Stress

In my health classes in high school, we learned about stress. We talked about lifestyles, heart attacks, heart disease, etc. One of the factors to an early death was having a lifestyle that is fueled by stressors.

My life has become a stress bucket. Everything I am working on stresses me out. Completing my master’s thesis is a huge stressor, trying to learn how to sew to make my Halloween costume while working on said thesis is stressful, and working in the special ed classroom is stressful.

I shouldn’t complain. I chose to do all the things I’m doing. I don’t want to give up on any of the three projects. I should just shut up, right? I’m probably not going to. I’m a talker. I like to talk about things to deal with them. It usually comes across that I’m just a big whiny baby but that’s okay. It’ll all get better soon. ☺

Crowded Coffee Shop

Right now, I’m in my favorite coffee shop in the world. No, it is not the coffee shop I used to work in. It’s the place I frequented in high school. Back during the days when my mom and dad used to pay for my gas, I came here with my friends. I’m not sure why exactly or what we were thinking, driving all the way to Newberg through the crazy Dundee traffic. But we did it anyway.

I’m supposed to be working on my thesis right now, but I’m a bit distracted. In front of me, a seventy-year-old man is eating a muffin. Ahead and to the left of me, three high school years are gossiping about their friends. And behind me to the right, there are a couple of girls talking about Jesus and all that good stuff.

So maybe my idea of coming to the coffee cottage to write was a bad idea. Tomorrow, I’ll go to the library. Right now, I’m going to try to focus. Wish me luck…

crackin' open a bottle

I just opened up a bottle of Seufert Winery’s Woven White. I bought it when I was chillin’ with my father and sister at the Dayton Harvest Festival a few weeks ago. Although I wanted to open it the day I bought it, I held out. I wanted to wait for a special occasion. Well, tonight was just that sort of night. What, you may ask, was the special occasion? The fact that I KNOW I can finish my thesis/project in the next eight weeks. It’s gonna happen. All I need to do now is chill in a coffee shop and write.

So there you go.



And in case you’re wondering about the photo, it’s a wine glass. Okay, so it’s actually a plastic Tupperware container, but it’s Rece’s special wine holder. I like it cuz it’s fun. And it’s not as pretentious as the usual wine glass. ☺ Eh, my dad thinks I’m crazy when I drink from it, but when DOESN’T he think I’m crazy. (Please note that the wine "glass" isn't that big. It's really a kids' cup I used to use when I was a little girl. I just really know how to take a crazy picture.)

Hasta.

Beaver Country

When I turned in my keys, filled my storage unit, and took a small sampling of my possessions with me to my parent’s house for the year, I didn’t put together all the pieces. I had forgotten that my parents were now in their sixties and went to bed at eight-thirty, nine on a special evening. I started to remember small details like “bedtime” within the first week. It took longer for others.

A few weeks of driving reminded me of the “red-nature” of Yamhill County. Tons of people here sport Chris Dudley stickers on their cars. Hmm. I’m sure I can find some democrats to befriend here in Dayton. ☺

But the biggest shock (and probably the most disappointing) is the amount of Beaver fans in the area. In my own classroom, two of the adults support the Beavers. I’m lucky one of the other sides with me. GO DUCKS!

I think after another year in Yamhill County, I’m gonna head to a new place. Yeah. I definitely need to get out of this Beaver country.

Good Will and whatnot

There was only one thing I wanted for my sixteen birthday: a ticket to the movies. Good Will Hunting was in theaters. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were starring in the movie they wrote together. I read all about it in Seventeen or whatever other teen girl magazine had the two of them on the cover. I thought they were hot. My friends knew this and supported my obsession. Lena bought me a Ben Affleck poster for my room, a poster that right now sits in my storage unit.

So I didn’t get to go to the movie on my birthday. It was already out of most theaters. But with my mother’s help, I searched every newspaper until I found where it was still playing. It was in Wilsonville and we went to see the film. My mom freaked out a bit. The curse words bothered her. I found it exhilarating. If I wasn’t allowed to say things like that, but I sure appreciated watching a film where they could say things I’d never dream of saying. Not only that, but they lived in a culture vastly different from my sheltered world in Dayton.

I’ve always appreciated that about movies. They give a chance to see and experience a world unlike our own. I’ve traveled a lot of places. I’ve lived in other countries and different sizes of cities. But I still appreciate movies. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to see all the places I want to see and also hang out with my friends and family as much as I like to. So I watch movies.

