This week without George Stephanopoulos

Sunday: Celebrated Sara’s birthday. Some snow trekking at Letchworth State Park. A viewing of Music & Lyrics. Some pizza eaten. Some pralines and cream ice cream courtesy of Baskin-Robbins. A nice day.

Monday: Starting to feel not so good, but a decent day at school. Beautiful weather hitting the 50s. When I get home from work I eat, work on stuff for school, and sleep.

Tuesday: Another springish day, yet I feel like a dyslexic carp. Fortunately, I can still put down the nutrients, because Sara blesses me with Killer Asian Feast: the Sequel.

Wednesday: A good day at school, but my nose still doing the running man. Too tired and too sick to watch Lost, I make friends with Nyquil.

Thursday: My class participates in our first ever poetry night. A small crowd of parents, relatives, and teachers, but the students are impressive and I am very proud of them. The icing on my day’s cake is making it home in time to see Duke lose in the first round.

Friday: Morning with the students is terrible(too much post poetry night partying or something), but the afternoon rocks the casbah. We go visit our nursing home pal Percy then sort damaged snack packages and dump expired soda at a local food bank. Dumping expired soda is surprisingly fun.

Saturday: The bad news is that Sara and I wake up to about 4 inches of snow. The good news is that we celebrate our 5th anniversary. We look at wedding pictures, reminisce, play music, feel happy. We are old marrieds and we like it. *

*Lest you think that we have forgotten how to celebrate anniversaries, we do have a celebratory trip planned to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City in April.  Beware of blog.

Skagitational Pull: Part I

(Blogger’s Note: Wow this is long! It was a snow day, I had time.)

Two weeks ago, I had a week off for Winter Break. So I cashed in my frequent flyer miles and returned to the Skagit Valley. It turned out to be just what I needed…except for the end. Read on.

Tuesday

The flight was uneventful, though long. First from Buffalo to DC and then from DC to Seattle. I got in around 4:00 pm and was hoping to avoid traffic, but the carousel went round and round and my luggage never came. It was LOST. The only comfort I got from this was imagining my luggage as the cast of Lost. Stuck in a suitcase together, the church shoes not wanting to interact with the sweatpants, the necktie and undershirt suddenly thrown together with no layer in-between. The razor who had once ridden in the carry-on bag all his life suddenly being thrust in with clothing–clothing with a checked past…the others. When I finally got my Kia Spectra it was the middle of rush hour. I prepared for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised. The sun was shining and the Seattle skyline looked particularly majestic. It’s one thing to see it on Grey’s Anatomy, it’s another thing to see it in real life. The drive up to Mt. Vernon was fine, and my friends Don and Kathy were welcoming hosts.

Wednesday

By myself, I’m a checklist traveler. On Kauai, I once snorkeled 7 beaches in one day. My wife prefers a more relaxed time, complete with lounging, browsing, and sitting at cafes. Left to my own devices, I revert back to RK 1.0. So, after getting my luggage in the morning, my iPod and I headed off for a day of adventure. First up was a drive up Little Mountain. Unfortunately, when I got there, the gate was closed. Rather than waiting five minutes for the gate to open, I saw a place to park and decided to hike up the trail. After about a minute into the hike, my shins were on fire. The flatness of Western New York had made me a weakling. Nonetheless, I huffed up to the top. My reward was a scenic vista of the Skagit Valley.

Next up on the list, lunch at Tacos Guaymas for a gigante vegetarian burrito. Showing tremendous restraint, I managed to transport it to Lake Padden for a lakeside lunch. Unfortunately, the winds picked up and forced me inside the Spectra. After lunch, I hiked around the lake, took lots of pictures, thought of my wife, and felt happy. After that, I continued north to Bellingham in search of Whatcom Falls. I actually missed the turn the first time and was ready to give up, but found it rather accidentally. Even though TLC told me not to, I still go chasing waterfalls. Roaring water is fun.

That night, I took Don and Kathy out to eat at a local burger place and then we headed to the school for a basketball game. The girls 4th-6th grade team put up a valiant effort, but were defeated. It was good clean fun though, and I got to see some of my former students for the first time in three years.

That night, I also popped lots of ibuprofen because old man pains are not fun.

Thursday

I hadn’t known this ahead of time, but the school happened to be having a Science Fair with schools from around the Conference. The high school students presented their projects and groups of elementary students rotated around from station to station. Topics included Coke and Mentos, the five senses, the nose, volcanoes, and Newton’s laws. I was very impressed with the presentations and had an enjoyable time visiting with my old colleagues and former students. The two most frequent comments were: “When are you coming back?” and “Why did you shave?”

After the Science Fair, I drove along Chuckanut Drive to Larrabee State Park. If you’ve never been on Chuckanut before, you’re missing a fun drive complete with windy roads, waterfalls, and a great view of the ocean and islands. I didn’t spend too much time at Larrabee, but did manage to walk along the rocks and find a little bit of sea life amongst the tide pools.

In the evening, I rode with a former colleague, Rachel, to the grade4-6 guys basketball game. This one was on the road, and several of my former students, including Rachel’s son Jimmy, were playing in the game. This was a wild game–a combination of basketball and slapstick comedy. Throughout the game, I kept on thinking how fun it would be to coach kids in those grades. They were having fun out there and not taking it too seriously. The game ended in a tie, which everybody seemed to be okay with.

