Flips

Thursday mornings are our standard staff meeting days at Hays. At our meeting this morning, our program director spoke about staff dress code.

OK, first of all, let me describe what we do with the kids. We sit around the house talking with them, playing games and watching movies. We help them around the house with meal prep, cleaning up, doing laundry and completing other random household-type things. We take them on walks, to the movies, to walk around the mall, to play frisbee in the park, to museums and other various activities around town. We drive them to appointments and the like. We make sure they go to bed on time, get up on time, don't eat too much sugar, make sure they eat veggies and administer medications. This is my job. Sounds a lot like running a normal house full of seven teens, right? Well yea, because that's what I do.

So Pam has created a dress code. I have no problem with this. We can't wear see-through clothing. We can't wear tank tops thinner than two finger widths. We can't wear belly shirts. We can't wear clothing with inappropriate slogans (ie. slogans promoting drugs or alcohol). I have no problem with any of this. This is standard for any job or even school. This is what we hold the kids accountable to as well.

But then comes the clincher. We are unallowed to wear flips.

I don't understand.

She says it's a safety concern. However, we're not allowed to chase kids or put them in restraints.

She says we need to wear appropriate footwear for the activities we do with the kids. Well, when I go to the movies when I'm not at work, I usually wear flips. I don't have a specific pair of shoes for mall walking. And if we do any sort of hiking activity with the kids that I couldn't do in my flips, it's never a spur of the moment activity - it's always planned in advance.

She says it looks unprofessional. This is the one point I can almost agree with. However, when it is all right for my co-workers to wear sandals that attach to their feet - which is the Hays requirement of open-toed shoes - that look like they're eight years old, have been drug through the mud and run over by all eighteen wheels of a semi is when I stop. I think my new flips look nicer and more professional than some ratty old Birkenstocks. Or those river wading shoes that are all the rage now - humongous, rubber shoes?! One woman wears duck-hunting orange river waders to work. And those are more professional than my flips???

I brought up my points today at the staff meeting. Pam stuck to her guns, so I've got to give her that. Other staff say it's just because she doesn't like flips. Whatever. I don't like a lot of things that go on at the shelter but they seem to work out just fine. She told us that we just need to make good decisions about what we're wearing as professionals (in such the professional environment!) and not make her have to be the "bad guy."

I think it's all just lame.

Hurricane Lucille

She came on suddenly, like a bad blind date. She was about as real as a blind date as well; not really a hurricane, considering the locale and all.

There I sat in the Red Cross feeling dejected and disappointed that they didn't want me, couldn't use me, due to my unpredictable iron count. There she loomed on the horizon created by the neighborhood trees and next-door buildings clashing with the tumultuous sky. Her busty cloud formations overtook the space above while her loud voice boomed intermittently around us, threatening.

Without hesitation she came forth upon the earth in the form of millions of suicidal water droplets pounding to the pavement in sheets. Wind interceded with his mighty gust, waltzing through the parking lot outside the Red Cross window with the pieces of Lucille. The lights inside flickered only once, but it was enough to draw attention to the rendez-vous beyond the confines of our protective establishment.

Wind died down and left Lucille to her peace, to continue what she had started. Either that or she drove him away.

When she finished she left her reflection in the once-stormy sky, her mark of beauty over the damp and shaken land.

Could a blind date ever turn out better?

I'm Turning Japanese

Ha! I have that song in my head that goes "I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so."

It's funny to me because I think I really am turning Japanese, like the title of this post suggests.

Well, maybe not Japanese per se, but at least Cuban or Samoan or something like that. Everyone thinks I already am ethnic, so I may as well be. Right?

Complaints

Generally when I read other blogs, the ones I notice that have a lot of comments on them are ones dedicated primarily to complaining about something. Take, for example, this blog written by a man who refers to himself as the Humanity Critic. Tremendous blog, written mostly in the direction of a black man's concerns about the current state of hip hop, but also contains some posts about politics and dating. He's funny with a wild imagination and a clear writing voice, all coming together to create something well worth reading. However, he's a complainer. He doesn't write about things like trips to Belize or his bored dog like yours truly. But ah, his reader base is huge, as they fill his comment box with sometimes more than 40 comments. His comments section is like a chatroom within a blog. I've stumbled upon knitting blogs where knitters do nothing but complain about their current projects. Blogs where people complain about dating. About not dating. Blogs about a bad sex life - seriously, solely dedicated to a bad sex life. What do these blogs have in common? People who like to give their two cents. People providing advice, encouragement, or people just jeering on the pissed off. If I were to complain about something here in my self-created little forum I would go the more social route. Not that I never do complain - because really, who doesn't from time to time? - just that I don't make it a regular habit. I realize there's much to complain about - from fighting in the Sudan to local injustices aimed at minority groups to large corporations exploiting slave labor overseas to the traffic department installing new stop signs in my neighborhood overnight - but I just tend to write more on bland topics like my bored dog. Maybe soon I'll become politically and socially motivated like I used to be not too long ago, once again feel connected to a greater power beyond my control but completely enraptured in its presence, and spew about it here. Until then, here's a wedding picture as a teaser for a kinder, gentler blog post yet to come...

