The Lesser Known Sports

As most of ya'll know, athletics have never been my strong point. In fact, I came up with multiple ways to avoid playing sports in P.E. class. When I was in 4th or 5th grade we got a new school counselor. He was the first counselor we'd ever had, and so he started off by meeting with each of us individually. During our meeting, he very seriously asked me if there was anything he could do to make school better for me. I was thrilled--I knew exactly what I wanted. I asked him if he could excuse me from P.E. for the rest of the year. When he laughed and said he couldn't do that, I realized that school counselors are basically a crock.

Althetic activities were better in college when they weren't forced. I didn't hate floor hockey, and I even liked tennis. But as I'm moving on into my 20s, I'm realizing that I don't hate sports, but I just wasn't doing the right ones. I should have focused my energies on the lesser known sports, like laser tag and bocce.

Friday we took our 7th graders to play laser tag after school, and I kicked ass. After 2 rounds of laser tag, I took 2nd place! That means I beat 29 seventh graders, the other 7th grade teacher, and a parent. That rocked! The kids were shocked because it was my first time playing laser tag. I loved it though, and I got to pick a code name--Queen Bee.

Sunday we played Bocce Ball in the park for Becky's birthday, and I love it. I may not be as good at it as Donna is, but it's great.

Cheers for the lesser known sports!

More Insomnia

I seem to go through periods of time when I don't sleep well. This week has been one of them. Often I think that I'm not sleeping well because of things on my mind. Then I have freaky dreams. Like last night, when for some reason I had to remove two viscious cats from a fictitious house. Clawing and scratching, they clung to my arms anytime I was able to get a hold of them. And for some reason the area where they were was a very, very, long hallway where they would run up and down, escaping.

So tonight, instead of laying in bed thinking about all the things on my mind, I decided to start in on a biography of Zora Neale Hurston, one of my favorite authors. I really like the first line: "There was never quite enough for Zora Neale Hurston in the world she grew up in, so she made up whatever she needed."

Zora's writing is also breathtaking. Talking about wanting to know about the end of the world, the author says she asked "whether it was sort of tucked under like the hem of a dress." The biographer says she wanted to journey out to the horizon to see the end of the earth, but couldn't find anyone to go with her. Realizing she had no companion, she said "I did not give up the idea of my journey. I was merely lonesome for someone brave enough to undertake it with me."

Although I'm no Zora Neale Hurston, and have no brave undertakings waiting, like exploring the very ends of the world, I resonate with the sentiment at this point in my life.

Now, another attempt at sleep.

Progress!

I can now play twinkle, twinkle, little star and baa baa black sheep on my viola. Whoo-hoo! And did you know that the viola is one of the few instruments to use the alto clef? This throws my whole music-reading world of knowledge off-kilter. No longer will the phrases "Every good boy does fine," and "Good boys do fine always" guide me through the notes on the staff.

I'm still a little confused about clefs though, and maybe some musical people can help out. If the point of it is to assign notes to places on the clef, why can't we just have one? Is it because you just need room for more notes? I can't quite visualize it.

Book of Common Prayer

Okay, I have to admit ignorance and confusion here. I see people quoting or talking about the Book of Common Prayer all over the place, and I really have no idea what book you're talking about. Maybe I'm ignorant, or it's from a faith tradition other than my own.

All the searches I've done, including the library, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, have turned up myriads of common prayer books.

So, can anyone tell me which is the Book of Common Prayer?

Voila! Viola!

This is my new viola! I've been thinking about taking piano lessons again for quite a while, but was irked by the fact that I'd have to go to school to practice.

So, inspired by Donna's recent foray into cello playing, I decided to go the string route and try the viola. It's my first stringed instrument since I was four and played a tiny violin for about a year, entirely by ear with the Suzuki method. I'm not sure if I'm going to take lessons again, but I've rented the viola for three months so I'll have a good long time to get used to it.

So far today I've figured out the first 7 notes of Mary Had a Little Lamb, and probably the same amount of Baa, Baa, Black Sheep...why is is that all the easy songs are about sheep?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a new hobby. It's slightly more respectable than scrapbooking, and decidedly more effort. I'm taking names for my viola if anyone has suggestions. And Viola is definitely out.

The summer o'sloth

After being rejected by the Oracle powers-that-be, I've decided to spend a relaxing summer being slothful. I may do some temp. work, but I'm not making any plans for that. I am planning to travel back to Haiti for a week or so, and visit long lost friends in Minneapolis and Iowa City. If you're within 4-6 hours of N'west Iowa and also want a house guest, you too could be part of the summer o'sloth.

For the Love of Books

Last night I was sitting on my porch reading and drinking when my neighbors walked by. Somehow these particular neighbors always seem to see me when I'm doing less than attractive things--taking out the trash, watering plants (which requires me to do contortions due to the air conditioner I have to reach over), or wearing my pajamas. Last night was no different. I was wearing pjs, reading and having a glass of wine. They stopped and said hi, and were friendly, and asked if I was a law student. It took me a little while to figure out how they knew. I figured it wasn't the red wine, or the book I was reading--an autobiography of Kathleen Norris. Then I realized that they could see the book shelf full of books in my living room. I guess it's a compliment.

