Fish in Trees

Like me; if I were to be judged by my sense of direction, I would be classified as a complete idiot.  I can't count the number of times I've walked out of a public restroom and immediately turned the wrong way because I have no recollection of how I got there in the first place.  I have zero navigation skills.  Yet I can write an ethnographic comparative study on bilingual education with no problems.  And then you have Clint, who can't spell to save his life, yet troubleshoots and solves mechanical challenges as if they're mere baby blocks.  It really does seem like everyone has their own little inner-genius.  But I have to ask, if the fish can't climb a tree OR swim in water, then are we allowed to call it stupid?  Because some of the people I've come across in Wal-Mart....I'm just sayin'......

But seriously, I love this quote.  It reminds me of the artists in my classroom.  I get them every year--those students who are so amazingly creative, who have imaginations as tall as Mount Everest, yet are hopeless when it comes to memorizing the difference between a conjunction and a preposition.  These kids end up suffering perpetual inferiority complexes because the kind of intelligence they possess is never tested nor validated.  The academias, on the other hand, constantly get their egos groomed with 'A' papers and high test scores.  Funny how the ability to correctly fill in a bubble seems to hold more value in today's society than the ability to create something unique and beautiful.

Not to change the subject (I don't get that transition because every time someone says that, they are changing the subject), but I keep neglecting my blog.  For some reason, I tend to leave my poor blog high-and-dry every summer.  I will say that I've been working on my manuscript a lot lately.  I still can't believe how long it takes to write a book.  I wish I could hurry up and finish this one, because a) I want to see it done, and b) I have other plot lines in mind now for other stories, but I feel like I can't start those ones until I finish this one.  Here are a few more quotes from the story.  These first three are from one of my more scholarly characters, Mr. Chronos.   

“For the people who thought the world was flat, it was.  For them.  Because that was their reality.”

“I’ve learned in all my time that words have power.  But only if someone believes them.”

"Visiting the past is like studying a history book or gazing upon old snapshots.  Our desires for it, our joys, our regrets, accomplish nothing.  We can’t change the past.  Not in this timeline.  But the future is different.  It is malleable, a constant work-in-progress, represented by many possibilities, countless timelines.  It is perpetually being molded by our current choices.  You must realize it’s impossible to see the whole picture of something that has yet to take shape.”

The dude's really growing on me, even though he does condemn his own daughter to a terrible curse.  

This last excerpt is the main character's internal thoughts, and ironically, might be edited out of the story due to a conflict it presents.  So I guess you might think of this as a potential deleted scene.

Like rich soil absorbing the morning dew, realization seeped through me slowly, little by little, until I was thoroughly nourished with this new knowledge.  Yes, I had believed him.  At that last second, right before I brought the bottle down, right before the pain ripped through me, the smallest flicker of belief had alighted within me.  And it was just enough.  It was the tracest amount necessary to force the invisible—yet potent—hand of the Laws to bring down their gavel upon me.  I had become a threat to the rules of the universe, and now I needed to serve time under Stryder’s curse.  Stryder’s curse was now my curse.

Okay, that's it for now.  If I put up anything real, my sis will start hyperventilating.  She really is a helicopter parent when it comes to my story.  ;)

I will say that trying to write a book is definitely not all sunshine and roses.  I wasted about four hours writing what I thought was an awesome half-of-a-chapter, but then discovered later that information from this new chapter completely clashed with information from a previous one.  I ended up having to scrap the entire thing.  It was pretty devastating.  I handled it with a lot of maturity though and didn't throw a temper tantrum at all, or scream and pout that I was never going to write again (nope, I would NEVER do THAT).  Eventually, after the temper tantrum I never had, I felt better and moved on with life.  Now I'm keeping all of my screw-ups in a separate folder, so at least they're not gone, gone.  Maybe I can put them all together someday and title it Jodi's Book of Random Oopses.  Or, better yet, Fish in Trees.

Raining Shannons

I figured that Shan would write a few words about Yosemite, I would write a few more, and between the two of us we'd pretty much cover the whole trip.  But as luck would have it, her rendition of our camping experience was so dead-on that I don't think there's much for me to add.  But here are a few more pics of my own:

Yang wedged into crowded car

Trinity squatting on a giant leaf?

