No More Teacher, No More Books

Ok, so I won't be hearing that chant until at least May. :) I am sitting in my classroom, contemplating my new "kids". The hardest part about this is that...I really like it. For some reason, I thought that I would be kicking and screaming to get back to graduate school, but I am enjoying my time as a working woman. My students are funny and energetic. Already I know that some of them have sad, hard lives. And some have happy, careful lives with loving parents, warm beds, and family dinners. Some have had to sell all they own to help a mother in need. Some want to be marine biologists or NFL players or eye surgeons or musicians. Their candid nature makes me smile, even when I've asked the same kid five times to raise his hand before blurting out an answer. I've discovered that middle schoolers are surprisingly insightful. Despite the chains and black t-shirts that some of my students sport, they are still under 5' 3" and they become so concerned when they think they will be late. Even the punkiest of students becomes affable when you kneel by their desk to help.

On My Way

You all must be settled back in to Provo. You know it's funny, but sometimes I miss it. I'm anxious to get the updates from everyone!!!

I leave in a few hours for Brussels. I am loving Prague -- it's just so beautiful! I have been so incredibly taken care of here and until today had spent a total of 400 koruny. That's roughly $19, which is incredible for more than 3 days in a European country. People have made me food, given me a place to stay, tango lessons (oh la la!) and I just feel really lucky. When I got here I took 2000 koruny out of the bank, not knowing what to expect. So today, I got rid of most of the otherwise useless money. Among other things, I was inspired by Jenne's crystal balls hanging in her window. (I'm staying Jenne's flat) They create wonderful rainbows all over her room when the sun goes down and they refract all that beautiful (and rare) Czech sunlight. So how am I going to remember Prague? With my own room full of rainbows.

The "Chunk" is "In"

The other morning as I was leaving for work, my older sister (who is visiting right now with her two kids) enlightened me with some very interesting information. She said, "So Whitney, apparently the 'chunk' is 'in'..." The chunk is in? I had no idea what she was talking about, so she explained. The new scoop in Hollywood is that the metrosexual is out, and the "retrosexual" is in - a.k.a. "the chunk." I was so intrigued and so she continued. It is not in fashion anymore to be with guys who spend more time on their hair than you do. Instead, women want men who don't have the washboard stomach but the...well...chunk. She was excited about this news release since she has always been attracted to umm...let's just say pudgier guys. I stated that I don't know if I am as attracted when the guys fall into the pudgy category, but I am all about the chunk. This one article I read perfectly described the metro and the retro, and I found that I agreed with a lot of what it said. No woman wants some wussy boy who gets rid of more body hair than you do and isn't ever interested in watching a good sports game every once and a while. At least I don't. I want a man, but not just any man - a manly man. A man that will give you a "hot, sweaty kiss" when he's covered in grease from working on the car. And as for the chunk...well...I do find it endearing. Here is the example of the retrosexual that I found most attractive:

I don't know if all the other white mothers will agree with me on this issue, but I know at least one other white mother that will definitely agree. Let's face it girls...the chunk can be hot.

Somewhere In Middle America

So, on Friday night my sister took me to the Winter Quarters visitor's center. It's great, for those of you who haven't been. I was sure surprised to find that Sister Andrus was our tour guide! :)

A Response, A Quandary, and A Useful Device

Response:

Yes, sometimes we (I) are (am) awfully vague in blogging. It becomes necessary at certain times... you know, to protect the innocent... like me!

Quandary:

Have you ever noticed that modernity has only really attempted to make strides artistically by resisting and rejecting all of the norms and conventions established throughout history? Take a modern art class, listen to a Radiohead album, stroll through a wing of the MoMA, or read some contemporary poetry and you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm sure you do know what I'm talking about. We have accepted urinals and blank canvases as art. We have spent millions of dollars supporting ambient noise as the new cool in the music world. We see profound meaning in words that don't fit and are grammatically incorrectly strung together.

And yet.

I don't have a problem with it. I believe that rejection of orthodoxy is not only positive at times, but also a necessary step in progression. It keeps things interesting. My concern comes in when what we accept as art jumps off the Barnes & Noble shelves, the galleries and the CD collections and into our personal interactions with each other. Not even personal interactions. Business interactions. Professional ones.

I recently received an email from a former employer that was written without a single capital letter. Am I justified in my disgust?

I thought so.

A Useful Device:

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on a social outing. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant one. That is the idea that inspired Popularity Dialer. With 5 pre-programmed conversations, you choose who you want to have call (man, woman, cousin), the date, and time. The first five calls are free. Try it. You'll like it.

New goal for the four white mothers? Use the Popularity Dialer at least once in the next month. Then blog about your tales.

P.S.

What ever happened to the apartment sweater?

Vagueness of Blogging

I do have to say that after that incredibly cryptic blog, I am totally curious. I am now in California. Last night was my last night with Jenny in my room - sad. Anyways, I am serious about being totally curious about that last blog. You can't just leave things like that and not let white mothers know what is going on! By the way, I think rocking our launchets should be our new key phrase. Goal for the four white mothers: try to enter "rocking the launchet" or "rocking my/your launchet" into a conversation at least once this week. Love you all! Oh, and PS - California is great!

Rocking my Launchets as Implicitly Implied

My Darlings...

I have become the weakest blogger. I need to find more fascination in the daily soup (hey, that's the name of a cute little cafe in New York) of life and not break into writers withdrawal every time life slows down a bit.