E101 And My Dog

Since I'll be teaching ENGL101 this fall semester, I thought it a good idea to start reading about what I'll be doing to begin preparing for the task. All I have to say is how much I'm looking forward to it. I think that what I'm most looking forward to is how enriching of an experience this will be for me. Silly, maybe. Selfish, sure. Do I care on either account? Not really.

On to a completely unrelated topic...Can dogs be bored? I think Radley is bored. He's sitting in front of me, looking at me, trying not to fall asleep. Periodically he'll get up and walk around the house, stopping for a moment at the front door and then returning to my feet with his eyes half closed. He's not really interested in going outside or eating or napping. He hasn't touched any of his indoor toys. I think he's just bored. I'm going to take him for a jog. I think the exercise will be good for both of us.

Married Life

At some point I plan on posting some wedding photos on here as well. I guess I was just more excited about sharing the Belize pics. The wedding shots turned out great and all, but I am still just dragging my feet about it.

I think this post-wedding period is bigger for other people than for myself. Everyone keeps asking me what it's like to be married when the truth is that we've been living together now for six months so being married doesn't feel any different than life in general has for six months. Besides, the wedding was two weeks ago. Nothing about "married life" is going to be different within that time frame, especially when half of that time we were in Belize.

Also, people are making a huge deal out of the whole name-change-deal. The first thing that pisses me off is that people assume automatically that I'm changing my name. We received checks in the mail prior to the wedding addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. H." What a crazy complication that could have been! But it's an OK presumption with an appropriate title assigned to it. What sends me into fits are the items addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. K H." I have ceased to be recognizeable as a person. I am now solely "Mrs." I am no longer myself, I am now K's Wife. In getting married I did not disappear. I did not become someone else's second thought. In fact, I did decide to accept K's last name in the marriage process, but it was not an easy battle. And I do mean battle. I wasn't sure about the name deal because I had created myself under my maiden name and given to that name numerous degrees, recognitions and publications. I didn't (and still don't) think it fair that I should be expected to wrecklessly abandon all that just to wait in line at the social security office for an hour, leaving with a new alias. I don't think K had ever really thought about it before - about what all it entails to alter the one thing that has most defined you your entire life. At first he wanted to be able to pass on his family name and was very concerned about spreading that legacy, but later came to want something I view as more realistic - one family sharing a common name. He knew I held reservations about changing my name so he said he would just change his and become a "J." I let that be the case for a while before I told him that what I really wanted was to accept his name, that in making that choice I could find more to identify with than in my own last name. "J" always represented to me anonymity and in fact I actually had people ask me on more than one occasion if I was serious that that was my name. Sometimes I had to show them my ID before they would believe me. Maybe part of what makes "J" so anonymous is that I don't know anything about that side of my family. I've never seen pictures, I don't know their medical history and I've never been to their family functions. They are a nameless, faceless bunch to me. But with the "H" side of my family I know a good deal of that information. They also know me and welcome me - in a way no one from the "J" side of my family ever has.

Arg. I don't know really where this post began or where I expected it to wind up, but here we are. Basically, yea, married life is great. No, the romance isn't dead yet. No, we aren't having kids soon (sorry Liz). To answer another question asked recently - no, I don't regret it. Who would ask that - I know - awful question, but one I answered. In fact, my decision to be with K is one of the best decisions I've ever made and is probably the decision that has left me feeling most at peace with myself and the world.

Great Lakes, Illinois

My brother left a few days ago for basic training for the Navy. He's currently in Great Lakes, Illinois. I have to admit, I'm a little worried about him. But alas, it is too late to convince him of any other life plan. This is what he's been wanting for the last 13 years. And so, he's currently in the middle of being torn down by promoters of the current militant position who think that individuality is the key to world destruction. He's being forced to faithfully respect people he doesn't know and accept rules thrown at him arbitrarily. By the time this process is over he will think like them, speak like them, walk like them and cease to think on his own like them. I'm going to miss him...