Cassidi surfing

 Shan and I on our favorite rock

 Clint and I at the top of Veneral Falls

No one's gonna steal this tree.

Our campsite backed up against an endless forest

 Campsite at night--so cozy!

 Clint panning for gold that didn't exist

Home sweet technology!

Actually, all of the other photos Shan posted were mine, too.  She ransacked my facebook since her and Jer took, like, six photos to cover the entire five day experience. 

My favorite photo of all is the waterfall/rainbow pic in Shan's post.  In person, it was breathtaking.

On to other things real quick.  I started my summer job last week, and I couldn't love it more.  It is the most pleasant, kick-back teaching position a person could ask for.  The staff is super-friendly, and they really take care of their teachers.  The students, also, are bright and enthusiastic.  It's strange to have a classroom full of students who are all there because they want to be.  As much as I love working at my beloved middle school, it's going to be rough going back after being spoiled by this job.

Friday afternoon Becky and I went out for our monthly girls' lunch.  Because Becky loves culinary adventures,  she suggested a cute Korean barbeque restaurant where you grill your own food.  Everything was delicious, but more than that, we had such great conversations.  It began with idle chit-chat about work (how awesome it is to work with your girlfriend!), but eventually we started to talk about things more near-and-dear to our hearts.  For me, it was much-needed therapy.

Yesterday we went to my parent's house on the lake for an early Fourth of July celebration.  My parents know how to entertain, and they pulled out all the stops to ensure we all had a good time.  We ended up having an amazing day.  Something about the whole day just felt different and more memorable than normal.  Part of it was my dad was being so nostalgic and loving.  Meanwhile, my mom was being hilarious and silly.  Shannon and I normally just float around on rafts, but this time we actually played in the water.  I swam all the way across the lake and back, which is something I haven't done in years.  It's fun, except for the fact that when you get to the other side, you're forced to stand up in a bunch of muck.  When I was a little girl, the lake used to be full of small leeches.  Shan and I would exit the water and our legs would be covered with them.  My grandma used to spray our legs down with the hose to clean off any residual mud, then any brown blobs still remaining would have to be plucked off by hand.  I never thought this was a big deal until I shared this memory with Clint once, and he was completely grossed out.  Luckily, despite my gallanting around in the mud yesterday, I came out of the water leech-free.  I wonder if they are even there anymore.

My favorite part of the day was last night.  We all piled into my dad's speed boat and went out into the big lake to watch the fireworks.  Between the silly oohing and ahhhing, song-singing, and my mom freaking out that my dad's lousy anchoring skills were going to result in us missing the "finale", it was a perfect night.

Oh, one more quick thing about Yosemite.  Jeremy's constantly teasing Shan about possibly having more kids, and of course she is way, way done.  Well on our last night there, we were sitting around the campfire and taking turns responding to questions posed.  It was my turn to come up with the question, so I asked the group, "If you could make it rain anything besides water, what would it rain?"  This question prompted the most hilarious responses, but by far the one that stands out the most in my head was Jeremy's.  He said:

I'd have it rain Shannons and I'd scoop them all up because I'm sure at least ONE of them would want to have a baby."

Yosemite (by Shannon)

Holy monkey balls, my sis is demanding! Apparently taking a little BREAK from blogging is UNACCEPTABLE around here. Oh well. I kinda wanted to post a little something about Yosemite anyway.

Yosemite is like a slice of heaven on Earth. When we were in the valley, my brain went into beautiful-scenery overload. I couldn't decide which way to turn to my head, which thing to rest my gaze on....it was all so beautiful and postcard perfect.

Jer and I had planned this camping trip a couple months ago with Jo and Clinton. What we hadn't planned on was our washing machine pipe bursting and flooding our downstairs the Monday morning prior to our trip. Instead of packing and preparing for the trip, Jer spent 8 hours with the carpet cleaner sucking up water. I packed what I could, but I had to wait for him to replace the pipe before I could do the laundry, and we needed tons of stuff from town. We finally started shopping that evening, but stayed up past midnight trying to get everything ready in time.

According to Google, the drive there was 7 hours, but with 4 kids and a crippled dog, it took us 8 1/2 hours to get there. The drive actually went really smoothly. The kids didn't complain at all, and Dusty slept most of the time. Our campground was called "Yosemite Lakes." It was about 45 minutes from Yosemite Valley, and it was really beautiful!

