Apology and Prayer

Correction to my earlier entry: I must sorely apologize for making fun of Santa Claus.  Since he is indeed Pride Rock, and rocks aren't as jolly or bouncy as bellies, Santa is currently visiting the doctor.  Please pray for the poor fellow.

In all seriousness, pray for real people, in real poor situations.  They are the ones that need it.

Poor November

Dark times are here.  Christmas music started playing on the radio a few days ago.  December jolly and joy are very dark entities when they come too soon, casting shadows over Thanksgiving.  The darkness shrouding November comes from Santa’s large belly.  It’s not really an elephant graveyard, and Simba isn't really standing on Pride Rock.  He just doesn't realize it is Santa because lions don’t have religion, much less the human religion worshipping Santa Claus and shopping malls; because our culture has commercialized Christmas to the extremes of religious fervor.  Sacrifices of sleep, sanity and common decency are made on Black Friday.  They even capitalize Black Friday!  Only proper nouns are capitalized.  Proper? Really, is that the right word for this not-a-holiday?  Poor November.

Look at this image.  You can't argue with math.  X=November

Thanksgiving dinner is devastated before its time.
Poor turkey is strutting his stuff to the Christmas music, but the words aren't in turkey-speak, so he has no idea that the humans have forsaken him, leaving entrails of doom.

By the way, turkey clipart is not nearly as prolific as Santa clip art.  AND TURKEYS EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD.  Further disappointment. 

Teaching kindergarten

I taught elementary art for the first two months of school.  I was a little nervous about teaching kindergarten during their first week.  I was assured by another teacher there would be criers missing their parents.  There were.  One girl wailed.  There was also a boy who cried because he saw my face.  He told the teacher he didn't want to go to art.  I'm not joking, he backed away from the door, then stared at me for the whole class with wide open crazy eyes.

I came across these photos on the school website.  I don't remember there ever being a person taking photos in the classroom.  My only conclusion is they have super ninja skills.

The boy in green SERIOUSLY knows how to hold his scissors.  He must also have super keen senses because he noticed the ninja spy photographer.

Apparently I also orchestrate symphonies while no one is looking; with scissors in my hand.  Is that safe?

Fraidy Cat

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm pondering the name given to Monster CatBeast.  As a kitten he demolished the cities of Monopoly like Godzilla in Japan.  Monster was an appropriate title at the time.  Today however he is running in fear...from a balloon, a tiny water balloon filled with air.  It fits in the palm of my hand, and I have little hands to the liking of a ten year old; so that's small.

A balloon.  He ran around the house and hid under the table.  He tried hiding in the bathtub but learned quickly there was nowhere to go from there.  He also felt trapped behind the dryer.  That might be because I could not resist the absolute need to torture him.  Yes, that is a need.  Look it up, but disregard the numerous articles which contain evidence of the severe physical and negative psychological impacts.

It's okay though, Monster currently found a safe haven under my bed, and is comforted by the knowledge that sleep right now is more important to me than play.

I survived

Guess what?!  NO RAPTORS TOOK MY LIFE YESTERDAY!!!  Like Lex and Tim I made it through.  Actually I'm better, with no bruises or scratches from my very threatening adventures.

Okay, well if you call sleeping in, hanging out in a coffee shop, going to dinner and blowing up balloons dangerous, then yes yesterday was very life threatening.

Good day ahead?

As a kid I determined the outcome of my life with silly games.  I said things like "If I make this shot then I will be happily married."  If not, I would be alone forever!  Other times it meant pizza for lunch.

I wish I could remember if I made that first shot.  Anyway, while listening to Pandora today I said this next song will determine how my day goes...and I'm sorry for everyone who crosses paths with me.  I might not be around tomorrow, which means you won't be either.  Credit your death to Harold for adding the John William's station to my Pandora. (Though I like the station, John Williams is an amazing composer). Sorry.

If the link doesn't work just know that it's ominous music from the original Jurassic Park.

Spotlight on Monster CatBeast

Little Bits of Horrendous Adorable is a thief.   She's stealing attention away from Monster CatBeast.  She also steals sleep from people who leave their bedroom doors open, AND skin.  Yes, skin.  Her claws are vicious.  It leaves me wondering if her "play" are attempts at deskinning me for a cozy human blanket, or maybe a Halloween costume.

