Sunday, September 12, 2010
Weirdness
I feel strange. It's only four days but it feels like forever since I've seen my husband. I feel almost lost. He'll be home tomorrow and I've been away from him before but it feels strange now. I don't know if it's because I don't have anyone around me or if it's because I'm jealous of where he is. It's only 24 more hours until he's home, can I survive???
Monday, September 6, 2010
Senselessness
What is it about life that bad things happen to some people and not others? Why is it that one child can make a wrong decision and have their life snuffed out and others make multiple bad decisions but live on? Three days ago, one of my students was killed while walking across a busy road. She was 12 years old, beautiful, intelligent, mature and had such great potential. She made the bad decision to play a game of dare and ended up losing her life. It sickens me that people like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, George Michael and many others make even worse decisions involving drugs, drinking and reckless driving and receive reduced sentences, slaps on the wrists or even no punishment at all - they are risking their lives every day and yet, nothing bad happens while this one child, who made one mistake, is now gone. I am absolutely heartbroken that this beautiful girl is dead. It will be with great sadness that I go face my students tomorrow and let them know about their classmate. Please keep me in your thoughts.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Vacation in Ohio
Am currently on vacation in Ashtabula, Ohio. A small town in northeastern Ohio about 15 minutes from Lake Erie, Ashtabula seems stuck in a time warp. The people who choose to live here grew up here, as did their parents and grandparents, etc. They play in the school parks, go for long walks, sit on their front porches or stoops and wave to people walking by. It's the type of place where every one knows everyone else and your business is not really your own. I love it here because it's peaceful, quiet and gives you time to think. With Cleveland about 50 minutes away, you can experience the fast paced life if you want but most people would rather go visit the Pymatuning Spillway or go to the Little League baseball games. Family is more important than computers/texting/Facebook and life moves at a much slower pace. In San Antonio (where I'm from) people are constantly on the go, going from work, to the gym, to the Riverwalk, to the clubs, etc., but here, you have time to just sit and enjoy the breeze, the thwack of the bat hitting a baseball, the squeak of the swings, whoosh of the wind through the screen door, the "Yoo-hoo" from family coming over to visit. Relaxation is the key - though people do go about their daily lives with work and gym visits, etc., it's not fast-paced.
Yesterday, we went with my uncle for a drive through Amish country, enjoyed the scenery and had an impromptu cookout over a fire pit located in a park on the Green River. We'd driven out there because I used to go there as a kid in the summers for family picnics (my dad's family is from this area). Then we drove through several "townships" (county's back in Texas) looking at houses, trees and covered bridges which are abundant in this area. We stopped in Mesopotamia, OH at a store called "End of Commons General Store" for ice cream and penny candy. There were girls dressed in Amish clothing (I think they were but not sure!) and the store itself was a treasure trove of homemade jams, jellies, candy, ice cream, gelatin, and many other delights. At the deli counter, the selection of meats and cheeses was enough to make your mouth water and the piece of sharp Cheddar I bought was so creamy, it had to be homemade. Coming back home, my uncle let me drive his 1963 Malibu/Chevelle - man the power those classic cars have!
All in all my vacation so far has been completely stress free and relaxing. The things I've enjoyed most is sitting on the screened-in porch talking with my cousins and just chilling. I'm not looking forward to leaving for my fast-paced home again in a couple of days....except for the fact that I miss my husband and other girls.
Yesterday, we went with my uncle for a drive through Amish country, enjoyed the scenery and had an impromptu cookout over a fire pit located in a park on the Green River. We'd driven out there because I used to go there as a kid in the summers for family picnics (my dad's family is from this area). Then we drove through several "townships" (county's back in Texas) looking at houses, trees and covered bridges which are abundant in this area. We stopped in Mesopotamia, OH at a store called "End of Commons General Store" for ice cream and penny candy. There were girls dressed in Amish clothing (I think they were but not sure!) and the store itself was a treasure trove of homemade jams, jellies, candy, ice cream, gelatin, and many other delights. At the deli counter, the selection of meats and cheeses was enough to make your mouth water and the piece of sharp Cheddar I bought was so creamy, it had to be homemade. Coming back home, my uncle let me drive his 1963 Malibu/Chevelle - man the power those classic cars have!
