Computer lab observation

I'm in the computer lab, printing notes for my class tomorrow. It closes in 13 minutes, which is fine because that's when my next class starts. I just noticed something interesting: everybody in the computer lab is glaring at their computer. I wonder if it's because we just came off of spring break, or whether it's due to the fact that everyone is tired of this semester and we still have 6 weeks to go... I don't know. But I want you to know, dear reader, I am not glaring at the computer. I'm smiling at it, because I'm pretending I'm having a conversation with you!

welcome to mexico!

It's been a process getting here - for the first time in my life I was rejected from crossing a border (Northern Ireland was close... but I still got in!). We made it all the way to the Mexican border and didn't have the proper paperwork for crossing. Bummer. Back to San Antonio!

But we did make it... hours of driving, hours of sitting, hours of talking, hours of reading, hours of standing in line... but we're here! I'm sitting at the largest private home table I've ever seen, surrounded by the lilting accents of my Mexican hosts speaking English to us USers, watching them laugh and reunite, and sitting back to enjoy the feast of Italian foods. What a blessing!

We're off to the hill country tomorrow to do dental work and build relationships and "have an adventure" (which is, of course, my favorite pastime...). We'll try our best to avoid any and all cross-shooting between warring drug gangs, while still living life on the edge (as safely as possible, though, Mom!)

Thanks for your prayers!

Photos... present and to come

These are some of my favorite shots with my sister from our photo shoot this week. She's incredibly photogenic and we stumbled across some AMAZING colored walls. We about froze - my fingers could hardly work the camera! - but the sun was out and we were feeling like spring was in the air. We had a car full of clothes but she didn't change that much - with the bright colors of the walls, the more solid, subdued tones seemed to compliment best. The pink and yellow walls just scream "Heather!" to me, because of her vivacious, bold, strong, fun personality. Great times! Thanks for putting up with my artistry-abuse, sis!

And in other news, I'm off to Mexico tomorrow for spring break, and my camera came in this week, so I'll be sure to take some photos and hopefully get a couple neat shots to share with all of you three faithful blog readers... ;-) If I have easy internet access while I'm down south, I'll try to post prose blogs to let you know what's up... if not, you'll just have to wait for the stories!

Every word

I'm grading papers this afternoon (well, actually I'm distracting myself as I am ALL too prone to do by finding something else that sounds "productive" rather than just buckling down and getting through the stack!), and I just finished one of my student's essay about wanting to go to Hillsong United's school in Australia. Another of my students wrote on why he'd like to spend a week in Italy. Yosemite was the destination of choice for a different guy. I love reading these papers! I don't always like critically analyzing them and trying to offer constructive criticism while also encouraging the good work I see, but that's part of the job... I get to read the thoughts my students think, their dreams, their fears, and their regrets. As a teacher, they somehow deem me trustworthy of some personal stuff - I feel like it's a hugely privileged and humbling position to inhabit! As a friend pointed out, sometimes God does some "tapping" on my shoulder through the papers I read and lets me know it's time to be used by Him. I hope when those points come up that I'm listening closely enough to Him to be able to hear what He would have me say.

I know that someday, if I have a classroom where I'm teaching five or six periods with 30 or more kids in each, I won't necessarily be able to devote as much time to reading each student's writing as I do now. I dread that day. While trying to pass on to these kids the importance of writing and my passion for it, I'm communicating that writing is a worthwhile endeavor. If the only person who has the opportunity to read their writing is their teacher, and she doesn't do it, who will? Without that validation of an audience for one's written efforts, what's the point? For that reason, I comment on every sheet of paper my student's hand in to me, because I've read every word they write. I don't want my laziness or fatigue or busyness to be a factor that somehow limits my students' progress.

Mental Yoga: Why I LIKE School!