Monster CatBeast is too courtly for such behavior.  He belongs in high places where he can look down on everyone.

Summer

Vacation Bible School.  This boy loves to be picked up.  As a result of this week I have unbelievably amazing muscles.

UPDATE: The photo has gone missing, however I can assure you the boy was adorable, probably 4 years old and if I didn't hold him at times he would have run away.

Collaborative mini-mural at KLAS summer camp.
This was an amazing project started by 2nd graders and finished by 5th.  The kids work together so well.  The best day was when half the kids finished early and had nothing to do.  So I had them come up with the 3 best words to define friendship.  They're not all friends and they don't always get along, but they did in that moment.  Love. Trust. Respect.

Preparing for very messy Messy Munchkins at the rec center.
I taught 4-5 year olds!  I've never taught children younger than late kindergarten.  On the last day we had an art show and between the kids and the parents, I've never seen so much happiness in one room.

Last summer camp, Art Adventures (6-8 year olds), went equally as well as Messy Munchkins.  For this we painted with watercolors on top of water.  The next day kids looked for animals and creatures in the paint splotches.

Roommate got a kitten.  Her online anonymous name shall be Little Bits of Horrendous Adorable.  She claws my feet, and my entire legs when I try to sleep.  She also attacks my hair before deciding to sleep on my neck.  Monster CatBeast has mixed opinions of her.

Definition

Just a thought: Home means so many things.  The dictionary does not do this word justice.

Art for me

Although some children love art, there are some who struggle or simply do not like it.  My response to those students is to tell them why I love art, whether or not they ask..

I tell them that when I draw or paint, I work slow, I watch my hands and the marks on the paper, and when I do that, I forget the rest of the world around me.  I become calm and focused.  That is the main reason why art is vital to the growth and development of students -it teaches them to set aside distractions, to forget troublesome thoughts that hinder the learning process..  That is the main reason why it is important to me.

Wandering

I am going to write a little bit (maybe a lot, it has a tendency to end up that way) about why I am a wanderer, and why I'm not really anymore.

I have always been a wanderer.
One of my mom's favorite stories to tell of me was as a toddler, a one year old who didn't know how to swim.  She lost me briefly at the lake,  long enough for me to run and hide underwater.  Of course she was terrified, but her favorite part of the story wasn't finding me and easing her fears.  It was picking me up out of the water and seeing me laugh instantaneously, because apparently I thought it was quite a funny ruse.

As a kid I spent a lot of time wandering around.  Sometimes my parents encouraged it.  My dad sent me out searching for sticks one day for him to carve.  As an idealist I would say he wanted to encourage me to be artistic or to look at the world with a different perspective.  As a realist I know he just wanted me to stop bothering him for a little while.  It's difficult to use a dremel tool with a child hovering over you.  Either way, I was encouraged.

I was told not to climb trees, walk barefoot, or wander too far.  My parents knew I was going to do those things anyway.  They didn't say much when I kept tadpoles and frogs caught from the pond, and incidentally killed many.  All I knew was Mom was not keen on the smell and Dad provided Pringle cans for burial ceremonies.

Of course I didn't always wander to the best places or make good decisions.  Those stories are not as fun to tell.  Some people discouraged me or wanted me to change.  Some accepted me if I was different, even if they didn't want to. (Mrs. Nadeau who politely answered my question about why the roots of her hair were very white but the rest was black.)

My parents just let me be as I was, wherever I was.  I don't know if they realized the impact of this.  If my dad does, I hope he also realizes that it eventually brought me to a good place that makes me feel so fortunate at the age of only 24.

These thoughts came to me when I found myself in church a while back, truly wanting to be there for the first time.

My thoughts now are focused on the places and people who support me, who don't want to see me wander.  When I was younger I wandered not just because I could, but because I wanted to run away from a lot of things.

I have amazing friends and people in my life whom I never would have found if I wasn't allowed to run and sometimes hide.  I wouldn't have places where I feel I belong, if I hadn't first found the places where I didn't. I wouldn't want to teach or help children, do everything possible to make their lives better, if there weren't people who did that for me.

Thoughts of Late

Sometimes I don't write much, or think much for that matter.  Other times thoughts pile up.  There is so much I could say, but I'm going to stick to the relatively fun and interesting things.