Good Will Hunting is on Encore right now. I missed the beginning, but it made me realize why this became one of my favorite movies when I was 16. Not only are their hot guys. I love the story. And I adore Matt Damon’s monologues. But best of all are the lessons they guys teach each other. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s perfect. Each day I end up learning something new. I have to face my own stubbornness and bias daily. I make new discoveries, learn new words, and read things I’ve never read before. And it keeps going. And so I believe that movies do bring good to us. They can, in fact, be educational.

The Slow Digression of My Vocabulary

When Abby took a trip down to Eugene in February, she told me I talked too smart. I had mentioned a “dialogue” I had with a friend and she said, “Rece, you’ve been in academia too long.” It had only been half a year, but I sounded smart. I was happy. It made me feel better. My GRE scores had been abominable. (The fact that I had been accepted to the UO’s JSchool shows that they wanted me for my winning personality and great resume, not my test scores.)

Well, all the greatness that was becoming my vocabulary began to dwindle upon returning to Dayton. These days, I spend at least seven hours a day at my local grade school, working with kids who may have severe communication disabilities. It wouldn’t be far off to say our classroom specializes in autism and all that entails. So basically, all my verbose tendencies and ability to brighten a room with intelligent conversation mean nothing at school.

Here are a few of the new things I’ve learned to say in the past month.

“OK, teacher.” This is the proper response to say when a child tells you “no” and refuses to do what you ask. I learned this the hard way, after allowing a student to shout “no” several times to me. I’d been hesitant to force the child to go to the next station as was over-cautious and unsure of the amount of power I was really supposed to have in a special classroom such as mine. (Basically, I was walking on eggshells around the kids as it was my first experience in a Special Ed setting.)

“Hands down.” I used this my second day in the classroom when was brutally attacked by a student. OK. The truth is that the student was having a bit of “a moment” and that student’s hands were just a part of it, flying about and flapping at and hitting everything in front. These two words come in handy whenever I want to avoid the aggression of an “outburst” and not get new bruises.

“Safe hands.” This goes along with the previous pair of words. It’s what we call a teaching phrase. We want the kids to learn that flapping arms and hands that make contact with others might be unsafe. Safe hands are much gentler and don’t give Teacher Sharece any bruises.

“Evacuation.” This is a new one from today. It came up on our daily reporting sheets for the parents. One of our co-workers at the school translated the form to Spanish for us and she said used, “evacuacion” for “BM.” Yep, I’m talking about poop. From now on, whenever I smell a poopy diaper, I’m going to say, “Ladies, I think it’s time to evacuate” or something equally cheesy or lame.

I’m sure that eventually, Abby and I will get back to our book club and I will start having intellectual conversations again, but for now, I’m all set. I mean hey, it seems that every day brings me something new. How could I complain about that? I can always dialogue with people about my day.

Garlic

I never remember consuming garlic in my early age. I just wasn’t into it. But I do remember learning about using garlic as a weapon against evil creatures. I think I was in third grade when I learned that garlic would ward off vampires and zombies and such. I’m not quite sure when I started eating garlic or cooking garlic, but I do know that I enjoy eating garlic now and that I find vampires and zombies somewhat interesting. If they were real, it might be fun to be friends with them, as long as they weren’t planning to drain the blood out of me or eat my brains.

For the last few days, I’ve been fighting a cold with an incredibly stuffy nose. But at about 6:00 each night, I’ve felt a ray of hope. My dad had fixed dinner with a plethora of garlic. My nostrils were cleared! Hooray!

I believe garlic has a place in this world. Sure, some people might use it to fend off scary beasts, and some of us might just like that it gives our food a little flavor.

Ellen and Gaga

I'm a huge fan of Ellen. I think she has a way of making people feel good and enjoy life. Here's a good one.

September

It’s the month of apples, school, fall colors, and rain. It’s the time to eat applesauce, apple pie, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and drink mini cartons of chocolate milk. Ah. Gotta love it.

My favorite thing about September used to be the new school clothes and school picture day. I don’t know WHY I liked picture day. I mean… most of my school pictures look pretty nasty. But I still looked forward to the day when I’d wear my hair in some tight pig-tails and don my most favorite T-shirt. Yep. I was that girl. One year, the shirt had teddy bears on it. The next, it was tie-dyed with jewels.

I’m back at school this year. But I don’t have any special plans for what I’m wearing for picture day. Better figure it out quickly.