#WIPMarathon Check-In #5 (The Real One)

I'm here for my slightly late check-in! But let me preface my report first with THIS.

That was me last night. My goal for last month was to finish my book. And by golly I finished it.

By golly I just said "by golly."

I typed out the very last line of my manuscript yesterday, June 30th, at 11:49 p.m. By 11:50, I had already blogged my big news. By 11:54, I was announcing it on twitter. Yeah, I might have been a little giddy. But I am a SLOW writer you guys. I'm not like some of these writers who put out entire manuscripts in a matter of months. It has taken me THREE YEARS to write this book.

Just to be sure, I dug through my blog until I found this excerpt.

I started a novel.  I know, big whoop--everyone does.  But this one's different...(insert long-winded explanation here). I can't explain it.  It just feels different.  This is the one.  The one that's going to get published, or the one I'll die trying on.  Either way, it feels good to feel this passionate about something.

This was from a post called Self-Imposed Challenges written on June 6, 2011. Three summers ago. Reading this made me feel a wee bit emotional. I guess I'm just happy that silly ole' past-me, for once in her life, dared to follow a dream through a period of three ridiculous years.

Okay, I guess this was sort of a long intro. Onto the stats.

Last report word count + chapter count/scene count: 90,536 - 27 chapters completed

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 108,878 words - 36 chapters, plus epilogue, completed

WIP Issues This Month: My biggest issue this month was the fact that I left my manuscript notebook at work. I know--why don't I just drive to work and get it? But us teachers turn in our keys for summer, so my book is sitting in a locked classroom in a locked school. Plus I switched classrooms the last week of school, so it's buried somewhere in a box. The problem is my notebook contains a lot of stuff I really needed this month--and still do--including a calendar of major events (crucial when your story features a time loop), the class schedules of my characters, a log of the dates of each loop, a list of time quotes, etc. Now I am left with several "placeholders" and holes in my manuscript. For example, in one scene, when my MC loops back into school during 6th period, I was forced to place her in a history class with a teacher named Mrs. Shepard. Once I get my notebook back, I'll be able to see what class/teacher she is actually supposed to be with.

Another issue this month was the last-minute scramble to finish my manuscript. I take deadlines seriously, even self-inflicted ones, but that time crunch was like nothing I've ever experienced. Last night was the craziest. With only one hour and forty-five minutes left to meet my deadline and an entire chapter left to write, I decided to escape outside with my laptop to minimize any possible distractions. I sat there in the dark and typed faster than I have ever typed before. It was heart-pounding and...exhilarating. 

What I learned this month in writing: Rapid-fire writing WORKS. I was typing chapter 35 so fast last night that I didn't even have time to second-guess anything, or even see what exactly I was writing for that matter. I swear I thought it was all garbage. But this evening I went over that chapter, and yes, it was a little rough around the edges, but not nearly as bad as I thought. Letting that frantic, creative surge take over last night produced some decent ideas, and after about 45 minutes of smoothing things out and tweaking a few lines, I have one very workable chapter. 

I also learned that having a network of people in your world supporting your writing is EVERYTHING. A few pivotal people cheering me on this week gave me that final push to sprint to the finish line. You know who you are, so thank you!

What distracted me this month while writing: I didn't realize back when I set my June 30th deadline that Clint would be on vacation this week. I guess that sounds ideal for writing, but it wasn't. When Clint's off from work, we like to spend almost all our time together. I felt crummy having to ignore him for hours at a time to work on my MS. To his credit, he was awesome and supportive all week, and never complained. 

Another distraction was THE POOL. It's been triple digits all week, so of course having blue shiny water beckoning from your background is irresistible. Not just to us, but our extended family as well. Although in some ways, I think the pool helped. Being able to break the monotony of an all-day writing fest with the occasional dip in the pool was pretty awesome. 

Goal for next month: Wow. I know I'm pursuing self-publishing now, but I haven't actually looked at all the steps. I guess by next month, I hope to have tighter editing underway? Or have my beta reading in progress? Crap, I'm not sure. I'll have to research this and get back to you. I do know that my next step is to go through my last five chapters or so. I wrote those ones the quickest, so I know they are going to need the most revisions. And at some point I'm going to have to make some cuts, because my word count, as I suspected, ended up TOO HIGH.

Last 200 words (from Epilogue):

He could hear the topaz orb crack within his tight grip. He let the dusty remains of the necklace trickle through his fingers and fall to the ground.
Leaning back toward the bench, he stooped to pick up his cane. The four gems on the handle flashed in the moonlight, reminding him there were four sisters. Four. He had failed with one, but he had three more chances. He turned to walk away. Twelve melancholy chimes followed his heavy footsteps as the man slipped into the night. 
If he had stayed a second longer, he would have seen the one fragment of dust flicker with light. One tiny, insignificant spark, like a firefly clinging to life, flashing once, then twice, a small, stubborn ember refusing to give its twinkle away. A breeze stirred the dusty remains of the necklace, and the mostly-useless sand scuttled beneath the base of Maui. But this one uncertain spark glowed a fiery orange, its radiance trapped within the depths of the massive clock. 
Maui rumbled with a single off-key chime, and for a breath of a second her face glowed with the intensity of a fire opal before being reclaimed by shadows.

