Feeling Thankful

This has been a challenging week both at school and at home, and despite all of that, I am feeling very thankful for my life and all of the wonderful people and things in it. Every Wednesday I meet up with a friend to play trivia and laugh and joke with the people who frequent Bert's pub in Yakima. I know it seems like a silly thing to be thankful for, but those people and experiences bring great joy to my life every Wednesday. This week we were only one out of placing, which is pretty decent for a team of only two players.

The spiritual exercises are going really well. Today was decision day as to whether or not I would continue with the year long retreat. I felt like more was drawing toward that decision than away from it, so I decided to go ahead with the next seven months. It's one of the biggest commitments I've made thus far in my life, but I am pretty peaceful about it. I also got my first choice for spiritual directors, which also seemed to be a confirmation of the choice. My prayer life is keeping me more centered than I've felt since I moved out here, and since I'm about to be facing some major life decisions, that seems like a good thing.

Our community is moving again, which is a blessing too. Our current house is a health hazard due to lack of sufficient heat and a persistent mold problem, so we are hoping to move by the first of the month. While our housing situation has been less than ideal, it had brought the four of us together in a way that I wouldn't have believed possible two months ago. Ironically, it is David, who I had the most trouble with this summer, who has become my closest friend in the community.

Things are going well, perhaps because I am taking the time to notice how good I really have it.

Getting acquainted with my house

So I've spent the last two days at home sick. In the world of teaching, people really don't take sick days. Sure they're there for us to "use" but I know colleagues who haven't used a sick day in 15 years. Normally we just drug up and hope we can be pleasant enough to our students to last out whatever is getting us down. When you're not there, you can't really be certain that your students are actually learning anything, and with the class that I have this year, I can't be sure that they aren't burning down the school, beating each other up or single-handedly wreaking some sort of havoc. But with a 102 degree fever and wretched cough, my options were pretty limited. So I've spent the last two days doing a lot of sleeping, watching movies on my computer and catching up on paperwork. I suppose I am making myself sound more productive than I really am...about 70 percent of the time was spent sleeping.

But there have been many bright moments in my enforced homestay. For the first time in a long time I feel like I am caught up on sleep. Also, my students sent a really cute get well soon card home with my roommate David. I've been able to catch up with siblings via G-chat as my voice hasn't really been up to phone conversations. I got to talk to my good friend Chris who is in Africa doing a year of service.

And just before my flu experience I was able to go run another race with the NF endurance team, and this time coerced three friends to join me. So we ran 5 miles of the Portland marathon, with me pulling the slowest time due to the fact that I was beginning to come down with whatever this thing I have is. But it was wonderful to go to the team pasta dinner and make some new friends, and just get generally inspired. And my friend Patrick came in fourth in the whole race...out of thousands! It was really amazing.

I'm heading back to school tomorrow, which I am really excited about.

A Fair is a Veritable Smorgasbord

Yesterday for our staff development activity we went to the opening day of the Central Washington State Fair and did a scavenger hunt. My team was way too competitive considering the fact that we all knew our principal had no intention of actually checking. The winners were the ones who made the farthest flying paper airplane with their sheet. But it was really cool to be at a real state fair. We saw animals and plants and all sorts of things. Students from our school had an art exhibit there, which was really cool. I wanted to go on more of the carnival rides, but my roommates weren't really feeling it. I need to get back there and go on the tilt-a-whirl before the fair is gone. That used to be my favorite ride when Mrs. Nell would take us to the Our Lady of Peace fair.

So I'm in week two of a five week retreat with my parish out here. I'm doing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which is a very true to life and contemplative form of prayer. So far the first week has been good, but at the end of the five weeks I have to decide if I'm doing the whole year retreat. It's a huge commitment, but I have a feeling that it would be pretty life-changing. But for the next five Saturdays I go to the church and meet with my small group. I think it will be really rewarding.

I've had a rough week at school. One kid called me Emily during class, and we had some quality time together after school. Another got detention for behavior in class, and one of my students gave another one a panic attack. Neither were in school the next day, the one because he was still so traumatized and the other because he was suspended. This class is about 12 times harder to teach than my class last year, and that one wasn't easy either. Oh well. We shall overcome.

Autumn is beginning here, which is a fun time with all the harvesting and such.

Bumbling Along

So the start of school has kept me exceedingly busy and slightly remiss on updating. So many things to tell you all about! But to keep this from taking me the rest of my life, I'll stick with the most West Coast adventure that I've had to date: the Ellensburg Rodeo.

