Photos of Second Life

I've joined Second Life. Here are some photos of the Second Life "ME." I've been exploring SL as an assignment, but like other things, I find myself addicted and spending way too much time there.

Thank goodness for creative people, because my poor avatar had really bad hair, until I got some that other people created. I have great hair now. I wish I had that much hair in my real life!

One of my favorites is the picture of New Brighton. Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a day at Brighton and actually got donuts from a kiosk just like that one. Later I was attacked by a seagull that stole my donut, but that’s another story. (If you’re interested, you can read it on my blog from July 29th.)

Learning about Leadership

As most anybody who has ever read this blog knows, I am working on my Master's degree at FSU. I am a member of a group called Project LEAD, which stands for Leaders Educated to make A Difference. Yes, we know there is no M in there, deal with it!!! From the Project LEAD website: (http://ci.fsu.edu/Project_LEAD/) "The programs include a 12-credit leadership certificate that can be taken within the master's degree, a post-master's leadership certificate, or a 30 credit specialist degree focusing on leadership." We have learned much since we started this program about what it means to be a leader, but one of the greatest things has been the examples of leadership we have been blessed to see. There is a group of Project LEAD fellows, and we owe an incredible amount to two leaders who brainstormed and created our fellowships. Dr. Eliza Dresang, who recently left FSU to become the Beverly Cleary Professor in Children and Youth Service at the University of Washington, is one of those professors. She has been on numerous award committees, including the Caldecott and Newbery, as well as too many others to mention. She has written an invaluable book called Radical Change about changes in youth and learning in a digital age, as well as numerous articles, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Her curriculum vitae is 30 pages long!!!

Our other professor, Dr Nancy Everhart has been an amazing example of leadership as well. She has been a visiting professor at several universities, is the research editor of Knowledge Quest, is a member of the FAME Board of Directors, and has published two books and over 50 articles in library journals. Here is a partial list of her Honors, Medals, Awards and other Citations: International Association of School Librarians, Takeshi Murofushi Research Award, 2005; Judy Pitts Research Mentor Award, 2002; Pennsylvania School Librarians' Association, Professional Development Award, 1993; Association of Library and Information Science Education, Outstanding Dissertation Award, 1991. All that and she's younger than my mother!!! You can read all about her on the ALA Election website here: http://tinyurl.com/czlkoo. Oh, and by the way, Dr. E is the President-Elect of AASL, the American Association of School Librarians. She also makes a really good grilled cheese sandwich, and is the only person I've ever heard of who can find grits in London.

There's an old saying "Those who can, do and those who can't, teach." I hate that statement, and offer my classroom as a testing ground for anyone who thinks that teaching is for those who "can't do" something. Our professors are perfect examples of the ridiculousness of that statement. Both of then obviously can, but choose to teach. Dr. D and Dr. E have taught us much in the last 2 ½ years in class. However, they have taught us much more outside of class. They have taught us by example what it truly means to be a leader.

Easter

I love Easter. It's not just the Christian Jesus is risen from the dead, although that is the most wonderful reason of all. That could be an entire blog post on its own. I love Easter traditions.

At church, Easter is always such a joyful service. I am one of those people who go to church every Sunday, not just on Easter, and Easter services are always special. Everybody has on bright new clothes, spring is finally here and He is risen! A truly joyful Sunday.

There are other things about Easter I love. We always color eggs and yes, it must be a Paas egg coloring kit. Nothing else will do! When my sisters and I were all little girls, we had certain rituals to go through. We always make an egg for everybody in our family, and we write their names on the egg with crayon before we color them. We used to carefully divide the stickers that came in the package, and of course, we had to be fair, so we cut them all apart and took turns choosing. The smell of vinegar and boiled eggs, an odd combination, but a memory.

We always had a big meal for lunch on Easter Sunday, usually a ham. I don't know why, but we did. We had potato salad, usually with a few of the Easter eggs in it. My mom always made a cake, and she made the best "Seven Minute Frosting" in the world. I used to watch her make it all the time but I couldn't make it if I had to. At Easter, she would sometimes color coconut green and put it on top, with jellybeans on top. It looked like grass with eggs in it. Sometimes, she would bake the cake in an angel food cake pan and then, in addition to the green coconut and the jellybeans, she would put a chocolate bunny in the hole in the middle of the cake, so it looked like the bunny was peeking out of a hole.

At one of the churches my dad used to pastor, we always had "dinner on the ground" on Easter. The men would always cook swamp cabbage, everybody brought their favorite dishes and after Sunday morning service, we ate and ate and ate. We always had fried chicken, one of the ladies always made this cake that had like 7 skinny little layers, yellow cake with chocolate frosting between every layer. I wish I had some right now. The men cooked the swamp cabbage in a big old pot over an open fire. I NEVER ate any of it. It was the nastiest looking stuff in the world.