Yet the one unspent grain would never, ever stop glowing. 

The Fancy Puddle--COMPLETE

Our pool is filling up with water right now. RIGHT NOW, as I type this blog entry. Check it out:

Oh my gosh you guys! We have a pool! I can NOT believe it. Granted it only has about a foot and a half of water right now, but I AM IN AWE. I'm not the kind of person who owns a pool. I'm the kind of person who has to duct-tape her broken shoe together in the middle of her shift. That's who I am. Not this grown-up person who has a pool.

I promise I'll get over this soon. 

Here was the pool earlier today, right after the plaster was finished:

Can you believe you use a garden hose to fill a pool? I don't know what I was expecting to use, but it cracks me up every time I walk outside, seeing that tiny hose guzzling away, taking on such a huge job...the little engine that could. Gary (our pool guy) says the pool will be full by tomorrow. Then we can treat it with its cocktail of necessary chemicals, and it will officially be ready for occupants on Saturday. Since our 'pool warming' party is on Saturday, we're cutting it a little close.

To sum up the whole installing a pool experience, I would say it's sheer bliss for the first two weeks when your contractors are doing all the work, but then it's pretty much hell when you're trying to pass inspection. I swear we barely made it. We failed our inspection on Tuesday, and Gary had to beg the supervisor to come yesterday to reevaluate our fence. We finally passed inspection yesterday, just in time for the crew to plaster today.  

I have to hand it to Gary. Our pool was originally promised by June 18th, and he delivered it today, on June 19th. One mere day late, despite all of the obstacles that got in the way...including the fact that our plaster crew flaked out on us today and Gary had to hire new ones at the last minute. Seriously, it's insane we have a completed pool tonight.   

We still have some work ahead of us (covered patio and rock-scape), but for now I just want to lay in my backyard and watch that little puddle grow.

P.S. I asked Clint what I should title this post, and he said "Rubba Dub Dub This is a Big Damn Tub." 

Win Once, Good for You; Win Twice--Bite Me

Last weekend Clint and I went to Vegas for my mom's birthday. On Saturday night, all of us girls found a somewhat hidden section of the bar with four video poker machines in a row, where we could play a ridiculously silly and slow game of Double Bonus Poker (we added our own element to the game to make it funner and last longer, but it would take too long to explain). Given the fact that it was a crowded Saturday night at the Rio, finding four video poker machines in a row was practically a miracle in itself. But right when I sat down, I noticed my machine had just paid out on four aces. I thought, Dang it, this machine is never going to pay out again tonight. But everyone had already chosen their machines, and I really had no lofty notions of winning anyway. I just wanted to nurse my $20 bucks while enjoying some good drinks and fun conversation.

I played my first hand on maximum bet and lost. I was now down to $18.75. The game I was playing with the girls now required me to wait about ten minutes before I could play my next hand. So I waited, and drank, and waited some more. Finally it was my turn to play. I was dealt a king of spades, a bunch of crap in the middle, and an ace of spades. I held onto the suited royal cards and discarded the rest of the hand. That's when THIS happened:

A Royal Flush--on a maximum bet! I was so shocked, at first I couldn't digest what was happening. I just watched, frozen, as my "credits" race from $18.75 to $1,018.75. I finally broke through my trance and started shaking my mom's arm. I said (or squeaked), "Mom, something just happened." She glanced over at my machine and went ballistic. Shannon and my mom were hugging me all over the place, squealing, and within seconds the whole bar was cheering.

It was a fun, FUN experience. I'm not all into gambling, but wow is it exciting to win. I tipped the bartender a $20 bill for getting my friend Sarah a bottle of water. FUN.

About ten minutes later, the same machine gave me this:

It was only 60-some bucks, but oddly, when I showed this hand to my mom and sister, my mom said "Damn it Jodi" and Shannon strangled me and punched me (she's very violent for a psychologist). I asked "What happened to all the hugging?" and Shan said, "Yeah, f* you."

So just so you know, there's a saturation point to the amount of luck you're allowed to have when you're around people.You win once and everyone is happy for you. You win twice and everyone hates you. But it's all good because you still have a ridiculously obnoxious smile on your face. You know, like this.

DoT - 101% Complete, yet Sadly Unfinished

I just finished chapter 22 of DoT, checked the word count, and nearly had a hard attack.  Because, well, this!

Right?  RIGHT?  I can't even describe it.  Back when I decided "I'm going to write a book," I felt excited, but scared.  Hitting my word count goal seemed like such an impossible feat.  But here it is, two and a half years later, and I did it--I reached 75k!  

Unfortunately that's where the good news ends.  Yes, I reached one goal, but the ultimate goal was to write a book, and at this point, I've written 75% of a book.  I never imagined that I wouldn't be able to flesh out this story in 75,000 words, and now I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that I can wrap up my novel in a mere 25k.  

