Rich Americans--Lucky Us

It's amazing how a book can change your whole perspective on things--at least for a little while (the effect does eventually wear off). I'm reading this book called "The Nazi Officer's Wife," and it is making me appreciate my life so much right now. The main character in the book, Edith, is a Jewish woman trying to get through the difficult period in Germany right before the Holocaust. It is so sad, because Edith starts out with a very happy childhood, and grows up to be a confident young woman. In her late teens she enters into a university to study law, which in of itself is quite an amazing feat for a woman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But at this point of the story tension begins to build, and the Jews in the story quite rapidly become victims of unimaginable prejudice and discrimination. Little by little, her family begins to lose everything they own, but the worst is when Edith goes to take her final law exam (equivalent to the BAR exam here in the U.S.--sorry, don't know how to spell that acronym). She is so excited and eager...she has worked hard for this moment, has devoted years of her life to her studies and conquered all obstacles, and it is the only thing left for her to do before getting her degree. But when she arrives, the "Aryan" woman behind the counter tells her (with a gleam of sadistic satisfaction in her eyes) that she can not take the test. Because Edith is Jewish, she has officially been kicked out of the university and will never practice law. It is so heart-breaking. You can practically see everything that she has worked her whole life for just slipping through the cracks of her fingers while her eyes pool up with tears. So currently in the novel, Edith, this brilliant young woman who (practically) has a law degree, is forced to do back-breaking labor on fields and in factories in order to keep herself and her family alive. Her life is so miserable, but you don't feel miserable when reading about it. She's a survivor, and her courageous outlook makes it easy to not want to weep in despair for her. Rather, you just want to cheer her on.

So today, when I entered my warm cozy classroom, I just couldn't help but feel so blessed to have the life that I have. I get to work this cushy job where the worst of my problems are seventh graders getting under my skin from time to time. I get to come home to limitless meals and a nice warm bed to sleep in, and security. Poor Edith shivered every night on her cot, and had nothing but diluted cabbage soup and stale bread to eat, and had no idea what dangers tomorrow would bring. What's tragic is that although Edith's story takes place in the past, there are so many people across the globe who live this life of uncertainty on a daily basis...who don't know where their next meal is going to come from and don't know how much closer to death tomorrow will bring them. We are so rich here in America--even poor Americans are rich by the globe's standards. I wish I could remember this every single day, so that I would stop acting spoiled when I want something new, like hardwood floors for my house or new car. I could appreciate what I have so much more if I could just keep other people's circumstances at the fore-front of my mind. But, unfortunately, the perspective I gleaned today will be forgotten tomorrow, and I'll be back to spoiled me again.

Recognized for your Potential

I love this! Great closing thoughts:

“Let the boo-birds say what they will, I'm thrilled that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for what the committee said was not so much what he has done, but what they hope he will do.

“Talk about giving hope to all of us — no longer do we have to actually accomplish stuff, but simply convince others that we hope to accomplish stuff. I think we ought to universally celebrate the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for potential deeds.

“Since I'm a musician, I'd like to go ahead and get my Grammy now — and I'm on TV, so I want an Emmy as well….

“Heck, go ahead and give me a Tony Award — I haven't been in a Broadway play, but I did see Jersey Boys a few weeks ago and knew all the songs… that's potential.

"And hey, you might even ask your boss for a big ol' raise even if you're a slacker at work, because deep inside of you, there's all kinds of potential, and it would be a lot more fun to go ahead and get the paycheck now.

"To all my Republican friends who have said really tacky things about President Obama not having accomplished enough for the Nobel Peace Prize, I say, put a lid on it. Quit your bellyaching and take the sour grapes out of your mouth, and instead, take in a deep breath of unbridled hope that you too will be recognized for what you might do someday."

--Mike Huckabee (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,564462,00.html)

Nobel Peace Prize

I intended to mention this days ago, but as you know, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I have nothing fresh or new to add to the commentary concerning this that I’m sure is already out there, but I just have to say a few words any way. In the past, the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to people who actually did something concrete toward attaining world peace. I mean, even when Al Gore won the prize for his efforts in global warming, at least that was something somewhat tangible. Yet the Nobel is being given to Obama for something that he is aspiring to do, but hasn’t actually done. So he is promoting world peace—tell me what beauty pageant queen hasn’t advocated for the same thing? What’s worse is that Obama was elected for the Nobel only two weeks after he was sworn into office. At that point of his presidency, the only thing Obama had accomplished was to talk a good talk.

