Without Facebook...

During the season of Lent, I have given up Facebook.  So far, so good.  I don't miss it that much.  Although today while  I was out to lunch with some friends, everyone started mentioned some riotously hilarious pictures that had been posted on Facebook.  That was a bummer.  Clearly, they'll still be up post-Easter, but that's the only thing I guess I'll miss.  The instant photos into the lives of my friends.  I sacrifice pictures for the sake of not wasting my time reading through boring status updates and Farmville stats.  It'll be ok. :-)

In the meantime, this past week has been fun.  I finally went to this little coffee shop, White Rhino Coffee, in Cedarhill.  I have wanted to try it for a long time now and it's as adorable as I imagined it to be.  I also saw a movie with some friends, tried out a new restaurant, Tillman's, in Oak Cliff, and sang some messy Korean keraoke.

To top it all off, I got to spend this afternoon with one and only, Cole.  Here all the way from France to grace us with his presence for an afternoon treat.  It was great.  Our usual gang reunited for a few hours.  Complete bliss.

I suppose if I were to put all of these things into Facebook statuses it would have gone something like this:

-I like Paul Rudd, but they wasted the title "Wanderlust" on a movie that could have just been titled "The Commune."
- I lay caramel delights.
- Fried mashed potato bites may be the best sides imaginable.
- I think the SoJu from the bar made me sing better... or just louder.
- Salt and Pepper team! A day with Cole!

My next move is to invest in a harmonica lesson book.  The internets are wonderful, but I've always been better at learning by book.  Sweet tunes are yet to come. 

Revival

During this season of Lent, I will be giving up Facebook, but setting a goal to update my blog at least once a week.  Perhaps the time I sit in front of my computer Facebooking can be used blogging or writing emails or writing letters, or having more face-to-face conversations.  Facebook isn't a serious addiction or anything, but I do feel like I spend more time looking at what my dear friends are posting on Facebook and not actually calling or catching up in a more intimate fashion.  I want to be more involved in the lives of my friends and not just relying on a new status or picture.  Facebook chat is fine, but I really want to revive the art of conversation.  So, friends and family, you should expect more emails, text messages, actual letters in the post, phone calls, skype dates, coffee/bar/dinner gatherings, and any other way we can communicate without Facebook.  My cell number hasn't changed since high school.  My address is the same.  I even still have an active Baylor email account. This shouldn't be hard... ;-)

Also, blogging is so soothing.  I don't know why I don't/haven't blogged more often.  Perhaps a few paragraphs every now and then will be more informative than a couple of sentences in a status update.  :-)

Thanks.

Blogger FAIL.  I'd like to work my way back into blogging again, so here it is... my list* of things for which I am thankful:

- My job and the paycheck attached to it

- Harriet, my Versa

- Tea

- Pint nights at the Libertine (with the exception of a couple of nights)
- New boots
- Adele's 21 album
- Amazon.com and the 100 albums for $5 each

- DVR

- Rent-free living

- New muffin pan
- Skype calls
- Treadmills
- Laptop table
- Musical note socks
- Air conditioning
- Inside jokes
- Classroom technology

- Commissioned paintings

- Taking risks
- Health
- Pedicures
- Chapstick
- Fuzzy slippers
- iPhone (when it works)
- John Frieda hair products (helping tame beastly hair, one wash at a time)
- Holding hands and high fives!
- Baylor University
- Lengthy emails with friends
- Snail mail with friends
- Broken French skills
- Cameras and pictures


and of course: family, friends, food, laughter, and a growing spiritual relationship/understanding with God. 

Thanks for LOVE.

*This list is subject to change as I remember more and more things for which I am thankful.  Let's be honest, there are many reasons to be thankful. ;-)

Spring Things

I’d like to start by requesting that we all pray. Pockets of turmoil and strife are occurring worldwide. So, specifically pray from Japan, Libya, and the Texas education system.

Here’s hoping that next year I’ll still have my job. I rather not say much more about it because it makes me a bit angry. Get it together, Texas legislature.

Luckily, it’s spring break. It seems to come just in the nick of time. And Luckily again, my sister was able to help me get a ticket to the Florida Keys with her this week. Big score.