Jer and I found a great site set back against the open woods. Jo & Clint showed up a little later, and all combined, we had six tents. Jo and Clint brought their dog "Yang"...totally adorable dog! Later that evening, Jer and I were trying to make BBQ chicken for dinner, but we had forgotten to bring the grill top thingy to put over the fire. We tried to create a makeshift grill by propping up all of our metal s'mores sticks on logs, but we still lost three pieces of chicken after they slipped into the fire. Dusty got a hold of a raw piece of chicken, and later puked it up in the girls' tent.

The next day, we decided to just relax around the campground. The best part of our campground was the river. Part of the river had a small waterfall which flowed into a great swimming area. This section of the river had a massive rock that was great for tanning.

Here is me, Jo, Cass, Shelby, and Jer chilling' on our rock.

Clint and Dylan panning for Gold.

Me when I finally got in the water (well, a little bit)

That was a REALLY relaxing day, and it was also Jodi and Clinton's turn to cook! Cooking even simple meals turned into quite a challenge when you are missing certain items, like a grill, spatula, frying pan...(all items we probably would have packed if our freakin' house hadn't gotten flooded!). Clinton apparently decide not to bother with any of that though. He had the kids cook their own hotdogs with sticks in the fire, and somehow tricked them into thinking this would be a fun thing to do. I think Jo tossed some potato salad and macaroni salad out on the picnic table.

A couple unfortunate incidences occurred that day. Some lady tried to steal my $80 ipod speaker. I stupidly plugged it in the campground bathroom to charge it.  Our site was pretty close to the bathroom, and I figured I would see if someone tried to walk out with it. However, I forgot that it was in there, and took off for a few hours to swim with the kids in the river. When I came back, it was gone. I sulked about it for about a half hour, until Jodi approached various campers and actually found it for me.

The second thing was this HUGE group of high schoolers took over a spot next to ours. Their group was so large that they brought a uHaul to carry all of their camping gear. Up until they showed up, it was so quiet and peaceful. After they showed up, it just sounded like a party. Ergh. We decided we were going to have to switch to a different site.

Thursday was both grueling and amazing. We hiked in Yosemite Valley. Clinton found a hike that led to a waterfall, but it was uphill the entire time. The last portion of the hike was made of about 600 steps. These weren't neat, symmetrical steps either. They were uneven, crumbling, wet....some of the steps were so large, I had to use my arms to pull myself up. The hike had the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen in my life. But my lungs were burning, and I started to feel dizzy. I was downing bottles of water at an unbelievable rate. I don't know how to explain it. Even though physically, I felt like I was falling apart, mentally and emotionally, I felt incredible. I think I can begin to understand why individuals like to challenge themselves with hiking or mountain climbing. Here at some pictures from Yosmite Valley:

I'm excited for the day!

The kids are excited too!

Jodi and Clinton

Jeremy, me, and Shelby

More beautiful goodness

When we got to the top of the waterfall, I experienced another unfortunate incident. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad, and I ended up doing the behind-the-bush thing (it was more like a balanced-on-a-cliff-behind-a-log thing) with Jodi acting as my guard. Somehow, I got a bunch of tiny sharp thistle things stuck all over my butt. Every time I moved, it was painful! Shortly after I emerged with my stinging, itchy, cactus butt, Clinton informed me that there was actually a bathroom I could have used.

During our hike, Jo and I encountered the friendliest squirrels in the world! Not only were we hand feeding them, but they actually sat in our laps.

One of them stole my granola bar right out of my hand.

That evening, we switched campsites. Jer and I actually bought a grill from the country store, and we made fish. After hiking and then moving campsites, we were all pretty dang tired. I barely could move, but Jodi coaxed me into taking a shower, emphasizing how GOOD and REFRESHED the hot water would make me feel. I wearily forced myself away from the warmth of the campfire, gathered up all my stuff, and hobbled to the shower with high hopes. When I turned it on, the water was freezing. I shampooed my hair as fast as I could, skipped the conditioner, skipped shaving, tried and failed to pull the needles out of my butt, and shivered violently the whole time. (Real refreshing Jo).

