crooked creek ranch

Finally, my computer is well again. Here's to anti-virus software! I've been waiting and waiting to post pictures from Crooked Creek - I am cameraless (it's killing me) so all of these were bootlegged from other people on the trip. I was really lucky to get such good pictures with no camera in my possession.

These nine days were incredible - I would say without hesitation that the week was a delicious taste of what life was supposed to be like all the time. Just for a little background - I am not affiliated with YoungLife, or Restoration Academy, actually. One of their teachers was supposed to go on this trip with them but ended up leaving the country for the summer, so the counselor at the school asked if I would like to go. Of COURSE I jumped on it - I love Restoration Academy, and I love what YoungLife does. Turns out, YL is looking to put together a team for this school in Fairfield. Exciting stuff, really.

As you'll see from looking at the pictures, I really had to do some digging to access my inner youth group cheeseball, and that was probably my biggest challenge - not because I'm not a cheeseball, but because I don't think I ever had any kind of appreciation for youth groupy cheesiness. In fact, I've always kind of made fun of it.

But getting to know these girls was a treat - we're planning to do a book study on Kai'Ro: The Journey of an Urban Pilgrim, a modern rendition of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress written by the principal at Restoration. The book is great, and it's part of a broader vision called The Kai'Ro Project. Click here to read about it - what they are seeking to do and be a part of is incredible. If you are involved in any way with urban youth, you've got to get your hands on this book.

Ok, on with the pictures...

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance?

-Isaiah 40:11-13

sweet summer

Hi, friends...lots to catch up on here! I've been MIA from Birmingham for about a month and with limited cell/internet access, so I feel like I've been in a black hole for a long time now. I've been blissfully unaware of all things CNN, cellphone and Foxnews, and it's been wonderful.

As you may know, I've not had a camera since I accidentally threw mine into a river in North Carolina awhile back, so I am dependent upon others to send pictures of the past month's jaunts. I have a few from the week at the beach with my family a couple of weeks ago - the ones I have are mostly of or with Nita, so I'll just post a few.

Check her out:Little butterball of goodness, that Nita Pita...

Dad and I went kayaking

The week was so relaxing - good times with family, the Skinners, Kate Graham, and dear Varner Stewart, who came also.

I just got back last night from Crooked Creek Ranch in Frasier, Colorado where I went to a YoungLife camp with five high school girls from Restoration Academy in Fairfield (linked on my "favorite places" sidebar if you care to read about the school -- it's awesome) and Homewood High School's YoungLife team.

I'm waiting on pictures from the week - I don't even want to try to do it justice with just words. Everything about the whole week was beautiful - the mountains, hikes, woods, weather, music, and especially these girls and new friendships.

As soon as I get my hands on some pictures, I'll post more about it...

Happy late 4th!!

Iron Chef champs, move aside

I've been practicing cooking with new recipes lately, and I always appreciate a little inspiration. When I invent my own recipes, usually that means I boil noodles and put some spray butter on them. Mmmmm.

My friend Courtney does a much better job creating new dishes (and she makes a MEAN grilled cheese sandwich), so for any of you out there who are trying to refine your skills in the kitchen, or if you love trying new (and delicious) recipes, you need to visit her blog.

You'll learn aplenty about cooking, good wine, good cheese, and the Hogwarts School of Wizardry - an excellent use of your time if you ask me.

Still at the beach - pictures to come!

wormology

FOOD-OLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? vinaigrette
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Tazikis
What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? It is not unusual for me to eat the same thing for stretches of time at least two weeks long...right now it's tomato sandwiches.
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Pepperoni, onion, olives
What do you like to put on your toast? I don't eat toast

TECHNOLOGY
How many televisions are in your house? One
What color cell phone do you have? black
What does the first text message in your inbox say and who sent it? "It is finished!" - Kelly
Who was the last person to call you? my friend Kelly

BIOLOGY
Are you right-handed or left-handed? right
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? just wisdom teeth
What is the last heavy item you lifted? a box of lit books

DUMB-OLOGY
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? NO THANKS
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? If I could change my name, I wouldn't.
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? YES. YES I WOULD.
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? two
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Freshman year of college - dead rat - prank war - I'll spare you those details
Last person you talked to in person ? Katie
Favorite Month? October

CURRENT-OLOGY
Missing someone? Yes
Mood? sleepy
What are you listening to? dave barnes newer version of "Until You" I'll never get tired of it
Watching? nothing
Worrying about? not getting lost finding my destination tomorrow

