Times to Cry and Times to Laugh

I have officially moved into my parents' new place. I still have a few small things at my old house but the bulk of my possessions are here now. It feels very surreal especially since my parents' new house is nothing short of incredible. They don't get their stuff moved in until Tuesday so for now, it's a little like I am living here alone. Picture Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. If this were a YWAM house in Maui, I could realistically fit about 200+ people here using a lot of bunk beds. I did once live with 11 other girls in a room the size of this new house's kitchen.

There is so much change going on right now that I can't deal with it all at once. My last day at school (without the kids) was on Friday and that doesn't even seem real yet. The other third grade teachers wrote me a nice card and gave me a little engraved notebook since I am always writing notes to myself on my hand. It was very thoughtful. The last day of school for teachers always involves a lot of cleaning and accounting for things you've been given throughout the year. It is a huge pain. Most teachers try to do as much of the closing out stuff as possible during the last week of school. I did some stuff but was hindered by an extreme case of procrastination coupled with denial about leaving. Lucky for me, I have made some great friends at school this year. After all their tasks were done, four of my teacher friends helped me finish my duties. It meant a lot to me that they would stay at school longer than they had to on the last day of school.

After school, we performed our usual post-school ritual- Wingstop and then the movie theater. We had been hanging out after school about once a week and I am really going to miss that. This year was much better than last year and I think having close friends at work made a big difference.

For my whole life, I have loved having groups of friends: Quiet Spring Lane friends, church youth group friends, high school friends, college friends, Wesley friends, Camp Cho-Yeh friends, Young Life friends, work friends, etc. I consider myself blessed to have a lot of quality friends but life changes have made them disperse throughout the U.S. and Canada. This makes it hard to hang out with them all at the same time. So, I really enjoyed having a fun group of friends at work. This is one change that is starting to sink in and I am not a fan of it.

Another change I don't think I have fully dealt with is my brother leaving for Iraq. It's hard to know how to feel or how to deal with it. It won't be over for a year so being upset or worrying excessively is not a healthy option. Right now I am using a combination of prayer and denial to get through it. When he gets to his final locale, I should be able to write him. That might make me feel more proactive about the situation.

As for good changes, my parents' new house is awesome and I am looking forward to going back to Maui to do the SBFM school. I anticipate learning a lot and enjoying times with old and new friends. I am trying to focus on these good changes and appropriately deal with the not-so-good ones.

A Last Day of School Full of Laughter

Today was my last day as a teacher...at least for a while. It's kind of surreal right now. It turned out to be a really fun day. I think I might get a little sad about it if I really start thinking about not seeing my students again. I am not at that point yet.

Today was the annual teacher talent show. In the past, the talent show has been an event where teachers could come out and show some sort of talent. Usually this talent involves some sort of choreographed lip sync to a song with some enthusiastic dancing. This takes some preparation. This year, my co-worker, Will and I were in charge. About a week and a half before the show, we tried to gauge the teacher's readiness and enthusiasm for the event. Based on the reactions we got, it was clear that no one was prepared for or excited about this year's event.

Based on years of Young Life and summer camp experience, I decided we should do some sort of skit extravaganza. I know a lot of really easy skits that don't need much practice. Will was in church youth group as a kid so he knew a few of his own. We decided to do three skits and then have three Young Life games that fit into a category I like to call "unwitting participant games." This means that the participants are given little or no prior notice that they will be in a skit.

I was afraid no one would volunteer to be in the skits but Will and I used a combination of guilt and encouragement to gather a decent representation of our school's teachers. We literally practiced all three skits in 30 minutes yesterday and hoped for the best today. And although I am admittedly biased, I thought it went really well. Judging from their positive comments, my co-workers agreed.

Will and I were the emcees and we didn't really prepare anything in advance and spoke off the cuff. I don't remember exactly what I said but I don't think I said anything inappropriate. The first skit was the doctor's office. A patient goes into the doctor's office and sits down in the waiting room. Then, another patient arrives with some sort of ailment. In this particular version, Ms. F scratched her butt every few seconds. The kids went wild! Then the first patient, Mr. B, starts scratching his butt too. After that, Ms. N came in and kept jerking her head to one side. Mr. B starts doing that in addition to coughing and scratching his butt. Then, Ms. V comes in and starts spontaneously dancing every few seconds. Mr. B starts coughing, scratching his butt, jerking his head and dancing every few seconds. It was pretty hilarious to me even though I knew what was coming. I actually laughed so hard that tears started rolling down my cheeks. The teachers did such a great job of hamming it up. Then Ms. S came in looking like she was pregnant and Mr. B runs offstage screaming.