Lunch with people from church today was good.  I have good friends and I know good people.  I am fortunate.  I also have a good but distracting cat.  Monster CatBeast keeps walking in the room and staring at me for a few seconds, walks out, then comes back.  I don't know why.

Back to lunch.  I realized that much of the reason I am sad about the postal service's slow decline is due to the movie The Postman.  According to books, movies and TV; civilized society and the government will come to an end.  We will need a way to reunite the people.

Support your local post office.  You can send people adorable Christmas cards like this one:

A Thought

Two things that have stuck with me since childhood:

Always take your shoes off in the house
Don't eat more than 3 cookies at a time.

Coming soon (or eventually)

In photo essay form:

Teachings from a loving CatBeast
CatBeast Capabilities

Epic Valentine's Love and Death Game Idea

Recently I have been unable to fall asleep before 1 a.m.  It's annoying; I enjoy sleep, but I also get some my best ideas late at night.

In this spurt of energy and the realization that Valentine's Day is next week I've come up with an idea for an epic card game.  I wrote out a lot of random thoughts, but they are just ideas.  Unfortunately I never take ideas very far.  Also, these things are never as fun when you do them alone. (And I doubt my ability to cohesively put it together or anyone's willingness to read it all)

Anyways, here's the gist of it:
        - High cards are characters, some are in love, others harbor hatred
        - Each suit has a different action.
        - Diamonds are given away
        - Hearts are life points
        - Clubs are weapons used to knock people unconscious/kill with high numbers
        - Spades bury people.
        - You can create your own scenarios by combing certain cards
                  Ex. Turn a diamond and a club into a diamond saw blade
        -  Zombies may be involved.

Strange And Ridiculous Things You Have To Do To Be A Part of Something Awesome and Amazing

•  Not sleep, ever.
•  Walk around town with a radio flyer wagon at the age of 20
•  Put 59 cents on your parents credit card  (Well they thought it was ridiculous)
•  Live in an apartment that has a sink in the bedroom and living room
•  Remove 15 chairs from a bathroom to shower
•  Roll around on the floor in a giant piece of canvas/tablecloth (props to Emily)
•  Mess up, a lot
•  Experiment
•  Avoid hazardous chemicals, sometimes
•  Carry chicken sandwiches in your pocket, also ask other people to do this for you
•  Get messy
•  Pretend to know what you are doing
•  Keep a good supply of sour gummy worms on hand

Cat-Beast #626

Monster Cat-Beast enjoys sitting in the tub after humans shower. (I won't reveal his real name for the sake of online anonymity, but I will say that he is of the Cat-Beast subspecies.)  The shower is a greater source of water, he deems bowls to be overrated.  Also, all cats are incapable of accepting human generosity.  I believe the shower to be a faster way of cleaning his paws as well. He has been doing this for decades.

YES THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID DECADES.  Even though he looked like this 3 years ago:

 

I made the finding of Cat-Beast subspecies as the Mayan Apocalypse was nearing. ("What, the world ended?"...Yes it did, look it up.  Where have you been this past month? Clearly not in your bunker.)  Although he typically acts more like that of the FraidyCat variety, on that day he showed no fear, devouring his food like there was no tomorrow, as he does most days.  This day was different though, he exhibited a sign of significant intellect by leaving crumbs on his forehead.  Food-stores for the future?  I think so. 

In the photos above he was nearing the end of his pupal stage of growth, a very long one much like the 17 years a cicada remains in hiding.  No one really knows what they, or he looked like in that time.  It can also be referred to as stages of evolution, much like Pokemon.  I suspect his early years looked like this:

As you can see, the colors of Cat-Beast evolutions fade over time.  This trait has most likely been appropriated from another species; Cat-Beasts are significantly superior to most life forms.  The color change helps all cats to blend into their new human created environments.  Although Cat-Beast is quite stealthy, the necessary tasks of jumping out from under beds and around corners becomes easier.

Faith

Of all of the things I want, or think I need, or actually need, faith is the most easily forgotten.

Catching up

I remember wanting to be in the Peace Corps.  I remember wanting to be a traveling photojournalist with National Geographic.  I remember wanting to create large pieces of public art.  I still dream of all those things, though I do not want to do any of them.

All I want is to enjoy more than half the days of my life.  I think I have some catching up to do.