It’s December 31, 2006. Today is Sunday, so we will have church tonight as we did this morning. I finished grading a paper before church, and I have 9 left to do before Tuesday. Tonight we will have a few people over to play games at Justin’s parents’ house, so I know we’l be up at least until midnight. That usually wouldn’t be a problem, but we catch a shuttle early Monday morning (3:30) to go to Salt Lake City for our flight back to Seattle. We get back before 10, but I know I’ll be pretty exhausted, and there’s always something to do when you get back from a vacation (checking mail, laundry, lesson planning, grocery shopping, etc.)

I don’t really want to end the new year grading papers and ring it in with exhaustion, but I know that’s what will happen….

Here’s to January winding down in its initial busy-ness and here’s to a couple of snow days before the month is over.

Christmas is over and we’ve finished the first leg of our trip. Arkansas felt like a whirlwind–we spent our first three days in three different homes! All of the Christmas preparations left us hustling and bustling for the most part, but never before 11 on most days. We stayed up late and enjoyed every moment of the day. We got to see my Papa, my Granny and Pa, my Aunt Robin and her boyfriend, my cousin Heather and her fiance, my cousin Chuck, my half-brother Oliver and his wife, Meredith, and their son Layne. We got to see Justin’s sister and her husband, as well as his parents. We stayed with my parents, my brother, and my sister. We got to see my sister’s boyfriend, and he taught me to play about 5 songs on the bass guitar. We saw my other brother, some hometown friends from church and school, and Marvin and Judith Crowson. I got to see my cute little cousins (all 4) and my aunt Lori and uncle Craig. My mom took my sister and I for manicures (my mom’s first!), and Justin and I got to go to Searcy and see the new additions to campus. We ate a lot, caroled, went to Wal-Mart (no fewer than three times) and Sonic (also three times), went to my family’s church a couple of times, and ate at the local Chinese restaurant. I went to a yarn shop, I went running, and Justin and I stayed in a bed and breakfast. Whew. I’m tired already.

I haven’t graded many papers, and I intend to while I’m here, though I have done everything I can think of to avoid grading. I even finished a book on the plane rather than grade.

We’re in Idaho now–we got here last night and slept really well. I went for a walk with Justin (almost 2 1/2 miles) this afternoon around downtown Pocatello and we went to Justin’s parents church tonight after a homemade veggie alfredo lasagna. They’re expecting snow tonight!

Tata for now…..

We leave for Arkansas tomorrow morning! I’m so excited to see family and friends. After that we go to Pocatello, ID to visit Justin’s family.

While I’m on break, I hope to do a lot of visiting with everyone, but I also want to run, knit, read, take pictures, and grade papers.

I’ll probably post a travel log as much as possible while I’m gone.

Today we had church at our place–we had a gift exchange and lots of food: lentil soup and cornbread, pasta and breadsticks, fruit salad, a peach pie, yam, black bean, and spinach quesadillas with jalapeno jack cheese, baked yams, corn pudding, collard greens and butternut squash, chips and salsa, banana bread, cookies, and bruschetta with spinach dip! There’s probably more that I forgot, but we had quite the spread, as well as a “group sermon” on Advent and carol singing.

Tonight we went to a Christmas open house for one of Justin’s Danforth colleagues and now I’m back home trying to remember what I need to do before we leave….

Toodles!

Dang. This has been a most interesting 24 hours, and an interesting 2 months, weather-wise, for Seattle. This might be my 5th “Crazy Seattle Weather” post so far.

I knew a windstorm was coming, but I didn’t know it would get this bad. I knew it was going to be treacherous when my friend and colleague Erin gave me a ride home last night. I have never seen driving rains like that before in Seattle. We walked out of the school together and she decided to get the car so I wouldn’t get soaked. Once she pulled up, I sprinted maybe 20 feet to her car and I was DRENCHED. Water created pools and rivers in the parking lot within minutes.

As we made our way toward the West Seattle Bridge, we could tell flooding was imminent. In fact, once we saw the entry ramp, it appeared that a car was stuck in the thigh-high water covering the road. Erin decided to go for it, and water rushed over the hood as we squealed with nervous laughter and fear. We got past the water, and drove under a tree that had been partially knocked down by the wind.

We got home safely after driving on the flooded streets. After looking at the news online, I saw that I-5 was blocked on all lanes at Mercer street due to flooding. A woman was trapped and died in her flooded basement. Our nearby fitness center experienced flooding and people were trapped in the restaurants next door to it. Fortunately, the rain subsided, but then the winds picked up.

We went to sleep around 10:30 or 11. That’s when the electricity went out, and I kept having dreams of being late to school due to no alarm clock. I dreamt a car crashed through our living room, and all of this had a soundtrack courtesy of the wind whipping around outside. The worst of the wind was between 12-2 a.m., and I woke up around then, unable to sleep. The power was out, and there was no easy way to find out who else had no power or if school was to be cancelled.

