Reading Challenges: The Final Countdown

This year, I read 173 books. I participated in seven book challenges, with mixed success. Two I am going to carry over into the new year, and hopefully complete by March or so.

By reading 173 books, I met my 150 book challenge. Going into this challenge, I really had no idea how many books I read in an average year. This seems about right---around three books a week. I don't want to pressure myself to read more, just for the sake of meeting a new challenge. I'm comfortable with this number.

I read 39 young adult books, and met my Juvenile Literature Challenge of two books per month. I enjoyed these books tremendously, especially the Pippi Longstocking and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. I read portions of these books to my struggling second and third grade readers, and they were soon begging to check them out from the tutoring room library.

I completed the Classical Book Challenge. I read twelve classic books this year. Some of them were a little unconventional (The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson and Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life," for example). If I had the chance to do this challenge over, I would have read Dracula and a few longer works.

I didn't finish the Love Bites Reading Challenge, the Banned Books Challenge, or the Gay Literature Challenge. I get way too in to the Twilight books when I read them, to the exclusion of everything else. Having several college courses to finish up and a ton of hours to build up for my AmeriCorps position, I just couldn't go there this year. I'll probably finish the last two books in the series this year.

I wish I had read more books for the Gay Literature Challenge. I read Annie On My Mind, and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, my library has a very limited Gay Literature selection. I'll have to order some books off Paperback Swap this year.

Annie On My Mind also fell under the Banned Book Challenge, which was fun. I read a lot of hotly contested Juvenile Literature books, and shared some of them with my students. Somehow, knowing that a book is banned makes it all the more enticing, and spurred several reluctant readers to devour lengthy books.

I read a lot more young adult books than I expected to, and it's come in so useful for my reading tutor position. I can now recommend books with confidence. I have a huge collection of my very favorites lining the bottom of the whiteboard, ready for children to check them out. Some of my absolute favorites? Pippi Longstocking, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and The Rumplestiltskin Problem.

I didn't meet the Decades Challenge (I was two books short), but I plan to carry it over into the new year, along with the Gay Literature Challenge. This should be fun!

Happy New Year, and Merry Reading!

Time for Another Doctor's Visit

I can't stop drinking water. I am constantly parched, and easily down sixteen glasses a day. My ears are painfully full of fluid, and I have an unrelenting sinus headache. Much as I hate visiting the doctor, perhaps another doctor's visit is in order.

Doctors' offices never feel clean. It would be hard to, given that all of the visitors are sick, and spewing germs. During a fit of boredom a few weeks ago when I was home sick, I clocked just how far cough germs can spread (using a bit of cracker for a test). The results were scary!

I always feel like dousing myself in Lysol when I get back from the doctor's office. Who knows what germs are there!

Am I the only one to feel this way?

Diaperless Baby Movement

Internet research can be fun. Boredom is pretty much an unknown concept to me, for the very fact that just two clicks away you can research such intriguing things as the Diaperless Baby Movement or vegetarian cruises to Alaska.

YouTube is also a big hit---just google funny videos, and prepare yourself for hours of fun. YouTube also has clips of TV shows and movies, which are always entertaining to watch.

I love the sheer number of blogs online, focusing on anything from living a plastic free life, to stay-at-home dads.

Life is never dull online.

19 Jobs

Children today will have an average of 19 jobs before they are 38. I've had nine, and I'm only twenty-two.

I've had good jobs---reading tutor with AmeriCorps, and English teacher to refugees and immigrants in Minnesota. I've also had some crazy jobs: English teacher with a European Academy in Guatemala, where my boss paid off the gangs to keep the teachers from being kidnapped, and selling plasma. Nothing too entirely special jobs were working in the college dining service, and acting as a custodial trainer.

Somehow ordinary jobs just can't be normal for me, though. Even working as a custodial trainer, I managed to discover that my coworker was a drug dealer and get hit on by a retired monk. Average? Hardly.