The week before break was… painful. And not just for me but also for the kids, too. I had a surprise observation (because I had completely forgotten the date) on Monday. That went… OK. Let’s just say that I didn’t have a super stellar lesson plan prepared for Monday. Tuesday-Friday the kiddos were going to be benchmark TAKS testing. It would have been pointless to start a new lesson and expect them to retain it in those 4 days plus over break. We went over some past tests, made corrections, and did some coloring with “Word Walls.” My observer watched me go over test problems and instruct my 13 year olds on coloring. It’s wasn’t bad… just wasn’t great either.

Tuesday was the first day of benchmarking and the kick-off test was the Math test. They improved, but apparently not enough because all us math teachers were called to an afterschool meeting to discuss the scores and a potential game-plan. Ugh. Why can’t they get it?!?! We practice and practice and practice...

Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) was a great day. Our church had a great service.

By Thursday, the kiddos are getting tired. Students don’t realize how much we teachers actually sympathize with them. We remember what it was like to be in school. We remember getting bored on test days. Wanting to be out for break. We still feel the same way. I took my afternoon classes outside that day. Those kiddos, despite their laziness, really have been working hard. I haven’t really let up on them, and I can’t. They’ve just got to work hard to pass, but I hope I don’t stress them out too much. By Thursday, even my good classes are cracking. They’re tired. We’re tired. And then I get a call to the principal’s office…

She discussed with me a meeting that I would be attending the next day. It was about the budget cuts and rumors of teacher cuts. All I thought of was doom, but my principal was very reassuring.

Friday was messy. I was half-tempted to start calling parents myself to tell them to sign their kids out of school. They zoomed through the last test, Social Studies; I had the first student done in 13 minutes and my slowpoke done in 45. I should mention that the test was 50 questions. I’m a fast reader and there is no way that I would be able to read and answer 50 questions in 13 minutes. Whatever. At least they didn’t do that on the math test. The last half of the day was taken up with cheerleader tryouts for which the school suspended the bell and the announcements. That’s right. We changed classes via hollering down the hallway. Thankfully, my students were fully engaged in The Princess in the Frog all afternoon. Their school dance was also that night, the kick-off to their spring break. They were so excited! They begged me to come, but… no! Ha-ha. I had a few students jokingly ask me to the dance, and one said he’d just come back and ask once he’d turn 18. A little creepy. I’d rather not witness all their dance-floor shenanigans, and I had already made plans to meet up with Claire and John.

So, while my students started their break with dancing, mine began with dinner and conversation… well, after the hour-long meeting with the superintendent about the budget and our job security. Again, like Bob Marley sung, “Every little t’ing gonna be alright.” Dinner was mellow and wonderful and with best friends. Loved it.

Saturday: I did absolutely nothing. But really,…NOTHING. Nothing compares to the gloriousness of nothing once you’ve been going non-stop on multiple somethings.

Sunday: Spent with Richard and Jason and a little bit of Christopher.

Monday! Florida time. I left that afternoon. Arrived at DFW airport at 12:15 PM. Departed on the first plane at about 1 PM. Arrived at Atlanta airport by 4 PM. Departed on the second plane at 4:40 PM. Arrived at Miami airport at 6:30 PM. There I waited. I bid my time by exploring the airport. It felt like being inside of a giant fishbowl… and no one was American. It’s a nautical themed airport with gold sea creatures on the tile floor and wavy glass windows, some tinted sea blues. I had some egg rolls and a couple of mojitos. Departed on the third and final plane at 8:45 PM. Finally, landed in Key West at 9:25 PM. Jumped in car to drive to Big Pine Key. Arrived at beach house at 10:10 PM.

Arrived at bliss at 10:11 PM.

Too Many Bleak Winter Days

I’m ready for spring. I’m ready for the bitter arctic air to blow its last winds. I’m ready to end the shivering. I’m ready to feel warm again… inside and out. There’s ice on the roads.  There’s ice in me.



It’s cold.

Pray for Egypt

Before we all became pre-occupied with this weather, the news was covering the protests, demonstrations, and violence in Egypt. Not to say that I'm not into the weather right now like everyone else, heck, I'm enjoying my second consecutive snow day at home (Praise da Lord!), but hopefully no one has forgotten about what happening in the streets of Cairo.


