christmas week

yesterday was so good for my soul!!! i met some old friends recently found on facebook, two sisters actually, and we just had the greatest time!!! it's been about 15 and 20 years since we had all seen each other so we spent the ENTIRE day talking and catching up on all of our lives. we knew each other from church, seminary, church dances, yadda yadda..... it was just wonderful. i drove out to menifee, which is where the older sister, tonya, lives with her husband of 10 years and 4 beautiful kids. she has a 14 year old that came from his previous marriage, and then 3 much littlier ones. francesco who i think is 7 or 8, giovanni who is 3, and little mia who was adorable and just 2. actually, they were all adorable. :) and then her sister autumn, who besides knowing from church, i knew from sport chalet, came out from san diego. she lives in kensington with her husband of 6 years. we worked together at sport chalet back when the parkway plaza store was open. so that was also a long time ago! '94-96!

anyway, it was a seriously great time catching up with all of them. and getting to hold babies. oh yeah, autumn has twins! 8 month old boys! and they were big! so we were busy. and i just loved it. all their love, all the kids' love, and hanging out. it can't get much better than that.

so now we've agreed to get together once a month. meeting in menifee! friends are great. it's amazing how we can come together again, after so long, and the love never changes. we change, who we are is slightly different, but not our core. i guess that's how it's able to happen. people never really do totally change. that's the key. (although some probably do....)

!

i need to write this paper on constructivist development theories but i also need to be distracted. :) things on my mind are how great it will be to get my car back. it's here finally. over in long beach just waiting for pick up. mom and i go friday. then i'm off to san diego. gotta get my new yak rak from larry and my new bike! yes, it's christmas soon for me this year. this will be a short trip....just a day and a night....since school is keeping me busy...but i hope to catch up with a few of my friends. it's carolynn's birthday friday...also gina is living in el cajon now. she left hawaii about a month after me...i also need to see aunt dottie and uncle joe AND it would be a perfect time to see nikol mastellar. i haven't seen her in person in like 20 years i think. we found each other on facebook recently so that has been great! i've been finding several old friends on there and who can't love that?

but we shall see. that's alot to do in so short a time.....if i don't get to writing this paper and on to the other work for this week, i'll be coming home even earlier!

unwanted lesson

man, so that just sucked. like alot. a friend called me to ask if i'd come play volleyball over at the cac. i got there and discovered it was the entire laie community playing tournaments....single elimination, btw. oh, and more joy, his team had won every game they played yesterday. which was for like 2 hours. no pressure, he says! anyway, to get right to the point, i sucked! made less than half of all my plays!!! argh!!! and, for the cherry on top, i blew the last game point. 14 to 13 and i just stared at the ball as it landed right in front of me.

man, humility ain't fun. i'm beginning to remember why i don't like team sports. i kept getting all annoyed at the ball hog girl. and she was so nice and had such good sportmanship! but then she kept taking my shots! so then i would swallow my pride and just go with the flow only to still blow it most of the time. and she WAS really good and i really was not. i'm so competitive! and how dare i be when it's been like 20 freaking years since i played volleyball last????!!!!!

i make myself crazy. this is why i like individual sports. because when you play alone, you have no one to compare yourself to, which is how it should be, AND so naturally you always rock.
:)
i really hate to not be good at something. so unrealistic and childish to think you can be right away at anything really. even if you were back in the day. so i guess it was necessary for me to do this. to remember that lesson. but dammit!!!

something to remember

that second to my last day at school, as coach avery, was especially fun. we were just sitting there...only the 7th graders from both classes, having been displaced from the blacktop because of the over 100 degree weather AND from the gym because of promotion practice, was sitting together under some trees and canopies bored out of our minds, sweating and staring at the clock, when a one of the girls comes up to me: "Coach Avery, wanna wrestle?" i'm grinning, "totally!" i say. so after i whip her, like it was hard, a crowd of boys jumps up. and it was hilarious. each one was so sure, SO SURE, he would be the victor. but by about the 11th whip job, i think they could see the writing on the wall. or, they were saved by the bell. ;)

almost done!

what a week! i'm almost done and can hardly believe my good fortune. it has been such a learning experience and blessing to have been given this long term assignment teaching p.e. to 7 and 8th grade. on friday we had an honors assembly and i got to represent coach mac (since his last day was tuesday due to his new knee surgery). 7 seventh graders out of about 275 were to be awarded the presidential physical fitness award. it's a big deal. huge in fact. and also a sad commentary on these youth when a little over 2% earns it. They have to complete 5 different skill tests, the mile, pushups, sit-ups, a flexibility test, and do what's called a "shuttle run." that's where they sprint a short distance from one line to another and bend over and pick up an eraser and run back with it. it measures speed and agility. i asked coach mac to explain all this to me, and how good they have to perform. it varies, obviously, based on sex, but the expectations are not unreasonable. as an example, the sit-ups they do are modified. no one holds your knees and you simply leave your hands on the floor and slide them up to a certain point as you curl forward.
anyway, i way digress!
i got to hand those awards out and 4 of them were my kids. so fun! and i spoke too, gave a little 5 second description of what that award meant. and, come to find out, i probably wasn't heard by many people. about 350 or so where there and i held the mike too far from my mouth!
argh!
anyway, the principal introduced me too, and that was sweet because she said what a great job i had been doing.....
oh, and i got lots of applause, like when she first introduced me and i walked up. was a little tiny bit embarrassing and made my throat catch but i loved it, who am i kidding?! amazing how many good kids are out there. and how many many people there are to love.
(i also got to hand out 5 more awards later in the program for outstanding students and these were ones that i had selected.) and this one, i also botched. as i walked up to the podium, i DROPPED 3 of them and proceeded to talk not noticing i was stepping on them. the podium sort of hid that from the majority of the group, but then i had to bend down and get them. so much for being sophisticated.
but it was a great cap on a priceless experience.
always a dork, but covering it up pretty nicely AND ever able to keep moving. ha ha!
and i only have 4 days left. wow. wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (it's been a 6 week job and i'm changed because of it!)

