The Mustache Bandit

Sometimes it’s just about the little things: isn’t it?  Like a steaming cup of coffee on an early morning, or your child’s laughter, or the changing of the leaves come autumn… or maybe a totally rad fake-mustache-photo prank.  Ahhh.  The little things.

So, today was yearbook picture day at my highschool, and I just couldn’t do it.  Because my husband is a teacher as well, we have a drawer stuffed full of free Lifetouch photo packets that chronicle the last nine years of our adult existence.  Bad hair cuts, weight gain, weight loss, sensible teacher cardigans: it’s all there.  Walking into work today I was filled with doom as I thought about the next full packet of pictures (we’re talking 8×10’s) that awaited me this year.  And then… and then I got an idea. 

I scrounged up a huge, black, fake, handlebar mustache from the theatre teacher.  I politely cut in line in front of some surly teenagers.  I slipped on my sweet stache right after the photographer posed me but before she snapped the picture.  The look on her face may have been funnier than the final product.  “Don’t worry,” I said, “the yearbook advisor approved this.”  Lie.  

While I will have to wait a few weeks for my awesome packet of pictures, I did get my ID badge instantaniously.  It’s hysterical.  Am I immature?  Probably.  Will anyone think this is as funny as I do?  Probably not.  But, I think my mustache prank speaks to something deeper.  I want to create more joy in this life.  I want to chuckle more, trudge through responsibility less.  Of course, there is already much joy in my existance, but I have been making a grave mistake: I’ve been putting everything into two different spheres.  Family, cooking, Project Runway, Friday night date night – these things are “fun.”  Teaching, grad. school, bill paying – these things are “work.”  Never shall the two meet.  What a disheartening choice I’ve been making. 

I intend to make this the semster of joy.  I most likely won’t be wearing a fake mustache through most of it, but I will change my thinking and my approach.  Let’s take my weekly postings and work for CU grad. school.  I like the program, but I don’t always find joy in my weekly assignments and postings.  It can feel automatic and insincere to be told to respond to at least two other classmates: “Great idea, Jenny!  I totally understand your feelings about Dewey Decimal and the graphic novel conflict.”  Jenny, I don’t really care that much although I am sure you are a lovely person.   Rather, I will try to be more engaged, more joyous in my postings and interaction in this virtual classroom.  I won’t rush through the readings and think about what otherwise fun things I can do when I am finished.  This will be especially important once I start my field study.  There is an 80 hour internship requirement that I’ve been considering a chore – another thing to get done.  Instead, I will do my best to have fun with it and enjoy my placement.   Otherwise, I’m really just screwing myself out of goodness, aren’t I?   If jogging two miles feels like work, I will pay a few bucks to do some laps in the rec. center’s pool – fun!  

Thanks, super sweet stache.  Thanks. 

P.S. – Where will you find joy today?  Hint: you might have to make your own.

P.P.S – I do promise to post my school picture asap.

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Tree Huggers and Crazy Trains

As I welcome a hundred or so new teenagers into my classroom and prepare myself for a new semester of graduate school, I can’t help but look back at this simple, glorious summer longingly and give thanks.  It sure was swell.  See, it felt as though the crazy train stopped dead in its tracks and let me off for a few weeks.   As a family we said goodbye to our jobs, our house in the burbs, Denver traffic, (oh and Starbucks) and went home to northern Michigan.  Now, I don’t mean to be cliche; I hope this blog doesn’t come off corny or holier than thou as I go on about our summer of relishing the simple things in life – please know this gal loves her Indian take out and The Gap – but, it was really fulfilling to walk away from it all (cell phone reception included) and just be someplace else.

There was this one moment that I think can sum up the entire experience:  sitting down to dinner in my mom’s backyard – I was soaking wet from a swim in the lake – I realized that everything we were about to eat we found ourselves.  My husband caught the salmon the night before, the redskin potatoes were from our neighbor’s garden, and I picked all the blueberries in the blueberry crisp.  Pretty cool moment there.  It felt like everything else sort of melted away.  I think I’ll make that memory my new happy place.  So long, Tom Petty concert ‘01 and summer camp ‘87.  You’ve been replaced.

A few other highlights from the trip included watching the litter of gray fox pups that lived under our deck, looking up to see a bald eagle fly straight over my head on a morning jog, sleeeeeeping in, and kayaking until my arms were jello.  Did I mention sleeeeeping in?

Even with all that fun stuff, I am happy to be back and ready for school/work to commence.  Sure, it feels like I’m climbing right back on the crazy train again, and I know the semester might get hairy with 7 grad. credits, but it’s my kind of crazy.  CU Online helps me make this wild ride possible.  Also, one of my classes this time around is a field study where I will log 80 internship hours.  I am excited to get out there and get in the action.  After a year of functioning online and doing all this book learn’en, it’s great to know that online education can still be interactive and hands on.  Do you hear… a train whistle?  Uh oh.  Here comes the crazy train.  All aboard.  Let’s see if I can teach high school, take a full load of grad. school classes and keep my family alive.  Choo choo!

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This I Believe…

I believe that education will get you everywhere.

I believe that the Ouiji board really works.

I believe that we are all students and all teachers (mostly at the same time, too).

I believe that my carrot/orange bread can heal.

I believe that if I hold my breath during take-off the plane won’t crash.

I believe in love, love, love. 

This week my freshman are working on their final exams which happens to be a  This I Believe essay.  This I Believe was a weekly radio program from the 1950’s hosted by Edward R. Murrow; each week people rich and poor, famous and forgettable, urban and rural would write to the show and pour their souls out in an essay which might be read on the air.  In 2004 the project was revived by a non-profit group who asks the same question: what do you believe?  What do you know to be true? 

The beauty of this project is that everyone is a writer.  If you go to the website, you’ll see thousands of submissions from celebrities, politicians, elementary school kids, and everyone inbetween.  It’s a beautiful idea: in a world of uncertainty and indecision, reflecting on the goodness and truth that you understand completely… so powerful. 

I did it.  My freshman will do it.  I encourage you to try it out or at least check out the website.  Your finals are finshed, right?  Do you believe in summer?  A well-deserved pitcher of margaritas?  How about yourself? 

Check it out:  http://thisibelieve.org/

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