I read a great blog yesterday- (Click here to read it) (thanks, Kim for posting it)- about what's going on and how it started. Funny enough the revolution basically began online via Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has become pretty annoying lately and I've never seen anything worthy or redeemable about Twitter, but in Egypt, the youth have used these social networks to begin a revolution that has about 2/3 of the nation involved. I once stood firmly against getting a Twitter, but this makes me reconsider. In a country were the government controls and restricts just about everything, Facebook and Twitter have prevailed. On CNN and CBS news, they were reporting that the government shut down internet access all across the nation, but protesters still kept in contact, let their voices ring, and shouted via mobile Tweets. Updates were pouring in by the seconds.


It's amazing to see just how much we've changed as a global society. Think back with me, please. The Civil Rights Movement right here in America. It took years of networking and strong leaders to coordinate and organize protests and demonstrations. It took lots of planning in advance and the rise of national organizations with strong leadership to get the movement off the ground. In Egypt, all it took were a few tweets and posts. It's amazing to think how revolutions have revolutionized.


The protesters don't have a strong political leader. They don't have an alternative president waiting to step in. They're not all coming from one united political voice. They are just downright miserable and desperate to get Mubarak O-U-T! The government there, from what I remember for Dr. Ngong's class and doing current events on Egypt, is severely corrupted. They control the nation with a tight grip. If you spoke out against them that morning, chances of you making it home that evening were slim. Citizens that voiced their opinions against the regime would just vanish. I once read about a group of homeless citizens trying to find shelter in Cairo, the capitol- a city that must be kept “clean.” Mysteriously, there was a random rock slide that crushed the destitute homeless folks’ shabby boxes made into shelters, killing most and driving out the rest. "Accidents" happen. Mubarak has been known to shut down power to cities for days at a time as punishment. Force people out their homes and into the streets. Have "unfit" citizens disappear.

Just pray for Egypt. As the violence increases, keep these people in your prayers. Whatever the outcome of all of this, there is bound to be even more suffering. When the government fails, pray the people will remain strong and can get through a transition without a leader. Pray for less violence. Pray for the safety of those Egyptian youths trying to repair and better their nation. Pray that they find a solid, strong, and just leader. Pray that America does what's right to help.


The revolution in Egypt is happening... and the world can see. We are all watching. We are reading your tweets and posts. We are being updated by the minute. Mubarak, you can't keep this quiet.   

New Year's Resolutions...

Firstly, New Year's Eve this year was really fantastic.  It was spent with Brian and my Scotland/Baylor friends (including the wonderful Sarah of VA!!) down in Waco.  I took Brian to the suspension bridge, followed by a group dinner at Ninfa's, spades, coffee, drinks, fireworks, cigars, toasts, laughs, Denny's, and just overall merriment.  I was really excited that I got to wear my short black sequined and dazzling dress once more.  It had been years since its first appearance at Welcome Week.  I hope to wear it more.  I loved being sparkly.

On New Year's Eve we toasted to resolutions that we don't intend to keep.  I know these were supposed to be posted earlier, but better late than never.  The year is still spankin' new even 10 days into January, so here's my soon-to-be-abandoned list of resolutions.

Resolution #1:  Wear the sparkly dress again.  I DO want to keep this one.  It's just slightly ho-ish, so I have to be cautious about the occasion.

Resolution #2:  Tone up.  I still jiggle.  I DON'T want to jiggle.

Resolution #3:  Travel this summer to Australia or France or both... both would be perfect.

Resolution #4:  Study for LSAT.

Resolution #5:  Take LSAT and not punk out.

Resolution #6:  Research and apply to law schools...eek!

Resolution #7:  Procrastinate less.  I add this to the list every year.  I usually break it first.  I mean, I am blogging my resolutions on the 10th... oops.

Resolution #8:  Have more conversations with friends.  I will keep this one.

Resolution #9:  Become a more organized teacher.

Resolution #10:  Find time for art again.

Resolution #11:  Move out.

There's my list; 11 resolutions for 2011.  Last year I challenged 2010 to bring it... and it did.  2010 was incredible.  I hope 2011 will be... spectacular.  Come on, 2011, it is the year of the rabbit. :-)