Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

There was a time in my life that I always felt out of place. Being Asian and living in the Midwest, it is easy to be the only Asian in the room most places you go. As an adult it is something that I always notice, and it is hard not to in a profession of predominantly white females. When I was in my graduate school program, how to get more people of color into the profession was a topic of conversation and still to this day, there are not many more than there were before.

I remember when I lived in California, I had an Asian friend who had lived in the LA area since she came to the United States. Her boyfriend was also Asian. One day, she was telling me a story about her weekend. She said that she was with her boyfriend and they went into a restaurant and had to leave because they were the only Asians in the whole restaurant. I told her that it is that way in most places outside of LA. I don't think that she really believed me, but, in my experience, it is true.

Nowadays, I can feel out of place even among people who look like me. Just looking like someone does not provide a sense of belonging with those people. I have found my own way and my own sense of who I am outside of what I look like. Those that are my real friends and family can see beyond the color of my skin. 

Extra Hour

With the turning back of the clock we get an extra hour today. I am not sure exactly how I spent mine. I could say that I got an extra hour of sleep. I could say that I spent an extra hour outside or doing chores or cooking. I guess my point is that no matter how much time we are given, it is never enough. Live each day, each hour, each minute to the fullest with no regrets!

My New Interest: Pinterest

My student teacher was the one who told me about StumbleUpon and Pinterest. At first I was hesitant to get started with these new "research" sites. I tried StumbleUpon first and I liked it, but once I got my Pinterest account, I loved it. The ideas that other people pin are awesome. They are mostly from blogs that I may not find in a regular Google search. I have found things that I would use in my home as well as professionally. The problem I had with StumbleUpon was the websites, where it sent you, were mostly pretty crappy and very random. You cannot see where you are going prior to getting there. With Pinterest you can see what you are going to pin before you find out where it is from.

Tournament of Roses Parade

I ended up watching most of the Tournament of Roses parade this year.  I think that my interest was peaked by The Bee Movie.  We have watched this movie many times this year, and it was really interesting to see what can be done with flowers.  The theme was Just Imagine....  I was excited to see many travel destinations as floats such as Thailand and Indonesia as well as the organ donation float.  This parade presentation is more subdued than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where the big items are the character balloons.

Bowl games on Monday ended up making it seem like two New Year's Days.  Tomorrow, it is back to real life.

On Christmas Eve...

I am blessed with a great family and wonderful friends.  As our Chrismas dinner table gets fuller and fuller, I think of what fun tomorrow will be just to be able to spend time with the family.  There will be three generations of family here tomorrow, and time spent together is precious because we never know when it may end.  The oldest is 78, and the youngest is five.  May we continue to be able to have good health and peace in the new year to spend time together.

In the stretch...

At this point I am pretty much done with Christmas shopping.  I have a few gift cards to pick up and all my wrapping, cleaning, and Christmas cards still left to finish.  Hopefully, the house will be mostly clean tonight, and the Christmas cards will get finished!  Loftly goals, I know, but I need a sense of accomplishment.  I have to work the next two days, and then we have guests for Christmas.  I love watching the kids open their gifts on Christmas morning.  I hope they like what they get!  If not, the money they get for Christmas will be used to fill in the gaps especially since Reese is not always really clear in what she wants.

Two Surprise Gifts

My husband and son took off for New York tonight to go and see Fort Niagara.  My daughter and I had some bonding time finishing up the Christmas cards.

When my husband got to his father's house, his oldest brother showed up as a surprise from Maine about 10 minutes later!

A Christmas of special gifts, Merry, Merry!

Which do you enjoy more: receiving or giving?

I enjoy giving more than receiving.  I like to think of people and their delight when receiving a gift as I am picking out their gifts.  I feel that sometimes, when receiving a gift, I may seem unappreciative if I do not "act" happy enough or excited as I am opening the present.  I guess I think there is more pressure to receiving because you want the person that has given you the gift to believe that you truly love the gift.