yippee!

i am having a fabulous time as 'coach avery.' the kids call me 'sheriff', cuz i wear the glasses, and that makes me giggle. i kinda feel like the evil witch in 'miss nelson is missing': you gotta be mean and loud and kinda scary, or no one listens to you. (this is the hardest part) anyway, the other coach, coach mac, has taken me under his wing. he's a master at what he does...been teaching for 29 years....and i adore the man. it's the first time in my life i've had the benefit of a father figure actually there to mentor me! wow, and this is the kind of stuff other people get their whole lives!
:)

quote by Sister Watson-Nelson

i heard her say this at a fireside i was so lucky to be at in laie, hawaii in the chapel next to the temple on november 11th, 2007. both she and sister dew spoke. i will never forget it:

"If we only sprinkle our lives with the gospel, we will only feel guilt and not joy. To fully immerse yourself is to feel the joy the gospel brings."

quote by president david o. mckay

"What you sincerely in your heart think of Christ will determine what you are, and will largely determine what your acts will be."

i can't wait to ditch the dialup

can you believe it? my mom still has dial-up. the dish network is on my hitlist. she pays something like 100 smacks a month and gets a zillion channels which is about as useful as pennies but NO HIGH SPEED CONNECTION. how 80's uncool can you be? 80's uncool meaning all the crap at the thrift store that IS STILL THERE cuz no one will EVER think it's worth resurrecting. you know what i'm talking about. light green and pink ties with geometric shapes. big purple tees that go to your knees with puffy paint white cats.
anyway, i can't wait to move.
but i always say that.
:)

today is rad. i don't have to sub. HOO-ray!!!! so i'm in a coffee shop listening to my favorite set of retired folks. there's this group of women that come in all the time here and talk mostly of politics. how much bush lies, abortion, their friends with gay living kids. i love it. educational eavesdropping. good times! i put my headphones on, so they feel like i'm not listening and can really let it all out. they don't seem to care either way, but it makes me feel more like the fly on the wall i long to be.

i must say i find the issue of legalized abortion rather complex. on one hand, i believe the sanctity of life should be protected by the law. people always have their free choice no matter what, so they can obviously still choose to abort. and on the other hand, your right to choose is your right. which is a greater law?
and maybe that's the answer, right there in the question. the natural law, the free agency of man, will always be. man can try to take it, but it's ubiquitous. a law to restrict man's free agency is all any man can hope to do.
and that's the conundrum: your perspective. it looks like the antithesis of freedom, in voting pro-life, to a pro-choicer. when from the pro-lifer, it's protecting freedom. freedom to live. sigh.
giving people their choice to legally abort seems sort of redundant. plus, what other things can that lead to? what more redundancy do we need? ha ha. this discussion with myself is about to spin out sarcastic.

movies movies movies

so i saw a movie to love the other night. i mean, besides nims island! it was an older rental and totally accidental. never even heard of it...love when that happens. it's called '2 brothers and a bride.' http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Two_Brothers_and_a_Bride/70000545

i need to start keeping a list. might as well start here. don't want to forget these great unknowns.

Megan's List of Movie Gold:
2 brothers and a bride
unconditional love
danny deckchair
king of california


so....i wonder if anyone i know will see one? nims island doesnt' count! ;)

hm-m-m

mom said "imagine life without bills." this was the description of a book a friend had given her about how to eliminate debt. i love it: imagine.
right about now, i'm still working on, "imagine life employed." ha ha.

so anyway

yucca isn't so bad. i never would have believed it, but it's actually good to be here. i've been able to do alot at mom's house, which makes me feel worthwhile. so far, i've cleaned out a good portion of the garage...cleaned the carpets THOROUGHLY with grandma's bitchin' rainbow vacuum cleaner. (everyone with carpets should get one.) and done lots of other useful things that are too boring to mention here. :)
anyway, week one of april, and only one half day of subbing this week. but that's better than nothing! yesterday's 3rd graders where adorable too. one little especially precocious little boy (with dreads) asked, "ms. avery, do you have a lazy eye? i wish i had one. they're cool!" i laughed. who says that? no one has ever said that to me. kids are the greatest.

hike to 'deep creek' natural hot water springs...

amazing, yes? the last time i did this trip, i was dating jeremy, working at 'the bicycle club' and like 20? ha! i don't remember it being nearly as breathtaking. maybe that's cuz it wasn't.