Skagitational Pull: Part II

Friday

Friday, I set out early. My destination, appropriately enough, was Friday Harbor. It was a beautiful morning, with a blue sky providing background for the silhouetted San Juan Islands. The boat ride was my favorite part of the trip. I really miss the ferry boats. Sara, the islands, and I have many happy memories together.

The actual time out on Friday Harbor was actually less than exciting. I made the mistake of just walking on, so I was basically stuck in the town. This probably would have been bearable if things were open, but many shops weren’t open in the middle of February. However, I did find an amusing plaque set in the sidewalk.

I spent most of my energy trying to find a place to eat. After finding many “Sorry we’re closed” signs, I settled down for a warm bowl of vegan soup and a croissant. Not too bad, but I was ready to take the ride back. The ride back wasn’t nearly as pleasant. The guy on the upper deck decided that he needed to spend his ferry ride figuring out every possible function of his watch. His very loud beeping watch. After about 50 beeps, I stubbornly decided that I would not be driven off the deck by this beeping/bleeping terrorist. So I got out the iPod cranked up the volume and tried to get some sleep. It worked.

After that, I headed to Rosario for more reminiscence and relaxing. Also, it was another thing to check off the list. After, showing ineptitude at skipping rocks, I had a whim to stick my hands in the Pacific Ocean since it had been awhile. Well, I wasn’t really paying attention and a small wave soaked my socks and shoes. I tried to dry them on a log, but I was getting a little too cold and needed to make it to my friends’ house for dinner. Nevertheless, Rosario is nice even when you are cold and barefoot.

That night, I got to eat dinner with some more friends and see more former students. It was nice to enjoy a delicious homecooked meal and catch up. Afterwards, I headed to a vespers program known as Heart 2 Heart. In New York, we pretty much sing traditional hymns, so it was good to take in some praise music. It took me back to Friday nights in college. The speaker was a teacher at the school who talked about how God had lead in her life. She shared her personal story of how she adopted her aunt’s son when she was a single teacher in Seattle. There are some seriously amazing people in this world. Afterwards, I caught up with more friends and students who I hadn’t seen in awhile. It was a good Friday.

Saturday

I got to church a little late. Some things don’t change I guess. My tardiness wasn’t for lack of enthusiasm though, it happened to be Pathfinder Sabbath, so many of my former students were involved in the program and one was even preaching. It all went very well with a variety of skits, monologues, musical numbers, an actual life cat on stage, and a powerful sermon about Jackie Robinson.

Went back to Don and Kathy’s place for lunch and then headed back out to the church. My friend Kristine had arranged a get together that afternoon for me and my former students. We sang a few songs together (age has made them a little less enthusiastic with the singing), I gave a talk, and then we watched some of our school videos. I also got to do some more chatting and catching up. Since I can be rather awkward socially, I wondered how things would be, but things really went more smoothly than I anticipated. After the get together, we headed over to the school for a student vs. parent basketball game. For those of you keeping track, that was three games in less than a week. Good thing I like basketball. The kids kept it close in the first half, but the adults showed no mercy in the second. I guess they forgot that “blessed are the merciful” beatitude.

Sunday-Tuesday

Since this has become way too long, I’ll abbreviate. I was supposed to get back Sunday night, but I showed up to the airport at 6:00 am to find out that my flight was cancelled due to weather. Not due to weather in DC or Buffalo mind you, but weather in Chicago which backed everything up. The next available flight was Monday night. So after trying and failing to get a hold of some friends and relatives in Seattle, I took a shuttle back up to Mt. Vernon and spent another day there(where I saw the hairy buffaloes). I also arranged for a substitute for those two days, emailed lesson plans, and prayed for better weather. I flew out of Seattle without incident, but fog in DC forced us to land in Philadelphia for about an hour, and fly back to DC. By the time I landed in DC, my flight to Buffalo was supposed to have left already. Fortunately, for me, the flight was delayed and hadn’t left yet. Unfortunately, it was delayed for a grand total of 5 hours. So I was supposed to get in to Batavia at 7 pm on Sunday, but got in at 2:30 pm on Tuesday.

1st row: Lake Padden & Whatcom Falls at various angles

2nd row: View of the Skagit Valley, Lake Padden Rippled, Contemplation of Falls

3rd row: The tree at Larrabee, Waking up with the San Juans, Sign of Amusement

4th row: More San Juan Scenery, Former Students Shindig, Hairy Buffaloes

Thinking and the Box

I heard the phrase “Outside-the-box thinking” the other day.  This phrase has become so common that I believe that inside-the-box thinking is the new outside-the-box thinking.  Since everybody is trying to think outside the box these days, nobody is thinking inside the box anymore.   Therefore, the true original thinkers are coming back to the box.

This will inevitably result in Taco Bell selling hamburgers in a few years.

Top 5 mistakes of ESL people trying to say “Think outside the box”

1) Think around the box

2) Mind above the box

3) Tink outside the box (what we try to encourage our cat not to do)

4) Think beside the cube

5) Don’t box your brain