For the Health of It.

So there I was walking along, on my way to class. Walking on Michigan State's campus is an understatement. I think its in the top 3 as far as area and sidewalk miles....yes miles. The morning commute that I will talk about starts after the bus...Im walking, thinking of who knows what- you have all the time in the world to think when you walk on this tree-filled campus- its beautiful. So-Im walking...thinking of whatever when this girl walks past me. She was attractive yes, but I was only able to notice that for a split second- something else about her caught my eye...shes obviously in a hurry- late for something... What I notice are the contents she is holding in one hand. She had some serious talent with this one hand...she was able to grasp her health drink of some kind- one of those ones that cost upwards of $3.00 as well as a lit cigarette with ashes hanging.
So this little visual had my mind thinking- shes trying to be healthy while at the same time ruining herself from the inside out. I also thought hmmm in michigan cigs are like $5 a pack. That makes one cig about 25 cents. I would guess it wasn't her first of the morning. So then my mind thinks of her $3.25, and how horribly spent it was. I think hmmm Id rather a good omlette or slab of ham and hashbrowns. I've been thinking a lot about my health lately- I want and need to be healthier, but I LOVE a good authentic cowboy breakfast- save the grits. But its considered so unhealthy. This run in with this girls left hand had me thinking- so what- its all unhealthy- all of it, unless its terrible tasting- why even worry about WHAT it is- I need to start thinking of HOW MUCH it is. Not in terms of dollars but quantity.

Anyways- as with most of my rambling- its just thinking about things when I can take a break from processing, reflecting, altering, and comprehending College of Education material. Please understand!!

Crunch Time

What seems like 100's of hours of homework completed, and at least a hundred to go- with only a month to go! So- I will be taking a hiatus from my weekly rant and making a strong push towards that second degree!

Here's a video worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

How Sweet it is...

Ok how could I not have something to say about the Michigan State Spartans, and their coach, Tom Izzo. 7 sweet 16 appearances in the past 11 years. This is phenomenal. This team has been through some major transformations both negative and positive throughout the season. But what an awesome run. I truly believe they will beat Memphis the South Region's #1 seed. As a matter of fact, in all of the years I've been filling out brackets for march madness, I have NEVER picked against Michigan State. I take them all the way every year. Its such a crapshoot anyways- why not pick with pride, win with pride and lose with pride? I will never doubt what an Izzo- led team can accomplish. Every four year player under Izzo at MSU has been to a Final Four. Eat your heart out Coach K.

Here is where it gets personal. Tom Izzo is a regular guy. I have met him a couple of times now. Once at the bowling alley. It was me working with a kid- the alley staff, and Izzo, who was as welcoming as one can imagine. I dont ask people for autographs. I would rather have the chance to chat. We talked about our bowling games- he was just planning a birthday party for his son. Later- at the Izzone campout- I chatted with Izzo again. The guy stayed up all night hanging out with his student section for the upcoming year. He is from a small town- any Upper Penninsula Michigan town is small- he is literally God around here, but remains a regular guy. I swear I hope that my student teaching assignment is at the school that his kids attend. As the picture above shows- the guy will have fun with the students and do things that no other coach in the country would do. He has an open office policy for goodness sake. Coach K has a fingerprint scanning door alarm.

The "Issues"

This is a partial email that is in response to someone who I was discussing political affliation with. I consider myself an Independant, not because I want to be wishy washy all of the time, but because I do not need to associate with either of the "power parties" in order to feel "heard". I was writing this email in response to this persons stance on 2 issues, gay marriage, and abortion. The candidate I support, Barack Obama, has positions on these issues that I respect, not necessarily vote for. I'll post the links of Obama's "stances" on these issues at the bottom of the post.

I typically agree that a public officer (The President) should uphold the law, in this case, the Constitution. I don't think that they should have to, no matter what I personally think or hold to, hold up biblical law. In my opinion, seperation of church and state is a good thing- most of the time- both are corrupt in ways both subtle and major if either is given too much power in the arena of the other. I don't think it fair for me to push biblical law into my political vote. What I mean is that I can't vote for Jesus. No matter who I vote for- they are going to have stances on issues that somewhere down the line are unbiblical, or unGodly in terms of the Bible. That doesn't mean I burry my head in the sand about those issues, but realize that our leader fighting gay marriage is taking up time that could be better spent, especially when the states should have the upper hand here. Abortion is not something I support, but having a rigid POLITICAL stace on it seems unreasonable. I feel Obama's thoughts are sufficient when thinking of who I would vote for...not against.

Same Sex Marriage: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060605-floor_statement_5/

SSM and Abortion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlY9HFRNUHs

My Job

I wanted to give a quick overview of what my Job at CMH (Community Mental Heath) entails. I usually tell people that I am like a 'Big Brother' type guy...I pick kids up and take them to do fun things like bowling, basketball, pottery painting, and just walking through stores where they can take however much time they want looking at whatever- yes this can mean Pokemon cards.

But here is the real deal. I am working with 4 kids right now. I see them afternoons, once a week.

Kid 1: 17 yrs old. When I contacted his Therapist before seeing this kid for the 1st time he told me to be very attentive with this one. He has a violent history. About 4 weeks ago he was released from an intense care facility (incarcerated). He has threatened to "carve" his mom up, while holding a butcher knife. He has been very hard to crack! He is so freaking sketchy every single week. He makes me more nervous than any other kid I've ever worked with...but I never let him see that- he is already manipulative enough. He has begun to trust me- actually called me when he's pissed at his mom and thinking he's gonna blow.