Nothing beats my job in a little, out of the way Spanish academy in Xela, Guatemala, where I fended off the advances of my three bosses while trying to get my full paycheck. It was always a negotiation. "Will you take half your wages? We're a non-profit!" Me: "No. I need to make rent this month." Them: "I don't have change." Me: "I do." Erg!

That job had a rather interesting ending: I was forced to quit after my student proposed to me, and my bosses refused to do anything about it.

At least life is never dull!

My First Greyhound Bus

Two long nights, thirty-five hours, and three bus transfers later, I am finally home. I was pickpocketed, but only lost $2. The occasional bathroom was unbearably filthy, but it was the exception, not the rule. I was not felt up or harassed, which makes this a good trip in my books.


On the plus side, I got to meet a mechanical engineering student from India who was finishing up his first semester at North Dakota State University, and see the best behaved little one-year-old in my life.


Although the bus hit some ice under an overpass and nearly toppled into the ditch, our driver's twenty years of experience kept us from harm. The vast majority of our drivers were witty and kind, and tried to make our bus trips as enjoyable as possible, despite their long hours.

Overall, this was a great trip.

Gifts That Give More

I recently discovered the joy of donating money to charitable causes. I love giving through The Hunger Site. I'm able to pick a specific cause, and know exactly how my money will be used. I recently chose to fund a fuel efficient stove for refugees in Darfur. For just twenty dollars, these stoves reduce the number of dangerous fuel-gathering missions women have to go on in this war torn region, and are markedly better for the environment.

For seventeen dollars, I was able to pay the school fees of a Guatemalan child so that she can attend school for one year. This amount is a pittance in American dollars, but far beyond the reach of many families in Guatemala.

How do you give back?

Never Google Greyhound

A small bit of advice for Greyhound travelers: Don't google Greyhound bus experiences before you go.

Out of the many search results, ninety percent of them were negative. They detailed drunk passengers, crazy people creating chaos on the bus (including a guy with a pistol in a paper bag), uncomfortable riding conditions, and overcrowded buses. Not exactly the type of stories to reassure you when you're contemplating a 35 hour bus ride.

I figure it will all be all right, though. After all, can it really beat traveling by bus in Central America? Probably not. The odds of getting proposed to or felt up are much, much smaller (much more so on the former than on the latter).

Wish me luck!

Greyhound Here I Come!

Well, after a long debate (Is saving $200 really worth 72 hours on a bus?), I finally booked a Greyhound ticket. Since all of my long distance bus trips have been confined to Central America so far, this should be interesting.

I'll be spending two nights and an entire day on the bus on my way home for Christmas, and then one night and two days on the way back. I can't tell which is worse. In the day I can see the (snowy) scenery, but that might just make the trip feel even longer. At night, I'll have to scrunch up into a reclining seat and try to sleep (for two nights straight!). At least the trip won't be dull.

Did I Stumble into a Meeting of the Watershed Protection League?

With the rousing and ever important question of, "What's your watershed?" I began to wonder if I somehow stumbled into the wrong meeting. Wasn't this the AmeriCorps training on creating environmental change in the workplace? Maybe I mysteriously stumbled into a group of radical environmentalists, or innocently wandered into a meeting of the Watershed Protection League. After all, what do watersheds have to do with the workplace?


I was soon reassured that I was, in fact, in the right place. Our presenter told us very matter-of-factly that she was "simply passionate!" about watersheds. And so the rousing discussion of "What's your watershed?" began.


Now, I use cloth bags and even cloth pads for crying out loud, but I do not for the life of me know what my watershed is. Even back in my home state, if you asked me at gunpoint to identify my watershed, I wouldn't be able to. I mean, I'm thrilled to realize that I even know what a watershed is!


That conference on understanding poverty is starting to look better and better all the time.

Time to Book a Flight!

It is time once again to book a flight (or train, or bus) online. Is it this hard for everyone?


