“You have a very special gift inside of you, a free gift that God gave you… l i f e …He gave you a heart to live, and to live for Him, because He loves you.”

school is going well although i am getting more and more tired as the days go by. my teacher is expecting more of me which i guess is mostly cool but he's not giving me a whole lot of guidance which isnt cool.
one girl told me i was "tight" so that made me feel a little better. another likes to read with me and makes me take over when there is "cussin" involved and then i have to read it and edit it on the spot.
ive been teaching health lessons on the spot, which is the last subject i ever expected to be teaching on the spot. but its going ok.
i have yet to actually make a kid "pull a card" yet...but i have threatened quite often and i think it will happen tomorrow cuz i have to let these kids know that i am not bluffing and i mean business.
i made my first bulletin board and it's pretty terrible but i have a feeling its just as good as anything my teacher has ever done. he doesnt seem too bulletin-board-savvy.
things are going well but i am pretty wiped out and really cranky and overwhelmed which mostly stinks.
now that school has started up ive gotten behind on my reading which also stinks.
but i did some artsy fartsy painting last night which was enjoyable. frenchy was my lovely assistant.
goodbye.

the first day at irwin elementary was good. my teacher is a die-hard packers fan and he was depressed, even more so when he found out i was an eagles fan. all the kids were rubbing it in pretty good. we watched sportscenter over lunch (all the female teachers sat in the teachers lounge telling stories of PMS and pregnancy...us two MEN sat in his room and watched sportscenter) which was the first i saw of the game. what a game it was. go eagles. SPORTS!!
here's something humorous for you...
the first day back at school here at taylor..it was pretty snowy. some rebel of a troubled kid, probably mad at the world because his parents forced him to go to a christian school, found his revenge in stomping in the snow quite large the phrase: "WELCOME TO HELL." as if that wasnt funny enough, a goody-two-shoes decided to add on to it to make it say "WELCOME TO HEAVEN." but..unfortunately...they spelled it "WELCOME TO HEVEAN." aaaahh yes, the ever-so-intelligent christians get the last laugh once again.

today was very profitable i think. i slept til 11 and i finished reading the samuel morris biography and i finished reading my classes textbook (which is the first time ive ever read an entire textbook cover to cover and i feel proud for it) and i read the entire frog and toad box set and i played organ a lot and i played guitar a little and i ate dinner with neville and disko and now jared is here and we broke into the girls' dorm and we are surfing the web in their fancy schmancy basement and yeah. if only a computer lab were open i could do homework and print stuff out that i need to print out but nooooo no computer labs are open in ft wayne ever.
i got two parking tickets in a matter of 15 hours. campus safety will be hearing from me as soon as they decide to be in their office.
tonight jared and i are taking part in our very first goth knitting club meeting. we are neither goth nor knitters so things should be interesting. please dont worry, mom, i'll be fine.
goodbye.

just got back from 3 days in chicago. it was a pretty good time all in all. chicago is an amazing city and we got to see a good deal of it. i will spare you the details and say that god is doing some amazing things in the city and it was very encouraging and exciting to see first hand.
im writing this from some random computer in some random building...i think it's the computer of someone official or something, so i may be intruding...im not sure. but the computer lab is open until 6:00pm on friday and is closed for the rest of the weekend. the library closes at 6 on friday as well, and is open from 12-6 on saturdays. things are really convenient around here.
let me know whats up. i hope you are well.

i forgot to mention that in order to get from the computer lab back to my dorm...i have to cross the street in a cross walk at a traffic light!!!!!!!!!!! it's glorious!!!!! yes...this town has a traffic light!!!!!!!!!!!!! and its ON CAMPUS!!!