Friday was my favorite day. We returned to our favorite river spot. We went on a smaller hike near our campsite. Jo and Clint made a great dinner, and we had a really happy meal together. Clinton burst a cherry in his hand, squirting some of the juice on me, which led to an assault of mature "popping my cherry" jokes. We had s'mores (actually we had s'mores pretty much every night), and we played silly games with the kids around the campfire.

A few more pictures from near our campsite:

Jodi and Jer jousting

Cass and Trin battling

Jo and I being silly

Hiking in flip flops and slippers

We got up the next morning, packed up, and made the long drive back home. When we got home, our pig had busted into the house, ate all of the cat's food, and trapped herself in the bathroom. At least my butt feels better now.

Lazy Post #2: Born to Die

I am crazy about this song.  I have no idea why.  Her voice is NOT pretty.  And most parts of the song have no relevance to my life (i.e. getting high).  But for some reason the music and the lyrics move the hell out of me.

The video is...not great.  These images would not have been my first choice.  I don't understand the point of the flag.  Plus the producers took the death-metaphor too literally.  From my view it's the relationship that's doomed to die, not the literal person.  I did enjoy the lighting in the palace; how the lights grow dim during more somber parts of the song.  Plus I love Lana's facial expressions.  There's certain parts of the video where she goes from looking like a confident seductress to an indignant, vulnerable little girl.  Luckily I like the song enough to put up with the flaws in the video.  I could listen to this song over and over.

I know I still need to write a real entry.  Can someone just write one for me and plaster it on here?  Shan, where the hell are you?

Lazy Entry

I have lots of stuff to talk about (recent 5k, camping trip to Yosemite, new summer job), but I just don't have the steam to blog lately.  And since that lazy sister of mine isn't contributing either, here's some quick video clips just to keep the blog from going stagnant.

I love it when characters of non-musicals unexpectedly burst out into song or dance, and these two make me laugh so hard.

I'll try to post something real later this week. 

Fourteen Years

Today marks fourteen years of wedded bliss (more or less, haha) with my amazing hubby, Clint.  I told him he'll have to find his card on my blog, so here it is--one of those high-tech, super-modern music cards.  Okay, I might be trying REALLY hard to avoid a stop at Wal-Greens later, but that's beside the point.

On that note, I think this should count for at least 30 cards (I started to lose count after that).

Happy Anniversary babe!

Stress and Rednecks

So I started feeling REALLY stressed the other day. The kind of stress that causes your pulse to pound in your throat...and feels like someone injected a serum of icy cold water into your stomach. And it was for such a STUPID reason. I  simply started exploring (online) the requirements to defend my dissertation and graduate in October.

The problem is, I have been avoiding any thoughts of school for months now. My last class was finished last year, so it was really easy to mentally sweep the whole thing under the rug. The avoidance thing was working pretty well until my clinical supervisor approached me last week and happily informed me that I had completed the required  1,500 intern hours as of May. I should have been elated, but my first thought was...CRAP. I haven't touched my dissertation in months, and I'm...NOT READY.

So when I started looking into my graduation requirements, it was an abrasive reminder that I still HAVE to finish this damn degree. My last intern unit ends August 19th, and I have to immerse myself in this school stuff again. It's SO hard, because my brain is done, but the degree isn't. This little discrepancy is causing me a lot of grief.

Anyway, when I was hit with this wave of anxiety, I feel like I handled it okay. I utilized three coping strategies to help me get through it. 2/3 of them are a little...questionable.

1) I frantically gulped down a glass of white wine.

2) I reminded myself this is self chosen stress. I CHOSE to go for another freakin' degree. Some people are slammed with stress due to circumstances beyond their control, such as illness, loss of job, etc. My stress is related to self actualization purposes, and it seems retarded to allow myself to drown in the anxiety when some people have REAL problems.

3) I clicked on Google Images and typed "Rednecks" (not sure what compelled me to do this). Here are some of my favorites:








After looking at these pictures, how could I take anything seriously? :)

P.S My little three legged Dusty is doing really good. She still has a terrible limp, but she is a happy, playful little thing. She gets her sutures and the cone collar removed in five days. Jeremy told my parents two days ago that he is glad we spent all the $$$ to save her. This was music to my ears.