It's been awhile. Welcome Back!

School has been running a million mph these last few weeks and certain luxuries of excess time have taken a back seat to school and homework.  Specifically the time to write this blog :-/ and the time to play on facebook . . . have you missed me Mr. Zuckerburg?

The end of the semester is in sight though.  10 weeks down, 6 more weeks to go and then only one more year until I graduate.  Whoop!!!  

(finally)

And the end of the semester can't get here soon enough.  Anytime I actually do have a minute of free time, it seems I'm out cold.  I'm beginning to worry that these long hours of studying are taking their toll OR I'm developing narcolepsy.

For More Information on Narcolepsy

The last couple of weeks I've had plenty of things to write about, but no time to do it.  So right now I'm stealing a couple of minutes for some down-time and to write a couple of lines.

I need to be finishing up two Lesson Plans for two different classes, and a research paper.  Wa-frickin-hoo

That does actually remind me of a thought I wanted to put down in writing.  

A week or so back, we (my EDCI 454 class, Curriculum for Young Children) was finishing up a Collaborative Integrated unit lesson plan . . . in short, we had to choose a subject, Weather & Climate in our case,  and built a weeks worth of instruction around the topic using the course subjects to explain the topic . . . anyways, after the project was over our professor asked us if there was anything that she could have done for the project to have made more sense.  

The class had some ideas as to how this project could have been easier, but the over-whelming concern from the class was that we as students had too much to do, and this project took up too much time.  While I do agree that this project took up a lot of time and did become frustrating when so many of our classes were also having us write lesson plans (we cannot submit one paper to two teachers, as this is considered plagiarism); all of these students told the professor that we needed more time to complete the assignment.  

MTV's Real World

My question to all of these classmates was "Do you not think that once we are in the REAL WORLD that we will have to still do all of this stuff but at a real life pace?"

Sorry boys and girls, I'm afraid that it is the case.  Personally, I'd rather be under the time crunch of a college course where only my grade can be affected instead of a classroom where a child's education becomes an issue. 

But what do I know?

So what else was there that I wished I had had time to write about?

There have been a few times over the last few weeks that I have had to just stop and laugh :-D

The first, and I'm sure you had to be there, was a couple I saw in a loving embrace . . . 

. . . I'm talking a real Kodak moment, her head tenderly on his shoulder and his arm firmly around her waist pulling her closer, very touching . . . until I followed their eyes and realized they were both watching their dog take a sh*t.  

So romantic.  I can just picture telling my wife that for our second anniversary we should take the dogs for a walk.  8-()

Wap-Wap-Waaaaaa, in other words FAIL!  

The only explanation I could come up with was "Young Love," I mean otherwise there would have only been one of them out walking the dog.  Right?!?

The second instance that made me laugh so hard I cried was leaving campus after studying.   I hope I can do the story justice . . . NO PRESSURE!

So I had gone up to campus to finish a paper that was due that evening.  I had just gotten on a roll when the power went out.  I'm sure you can imagine the cussing I was doing.  While I had managed to save the paper to the computer, I couldn't retrieve it >.< and I had no idea how long the power would be out and how much time there would be left to finish when the power actually came back on.  Cussing and grinding my teeth I decided to leave campus in search of an alternative location to finish my paper.  

traffic arm barrier

To leave central campus you have to pass through a traffic arm barrier and in front of me was a car and then a motorcycle.  Well the barrier went up for the car and the guy on the motorcycle behind it thought he would be slick and go through at the same time.  The barrier had a different idea . . . thankfully the arm-barrier is pressure sensitive because it came down right on top of the guy's helmet knocking him sideways.  I was already laughing pretty hard at the sight when I looked up and made eye contact with a girl who was also laughing at this poor guy and completely lost it.  I was laughing so hard that I had to clear the tears from my eyes before I could do anything else.

A few other things that I want to mention now and will have to elaborate on later (or not depending on my summarizing abilities)

Out of nowhere, I got a notification that I needed to accept a scholarship I had received.  After the government decided to cut-back financial aid this year and I was forced to quit my job due to scheduling conflicts, this couldn't have come at a better time. Well I guess it could have, it would have been nice to have it at the beginning of the semester, but believe me when I say "I AM NOT COMPLAINING!"

