WordPress has this new feature that tells you where your readers are. I usually think that people reading my blog are the few friends and family members that know of my blog. But when you see the stats like this, you realize that it’s definitely other people. Pretty cool, if you ask me…
It’s Spring Break. This year I took a road trip. Whenever I travel, I usually fly. This time I took the Malibu (that I just spent a small fortune on). I am now in the motor city. I made the ~700 mile journey in 2 stages. It was not that bad. But as I drove by DTW I did think to myself, “it’s an hour and fifteen minute plane ride” as I was on my 11th hour in my drive.
Chicago was interesting. I think I navigated it fine. It was a Saturday morning and I went on I-90 right through downtown. The speed limit is 55mph but I think I only slowed to slower than that for about 30 seconds. When you navigate your way through Chi-town you have to do it while going about 65. If you go the speed limit, you’ll just get run over. Being the driver, you don’t really have opportunity to look around. And my big tip? Get an I-Pass. The tolls freak me out. So it was really nice to use my parents’ I-Pass.
I have only been here for about a day. I keep saying to myself: “I drove here!” It’s kind of liberating to know that driving 700 miles is do-able.
I was sitting here at my computer and noticed a grandmother and her grand kids looking at something in my yard. I grabbed my camera and walked out the back patio. Here’s the visitor:
He/She has a shell that is about a foot long. S/he saw me as I got closer to take a look. Check out those fingernails!
Last week I had my annual trip to the fancy dinner honoring the retirees of my school district. I’m actually on the local union scholarship committee. We present fifteen $1000 scholarships to high school seniors that are sons or daughters of union members. This year I presented eight of the fifteen. I’ve done it for the past three or four years. I can’t remember how long I’ve been doing this. I’ve been to this dinner several times. My dad is on the Retirement Board and goes each year. At least one year, my mom was sick and I attended in her place. The first year I attended was because my dad was awarded the prestigious award that is given out to someone who has had a large contribution to our local teachers’ union. That was even before I was a teacher.
Being that I’m single and have the same last name as my parents, I do run into some interesting situations. Most of the time they’re good. I’m lucky in the fact that my parents have good reputations for their work in the past and present. My dad is the one who is most well known because of his union involvement and being on the retirement board for several years. Since I’m not as well known in my own right, I’m sometimes thought of as the “date” or the accompaniment to the man. I actually had a place on the program and was speaking in front of the few hundred people at the event. But apparently when they were doing the seating arrangement I was just F’s daughter. Not me – member of the scholarship trust and current teacher in the system that has a purpose for being there that evening. Whatever… I’m cool with it.
The funny thing that I realized after doing my little part of the program is that I like it. It doesn’t bother me in the least to get up in front of a few hundred people and speak into a microphone. I have lots of practice. I’m the announcer at all of our home gymnastics meets. I know to get my mouth up close to the mic so I can be heard. I think it’s the worst when someone is using a mic and you can’t hear them because they don’t realize this. I know that my tone of voice is very important and to be careful to convey the right emotion. If I screw up I know it’s not a big deal and I just act natural. I don’t like reading from a script, so I have the basics in front of me and ad lib the rest.
My first experience with public speaking was when my dad retired. I was the designated kid that spoke at his retirement party. This is probably because I went into the same profession and actually worked with him in the same school. As I said in my speech, it was “take your daughter to work day” for a year. I was incredibly nervous about giving the speech. I put off writing it until about a week before the event. Since my dad was quite well-known, there were lots of people from the district at the party as well as friends and family. It was a big deal. And I did a great job.
Who knew? The shy little girl who never wanted to be in the spotlight was pretty darned good when she was in the spotlight. I think the experience of speaking at my dad’s retirement party was one that prepared me well. How many people can say that public speaking doesn’t bother them? Not many. In fact, I kind of get a charge out of it.
I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I’m center stage in room 211 every day. When you think about it, that’s probably a tougher audience than a bunch of adults at a dinner. If you’re unsure of what you’re saying, they’ll pick up on it. Teenagers are probably the most critical audience you’ll ever have. So I guess I’ve had pretty good preparation.
But the thing I find interesting is that I didn’t really figure this out until now. Me? Like public speaking and being in the spotlight? I’ve always thought of myself as someone who blends in and is never the center of attention. What am I going to do with this new-found knowledge? I don’t know. I’m open for suggestions.
Since yesterday, the temperature has dropped 53 degrees. And it’s still going down. The wind chill is even worse. I knew it was cold, but with the wind blowing, I’m experiencing another kind of phenomenon.
Yes, that is ice forming on the inside of my door. There is a draft strong enough to freeze the moisture in the air in my house to the metal. The funny thing is that I got a storm door as a Christmas present. Too bad my dad is in Arizona and won’t be over to install it until the spring.