I keep pulling up great fares, only to find out that the price just expired. The new rate is at least double the old one. I just went through this! Can this even be legal? Maybe I'm just thinking unethical. Whatever it is, it sure isn't too much fun.

I am seriously considering Greyhound. Since I've never had the (distinct?) pleasure of going on one, this might be the perfect time. Saving $200 doesn't sound half bad, either. Another student loan payment, here I come!

Still Sick

This has been a rough few weeks. After feeling absolutely exhausted for two weeks, I finally made it in to the doctor. An hour's wait later, I was diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection. While certainly not fun, it's great to finally have an explanation for my tiredness.

It's been two more weeks, and I'm still not feeling all that great. I still occasionally fall asleep at five in the afternoon, and only wake up when my alarm goes off in the morning. Maybe it's time for another doctors visit.

I'm lucky to have really good insurance. The cost of doctors visits are negligible. I hate to think what will happen when I reach twenty-five and am off my family's insurance policy---hopefully I'll have a good job by then (I guess living on a volunteer's living stipend won't be an option anymore). Monthly medication costs for depression meds are astronomical---nearly two hundred dollars without insurance. Going without them is not an option---it's just miserable, and not conducive to holding a steady job and living in any reasonably fulfilling way.

In the meantime, I will volunteer as much as possible, and try to discover my life's calling (that sounds so corny!) Hopefully I'll figure it all out soon.

My Little Puddle Jumper

The first day back at school after Thanksgiving Break is always rough. Teachers expect this. Yet we're never quite prepared for the fury that is the sugared up, it-can't-be-schooltime-yet child.

Let's just say that today was a little crazy. The kids hadn't had a full day of school for a week and a half. They are understandably antsy.

However, my little puddle jumper took this to new extremes. Waiting in the bus line, he decided that every puddle was a monster to be relentlessly stomped. Dozens of little children were soaked in his quest, and I still have muddy footprints on the legs of my jeans from when he bounded up in joy.

By the time that I cajoled him inside to read a book while waiting for the bus, he was wet and beginning to understand just why jumping in puddles isn't a good pre-bus past time ("I'm soaking wet! I don't want to wear my shoes!") Sigh.

The easiest thing to do would have been to pull him out of the puddles and away from the temptation of splashing others. But teachers aren't suppposed to physically restrain or pull on children. Even though he was kicking water onto other children, we couldn't just pull him away. Crazy, but true. We could only threaten to talk to his mother, get the principal, or offer alternatives to his behavior.

I hope the rest of the children never find out about this.

There's No Place Like Home

After three buses, one offer for crack cocaine, and a plane ride, I am finally back home. I spent the last three days sleeping off bronchitis and an ear infection, and then visiting the school I interned at on an Indian reservation. All in all, a good few days.

I don't know if I'm just lucky, or what. Somehow, standing in an underground bus station amidst the crowds of the merry and not so merry travelers, I look like I need some drugs. As a twenty-five year old guy asks, "Do you want some cocaine?" all I can do is stare astounded at the transportation security officers less than a block away. After hurriedly reassuring him that I don't, in fact, do drugs, he shuffles off to the next person.

Maybe all trips on public transportation are like this. Maybe everyone is offered drugs while on the way to the airport, and accosted by a man begging for spare change and cussed out when the request is refused. Perhaps everyone ends up sitting next to a very cheerful lady who just happens to be off her meds and is laughing up a storm at nothing and no one.

Somehow, I don't think so.

I Need a Vacation

How pitiful is it that I'm already planning every possible long weekend and day off that I can scrounge up? I'm looking ahead to three day weekends and marking down travel days as "After school on Friday to before school on Tuesday." Teachers don't arrive home from their vacations an hour before school begins---it's just not right!

I think the upcoming Thanksgiving break is getting to me. I'm ready to check out and head back to Minnesota. I'm tired of the alphabet song and open and closed syllables. I'm stealing five minutes here and five minutes there to gaze longingly at discounted cruises. Even Alaska with its Arctic gales is sounding pretty appealing.