So yeah, wish me luck as I scramble toward the new finish line.  But for now, I think I'll keep that progress meter where it's at for a little while longer so I can keep marveling at that dark green bar being all the way at the finish line.

My [not so] Little DoT

This warranted a quick post:

Yes, this is my little DoT, almost completely grown up.  I can't believe I'm at 70K!  I've never written this much in my life.  I seriously have goosebumps right now, looking at this word meter.

Less than 5,000 words left, people!  Holy geez!

That's the good news.  The bad news is there is no way I can finish this story in a mere 5K.  NO WAY.  I haven't even reached the climax yet.  So, I'm going to have to bump my word count up to.........100K.  That's the maximum advisable word count for a YA novel.

BUT--since my original goal was 75K, I think it's only fair to give myself the thrill of reaching that goal first before worrying about the new word count.  I really, really want to see my little meter get to a 100%.  Thus, for now, I will keep my goal at 75K.

Oh my gosh I'm doing it!  I'm writing a book!

A Memorable Night--with Cookies, Even

Okay, let me just get this entry over with so I can get back to talking about superficial things like the rooster living in my daughter's bathroom or the bunny who thinks our fireplace is his rabbit hole.

Here is the link to the newspaper article I appeared in:  The Hesperia Star.  The photo they captioned me in is terrible.  But to be fair, I'm not graceful with surprises at all.  I pretty much fell apart.

Let me explain real fast.  I knew I had won Teacher of the Year at my own school site.  That news came out right before we went on summer break.  So last week, me and 47 other teachers and staff members who had won Employee of the Year at their own school sites attended a ceremony to receive our silver apple awards.  They also baked us fresh chocolate chip cookies in some portable oven-thingy.  Kay, I guess that detail is irrelevant, but I still remember smelling the cookies when I walked up to get my award.  ANYWAY--I had received my award and was standing up there with the other 47 employees, when they announced that they were now going to name the district-wide Teacher of the Year.  This means that, of all the winners, they had chosen one teacher for elementary school and one for secondary (middle- and high-) school to receive the district-winner plaque.  At this point I had practically tuned the ceremony out.  We had been standing on display beneath a bright light for awhile, and I was eager for them to announce the final "winners" so I could get off the stage and reunite with my family.  They called up the elementary teacher first, and she had to walk past me to get up to the front.  She was so surprised, and I remember putting my arm on her and telling her how amazing it was.  Then suddenly, I hear them say my school's name.  My skin went really hot, and I thought I must have heard that wrong.  Then I hear my name.  Apparently my picture went up on an overhead screen; I never saw that.  But the people directly around me started going crazy; someone said "That's you Jodi!" and propelled me forward.  After that, it was all a blurry whirlwind of congratulations and tears (those were mine) and camera flashes and an interview with our local newspaper in which I said words that I can't remember saying.

Me before I fell apart--I had to get ready for the ceremony in my classroom since it began at 4:30.

My family (minus Clint, who was in Kansas). Shan was hilarious--remind me to tell you about her "contributions" to my interview later.

The Fam. =)

Me with my vice-principal (left) and two friends/silver apple recipients.

Me and the Superintendent (yikes--super blurry)

There're are a ton more pics out there somewhere.  I have pics with my principal, colleagues, and so on.  But they're all divided amongst a bunch of different cell phones--none of which are mine--so this is all I've got for now.

Why don't I deserve this award?  Well, consider the following excerpts I pulled from past blog entries:

1. My pet rats escaped again last night....
2. I had to perform a staple-ectomy on one of my students yesterday.  He stapled his finger.  I mean, really stapled his finger, to the point where the staple was completely embedded into his flesh.  I just applied lots of pressure, counted to three, and pulled that sucker out.  If you yourself have any surgery requirements, I'd be glad to assist.
3. Spelling Bee starts tomorrow, and I'm the Master of Ceremonies person again.  I'm excited because I love the break from the classroom, hanging out with the judges, and eating chocolate (there's always chocolate).
4. I just about threw in the towel today as far as teaching was concerned.  The only standards my kids mastered were how to effectively cover their ears and squish stuff.
5. Today I slammed a student's head with the door....
6. I decided my homeroom will officially be a heart-making sweat shop tomorrow.  I am also sending paperclips to four other homerooms (although two of the teachers don't know this yet).  With five different factories working for twenty minutes, I'm hoping that this will be enough to get us through lunch tomorrow.  Is it wrong to make the kids bend paperclips through the Pledge of Allegiance?
7. Several times, in an attempt to lunge for balloons, students actually dove head-first into the trash can.
8. The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly, except for the fact that one student stole Axe Bodyspray from another student's backpack and then proceeded to spray it, which for reasons still unclear to me led to a bag of Cheetos exploding all over my room. 
9. So not only is mild cursing good for student-learning, but it actually provides the teacher some much needed therapy throughout the day.
10. This morning I decided to take Ms. Frisbee on a field trip to Mr. A's office so that he could see exactly the sweet little innocent creature who was thrown across my room and perhaps take the matter more seriously.  He isn't entirely comfortable with rodents, but I finally managed to talk him into holding her.  She then peed all over him. 
11. One of my students today threatened to burn my car down.  I know, *gasp*, but it was actually part of a bad joke.  I asked said-student if I could choose which vehicle he decided to douse with kerosene, because my 2007 HHR was getting really dirty.  
12. Next, we played "Telephone."  I started the game by whispering "Raining cats and dogs is my favorite idiom."  After the message passed through 36 sets of ears, it came out as "Pink gay bunnies."
13. During the power outage, one student walked into class late.  I stated "You're tardy Elise, but I have no proof, so have a seat." 
14. It makes me feel sad that I will never be these kids' teacher again.  We bond with each other throughout the year and they start to feel like family to me.  Even the little crap heads that drive me nuts start to feel like family.

