Ken Griffey Jr.

Well, what I really wish I could write about is how Griffey is coming into the final years of his career with the Mariners. How they have won three (or maybe four) World Series titles, and The Kid is approaching Hank Aaron's home run mark in a manner that doesn't make people hate him (unlike a certain incredible baseball player in San Francisco that just doesn't do very well when he opens his mouth). However, the scene displayed to the left has become much more common for my baseball hero.

He also happened to leave our fair region for the beauty that is... Ohio. I'm sure some people like it. But I've been to Ohio, and it certainly is no match for the place I call home. And the team he went to join actually was much worse than the M's (the last two seasons notwithstanding as the Mariners have reverted to mid-1980s form). So now Griffey is ending another injury plagued season in Cincy and someone was smart enough to come up with this comical take on the whole thing. Read it because it makes the whole sad situation funny. Which is one way that we as people like to deal with disappointment. The real disappointment stems from having to convince myself that I really do think Jose Lopez is great when really he's nothing compared to what Griffey was.

Good and bad

Yesterday was the best day so far. I felt really good about how each class went, and even though the day kept flying by I was able to get everything I wanted/needed to done. The kids were really into pretty much everything and it was a lot of fun.

The bad part is that on the way down here to visit the folks (both mine and Sarah's) I started feeling a bit like I had a sore throat. So then we stayed up a bit late last night (not too late) and now I feel about how I did yesterday. Either I'll get worse or this will be it and I'll feel better in a couple days. Today we're heading out to enjoy some youth soccer action! Should be a wild time.

Busy busy busy

Well, this is one of those really really busy days that come along every once in a while.  I was at school all day teaching, and Sarah was at Island View subbing for someone at her old job.  She still isn’t home yet, but will be soon.  As soon as she does get home she’ll be heading straight back out the door to baby-sit for the guy (and his wife) that will be filling in for me on drums this Sunday.  He is filling in for me because a) we will be gone this Sunday and b) I have a function at school this evening.  What is that event you ask?  Why, it’s Parent Night at BCS!  All the parents will be poking and prodding us new teachers.  Not literally, but figuratively through their questions, comments, facial expressions, body language, whispers, etc.  It won’t actually be that bad, but it will be strange because if I was honest with them about how qualified I really feel I am they would be pretty worried.  At the same time I really enjoy each day of teaching and I feel more comfortable each day.  It still stupefies me that I was the person they chose for this job… wow.

I had to help a kid today who had a bleeding finger.  I put on rubber gloves, used hydrogen peroxide, put the band-aid on, I took care of it basically.  The humorous part of the incident was that the student cut his finger on a large blade of grass!  We were collecting plant specimens on the trail near the school, and he cut himself on a piece of grass, not a thorn, not a sharp stick, but grass.

It’s odd that even though today is super busy I have time to write all this.  This is just the calm before the storm.

One of the reasons I feel like I should in no way be teaching these classes is the following realization I had while going to the bathroom this afternoon: the clothes I am wearing are the exact same ones I wore when I took Sarah to Homecoming my senior year of high school!  I am far too young to be in charge of a group of junior high students!  And I’m pretty sure the parents may think similar thoughts.  I don’t think about it too often, but it just strikes me as odd that I’m the guy in charge all of a sudden.  Other people (the administration and other teachers at BCS) seem to think it’s great, but I’m not always sure.

Pretty Pointless

It’s a Sunday morning and I’m going to try to play some Backyard Hockey before I do some planning for next week.  After that we’ll go to church at 11:00.  It always seems like such a late in the day time to go to church, but it’s kind of nice to have the relaxing morning two days in a row.  Plus, I still need to eat another bowl of cereal, so the 9:30 service is out of the question!  This is also a test to see how the plug-in for Word that I’m using works… we’ll see.

It's the least I can do... almost

So, I have actually had the inkling to reacquaint myself with these here internet weblog. But, when I returned from a bike ride today I got an email from my very own mother urging/asking/suggesting that I should use this as a way to keep those who want to be in the know, in the know. Also, since my own brother is using one of my mom's old blog names to post his Japan travel reports then I felt like I could do the same even though I'm not in a foreign country at the present time.
To compress a longer story into a few sentences this is how my summer went: finish classes at WWU, never hear back from many many school districts about applications I sent in, did my best not to get my hopes up about certain jobs, pack up boxes of stuff at our apartment, tell our apt. managers that we would be moving at the end of the month (while having no clue where we were moving to), decide to apply at Bellingham Christian School as a last minute idea, decide to move across town here in Bellingham before finding out if I got the job, thankfully get a job teaching there as a junior high math and science teacher, get ready to teach for the first time in my very own classroom, get a great selection of neato stuff from a gift card that I got from students in the class I student taught last year, taught for the first week at school and still feel okay about being an alright teacher.
I guess that's a run-on sentence, or maybe just way too long of a list. Whatever, it's what happened.
I'm taking it easy this weekend and getting ready for the next week of school... and all the ones to follow. Pictures of school/home/around town will be forthcoming. And yes, I'll do my best to keep updating this, really, I promise!