I had a long drawn out conversation with one of my professors over the need for the use of emoticons in text messages and informal emails.  Smiley faces :)  sad faces :( and any other text picture that is used to indicate the writer's mood have become necessary when sending text and some emails because there are times that it is difficult to infer context from the words alone.

The last topic I wanted to touch on and is probably the most likely to be revisited involves schools.  Specifically grade schools.  I've seen several school buses recently that have advertisements on them.  Car dealerships, fast-food chains, you name it and they are starting to advertise on school buses.

So is this a good or bad thing?  

With this same idea of schools operating with business sense, it occurs to me that our schools (or better yet our communities) need to think about building schools that our kids actually want to go to.  I spend a tremendous amount of time on my college campus because I like to be here; I have the resources available to me to do my homework and numerous locations to sit and relax (if I do get a free minute).  Our public schools need to take a page from this book and start to design schools this way.  Make kids want to be at school!!!  This is where the previous topic and this one meet.  

I think for this to happen effectively, we are going to have to start inviting big business into the schools.  Obviously there are going to have to be some limitations and stipulations involved, and I hate to admit this because I hate the store, but why not have Wal-Mart sponsor the teacher's supplies.  

I don't know how or if it would work but it's something to think about.  

American Eventing Championship - Atlanta, Georgia (pt.4)

Our "cozy" room

I'm trying to get through this post that has turned into a Telemundo novela.  Who would have thought writing about a horse show could be so difficult?


Ok, the end of part three had the five of us in our "COZY" room getting ready for bed on Thursday night.  Well Friday morning came early.  5am, to be exact.  The horses had to be fed by 7am, and the girls had to be tacted up and ready to ride by 9am and 10am respectively.  I'm still confused why I had to be up so early, but no one asked me ;op 


and. . . .
why these crazy horse-girls have to participate in a sport that starts before the day does is beyond me, but here we were pulling into the show grounds as the sun was coming up.


The first day of competition was Dressage, the method of training a horse to perform maneuvers in response to the rider's body signals, which traditionally is Amanda's and Astro's strongest area.  Although they performed well and even scored fairly well, those of us watching did not feel that A&A's score reflected their performance.  


After seeing the scores of other rider with us, we knew for certain that either the judges had ignored the advice of the their seeing-eye dogs or they hadn't watch the same performances we had.  What can you do though?  The girls were proud to be here and I was proud for them.


We hung around the rest of the afternoon watching the other events going on around the grounds and taking care of the horses.  It was quite an adventure seeing some of the higher level horse and rider combos running cross country.  


Picture if you will, a horse running up to an obstacle the size of a Land Rover (just so happened to be the sponsor of the event), leaping it into water immediately followed by another gi-monsterous [aka HUGE] obstacle, oh and being timed to complete this course in a certain amount of time while not running too fast or too slow!?!  Uh huh, yea, NO THANKS.  


This always scares me when Amanda & Astro run, and with people I didn't know it wasn't much different so I ended up napping on the hill over-looking the cross country course while the girls watched.  

Cross Country ended up being the second event for the girls, which went a lot better for both of them. They both ran clear rounds, meaning they didn't have any stops at the obstacles and no time penalties.  Again though we had to be up at 5am.  Crazy-horse girls!!!

After high school, then what? (Hopefully Aggieland!)

I recently had my 17 year-old cousin in town for three days to take his SAT's and to go on a college visit.  I'M EXHAUSTED!!!  I don't know how parents do it.

Mom, Dad. . . THANK YOU!

While he was here I started asking him the normal going to college questions (What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What is your ultimate goal? ect.) I was a bit taken aback by his answers and the naivety he showed.

First of all when I asked him his ultimate goal, his only response was he wanted to make 6 figures a year!  GREAT! Don't we all?!? 

Ok kiddo, how are you going to do it?  I don't know! 
Well, what do you want to do?  I don't know!
Ok, an easier question then.  Where do you want to go to college?  I don't know!

??????????????????????????????????????????
Now this is a real smart kid.  In the top-ten of his class.  And it's not like he cannot talk to me because believe me when I say that we have had our fair-share of unusual talks. 

The sad part is, he really doesn't know.  No one has discussed with him the reality of life after high school.  He has only gotten as far as wanting to be rich, because it will make his life easier.