Basically a bunch of European elitist are the ones who decided to give Obama the Nobel, and why wouldn’t they? They love the new watered-down, “neutered” America that Obama is promoting. Also, by giving him the Nobel, it would now be oxymoronic for Obama to send those 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, although I do agree with O’Riley that winning the Nobel will probably not sway Obama’s decision one way or another regarding the Afghanistan issue. He already has the award now…it’s not like the Nobel Peace Prize committee is going to take it back if Obama decides not to play nice. But regardless, it seems to me that awarding Obama with the Nobel peace prize has a lot less to do with actual merit and a lot more to do with the clever strategizing and promotion of a weaker, more diluted America by certain stakeholders.

The one thing I will say to Obama’s credit, however, is that he never asked for this award, and he was extremely humble in his acceptance of it. Us Obama antipathizers (yes, I made that word up—can’t help it if there are holes in the English language) almost wish he had been more arrogant in accepting the Nobel, because it would have made it so much easier for us to target our criticism and contempt over this decision at Obama himself. But Obama actually showed a lot of class and what seemed to be genuine surprise in his acceptance of the award, forcing us to target our criticism toward the unknown entities around the globe who made this idiotic decision instead. Good job there, Obama.

Sleeping In

I slept in until noon today! I haven't done that in years. We were at Mike and Angie's house last night, and we got home sometime before 2:00 a.m. But then Clint and I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. messing with our blogs. Well, he pretty much spent all of his time creating a blog and finding the perfect template for it, etc., which is really funny to me because I seriously doubt that he will actually write in it. As of today, it still has no entries--but hey, at least it's aesthetically appealing. I spent the hour adding a news feed gadget to my blog. It updates several times a day, so hopefully this will encourage me to be more current on politics and the rapid degradation of American values (yes, I realize that I'm one-sided in my perspective--sorry 'bout that).
Clint and I got into a fight this morning. It started over the spa, which is becoming a real sore subject between us. About three months ago, we sold our golf cart for $500. I wanted to use the money to purchase a stainless-steel fridge from Craig's List, since the refrigerator that is currently in our kitchen is spray-painted black in order to somewhat match our other appliances. The spray-painted fridge was supposed to be a "temporary" solution until we had some money to buy a nicer fridge. But Clint, on the other hand, who had started kickboxing the month prior, wanted to use the $500 to purchase a spa to relax his sore muscles after class. My concern with the spa was that it would just sit there in the backyard, collecting dust, because he would never get around to doing all the work involved with hooking it up (he is very busy with work, school, and kickboxing). Well, he wound up talking me into the spa, and three months later, guess where it is? In our backyard, empty, still not hooked up. So I occasionally get bitter about this, because if we had gone with the fridge, I would have been enjoying it for the past few months, but instead we have this worthless spa that's just eating up space in our backyard, and of course our $500 is gone. So today, being in an excessively hormonal mood, I picked a fight about it. In retrospect, our fight was pretty comical. At one point in our argument Clint declared that he needed to put me on Craig's List, although he'd have to list me for free to get rid of me. This didn't go over so well (although he did wind up apologizing sometime after). At another point of our argument, I waved my hot curling iron threateningly in his direction when he wouldn't leave me alone. Real mature, I know.

The thing with me and Clint is that we don't fight a lot, but when we do, we don't fight "lightly"...neither one of us is made up that way. We go into full-fledged crazy mode. But after eleven years of marriage, I don't question this anymore. I can't say I love the way we fight, but I do love it that our marriage is so full of character. It reminds me of part of a song that states "I want to sunburn to know that I'm alive..." (can't remember the song or artist at the moment). Sure, I could be in a luke-warm marriage in which my spouse and I never do anything more but the occasional mild-mannered bickering, or I can be part of a marriage in which we go through the full-range of human emotions together. Call me a sadomasochist, but I'd never trade what I have. As far as I'm concerned, you have to go through the lowest of lows to experience the highest of highs.

Grading and Dreaming

Quarter one grades were turned in today...sigh of relief! Us teachers don't get a break between the first two quarters, but it's just refreshing to be able to start from scratch next week. I am still struggling to muster up the enthusiasm for this year's students that I had for last year's. It's been ten weeks now and still there are no emerging personalities. My students are either incredibly helpless (expecting to get their grades handed to them on a silver platter) or they are talented academically but have about as much character as a paper plate (don't ask where the paper plate simile came from...I think I must have still had the silver platter in my head). Last year I had such high-energy students that, although were challenging and head-ache inducing, entertained me on a daily basis. I miss them so much. Since last year was my first year teaching honors, I mistakenly assumed that all honor's kids were like that particular group...rambunctious and witty and slightly insane. But with this new honor's group, I'm now questioning this. Honors kids apparently come in all sorts of packaging, and this year's packaging is a little on the dry side. But, at the minimum, at least they are cooperative and relatively easy to teach. I'm sure in time they will grow on me.