After that we did the good ole' Young Life banana eating contest. We called three staff members up who didn't know what they were in for. We purposely picked people we thought would be good sports. We told them they were having a blindfolded banana eating contest. They started eating the bananas and then we took the blindfold off of two of the contestants. This left our vice principal blindfolded shoving bananas in her mouth as fast as she could...all alone onstage. I guess she realized she couldn't hear anyone else, because she started reaching around next to her. Then we pulled off her blindfold. She was a great sport about it all.

Then we had a skit about gum. One person is chewing gum and they put it under a park bench. Then other people come along and interact with the gum. One person gets it in their hair, another steps on it and then someone blows their nose and wipes it on it. In the end the first person comes back and eats the gum to the disgust and amusement of the audience.

After that we called up four teachers who we'd told in advance that they were going to play charades. We told the kids that the teachers were going to act out what the teachers did when they found out our school won the rank of Exemplary. We told the teachers to act out the following scenarios: seeing a UFO, throwing up, seeing a mouse and riding a roller coaster. They too did a great job hamming it up. The kids enjoyed it though I don't think they all got the joke.

Then we had the most popular skit. It's called Pass It Down. A couple goes on a date to the movies but the only two seats left are four people apart. They sit down at opposite ends. The boy, being a gentleman, tries to share his Junior Mints with his lady friend. But as they are being passed down, the other moviegoers partake in the candy with the last one dramatically finishing whatever's left before it gets to the girl. This happens again with the popcorn and the drink, which the last guy pours all over his face. The dating guy makes a last ditch effort and kisses the person next to him, asking them to pass it on. This is awkwardly passed down until the last guy who has eaten everything, kisses the girl on the date. She flips out and slaps him in the face, ending the skit. The teachers did such a great job on this one. The kids couldn't stop talking about it. Seeing my co-workers' funny creative sides makes me miss them more. Too bad the whole school year couldn't be that light-hearted.

The finale of the show was another unsuspecting teacher contest. We tried to choose the participants carefully but we were a bit nervous. I chose my friend, Erin believing she wouldn't get too mad at what was about to happen, but being willing to talk it out with her if she was. We told the teachers they were going to be in a blindfolded sit-up competition and we needed the most physically fit teachers. We blindfolded them and they began to do sit-ups. While they were doing sit-ups, they each got a surprise pie to the face. Nothing amuses kids more, or adults for that matter, than pies. It was hilarious. All the people that got pied were super good sports about it including my friend.

It was such a fun way to end the year. I really don't think it could have gone any better. I will miss some of these situations you only really get in as a teacher. How many other jobs have talent shows? Maybe I can start one at YWAM Maui. :)

Tour de Hood

Today I rode in a bizarre bike ride. It was the first annual Tour de Hood. It was started by a man who wants to promote bike riding and general exercise in a low-income primarily black area of town. I have been on about a dozen organized bike rides in my life. This one was very different. The website said it would start at 7am but it didn't start until after 8 am. Apparently part of the reason for this is because the founder was hit by a car last night as he was putting up the signs for the ride. He showed up with bloody knuckles and a big white bandage covering his entire head. It was hard to get mad at the guy for the late start.

On most of the rides I've been on, there's been mainly hard-core riders with all the gear. This ride only had about 25% hard-core riders and 75% novices. It was a strange combo. They even had bikes for people to borrow that did not have their own. The founder told everyone to please bring the bikes back. It sounded like they could just borrow them without any I.D. or deposit. Strange.

All these people together made for a strange ride. My dad was almost taken out by a ten year old boy on a light pink loaner bike. It was pretty funny. I am not sure where the kid's parents were. On most rides you all start together and then everyone rides at their own pace. On this ride, we kept having to stop so that people could catch up. This was annoying since I have clip on pedals that I have to clip out of to stop. We went about 8 miles in two hours. Normally I do about 12-14 miles an hour.

Another purpose of the ride was to learn about the history of the six wards (or areas) of inner-city Houston. We didn't get to hear too much since my dad and I quit after about 8 miles. It was too frustrating to start and stop and the ride seemed to be taking forever. We did get some really cool "Tour de Hood" t-shirts. The experience made me want to go on another organized ride- maybe one that was more orthodox.

