Rollin' On...

Well, I seem to be on a roll with these blog updates. And I don't want to stop now.

First, a quick shout out to Duane and Kat who apparently both read this blog on occasion, bringing my readership up to a cool half dozen.

As for other things on my mind...

I have a penpal in Ireland that I have written to for over a year and a half. We met for nine hours on April 2nd, 2007. He recommended three books, one of which was sitting on my nightstand at home. As we drank he was crass, arrogant and intellectually curious. An excellent combination. We started emailing the very next day. We now have over 700 emails between us... Averaging more than one email a day for over 550 days. And about four weeks ago I stopped writing. I don't really know why. I continue to care deeply about the person, but I just stopped. Nothing dramatic or final, I just couldn't conjure words to type. He didn't wonder where I was or what happened, because maybe it just seemed natural that we would eventually flicker and then fade. I often consider him to have been the light to my fuse, resulting in a series of violent and positive explosions that rattled my once a mundane life... But, something seems lost. I wish I knew what it was. Maybe then it would be easier to find again.

In other news... Thailand. Wow. I am looking forward to Thailand in three weeks. I think I included it in the last post, but I have plans to pet tigers and ride elephants. I'm going to be in Bangkok during the full moon so I'll be going dancing on the beach at a full moon party that draws 10,000 people every month. I'll spend a few afternoons laying on the beach, letting my pale skin blind the other beach-goers while I drink potent concoctions. Mmmm... I want to leave today.

But, since I can't leave today I'll have to rely upon my kindergarten students to tide me over. Today, one of the little girls pulled my arm so that I would crouch down to her height. She wrapped her arms around my head and pulled my ear close so that she could whisper, "I love Jacki Teacher." And not to be outdone, while I was already hunched on the floor, Mike wanted to smell my hair and give me a hug while Chris wanted to give me a dozen kisses on my face, head and elbow.

What constantly amazes me about my little kids is just how little they are. They are the tiniest, littlest people with totally unpredictable minds. They can cause incredible amounts of damage when their energy is focused, but if someone takes the pink crayon their world collapses. Mike started crying in class today for an unknown reason. I was reading a story to the class and he just broke into tears. I looked over to see what was wrong and reached my hand toward him. That was encouragement enough, because he crawled across the floor and sat in my lap. He just curled into a ball on my lap, held onto my sweater and watched me turn the pages of the book while the tears dried on his cheek. I was astonished at how loud and disruptive his wails could be and then how tiny he was on my lap. Like a small tornado that suddenly calms.

Graduate school apps are due within the next three-five weeks. I am working frantically and I hate it. I'd forgotten how ridiculous these can be, especially when all the materials I need are 6000 miles away. I have to mail letters of recommendation forms back to professors that are on the other side of the planet and then get them sent back to me. BUT, I am moving apartments and jobs so the address I can use to have the letters sent back keeps changing! It is enough to make a girl lose sleep at night... In fact, I should be sleeping right now, but I am blogging in order to avoid working on the apps and therefore losing more sleep! What a vicious circle.

Alright... Here is the plan. Stop blogging. Go jogging. Use the adrenaline from jogging to power through another school's application.

Ready. Set. Go.