commence to start

i had a fun package come in the mail today.
these are the keys to my apartment in paris.


departure is in 16 days. it's now starting to feel like reality.

the unexpected benefit of allergy medicine, or how zyrtec saved me from getting yelled at by my hygenist

this afternoon i went for my twice-annual gum bleeding. or what i thought was going to be my twice-annual gum bleeding.
i don't ever have a problem brushing my teeth twice a day, but seem to have the darndest time remembering to floss. even with that new handy reach 'floss on a stick', i just can't seem to remember.
so when it comes time to go to the dentist, i know i can look forward to a half hour of throbbing, bleeding gums and a severe tongue-lashing from my cute-as-a-button hygenist, Jamie.
so today i went in, expecting more of the same, and was surprised to hear Jamie tell me that everything looks great and that my gums barely bled at all. this was not at all what i was expecting, since i only flossed four times in the past six months. and those were the four days leading up to my appointment, in a last-ditch effort to quell my guilty conscience.
and then out of nowhere, Jamie asked me if i had started taking allergy medication.

um, what? come again?

as a matter of fact, zyrtec became my new best friend about two months ago. what does that have to do with my gums?
well apparently, if you're congested when you sleep, you breathe more through your mouth. which creates some sort of extra-oxygenated, saliva-y, bacteria friendly environment that makes your gums pink and tender.

huh.
interesting.

so zyrtec not only got rid of my neverending sinus headache, it also helped my gums.

awesome.

my time in mexico - part 4

it just occured to me that i will be leaving on my next adventure in 3 weeks, and i haven't even finished telling about my last one.
so this time i want to talk about people. and not just any people, but the ones that i have found myself thinking about and missing the most since i've been home.

first and foremost, there were my students. at times they drove me crazy, but overall they were an amazing group. i knew they would do well by how they dealt just with the trip down there. we left the school at about 8pm, drove down to LAX and checked in and waited for our flight, which left at 1:30 in the morning. our first flight, to Leon, took only 3 hours. not enough to really get any sleep. in Leon we had to get off the plane, go through immigration, and go back through security in only an hour. it was a special treat that we ended up getting back on the exact same plane we had just gotten off of. the next flight was an hour from Leon to Mexico City. so we arrived at our destination at 8 in the morning, made our way to the hotel, and were told we couldn't check into our rooms until 3 pm. after having been up ALL NIGHT. but i don't remember any of them really complaining at all. they even let me take them out to see the cathedral and also to show them a bunch of Diego Rivera murals. it was a loooooong day, but they took it all in stride and even seemed to enjoy themselves. this is a picture i took at about 1pm that first day, and i think they look great!
i really miss seeing them every week. but when i do get to see them we all sit around and laugh and joke and it feels like we were all together on our trip just yesterday.

next there is Pablo. we met pablo when we first set foot in Mexico City. he was the volunteer responsible for getting us into the right taxis from the airport to our hotel. we didn't think we would see him again, but he decided to come out to Actopan and spend the last two days working on the houses with us. he was really funny and easy to talk to and eager to learn from us, so i had fun getting to know him. but i think it was great for my students to have a mexican university student around their own age to be around and learn from. we all enjoyed his company so much that we eneded up spending the last saturday evening and sunday afternoon with him in Mexico City. we talked about everything from soccer to language to history, but what he seemed to be most interested in was talking to us about faith and God. which we were more than happy to discuss with him. i was pleased to hear that several of my students are still emailing back and forth with him and hope to go back and visit him soon.
(just an example of Pablo's humor...check out what his t-shirt says. too funny.)

then there is Felica. she works for the Mexican Habitat for Humanity office, and is in charge of the entire Mezquital valley. (word is that hers is the affiliate in Mexico that builds the most houses and is the most organized.) she may be a small lady, but she is large in every other way. she doesn't speak any english, but i never really seemed to have much difficulty communicating with her. Felica always had a huge smile on her face and had the biggest, most infectious laugh. in fact, everyone calls her 'the laughing lady'. just looking at her picture makes me happy.
and last, but certainly not least, is Marilyn. our time in Mexico would not have been nearly as good without her. Marilyn is from the Boston area, and had previously spent time at a language school in Mexico City. while there she met people who took her to visit the town of Santiago de Anaya, which she immediately fell in love with. so when she heard that Habitat was going to be building there, she jumped at the chance to spend six weeks helping out. she made sure that everything was taken care of, from transportation to food to calling a doctor when we needed one. it was like we had a mother there to take care of us. she was the calm, steady rock in the middle of our maelstrom who made sure everything was organized. (or as organized as they can be in a culture like Mexico's.)

of course there were many other people that we came into contact with during our week, most especially the people whose houses we were working on, but these are the few folks i find that seem to come to my mind most frequently. and of course i miss them all.

goodreads

my friend sara shares my love of books. so it is no surprise that she invited me to join the website goodreads.

so now i have a fun little widget over on the side to let the world know what books i'm currently working on. (by the way, isn't widget a fun word? it makes me smile just saying it. widget.) the one by arthur c. danto will probably be there for awhile. i started reading it about 3 years ago and can't quite seem to finish it. it makes my brain hurt.

photo time

i went to target and got some film developed this morning. and i finally broke down and upgraded to a flickr pro account so i could have room to upload all my new photos. waaaaay too many to post here. go to flickr and check them out.

etsy

like i need another way to waste time...

...rocks my world.

to say i'm great

so i guess this is the new thing to do.
like i have time for yet another fake band...(thanks, micah)

1. click here
The first article title is the name of your band.

2. click here
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. click here
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

i don't know about you, but i was kind of disturbed by the 'random' results.
so what kind of sound do you think 'the washington monthly' has?

my time in mexico - part 3

i know that you all have been waiting on the edge of your collective seats to see what artsy-type photos i took while in mexico. well, the wait is over.
here you go.

abigail

my niece is six years old, and never ceases to crack me up.

my niece and nephew and sister were over on saturday night, and we were all sitting around the table eating dinner. at some point in the evening, abigail decides to give her own names to all her family members (but for some reason not to her little brother. maybe she didn't want to admit that her name for him was 'annoying small one'.)
these names were:

daddy: cheese man
mommy: smart girl
grandma: curly hair
grandpa: old chief
aunt elizabeth: fast eater

just in themselves these names are hilarious. but what i find truly funny is that she thinks i eat fast. which is only because she is so ADD it takes her an hour to finish a meal. anything less than that is apparently 'fast'.

and don't get me started on 'old chief'. so funny...