We always got an Easter basket, no matter how old we were. We usually got new underwear and pantyhose in the basket. One of our biggest challenges to deal with after our mom died was the Easter basket. Who would fix our Easter basket? My dad, bless his heart, tried the first year. He actually had baskets in his hand, but then he got to the underwear and pantyhose part and just couldn't do it. We have figured out a way to deal with it now. My sisters and I do baskets for each other. One year, we buy for the older sister and the next year, the younger sister. We go to lunch somewhere on the Saturday before and trade. It works for us.

Another one of my favorite things about Easter is egg gravy. If you're not from the South, you probably will think this is the grossest thing ever, but we love it. Mom used to take the cracked eggs that we had colored and make egg gravy, which we would eat over toast. It's just white gravy with chopped up eggs in it, but it was always pretty, with the specks of colored eggs in it. Egg gravy and toast. . yummy. We still eat it, but only at Easter.

I also love Easter candy. I love Cadbury Mini Eggs, and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, jellybeans and malted milk eggs. Fabulous!

Easter. The risen Savior, the beginning of spring, family, and candy. What's not to love?

AHHHH – Spring Break

For the last two years, I've had the pleasure of two spring breaks – one from FSU and one from my school. They never fall at the same time, and it's been very nice. This year, I have looked forward to my school spring break like never before and I am enjoying myself thoroughly. Today, I slept in until after 9:00. . . a nice treat. It was fine, until the day care children next door got to go outside to play. Now, it's almost 11 and I've washed a load of clothes, moved some furniture around, talked to Patti on the phone and Josh is person, sorted some mail and thrown some away. I'm also watching "Beach Blanket Bingo" on TV, gotta love those old surfing movies. I'm amazed at all the people who are in that movie. And who doesn't love Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello?? We got some rain yesterday, and a cold front came behind it so it's cool, the humidity is low and the sun is shining. I'm doing whatever I feel like with no rushing around and no pressure. Life is good!

Things I don’t love

One of my favorite sets of books is the Mitford series by Jan Karon. These are sweet, lovely books about this great town called Mitford, and the live of Father Tim Kavanagh. Cynthia, who lives next door (no spoilers here!) has a habit of saying "I love _______ or ___________." Father Tim likes to ask her "What don't you love?" Since I don't have a sweet neighbor to ask me, I'll just share them anyway! I kind of think of these like a continuum. One on end is things I love; the other is things I hate. These things are on the "things I hate end."

1. The little toothpaste dribbles I get on myself while I brush my teeth. They never come off, until I really wash the top. Just wiping it with a washcloth doesn't get it off and I'm not sure why.

2. Shaving my legs in the winter time. I hate to shave when it's cold. It just makes my skin dry and itchy. This may be awfully close to the "hate it "section.

3. The weird pain I get in my back when I sit with nothing behind me, with my legs crossed. It's always in the same spot, and I can't reach it.

4. Being the "poor sister" when I am with my sisters. The really stinky thing is that both my sisters are single moms, and I'm still the poor one.

5. When my neighbors play music so loud, I can hear it in my living room. This drives me crazy.

6. When chocolate melts, and then hardens again, so it turns white on the edges.

7. When my phone rings and it says "unknown name, unknown number." I don't answer, but I hate it when it rings.

8. When my life is so crazy, I can't get my sister's birthday present ready in time and miss Mr. Al's birthday by more than a week.

9. When something takes a whole lot longer than it should, because someone else doesn't do his or her job properly.

10. Coughing so hard, I almost wet my pants. Laughing so hard I almost wet my pants is something altogether different.

11. Leaving school feeling like I'm a failure as a teacher.

 

There you have it. My list of things that today, I don't love. Of course, this list is subject to change, depending on the day, or my mood. I try to remember, that things always could be worse. For example, I could be hiding in a tunnel while the Nazis drop bombs on my city, and I could be homeless or jobless or an orphan. I know that in my head, but my heart sometimes gets caught up in the mess of my life.

 

 

 

UMMM – Fried stuff

Here I sit at my computer on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, heading into evening. I have an assignment due at midnight that I should be working on and instead my mind is wandering around and around and around. So, instead of working, I'm doing this – making a confession. I love to eat stuff that is fried. Why is it that almost anything tastes better fried? For example, I love fried okra, but okra fixed any other way is not passing my lips! I know that frying is bad for us, and we should eat stuff baked or broiled, but it just doesn't taste as good. Here is a list of fried things that just taste good!

1. French fries. . . I never met a potato I didn't like but I must admit, my favorite way to eat potatoes is sliced up and fried. Yes, I know we can bake French fries, but it's NOT the same. (BTW should those still be called "fries?? – I think not!) The world would be a worse place without French fries.

2. Country fried steak. . . Some places call this "chicken fried" as in "chicken fried chicken." Country fried works for me, with some gravy on the side if you don't mind. . .