Thought I'd end on a heart-warming note there for #14.

You can find the context for all of these items here:  Middle School Dribbles.

You think if the Teacher of the Year panel had followed my blog, they still would have voted for me?  (Maybe it's best not to explore that question).

Just, Oh My Gosh

Last night I got to take pictures with the superintendent and was interviewed for the newspaper!  Okay, I'm too exhausted to write, so I'm going to snag some wall posts off my Facebook and let those do the talking. 

Shannon:  Went to my sister's "Teacher of the Year" ceremony, and she didn't just win for her school...she ended up winning "Teacher of the Year" for the WHOLE district! Way to go Jodi!!!!! That's my sis!!!!!!! 

James:  Congrats to Tammy and Jodi, our employees of the year for RMS. A special surprise for Jodi today, she is also the district secondary employee of the year. Amazing stuff and super excited for them both.

Giselle:  RMS has 4 employees of the year! How awesome is that! Nothing but the best at the Ranch! Congrats to all HUSD winners....especially Tammy, Jodi, Donna, and Chris!  Jodi was also district wide teacher of the year! Just an amazing teacher! Whoop whoop....RMS ROCKS!!!!

Teri:  Congratulations to my awesome daughter in law, Jodi, for getting HUSD's Teacher of the Year award!

Amanda:  Congratulations to my sister in law Jodi. She is RMS's Teacher of the Year AND The HUSD's Teacher of the Year! Way to go Jodi!

Bev:  Congratulations Teacher of the Year for our school and district!

Alli: I just saw- Congrats!!!! Woop! Woop!

Okay, that's probably enough of those.  I had to put some of them here, because frankly, they mean the world to me. Last night was probably one of the most emotional moments of my teaching career, and I want to be able to call it back to my mind anytime I'm having "one of those days."  But let me be clear that I DO NOT DESERVE THIS AWARD.  I'm absolutely stunned that I received it.  I'll talk about all that later on though when I'm actually more of whatever the opposite of a zombie is.  Hopefully I'll be able to procure some pics from my family to post too. 

'Til Ink Do Us Part

Look at what Clint got tattooed on his arm today!  This is the underside of his forearm.  We thought the whole process was going to take about an hour, so Clint dropped off the kids and I at Starbucks, and then drove himself to the tattoo parlor.  He ended up being gone for two hours.  It was all good until Elijah's laptop ran out of juice, and he started to get hungry and bored.  So I walked the kids to a nearby Burger King, and then all was right with the world again.  When Clint finally joined us, I was dying to see his new tattoo.  I was absolutely shocked.  I think I might have hyperventilated a little. I knew he was going to get the image of the Menora, Star of David, and Ichthus on his forearm, tied together as one image, but I had NO idea he was going to have my name added.  We had jokingly talked about him getting a tattoo that included my name or initials a few years ago, but his overall response was a big fat hell no.  I have no idea what prompted him to do this.  Even now, it trips me out to see my name emblazened on his flesh--and not itty-bitty, either.  It takes up his whole wrist.

So it's official, if we end up not working out, he'll have to find himself another Jodi.  I started looking up other Jodis on facebook, and most of them are pretty cute, so he should be fine.

But seriously, it's hard to feel even remotely irritated with someone who has your name engraved on their arm. 

Oh, one more thing.  He said my name was the most painful part of the tattoo.  Is it wrong that I feel a tiny sense of pride over that?

Rain Clouds in the Hot Springs

Okay, Monday.  Just like the weekend, it was both really crappy and pretty wonderful--with not much in between.  That morning I woke up, expecting to enjoy a relaxing morning with Clint, whom I hadn't seen in three days.  Instead we got into a nasty argument.  I won't get into the whys, but it ended up monopolizing our entire morning.  We did eventually make up, but the whole thing left me feeling emotional for hours. 

The day wore on, and I started feeling more upbeat as we began packing for the Hot Springs (although my eye infection was coming back, which was really aggravating--guess I should've followed the Rx's directions).  As I mentioned in my last post, Matt and Alana were visiting from Nor Cal, so all of us decided to hike up into the Hot Springs again.  But this time we planned to stay the night.  I had been excited for this excursion for the last three weeks.  I kept fantasizing about soaking in nature's jacuzzi beneath all of those bright stars, enjoying  late-night wine and conversation with good friends. 