Well, I'm sure you were all just as curious as me -- but the status of my fated "real world" subjects has returned to normal after two painful weeks of singleness and they apparently are back in a relationship. See, I knew you'd want to know. Hope has returned to my heart.

Do you ever look around and wonder what this whole thing is all about? And by "whole thing" I mean the whole she-bang: life, love, work... I don't mean to launch into a philosophical debate on a blog post -- I'll save my launching for rockets -- but really. We grow up and live normal lives and get normal jobs and marry ordinary people and fret and worry ourselves to death over whether we are good parents so we can have have normal kids that will grow up and do the same thing. Lather, rinse, repeat. Doesn't it all just seem too simple sometimes? You can say it, I'm officially going nuts.

Perhaps I am going nuts for good reason. I am, after all, leaving the country in exactly one week. I have so much to do before then. So much to do that I almost want to just throw my hands up and let it all fall to the ground however it will. Sometimes things work out better that way.

Warning Sign just came on my iTunes. I love this song. A year ago today I saw Coldplay in concert. They were amazing.

I'm in Omaha. Did you know that? It is such a great place, I think. I would definitely not be opposed to living here in the great state of Nebraska. But only after I have a family. I'm not feeling much of the singles vibe here.

Yeah the truth is
I miss you

We all need to promise to continue faithful to the blog for as long as the sun and the moon shall endure. While three white mothers will remain in close proximity, the fourth will probably not even be in cell phone range.
I miss you so And I'm tired I should not have let you go

Do you ever see yourself doing something and just wonder why you keep doing it? WHY? And I don't mean the impulsive things, I mean the calculated, thought out ones. Like writing a lengthy email. Why?

I love you girls. If this weren't a blog, we wouldn't have to be so vague.

I have noticed a dearth of posts from our group of white mothers, and I thought that I should rectify that. I worry that the blogging tendencies of our group will die, and we will never keep in contact! Particularly with one of us going to Europe, communication will become much more difficult. As I sit here in my usual place (SWKT computer lab), I can't help but think how quickly this summer has passed by. My last calculus class was today, and I leave on Thursday to go home for a while. Was I really in Africa 7 weeks and 4 days ago? As I look forward to lazy days in the California upper-70, lower-80 degree weather, think of days spent in the spa with my niece and nephews, with only relaxation and (hopefully) some shopping (sponsored by parents!), I think how much time changes things. Weird, huh? I'm going to stop now, because I always feel like I come across sounding superficial when I wax poetic. Here are a few random events from my life lately that I would mention to all of you if you were here:

Apparently I am having speech problems lately, and for some reason they tend to come out most often when I am talking to Ben from Log Cabin (of course it happens with Ben because he would totally notice and bug me about it! The latest one was at the Stake Activity on Friday when I asked Ben, referring to the rocket launcher, "So, have you rocked any launchets yet?" Definitely a shining moment for my vocabulary!

So, on Saturday night we were at a campfire up in the canyon with some of the ward when Austin, a kid that has been here for the summer, asked me, "Are you a feminist?" Where did that come from??? We weren't even talking about anything closely related to that. In fact, I don't think I have ever talked to him about that. Do I have this feminist look or something? We then had a short discussion about definitions of feminism and the difference between "gender parity" and "gender equality."

After the bonfire on Saturday, Jenny and I watched High School Musical! Whitney, if you haven't seen it yet, you are definitely missing out. It is so amazingly cheesy and wonderful! by the way, are we surprised that the person who owns the copy we were watching is Jay? Funny, I don't sense any shock coming from any of you.

Home teachers came over yesterday (Curtis and Steve). It was pretty nice, but definitely a lesson about pioneers full of penetrating questions from Curtis. I felt pretty bad because Jen and I were both so tired that we would zone out and try to get the other person to answer the questions. There was a lot of leg-poking going on. Oh well! We probably should get more sleep on Saturday nights.

Oh yeah, the ultimate highlight of the weekend (besides High School Musical), was singing Cambodian karaoke through the window at Clayton's apartment (after hours) while he and his VERY recently-returned former mission companion were having a night of Cambodian karaoke and brownies. You guys would not even begin to understand how intense they were about the karaoke. I really don't know what to think.

To top it all off, I had an interesting conversation with a male member of our ward last night at ward prayer. This male will remain nameless (not because he would probably care that much, but because this will disturb you all so much that I don't want you to have a target for your frustration). I asked this male, teasingly, why he ditched Church yesterday. Basically, the story that he told me was that he stayed up too late Saturday night playing video games, and then couldn't get up for Church on Sunday and slept until 2pm! I know that you are all pretty disgusted by this, as am I, and I just needed to share it with you. Here it is. All of our fears about video games confirmed!

Anyways, thanks for listening to me blabber. Have a great day!

CHALLENGES

Well, well, well, if the biggest challenge in the world isn't finding a stupid sign-in name for a stinkin' blog! Anyways, I'm on, ladies!

Give my regards to Broadway

Right now I'm feeling pretty jealous. Two mothers saw Wicked from the front row, and I find that almost unbearable. The other two mothers saw...The Gilmore Girls from the front row. Ok, ok, it's not Wicked, but it does provide us with some good hours of entertainment. However, HBW's recent adventure to the Big Apple has made me think that I should have taken advantage of the time one mother is in New York and visited her as well.

Life in my area is pretty normal. I actually signed a teaching contract, and I am currently trying to get my room in order. It all feels very adult. I have insurance. I have a 401K. These are the marks of maturity, and yet I would rather have been frolicking in Manhattan with my fellow white mothers. I can't wait to see you all again.