule fills up with other things, I probably won't be able to keep this up but it's nice while it lasts.

Teachers Gone Wild

I am in the midst of a teacher training marathon. Last week we were in trainings and this week we are as well. On Monday, the school district decided to spice things up by sending several of our schools to a camp for some outdoor teacher training. Some groups did a high ropes course, some did a low ropes course and others played random children's games. I was a bit disappointed that my group did not get to do the high ropes. Oh well. I have done countless ropes courses and maybe the people who got to do it were doing it for the first time.

My group was full of teachers I had never met since the other teachers at my school defected to another group. I wanted to stay where I was assigned. I think the whole experience was supposed to be a team-building exercise. This was impossible since they mixed up the schools and assigned us to various groups. I guess it was supposed to be some sort of solo learning experience. We did classic low ropes activities like trying to get 17 people across small beams of wood from one wooden "island" to the next. We had to try to all balance on a swinging log. This meant getting a little intimate with these strangers. It was better than sitting through a boring inservice in an overly refrigerated room like we usually do.

Our group was one of the last to go to lunch so pretty much all the food was gone. After lunch, we played some children's games. We played "I have never." This is actually one of my favorite games, though with adults it can quickly get dirty. The faciliatator made up the statements this time so I didn't learn any dirty secrets about anyone other than if they'd been to Mexico or not. When you admitted to doing something, you got to go to the center of the circle and beat each other with pool noodles. I was into that twist.

My favorite game also involved a fun noodle. We were broken up into groups of three. I quickly got with the only two people I knew in my group- Mr. Bravo- the third grade bilingual reading teacher and Ms. Gonzales- the computer teacher. We had to link arms. Bravo was in the middle and with the ladies on either side. We were given a piece of pool noodle cut to the size and shape of a hockey puck. Ms. Gonzales held the hockey puck flat on her palm while I weilded the pool noodle. We had to try to use the noodle to knock off other teams' pucks, while protecting our puck. It was tons of fun. The facilitator told everyone to keep the pucks away from their faces. In true teacher fashion, many people did not listen. This really gave me no choice but to smack them in the face with my noodle to dislodge the puck. It was incredible! I am not exactly sure why I enjoyed hitting middle-aged ladies in the face with a noodle so much, but I did. We really dominated the competion and people were talking about us afterwards. I think they were afraid of me. I am not sure if it was a good or bad thing.

So, despite the superfulous waiting around that accompanies any large scale training, it was a good day. I whacked older ladies in the face with pool noodles under the pretense of playing a game, I got to know some other teachers somewhat intimately and in the end, for some reason, I along with all the other teachers were given fake gold medals with our school name on the back. Talk about a dream come true! I am pricing display cases for it as I type.

Going for the Gold

I am definitely a teacher. I can't hide from this fact. My latest super dorky teacher hobby has been finding the cheapest school supplies. My crowning achievement has been 3 rulers, 10 folders and 4- 150 sheet packs of notebook paper all for 96 cents! Now, that is something to get excited about, right? This week, there are new deals for me to find.

The nice thing about my second year of teaching is that I don't have to buy as much stuff. Unfortunately I prefer to make a lot of my own decorations instead of purchasing them at the teacher supply store. That place gives me the creeps and I am not 100% sure why. Making my own decorations takes a lot more time than simply pasting up some cheesy "You are Special" poster. On one wall, I have an Olympic theme where the kids will "Go for the gold in Reading!" This is undeniably cheesy but also slightly cool. I have a kiddie pool that the kids get to use when they behave. I am going to put a fake Olympic diver in the corner of my room, diving into the pool. I hope it works.

Tomorrow we are all going to a ropes course for team building. I feel I have quite the advantage since I have been on about a dozen different ropes courses. It should be pretty funny to see any teachers who are afraid of heights.

I am glad I still have a week until my students come. I definitely don't feel ready. I have a Young Life leader retreat next weekend, right before school starts. Hopefully I will get to rest and not have to do crazy stuff before I have to go to school.

Got my shoes tied tight, i hope i dont get in a fight, back to school, back to school. ...

I am finally feeling like I am in here in Houston for a while, well at least until this school year ends.

I have been attending a lot of trainings and setting up my room pretty much all week. I am trying to get used to waking up early again. This year I want to have quiet times with God before school. It always makes a difference in my patience and mood.