After the ride, we visited my parents' good friend, Vic in the hospital. He had been in a bad biking accident. Apparently he fell in a hole at a construction site. He was briefly paralyzed but seems to be doing okay now. He's getting a bit stir-crazy in the hospital so pray for a quick release.

Contemplating Change

As usual, I should be doing school stuff on a Sunday night but I am not. I just spent a little time laying on my porch swing and contempleating all that's going on in my life. This is one of those times of change, where it seems like there is significant change in almost every area of my life. I don't think it's felt this intense since Spring/Summer 2003 when I broke up with a boyfriend, my parents moved out of my childhood home, my best friend got married, I graduated from college and left Austin and was getting ready to go to Maui for the first time.

The first big thing that has happened recently is my brother deploying to Iraq. This is his second time there but it's different now that he has a baby. It feels like there is more at stake. I haven't really dealt with my emotions about him being in Iraq for a year. I know I need to deal with them and I can feel them bubbling up inside me but I have been unable to let them out. I am running on denial right now, which I know is unhealthy in the long run but easier to deal with now. I'm trying to pray and remind myself that his life is in God's hands but even that is tinged with a large dose of denial. I know I will have to break down and have a good cry about it but right now it's like my emotions are clogged inside of me and not coming out yet.

The other big changes are impending. My parents are very close to owning an incredible house in the Heights. I mean, this place is just awesome! This is a change that does not bother me one bit. In fact, I am pretty excited about it. Their current home is the townhome they bought after moving out of my childhood home. I was never especially attached to it. In fact, my second parents growing up, the Harnlys, have sold their home and that feels far more traumatic than my parents current move. I went to the Harnlys today and despite knowing they'd sold their house, I felt my heart drop when I saw the SOLD sign in their front yard. So, I am excited about my parents move because the house is just awesome. I am pumped about living there this Summer.

I am moving out of my current house at the end of the month. You would barely know it if you came in my house since I have been a master procrastinator about packing. I have a feeling that most of it will be left until the last minute in my usual style. It's a bit overwhelming since I have to have my classroom cleaned and packed up by almost the exact same date. I haven't made that much progress in that department either. I feel somewhat relieved to be leaving my school with all its politics and drama but I will deeply miss my students and the friends I have grown close to there.

I am still planning to complete another YWAM school in Maui in the Fall though I don't know officially whether I have gotten in or not. The school runs from September through December. After that I plan on coming home for Christmas so my poor mom has at least one of her children. Then, my plans are a little less solid. This is starting to make me feel uneasy since I like to know what comes next. I am hoping to stay in Maui and work on the English teaching curriculum for the China project but I am not 100% sure that's what God has in store for me. I also have hopes of going to China for a year or more after Andrew gets back from Iraq but that doesn't feel for sure yet. It's like I have a feeling deep down that things will turn out very differently than the way I see them in my mind right now. And to be honest, despite an unwavering faith that God has good in store for me, my overall uncertainty about my future is quite scary. So, I know as I have had to do in other times of great change, I need to cling to God, the only thing in life that is guaranteed not to change, and ride this thing out.

Weird Week

***I have been lax in writing blog entries. This one was started a week ago and pertains to the last week in April. ***

This is a very strange week. Monday was fairly normal at school cramming the kids for the Math TAKS test the following day. Then that night it rained like it must have in the days of Noah. Young Life was canceled so luckily I didn't have to leave the house. The next morning, my roommate tells me that some schools were closed. It seemed pretty much every district other than mine was closed for severe flooding. It turns out both my friend, Ann's and my friend, Andres's houses got flooded. Please pray for them esp. Ann since she owns her home and does not have flood insurance.

Because of the crazy weather, our district postponed the Math TAKS test that was suppoed to be that day. It really threw us all off- kids and teachers. Then the school district announced that absences would not be counted that day for students or teachers. Now, why did I show up?

The real test happened that Wednesday and we didn't get out of school until 4pm even though our students were finished way before that. We just had to sit there.

On Thursday and Friday, the 4th and 5th graders were taking their TAKS tests. This meant the third graders who normally share their hallway, were banished to random other parts of the school. On Thursday, I had about 30 kids at the end of the Kindergarten hallway. Not ideal at all! We pretty much just watched movies. And we still had to stay at school an hour longer than usual. UGH!

