First, I apologize. This is not only as the song says, the most wonderful time of the year, but also the busiest time of the year. With much on my plate, I have much worth mentioning, and not much time to mention it in. As I recall, the last post was before election day. In order to maintain a slightly coherent narrative, I shall pick up from there.
Nov. 4, first black president in the history of the U.S. That was cool, but the part that was cooler to hear about was the massive win in electoral votes by a Democrat not from the South. 300-odd electoral votes for President-elect Obama. (Google's spellchecker still thinks I am trying to spell Obadiah) Where was I that I was not glued to CNN, NPR, FOX, ABC, MSNBC? I was at the MBA for a SOC (Student Oceanography Club) meeting, the topic was Fire Ecology. FIRE!!!
I was given the honor of introducing the speaker, Regional Captain Mike something, who works for BLM (Bureau of Land Management). As I was standing in front of perhaps 60 people, all friendly, I suddenly forgot Mike's last name, and not wanting to ask him, I decided to take a page from Barney, I called him Firefighter Mike. (I also called him a safety-obsessed pyromaniac, but that was a firefighter joke.) I will admit, I felt a little bad about his new nickname, until he started talking. His talk could have been on Barney!! The best of the scripted interactions was him showing a picture of a fire caused by a campfire, then asking, "Is this a good fire or a bad fire?". The students responded in frightenly zombie-like fashion, "Bad fire!". After his talk, I felt like I had made the best SOC joke, on accident!
Nutcracker rehearsals have been going pretty well, except for the ones I miss. I am becoming far more comfortable with my steps/lifts. The tricky part is keeping things in order, not doing lift A when she is expecting lift B. The positive side is my shoulders are filling out quite nicely (as well as most of my upper body) and my coordination is getting better. (Set the standard low enough and anything is getting better)
The last homeschool day was, thus far, the busiest on record, and I could tell. My family was able to come to this particular day (thanks for the ride Mom!), and I think they had a great time. Something I have noticed being at the MBA enough is that people love the planet. Not in a Earth Goddess way, but more in a, "I want to do something that keeps Earth livable for the next generation." way. Perhaps that is not so much love for the planet itself, but those who are on the planet.
Riding the bus I witnessed another kind of love. A adult son and father were waiting for bus in Monterey. The father was adjusting his son's clothes, talking very nervously, and smiling a lot. The son was being slightly embarrassed, unadjusting his father's adjustments, and looking for the bus a lot. This was a totally different kind of love, and just as heart-warming. The son, I think, was going of to college, and would not see his father for a long time. Having been victim/recipient of that kind of love, I understand what the son was feeling.
Totally unrelated except for love, I love Christmas! This is a different kind of love again, beyond really liking, but not quite at human to human levels. I realize that this is mid-November, but I just like Christmas, I am listening to Christmas music, and already want to string some lights in my room. If anyone can figure out why I like Christmas so much, please tell me!
Cool thing of the post. Pandora Internet Radio. You enter a song or artist that you like, then other songs are suggested, and slowly only songs you like are played. The best part of this is the lack of cost. As a slightly poor teen, I don't have a big Itunes library, but Pandora makes that irrelevant. If you are curious check out www.pandora.com
Bonus cool thing! www.seafoodwatch.org I pass out these cards at the MBA, their purpose is to help the consumer (you) make more environmentally informed choices when you are purchasing seafood. The Green list is things that are low in environmental impact. Yellow is medium, Red is high impact. As part of SOC I will be passing out these cards in the community, and encouraging local businesses to sell sustainable seafood. (Sustainable=very low impact)
One more cool thing. http://www.personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP/ipipneo300.htm this is a personality test that is more scientific than most. I was surprised by some of what was said about me. (I might share if I hear some feedback about your results.)
For those of you who noticed I changed the name/url again, the old name seemed too presumptuous, and I couldn't go back to the original name.
Thanks for reading
Chris R. H.
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