SUBWAY 2009

Things have been frustrating lately...but the good news is that you don't have to hear about any of the teary details because I started a blog journal. I don't know if anyone reads this blog, but if you do then I'm sure you just threw your hands up for joy at the prospect of wading through life without my filibustering diversions {or as Q would say: delusions}.

So last week we hiked the Subway:

Perhaps we lunched a little too long... you'll see why soon-

Kristi (10) was a trooper. Don't know many 10-year-olds who could do this with a smile!

Cold Cold Coldness! Jump on in- it's the only way out.

Cold FREEZING Cold water. Can't go under it, can't go over it, have to go straight THROUGH it!

Getting quite dim- and we're still hiking...in freezing wet clothes...

Finish time: 11:00 pm

Combine late start with slow hiking and an underestimated scope of the trail length with getting lost on the darkest of dark moonless nights and wretchedly poor night vision and you get this picture. At one point we were separated, hiking through cactus fields that I couldn't see to save my life, and lost off the trail on a cliff in complete pitch black. We worried some people... but I did find this totally rock awesome rope along the way!
Cacti still in my shoes. Note to self, need glasses.

Oh how I'll miss them-

My books are packed up... well, at least the first thousand or so...

Awards night is over...


Old friends and new friends were celebrated...

And my beloved students have officially left the building.

Did I mention that 0ver 90% of them passed the CRT!?
...Over 94% passed the DWA (with over 50% achieving mastery)!!!

Success- and much hard work and hours and hours and hours... but then it paid off and

suddenly they are gone. I really poured my heart and soul into them and in the end I absolutely fell in love with them. It is difficult to let them go. I can't imagine SCMS without them. Sob sob sob- year 2 in the trenches was the best time of my life. Hit the ground running, never looked back, and now that it's time to go I don't want to. Oh, how I'll miss them.

That was mean!

...Of all the low down dirty rotten! Here I am, having one of the most spiritually uplifting days of my life thanks, in large part, to this MOST AMAZING CD EVER (buy it now, it is SO worth it):

When all of the sudden, out of nowhere, a completely inappropriate page of graphic pictures pops up on my computer. I must admit, this is the very first time I have seen or experienced pornography and I deeply and gravely hope it is my last!!! I am horrified!

My point is this: Not five minutes ago I actually thought to myself how absolutely uplifting and spiritual my day was and that I sincerely hoped it would last all week. I even shed a few tears because I was so overjoyed with emotion (so not me). Then, a mere moment later, the concords of hell hit me with something so low and out of character and completely hurtful that I gasped in shock having been taken away from such a powerful high to such a degradory low so quickly.

Satan must be getting desperate to win some more of us over... doesn't he have enough of us that he can't leave me alone for five minutes??? Truth to the notion that we cannot and must not leave our guard down even for a moment. There is no gray- only black and white!

Love, the religious zealot that never knew she existed.

Do you ever...

Do you ever get to the end of your Saturday and find that the one thing you needed to do is the very thing you didn't have time to even get too? Sheesh!

Not much time around these parts come May. Two weeks until the big day of triumph though.

The skinny:

I'm addicted to FOX News. I watch it like a soap addict. Oddly enough, it's not even Glenn Beck that draws me in- It's Bill... but more than Bill. The O'Rielly factor is great kicks and giggles but it's Megyn Kelly and Laura Ingram that I stay on the treadmill an extra excruciating mile to see! Seriously, if I die suddenly- do you think Megyn Kelly would raise my kids if I left her enough money??? Forget the part about me dying... do you think she'd host summer camps: political 101 for the savvy teen... ahhh, I can just see it now.... Hold the phone, why do I need kids? Do you think if I sent enough fan mail, she'd agree to send me an autograph???

Anyhow: I am suffering the pain of an ethical dilemma- Do I boycott NBC altogether or just CSNBC? I mean- this is a time where one should stand for what they believe right? How can I go on watching The Office when I am completely appalled by NBC's lack of ethics and profit blind morailty as a whole? Really it comes down to The Office... I've let go of everything else. I think I can do it. I don't even LOVE The Office anymore anyway. The writers have slashed the character of Pam with absolutely out of place sexual inuendos that have no business attaching themselves to her role anyway.

Also:

I read The Road on Wednesday. Hmmm. Not so sure about recommending it, but I do agree that the absense of punctuation and disregard towards grammar served to enhance the book. Reading it was like being on THE road with the man and the boy.

I will say this however, come apocalypse time I better not be here. Scratch that... Cormac McCarthy's got it right, it's the postapocalyptic era that's scary...

But then again, not if you've got the plan of salvation and serve to use your powers for good on earth. Hmmm, time to re-evaluate my priorities.

GASP!!!

I'VE JUST REALIZED THAT I READ A BOOK ON OPRAH'S BOOK LIST!...And that is something I vowed never to do again after having been led astray by The Bluest Eye (no offense Tony Morrison) and that Whole "Pieces" fiasco (No-I didn't read it, thank heavens! I was about 30 books behind when that hoopla hit prime time).

HOW CAN I EVER EXPECT TO SURVIVE MY NBC BOYCOTT IF I CAN'T EVEN HOLD TO MY GUNS WITH OPRAH'S BOO CLUB?!?!?!?!

Woe is me. Distress. Distress.

(Yes boo club. The K has been ommited on purpose. See Mark Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea for justification)