On Friday, I had only my 20 kids in one of the computer labs. Again, another movie day. What was the point of even coming to school? Luckily the day was cut short by the faculty basketball game. I had been looking forward to this all week. I had fun like last year but I kept getting double and triple teamed. I guess they remembered my skills from last year. Some of the people definitely had no basketball experience. I tried to set a pick on one guy and he gave me a sweaty bear hug. Eww! Disgusting! I had practiced the day before at the gym but it was pointless since we played with a ball smaller than a women's ball and on an eight foot goal. Overall it was fun to get out and play. Good end to a crazy week.

free time doesn't feel so free

Normally on Monday nights I have a Bible study for Young Life. Tonight it was canceled and it's raining like the times of Noah and the great flood. So much for my idea of going to the gym to practice a little basketball for the big faculty game Friday. And now, I am left with unexpected free time. And there in lies my problem.

I have a little more than a month left of school. It feels pretty surreal. There is a lot that goes into checking out of my classroom at the end of the year. Right after school ends, I am moving out of my house and into my parents' house. Since I still have a month before both happen almost simultaneously, I really should start packing, cleaning and throwing away a little at a time. Unfortunately knowing what you should do and actually doing it are two completely different things. And I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator. I wrote almost all my college papers the night before and almost always pack late into the night before I go on a trip. I find it very hard to be productive when I have free time.

I pack a lot of scheduled activities in my week and get a lot done. I spend a good portion of the week at school, Young Life or hanging out with friends. But when I do have free time, I just can't bear to do anything terribly productive. In fact, yesterday was the first time I'd made a real trip to the grocery store since Spring Break. It's not that I don't have the free time, I do have some but I tend to use it more as a recovery from my otherwise busy schedule. Maybe if I scheduled "clean my room" or "go to the grocery store" at a specific date and time, I would do it. But then again knowing myself, I probably wouldn't.

I have a dream of writing books for children or humorous memoirs for adults someday. I don't see this happening until I find a way to gain better control of my free time. When given an expanse of unaccounted for time, large or small, I tend to spend most of it watching TV, taking naps, surfing the internet or reading books. None of these are particularly bad, but they definitely don't classify as being productive. I guess if I had some sort of "office" I went to for a predetermined amount of time to write, I could do it. That is presupposing that I could make a living writing which has yet to be proven. I did recently read that Dr. Seuess's first book was rejected by publishers 27 times. Dr. Suess is arguably one of the best loved and most prolific children's book writers in history. If he could go through all that rejection and not give up, the least I could do is give it a shot, right?

Scowling at construction workers

My street has been under construction for several months and it has been a huge hassle. For some reason, they find it necessary to begin work before 7am on Saturdays. This should clearly be illegal. They've also blocked off our street for months. Our trash has not been picked up in weeks because there is no place to put it where the garbage men can get to it. Annoying!

We used to have a little parking lot type thing at the front of our house. It could fit five cars and was a super convienent place to park. This was destroyed pretty much the first day of construction. They promptly deposited a seven foot mound of dirt in front of our house and various construction equipment that I couldn't name even if I tried. Our street has been closed and we've resorted to parking in the backyard of the abandoned house next door. It's pretty hillbilly and as the construction has moved further down our street, consuming more and more parking, m our make-shift parking lot has become more and more crowded.

This has angered the crazy bird lady who lives behind us. She uses this backyard to feed her beloved pigeons and seems to feel that our parking woes are less important than feeding what some people refer to as flying rats. When we first started parking back there, she wrote crazy handmade signs on old dinner plates or scraps of cardboard that proclaimed that there is to be no parking in the little concrete square where she feeds her feathered friends. I think she's given up for now given the large number of cars parked back there now. It is simply too crowded for the birds.

It's only recently become clear that our parking places have been permanently destroyed. They've finally poured the concrete on our street and I can see the telltale rebarb signs that there will be a large curb in front of our house instead of a parking pad. This is very inconvienent. Thankfully we will only be living here for a month and a half. Apparently we will be parking behind our neighbor's house for the rest of our time here. Ugh. I am not even sure that the street will be finished before we move out. This will make the whole process a lot more interesting. Oh well. There's not much I can do about it. I do try to give the construction workers dirty looks but it doesn't seem to be changing anything. I know it's not their faults but it makes me feel a little better.