10 Gifts

On this 10th day of the month I am sharing some of the gifts that I have already given myself this month.

1.  A working toilet: I bought the parts and helped to fix the toilet.  What a fascinating piece of machinery!

2.  A working sump pump: in the spring I thought that I had a drain clog when water backed up into my basement.  Called the drain people; they said no, the sump pump was not working.  They got it to work, but were not sure how long it would keep working.  We have gotten so much rain that I have been keeping my eye on the sump pump.  When I spotted water coming up the drain again, we took the sump pump out of its well and figured out how to fix it.  Thank you internet for the directions.

3.  200,000 miles on my van: thank you for a reliable vehicle.

4.  A new battery: it's been five years since I replaced it, can't really complain.

5.  Four new tires: much needed for the winter, but timing will see that this is my Christmas present as well.

6.  Mental Health Day: just had to have one.

7.  My Adopt a Classroom friends from Huntington Bank seem to want to make Christmas and the rest of the year better for my students.

8.  Book Club Dinner: my gift to myself, plus my dinner became my lunch for the next two days.

9.  A sister in law who aims to please; I have spent many hours on the phone this week with her helping her to pick out gifts for my family that they will like.

10.  A semi-clean garage: still hopeful that I will get cars in it this winter!

I am glad that I have the gifts to be somewhat handy.  I also appreciate that gifts do not have to be tangible items, but sometimes the tangible is nice!

The Gift of Words

As I continue to embark on my second month of NaBloPoMo, I started to think about my great aunt.  For all the year that I knew her, she would write daily in a hardcover daily planner provided by some bank in Thailand.  She would write happenings of the day, who borrowed money and how much, and sometimes poems or short stories.  In her car she kept a separate notebook to log her gas usage: the kilometers on the odometer at fill up, how many liters were bought and at how much?  The one thing I remember most is that she had the best handwriting I have ever seen both in Thai and in English.  She liked specific pens, no ballpoint!  In English, she wrote in cursive, and it was so neat and perfect.  I remember watching her one day practice her signature so that it would look the same all the time and people would not be able to forge it!  She was an accounting educator for vocational schools as well as for junior college students.

Which brings me to this thought... do the words lose their personalization by not being handwritten?  When my great aunt died, she left 60+ years of diaries in her own handwriting as tangible proof that she was here.  When I leave this Earth, I will leave my words/stories, but in typewritten form on a blog.  They will not be written for someone to hold unless they want to print them out.  But, I know, from past experience, that if I were to handwrite my memories and stories, they would not get written down.  I am better at typing my words and love the blog format. So, I have to rely on the words that I have written expressing the feeling and personalization for me.  As in, you can hear me talk as you read my words.  It is as if I am talking to you.

Despite My Good Intentions...

At the beginning of the five day weekend I had good intention of getting some work done for school as well as doing some reading both for pleasure and for professional reasons.  Now, we have come to another Sunday night and of course, I did not do what I intended to do, but I have to put it in perspective with what I did do this weekend.

1.  I was reminded that I said I would edit a master's thesis for a friend of the family.  I have been reading the thesis to edit it.  It is due on the first and is 86 pages long.  I have only finished about 1/4 of it.  Trying to get to page 40 tonight so that I have two days to complete the other 46 pages.

2.  I spent time with family and friends during the holidays.

3.  I kept up with writing for my two blogs daily through the holiday.  Only three more days to go!

4.  I spent time with my children by taking them to lunch, the movies, and the library.

5.  I helped to decorate for a wedding reception.

6.  I raked the leaves and put fertilizer and grass seed down for the winter.

7.  We went to buy our gifts for the giving tree at Church.

8.  We went to Church this morning and then out to lunch.

9.  I started the laundry so that we will have clothes to wear next week.

10.  The reading that I did get done was reading the news on the computer, catching up on friend's blogs, and reading the ads to see if I wanted to go shopping on Black Friday.