*The middle portion of this blog has been removed to protect the privacy of the subjects.*

I am really tired and think I will curl up and take a nap.

This & That

I have been so mind-numbingly busy and feel nearly desperate to have just one evening to sit in front of the television and personify a couch potato. Of course, here I am cutting into my free time right now by typing a new post instead of vegging.

Today was a decent day. I had to period sub for a choir class, which turned out to be a pretty easy gig. Then for my own classes, the students had to take their benchmark, so I actually got some time behind my desk. After work I stayed for tutoring, and during the last five minutes me and one of my students, Cole, decided to race. He was certain that he was faster than me, I felt certain that I was faster than him, so of course it was only natural to figure out who was right and who was wrong. Ironically, we wound up with a dead-even tie, so now we have to do a re-match during next week's tutoring session (we accomplish a lot of worthwhile things during tutoring).

Sarah went to kickboxing with Clint and me yesterday. I feel really proud of her. She was exhausted and I could tell that she was internally dying, but she hung in there and gave it everything she had. Brandon was wonderful with her too...he was very empathetic and motivational. She signed up for a two year contract, but I feel worry that "life" will start getting in the way and she'll wind up not going. I only worry about this because I know how hard it is to motivate myself to go consistently, and she has an even further drive and a busier life.

I guess Kristyn and I are no longer friends, although it's not like we really had a relationship anyway, so I guess I'm not really "out" anything. She wrote a long post about me in her blog, and although it painted an unflattering image of me, a part of me feels touched by the fact that she wrote all that she did. I know it sounds strange, but the fact that she took the time to say what she did at least sends me the message that she cares somewhat about our situation. We sort of left things off at an impasse, although based on her last message she was quite angry with me--we are both way to stuck on our own perspectives and can't seem to give in on certain things. At least we've had a little bit of closure, I suppose, before calling it quits. The funny thing is, despite everything, if she ever did move back to the desert, she is someone I'd actually enjoy hanging out with. There is something about her cynicism that I find refreshingly honest. But I know that it's not a two-way street--I'd get on her nerves immensely. I'm way too optimistic and God-loving for her taste. Plus I'd want to talk about my kids once in awhile.

Fair and Fire

We went to the L.A. County Fair yesterday.  For the first couple of hours it was just me and Clint with the kids, and we arrived early before the crowds hit and were able to take in a lot of the things on our hit-list for the day. We went into this "under the sea" exhibit where the kids were able to play in beach sand and build towers with giant foam blocks, which they loved. Next we sat at a nice outdoor table in the shade and munched on giant corn dogs and fried zucchini. After lunch, we went to the giant barn area, where we must have spent at least an hour or two. We went through all of the different animal exhibits and saw countless cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, and even a camel and a llama. We took the kids through the petting zoo, which was huge compared to other petting zoos that I've walked through in the past. The kids later went through a giant hay maze, and then we went to a goat miking-demonstration, where both kids were chosen as volunteers to milk a goat.

At one point, we got a phone call saying that Mike and Angie were planning on going to the fair too, so we decided to meet up with them. The first problem was that, while our ticket into the fair had only cost us one dollar a person (they were running an admission special from 11:00-1:00), Mike's and Angie's tickets were $17.00 each. That is a pretty outrageous price just to get into the fair, especially when you consider that everything costs once you're inside. The next issue was, right when Mike and Angie arrived, so did half of the county...it was very crowded. Angie seemed very unhappy navigating the stroller through the crowds, and I was feeling awkward because I knew that her and Mike had paid a lot of money to go to the fair that day.

Luckily, the day improved drastically after the first hour or two. Mike bought me and Angie a spiked lemonade and himself a beer, right about the same time that my sister called and told me that the pass was closed due to the fire. I don't know if it was the drink that relaxed everyone or just the idea that "Hey, we're stuck here for awhile so we might as well make the best of it," but after that the mood lightened up tremendously and we were able to have an enjoyable time.

After the fair, we all went to "Dave's Famous BBQ" for dinner, and it was so delicious.  Luckily the pass opened, so we were able to drive home after dinner. The drive home was exciting...we had a great view of the fire from the freeway. It was breathtaking. At first we could only see the orange glow from a distance, but as we continued to drive, the glow grew larger and larger until we could actually see the flames rolling down the mountainside. It looked so close, but I'm sure that was an optical illusion considering it was night-time and the flames were so bright.

This morning we went to church, but I didn't get anything out of the service because my eye was agitated the whole time. Stupid eye.