The Kid

I have a friend who, years ago, told me how much she liked the movie The Kid. It's about a man whose 8 year old version of himself suddenly appears in his life, they have some adventures, and he learns to stop hating himself.

For some reason I've been thinking about this and wondering what kind of advice I would give 8 year-old me. And what I'm even more curious about is what advice 8 year old me would give me.

Little K to Big K:

Don't ever be too full for dessert.

Chocolate flavored chapstick does not taste good when you eat the whole tube all at once.

God loves you.

Big K to Little K:

Credit cards are not your best friend.

Hug your family as much as you can.

You're going to be fine, just live.

P.S. Hey little K, here's a picture of us next to our space ship. Yep, you grew up to be an Astronaut. Cool, huh? Love, Big K

So what advice would you give your younger self?

What do you think they'd want to tell you?

Fish Tacos

I heart fish tacos. I want to love them every time I eat them. And I want to eat them all the time. That's a lot of love. Sadly though, nay, tragically, Saturday afternoon I ordered them from one of my favorite restaurants and was so offended by what they brought me that I can hardly call it a fish taco. I definitely can't call it delicious. There was fish, there was a tortilla but not much else except a little bit of pineapple(?!) salsa. Gross. It was more like crushed pineapple than salsa. My heart is crying a little thinking about it right now. The fish was tough and flavorless. It's painful to remember, let's move on to another topic.

Snow days.

I heart snow days much more than gross fish tacos. Here in the Puget Sound area a little bit of snow can shut the whole place down. Because the whole place is riddled with crazy hills from the glaciers that carved this region out thousands of years ago (those were the craziest snow days ever), cars slip all over the place and into each other and run into mail boxes and fall off cliffs. It's a crazy scenario. Photographic evidence of the craziness:

(Seattle, December 2008)

But tomorrow I get to go to work 2 hours late because of the snow that fell yesterday. Not today. Yes, 36 hours ago. But I'm not complaining. In fact, I've got my fingers crossed that a little more of the stuff will fall before then.

I can't complain too much though, as I had the day off from school today due to the holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

I woke up on the couch this morning after falling asleep here last night, yes "here", I'm still on the couch. After waking up, I changed into my PJ pants (after I woke up), since I fell asleep in my jeans last night. Then I spent the rest of the day camping out in my living room with my laptop. I don't think I really celebrated the day appropriately . . .

So I will share this video to make up for that. I really love this cover because it the best portion of the song. The rest of it gets weird and loses me. But this part always makes me remember to not only be compassionate and patient but to be a better teacher and to love the middle schoolers. Even when they are punks.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”― Martin Luther King Jr

“There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.”― Martin Luther King Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.”― Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy MLK day. Do good.

Here's a pic of some of my family from Saturday at the favorite restaurant. It was taken from a cell phone, so not the highest quality, but there's a lot of love here. I wish everyone could have been there, but Amber, Siri, Roger, and Ryan were missing. 5 out of 9 of my siblings is a nice percentage though.

Also, some of the short ones are promoting brand names. Super cute models. You may be surprised to see that Quinn is so tall. We are shocked at his growth spurt. It was fueled almost entirely by Danimals.

2012; A Year in Review

It's true that we're only a few days in, but what better time than this to pause and reflect on how great 2012 has been so far?

The first few moments of the year were spent huddled under a giant pile of blankets with a few of my favorites on the roof of an apartment building watching a glorious fireworks display. Seattle, you really know how to put on a show. They blast those babies right off the side of the Space Needle. Nice.

The nicest part was that we were only a few blocks away. In the spirit of sharing, we might not have had actual permission to be up on that roof and we might have had to creep through an attic space and climb onto a crate and then crawl out a window, but we had the code to the padlock (somewhat shady story that I won't disclose here) and we managed to bring 8 blankets and quilts and a large pizza up there with us without anyone becoming too alarmed so we think we're going to make it a new tradition.

I'm not going to lie to you, it was a magical kind of night.

Here's a snapshot from my roommate's cellphone. It really was a lot bigger and closer in real life.

We contemplated staying up there all night and watching the sun rise on the first morning of 2012 but after another 2 hours of shivering and the subsequent arrival of a light drizzly rain, we decided to call it a night.

Then a few days later, after 2 weeks of sleeping in and eating a diet consisting almost entirely of holiday baked goods, my first day back to school on Tuesday morning came early and hit hard.

It's good to be back into the swing of things but I miss the skipping-sleep-and-reading-instead kind of nights I enjoyed during Christmas break. One night I went to bed at 5:30 a.m. (a.m. folks)

But those days are behind me for now. Summer break is a far distant, glorious dream that I try not to think about too much. Eye of the tiger. And 2012 looms ahead with all its promise.

2012 day 2. Morning hike at Discovery Park. Ignore that weird bulge on my back pocket. I was carrying my car keys and a map back there.

Redacted Statement

How many times have you seen the moon and thought: how lovely. Right? How many times have you seen the moon and thought: that's a waxing gibbous, it rose at about 3 pm?

. . . You don't think that?

Well, I do and I guess I shouldn't have to apologize on my own blog for being a nerd.

When I see the moon I'm sometimes a little O.C.D. about identifying the phase it's in and thinking about what time it rose and when it will set. Yes, it's embarrassing but I really am just that nerdy.

*Alert* *Alert* *Alert*

This blog is about to get even nerdier. Nerdier that it has EVER been. Ever.

My sister's husband was watching Star Wars last night. As I wandered into the room and looked at the screen I saw this scene.

Being a nerd who loves moon phases. (As previously discussed). I quickly saw a problem. This is a sunset. The moon on the right of the screen is clearly a waning crescent.

I stood there thinking for a moment and said to my brother in law: That planet and its moon must rotate in the opposite direction of earth.

Quick refresher on moon phases: A moon like that would only be visible in the early predawn, rising a few hours before the sun and then disappearing as the sun gets brighter and brighter. By the time the sun set the moon would have set several hours before.

I walked out of the room thinking this was just one more reason that no one should ever watch those new Star Wars movies.

Just to reassure as well as recap:

Reasons to watch the original Star Wars

1. Han Solo

2. Princess Leia

3. Chewbacca

Reasons to watch the new Star Wars

1. Ewan McGregor

2. no other reason exists

So as I was driving home from their house I started thinking about what that would mean for Earth if she were to rotate in the opposite direction. What that would do to the coriolis effect and ocean currents. How the western side of continents, instead of the eastern side, would be

greener. The sun would travel across the sky in the opposite direction and the moon would wax from left to right.

It was a very satisfying thought process and dialog inside my head. Then my thoughts wandered to the southern hemisphere and I began thinking how the sun would travel across the sky from left to right (as it is normally observed in the North) instead of from right to left as it does now. When it struck me that I had overlooked the most obvious explanation of the movie scene. Coruscant rotates in the same direction as Earth but Obi-wan Kenobi and Qui-gon Jinn were in the southern hemisphere. Duh.

You'd think someone who lived in New Zealand for a year wouldn't suffer so acutely from hemisphere prejudice. I still suffer from an acute case of don't-watch-the-new-star-wars but I can't cite that they got the wrong moon phase as evidence to support my argument anymore.

Good thing the internet was quickly able to confirm my realization that I am not as smart as I think I am. *sigh*

Taken from this website.
From the southern hemisphere the moon looks like this:

Instead of like this:

In other news this little beauty has been hanging in my room all week, delighting me to no end:

A lovely Christmas present from my friend Jen. Get your own from here.

Merry Christmas from Middle Earth

I'm so excited for this movie!