RANDOM-OLOGY
What’s the last movie you watched? Taken. It was INTENSE.
Do you smile often? Yes
Do you always answer your phone? Only if I know who's calling
It’s four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Everyone I know knows better
If you could change your eye color what would it be? Fire engine red
What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? strawberry or vanilla
Do you own a digital camera? not since I accidentally threw mine in a river
Have you ever had a pet fish? Yes, Cloudy, who lived for almost 9 years. I felt like I'd lost a part of me when he died.
Favorite Christmas song? “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” without a doubt
What’s on your wish list for your birthday? I have not thought about it
Can you do push-ups? I doubt it; my arms are pretty weak
Can you do a chin up? see above
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? It's kind of a nervous excitement
Do you have any saved texts? no
Ever been in a car wreck? two fender benders
Do you have an accent? Yes
What is the last song to make you cry? I don't know
Plans tonight? packing
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? yes
Name 2 things you bought yesterday. A subway sandwich and a diet coke
You ever been given roses? yes
Current hate right now? always curry
Met someone who changed your life? yes
What song represents you? according to that iPod shuffle game, "Honkey Cat" by Elton John sums me up pretty well.
What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping
What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? coffee

book recommendation

Right now I'm reading White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele, on loan from Sammer. I would recommend this thought-provoking read to anyone who has ever grappled with the oft blurred lines between issues of biblical justice and political/social justice.

It's a pretty easy, quick read, though the topic is anything but. Steele is one of the clearest thinkers on issues of race that I have ever encountered, and I haven't been able to put the book down. I won't attempt to recap or summarize any of his ideas, because I would only botch them, but I will leave you with an excerpt...

"When there is no white guilt vying for responsibility over minority struggles, there is no incentive to distort these problems into instances of injustice. We blacks, then, remain entirely responsible for them whether or not we get help from others.

In music, literature, sports, and entertainment our deficiencies are, thus, simply deficiencies that we overcome the way all people overcome deficiencies: through skill development, innovation, and relentless practice.

People wrongly dismiss black achievement in these areas for reasons that can be ascribed only to racism - that are compelling excellence follows from a mere genetic advantage. The fact is that we are good at sports and music because we subject ourselves to unforgiving standards of excellence and then work ferociously to meet those standards. Ruthlessly, we allow absolutely no excuses. The same poverty and deprivation that afflict us as we walk to school in the morning afflict us later in the same day on the playground or in the tenement basement where we practice obssessively on a cheap electric keyboard. The different is that white guilt makes no appearance on that playground or in that basement.

There is no carnivorous white need standing between us and the pursuit of excellence. No pity. Thus, excellence is allowed to entice us with its own intrinsic joys and rewards; and we come in thrall to it."

Also this...

"...if this boy's problem is reading and writing rather than basketball, white guilt will certainly prevent even a modified version of this natural human process from occurring. Career-hungry academics will appear in his little world, and they will argue that his weaknesses reflect the circuitous workings of racism...he will be an object of abstract compassion for everyone. And permeating his classroom, like a stalled weather pattern, will be a foggy academic relativism in which scholastic excellence is associated with elitism, and rote skill development with repression.

Yet just beyond the window of his classroom, on the pockmarked basketball court with the netless and bent hoop, another weather pattern prevails. On that court almost nothing is forgiven, and he will be "blamed" and held entirely responsible for all his deficiencies. And all through the torpor of a day structured to spare his feelings around reading, writing, and arithmetic, he will long to be on the other side of that window, where everything is asked of him."

For clarification - when Steele writes of "white guilt," he is referring to a great moral vaccuum, or loss of moral authority, that racism left in white America. This book is a thorough unpacking of his assertion that both white America's attempts to refill that vaccuum and black America's embrace and exploitation of said attempts have together destroyed the hope of the Civil Rights Era.

Go pick it up!

gold nuggets

It's the last day of school. There's nothing like the feeling of the last day of school...and I will tell you, it's so much better as a teacher than it was as a student. I won't be obnoxious and go on and on about it, but I did have to at least mention the relief of the day. It's not nearly as intense a relief as it was the past 2 years...this year, thankfully, I've had somewhat of a life outside of school as opposed to before, when for most of the year, I was literally flat on my back from the time I got home to the time I went to bed.

You should know that I had the summer job of a lifetime lined up - I was going to supervise an internship for high school students called the Young Water Ambassadors. They work as "leak detectives" for the Bham Water Works, and my job would have been to teach them about water conservation, hydrology, and leak repair. Field trips down the Cahaba, goggles and a lab coat...the perks are endless.

Not to mention the fact that, technically, my boss would have been the one and only Mayor Larry Langford. (Click here to read a golden article to get more on the burlap, and here to read an even more hilarious yet sacreligious bit)

You might be wondering what business I have supervising ANYONE on matters of hydrology and leak repair - and you would be right in questioning me, as I know nothing about these topics. But they train you, and it paid well. So in the interest of saving some money (thank you, Dave Ramsey) I was going to bite it and work from 7:30-3:00 M-F all summer.

Not gonna lie, apart from getting to pick Larry's brain (trust me, I would have made it happen), I was really dreading that. So I was a smite relieved when I was reminded that I indeed have two week-long workshops this summer that aren't negotiable, and another in a couple of weeks in Destin. Sadly, this means I can't call myself a leak detective.

