Chocolate Phoenix

I really loved my sophomore year in English class. We studied some great material. My teacher was Mrs. Post, and she is still one of my favorite teachers I ever had. She had so much cool stuff all over the walls of her classroom… posters and memorbilia of trips she had taken or gifts from students. She had a couple of posters of Karl Malone, which I thought odd at the time. I later learned that he is from the next town over, which is really a tiny town, so he was in our town all the time. He had signed the posters: “To the Bean Lady, from the Mailman, Karl Malone”. I thought it the most odd little thing in her room at the time.

Mrs. Post was actually quite odd, but I think my favorite teachers all were. They were a little eccentric, but so passionate about their work and their particular subject. She cared about her students like you wouldn’t believe. She taught us passion, even those who could care less about English class. That is all what made her a great teacher.

As I mentioned before, we mainly studied poetry and Native American literature in Mrs. Post’s class. Some of my favorite poems I learned and studied in her class. They are “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe (which I had to write an interpretive essay for my first semester exam… on the very day I had been in a car accident and gotten whip lash, but I still got an A!), “The Congo” by Vachel Lindsay (remember that scene in “Dead Poet’s Society”? I loved that. And we got to read the poem out loud in class, following all the directions. It was amazing.), and “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou (I don’t always agree with her subject matter, but I love the way she expresses herself. Just beautiful phrases.).

What poems do you remember and love from school?

[Sometime, I'm going to talk about my favorite books from Senior year, Mrs. Allen's AP English class. Another of my favorite classes!]

When I was a sophomore in high school, my AP English class got to spend the year studying poetry of all sorts and Native American Literature. Yes, we studied other things, but those were the main subjects that I remember. One poem that we did as a class for a video project became one of my favorites, but I cannot remember exactly what the poem is. Only the first line, and part of the second: “To be of the Earth is to know/ The restlessness of…”

For some reason, these words have been chanting over and and over in my head. I feel like sharing this poem with all of you as spring comes and we can all appreciate being outside more, in the warmth of a new season. Today I did a little Google search, and this is what I found (since I can’t find my original copy of the poem anywhere… it’s probably in my personal items box in the storage unit):

To be of the Earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the love of being food for someone
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons
the mystery of death
and the miracle of birth.
–John Soos

Yup. It’s that time of year again! Time to open everything up and get rid of the dust and dirt from winter. Time to pack away the sweaters and pull out the t-shirts and shorts. Time to sweep the dirt from the patio and wash the windows.

Then again… it’s snowing right now. Ah well, I guess Spring Cleaning can wait for tomorrow.

Aiden likes to say when it is windy and cold outside that it is “blustery, like on Winnie the Pooh.” Today is a blustery day. It started out so beautiful… the sun was shining, it was quite warm (I didn’t even really need my jacket on that I was wearing), there was virtually no wind or even a slight breeze… it felt like spring may actually arrive.

Now the sky has turned gray and I see the branches on the trees waving madly. I know it’s gotten colder and I am considering turning the heater on a little.

You may think this depresses me, but you are quite wrong. I love the dark days. I love bright, warm days, but I don’t always feel like having a day like that. Today I was in a wonderful mood and so the sun shining fit my mood exactly. Now… my mood has changed. I’m not mad or anything. I’m just… I don’t know… lonely.

It all started with a phone call I had to make. I called someone who means something to me to straighten out a missing package (turns out she wrote my old addresses on the box, not the new one, so hopefully she’ll get it back soon then will send it out again with the correct address). Normally this person is very hard for me to get a hold of, so I don’t bother to call her much anymore. She rarely calls me, so we just don’t talk anymore. After we discussed the package (for the whole 3 minutes it took for her to look up the tracking on the computer), she just said, “I’ll call you when I get the box back.” I replied with, “Okay, that sounds good.”

There was a pause. “Well,” she said, “bye.”

That was it. There was no other conversation. There was no “I wish I could talk right now, but I’m on my way out the door” or whatever. Just… “bye.”

It’s silly, I know, but it makes me feel lonely. I am a social person. I need people to talk to. For her to just leave me like that… does she not like me anymore? Did I do something? Maybe she just doesn’t find me interesting. I don’t know. I feel lonely without Ches here, talking to me. I feel lonely when I have no one to goof off with. My kids are great, but I need my own friends, too.