I had a good food experiment tonight. I used the Pillsbury Pizza dough and topped it with chicken, bacon, artichokes and green onion. It looks pretty impressive. It tastes pretty good too! I’ll be eating it for the rest of the week… But at least this time I won’t mind eating it for the rest of the week…
Last week I got an email from my brother. He was sharing pictures from his snowmobiling vacation. He was so excited to be out in the snow, doing whatever they do on those snowmobiling vacations. Personally, I don’t know… I’m more of a beach seeker at this time of the year. But the point is, he was having a blast and so deserves it. You see, a year ago, he was sending pictures from a different location.
These are some girls that he saw while he served in Iraq. He was in Iraq for 16 months. Yes, that’s longer than a year. About a year ago is when Bush made his announcement that he would increase the number of troops in Iraq. How did that happen? Many of the people already there didn’t get to go home on schedule.
I can’t do justice to any of the stories that I’ve heard from my brother. If you’re interested in reading some insightful and powerful reflections of someone who was there, check out The Online Chaplain. My favorite is Bunker Theology 101. The soldier writing them is a good friend of my brother.
A year ago I was living under the stress of having a family member deployed. It is such a relief to be done with that. What a difference a year makes!
I’m in a food rut. Since Christmas I’ve been telling myself that I need to come up with a good grocery list so I can get food to fix instead of food to get by. So far, I’ve been getting by… Sunday I got a take and bake pizza. That lasted me through Wednesday for lunches. I made an instant black beans and rice mix to get me through the rest of the week’s lunches. Tonight I was strongly leaning toward take-out, but it’s so darn cold here that I don’t want to leave my house. Considering what is in my refrigerator I had a pretty good meal. I made a steak with vegetables and un-corked a bottle of Bordeaux.
Whatever my food rut problems are, I’m never in a wine rut. I have a friend that passed her sommelier’s test last spring. I love having my personal wine guru. I never stick to the same types of wine that I know I like anymore. I’m always trying something new. She even gives me notes about the wine. I have a pizza wine, a spicy food wine, and a bunch of others. I have now been to some classes, so I actually have a clue about what to drink with particular foods. One of the best things about taking the classes and learning about wine is that now I’m not afraid to ask for recommendations. I just go into my favorite wine shop and trust that my buddies at the shop will pick out a good variety for me. My sommelier friend, just got a new job as a buyer, so I’m not sure how my personal guru can help me these days (but I’m sure she’ll let me know).
So how do I get out of my food rut? Part of the problem is the solo thing. When I cook, I have enough to eat for a whole week. By the time you eat it 3 days in a row for lunch and dinner you don’t want to make that particular dish for quite some time.
I’ve signed up for a couple of community education cooking classes. I’m taking a class about soup and one about Thai cooking. Come February, I should definitely be out of my rut. It will be interesting what I can come up with until then…
As I was leaving school on Friday I stopped in another teacher’s room. She had a visitor. He was a former student who went into the Army after graduation. There he was, leaning on a desk, legs crossed, a scar about 8 inches long down the right side of his leg alongside his knee, and a cane. He was back from Iraq. For good. He had been sent there four (yes, 4) times. This last time he was shot in the leg. His next surgery will be to take out the metal in his leg and he’s hoping to be pain free after that. I suppose he’s one of the lucky ones. After all, he made it back alive.
Military service is one of the options for students at my school. In many cases, it’s a good option. They get the discipline that they never got growing up. There are expectations and consequences. There are challenges and there is action. We have a JROTC program and they do some great things with kids that really struggle.
We have military recruiters coming to school all the time. When you count each group, we have; Army, Marines, Air Force, and the National Guard (I don’t recall seeing the Navy people there) coming each month. Each group seems to show up at least once a month. They send well spoken soldiers (some are graduates) to talk to kids about the option of military service. They often give away free stuff and challenge the kids to a number of push ups or some other physical feat (for a pencil). I often wonder, do they prey upon the kids in the suburbs as much as the kids in the city? I doubt it, but I don’t have any evidence…
In general, I’m not against military service. But in the midst of this senseless war, I am. To see this student and his cane on Friday just reinforces my opinion. He was an extremely bright kid that was easily bored with school. He was one of those that was a naturally gifted student but had no way to channel his creativity. Consequently, he got himself into trouble fairly often. I’m sure he loved the excitement of the Army. But here he is, 22 years old, living with pain and a limp and a steady supply of vicadin. A lot can happen with that combination.
And he’s only one of the many service members that is trying to get back to “normal” life here in the US. Can it ever be normal again? I doubt it.
Do you remember getting a sliver as a kid? I do. If it was really wedged in there good, my dad would use a pin to get the skin out of the way so he could pull it out with a tweezers. You were scared but you knew that you didn’t really have a choice about getting it out. It was not a laughing matter.
Tonight, my niece got a sliver. We tried our best to convince her to let grandpa take it out. She was just not buying the arguments that we gave her to let grandpa do it. Maybe it was partly because we could hardly contain our laughter for parts of it. Thirty years sure changes your perspective on getting poked by a pin. We’ll see if she changes her mind tomorrow…