i am now in the beautiful city of fort wayne, indiana for the month of january. i do not have a computer in my room which will make my blogging a lot less frequent and a lot less insightful. perhaps that will be best for the both of us.
i am doing an "urban practicum" which i am really excited about. my heart is here in the city much more so than the middle of nowhere, indiana. we travel to chicago on wednesday for a couple of days and the rest of the time i will be observing/helping/teaching in a fifth grade classroom, all day everyday, in a fort wayne community school. i cant wait.
i am "fasting" more less from a computer and stereo for the month. it started out as convenience...i didnt really feel like disconnecting everything and lugging it up here. but then i decided it would be pretty refreshing to not have the distraction. and hopefully starving myself from my music will instill some god-given-musical-creativity by the end of the month. we'll see. so far we dont have a tv, either, so, maybe that's one less thing to deal with. if im lucky i'll get a lot of reading done.
i got a hair cut before i came back. it was a little hard to deal with but im over it now. i forgot how much of a unibrow i had and erica had to give me a plucking job as well. she's a great woman.
thats all for now. if possible, get rid of a distraction for yourself for the month of january with me. maybe it'll do something for you.
oh, today, a principal recommended we read a book called "results." she went on to say "i hope taylor is making this book your bible. everything you do and say should be orchestrated by this book." i laughed really hard at the irony...i dont think she realized what she was saying.
bye.

its no secret to me that ignorance is bliss...but i am having a hard time figuring out whether that is good or bad.

this is the new year, and i dont feel any different...
happy new year...here's some odds and ends....
- i hate new years eve. this years celebration, although somewhat awkward and boring at times, was all in all, fairly pleasant. we saw fireworks in bethlehem, and i always enjoy making fun of the people watching them. but happy new year.
- andy and jodi bought me coldplay's parachutes for christmas. andy so graciously explained, " i knew you wanted both of their cd's, but i decided to get you this one, because i knew 'rush of blood to the head' was more popular, and you dont really like the popular stuff." i thought that was funny.
- oopsilon the fish has been on his deathbed this break...we've all been quite concerned...but he's been eating and swimming the past couple days so things are looking better.
- top 5 albums of 2003 off the top of my head and in no particular order:
death cab for cutie - transatlanticism...it really is perfect...i think by far the best death cab album...not much filler unlike the others.
postal service - give up...im sorry, im a sucker for ben gibbard. this is interesting and unique, but still has the normal gibbard flare that makes in wonderful.
ester drang - infinite keys...this was a 2003 release, right? takes some getting used to..but honestly the most creative, unique music being made right now.
unwed sailor - marionette and the music box....beautiful.
ok, i cant think of a 5th...mates of state team boo? damien jurado where shall you take me? saxon shore four months of darkness? there is a lot i havent heard that im sure would top my list, as well. ummm yeah.
- hard to believe break is over so soon...i hate it!! its been fun though and im looking forward to living in ft wayne for a month. ummmm, yeah, happy new year suckahs!!!!