All in all my vacation so far has been completely stress free and relaxing. The things I've enjoyed most is sitting on the screened-in porch talking with my cousins and just chilling. I'm not looking forward to leaving for my fast-paced home again in a couple of days....except for the fact that I miss my husband and other girls.
Friday, July 9, 2010
For my beautiful daughter
For you I wish the world to be songs every day
Because I know how much you love music
For you I wish the world to be pictures and drawings
Because I know how much you love art
For you I wish the world to be rainbows
Because I know how much you love colors
For you I wish the world to be full of books
Because I know how much you love to read
For you I wish to world to be full of friendship
Because I know how much you love people
For you I wish the world to be full of love
Because I love you.
Because I know how much you love music
For you I wish the world to be pictures and drawings
Because I know how much you love art
For you I wish the world to be rainbows
Because I know how much you love colors
For you I wish the world to be full of books
Because I know how much you love to read
For you I wish to world to be full of friendship
Because I know how much you love people
For you I wish the world to be full of love
Because I love you.
Sometimes I Wish
Sometimes I wish I were a thousand miles away with you
On a white beach talking and laughing
Sometimes I wish I were sitting next to you on that beach
Holding your hand saying ‘it’s okay’
Sometimes I wish you hadn’t done the things you did
To end up where you are now
Sometimes I wish that we could go back in time to your childhood to right the wrongs
That make you the way you are now
Sometimes I wish your disorder allowed you to make better decisions growing up
So you wouldn’t have ended up where you are
Sometimes I wish the choices I had made were more well thought-out
So maybe you’d be a better person, but your decisions weren’t my fault
Sometimes I wish more mature choices had been made on your part
So that my decisions hadn’t hurt either of us so much
Sometimes I wish that circumstances had been different
So I didn’t have to make the decisions that I did, that resulted in sending you away
But I also realize that sending you away was the best thing for all of us
Sometimes I wish we had a better relationship
So I’d feel like this situation wasn’t all my fault
I know that the decisions made were the best for all of us
But sometimes I wish I could change them
But I know in my heart it was the best thing for you in the long run
Sometimes I wish you were still here
So I could show you how very much I love you
On a white beach talking and laughing
Sometimes I wish I were sitting next to you on that beach
Holding your hand saying ‘it’s okay’
Sometimes I wish you hadn’t done the things you did
To end up where you are now
Sometimes I wish that we could go back in time to your childhood to right the wrongs
That make you the way you are now
Sometimes I wish your disorder allowed you to make better decisions growing up
So you wouldn’t have ended up where you are
Sometimes I wish the choices I had made were more well thought-out
So maybe you’d be a better person, but your decisions weren’t my fault
Sometimes I wish more mature choices had been made on your part
So that my decisions hadn’t hurt either of us so much
Sometimes I wish that circumstances had been different
So I didn’t have to make the decisions that I did, that resulted in sending you away
But I also realize that sending you away was the best thing for all of us
Sometimes I wish we had a better relationship
So I’d feel like this situation wasn’t all my fault
I know that the decisions made were the best for all of us
But sometimes I wish I could change them
But I know in my heart it was the best thing for you in the long run
Sometimes I wish you were still here
So I could show you how very much I love you
For my students and children...
My wish is that all of you will go out into the world and be successful and keep reaching for their dreams, just like we always talk about in our wonderful class discussions. And remember these things:
1. Keep your opinions, they belong to you and you alone and no one can tell you not to have them.
2. You are beautiful, intelligent, wonderful people and deserve the BEST of everything.
3. Life is hard work. The harder you work at living it, the better it will be. Live to the fullest but don't forget that life also has rules that must be followed in order to be successful.