I slept restlessly for a few more hours, and woke up before our cell phone alarm sounded with U2’s “Beautiful Day.” I almost laughed. We had no power, and Justin called his principal to see if we had school. He assumed so since in his neighborhood there was electricity. I called my friend Erin and she had power, too, less than 2 miles from us. She told me that we didn’t have school–we were both excited and frustrated, since we lost a day of lessons. We also have to make up that day, and we both have items in the building that we need to pick up.

Justin and I slept for a few more hours, listening to our wind-up radio, courtesy of NPR. The electricity came on around 10 this morning, making it much easier to venture from the warm bed.

I am, I guess, a bit like a moth drawn to the flame when it comes to exciting weather. I love seeing pictures of the aftermath and hearing about how bad situations got, so I’ve been checking the Seattle Times, the Seattle PI, and the KOMO-4 news websites for photos and reports. I do know we got record gusts of 69 mph here in Seattle, the 520 floating bridge was closed, several districts were closed today, and windows were blown out of the Seattle airport in concourse C. Check out the links for more morbid news.

I vow to not complain about the “boring” Seattle weather for at least 2 months. I’ve had my fun and my share of cancelled school days. And my share of power outages….

I have really enjoyed….
finishing Blue Like Jazz
making butternut squash and orange-ginger pork pot roast
watching Dead Poet’s Society while grading
eating cream top Brown Cow yogurt while playing cards with Justin
exploring Beacon Hill by foot while holding hands with my hubby
making pancakes
starting Girl Meets God/Chasing Francis to decide which one I’ll venture into next
learning more about the leaders of foreign countries upon realizing I didn’t know the name of the prime minister of Canada
watching Season 5 of Alias

Now, on to finishing up my grading….

Last night Justin and I saw Memory House, a play at the Seattle Rep written by Kathleen Tolan. Despite the strong language and the trip that it took me on to my life as a late teen, I enjoyed it. I almost teared up because of the strained relationship Katia had with her mother. I laughed at her mother’s desperate antics to bake a blueberry pie and define herself as a baker. I was amazed at the set, which looked like a real, tiny, NYC apartment. I saw many a sullen teenager reflected in Katia’s slumped posture, her rants against her mother’s beliefs, her ability to change the tone in her voice in an instant when a friend calls. Katia stored all of her memories in a broken and fragmented “memory house” due to her adoption from Russia in her early childhood, and it pained her to write about it in a college application essay. I enjoy most of my memories, though I feel like so many of them are fading. I wish I could remember some of my most life-defining moments, as well as some of the most mundane. This play was one of the better ones I’ve been to recently, if not for the simplicity and reality of it, yet the complexity of the issues brought to light between mothers and daughters. Oh, and I enjoy pie, so that might have something to do with it. And I love my mom.

I love you, Mom! Thanks for helping me build a rather awesome Memory House. See you soon.

I read over 100 pages of this in one sitting by the fireplace this morning. I really enjoy reading about life and spirituality through the lens of Donald Miller–he makes it all so real, yet difficult.

I’m almost finished and I’ve marked so many passages that resonate with me, from loneliness and community to belief and church planting. More soon on my thoughts when I am done.

Apparently the city is fixing the water main that caused our water to be out for almost 48 hours a couple of weeks ago. They said it would be out from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., but it’s almost 11 a.m. and it’s still out. So much for me putting any trust in the city now….they’ve lied to us way too many times :). I do think about how much water we’re saving without flushing so much, though. I guess that’s one positive. However, I’m not too motivated to get up if the water is not on. It makes my morning routine much more difficult.

I’m starting to tally the hours the water has been out. I’d love to get a gallon of water for each hour it is out past the allotted time. Or even better–$5 knocked off of our bill for each hour it’s out after 7 a.m.

I never wanted to be an editor, but I feel like it now. Over Thanksgiving, I graded more than 480 pages of student research papers. I’m at it again for the second drafts. I have one more set to go, and I’ll hopefully be done with most of the last round before the break. I’ve probably written a novel’s worth of corrections, but I don’t mind. I feel like it’s my responsibility to give them feedback, and I can be much more focused if I write the comments. However, I wonder if they understand the scribbles I leave them, or if they percieve my comments as rude or harsh. I see each comment, underline, suggestion, and added apostrophe as an act of love, but they may see it differently. I don’t know if they know how much work I put into each paper, but I’m starting to feel it. It’s going to be a long week. I also collected my biology students’ lab notebooks, so the long week will undoubtedly turn into a short weekend. I know I’ll be grading until the new year. Here’s to formative assessment and a good night’s sleep.