Matt and Alana had already hiked up to the Springs earlier that day, so Clint and I decided to meet up with them sometime after 4:00.  The first little problem arose when Clint's mom called us around 1:00 saying she was sick as a dog and couldn't watch our kids, but luckily, she arranged for Moo (Clint's sis) to watch them.  So all was fine.  But then at 3:00, Moo called and told us that Lucas (my nephew) was projectile vomiting, so she couldn't take the kids.  We now had no babysitter.  We tried several other options, but nothing panned out.  I was starting to panic, because I knew Matt and Alana were already at the Springs, and there was zero cell service up there.  We had no way to call them and tell them what was going on.  I couldn't bear the thought of canceling our plans and not only leaving them hanging all night, but losing out on an experience that I had been looking forward to for weeks. 

Clint agreed that we couldn't leave the two hanging, and bringing the kids along was definitely not an option.  Thus one of us needed to do the hike.  Of course I volunteered.  Initially he was opposed to the idea, but he was still so sore from the black belt test that it didn't take much to convince him.  He filled my backpack with all sorts of little survival stuff, plus I took my .38 special and Yang (my dog) in case I needed to ward off any crazies (it is the Hot Springs).  He dropped me and Yang off at the trail head and off we went.

Now I say this casually, but at this point I need to mention that I have a teeny-tiny fear of going to unfamiliar places by myself, and a big fat fear of getting lost.  I used to have recurring nightmares as a kid in which I was deserted in unfamiliar places.  It's one of my worst fears.  I'd rather cuddle with a black widow than get lost alone.

Okay, so back to hiking.  The trail I was on was one I had never taken before and was much more vertical than the other option, but was only two miles from the Springs instead of six.  So of course I decided to take this route.  I was about ten minutes into the hike when my trail went into two opposite directions, and I realized I had no idea which way to go.  Of course there was no one around.  I knew this was a possibility, so I kept calm.  I pulled out my cellphone to see if I could pull up some sort of map, but I had no service.  I remember just standing there for a few minutes, looking back and forth, feeling utterly helpless.  Then it started pouring.  I actually laughed outloud at this point, because I live in the desert, and it might be self-absorbed but I knew that fucking rain cloud was there just for me.

I eventually figured out where I was going, and at that point the hike was amazing.  It smelled so wonderful, and once I found the right trail I was able to just relax and enjoy the scenery.  It also felt so liberating to conquer that fear of exploring unfamiliar territory alone.  After such an emotional day, those two miles were such a soothing therapy.

Once I reached the Hot Springs, Alana saw me right away from the river and hollered for me.  I explained to them what had happened with the babysitting, but Matt spent most of the day not believing me.  The eye infection had given me a case of the sniffles, so he was convinced  that Clint and I had argued about going to the Springs and I had stormed off without him.  All day long, he was like "Why are you crying Jodi?" and my answer was always the same: "Because I have a damn eye infection Matt."  It was pretty funny.

So we enjoyed a day at the Hot Springs, met lots of interesting people, collected wood for a fire that evening, and everything was going great.  Until night came.  Matt slipped from a rock, fell about ten feet, and ended up dislocating his elbow and breaking his arm.  At first he didn't think it was that bad, but then he held it up under what little moonlight was filtering through the clouds to show Alana, and it looked all contorted with a round ball sticking out from his elbow.  When Alana saw this she took a few steps back and told me "Oh my god, I'm going to pass out."  She didn't, so good job there Alana.

Alana and I, along with a dozen of nearby hippies, tried  for hours to convince Matt to let us hike him out, but his answer was a resounding "Hell no."  There was no way he wanted to risk a treacherous six mile hike in pitch dark (there were no stars due to the cloud cover and barely a moon), with us girls having to carry a bigger burden since his arm was useless.  Of course this made sense, but sitting there all night with his injury seemed so wrong.  Ultimately, all we could do was keep Matt's arm in the cool water all night and wait it out until morning.  He did take some Excedrin to help deal with the pain, plus we bummed some mystery liquor from one of our neighbors, so all of this helped a bit. 

Obviously we didn't get much sleep that night.  Matt constantly wanted to be in the water, but neither Alana nor myself were comfortable with the idea of him navigating the rocks in the dark with an injured arm.  Alana was pretty exhausted by 1 or 2 in the morning and could barely keep her eyes open, so I told her I'd watch out for him and ended up staying in the springs until 4 or 5 in the morning.  It was beautiful in those springs.  Even though the stars were hidden, the moon came out at one point and was so bright that it was reflecting off of the clouds.  There were a few people here and there with us, and they were all so easy-going, friendly, and relaxed.  Okay, they may have been stoned. Anyway, we spent most of the time in a spot that the three of us discovered earlier; a river pool containing cooler water, but if you lean against the rock, a hot waterfall spurts down your back.  It's wonderful--a non-stop back massage.  But in this case, it was a nice compromise; it gave Matt the cool water he needed for his arm, but gave me the nice hot water that I was craving.  

