i wear my sunglasses in the produce section of kroger because i'm that cool

this has nothing to do with education reform. instead, .... fashion reform.

i went to the grocery store on monday, before meeting dr. katherine for a loop around memorial park. i needed some apples, but more importantly - the supplies for a science experiment. two actually. we are dying carnations different colors AND making homemade rockets. (or sort of.)

anywho, i digress, and i should be entering grades into my data tracker. moral of the story, i'm throwing some carrots into my cart in the produce area and i notice this dude, super thin, nearly six feet tall, who is wearing a euro-esq outfit. He has on skinny navy slacks, a really tight dress shirt, and a super skinny tie. AND he's wearing ray-bans. in the produce section. while he's weighing lemons or whatever. i really, really was tempted to say something like, hey buddy, you could probably find the bruises on those more quickly if you TOOK OFF THE SHADES ...but i didn't. i did notice, however, that he was proudly wearing an id badge on his shirt pocket. HOUSTON INDEPENDENT school district it boldly proclaimed. He continued to meander and we nearly bumped into each other later. seriously, its dark in here with those raybans on, isn't it? kinda hard to see the other humans?

he's in my age range so i started wondering - is he TFA? If he is TFA, someone needs to tell the kid - this is urban, low income houston you're working in, bud. not a european city where people appreciate that sort of thing. and really, it wouldn't be that bad, except you're walking around kroger in the heights, looking all smug and self-satisifed, with your ray bans and your hip skinny pants, and your students probably don't even know your Big Goal. Maybe spend a little less time reading GQ, and little more time looking at the TAL rubric, eh?

I'm totally kidding. Well mostly kidding. Well, I don't know.

I do know this: I'm rambling about how perturbed I was with a dude wearing sunglasses in a grocery store as he checked out some produce...what is the world coming to?

william's monument

i jotted these thoughts down in oklahoma in july, so they're a bit out dated. actually, i should have posted this sooner because now, william is homecoming king, and it doesn't seem oringinal or cool to think william is cool. everyone knows it. but people, let me tell you, i knew it before you did. as soon as i'm governor, we're building a william chenoweth monument. i'm putting it in college station though...sucka.

if i could make a monument to any person that i know currently alive, it'd have to be william chenoweth. i mean, really. talking to him is like talking to my brother - in the sense that we know each other well, we have shared memories, and he passes gas at inappropiate times. how is he so mature? i don't know. how is he so humble? i don't know. how is he not a celebrity, because he's as cute as zac effron and as nice and morally upstanding as...well i can't think of anyone as nice and morally upstanding as he.

he called me to see how my trip was going, just to chat, "such a thoughtful young man" as my mother would say. on top of that, he's like talking to a good friend. our phone convo was less than ten minutes but meant so much to me.

as we were getting off the phone, he said, "alright, well, be safe. and don't smoke any weed." as if he were the older one in this picture, the more responsible one.
i laughed out loud. "thanks willie. love you!"
"I love you,too." what kind of a seventeen year old kid can say that to a loud, obnoxious, weird, annoying older-sister type? i can think of none.

and that is why, just as davy crockett and sam houston have sculptures of them floating around this state, i propose a willie chenoweth statue. we can put it on wheels and move it around as he moves...perhaps one day it will wind up in college station, outside the baseball stadium??? (I'm not crazy. I know his statue would be in the visitors dugout. but still, it'd be tight...)

*any readers of this blog that happen to know the chenoweth boys should know i love john b. just as much. however, i don't think we need a statue of him (or gentry rob) just yet. quote book? absolutely. most definitely. here's a few john chen quotes for ya just to emphasize the point.
"i think i may have been a bit too aggressive in my poop slinging."
"fish fear me. women want me."

missing montana

i've only thought about montana a handful of times since I've left there. Didn't take much time to reflect on the adventure, the beauty, the gloriousness of it all... but I found these notes in a bag, scratched out on a scrap of paper, and I realized... the solitude of that week, the beauty that surrounded me, the vast amounts of free time staring me in the face, waiting to be filled... you might say that in big sky country, there was a marvelous light.

I’m kind of obsessed with the Missoula way of life, and you should be too. The mentality that work is merely a way to pay the bills, and life is for play, adventure, happiness, well…that is just something that has fallen by the wayside in massive cities like Houston. I will admit, these people have dreadful winters, days when the sun has set by 3 pm and weeks that pass without visible sunshine. So, they pack a year’s worth of living into the glorious three months of summer here…A typical summer day finds a thermometer resting to around 50 degrees in the early morning and late night hours, the sun rising before 6 am and setting long after 9:30 p.m. Last night, around 11:15 p.m., I stood on my porch and could see stars above. Yet off in the distance, towards the west, the sky was still light blue in lingering twilight. Midnight rolled around before complete darkness fell on the valley. I stand in this valley alone, my family far away, but the promise of home and familiar friends a mere week away. And yet, I stand here not alone at all - not even just for the spirit faith promises us, but for all the memories and the people packed into my heart, my memory, my very being. I know - have witnessed - that life does not last forever. Jay Chenoweth, Wesley Gentry, Wesley Bright... I know that life is only guaranteed for now.

And I can't keep the smile from my face, knowing that my life, my right now - though not perfect, not without pain, is full of joy and blessings and love and peace and music and laughter. My life, all our lives, are completely worth living - with gusto at that! I'm glad to have made this roadtrip and spend this week here if only to reconnect to that thought... as the moon hung in the sky last night, a vibrant, deep blue like I'd never seen the sky, I knew... this is really an ordinary moment, just me, on the porch of a rented small cabin, staring at the stars. But our lives are thousands of ordinary moments, and that makes for one extraordinary journey. I'm selfishly glad that my journey isn't over yet.

gratitude

gratitude...

I’m sure I’m not the first to have these brilliant thoughts, nor will I be the last. I am not original in my thankfulness, nothing particularly unique or witty about my ramblings, however, if your heart is full, you let it overflow in the hopes it will spill over some goodness or love or joy onto someone else.

So, here’s the thing. It is so easy to become exhausted, delirious, crazy with the hours we work at extended-day charter schools. (And so many, many other places of work.) But through the insane work pace, and the difficult situations so many of our students are facing at home, through the sweat and the tears,I am left with such a glad heart.

As I driving the highways of Houston, often weaving through traffic, my appreciation for the gifts in my life is sometimes overwhelming. Though they may be scattered across the country, in Arkansas and DC and New York and Oklahoma and small town Texas and so many other places, it really is your friends that make your world go round. I don’t have to see them every day, though that’d be nice, but friendship can either make your life or break it. I am thankful and undeserving of the wonderful people that have crossed my path, people who have met me and not insisted that I should be in some sort of institution. People that continue to love me just the same. They even laugh at my jokes sometimes. Or read my blog.

If a third grader, or anyone, asked me for an example of friendship, I would have so many moments and memories to give them. But I guess I’d sum it up like this: My roommates ask about my day when I walk in the door, they occasionally ride bikes with me, and daily listen to me singing loudly and off-key in the shower. They are there, alongside me with struggles and joys of their own, yet they always care.

Muhammed Ali says that “Friendship is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything.” There’s a lot about my job that I could complain about, but there are lots of benefits as well, like re-learning the importance of wonderful friends.

I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination. And for that I will always be grateful.