This morning another interesting experience. We were having devotions in my homeroom, and a cat walked in. Sauntered would perhaps be a better word. Not just any old cat though, her name is Princess Fudge. I guess the kids started calling her Mr. Fudge, only to find out (don't ask me how) that she's a girl, so they re-christened her Princess Fudge. There seems to be a debate split along gender lines as to whether she can be called just princess or just fudge, or if it needs to be both.

So she came in, I scooped her up and took her outside again. She came back. Again she walked back in, and this time the kids said she was looking for this one boy, J, because he sniffed her yesterday....ah, middle schoolers. We let her walk around a while, and she sniffed everything in our classroom. Then I let J take her outside. As he walked her across the field, she took a bat at his face, and when he came in he said "We broke up." Weird.

Tonight, to finish the story sandwich with another about books, I went to the library. Perhaps ya'll are sick of hearing me sing the praises of the library systems, but don't worry. This is a complaint. The library is scheduled to close at 8pm, but at 7:35pm, they started to shut off the lights. By 7:45 even the computers with the card catalog were shut down. We were checking our books out in the dark. How rude! The luster on the San Jose Public Library system is starting to fade.

The view from my parents' backyard continues to amaze me. This was at sunset yesterday, when itw as just starting to rain, and the air was visibly tinged pink. You can just see the setting sun behind the tree on the very left of the picture. The view of the prairie always brings to mind the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth.

sad face

I did not get the summer job I wanted.


And I have a middle seat on my flight home tomorrow night.

Home again!

Tomorrow I'm going home to Iowa for Blaine's baptism. I was hoping for him to wear a baptismal gown, just to stick with tradition and everything, but alas, he's wearing some sort of pantsuit. Should be good times.

Cut? Or the other C word?

Disclaimer: If you don't like to read the "c" word (the one that rhymes with bunt), don't read on.

So today we're in school, and my 7th graders are in their literature circles. In regular speak, they were sitting in circles discussing books. I'm walking around, listening to the different conversations, and I hear the word "cunt" being thrown around. And really loudly too.... The conversation, as far as I can recollect, went like this:

student a: You mean cunt?
studen b: yeah, cunt. I heard it last night, cunt!
studnet a: Not cut?
student b: No, cunt.
student c: I've never even heard cunt before.
student d: What's cunt?

So I walk over, a little alarmed that they're yelling "cunt" out so loudly. I say "Guys, I'd really like for you to stop saying that word." Of course, they ask me if it's a bad word. I say "Um, yeah." One of the kids says "So what does it mean?" Um......I take a deep breath and say "It's another word for genitals, but not a nice one. In fact, probably one of the worst you can say."

Of course, I'm curious as to why they started talking about it in the first place. Turns out that one of the kids was at his youth group last night, and their discussion was on swearing. One of the kids said that "cunt" is a bad word, but no one believed that guy. Pretty funny, I think.

Then later, the same student who heard the word "cunt" at youth group last night was talking to some others about the worship band he's playing in at school. Some of the others were asking what kinds of songs they play, and he said "We don't play any gay songs like Jesus loves me." HA! Blasphemous, perhaps, but amusing.

Oh boy...one more thing to add to the list of things I never thought I'd hear/say with seventh graders.

Outdoorsy Me

I have been a busy little outdoor bee lately. Last weekend we went to Sanborn Park, and Jen led us on a nature hike. She showed us some bugs and plants, and told us about how the Ohlone Indians lived in the area.

This is one of the Redwoods in the park, I think. :)

This weekend I spent some time at the Rose Garden. It's in a great location--right next to the library. So I first went and picked the books I'd requested, then spent some time reading in the sun near the roses.

I love how roses look when they're just about to bloom.

Although I'm not keen on red roses, I love the pink ones.

I can't stop thinking about this essay from NPR. I downloaded it as a podcast some months ago, and only listened to it over spring break on my way home. Check it out.

Funny Kid Story

My 7th graders are writing problem/solution essays. I'm having them write them in the form of a letter. Yesterday they were asked to think about who might be able to solve the problem they're writing about. One of the girls wrote about the high gas prices as a problem, and guess who she wrote to? Did you guess Tyra Banks? That's right! Apparently Tyra can do more than top model and her talk show. :)

Politico

Last night Jim Skillen, director of the Center for Public Justice, spoke at my church. He talked about the historical/philosophical background of American politics, which I guess I missed in college. Particularly interesting to me was that the idea of looking at government as retributive and negative comes mostly from Locke and others who saw man's freedom and free will as chief, and therefore gov't only comes in to "police" those who can't police themselves.

He talked about another view being that gov't is part of God's will for the world, and all of the governmental images in the Bible, something else I guess I hadn't really considered. And appearantly many others haven't either, since he talked about just how apathetic and uninvolved most Americans are, Christian or otherwise.

Another interesting thought he put out there was that as Christians, we're big on signing things and drafting documents, but actually doing very little beyond that.

Then today there were between 50,000 and 100,000 people protesting and marching today in San Jose, in regards to the immigration debate. Having a news helicopter hovering over my apartment made me wonder why the marchers were so effectively mobilized and united, and Christians can't seem to come together on anything.

And I wonder if it doesn't come down to self-interest. Like if there was an issue that threatened the freedom or livelihood of the Christian community, would something be done?