4. There is a time and a place for everything...school is not the place for cuss words! :) The only reason that people use words like those (you know the ones I'm talking about) is because they can't think of anything more intelligent to say.
5. You must take pride in what you do. If you can't take pride in what you're doing in life, at school, or anywhere else, then what is the point? Doing illegal things is not something to have pride in either - at least not in my deluded little fantasy world!!
6. I love you guys. I wouldn't put as much of myself into my work if I didn't care for each and every single one of you.
1. Keep your opinions, they belong to you and you alone and no one can tell you not to have them.
2. You are beautiful, intelligent, wonderful people and deserve the BEST of everything.
3. Life is hard work. The harder you work at living it, the better it will be. Live to the fullest but don't forget that life also has rules that must be followed in order to be successful.
4. There is a time and a place for everything...school is not the place for cuss words! :) The only reason that people use words like those (you know the ones I'm talking about) is because they can't think of anything more intelligent to say.
5. You must take pride in what you do. If you can't take pride in what you're doing in life, at school, or anywhere else, then what is the point? Doing illegal things is not something to have pride in either - at least not in my deluded little fantasy world!!
6. I love you guys. I wouldn't put as much of myself into my work if I didn't care for each and every single one of you.
Mexico City
Originally written March 19, 2007
My husband and I have just returned from Mexico City this past Thursday and it was an experience let me tell you. I was so excited when we left because this was my very first time visiting somewhere outside of the US for more than a few hours. My husband decided to surprise me with this because he knew just how stressed out I'd been lately and because he's such a wonderful person...anyway it was a great surprise with a few exceptions.
3/10 - When we were on the plane descending into Mexico City, the thing that stood out the most to us was the abject poverty that overwhelms the city. I thought that I'd seen poverty before, through my own experiences and through what is shown on TV, but never had I seen poverty like this. The next thing that amazed us was the traffic! There are lanes that they don't use, there are lights that are completely ignored and their ability to narrow five lanes down to two in three seconds is amazingly scary. If you ever go to Mexico, my advice is don't drive!
3/11 - On our first day, we arrived to our hotel at around 5:00 p.m. so we decided not to wander too far away from the hotel. We ended up walking around the Zócalo a little bit and reveling in the beautiful architecture of the Palacio Nacional and the Catedral Metropolitana, as well as the judicial building and the other buildings in Mexico City's main square. For dinner, we ate in the rooftop restaurant in our hotel, the Best Western Majestic. Needless to say, we discovered that Mexican food in Mexico is NOTHING like Mexican food in the States. Mexican food in Mexico is unidentifiable (to us) and is rather bland...I guess I'm kind of a snob, I'll stick with our TexMex Mexican food here in the States. I've never had such a craving for spicy foods!
3/12 - Our second day started off crappy! I woke up with a migraine and was so nauseous it wasn't funny. I couldn't hardly eat anything because I wasn't feeling good at all. It finally wound down to a residual headache so we contacted the guy who was conducting our tour of the pyramids at Teotihuacán to see what time he was going to pick us up on Monday. We met with him at our hotel and he told us about a tour of the floating gardens at Xochimilco which we decided to take him up on it and I'm glad we did! This was an incredible display of the culture of Mexico, with the floating trajineras (flower-painted boats) for hire, the mariachi boats, the vendors of various textiles, souvenirs, jewelry and food it was an incredible experience! We were with another young lady from Australia (hello Catherine!) and had such a great time people watching and soaking up the culture! The other part of this tour was a visit to the plant market which was another experience. All the plants, animals, foods, and textiles for sale, it was awesome. Catherine fell in love with the baby tortugas and I actually enjoyed the parrots even though I'm not too great with birds.
For dinner that night, we at at the Gran Hotel de la Ciudad de México. Another disappointing experience though it was better than the previous evening. I had ketchup chicken (it was supposed to be sweet and sour but wasn't) and Nick had filet mignon but swears it was rat! I know it wasn't but it was a pretty bad steak. Needless to say, we weren't impressed with the food.