Honeymoon 2005

Here's the view we had from our balcony at the resort. I think this was our first full day in Belize. From here you can see a white line along the horizon. Those are waves breaking on the reef, which is the second longest reef in the world and the first longest living. The reef breaks the waves so that by the time they reach the shore they just float in, rather than crash against the sand. Between the end of the dock and the reef is a highway for speedboats, which was our primary source of transportation for the week. Also here you can see a bunch of palms. It takes about 20 years for the trees to reach this height.



There were little lizards like this one all over the place...at the resort...at restaurants...in town...in the jungle. You name it.



This is us on the beach on a slightly rainy (but beautiful) day.



Sunrise in Belize, 5 a.m. precisely.



During sunrise a bunch of little fish were swimming near the dock so Kelly snapped some pictures of them. This is not with an underwater camera (those pictures will be developed later); the water was always this clear.



Us on a boat. Notice my hair flying about? Since we travelled usually by speedboat my hair was always pulled back and what could escape was always tangled and fuzzy.



On one of our speedboat excursions to get to a tour of the Belize mainland our boat had to pass through here. On either side are Mangrove trees that come up above forming a canopy.



Here's a better shot of the Mangrove trees. The roots are primarily exposed because they sit slightly above water. The limbs then grow roots that grow straight down toward the water from the limb. During the rainy season the water level raises about five feet, completely covering the roots.



This is the eastern freize of a Mayan ruin at Xunantunich (shoe-non-too-neech). We climbed this temple that was originally built only for royalty and priests.



Super cool pic of the two of us atop the temple at Xunantunich. This is 135 feet above plaza level. If you look over to the left you can see a road that (through the optical illusion of photography) runs right into my left side. This road creates the border between Belize and Guatemala. So there's actually two contries shown in this photograph!



This is a typical street in San Pedro, the town on Amergris Caye (the island our resort was on). You may notice the bright colors of the buildings - this was common for all buildings as well as homes there. Also, dirt roads...their paving system isn't what you would call "good." Their main mode of transportation in the town (as opposed to between towns or resorts, which is by speedboat) is by bicycle or golf cart, both of which you can see here.



Here's one of the schools in San Pedro, called San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary School. Surprisingly, we saw a lot of schools - more than we had anticipated seeing. Even in some very small communities, we saw two or three schools. Children in all schools no matter the size of the community are taught both English and Spanish because those are the two national languages. Most of their schools are RC because that's the primary religion of the region. Their school operates on roughly the same calendar as here in America.



These are some school-aged girls in their school uniforms. All the schools in Belize require uniforms regardless of its status as either public or private. If your parents cannot afford to buy you a proper uniform, you cannot attend school.



More Mayan ruins...This is the Mask Temple at Lamanai. The guide said that whenever you see advertisements for Belize or Mayan ruins and there's a picture of a large face, you're looking at this ruin because this is the largest mask (on the right side) they have ever discovered. This mask is over five feet tall.



And because my blog is never complete without a picture of me and Kelly being cozy...

You Better Belize It

Well we're home. No time to catch up on everything now, so here's a quick recap. Everything was beautiful. We swam with sharks and rays, snorkeled, went tubing on an underground river, saw Mayan ruins, ate a lot of sea food, became friends with some locals and learned a lot about the country. Electricity was non-existent for part of the time we were there and satellite was almost never up, the water tasted salty and smelled like perm solution (so we drank bottled all week), we sweat a lot and paid tourist prices for everything. It was one of the best vacations I've ever been on! Will share pictures in due time...

Belize, Here We Come

At this time tomorrow I will most likely be on an airplane. Kelly and I leave first thing in the morning for Belize. My brother is taking us to the airport at around 6:30 and then we're off for the tropics. The resort we're staying at is the Costa Maya Reef Resort. I doubt that we'll have much computer access over the next week, so the next time I'm able to type anything here may not be until next week when I am fully tanned and relaxed!

P.S. There's three links in there, all to different places. If you want to see a little about where we're going, check them all out!

Mess

Today sparks the event of cleaning the post-wedding collection of stuff. Our house is a little destroyed with presents, packaging, empty bottles, dirty laundry...you name it. Thankfully I get to clean my own mess today rather than be at the shelter inevitably cleaning up after the random teens living there. This mess is more fun besides, because it's all our new presents for our house. I just wish the washer and dishwasher worked faster.