I will, however, have some good time to rest, hang out, read some good books, and take some fun, albeit cheap, vacations with friends and family.

I also plan on spending a lot of time mining for gold nuggets like this one...watch the whole thing...the funniest part - my favorite part, anyway, is the last 10 seconds...

How do I love thee, Will? Let me count the ways...

while you were sleeping...

I was filling out ANOTHER survey.

1. First thing you wash in the shower? My hair
2. What color is your favorite hoodie? Charcoal
3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Regardless, something about responding to this question on a blog feels awkward to me.
4. Do you plan outfits? never. I'm also late almost everywhere I go.
5. How are you feeling RIGHT now? Really tired, and overly concerned about Jack Bauer's well-being.
6. Whats the closest thing to you that's red? My cool teacher lanyard with my ID and keys to my classroom and file cabinets. You WISH you were as cool as THAT.
7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having? I am about to have a formal drop-in evaluation, and I dreamed that in a meeting, my principal told me he had never had to give such a low score to any teacher before ever in life. It was nightmarish.
8. Did you meet anybody new today? Why yes, I did.
9. What are you craving right now? The beach
10. Do you floss? Do I really have to answer that question? What if Barry Herring reads my blog?
11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage? Cabbage patch kids
12. Are you emotional? Sometimes
13. Have you ever counted to 1,000? No. I don't think about numbers unless absolutely necessary. That's why I'm bad at managing money.
14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? I bite.
15. Do you like your hair? I'm very happy with my hair.
16. Do you like yourself? Sure.
17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? I would. We would get a Mugshots burger and a beer.
18. What are you listening to right now? My ocean waves noisemaker.
19. Are your parents strict? Um, I suppose they were, although progressively less so with Sammer and Hails. As Susanna recalled this weekend, when I first started driving, it was a rule that I had to pull over to change the radio station. I don't remember that, but Susanna says I did it.
20. Would you go sky diving? No. Totally not worth it.
21. Do you like cottage cheese? Yes, with black olives, please.
22. Have you ever met a celebrity? Yes-in Charleston I met Ben Harper, and according to Adam Telle, he had the hots for me. And in 2004, Edwin McCain took a dump in my bathroom.
23. Do you rent movies often? Every now and then. I just rented Changeling and Vicky Christina Barcelona. Both very good.
24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in? Not really my style.
25. How many countries have you visited? Just England and Scotland. I want to go to Spain and Austria very soon.
26. Have you made a prank phone call? Absolutely! I think I started doing that around age 11 and haven't stopped since.
27. Ever been on a train? Yes, and I loved it!
28. Brown or white eggs? Either
29. Do you have a cell-phone? Yes
30. Do you use chap stick? Yep
31. Do you own a gun? No
32. Can you use chop sticks? No and why would I? Rick and Bubba said for a country as technologically advanced as China, it sure is a shame they still use such a primitive utensil to eat. I agree.
33. Who are you going to be with tonight? My dear roommate, Katie, and Jack Bauer.
34. Are you too forgiving? I certainly can be.
35. Ever been in love? I don't think so, but again, is this really appropriate blog survey material?
36. What is your best friend(s) doing tomorrow? Working
37. Ever have cream puffs? I probably have; it sounds like all the rest of the cheap, disgusting candy I love
38. Last time you cried? It's actually been quite awhile. Months, even?
39. What was the last question you asked? Katie, are you ready for 24?
40. Favorite time of the year? Fall, hands down
41. Do you have any tattoos? No.
42. Are you sarcastic? Yes.
43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? No
44. Ever walked into a wall? Surprisingly, no
45. Favorite color? green
46. Have you ever slapped someone? No
47. Is your hair curly? Yes, though most of the time you wouldn't know it
48. What was the last CD you bought? I think Rosie Thomas
49. Do looks matter? Yep
50. Could you ever forgive a cheater? I'll echo Yaya's answer on that one - I hope I never have to decide.
51. Is your phone bill sky high? No. It's actually pretty low. I'm a minimal phone-talker.
52. Do you like your life right now? Absolutely!!
53. Do you sleep with the TV on? No
54. Can you handle the truth? Yes
55. Do you have good vision? It is awful
56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? I can only think of 2 right now.
57. How often do you talk on the phone? Not often.
58. Who was the last person you held hands with? The sweet pre-K kids who come down my hall everyday. They all give me high fives and want to hold my hand. It's one of the highlights of my day :)
59. What are you wearing? pajamas
60. What is your favorite animal? I wish I could sound cool and say dogs or dolphins, but I would be lying if I said anything other than cats. I love them.
61. Where was your default picture taken at? What ever is a default picture?
62. Can you hula hoop? No.
63. Do you have a job? One heck of a job.
64. What was the most recent thing you bought? 4 new tires. Whew.
65. Have you ever crawled through a window? Yes.