americus

statue outside national p.o.w. museum @ andersonville.

traveled to americus to see katie (the first one) tuesday. i woke up with a cold but decided to go anyway. i've been sneezing all week and had no energy, but then again, when do i ever have any energy? it wasn't as far as i thought, so maybe i'll drive the extra distance to plains to see what jimmy carter's up to some time.

highlights from the weekend include a trip to andersonville from which i'll put a few pictures up, meeting a few of katie's friends, and blue escaping from the back yard twice. the first time he got out was while we were gone to andersonville. i figured that parts of cinder blocks would be enough to hold the gate shut and he wouldn't try to get out anyway because it was closed. we got back to her house and it looked like someone had opened it, cause it was opened inward, where it had to be dragged on concrete with a decent amount of force.

so katie's hot friend melissa takes off in her car, i get in mine and take off (even though i have no sense of direction or clue where i'm going), and katie gets in hers. i pull up on georgia southwestern's baseball field and figure he must be somewhere around there cause that's where all the people are and blue loves people. i slow down to look, but this guy's on my bumper in his jacked up z71 with "semper fi" license plate and in vinyl letters across his back glass, so i speed up a little and drive around campus until he passes me on a double yellow line. i end up in the ghetto somewhere (well, as ghetto as americus gets, it was a lot of run down houses.) katie calls and says melissa found him running around the softball field. somehow i find my way back to campus, and katie pulls in behind me. melissa is sitting behind the backstop with blue looking happy and tired. when i got out to get him, one of the ladies watching the softball game said "you've got a great dog. he's so pretty. he just made himself at home here" melissa was asking people where he went, and everyone on the baseball field had seen him. that's my boy, the super social border collie. making his rounds all over campus.

so katie and i are watching tv last night when there's a knock at the door. a few seconds later i hear that unmistakable sound of the tags on his collar. he had gotten out again, this time going to see her neighbor. apparently cinder blocks and a cooler are not enough to keep blue from his adoring fans. we left him in the house and prayed he wouldn't pee anywhere.

the moral of the story is: i'm gonna have to have a really good fence whenever i get a house, because blue's smart and determined to get out.

reserved for principal

(i wish there was some way to make the "reserved for principal" sign more prominent)

so yesterday marked the beginning of spring break in baldwin county, and the last day of student teaching for all of the early childhood majors. they were all pretty emotional all day. i've got 2 more days after spring break, and then it's off to salt lake city for the cec conference (free trip!!!). katie and i went through our hundreds of digital photos and found our favorite of each kid, had prints made at walmart, wrote a little poem about the things we've done all year, and put it all in a frame that we decorated with the school colors and their first initial. we passed them out to our kids and tried to tell each one why they were special to us as we did it. then we sat our host teachers down in the front of the room, blindfolded them, and put some cheap orange lifejackets that i had written things on around their necks. one said "hello my name is erin" and "bahamas or bust." and the other one said "kristi" across the neck and "if found return to u.s.a." they should have left for a cruise this morning. katie bought them some other really expensive stuff and somehow justified a way to say that it was from both of us. as with the whole teaching experience this year, she's come up with good ideas and made things cute, i've done the writing and technical stuff. we're a great team and probably won't have such good teaching partners next fall.

one of my students decided he would write poems for us. to give you an idea of what this kid's like, he has a learning disability in reading. he's got the best attitude, work ethic, and enthusiasm that you've ever seen, he just can't read or write well. he has a cousin (in kindergarten) who has some medical problems for which he's having surgery in alabama over break. his cousin is nervous about the surgery (as any person would be) and so he asked my student (2nd grader) to go with him for support. my student was more than willing to give up his spring break to be there for his cousin. he looks out for him at school like a big brother, and now he's going to sit in a hospital in birmingham (i think) to be there for his cousin. that in itself makes me emotional, but then he decided to write this poem:

There once was a man named Mr. Dean
He was really very clean.
He really can play the guitar
And as a teacher, he is a star.
He could dance and he could sing.
He could even teach something.
He liked to teach
All those he could reach.
He was like no other,
He was my "brother from another mother."
As his time came to an end
I really didn't want to lose my friend.
I hope to see him all the time
So I won't have to make up another rhyme.

so yeah, my eyes watered a little and one of my obnoxious (i love them all, but this ticked me off) student kept saying "mr. dean, men don't cry" over and over while i was telling this kid thank you for writing a poem. his poem to katie said something like "thank you for helping mr. dean so that he is not mean," which i thought was funny. basically i love this kid, and i never felt like i had a favorite until yesterday, but he's so inspiring it's ridiculous. pray that his cousin's surgery goes well, cause i love that kid to death too.

spring break means looking for a job, doing a lot of stuff on computer for camp and school and music, and visiting folks, like katie in americus.

a little saturated

no effects, that's just how the picture came out. it's something with white balance or contrast i guess.

pick 6

pick 6 words that you think describe me.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=dizzymusik

there's an explanation why on the site, but if you want more info, go here

kaleidoscope

macro + handheld kaleidoscope thingy

open door policy

you can't hide

they came up with this on their own... i love my new camera

big cheese

i think this is pretty good for shooting handheld with a 70-300mm lens (cropped of course).

swingin

long time no post

i have no time management skills, which turns into me doing the things i need to get done, and not much else. i've been a lot more social than usual lately, which cuts into my computer time, but i think i'm happier because of it. i've gone out and played at the open mic night at a coffee shop here two weeks in a row. i'm gonna try to line up a gig there soon and bring out some friends to play and hopefully have enough friends left to make an audience. i went to see ben harper in athens. it was seriously the best concert i've ever been to. i can't wait for his new album to come out next week. i preordered it on itunes... how dorky is that?

blue got sick again friday, but has been fine since, which makes he and i both a lot happier. i finally splurged and ordered the camera i've been lusting after for so long. i'm hoping it will get here by the end of the week. i just wrapped up my 4 weeks of required full-time teaching, so now i have to work on a few projects, but don't have the burden of planning. i'll still teach a lot, but i'll use my teacher's lesson plans and not have as many things to worry about at home, and i'll get to come home a lot earlier! which is great with the gorgeous weather we've been having. i think that pretty much sums up the last few weeks. i've had ideas come to me that would make good blog posts, but just haven't felt like posting. i apologize. i'll try to get some pictures up here often, cause i've taken a ton lately. and when i get the new camera, there's no telling how many pics i'll get up here. maybe i'll set up a photoblog. (maybe some of my more computer savvy friends can help me set up somehing other than blogger...)

here are some pics from camp, the gym is just about finished!