I just read the theory by Michel Foucault (a French dude, and no, my French isn't good enough to read it in the original language) in my Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, and LOVED this quote from the excerpt of "Truthy and Power":

"The specific intellectual encounters certain obstacles and faces certain dangers. The danger of remaining at the level of conjunctural struggles, pressing demands restricted to particular sectors. The risk of letting himself be manipulated by the political parties or trade union apparatuses which control these local struggles. Above all, the risk of being unable to develop these struggles for lack of a global strategy or outside support; the risk too of not being followed, or only by very limited groups."

He was writing about how the "intellectuals" are different today than they were, say, 300 years ago. Back then, the intellectuals (ie: highly educated folks) were seen as philosophers and, in a sense, the people who acted as the consciousness and conscience of the whole population. Now people who are educated thinkers are usually more specified in their areas - they are specifically educated to do something, and they think and act within that premise (ie: business people are trained to work in specific areas of business - marketing or administration, etc, and their "thinking power" is expected to be a part of the package deal. As intellectuals in that field, they are held to the expectation that they will contribute toward their positions within a larger premise). According to Foucault, this reformed view of intellectuals and the new position they hold in society is possibly more challenging than the traditional model, which he explains in the quote above.

I think what I liked the most about the quote was the fact that it hit home with one of the things I think idealistic people must eventually come to realize - I may have ideas in my brain, but there are a lot of factors working against the development of those ideas, there are apparatuses that will take those ideas and use them for their own benefit, there are a million other pressures trying to take my attention from further developing those ideas and instead they try to keep absorb my energy into other areas. There's also the problem of only being one person and not necessarily having the proper and complete perspective needed to develop the ideas into something actually beneficial to the extent that it would actually be impacting. And there is always the possibilty of actually overcoming all the other challenges, and realizing that nobody will jump on board with me to see the ideas carried out...

Although there are sometimes when I REALLY dislike Literature Theory (OK, I usually hate it - like, 99% of the time!), the moments like this, or the moments when I'm reading the article on The Heart of Darkness and really SEEING all the influences of postcolonialism or I actually GET what Althusser is saying about education and the state's ability to indoctrinate the students from a young age... that's when my brain is stretched in a "hurts so good." It's kinda like mental yoga!

Favs... idea courtesy of the other Dani

Who: Erik and me
When: This past weekend
Why: I don't get to see this dude too often, so it is a great visual documentation of our reunion. Erik and his family and my fam went to Europe together while I was in high school. He was an annoying 12 year old at the time, but his redeeming characteristics were visible even then! He's been through the rigors of adolescence, but he's starting to come out the other side having learning a couple things... I think! We have a bet, inspired by my continued lectures that he should not date and focus on things other than girl-drama for awhile, which neither of us have lost yet: which ever of us ends up "in a relationship" first has to buy the other person dinner at the Melting Pot...




Who: Erin and John
When: A couple weekends ago during our reunion in Seattle
Why: We were at this cool Euro bistro in Freemont when I snapped this photo. I met this couple in Morocco 2 summers ago, and then ran into them again last summer. I thought they were cool then, so when I saw on Erin's facebook that she and John were going to be in Seattle, I jumped at the chance to meet up with them on American soil! We had a great time cruisin' around in my lil' Poppy and talking life and love and Morocco!



Who: Melanie, Megan, and me
When: New Year's Eve
Why: Melanie and her sister grew up with me and my sisters, so she has been a longstanding and important part of my life. It's rare that all three of us are in the same place at the same time these days, so even though we were freezing and tired at midnight, standing in Mel's front yard watching the dudes shoot off fireworks, I love this picture because it shows that we were together!



Who: Heath
When: One of the many game nights during Christmas break
Why: We were thoroughly entangled in a Yahtzee match that nobody was actually all that thrilled about. Heather had just rolled her 3rd yahtzee, but she scratched it before her first yahtzee, so she couldn't count ANY of them! Her face and the lighting and the angle seems to just capture the essence of my sister!



