last day in provo for 2009

Isn't that just pure excitement (the fact that it's my last day here for awhile)? Today's also my last day of school for the year. When I get back, I'll only have 19 days left at school. And then one week before the "big day." And then a happy happy day! Time just keeps zooming by.

I have much on my mind but nothing's really lending itself to coming out in word-form at the moment.

And so I share a picture and a poem. I took this picture about one year ago. I had a fine time then traipsing around Edgemont to deliver goodness and take pictures. I won't be doing that this year because I leave tomorrow for Jerusalem and someone ever so lovely. But it is nice to look back to what I was doing a year ago. I sure do love my solo walks (and runs and hikes...).

And now the poem, by Rudyard Kipling:

Untitled
You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old,
Or your head will be sunk by your heels;
And summer gales and Killer Whales
Are bad for baby seals.
Are bad for baby seals, dear rat,

As bad as bad can be.
But splash and grow strong,
And you can't be wrong,
Child of the Open Sea!



Merriest of Christmases!

See you next year.

Loves!

ps: a confession: I've watched the Babies trailer (posted below) upwards of ten times. People might make fun of me. Actually, people do make fun of me. Certain people make fun of me because I'm so enamoured with it, but I'll hold my head high. I can't change the fact that those babies are so stinkin' cute, and that it makes me smile and more than happy. The end.

"do you love a lot?"

I love this:

one year and one day ago

"A4 Zach asks me if I asked Santa for anything. I said no. Ryan asked, Did you ask for a husband? I didn't know what to say and the whole class was kinda shocked that he'd asked that. I just smiled and said, 'Always.' Anyhow, kinda funny."

excerpted from my journal

emerson

Picture taken by Rew. Yuba Lake September 2009.

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator
for all I have not seen."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

some choice words

written on a poster board for me because I'm leaving my students:

• "Have fun. Don't die." (I was very suspicious of Rachel D. C. having whispered these words into this student's ear.)
• "I am gonna miss you and your terminator sunglasses. You are awesome."
• "Thanks for introducing me to Ender's Game! :)"
• "Yo. You were the only English teacher I was able to understand."

plus more...

One kind student got everyone to sign it. She wrote, "I made this poster to show my thanks and to tell you how much I'm going to miss you!"

I feel loved. I am loved. I'm grateful for happy moments that make me feel like I'm actually making a difference for good in the lives of these kids. It's kind of too bad that it takes me leaving to get me to more fully recognize this. Oh well...

In other news, ahem, in countdown news, I only have six school days till I fly over the ocean to my loveliest love! I have to keep busy or else I turn into the biggest daydreamy fool. So it's time to finish up today's lesson planning.

Love, peace, and happiness.

"on the radio" excerpt

This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

-Regina Spektor

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Two weeks till Christmas (not that I'm counting down or anything)!

too cool

for school

I wish. I've worn these to school since Tuesday and I'll be wearing them through next Thursday--when I see my eye doctor again. My shades certainly don't make me too cool for school. If they did, then I wouldn't be there anymore, would I? Not being at school will happen soon enough. I only have eight days of school until Christmas break, and then I get to fly to see my dearest one in Jerusalem. Yes, I'm excited. In two weeks we'll be celebrating Christmas together. Huzzah!

I'm still not loving the frigid frigidness, but I did have myself a nice walk today. Only the last ten minutes were freezing--the result of the sun beginning its quick descent. I can't run or swim or play soccer or doing anything that could jolt me for a while. Patience yet again I must cultivate. Trying my best.

Happy Friday tomorrow!

ps: I'm hoping A3 really made a pirate patch for me like they said (boasted emptily?) they would. That would be unspeakably awesome.

pps: I miss Ukraine. I've been listening to the couple of tapes I made when I was in Gorlovka and it makes me miss it all like mad.

ppps: Nothing much to say here, just didn't want to leave an evenly numbered amount of postscripts because that would be bad luck or something (at least in Ukraine?)....laters!

cold

yep, bloody cold.

happy post to come...just a bit of a frustrating morning with my car not being a fan of the zero degrees outside.

happy halfway through the week!

weather report

"I love snow. At least before they sand the roads and everything turns brown. They should have to wait three days before they do that. Put off work and shopping. Make it a ritual. Something where we all just stop, where we have to the way Muslims face Mecca. Can you imagine it? Of course not. Because there are no rituals in this country. People might think they have some, made up things. But those are just habits: The Way We Always Do It. Ritual's different, more invested with spirit, with some sense of the sacred, and where do you see that anywhere? Look around. If anything was sacred once, some company's got a trademark now and made it a collectible toy. But can you imagine? Someone's on the phone booking a one-way to Houston, fussing over seat assignments, then she looks out the window, and it's snowing, and she says, 'Sorry, I'll have to call you back.' Or this couple's been in bed together, and they're hungry now and going out to eat. The snow's coming down, sticking to their hair, their breath's all steamy, and they just turn around smiling and head back in. Maybe she cooks. Maybe they run a hot bath, and afterwards he rubs her with oil...the backs of her legs, her feet. Just think--kids putting their school books down, and buses coming early. Teachers relaxing. You can actually see their shoulders go loose, like they just took a drink from God's own bottle of wine. And even this--If anyone is beating someone, they stop. If anyone is ripping something off, they put it back. I mean, we're just shocked at this great surge of gladness. Everyone stopping and breathing, all together, all at once. And the next day, we come downtown. We walk or ski or pull our kids on sleds, but no cars. And everyone stays all day--singing, drinking coffee, sharing food, sharing water from cold glass bottles buried in snow--until it's time for the Lighting of the Candles. All these lights. More and more of them everywhere, thousands, and we shield them from the wind the whole way home. Just think of it. The third day set aside for stories. And anyone born on the third night, on their thirteenth birthday they get to plant a tree. There'd be a town orchard, and the apples there would be canned and then baked each New Year's Eve. I swear, we'd be happier. And it's nothing. It would take nothing to do this. In Asia they've had ceremony for four-thousand years. Peasants with nothing but rice to eat practically, gathering to float ancestral lanterns downstream. What's wrong with us? When did it go so wrong?"

-Rob Carney

creeper

This is what I looked like yesterday

because I took a soccer ball straight to my right eye. There were even a few drops of blood. My iris turned dark green. It was really scary because I couldn't see anything but light and shadow for most of the day. Luckily and blessedly, though, my eye doctor was willing to help us out on a Saturday. He told me to stay home from church and take it super easy. Rebleeding would be a not so happy situation. There was so much bleeding (internally) yesterday that he couldn't even see the retina. But today he was able to see it and it's still attached, so that's good. He still wants to check my progress, so I'll be seeing him tomorrow as well. I'm taking my first sick day ever tomorrow. I'll stay home and take it easy. I can already see a lot better, but my vision's not back to what it was before this whole fiasco. I hope things'll turn out well.

I'm very grateful for the prayers said with me in mind and for everyone's happy thoughts. Faith is real and I feel so loved. Merci beaucoup.

peace

Walden Pond October 2008

"He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward,
even peace in this world,
and eternal life in the world to come"
(Doctrine and Covenants 59:23).

amen omen

sometimes the perfect song plays at the perfect time. this morning: amen omen by ben harper. and sometimes it doesn't really have anything to do with the lyrics. it's the music and certain words and certain lines and the way the voice rises and aches. that's all.

happy wednesday! parent teacher conference today. wish me lucky luck.

ps: i have another tally in the "being called a bitch" column, as of yesterday. but no worries. i just smile and keep smiling. i only share because i really do find it rather amusing.