3/13 - The good, the bad, the ugly!
Day three, we had a half day tour of the city (meaning churches) and a half day at Teotihuacán. The churches (the Shrine of Guadalupe and the other one we went to) didn't interest us much, seeing as how we aren't very religious but the Aztec temple that was UNDER the church did..though the churches were pretty impressive architecturally. The pyramids at Teotihuacán were AMAZING! I couldn't believe that those had been standing for thousands of years and built completely by hand. It's awesome to think about. I managed to climb the Pyramid of the Moon but since half of it was closed because the archeologists were working on it I only climbed about 40 steps - though they were HUGE!! Each step was about 1 1/2' high and my thighs were absolutely killing me the next day. It was completely awesome though and I was totally speechless for about 30 minutes. I never did manage to make it up the Pyramid of the Sun but Nick made it almost all the way to the top.
We ate at some local restaurant and I ended up eating only black beans and corn tortillas because I couldn't identify anything else. For dinner that night, we ended up eating Pizza Hut because we wanted something recognizable and Nick had a migraine. I think the altitude or smog or something was affecting both of us. Unfortunately, Nick was worse off than I was and we ended up going to bed at like 7:00 p.m. - or rather Nick did or tried to. He had to stick toilet paper in his ears and pillows over his head because of the stupid whistles! Traffic cops trying to direct the pedestrian traffic because the pedestrians don't have the right of way at all in Mexico.
3/14 - Our final day. We decided to get around for ourselves instead of go on a guided tour and we took a taxi to the Museo Nacional de Antropología which was completely amazing as well. All the different representations of the various cultures that have inhabited Mexico since its inception, it's just incredible to think about. Someone could easily spend hours upon hours gazing upon the different sculptures, drawings, paintings, masks, and of course, the amazing Aztec Sun stone - it's too much for mere words to express. We remained there until around 2:00 in the afternoon and returned to our hotel for a bit of a rest. then we had the best meal of our entire trip...Burger King followed by Krispy Kreme donuts for dessert. Yum yum!
3/15 - was our flight home, back to civilization and a return to reality. It was a great trip and I'd definitely like to go back someday. I hope you all get the chance to enjoy it too!
The good: the museums, the floating gardens, the architecture, the beauty, the markets, the people, the ruins, the pyramids, the lack of inhibition, and the culture.
The bad: the traffic, the poverty, the traffic cops (damn annoying whistles at all hours of the day), the food (I was never so glad to see a Burger King!), the noise and smog (next time we'll take doctor's masks!).
The ugly: some guy with metal bars sticking out of his face that we saw walking around the Zócalo on a daily basis.
My husband and I have just returned from Mexico City this past Thursday and it was an experience let me tell you. I was so excited when we left because this was my very first time visiting somewhere outside of the US for more than a few hours. My husband decided to surprise me with this because he knew just how stressed out I'd been lately and because he's such a wonderful person...anyway it was a great surprise with a few exceptions.
3/10 - When we were on the plane descending into Mexico City, the thing that stood out the most to us was the abject poverty that overwhelms the city. I thought that I'd seen poverty before, through my own experiences and through what is shown on TV, but never had I seen poverty like this. The next thing that amazed us was the traffic! There are lanes that they don't use, there are lights that are completely ignored and their ability to narrow five lanes down to two in three seconds is amazingly scary. If you ever go to Mexico, my advice is don't drive!
3/11 - On our first day, we arrived to our hotel at around 5:00 p.m. so we decided not to wander too far away from the hotel. We ended up walking around the Zócalo a little bit and reveling in the beautiful architecture of the Palacio Nacional and the Catedral Metropolitana, as well as the judicial building and the other buildings in Mexico City's main square. For dinner, we ate in the rooftop restaurant in our hotel, the Best Western Majestic. Needless to say, we discovered that Mexican food in Mexico is NOTHING like Mexican food in the States. Mexican food in Mexico is unidentifiable (to us) and is rather bland...I guess I'm kind of a snob, I'll stick with our TexMex Mexican food here in the States. I've never had such a craving for spicy foods!