Kid 2: 13 yrs old. Comes from a Spanish speaking family. He is very quiet. I have only met with him for a short time, but he is warming up pretty quickly. The nature of my job doesn't allow me to know all of the details, therefore I have no idea why he has been kicked out, or is just out of school. This is true for about the last 3 weeks.

Kid 3: 13 yrs old. I have been seeing this kid since last April. This is an anomoly. The program the kids are in allows them 8 weeks at a time with any one person who does the job I do. This little guy has major issues, but none that are threatening to anyone. He is minorly autistic, has aspergers, and major obsesive compulsive disorders, and lastly suffers from turrets. He would be hospitolized if not for his angelic Mother. Father...not so much. We do fun stuff each week and he is really not a problem child, just needs socialization and variation in his day to day. We are buddies.

Kid 4: 15 yrs old. At this point I have yet to meet this kid. I will soon though. What I know is that he is a kid living with his dad. His mom is in Washington state, a prostitute, and has "lent" her son out at times. Just saying that makes my stomach drop. I guess he is on house arrest as of late.

I have worked with other kids- some very sad stories have developed during my respite service to them and their families. I sometimes don't know how people in the profession keep the passion. Most likely I would be fired from this job if I was any more specific about any "client". I don't think this information divulges anyone's identity, and if it did, the readers that would be reading this would do nothing with the information but understand and love these kids in the same way I try to.

Mamma Mia

Tonight one of my girlfriend, Charlotte's classmates and friends' mom was in town. Her Grandmother made the trip from Scranton, Pennsylvania as well. The friend invited us, as well as about 10 others to dinner.

What I saw at dinner was nothing new to me. In fact it seems that I see it regularly. Even so it made me stop and think.

Our friends' Grandma and I hit it off, chatting about anything and everything, after all, she was Italian. My Gramma is Italian, Charlotte's Grandma is Italian. Between it all, we get some GREAT Italian dinners! What I noticed was that this little old lady spent about 2 hours caring for the food as only Italian grandmothers can seem to do. To watch her work in the kitched was so much like watching my Gramma, as well as Charlotte's. She would take a taste of the sauce, then a bite of the pasta only to shake her head, telling herself, "not quite yet". She prepared "appetizers" that were a meal in themselves- just like our Grandmas.

This made me stop and just think about the events and activities that our 3 grandmas could sit and talk about. All three of parents who came over from Italy. All three great cooks! All three short little ladies, and lastly all 3 beautiful people who have passed on family traits and traditions that can hopefully be honored by us young punks.

Seeing this Grandma made me love mine even more somehow. I missed her, and was reminded at just how much she means to me. Lucky enough, I'll get to see her in a week or two...something not everyone can say. Hopefully she'll have some great pie made up for me too!!!

Professor Ponderings

I’ve had 2 run ins with professors in my collegiate career. This is not to say that I haven’t had disagreements, differences of opinions, or annoyances with lower than expected grades. That happens. What should never happen are the events surrounding the two run ins I have had.

Run-In #1

Without naming the professor, my Church History professor at SNU and I had a few very major differences. He believed in heavy memorization of a list of 300 facts/dates/people. I don’t think I would have minded this assignment (which was actually a Mid-Term test, that every student was required to pass in order to pass the class.) but for 2 reasons. First, rote memorization has proven itself to be a terrible way of learning with retention being basically nil over any amount of time. Secondly, my learning styles, strengths, study practices etc are all geared for anything BUT memorization of a list. I dropped the class once because I could not pass this test. I took it again the next year. The same situation began to haunt me. I took the test, bombed it. I went to “conference” with the professor. He enlightened me that I was going to retake this test until I passed it. I asked why he was so hell-bent on this- an unfair test, with unfair implications for the class. He asked me this: “How will you ever know where people from your church live and how will you get ahold of them if you don’t know where they live?” I yelled at him “I’ll look in the freaking Church Directory!!” I then slammed his door shut, and took a lap around campus to cool down before I bloodied this guy’s face. I went back and retook the test 3 times before I passed it.

Run In #2

Here at MSU email is the only method of communication for most of the prof/student interaction. With the walk across campus possibly taking 40 minutes, people don’t have time to wait around after class. In my Math Teaching Methods class, my classmates (as well as myself) are routinely confused about unclear assignment expectations, due dates, and overall structure of the class. We sit in this class once a week, for 3 hours. Recently the professor announced he would finally be grading the papers that we had all been turning in since the onset of the semester. We have various other things to do besides reading and reflection papers, such as posting on a discussion forum about something assigned to us that week. I have this class on Monday. On Thursday, the day the posting is due for the forum, there was no forum available, or subject material to prepare for on our class website. This class has a 13 page syllabus stating very precisely how everything will happen, yet somehow everything is always confused in some fashion. I emailed the professor with caution as earlier in the semester I emailed him questions and never received a response. I was waiting for a reply Sunday night telling us what to post about. That didn’t even happen. No response whatsoever. Monday comes around, my graded papers come back. Worst grades I’ve received on papers since the year 1999. I was pissed. I waited until after class, but then let him know that he didn’t need to explain paragraph structure to me. I also asked why he is unreachable. His response: “I would think that if you asked any professor who is teaching 2 classes and engaged in research, being prudently responsive is nearly impossible” I say: I emailed you Thursday afternoon. He started giving me some line about how in class he provides all we should need to know. I said, “so we have 1 chance a week to make sure we get everything figured out for the following week, when your instructions are usually rushed and unclear?” He responded, “I’ll try to do better.”