I wasn't sure what I would be teaching this year. Luckily, I will be staying in third grade. This will mean a lot less work for me this year. I am also no longer teaching social studies. This is good and bad. I really like social studies and helping the kids think on a more golbal level. But only teaching one subject means less grades and less lesson plans. I am hoping to be able to devote more time to Young Life this year.

When I am not at school, I am usually watching the Olympics. Swimming/The Michael Phelps show was interesting at first but now I am tired of it. I look forward to track and field starting soon.

I have also been reading a great book called, "Stuff White People Like." It is just hilarious. I recommend it to everyone.

Back in Texas and trying to be happy about it

So, I got back in Houston today to some crappy news. While I was gone, some punk bashed in the back window of my car. Now I have to go to the glass place tomorrow for a few hours and pay $300 for something that was not at all my fault. Ugh!!

This comes after an incredible time in Maui and overseas. I really felt like I was part of YWAM again after being in that world for over a month. It was really hard to leave. I know I am supposed to be in Houston this year- teaching and doing Young Life. It's still hard to leave the YWAM life. The encouragement and sense of community simply cannot be beat. I also still have some rather incredible friends in Maui. I got to be there for 9 days before China but only 3 days afterwards. Three days was not enough and I found myself praying that the plane would not take off last night. I thought it was working when the tv and lights kept flickering. Apparently they fixed the problems, though and we took off much to my dismay.

I have to go back to school on Monday and I really haven't thought about it at all. Luckily the kids don't come back for two more weeks. I think that'd be a bit too intense for me.

My time in China was amazing! We went in not knowing exactly what we would do and then we were blessed over and over again. I am still praying about when and if I am supposed to go back. I will very likely go back next summer but I am also considering longer term. It's a huge deal. Luckily I have some time to pray.

Last Chinese Blog

I can't believe I only have two full days left here. Pete and Trevor have already left so it is just Will, Sarah and me. On Thursday, we took the kids who live at the house we are staying at to go ice skating and play video games. It was fun. The ice rink was not well kept and was very bumpy. I like to think that this is why the following happened: I was skating around, taking pictures of Sarah and the kids. All of a sudden a little tiny skater came barreling at me. He must have been around 4 years old and a suprisingly good skater. I couldn't figure out how to go from standing still to moving to get out of his way. We both crashed to the ground. It was pretty hilarious. I wonder what his parents thought of the white lady tackling their son. Luckily I did not find out.

At night we have been going to English corners. The two we went to, the teacher did not show up. Luckily I am a teacher and I was able to wing it. We met one girl there who is not on the team but who is interested. We have hung out with her the last four nights. Yesterday we went with her and her two friends shopping around the city. It was a very long and full day but I did get the last of the presents I wanted to get for friends and family. We also went to a movie at a tiny little theater. Everything was normal until the end when a family of 8 came in speaking incredibly loudly in Chinese. It was so weirdly loud! I will have to watch the movie again so I can hear the ending. Unfortunately I was unable to read the Chinese subtitles.

I have enjoyed my time here but I find I am always ready to go back home when the time to go gets closer. I wonder what it would be like to live somewhere abroad indefinitely. Maybe I will find out someday.

The Diamond Ball

Our hosts invited us to a ball. I think it was my first one since I can remember no previous balls. We all got dressed up and headed to the ball. I really didn't know what to expect. I think most girls are afraid of wearing the wrong type of clothes to big events. Luckily, Sarah and I were dressed appropriately. The ball had some very fancy houre derves (don't know how to spell that). There were some little merengue cloud type things with fruit on top- basically a fruit tart with merengue. I am pretty sure I ate about 12. They had a lot of fancy drinks with curly straws and fruit on the rims. I felt very important.

There was some sort of amatuer runway show with models modeling diamond jewelry. It was so weird as the models trying to look ambivalent as they showed off their bling. I was close to them and had to force myself not to laugh in their faces. It was just so amatuer. Some of the men I didn't know were taking endless pictures. I am sure their wives were very impressed.

After the show, Sarah, Will and I danced with our host, Zoe. None of us were very smooth but we had a great time. Some of the Chinese guys we had met that night tried to work up the courage to dance with us but instead wandered aimlessly around the dancefloor.

I never thought I would attend a ball here but it was fun!