Let me tell you, rodeos are wicked cool. Shane and I went with his friend Cody (yes the two friends I was there with had appropriately cowboy-esque names) and Cody's family bought us the tickets. It was quite an event and I learned many things. The first was that rodeos are really exciting and I like them a lot. I wasn't sure that I would like it, because the whole idea was vaguely reminiscent of a bull fight, and those I find somewhat appalling. But we got to watch all sorts of events, including bareback riding, steer wrestling, barrell-racing, and even bull riding! The bullriding was the coolest part. I had no idea that the rodeo clown is there for a purpose. Maybe you already knew all this, but the rodeo clown has all sorts of mad skills, and the main purpose of him being there is to buy a bull rider precious seconds after he has been bucked off the bull. Bulls get real mad at the people riding them, so while they are running to safety on the sidelines, the rodeo clown deflects the attention.

So I'm slowly becoming a native out here, and if I stay out here, I'm probably going to have to name my sons things like "Ty" and "Wes" just in case they want to become cowboys. All the men in the rodeo had very appropriate names for their profession.
Well I'm off to dinner then church!

A creative moment

Warning: spontaneous creativity ahead...

She looked like a fashion plate, standing outside on the sidewalk the day we met. I think it was the shoes that I noticed first, because they made absolutely no sense for a Washington winter. I was bundled in as many layers as I could manage, from sweaters and scarves, to boots and a hand-knit, slightly lopsided wool hat. Her shoes were tall and pointy and lime green, a startling contrast to the cold and the grey of the morning. They were definitely not the type of shoes one could wear with socks.

I debated going over to her, asking who she was and what had brought her to our little corner of the world, but I stood frozen to the sidewalk, literally and figuratively. She checked the scrap of paper in her hand, scanned the street, presumably for street numbers, then turned and walked purposefully down the opposite side of the street, past the library.

It was a split second choice, but I suddenly knew that it was incredibly important for me to go to the library at that very moment, and with all possible speed. Ironically, this decision made it necessary for me to follow the same path as the mystery girl. Before I knew it, we both stood at the library door, which I gallantly opened for her. "After you, miss."

Not really sure where this is going...just a picture in my mind.

Taking this in a new direction

So I realized that sometimes this blog may sound a little whiny, and I want to change that starting from this moment forward. I'm not the only person who's ever moved to a new place and had a hard time adjusting, so instead I want to focus on the adventures of this place I find myself calling home.

For example, right now I am sitting in a really cute little independently owned coffee shop in southeast Portland. There are so many lovely places to sit and drink a cup of coffee in this city. This one is attached to an offshoot of Powells, which is the world's most amazing bookstore. If you are ever in Portland, Powells is a must-see. I had a moment in a coffee shop this morning as well, where I was able to sit by a window and watch the world go by while scribbling down a few lines of poorly written poetry. It made me realize that I really like to sit in coffee shops and read and write. This also made it occur to me that there is no reason not to do this when in Yakima. The one cute coffee shop in town is within walking distance of my new home, so maybe once a week it would be good for me to get out of the house and go sit there for a while to do just that.

I also reread Regina Doman's The Shadow of the Bear this weekend and it rekindled in me a desire to write something of value. This summer was an interesting time for me as I took a long look at what had become of my faith during the first year of PACE. I realized that I value the Catholic identity of my personal faith, and now I need to see what that means for my life as a teacher and hopefully someday as a writer. I love the idea of rewriting fairy tales, but I also love the idea of infusing my writing with my own Catholic identity, slthough unlike Regina, I think that I want to keep these two goals separate and maybe write two totally different kinds of books. We shall see where these musings take me. My poetry about women in the Bible is slowly but surely coming along. If anyone wants to give me feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. (hint hint, I need someone to read for me :)

On that note, I think I'll sign off for the night and start writing something creative.

An eventful week

So Glacier National Park was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined, and Montana is still my dream location for starting my cherry farm. Perhaps it is even more ideal to me now that I've been there and seen how absolutely amazing it is. I am currently in the process of uploading pictures to facebook so you can all appreciate the watered-down version of the experience that even gorgeous photos can give you. If you can't tell, I kind of fell in love with Glacier.

It rained most of the time we were there, so I was wet and cold pretty much all the time, except for when we were hiking. But it was totally worth it, and I learned all about camping. I can now start a fire, cook all sorts of yummy things in it, and make friends at a campsite.

In other news, I went to the eye doctor today because I've been having trouble reading the road signs while driving. They upped my prescription, which I expected, but then they gave me some very different news. Apparently I have a hole in the retina of my left eye and "retinal thinning". While I don't know yet how serious this is, I do know that I have to see a specialist and also go back to the regular guy in 6 months. This is causing me rather a great amount of stress. My mom ended our conversation about the issue with a very cheerful "well, you only get one set of eyes." This does not make me feel good.

So, if you have a moment and think of me, send some prayers for my eyes this way. I don't think my cool new purple glasses are going to do it for me on this one.