3/12 - Our second day started off crappy! I woke up with a migraine and was so nauseous it wasn't funny. I couldn't hardly eat anything because I wasn't feeling good at all. It finally wound down to a residual headache so we contacted the guy who was conducting our tour of the pyramids at Teotihuacán to see what time he was going to pick us up on Monday. We met with him at our hotel and he told us about a tour of the floating gardens at Xochimilco which we decided to take him up on it and I'm glad we did! This was an incredible display of the culture of Mexico, with the floating trajineras (flower-painted boats) for hire, the mariachi boats, the vendors of various textiles, souvenirs, jewelry and food it was an incredible experience! We were with another young lady from Australia (hello Catherine!) and had such a great time people watching and soaking up the culture! The other part of this tour was a visit to the plant market which was another experience. All the plants, animals, foods, and textiles for sale, it was awesome. Catherine fell in love with the baby tortugas and I actually enjoyed the parrots even though I'm not too great with birds.
For dinner that night, we at at the Gran Hotel de la Ciudad de México. Another disappointing experience though it was better than the previous evening. I had ketchup chicken (it was supposed to be sweet and sour but wasn't) and Nick had filet mignon but swears it was rat! I know it wasn't but it was a pretty bad steak. Needless to say, we weren't impressed with the food.
3/13 - The good, the bad, the ugly!
Day three, we had a half day tour of the city (meaning churches) and a half day at Teotihuacán. The churches (the Shrine of Guadalupe and the other one we went to) didn't interest us much, seeing as how we aren't very religious but the Aztec temple that was UNDER the church did..though the churches were pretty impressive architecturally. The pyramids at Teotihuacán were AMAZING! I couldn't believe that those had been standing for thousands of years and built completely by hand. It's awesome to think about. I managed to climb the Pyramid of the Moon but since half of it was closed because the archeologists were working on it I only climbed about 40 steps - though they were HUGE!! Each step was about 1 1/2' high and my thighs were absolutely killing me the next day. It was completely awesome though and I was totally speechless for about 30 minutes. I never did manage to make it up the Pyramid of the Sun but Nick made it almost all the way to the top.
We ate at some local restaurant and I ended up eating only black beans and corn tortillas because I couldn't identify anything else. For dinner that night, we ended up eating Pizza Hut because we wanted something recognizable and Nick had a migraine. I think the altitude or smog or something was affecting both of us. Unfortunately, Nick was worse off than I was and we ended up going to bed at like 7:00 p.m. - or rather Nick did or tried to. He had to stick toilet paper in his ears and pillows over his head because of the stupid whistles! Traffic cops trying to direct the pedestrian traffic because the pedestrians don't have the right of way at all in Mexico.
3/14 - Our final day. We decided to get around for ourselves instead of go on a guided tour and we took a taxi to the Museo Nacional de Antropología which was completely amazing as well. All the different representations of the various cultures that have inhabited Mexico since its inception, it's just incredible to think about. Someone could easily spend hours upon hours gazing upon the different sculptures, drawings, paintings, masks, and of course, the amazing Aztec Sun stone - it's too much for mere words to express. We remained there until around 2:00 in the afternoon and returned to our hotel for a bit of a rest. then we had the best meal of our entire trip...Burger King followed by Krispy Kreme donuts for dessert. Yum yum!
3/15 - was our flight home, back to civilization and a return to reality. It was a great trip and I'd definitely like to go back someday. I hope you all get the chance to enjoy it too!
The good: the museums, the floating gardens, the architecture, the beauty, the markets, the people, the ruins, the pyramids, the lack of inhibition, and the culture.
The bad: the traffic, the poverty, the traffic cops (damn annoying whistles at all hours of the day), the food (I was never so glad to see a Burger King!), the noise and smog (next time we'll take doctor's masks!).
The ugly: some guy with metal bars sticking out of his face that we saw walking around the Zócalo on a daily basis.
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