She is a real character. I dig her.
This can't be good
The good stuff and the bad stuff.
There are some things in this world that make you feel really good and some things in this world that can really frustrate you. We all have our own little quirks and pet peeves. Here are a couple that I've experienced lately.
We will start with the aggravating stuff and end on a positive note.
GRRRR: This is a public service announcement/rant that everyone needs to hear. It seems this world really needs to hear this:
When attending a sporting event, please dress appropriately. I mean that if you are at a Royals game and they are playing the Oakland A's (for instance) you are to wear something that shows you are rooting for the Royals or A's or you could wear a shade of blue or green/yellow. You can also choose to remain neutral (why are you at the game?) by wearing a color that represents neither team. These are all accepted behaviors. IT IS NOT OKAY TO WEAR A CUBS SHIRT AND/OR BOSTON HAT WHEN THESE TEAMS ARE NOT PLAYING. It is your own problem if you are a Cubs or Sox fan and that is fine (lame, but fine) but I am only using them as examples... any other baseball team is off limits unless they are playing. I don't care if you think that Yankees hat looks cool..... it doesn't if they aren't playing. I have no problem seeing a fan dress crazy for the opposing team... i respect that. If I attended a Royals game in Tampa Bay you can bet I will be supporting my team. It is hard to explain how much this bothers me and how to justify why it is so horrible in my mind (i know i am not alone). Just trust me that you are the lowest of the low in my book if you exhibit these behaviors. If you don't have a dog in the fight.... just root root root for the home team. This works for other sports too, by the way. If you are at a Chiefs-Raiders game please don't wear a Green Bay shirt because they are also a football team and you are at a football game. It just doesn't work this way.
The exact opposite is true at concerts. I had this revelation at a concert i attended on Thursday. You are encouraged to wear a band t-shirt to a concert.... just not the bad that is playing. It is NOT okay to wear the band that is playing to their show. For example: I can wear a Modest Mouse shirt to a Band of Horses concert (these are alternative bands... if it helps you just insert Beiber/Gaga or Boston/Journey depending on your age) but I should not wear a Modest Mouse shirt to a Modest Mouse concert....even if I just bought it.
If you commit these offenses you are officially "that guy." It is never good to be "that guy." By the way, that is always the term...regardless of gender.
whew. Glad that is off my chest. Just know that if you are acting this way at a game i am mentally punching you in the side of the neck and losing respect for you.
The good stuff: I was driving home this evening and listening to music. I really enjoy driving my car and especially at night....not sure why. Maybe it is the mesmerizing blue glow from all the gauges and such. I just really enjoy driving downtown, at night when there is little traffic and the weather is nice. I haven't had many opportunities lately because the weather has been dominatling-ly hot since mid may it feels like. I just roll down all four windows and open up the sunroof and turn my music up. Tonight the stars just lined up right and my shuffle on my ipod was just playing what I needed to hear. It's the little things in life that make it so good sometimes.
Thanks for listening/reading..... am i crazy?
QUAPTCH!
'Quaptch' is an onomatopoeia for a sound that came from an interesting man we met a week ago. The story from the beginning:
It was early in the morning and my sister and a friend of mine where going to a free mini-concert put on by a band called Mumford and Sons. The music was good but the most memorable part of the entire experience was our long long wait in line. When my sister and I walked up to the line (which was extremely long...two hours) we encountered the man in line in front of us. We never caught his name but from here forward he will be called 'Charlie'. Charlie seemed like an eccentric concert-goer at first glance. Then he mumbled some things to himself and let out what can only be described as soft cackles. He would sort of look at things and fake shoot them then soft cackle.... or just say things to himself. It would be a full hour before i understood a single sentence from him. He was wearing a STAFF shirt from Sturgis '08....backwards. The Jack Daniel's logo on the breast of the shirt was now on his shoulder blade and the front (now back) of the collar dipped awkwardly low. He didn't talk much but when standing feet from a person for over an hour you pick up on things. Our favorite thing he did was extend out his index finger (not like E.T. but more like he was placing it on a fingerprint scanner to gain entrance to a secret layer) and make the 'quaptch' sound. Picture the sound you would make if you were trying to mimic the sound effect of people giving a high five on a cartoon. When he made the sound it was less enthused and more duty-driven..... like he had to touch these things.... claiming them or something. We would walk a few steps in line and when we got close enough to a fence, building, door, light post, power pole (you get the picture right?) he would 'quaptch' the next thing.
After an hour in line we made it to the door and he spoke his first understandable sentence and directed it at us.
" What is this a line for?"
WHAT!? awesome.
So we have been continuing his mission.... or are we competing with him? Either way we have been 'quaptch'-ing things for a week now and sending photos of what we get. Click here to check them out or send your own.
Enjoy....Brenna, Seth, and I sure have been.
MASC 2010
MASC is the Missouri Association of Student Councils and has bee a part of my life since i was in high school. As a student i attended their summer leadership workshop (located in Fulton, MO on the William Woods University campus and often just called MASC) a few times, attended State and District conventions and stayed in touch with the people i met along the way.
I have since then become a teacher, started working with student councils as an advisor, and gone back to attend MASC as an adult. It is wild to be a peer with people i looked up to in high school but it is great to be able to give back and make this experience happen for others. Below are some photos from the past week that i spent at MASC (my 7th summer there total).
These are the people, like me, who have come thru this program and have returned to work as an adult. Some of the best folks around.
This is a photo of the group i was with this summer. council k.
some enthusiasm during down time.
our version of the show 'wild and crazy kids'. the MASC olympics. great team-building.
council k in their warpaint.... ready for the olympics
high school students from around missouri
the duck.... mascot for MASC. This photo is at the end of the 'duck race.' 'buy a duck for a buck' to help support Special Olympics.
It sounds cliche but MASC really is a place like no other. If you have attended then you probably get what i am saying a bit. If you have never been I will try to explain. Take 500 kids and send them somewhere where they can have fun, learn about leadership and hopefully better themselves. This is a good start. Then you divide them up into groups where they will likely know no one and make them meet some new friends. Then put these groups through a series of activities that will slowly build them into a team. Do all these things on a college campus and put a big emphasis on personal leadership and respect. Encourage males to be gentlemen and treat ladies as they should be treated and encourage the ladies to earn and deserve this respect. I am not sure exactly how it works out so well but it does. It becomes a little week long utopia where people are kind to each other and it makes people wish that the 'real world' could be this way. Maybe it can.... but we have a lot of work to do. "Start small but start now"
for bunches of photos try my flickr feed or facebook album