Flashback Friday

Anne Marie...oh how I loved her.  And she will kill me for posting this.

We again are running low on food.  However, we have a lot still to eat and are getting creative with our food.  We know we are not wasting food and going shopping is like painting on a blank canvas.  Ok, so maybe I get a little excited about this.  I guess it is a highlight in my very, very difficult week.

Class this week covered the economy, which was COMPLETELY out of my element.  I did my best, but I barely passed this in high school and college.  I thought that if there was more demand, you just made more stuff.  (Seriously.)  I have realized that to teach, you should have a large knowledge base.  Somehow, I don't seem to have acquired enough information to speak on authority about anything.  Each week is a challenge.  Next week is poverty.  I seem to bite off more than I can chew most of the time.  I have probably worked a 60 hour week and have a busy weekend ahead.  

Well...enough about my whining.  I was in a car accident today, slipping through an intersection before hitting a pole.  Thankfully, I just dinged up my front bumper and scraped the paint off someone else's.  I was very, very thankful the pole kept me from going into the ravine.  I have some negotiating with the insurance company to do, but I have a working car and no one was hurt.

On many accounts, I have faced many, many heartbreaks and disappointments over the last year.  While they are difficult, I have learned soooooo much.  I am forever grateful for what it has taught me.  I am grateful for the quiet times, the times I have been stripped of friends and family and pushed beyond my comfort zone, little by little.

This was a "I totally get it" and cried a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGew7dGto

In learning to be pushed beyond my boudnaries...well...a big race is yet to be determined.  I need some direction in my working out.  I am lucky to make to the Y four times before work this week.  The guys there give me such a hard time...they are shocked when I actually show up.  Two days in a row seems like I am aiming high.  Ok, so I am really not sure where to go next, but I have a feeling it will be longer or harder than I have ever done.

Jan. weather=balmy snow days

A run and a bike ride yielded some really great shots.  Mmm...I love this!

Flashback Friday--snow

This playground was built when I was about 2 or 3.  It had lasted until its destruction only a few years ago.  Oh the hours spent swinging, climbing, and doing who knows what else on this.   It actually kind of makes me miss it.  Maybe I will trek through the snow today and brush off a seat to pump my legs a bit.  Maybe.  Ok, maybe not.   19 degrees is not worth it.

I went to the library this weekend and found a few things to funny not to share.

I don't think it's conincidence that the beer books are right next to the books on social injustice and economics.

Propaganda from Washington?

This morning, I attended a Unity Breakfast in the Community and have read Letters from a Birmingham Jail.  The thoughts of oppression and social injustice are on my mind.  I realize that the suffragettes have fought for my right to vote, the pilgrims and patriots have fought for my right to live in such a great country (albeit with some manipulation), women's rights have given the right to work without having a man supporting me, and I am part of a powerful majority in this country (although the diminishing sector of white people in the country are considered powerful).  I wonder what it is actually like to live in a country of oppression, to live in a place where my beliefs are not only not ok to express, but are persectuable by death.  I wonder what it is like to actually be discriminated against because I am female, as many Afghan women who pursue education still are today.  I will likely challenge my students this week with these questions and continue to mull over this discussion in weeks to come.  Really, how far have we come over the last fifty years?

In other news, our house has been nothing short of exciting this week.  We have had a mouse/raccoon/cat/opposoum in our crawlspace, and now the vents.  The clawing under the bathtub Sunday perpetuated a midnight run t Walmart in our pjs for mouse bait.  We have caught nothing.

In the human world, we had a 1am knock on our door last Sunday morning when we were finishing up a movie.  Yup, someone drove up to the house and paid us a visit.

Then, while I was meeting my cousin's girlfriend for the first time on Monday, my roommate called me to tell me there was a drug deal going on in front of our house.  Between this and vermin, I am sure she was wondering where in the world I lived.  Haha...I guess this is what I get for wanting to be in the heart of the needs of my city.

This great country of ours

I have been extremely busy.  Between working the ER and preparing for my new class, I sometimes think I have bit off more than I can chew.  I seriously can't ever remember studying the Constitution and Bill of Rights in school...and I have a MASTER'S degree.  I think I may have been caught up a little too much in the drama to remember much else.

As much as I have wanted to back down from the challenges placed ahead of me, I realize that these are a series of growth moments.  So I relearning the basic foundations of our country, preparing week by week and trying to stay one step ahead of my students.  I am learning how to deal with psychotic patients, doctors, and the police in the ER, and I am learning how to make a dry subject fun.  I have spent much of my waking day today scouring the internet for YouTube videos.  I thought I would share some.  (P.S.  I LOVE SchoolHouse Rocks!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_56cZGRMx4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_56cZGRMx4

I have sooo much to learn, but I am already engaging in converstions with people much smarter than I to glean as much information as I can in the shortest amount of time possible.

Flashback Friday--Gangrene

Halloween--2004 I believe?

Flashback Friday--Dad curlers

Yes, I am related to this man and yes, I am a little more like him every day.

(This is how he won over my mom.)

I have had such a phenomenonal time and been so blessed with friends and family, I haven't had much time to write.

I went to Nashville (TN) last weekend to see a friend from grad school.  I met some of her phenomenonal friends and had a blast.  I love leaving places so much smarter than when I came.  We went downtown for the Battle of Bands.  Vandy played North Carolina State the next day.  We happened to stop by a bar to pee on the way out of town and the band came in.  The girls were super excited to see the tubas up close.

My aunt and uncle are leaving for Swaiziland next week.  They came and stayed the weekend with my parents, which was a perfect escape from the chaos of moving out of country.  It was amazing to hear about their work and it was wonderful to spend time with them before they are back in July.  My aunt and I did some photography stuff and we experimented with Flat Stanley (who will be making the journey with them).

And back home here in Indiana...

So, I finished my list of 1,000 things and have decided to start over with it.  It has been a good exercise in optimism.  And trust me, a healthy dose of optimism has kept me afloat over the last few weeks.  I am thinking about entitling this blog "thoughts from a recovering pessimist."  I think I may just do that...someday.

As for the pics, I have FINALLY figured out the issue.  It involves going back and saving each one of my pics on the computer and reposting them.  Again...something I may eventually get to.  I have finally got around to almost ordering my computer (a.k.a. I think I am going to do it this week), so it will sit on my to-do list this week.

So...to test my theory on the pics, I am trying to post something that made me smile today.

Tomorrow, I begin creating the syllabus for my next feat:  teaching policy. What in Hades name did I think I was doing when I signed up for this?!?  Well...it will be an adventure...and I am guessing I have a few things to learn in the next week.  Details to come...

Ok, well I haven't posted things in a while for a few reasons.

#1  I have been seriously busy with a plethora friends and family over the holidays.
#2  I have been frustrated with the fact that my pictures do not show up on my blog.
#3  I have wanted to post something intelligent that would encompass the deepest and most blessed year of my life.
#4  I have gotten ready for work 9 min. twice this week.  Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

Flashback Friday--TN

My mom likes to tell the story of how I was insistent that we stayed here in my cabin after we had worn out our welcome.  They scared me by driving around the block...haha...I still wouldn't budge.

I thought that this would be appropriate after a rockin' NYE in Tennessee.  Apparently, I have a lot of fun there.