i feel safe in new york city
so here's what happened tuesday...
erica and i decided to go to nyc to go ice skating at rockefeller. i was proud of myself, because the whole break i was freaking out about how the heck to get up there - train, bus, cheap, etc - and nothing was coming together and nothing was planned. normally i would say "let's not go" but this time i got a new york city map, we drove right in, found rockefeller on the map, and we did it. it was all pretty spur of the moment, and i was proud of myself. it turned out to be a mostly great day...it was an adventure if nothing else.
we get to the lincoln tunnel without a problem. the only problem was, we didnt plan on what to do once we got out of the lincoln tunnel. we had no idea where to go..but we just went with the flow and parked at the first place we saw. the place we parked ended up costing 30 dollars, but, thats the same as 1 round trip bus ticket, so, it's not too bad all in all.
the parking deck was shady to say the least. we realized as we pulled in that we needed to get out of the car immediately so the attendant could park it. which meant we had to gather all the stuff we needed to take for the day - so we frantically grabbed everything we needed and shoved it in erica's bookbag. we had no idea what was going on and i think we were both about to cry. but we got what we needed and sent the car on its way. the man had an accent and i had no idea what he was saying to me when he was giving me my ticket...i was too stressed out to listen anyway. we said goodbye to the corsica, praying we would see it later that day, with the same amount of miles on the odometer and scratches on the paint job as we left it with.
well, we soon discovered, as we were getting organized, that we forgot erica's phone in the car. this was kind of essential because we were hoping to hook up with rata and dale and the boys later in the day. you're not supposed to go into the parking deck at all, attendants only, but i told the guy and he muttered something in his accent and i went down to find the car. holy moly. cars everywhere. bumper to bumper. parked in. chaos. it took us about 5 minutes to find my car in the chaos. the cars are left with windows open and keys in the ignition. we grabbed the phone, said goodbye to the car, shook our heads, and went on our way.
we found rockefeller without a problem, went ice skating without much wait, and it was all very fun and pleasant and picturesque and great. we really enjoyed ourselves. gentlemen, if you live near NYC, have a girlfriend who is a professional figure skater, and need a fun holiday date, take her to rockefeller.
we then made our way to a little place to sit while calling rata to figure out what was up. we were next to radio city music hall. we chatted and found out that neither her or dale were at the guys' apartment, and while im friends with the other guys, it would have been somewhat awkward, so we decided we wouldnt be visiting their pad. she told us that dale's store where he was working is on 7th and broadway - on broadway between 7th and 8th. at that point, i think we were sitting on 7th ave, or close to that, and broadway was a couple blocks away. we said, oh, that's not far at all, and set out to find dale.
we found ourselves wondering through masses of people in the middle of times square. we were confused to find that 7th and broadway are the same thing at spots...so his store could not be on broadway between 7th and 8th if broadway IS 7th. we asked some streets vendors..they gave us weird looks. after checking a few streets between 7th and 8th, we asked a times square security officer. he called information, gave us the address, and directions, as well as some friendly chats about pennsylania and steel mill country. we walked to the address, and were a little confused to find a high rise office complex...we found american apparel on the little index thinger, but the guy at the desk said they were closed today, and went on to explain this was the wholesale showroom, not the retail store. . . . . . . . wrong address.
we went on pretty much every other street between 7th and 8th, weaving back and forth, and could not find him at all.
we gave up, walked back towards the parking deck, stopped at a cool little park on 6th ave called bryant park. there we talked to rata, she was as confused as we were, and suggested we probably had 7th avenue and 7th street mixed up, and they are two completely different things. (she was right).
we were wiped out. so we walked to the parking deck, and as we got there, we saw before us, broadway. there was a little light from heaven shining on it and i think i heard some cherubims singing. rata had told us the address of the store was 718 or something like that, we saw the numbers on broadway were in the 1300s and we said "oh, he cant be very far off." we were on 36th street. we started walking. at about 30th street a lightbulb went off and i said, "erica, hold on. he's on 7th street. we're on 30th. this we are walking 30 blocks. are you sure we want to do this?" (we were pretty exhausted already). she insisted and we kept walking.
at about 25th street, dale calls! he tells us he is at the store, on break, picking up his paycheck. well it is a good freaking thing that he is on break picking up his paycheck at that store, because he was working at the other store that night and just happened to be there. otherwise, we would have walked 30 blocks to find a store without dale...and im pretty sure erica and i both would have started sobbing, curled up in the fetal position in the corner of american apparel.
well we finally got there and met up with him. he was on his way to get dinner. we went with him to this cool little place that sells hot dogs and fruit juices. he treated us to a recession special - two hot dogs and a papya juice for 2.25. they were good hot dogs, too. we went back to work with him and checked the place out. he got us on a subway - thank the lord in heaven above - and we rode back to 34th street and found the parking deck. the car was unscathed, barely, and old man explained how to get back to the lincoln tunnel, and we finally made it home. it was a good day but man oh man were we sore the next day.
we checked it out, and those 30 blocks alone was 3 miles of walking. the entire day - for 7 hours - we were either skating or walking. we probably sat for no more than 30 minutes the entire day. we're guessing at least 7 or 8 miles of walking over the course of the day. we were pretty wiped out...but we had a lot of fun.
so next time you're in NYC, dont call rata for directions, and dont mix up avenues and streets.