best.job.ever.

me: "Does anyone have any questions about the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach?"

1st grader: "Cute!"

me: "Oh, you think it's cute? That's awesome!"

[later]

me: "So when you go into the Butterfly Pavilion, you can hold Rosie the tarantula."

same 1st grader: "When I hold Rosie, I think she's going to look cute AND handsome."

...I love my job.

Good/Bad

Good day: 110 thank you notes from the sale section at Target!

Bad day: Speeding ticket in a school zone.

Good day: Light rail ride in the sun to Tattered Cover for pleasure reading!

Bad day: Getting pulled over and not really knowing it, b/c a policeman on foot beckoned you over to the side of the road. (There were two other cars in my similar plight.)

Good day: Sunshine and a day off!

Don't you love the paradox?

Oh, Saturday...

Things have been a little busy around these parts recently. This is why today, instead of being at young adult snow camp at RMMC, I am here in sunny but chilly Denver, in my pajamas at nearly 11 am. I love a good mental health day, and I sure required one after the past few weeks. So far, I have slept in, read in bed with the sun streaming in the windows, and eaten a glorious breakfast. You see, last night I made mention that I had a hankering for donuts for breakfast. When I came into the living room this morning, I spotted a tell-tale brown paper bag with grease stains on the outside. My favorite fiance got up before me and walked to the panaderia for fresh mexican donuts this morning. My contribution was espresso made in the stove top espresso pot--dominican style with LOTS of sugar. What a great way to start the day...

Busy, you ask? How busy? Well, this past week, my middle school after school program began. I now spend two afternoons a week teaching a room full of unruly but fun 6th-8th graders about bugs and spiders and adaptations and all that jazz. I also started teaching on-site classes. In my non-work life, I planned worship for the second week in a row, and my brother came to visit. Everything was awesome and fun, but it meant that there wasn't any time for me.

And this week? Yesterday I taught a class to a group of preschoolers....who also spoke no English. I think I rose to the challenge, and was able to teach a lot of the class in spanish, and to rely on my translators as little as possible. I don't know how much the kids got out of it, but I think they know spiders have 8 legs and insects have 6, which is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. My second class that day was a group of kindergartners whose school I had visited earlier this month for outreach. Often when I do outreach, I wonder what the kids have learned when I leave. But at the end of our class at the BP yesterday, one little girl raised her hand and told me that she remembered me from my visit to her school, and that I had brought Rosie (the tarantula) and a black spider with a red stop sign on its back that you shouldn't ever touch (black widow). I grinned from ear to ear, so glad that I'd made an impression. I got some hugs after that class.

Also yesterday, I spent several hours in rehearsal with the CO Chamber Players, working on our Insect Fables event for next week. Yours truly will get to narrate 6 fables with insects/spiders in them, while the chamber players provide the music (original scores written by folks in the group), and large groups of school kids get to learn about music and science at the same time. I'm pretty pumped.

So I've been a little busy. Today's day of indulgence (which will hopefully include such pleasures as getting new books to read from the library and shopping at Goodwill) is well deserved, and I plan on relishing it.

How to tell if you might be distracted...

As I added detergent to my second load of laundry, I realized that the first load, now nicely folded and presumably "clean", was actually washed without soap of any kind.

The housemates and I decided that the soap residue that must be in the washer, coupled with the high heat of the dryer made my clothes clean, even if I washed them without laundry soap.

I decided that I need to focus on the task at hand, instead of thinking about all the other things going on in my life.

On premarital counseling

James and I had our first (of three) session of premarital counseling today. We're getting married in Goshen, by James' pastor in college, but we're not actually going to be in IN again until August, so we're doing our counseling with Vern, one of the pastors at FMC here in Denver. Initially, I was apprehensive. When we met with him, he told us that he uses a family systems model for premarital counseling, which involves each of us laying out our family tree for Vern, and then basing our discussion topics out of information from our family tree. I was expecting that we'd meet several times and talk about subjects like having kids, finances, communication, etc, and wasn't really sure what to expect from the model he proposed.

I went first (we'll devote a session to each of us, and then do a wrap up session), which meant that I did most of the talking. After getting the basics down, Vern asked open ended questions that got me talking about how divorce and conflict (and other topics) is handled in my mom's and dad's families, and how that has impacted my nuclear family's life and my relationship with James. I think this is going to be a useful tool and a good vehicle for discussing those topics above that I was concerned about covering.

I want to also talk about my general thoughts about premarital counseling. I believe that almost every Mennonite church (at least all of the ones I'm affiliated with) requires premarital counseling in order for a couple to get married at their church. I fully support this decision. I think it's important to begin a pattern of a) talking about things and b) talking to others outside the relationship. I had a spiritual director for several years in college who was incredibly helpful to me. When I was doubting things about my relationships with others, when I was wondering if my cynical thoughts about religion were unhealthy, etc, I had a safe space to discuss those questions and issues with a person who was trained to work with me. Having had a spiritual director, I really value conversation with mentors who have been through similar struggles. When I have a really big problem, it's natural for me to find help from another person outside the issue. Now that I'm getting married, I have a safe space to talk about this relationship, and find ways to strengthen our communication patterns. I have hopes that participating in premarital counseling will increase James' and my readiness to find support outside our relationship when we need it. I want it to be natural and possible for us to continue consulting with those more experienced than us. 

All this to say that I value conversation, collaboration, and thoughtful guidance from those more experienced than I. Signing off for now....

Wedding Wednesday: a surprise

I think I'll make this a semi-regular feature. This is something I've never tried before. 

On Monday I finally got in touch with the man who I'd wanted to do the flowers for our wedding. I've been super confident about this whole finding people to do things for the wedding thing, since I'm getting married in northern Indiana, not really an area of must-have venues or a destination wedding location. So I didn't really think there'd be many events or other weddings to contend with. Well my friends, I thought wrong. Gail (the flower man) informed me that our wedding happens to be taking place during Quilt Auction Weekend (QAW for short) at the EssenHaus in Middlebury. Since he also works for the EssenHaus, he will be unable to do any flowers for us. Only in northern IN would my florist be previously occupied with a quilt auction. Oh well. Life goes on. 

Terrific Tuesday

aka I'm proud to say I'm from the United States today, and I'd like to thank Barack Obama for making this announcement possible.

I don't really have anything else to say. I'm in awe of the celebratory tone of the inauguration today, and how inspired I was by Obama's speech. I loved that it was both thoughtful and realistic. There is work to be done, yes, and I sure am glad Obama's going to be the one to make changes. Let's beat some tanks into tractors, people.