Eventually we came back to camp and I finally curled up in my sleeping bag, which was on the ground outside because I forgot to bring a tent.  Matt and Alana insisted that I sleep in their little two-man tent, and had it been necessary, I would've had no issues with it.  I'm not one with worrying about personal space.  But the temperature that night was so beautiful and perfect, and I actually felt excited about the prospect of sleeping under the stars...even if I couldn't see them.  So I tried to fall asleep, but I remember I felt so, so silly.  I think I was delirious with fatigue, but I didn't feel tired at all.  I started chattering to poor Alana who was trying to sleep, until eventually I passed out.  It was more of a doze though...I could still hear all the noises around me.  I do remember that the ground and the backpack I was using as a pillow felt like the most comfortable thing on the planet, so I must have been pretty tired. 

I woke up at first light.  Not because I was ready to wake up, but because my damn eye was super-sensitive to the sunshine even behind the closed lid.  Soon after, Matt and Alana woke up, and we spent time preparing breakfast and breaking down camp.  Matt's injured arm was now very swollen, with purple marks forming around the joint, so Alana and I felt pretty concerned about getting him to a doctor.  Right after breakfast, Matt threw up, and he seemed to be running a small fever, all of which didn't help our worry. 

We decided to hike the six mile trail out, because the trail I had taken the day before would require us to hike vertically upward for two straight miles...not an appealing option for someone with usage in only one arm.  Once ready, we set off.  The hike was long and hot, and we were quite the pitiful group.  Sleep-deprived, hungry, and a third of us crippled (two-thirds of us if you count the fact that Alana's hip was giving her issues).  When we finally reached three or four miles, I at last had cell service.  I called Clint to tell him what was going on, and he immediately drove to the trail head and started hiking our direction.  When he reached us, he took Matt's pack and hiked the rest of the way with us.   

Alana took Matt to the ER while Clint and I grabbed Del Taco for everyone.  We were all famished.  In two days, I had eaten one can of tuna, salami, and a packet of oatmeal.  Clint delivered the food to Matt and Alana in triage, where Matt technically wasn't allowed to eat, but he said "screw it" and crammed a burrito down anyway.  Then Clint drove me home and I crashed for three hours.

Matt's arm (with the elbow popped back in):

He is now doing much better but is still not quite up to par. We're still planning to get in one more visit with the both of them before they leave on Saturday. For this next visit, maybe we should stay at home and play Boggle.  

5K and Siri

Ever since I acquired a student teacher, I've been in complete bliss.  I'll go into more detail about that another time, but the short version is that with her taking over so much of my grading, I actually have a life on Saturdays and Sundays.  Friday afternoon was the first time in five-and-a-half years that I left work completely empty-handed.  It felt awesome. 

On Saturday morning, Clint's mom and sister talked me into running with them.  They're training for a 5K Run taking place in April, and they've been trying to convince me to sign up for it too.  I said "no," but I told them I'd go ahead and train with them.*  I don't mind the extra exercise, but I don't want to have to worry about getting up at the break of dawn on a Saturday for the event itself.  So they came to my house on Saturday morning and we walked from my house to my work.  Once there, we ran around the track eight times (two miles), and then we walked back home.  All in all, it ended up being three miles of walking/running.  They sort of tricked me, because I thought that we were going to lap the track four times, not eight.  After we finished our laps, they acted all innocent about it, saying, "Oh, we didn't tell you that we planned to practice the whole 5K?"  My legs have been throbbing for two days since.

Saturday afternoon we went out for sushi with Clint's family for his birthday.  His real birthday is actually tomorrow, but Saturday was the only day that everyone was free.  The place we went to was way off the beaten-path and had incredibly delicious food and a really nice atmosphere.  We're definitely going back soon.  On Sunday morning we went shopping, and that's when I fell in love with this:    

This is the recently-released iPhone 4S.  My Droid is over two years old now and is starting to freeze up, and Clint's having similar issues with his, so we decided that it was time to browse around for a new phone.  I played around with a lot of different phones in the Verizon store, and this one was by far the one I loved the most.  What made it stand out was the fact that it has Siri, which is something you can't appreciate until you've actually experienced it.  Me and this iPhone conversed with each other for twenty minutes, talking about local restaurants, the weather, etc.  We also texted people (with my voice alone--never touched the keypad), looked up stuff on Google images, and so on.  She--IT--understood every command I issued.  It was amazing.  I told her (it) "Remind me in two minutes to wash my hair," and she said "Okay.  I will remind you to wash your hair."  Two minutes later, the phone buzzed with a reminder that said: "Wash your hair."  I must be old-school, 'cause this was like Star Trek technology.  Of course I guess nowadays Star Trek is actually old-school.

Here's a quick clip from Big Bang Theory that shows the way Siri interacts with the phone user:

 
Of course, in the actual episode, Raj ends up developing romantic feelings for Siri, and is looked upon very strangely by all his friends when he starts dating a phone app.