3. Fried chicken. In my mind, chickens were created to be fried. Right before Christmas, my sister and my niece and I went to dinner at my friend's house. She and I taught together for 14 years, but then for some unknown reason, she felt she needed to retire (lucky!) and abandoned me to try to teach without her. But I digress! She fixed us some fried chicken that was to die for. My mouth thought I had died and gone to Heaven. I have actually dreamed about that chicken since then. The Colonel extra crispy is an acceptable replacement for homemade.

4. I'm making all one category here – Fried "fair" food. This encompasses all the stuff you can buy at the State Fair, or the Strawberry Festival or any other sort of traveling show. I'm talking about those giant corn dogs, the twisty potato things, and my absolute favorite, funnel cakes. I even saw fried Twinkies once. This is definitely a guilty pleasure, as you can smell the grease in the air and feel your arteries closing as you walk between the trailers but it's good. I also have to kind of close my eyes and not look too closely at the people cooking or the little trailer things. . I don't even want to know about the health department certificates on some of those things. My logic is the hot oil kills anything that shouldn't be in there.

 

5. Doughnuts. . . Need I say more? Of course, I need. (Is it "doughnut" or "donut"? Does it matter? Do we even care???) This summer while we were in London, we took a day trip to Brighton. On the Brighton pier, there was a little booth selling donuts, which they cooked right in front of you. A machine dropped little rings of batter into the hot oil, and the little donuts floated down the hot oil river, cooking merrily on one side, then there was some sort of apparatus that flipped them over so they cooked on the other side . . . then they crash-landed into sugar and cinnamon, and then were plopped directly into a bag. The bag was all greasy on the inside, steam was coming out, they were FABULOUS! I burned my mouth and my tongue trying to eat one, instead of waiting for it to cool. Then, I was attacked by a seagull who grabbed half my donut and flew off. Stupid bird. I hope he choked to death. . . All because I was waving my arms around commenting on the "Mushy peas served here sign." (Every word of this is true – I promise, truly. You can ask my friends Andrea and Lenese if you don't believe me. . )

 

6. Last but not least (for this list) fried green tomatoes. I love tomatoes, there is nothing like a tomato sandwich, some soft white bread, some mayonnaise and some ripe red tomato slices, but I love some fried green tomatoes. . . Good ones are hard to find, you need somebody who knows what they are doing to cook them for you. Two years ago, my sister and I were driving to North Carolina and we left late so we stopped to spend the night. We found some restaurant right by the hotel that had a Friday night Fried Fish Buffet all you can eat. I think somebody's grandma was back in the kitchen cooking because the grits were perfect and the fried green tomatoes were to die for. I nearly made myself sick with the fried green tomatoes.

Ok, now I'm hungry. Like I can concentrate on my assignment now!

I miss my blog so here’s some random thoughts from me!

I haven't blogged in what seems like forever. Between school (my job) and school (FSU) and church, I'm just swamped. I left school nearly in tears yesterday, and just wanted to drown my frustration in chocolate. I couldn't find any at my house. That's not good, I need a secret stash. Of course, facebook has been sucking up time too. I've connected with some old friends, some new friends and some family that I don't see enough. My cousin Michael is on facebook and he posts the weirdest things that I just have to answer. My cousin Melissa is on there, too, and even though she lives closer, just in Clewiston, I haven't seen her in a long time. My friend Melissa found me as well, and I haven't seen her in a LONG time either, probably 10 years at least. I have some new friends, too, our friend Cindy who moved here from St. Louis, and her friend who is now our friend, who we call "Best-Friend Debbie." She has two rescued dogs, one of which is quite the escape artist.

I have to give a devotion at a ladies meeting on Saturday, and the theme of the meeting is "My Favorite Things." It wouldn't seem like that topic would be too hard, but I'm having a bit of a struggle to get it together. I'm also supposed to speak at a Girl's Retreat at the end of the month, and that lesson isn't going so well either. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Here's another random thought - have you ever watched "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern?" I am just amazed at two things about that show. One, how much he can eat, and two, how much he can get in his mouth in one bite. I must say, this is the only show, except Fear Factor that has EVER made me gag. One day, he was drinking this medicine/health food junk made with aloe. We used to have an aloe plant in our yard, and I actually have a small one that one of my kids gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I know how slimy and icky feeling aloe can be, although it's great for sunburn. BUT, watching him try to drink some sort of juice with aloe in it, and the stringy, slimy looking parts reaching from his mouth to the cup. . . I nearly couldn't handle it. As I type this, he's eating southern soul food. Now, I love southern food, and a lot of what is called "soul food" we ate my whole life at my house. This is not what I expected. He's eating raccoons and possums. Now he's watching some guy make "chittlins" which I think that's actually spelled "chitterlings." He's cooking them in a big cast iron skillet just like my momma had. Now, he's on to fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. I love fried stuff. . . I may have to come back to this topic later. . .