I still exist

I have not blogged in a while. This is partly because I've been busy and partly because I'm lazy. Last weekend I felt like I was going nonstop. On Friday night, my teacher friends and I went out to eat and then watched "The Fast and the Furious." I saw an abnormal amount of people I know. I saw three of my Young Life kids from three years ago. I saw a fellow Young Life leader that I volunteer with now. Then, to top it all off, we saw two of my students when we were at the movie. I love my students but it's weird to see them outside of school. I was going to hide, but Helen yelled out their names so they came over for hugs even though I'd seen them only a few hours earlier.

On Saturday, I had good old Saturday tutorials in the morning. Yuck! Then at night I went to my roommates' sister's wedding. Since I live with two sisters, our place was wedding central: housing out of town guests and serving as site of fancy brunches. My roommate, Sarah made the wedding cake at our house so I suppose bakery would be an apt title as well. At the wedding, reception I was in charge of running the cotton candy machine. Despite my very long list of jobs I've done in a wedding, running a cotton candy machine was something I'd never done. I love doing things I've never done before! It was harder than I expected. I have a new respect for carnies now.

I helped clean up after the wedding until 11pm and woke up at 6pm to ride my bike 64 miles the next morning. The ride was sponsored by McDonald's so we were sent on our way by a man in a Ronald McDonald costume. We were told that Hamburgler and Grimace would be there but I didn't see them. What a letdown!

After the ride, I went to my best friend, Sarah's to get cleaned up and hang out. Then I had to go give a speech at my church about mission work.

Overall my weekend felt pretty packed but it was fun. I tend to prefer being busy over not having enough to do. If I have too much freetime, I always seem to waste it.

Kera's Wedding Part 1

Blog- Kera’s Wedding
This weekend I went to Colorado to my friend, Kera’s wedding. Kera was one of the girls I led to on our team to Bangladesh in 2006. Her wedding was on a Friday so I had to ask off work for that Thursday and Friday- not an easy task but I was permitted to miss school. I flew out early on Thursday morning towards Denver. The weather report said it would be cold but I really wasn’t prepared for frigid conditions. When the plane landed, the man next to me opened his window to reveal a snow-covered landscape. I opened my mouth in shock. I had no idea there would be snow at the end of March. Isn’t that supposed to be springtime?

It turns out that the worst blizzard they had seen all year was developing as I sat on that plane. Due to the severe weather conditions, Kera and her fiancé, Steve, were a bit late picking me up. Conditions just seemed to worsen as we drove towards Kera’s apartment. Also as it was the day before their wedding, Kera and Steve received a phone call just about every three minutes on that drive home.

The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner scheduled for that night were canceled due to the fact that many of their friends did not own four wheel drive cars and could not make it to the church. Instead of a rehearsal dinner, there was a small family gathering at Kera’s parents’ house to which me and my other Bangladesh teammates/wedding guests, Rachel and Drea, went. It was cool to see where Kera had grown up and meet her family.

After the party the four of us went back to Kera’s apartment to get some rest before the big day. The snow was scheduled to stop falling so we assumed the following day would be somewhat uneventful after the snow-filled day we’d just had. We were wrong.
In the morning, Kera was whisked off to perform her pre-wedding tasks. Drea, Rachel and I drove Kera’s car to perform our own pre-wedding tasks. As we were driving through the still-snowy conditions, a man started gesturing towards our car. We had no idea what he wanted but finally decided to stop at a nearby gas station to inspect the car for problems. Immediately we discovered that we had a flat tire on the rear passenger side. So, here we are, three out of town guests driving the bride’s car through the snow when we get a flat tire. Great! Rachel was ready to try to change it when a good Samaritan/flooring contractor named Kevin, came by. He offered his assistance to us. He helped us fill up the spare tire and put it on the car. He even had kneepads for Rachel to wear while she was assisting him. After we got the tire on, we headed to the church where we were supposed to be helping to set things up. We figured someone there could direct us to a tire place where we could get the tire patched.

On the way, like sign from above, we spotted a place called Tires Plus. We dropped the tire off there to get patched and continued on to the church. We helped move some things around in the church for a bit. Then Rachel showed us her leg. There was a swollen red bump above her ankle that did not look good. Kera’s sister is a nurse so we had her look at Rachel’s leg. She was alarmed and told us we needed to see a doctor and get it looked at quickly. It seemed to be some sort of infection. Rachel lives in Maui, where staph infections are prevalent so we were worried that this might be one. We heard about a little clinic inside of Walgreens and headed there to get Rachel’s leg inspected. While we were there, the tire place called and said the tire was irreparable. We needed to go back and get a new tire put on. Of course! The doctor at Walgreen’s prescribed some antibiotics to heal Rachel’s infection and then we headed back to Tires Plus. We dropped the car off and hung out at Einstein’s Bagels until the new tire had been put on. Then we headed back to Walgreen’s to pick up Rachel’s prescriptions.