Despite my infatuation with this phone, I was going to wait a month or two before actually buying it, but as dumb luck would have it, I won a Super Bowl pool at my work.  My coworkers passed around a table that consisted of 100 squares, and it cost $5 a square to participate.  I bought one square, and I remember when I chose the one that I did, "T" (the one running the pool) looked at me skeptically and said, "You do know how this works, right?"  Each square had a score assigned to it, and mine was Giants 9, Patriots 0.  That seemed like an odd one to me too, but there wasn't a lot of squares left to choose from.  Four people total win; once for the quarter, the half, the third quarter, and the end of the game.  Well by the end of the first quarter, the score was 9 to O (Giants), so I won the first quarter.  By halftime, the score was 10 to 9 (Patriots), but once you reach 9, the numbers start from 0 again (the 1 is dropped), so I won AGAIN.  Overall I ended up winning $200, and everyone at my work made it clear that I'm buying them pizza this week.  Last night, in light of my winnings, Clint got online and ordered me the iPhone.  I told him I'll be the guinea pig; if after a few weeks we both still like it, he'll get himself one too.  I also ordered this cover: 

I love the classy look of the iPhone covers.

I have more I could blabber on about, but I have an early staff meeting tomorrow morning, so I better try to get some sleep.

*Right after finishing this post, I signed up for that damn 5K in April.  *defeated sigh* 

Have a Heart to Get a Heart

I know this picture looks very Valentine's Dayish, so I probably should explain.  At my school, I decided to lead my club in a fundraiser for earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.  I wanted to do something simple, such as the red-bucket-type-thing that the Salvation Army does every Christmas season.  But, since this is middle school, I also wanted to give a little tiny incentive for students to donate.  Clint helped me to brainstorm ideas, and here is what I ultimately decided to do:

For every quarter students donate, my club is giving them one of these mini heart charms (I purchased these from Oriental Trading Company for incredibly cheap).  The charms link together to form a chain, and students can display these with pride on their backpacks, or wear them as jewelry.  Well, that was the idea, anyway.  I have students who have used them as hippie headbands, belts, and even decorations for their sunglasses.  But the idea is, the more you donate, the longer your chain will be.  On Wednesday of next week, the seventh grader and eighth grader with the longest chain gets a thank you gift, which is a tiny glass angel holding a heart (we're calling it an "Angel of Mercy" figurine).  To collect donations, my club created a giant box with the American flag on one side, and the Japanese flag on the other.  The box, of course, has a nice fat slit on top.  We just kicked off our fundraiser today during lunch, and it's off to a great start!  The kids love plunking their quarters and dollars into the box, and they are already going wild for the charms, even though they are just these tiny cheap plastic things.  And it's all awesome because all of this money will be given to the American Red Cross. 

The rest of my day was a complete whirlwind, but my poor empty stomach is growling so loud that I can barely concentrate on blogging.  I'm going to indulge in a gourmet peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich now and then zone out on some mindless sitcom.

P.S.  I almost forgot to mention, my students wanted to come up with some kind of logo for our fundraiser, and our first idea was "Come and get your heart on."  But read that out loud once or twice to yourself, and you'll understand pretty fast why that one doesn't quite work out (oops).  We settled for "Have a Heart to Get a Heart" instead.

High Note

Today was a bit overwhelming, but it ended on a wonderfully high note.  I had to go to a mandatory workshop today with all the other language arts teachers at my school, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that my club was scheduled to do concessions for the basketball game after school.  This meant leaving the conference early, rushing to my school, and getting our snack bar ready before the game began.  We were in the gym from 3:15 until around 8:00, and it did turn out to be a fun gig, although the initial prep was a lot of work.  Once the game was over and we finished counting the money and cleaning up, I hurried home.  The kids met me in the driveway and gave me a big hug, which I didn't find suspicious at the time, but later made sense.  When I came into the house, after some idle chitchat, Clint told me I got an envelope from my university.  He handed it to me with this meaningful look, and I realized it was the results for my Master's Comps.  I was so scared to open it.  I just knew that there were two sections that I didn't pass, and I didn't want to end such a busy, overwhelming day with dejecting news.  But of course I finally opened it.  By now you've finally guessed the rest of this overly drawn-out story...I passed every single section and now have a master's degree.  I read the letter in stunned silence twice, and then tears started gushing out of my eyes.  Wow.  I can't believe I cried.  I swear I have felt zero emotion over a potential master degree the entire time I was in the program.  Even when I took the comps, I felt completely calm over the notion of failing and having to retake it in six months.  I honestly didn't know how badly I wanted it until I got it.

Right when I started getting all teary-eyed, Clint stepped out of the room and came back in with a giant "Congratulations" balloon and a bouquet of flowers.  After gasping with surprise and hugging him, I told him "That was a risky gamble.  What would you have done if I had failed the test?  Use a Sharpie to cross out 'Congratulations' and replace it with 'Sorry'?"  Turns out that while I was still at work, he held the envelope to the kitchen light and could see right through it.  So he actually knew the entire time that I had passed.  He also threatened the kids with their lives if they spilled the news.  He wanted me to open the envelope myself.

Needless to say, I'm somewhere on cloud nine right now.  I will be going to sleep tonight with an enormously stupid grin.  My college days are finally over.