Who: Gramps and Grams
When: Christmas dinner
Why: I adore how they're laughing together in this photo. I don't remember the comment that was made prior to the picture being taken, but for the rest of my life, this is one of the image I want to remember of my grandparents: together, laughing. Living with them I see tired faces sometimes, and periodically some frowns, but usually the sparkle in their eyes and the laugh lines around their mouths are evident; I like to think of these visuals as my daily reminder to enjoy life, no matter how long or short it is.

I'm the one that loves you lately

From my computer archives...



*sliding door opens*
"Hey Dani?"
I'm cleaning up the waffle breakfast that's been sitting on the table for an hour as everyone trickles through to eat. My cousin Peyton stayed the night at my house last night.
"Hey Peyt. What's up?"
"I found some Newt eggs, Dani!"
"You did, huh? That's pretty cool."
He's covered in dirt, from smudges on his forehead down his white t-shirt and all over both the front and back of his baggy jeans. I'm putting left over waffles in a gallon size plastic freezer bag to freeze them for a quick breakfast some time in the future. All of a sudden little hands enclosed in plastic gloves holding a strange, jelly-ish blob are hovering mere inches away from the waffle bag.
"Oh, wow. You brought them with you!" I smile into his earnest face and move the waffle bag away... Controlling my urge to cringe at the dirty water dripping onto the table and floor.
"I think they're Salamander eggs, Dani." His right index finger pokes at them, rolling the blob precariously close to the side of his cupped hand.
"Where did you find them?"
"Down by the frogs. Can I keep them?"
"Oh, Peyt, I think they need to be in the outdoors... I don't think eggs do too well inside."
"I want a bowl to put them in. Can I have a bowl? I just want to keep them."
"How about if I get you a bowl and you can keep them until my Mom comes home. Then you can show them to her, and put them back where they came from, OK?"
This option was apparently agreeable because he took the bowl and retreated to the bathroom. A moment later he re-appeared.
"This water is cold. Do you know why?"
"Why?" I slide the waffles into the freezer - safe for the moment!
"Because I have to keep the temperature. The temperature in the frog area was cold, and this needs to be too. That's why this is cold water."
"Oh. They probably need cold water, don't they?" I'm putting up the sausage links now.
"Yeah. They need cold water. That's why the frog water is cold."
*sliding door opens* Max, Olivia, and Peyton's little brother Parker walk in, all sucking on homemade grape popsicles, despite the fact that it is overcast and about 40 degrees outside... I have my furry Ugg boots and my fleece jacket on. Parker has an adorable purple colored ring around his mouth.
"Peyton found frog eggs, Dani." Max reports.
"Yeah, I saw them. Pretty cool."
"They're salamander eggs. I found them in the salamander section." Peyton argues.
"Nope, they're frogs. I know what frog eggs look like, and those are frog eggs." The wise, older cousin rules the roost in this case.
Peyton suddenly realizes that he's the only one without a popsicle. "Dani, can I have a popsicle?" Peyton doesn't even wait for my answer. He heads for the door, leaving the salamander/newt/frog eggs behind in cold water on the table next to the syrup.
Parker declares that he's cold and is going to change out of his wet, egg-hunting clothes. A moment later he opens the door to the bathroom. "Max? Um, I need a smaller shirt."
Max doesn't look up from his position on Jasper, the family computer, showing Olivia and Peyton my myspace and naming off the various people who have left me comments. "I don't have any shirts for you, Parker. Just wear the big one."
Parker is standing in the bathroom doorway holding a giant t-shirt that completely hides him, from head to foot, and would have held three people his size with room to spare.
I take pity on him and his predicament of having to wear either a wet, muddy shirt, or swim in the giant t-shirt that probably belongs to his Dad and got packed by accident into this little backpack. "I'll find a shirt for you, kiddo."
I deliver one of Max's undershirts to him and kiss his temple as I go back to cleaning up the glasses and plates and silvereware on the table...

In the background, Daniel Powter sings, "I'm the one that loves you lately.... "