Thats great.  It really is.  If you think that money is going to solve all of your problems, then you might as well set high goals for yourself.  But how are you going to get there? 

In the real world, there isn't some person or commitee that comes around knocking on doors handing out cash. Well there was, but Ed McMahon died. :(

I think this is a question that every young person faces.  What am I going to do when I grow up?  And how am I going to get there?  We all know that we want to be successful when we grow-up, but what defines success? Money?!? For that matter what defines "grown-up"? Turning 18 does not mean that you are grown, I'm 30 and still feel like a kid.

American Eventing Championship - Atlanta Georgia (pt.3)

This was not meant to be a weekly mini-series, but upon reflection there is a lot that happened that needs to be explained so you can totally understand. . . and then explain it to me.

I am definitely ADD!

Alright, so you remember at the end of last week's episode Marlena had been visited by the ghost . .
Sorry! My mind is wandering again already.  I can only imagine how you feel reading this.  What a dumb @$$!!

The plane ride was uneventful, cramped but uneventful.  I made it into Atlanta around 10p local time, and thinking I was slick having not checked any bags I started walking towards baggage claim and the exit.  There was a tram there to take you to baggage claim, but I figured that the airport had those moving sidewalks and I could be just as quick getting there.  HA!  Apparently I had gotten off the plane in Terminal Z, because I literally walked across the airport for like 35-40 minutes.  Everytime I came across another spot to get on the tram I thought to myself, if you get on now the next stop is probably the one you are going to have to get out at so why not finish walking it.  Again, HA!

Word to the wise, if there is a tram available it's available for a reason.

So I finally made in to the other end of Atlanta and the airport that traversed it, trudging my loaded down book bag the entire way and start looking for an exit.  Amanda wasn't there yet and said she was still about 10 minutes away so I exited a door near the end that would be closest to the way she was coming from.  So I sat there for a couple of minutes before Amanda calls.  She tells me that she is outside of my terminal parked at the curb.

??? What? WHERE?  I'm sitting at the end of the terminal.  You would have had to drive by me.
And I don't remember if I mentioned it before but she was driving a Fire Engine Red 1-ton dually diesel.  You don't sneak anywhere in this thing, and it definitely did not blend inconspicuously in with the other vehicles at the airport.  There aren't as many duallies crusing the airport as you would think.
So Amanda, where are you now? 

Her answer (and this is why I love my wife), "Sitting out in front of the airport." 

Thank you baby.  That clearifies everything!

So after a couple minutes of walking around the terminal for a second time this evening we eventually figure it out and I head towards the truck. When I get to the truck I find that for the next three days, my wife and I and 3 people I don't know from JACK will be in close quaters.
*After thought:  I almost forgot Guiness aka Greg aka G-Money, the dachshund.  Sorry Greg!*

Now I'm not saying that I'm anti-social, I just really don't like people.  And I'm seriously not claustrophobic, but 5 people in small spaces can change that very quickly. 

(All joking aside, they turned out to be nice entertaining bearable :)

So leaving the airport, everyone is trying to decide on whats for dinner within all of our meger budgets.

McD's? No

Arby's? No

Burger King? No

Taco Bell? ................................. OK 

Done.

This is where the real entertainment started. 

Remember, 1-ton dually deisel.  Well we though it would be easier if we all went in to order since we had seperate orders and huge truck.  No go!  Dining room closes at ??, you guessed it, 10p. 

Drive-thru it is.

Not my truck but I wish it was!

I have managed to travel quite a bit, but this is honestly the first time I could ever say that the vehicle I was in may or may-not fit through the drive-thru, and not just because of the duals.  Apparently Texans take full advantage of our wide open spaces including drive-thrus that are built to accomodate anything but a jumbo jet.  Atlanta Taco Bell's, not so much.  We had to pop a curb to get into the drive-thru lane, pull the mirrors in and cut the engine. 

To make it even better when we had gotten out to go inside and realized the door was locked, instead of all 5 of us piling back into the truck (one of the strangers) Sarah decided to ride in the back of the truck.  When we pulled up to the intercom we had two seperate orders (Yea, we were those people) and voices coming from every direction.  I think everyone literally ordered their own food rather than just telling one person.  You should have seen the look on the guy's face when we pulled up to the window.  Four people in a loaded down truck and a weiner dog and a lady riding in the back on a bale of hay.  The scene definitely looked like the Beverly Hillbillies visit Atlanta Taco Bell.