After all this, we headed back to Kera’s place to rest a bit and pick up our dresses for the wedding that we had inadvertently left there. We ran into Kera, who we updated on the day’s events. Then we headed to the church to do the flowers. Somewhere along the way, we had become florists. Kera had intended to do the flowers herself but realized that might not be a good way to keep her stress level down.
When we got to the church, the flowers were not there yet so we just hung out. When they did arrive, we got to work trying to make Kera’s vision of her wedding day flowers come alive. Luckily her idea did not take much time or skill and we finished with plenty of time to get ready for the wedding. The flowers looked really nice and the important thing was that Kera thought so too.

After we finished the flowers, Kera asked Drea, Rachel and I to help take pictures for the photo guest book that Kera wanted to compile. I felt like some sort of weirdo given the way people looked at me when I asked to take their picture. Oh well, anything for Kera. We tried to get as many pictures as we could as well as made sure everyone signed the actual guest book until some older lady told us to “shut it down” so we could start the wedding.
To be continued…

The rest of my Spring Break

Here's part two of my Spring Break:

After our New York adventure, Jocelyn and I headed to Pennsylvania to check out an outlet mall I found on the internet. We used her Garmin GPS aka "Richard Garmin", aka "Garmie" to navigate the unfamiliar roads. Almost immediately we got stuck in traffic on a bizarrely narrow and winding road. I think Texas definitely beats Pennsylvania on the road battle. Garmie told us to take this random road past some old farm houses and said the outlet mall was not far. It didn't seem to make any sense. Then we saw the hand-printed sign that said "outlets" affixed to a stop sign. Weird but the outlets were indeed just past that sign. They were also right next to a freeway that Garmie, for some strange reason, did not tell us to take. We had fun hanging out and shopping a bit.

The next day we went into Philadelphia and saw the liberty bell and Independence Hall. The bell was a bit smaller than I expected but I was happy that it was free to go see it. After the history sightseeing, we went to this cool market-type thing with lots of shops and little stores. Then we went to a slightly ghetto mall. It had some great shoes and a lot of eighties colored clothes.

The next day Jocelyn was nice enough to drive me to Lancaster, PA to visit some of my YWAM friends. We drove on this weird tollway. It was nothing like our Texas toll roads. You got a ticket when you got on and then there were no exits for about 20 miles. Then when you exit, you pay based on where you exit. I don't know how you would get off if you got on there accidentally.

Lancaster was a cute town with some interesting old architecture. We met at Carrie and Corey's house and Jocelyn headed to a coffee shop to do some of her law school work. I hung out with Rachelle, Carrie and Alicia at a coffee shop and at Carrie's house. It was fun to catch up and really felt like no time had passed. I love friends like that!

Then on Friday, we hung out in the fancier shopping area of Philly. It was kind of like a mini-New York. I liked it. Then we headed to the airport to fly home. I had a good time but I was looking forward to returning to sunny skies and warm weather. The cold weather and gray skies were starting to get to me.

new website

I am trying my hand at a new website. Here's the link right now. I am hoping to simplify the web address in the future but you can see what I have so far.


http://hotstuffhightower.weebly.com/

Spring Break Thus Far

I am in the middle of my Spring Break and thought it might be a good idea to start chronicling my activities; otherwise I may end up with a ten page blog entry at the end.

My Spring Break started with a bang. I went out with some of my favorite teacher friends after school. We left school and went straight to eat wings, then we went bowling and then saw a movie. It was quite the day! I hadn't even packed despite the fact my flight was leaving early the next morning.

In the morning I left for New Jersey by way of Philadelphia. It had been a long time since I've traveled so it was nice to get on a plane again. I purposely stayed up super late the night before so I could sleep on the plane. I succeeded at sleeping for about 2 and a half hours of the three hour flight. The thirty minute interruption was due to the evil man sitting next to me who had to get up to go to the bathroom. Who goes to the bathroom during a three hour flight? There was a long line and I knew he would have to wake me up again when he came back to his seat. I had to pretend to read the SkyMall catalog until he returned. Ugh. I just wanted to sleep. I tried not to give ole' tiny bladder a dirty look as he sat down.

