Me???

Things like this doesn't happen to people like me.

Sometimes I'm the rain on the parade

I made a student cry the other day. I hate that feeling.

Connecting the dots and Peggle

Lately I've just been thinking about what has gotten me here, mainly because my students have been asking. It's been an intense and rockin' ride to see how things have unfolded. But with graduation which has just passed I have been thinking a lot along the lines of what Steve Jobs said to Stanford graduates a few years back.

On another note, Conan O'Brien is my hero. He gives great advice too.  I only took his advice more fully the last year of college than all my other years in school.

 

P.S. - Here's how I can connect the dots one little way to graduation.  I was addicted to Peggle earlier this year after being introduced to it from hanging out at Paul Louthan, and Nate and Matt Jorgenson's place.  I was skipping out on my Stats 221 class because as soon as I would wake up, I would play Peggle.  It then became apparent I wasn't going to pass Stats so I dedicated my final exam to Conan O'Brien.  In the testing center, I was feverishly filling in dots not even opening my test packet.  One can only wonder what the freshman sitting next to me was thinking.  

My final exam score: 4%  My final Peggle score: 21,713,800

Not suprisingly I got an E in the class.  So I take it again Spring Semester, hire a wonderful tutor to help me through the wretched course and I amazingly got a C-.  I thought I was going to fail again, Hayley worked a miracle...really.  I passed the class, I graduate with a minor in business management, and I become a Peggle Grand Master.  Yeah for me!

IT

You know what scares me?  When people talk about marriage.  It just does.

So sad yet so funny

Lately I've been reading garfield minus garfield and happily yet sadly, it's becoming more funny.  Is it because I long for a cat I don't have?  Is it because we share the common thread of living in perpetual singledom?  Is it because I'm the isolated young everyman?  Is it because I'm losing a battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet Canadian suburb?  Or is it because it's absolutely hilarious and it identifies and exposes something that very well could be each one of

 us? 

Where do they come up with this???

Today was awesome!  Even though we didn't even start getting to the nitty gritty~the music~I still had a blast getting to know the kids and vice-versa.  I made up a questionnaire for instrumentation, contact info, yada yada, but then I threw in a few random questions that I got with the help of my friend David Eff.  One of them, "What would you do for a million dollars?" produced the best results:

• Invent something, get on a wild pony in the wild pony races @ rodeos
• kiss michael jackson/pants him; pants a british guard 
  
• run into a class and yell the loudest as can
• sing with music in front of 100 people Then find a cure for cancer (both important)
• play my worst insterment
  
• Something that seems difficult then find a loophole
  
• go and bye a monkey
  
• catch a crocidial!
  
• jump up and down patting my head and rubbing my tummy. (a million dollar feat!)
  
• I would be a p orn  star  (I wonder what his parents would think, should I tell them?)
• brak my leg
• I would Jump of a Cliff
  
• steal a million dollars (I think this one is clever)
• I would Be a suicid Bomber (This one is brilliant!)
• enter the lottery.
• jump off a 6 foot cliff
  
• marry someone rich
• Kill someone if I had to wear a bow tie  (I had just barely told the class they have to wear bowties for concerts)
• I don't care
  
• Eat Raw Fish...?
  
• A better question is what would you do for a klondike bar? (get a million dollars?)
  
• quiz school and buy what ever I want (I think English is exactly what this student needs)
  
• as little as possible
• Fergie (This bright little mind would do anything!)

And a two question favorite:

What would you do for a million dollars?

"buy the school board out"

Why is music important to you?

"Because I don't like it"

On another note, tonight after a day of work driving back from Magrath I saw the city lights of Lethbridge appear and it was the first time genuinely feeling like I was coming home.  

First days

I don't think any new step in life has kept me awake like this one has: My first day of teaching.  First day of kindergarten, first day in middle or high school, first day in college, my first day as a missionary, first day married...oh wait, that hasn't happened yet...none of these gave me the jeebers as much as my first day of teaching.  So after catching up and getting some assurances from my friends Kenji and Sarah Ruth, I laid there restless in bed.  My mind was racing about today!  It wasn't until after a ham sandwich, vanilla ice cream and an extremely healthy dose of facebook that I was able to fall asleep...at 3:15 am.

I've just gotta say, teaching in Canada is nothing like I saw it in the states. More respect from students, more appreciation from the community and more camaraderie from other teachers. The first day here for students is like new student orientation.  They come for an hour to get their schedules, lockers and meet the teachers (although mostly the high achievers ever get to talking to a teacher).  So tonight will be another sleepless night as I get ready for yet another first day of teaching, actually being with the kids. I'm incredibly excited, nervous, anxious and enthralled at this whole experience.

There's a part of me that feels like this all of the time.