P.S.  I wonder what class I should take over summer?  ;-)
P.S.S.  The graders of the comprehensive exams must have been suffering from fatigue when they got to my essays, because there is no way I should have passed.  For two of the questions, I had NO idea what I was talking about.  They were probably on their 80th exam and, all bleary-eyed and glazed over, thumped it with their giant red "APPROVED" stamp just to be done with it all.  That's my theory.

Hot Springs Hike--Pictoral Version

I'm beginning to think I'll never get around to writing a real post on our awesome hike last week, so here is a stream of pictures.

Me and Clint

Clint, Matt, and I on the bridge

 Matt and Alana

 Matt on top of the world

 Alana and me on the beach (can you believe the Hot Springs has a beach?)

 Hiking through the brush

Crossing the stream

We met a new friend along the way, but he looked a little stoned.

 The hot spring we relaxed in was right at the foot of this river.

 The sky was a piercing blue all day.  This friendly pilot waved at us as he flew by.

  I wonder if he was chuckling at the naked people (but for the record, WE were wearing swimsuits).

I just think Alana looks gorgeous in this picture.

I have many beyond this, but blogger doesn't have a user-friendly way to display pictures in bulk, so I'm going to leave it at these.  I wish I had pictures of the springs themselves, but we had left our cameras safely tucked away on the beach while we relaxed in the springs (there's not really a safe place to store a camera in a bikini).  There were several different hot pools to choose from, and I still remember that delicious feeling of sinking into that perfect little pool right in front of the river and feeling utterly awe-struck that I was in a bathwater-warm jacuzzi right in the middle of the desert...in February.  But the highlight of the day for me was a tie between three things:  1.  Jumping into the icy river, 2. Realizing that I had been talking to an old naked man for about ten minutes and had forgotten that he was naked, and 3. Going to dinner at La Casita afterwards.  The third one was probably the most amusing to me, because for some reason Matt was dead-set against any of us "freshening up" (even though we had to stop at our houses first anyway because Alana needed to grab her wallet and Clint needed to change his painful shoes).  So we were one sorry-looking party when we walked into that restaurant.  And unfortunately our sense of class matched our hillbilly appearance; we were so ravishingly starving (13 miles of hiking works up an appetite that trail mix just doesn't quite satiate); we wound up eating five or six baskets of chips before cleaning off our dinner plates.  I really felt sorry for our waiter; we were a tough table to keep up with.

For being a "pictoral" version, this sure included a lot of words.  Wow, I just can't shut-up ever.

Destination: Spain!

I just finished my last post, but I wanted to keep this one separate. Clinton and I are going to Spain this summer! We're going from June 23rd to July 3rd. I would have mentioned it earlier (we've been contemplating this for awhile now), but I wanted to wait until it was a for sure thing. This afternoon we turned in our nonrefundable deposit, so at this point I think it's safe to say that it's for sure.

This trip to Spain is NOT a vacation, although we will get to spend one full day sight-seeing in Madrid. This is actually a service-oriented mission's trip. We're going to be staying at an English camp on the outskirts of Madrid, where we will be working on construction projects and teaching the kids at the camp English.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about all of this later, but right now I'm just letting it settle in that I'm actually going somewhere further than Mexico. Now I need to go find Spain on the globe so I know where the heck it is, cuz I really suck at geography.

Tearing it up in OK

Last night was utterly exhilerating!  You know how guys obsess about sports such as football, and they will sit there and holler at the television screen while us females just sit there, perplexed, wondering what the hell the big hoopla is all about, it's just a damn game?  Okay, that was a run-on question.  But anyway, I finally got a taste of that kind of enthusiasm. 

Last night Sensei Brandon was in an MMA fight in Oklahoma.  He has been training for months.  Usually our dojo holds classes on Friday nights, but since his fight was scheduled to stream live starting at 6:00 p.m., we decided to bring a projector to the dojo and project the fight on a giant screen so that his students could watch it in a movie-like atmosphere.  Clint treated everyone there to pizza and soda, and we also brought our popcorn machine so that we could munch on some popcorn while enjoying the fights.  Once the fights began, we turned out all the lights.  Brandon's fight was the fourth one.  After watching the first three, I was truly anxious for him.  The first three fights were pretty hard-core, with two guys getting hurt (one was knocked out, and the second one looked like he had broken his hand). 

But once they announced Brandon's name, all my nervousness fled and was replaced with excitement.  It was truly awesome to hear our own little city being announced.  The energy in the room was nearly palpable, with no one in the dojo even able to stay in their seat.  When Brandon appeared on screen, we all started screaming and going crazy.  Then, before we knew it, the fight began, and we watched our sensei kick ass.  His opponent was completely outmatched.  Brandon was patient but lethal; every single opening that his opponent presented was met with jabs.  This guy got the crap beat out of him.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't advocate fighting and don't particularly care to watch it, but when it's your kickboxing instructor tearing it up on the big screen, it is an absolute high.  Clint even recieved a text from our brother-in-law, who was watching it from home, and the message contained only one word which quite aptly summed up the fight: "Duuuuuuuuuuuude." I've never screamed at a screen so much before.  When Brandon won, all of us started jumping up and down hysterically.  It was ridiculously fun. 

I definitely won't be forgetting this night anytime soon.