I arrived in Philadelphia and my friends/hosts, Jocelyn and Jason took me directly to get cheese steaks. When in Philly, right? It was pretty good but soooo greasy! Jocelyn spilled grease pretty much all over her clothes. I only managed to get a large splotch on my jeans. We tried to wash our clothes but those stains were stubborn. I guess I will look at that grease spot in the future and fondly remember my first official cheese steak.

On Sunday, Jocelyn and I headed to New York City. This was my second visit to the big apple. The first time, my best friend, Sarah and I went in college to visit our roommate, Lucy. Lucy grew up in New York and gave us the insider's tour. We really didn't see many of the tourist attractions. It was more like a Lucy reality tour. We saw her school, awesome brownstone townhouse, the Brooklyn bridge, her dad's art show, her friends' places and a few touristy things like the 911 sight and Times Square. We also went to the tapings of several TV shows: The Caroline Rhea Show, Donahue and Ricki Lake. That was so fun!

This time, I knew I was only going to be there for a day so I couldn't do everything. Our friend, Katy lives right by Central Park. She was out of town but she let me and Jocelyn stay at her place. We go to meet up with three of my YWAM friends, Esther, Sue and Sam. We also went to the Natural History Museum and Times Square. Today we had breakfast at the coffee shop the gang always hung out at on the best TV show in history, Seinfeld. Then we went to the Guggenheim museum. It was really cool, though some of the art was a bit hard to understand. We hung out at a coffee shop for a bit and then made the trek home to New Jersey. By the end of the day I was super tired of public transit. We spent about 4 hours plus on public transit during each of the days we were there. We also walked until our legs almost fell off. I've never seen that many types of dogs and babies in my life. Wow! I also heard a ton of languages.

I have a lot of friends who really want to live in New York. Personally I just like to visit New York. It is just such a different lifestyle than I am used to. I can't imagine living there full-time. Public transit is nice but I prefer to be able to drive my own car wherever I want. My car also doesn't have the bizarre mix of smells found on the NYC buses, trains and subways. I find it to be a bit grimy and dreary at times. I think this has something to do with the times of year I've been here.

I think I need to come to New York in the Summer some time. Last time I was here was in the winter and right now it's pretty cold and gray too. I need to see this place green and warm. Given my hatred of cold weather, I am sure I would enjoy it even more in warmer weather. As it stands now with the people I already know living here and all the people I know who aspire to live here, I won't have a problem finding a place to stay next time I come.

A Pretty Good Day

Today was a decent day so I might as well commemorate it on my blog. School has been pretty fun lately since I have been hanging out with a couple of my co-workers a lot. We are becoming pretty close friends, which makes everything more fun. This weekend we went out to eat, to a carnival, to a movie and the next night we went to a comedy club.

The day began in an amusing way. I forgot that today was picture day. This was our second picture day but it was the one with the whole class. Normally I dress up on Mondays but today I wore a really random outfit. This weekend I was determined to buy some fancy Nikes. I felt like I was car shopping as I quickly got sticker shock. Eventually I just bit the bullet and bought the ones I wanted. I decided to wear them today even though we can't wear jeans on Mondays. I compromised by wearing gray dress pants, a black and white top and my new fancy black and white Nikes. Classy, huh? And of course, this was the full body picture day. My students can look back at their class picture and see their teacher's spankin' new Nikes.

It's optional for the teacher to take an individual photo during the Spring since we already took one in the Fall. I decided to go for it today since I was in a goofy mood. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this picture involved a cheesy woodland background and me kneeling at a wooden fake desk. That's going to be a great picture! I joked to my kids that they could buy copies for $1 and some seemed genuinely interested. Being an elementary teacher really is a lot like being a celebrity.

School is a lot more fun post-Reading TAKS test. We've been doing poetry and the kids and I have enjoyed this break from standardized testing. On Mondays I have Young Life Bible study at 7pm. I rely on naps to help me differentiate between the two phases of my day as well as to give me a much needed energy boost. Today was an unusual Monday. After tutorials, I talked with some friends in the parking lot for a bit and then I talked to a friend on the phone all the way home from school. Then another friend called just as I was hanging up and we talked for thirty minutes. Just as I was hanging up with that person, another friend called and we talked for a while. Then just as I was hanging up, one of my Young Life kids called needing a ride. I think that's the record for most back-to-back calls I've ever received. It was a bit intense. This basically eliminated any time I had for a nap and I had to just quickly eat my Lean Cuisine and leave for Bible Study. It was a little hectic but I felt pretty popular.