After we finally managed to get our food we made our way to the hotel, which consisted of us cutting across a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Not surprisingly no one there looked at us strange at all.  Back at the hotel with food in hand we had to sneak Guiness into the room under a coat which he was not happy about, and all 5 of us plus the dog settled into our nice little, cozy room for the night. 

Tomorrow was the big day!!!  What all the work was for. . . AHHHHHHHHHHH!  The pressure is killing me.

Ok, enough for this part of the mini-series.  You'll have to join us again next week as I try to finish telling this saga.  Good news though, we are actually finally getting to the horse stuff and I got some really cool pictures for that.

American Eventing Championships - Atlanta Georgia (pt.2)

*Hopefully I can get this done today but my mind seems to be scattered lately, like little kids running through a pile of leaves my thoughts too seem to be riding on the winds*

So Thursday finally came around and I had two classes in the morning afternoon that I had to go to before my AWESOME! parents drove me down to IAH (Houston International Airport) to catch a late flight to Atlatnta, GA. 

I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but everytime I go anywhere with my parents that may involve traffic or directions they are always kind enough to let me drive.

So I drive us down to Houston, and fearing that I would miss my flight we got there early.  Well, we got there REAL early.  2 hours early!  So my mother has the bright idea that we should go find a bar and have a drink before I get on the plane.  I am not a fan of flying.  If I was meant to fly, I would have wings and feathers or a rocket coming out of my butt.  Well we try to find a bar and on one side of the airport is a plethora of construction and by the time we managed to get out of it nearly an hour had passed.  So rather than press my luck at this point we headed back to the airport.

We arrive at the terminal that I would be flying out of and I grab my book bag. 

*Ok, the whole scattered thoughts thing is kicking in here too.  I have a side story about my book bag or backpack if you'll permit me a moment to wander.*

[Thursday before leaving the house I had to go through my entire backpack to make sure that I didn't have anything in there that airport security was going to flag me for.  I was already a little nervous about flying, coupled with the fact that I had a one way ticket and all I was carrying with me were a ton of books and flying on the weekend of the ten-year anniversary of 9-11.  I did not want to look like I wasn't planning on coming back if you catch my drift.]

Ok, book bag out of the car. . . Dad hands me $10 and tells me to go grab a beer and a bite to eat before my flight.  Thanks pop! I walk into the airport carrying my bag and immediately walk past 4 police officers and their drug dog.  Nice doggie, don't bite me.  I get in line for the security check and was not in line for a minute when I guy came up to me and asked me to follow him. . . Yippee! Body cavity search :-O They were opening up another line and I got to go first, Wahoo!.  I toss my ginormous backpack in one of those itty bitty cat litter trays and try to fit my shoes in there somewhere and head through the scan. 

BEEP! BEEP!  Oopps, forgot my cell phone.  "Sir please step back."
Again through the scan.  BEEP! BEEP!  Nothing left in my pockets.  "Sir please step back.  "
Oh man, this is going to be bad. "Sir please walk through again." 
All clear.  Hallelujah!



Finally I head off to go find my gate.  By the way I'm still more than an hour early for my now delayed flight.  I find my gate which isn't too far from a bar.  Not wasting anytime I head into the bar and order the biggest Shiner they have and drink half of it in one gulp.  Told you, not the biggest fan of flying.  Feeling a little better, and definitely more prepared for my flight I ask the bartender for my tab.  $9.25, well there goes dad's $10.

My plane finally gets there after a second delay, and I board an already full plane.  Apparently everyone I was flying with had preferred passenger status.  I don't really understand why you want to be on the plane first anyways.  I know I have a seat, I chose it when I did my check-in.  So why is everyone always in such a hurry to be first.  Personally I'd rather get on last.

So on the plane, I get seated and almost immediately fall asleep.  This is a trick that I have to thank my wife for.  When she gets on a plane, as soon as her butt hits the seat she is asleep and she usually doesn't wake up until the plane is on final descent.  I have learned this trick from her and I'm sure chugging a huge beer in a minute helped.

*to be continued . . .*