Today’s weather makes me feel good because it matches my mood. And, like the weather, my mood will change again. I won’t feel so left out and depressed, and I won’t give this phone call another thought. And when it’s sunny, warm, and inviting outside, I’ll probably open the door to the porch to let in the fresh air, start baking some cookies, and give you a call, just to say hi and see what’s up. That’s what I do.

It’s Random Friday! Wo-hooo! (Everyone do your best Random Friday dance now. Go on. I need to see some feeling in that dance. Karen, you can do better than that. Wow! Everyone get a load of Julia! Go girl!)

1. I am currently reading “The Professor’s Daughter” by Emily Raboteau. Aiden actually picked it out at the library and said, “Here Mom. Read this book.” I thought it looked okay. I like it so far. It’s the story of a girl who’s father is black, mother is white, and brother is a vegetable. More swearing in it so far than I like, but it’s an interesting read.

2. Tomorrow is the Sierra Silk Competition, a competition for winter guards and winter drumlines. It’s the only competition that my kids are going to, and there are three other middle schools competing. The kids are scared, but also excited. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out! Most of all, I want them to have fun and to be proud of what they do.

3. We bought “Lady and the Tramp” (Special Edition DVD) at Wal-Mart on Tuesday. It was only $14.87. Trust me, they don’t keep the prices this low for new DVDs for long. If you haven’t picked up your copy, I say do it now. They’ll probably up the price to the normal $20 or whatever really soon.

4. Dallin is a funny boy. All morning all he has done is laugh. I’m not kidding. He laughs at everything! Even after he fell down and was crying, he looked at Aiden and started to laugh. Such a happy child. We are so blessed with the little boogers, I mean the kids, that we have.

5. Happy birthday, Mozart! This year commemorates Mozart’s 250th birthday (he was born on January 27th, 1756), so while we missed his birthday over a month ago, let’s do a shout out for Mozart anyway. Here is a quote by the composer himself (just imagine your favorite Mozart piece playing in the background, and if you don’t have a favorite, then think of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” because everyone knows that one!):

6. We got the package from you yesterday, Plastic Obsession! WOOT! Aiden and Ches enjoyed eating Ketchup chips as we watched Survivor, and I devoured the mint Aero bar right away. With Aiden’s help, of course. And I love all the maple leafs on the box. It made me laugh. Aiden saw the box and said, “What is that box from Canada????” He knows.

7. Ahhh, heck. One more Mozart quote (just because I like it):

Well, I didn’t mean for the last post to be so, I don’t know, controversial? I just wanted to let Erica know why I think it is important and not a waste for future SAHMs to get an education. That’s all.

Today, I want to end that intense “discussion” and move onto a safe subject. Like… ummm… you know… Okay, so I don’t actually have anything in mind. I just wanted to move on with my life and forget the whole last post. (I’m still so angry at Erica, which she knows, that I couldn’t listen to Ches’ concert very well last night. That made me sad).

Oooh! There we go! Ches had a concert last night. It was very long because I was very tired and really not in the mood to actually be out. HOWEVER, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good music. The Wind Ensemble played all music by Roger Cichy, who will be here in a few weeks working with the Wind Ensemble as the premiere a piece by him (called “Pandemoneum”) for the College Band Director’s Association conference that is being held here in Reno.

Anyrate, the music was very programatic, and very good.The first piece the Wind Ensemble played “Fanfare” and was based on 4 notes (I believe C, D, G, and A, but I could be wrong and the program is still in the van) played in ascending order. It was good, but pretty much your typical fanfare piece.

Next on the program was “First Flights”, a beautiful piece about the Wright brothers. I think they played 2 movements of that. Seriously good piece. I think it was my favorite. Next they played “Breakthrough”, a piece written about the Berlin Wall coming down. It had elements of both East Germany’s and West Germany’s national anthems, as well as the “Joyful, joyful” part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Ode to Joy”). Wonderful piece. The last peice they played was four movements from a piece written about Galilean moons. I honestly can’t remember the name of it (again, the program is out in the van, and I just don’t feel like going out there right now). I only remember two movement names: Europa and Io. I really liked this piece, too, but it was the end of the concert and I was soooo tired. No worries. I’ll get to hear it again when I see the Wind Ensemble play at the CDBNA conference!