Bible study was good but now I need to go to sleep. That daylight savings time is catching up with me for sure.

Somethings Just Can't Be Washed

I did something really stupid the other day. I wanted to keep it a secret at first for pride reasons but now I've decided to share it with the internet world.

On Thursday I was really proud of myself. After school, I rode my bike 10 miles. I've been trying to ride my bike a lot on the weekends.The last two weekends I have ridden 36 miles and 44 miles, respectively. I haven't been able to squeeze in a lot of mileage on the weekdays though due to lack of sunlight and overall fatigue from the day. So, as I said, I was feeling pretty good about myself after my ten mile weekday ride.

I had put my cell phone in the bag under my bike seat during my ride. I took it out and then lost track of it. I decided to do some laundry. I loaded all my clothes into the washer and then chilled for a bit. When it was time to transfer the load from washing machine to dryer, I pulled the items out piece by piece. When, I got to the bottom of the washer, I was shocked and appalled by what I saw. There was my cell phone at the bottom of the washer. In case you were womdering, going through the wash and spin cycle is not good for cell phones. I was so mad! I am still not sure how it got in there. I know it was not in the pocket of any of the clothes I was washing. Needless to say, I was pissed.

Luckily, my parents have a family plan for that phone. That means there are five phones that could be upgraded. My grandparents' phone was due for an update so I was able to get the same phone I had for only $15! Not a bad ending to this misfortune at all!

Ruminations during TAKS

I spent 7 hours watching my kids take the big TAKS test today. I make a point of not looking too closely at their answers during the test. If they choose stupid answers, it's hard for me to not punch them in the back of the head. And I think that would get me fired. It was pretty boring so I had plenty of time to think. That's where this pensive blog comes in:

So, I've learned a few things from my dating experiences this year. I don't think a public blog like this is a good forum for specific relationship talk. That's pretty trashy. That's why I haven't mentioned my dating life on this blog. I still agree with the "no kiss and tell" policy. With all that being said, I want to write about some of the things I have learned in the past year from the guys I've dated. I'm purposefully choosing to not be specific about individual guys.

I hope I didn't lose you after that vague disclaimer. I've just learned a lot about what I want and don't want in a guy from my experiences.

Traditional male/female roles:
Traditional male and female roles are important to me. I like it when the guy plans the date. It is also a plus when they are good at thinking of creative things beyond just dinner and a movie, though that is fun too from time to time. I've been on some pretty interesting dates to a carnival, museums, disc golf, festivals, ice sculpture competition and more.
I like it when the guy opens doors for me, though the car door is a little over the top. I also like when the guy pays, though that doesn't mean he has to pay for everything. I think it's about showing that he can take care of me since being a provider is a guy's natural role.

Witty Banter:
This is something I have only recently pinpointed as something that is important to me. Most people who know me well know that I like to joke around and make people laugh. This doesn't mean I can't be serious when the situation calls for it, but I prefer to make light of most situations for my own amusement. I need a guy that I can just joke around and laugh with; a guy who I can have fun with just by talking to. I want a partner in life that will help me to have fun in boring, sad or difficult situations. It's also a plus if he knows a lot about Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

Outgoing:
I need a guy who is at least moderately out-going. I want a guy who would be remembered by people at a party. I'm not interested in a guy who is too quiet and I would feel like I need to ease into social situations. I especially appreciate guys who can get up and make fools of themselves in front of a crowd of kids. Maybe that's why I always get a mini-crush on the guys who perform the skits at Young Life camp.

Smarter than Me:
This might sound strange but I really need to be with someone who's smarter than me- in most areas. I'm no genius (despite what my mom thinks) but I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent. The fact that a guy is smarter than me is more important than his age. He can be younger as long as he seems smarter. Grammar is also important to me. I'm sure this sounds snooty but I can't help but base my opinion of some one's intelligence on the way they write. Misspellings, misuse of homophones and bad punctuation all negatively affect my image of a person's intelligence. I know it isn't really fair but I can't seem to help myself.

There are plenty of other things I know I want in a mate ie; hard-core Christian and interested in sports but the aforementioned qualities are some that I have more recently realized the importance of. The dating I've done, both good and bad, has definitely been helpful in clarifying what I am looking for. Now if I could only find an intelligent, sports-loving, chivalrous, christian, outgoing, witty conversationalist who likes me back, I'd be in good shape.

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?