Work will always be there when I get around to it.  Time spent with people and doing the things that need to get done around the house are important also.  As for my pleasure reading..., I usually find some time to get it in although with Christmas coming, it may not be until after that!

Jeff Foxworthy

 

Jeff Foxworthy takes me back to my high school days.  We use to have Ski Club on Tuesday nights.  We would leave after school and get back close to 11pm.  On the bus someone usually had a boom box and would play Jeff Foxworthy or another comedian for the bus ride to the slopes.

 

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about Ohio...

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Ohio.

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't even work there, you may live in Ohio.

If you've worn shorts and a jacket at the same time, you may live in Ohio.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Ohio.

If "vacation" means going anywhere south of Columbus for the weekend, you may live in Ohio.

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Ohio.

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Ohio.

If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again, you may live in Ohio.

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Ohio.

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both doors unlocked, you may live in Ohio.

If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Ohio.

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Ohio.

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you may live in Ohio.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Ohio.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you may live in Ohio.

If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Ohio.

If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you may live in Ohio.

If you actually understand these jokes, you definitely do live - or have lived - in OHIO!

 

Ironically, most of the things he has said are true, which probably makes a comedian's job easier!

I Can...

My life has become a series of I can statements.  We are suppose to state academic objectives in kid-friendly language.  I can...  I have charts up around the room stating what students should be doing when they are at each station.  Thought I would list some to face the other aspects of my life right now.

I can...

• clean the kitchen and the house before Thanksgiving
• make sure that Riley practices his math everyday as well as finishes his Social Studies Project and regular homework
• apply for field trips, programs, and grants for school related things
• evaluate my student teacher
• plan for the next few weeks of school
• prepare reading lessons and evaluate and assess reading and writing
• find and return most of the library books I have borrowed
• think of things that my children really want for Christmas
• get some pleasure reading time in over the holiday weekend
• take the family to visit a National Parks Service Site soon
• visit COSI to see the Dora and Diego exhibit
• start and finish the holiday shopping
• start and finish Christmas cards
• meet with some friends and family to share in the holiday joy

I can do all of this and more if I put my mind to it because there are a bunch of things that I know I am leaving out!  I think I can; I think I can.

The Pile of Books

The list of books that I want to read and have to read just keep getting longer and longer.  I should be reading for professional growth and have an assigned reading right now, but have not started it yet.  I go to the library often enough that I see things that I want to read all the time.  I also have my book club book to read for January that I should get started on soon or I will not finish it!  But, I find that my time for reading has diminished.  Some of the reason is I find that I am reading more online.  Another is I am participating in NaBloPoMo and have spent time writing and reading other blogs.  And, finally, I am reading so much to do my job that I do not find the time to read for pleasure as much or am too tired to read for pleasure except for the People magazine that I just started getting weekly this fall.  I love getting People, but only have the subscription because of expiring frequent flier miles.  I don't love it enough to actually buy the subscription.

It's 11-11-11, make three wishes!

I wish for good health, love, and happiness for all those that I love near and far.

I wish for my family to be able to continue to travel and see the world.

I wish for my parents to be able to retire and enjoy long life.

100 Places to Remember Before they Disappear

A few weeks ago I was browsing at the library and picked up the book 100 Places to Remember Before they Disappear which I also realize now has a website.  As I was flipping through the book, I came upon #58 which was Bangkok, Thailand.  As I read about Bangkok's situation and the fact that it is a sinking city, I just thought about our impending trip there next year.  Now, it seems ironic that just a few weeks later, the city has mass flooding that does not seem to be getting better.  In addition, there is a story that is spreading through the Thai community that the King of Thailand wrote a speech about 30 years ago predicting that the type of flooding could occur in Bangkok and providing solution to the problem.  Unfortunately, he was not taken seriously, and people could not work together for the betterment of all leading to the problems that we are seeing today.