Vancouver

I love Canada. Whenever I need a break from the ordinary, I take a little trip north and wander around Chinatown.

Everything is different up here, from te road signs to the metric system. It's exhilirating to be barreling down the road at top speed, trying to figure out just what exactly 120 km/hour translates to. Add to it miniscule road signs and highways that suddenly turn into city streets, and you have an adventure on your hands.

Plus, nothing adds a little excitement to your day like trying to make it through Customs unscathed. Since I have a horrible poker face, crazy things just happen to happen to me. Need I remind you of the time when my mom was taken away to be questioned because I looked nervous (and apparently like a kidnapping victim)?

Gentle, staid Canada never remains so for long when I join the mix, and that's why I love it.

It Can Be Really Hard to Be Gay

It can be really hard to be gay, and not always for the reasons that you might suspect. Sure, you have to deal with your mother's fear that you won't be with her in Heaven some day, and your dad's fear that you'll be the victim of discrimination or a hate crime. However, sometimes it's the day to day difficulties that wear on you the most.

It's all of the flirtation and suggestive comments aimed your way by unsuspecting strangers. It just goes completely against the grain for me. It grates on me, and is intensely uncomfortable. To help my family understand, I liken it to a gay person hitting on them, and the intense reaction they would feel. Suddenly they seem to get it.

I wonder what would happen if I told these unknowing strangers the truth---that I can't be interested in them because I'm gay. I would never be so naive to do so, but I hate having to bury who I am all the time. It's like a strangling of the soul.

Young Adult Literature Challenge

The Young Adult Literature Challenge is coming along nicely. During October, I read The Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama, the Scott Westfield Uglies, Pretties, Specials trilogy, and The Midwife's Apprentice. I highly recommend The Drowned Maiden's Hair; it's not nearly as gruesome as it sounds. It is the tale of an orphan who is adopted by an eccentric trio of elderly women, who wish her to play the part of a drowned child during a seance. It's a very intriguing read.

Scott Westfield's trilogy is quite good, with a suitable number of plot twists to keep it interesting. It is about a totalitarian society where everyone has surgery at the age of sixteen to make them "pretty." However, this surgery also causes brain lesions that make them easily controlled. Dissidents are taken care of by the "Specials."

The Midwife's Apprentice was also a good read. Brat, an street girl in early England, becomes the midwife's apprentice in exchange for food and shelter. She must overcome harsh treatment and low self esteem to make a name for herself.

I'm really enjoying this challenge. I finally have an excuse to read all of the young adult literature that I missed out on growing up. There are so many great books.

What have you read lately that you've enjoyed?

Strike of the Swine Flu!

It seems that wherever I go, sickness follows. First it was the measles in Guatemala, then the Whooping Cough in my Midwest school. Now it's the Swine Flu.

My little first grader came up to me yesterday with a solemn look on her face. She very politely informs me that her brother has the Swine Flu and then runs off to play. I just stare at her retreating back. The Swine Flu has come to Washington.

I had heard rumors that it was out and about. A high schooler was stricken last week. I just didn't expect it to spread quite this fast.

I'm not very doom and gloom about the situation. More than anything, it makes me laugh in an incredulous sort of way. The crazy illnesses that still exist in America.

Today the little girl came in with an awful cough. As she generously sprayed me with Swine flu exposed spit, I'm thinking, "Better go stock up on OJ and dust masks."

The Delta Site Hates Me

The Delta site hates me. That's the only conclusion I can draw. Not only did it try to make me rebook twice, but it wickedly raised the price each time! I could understand the rate hike from $295 to $330. I could only find $330 fares on the web, so it wasn't such a shocker. But then to raise it by $100 while I was booking it? That's just ridiculous. A flight doesn't go up $130 in ten minutes.

I guess I can't rule out a train trip home just yet, as much as I'd like to. I managed to wrangle a week off, and I want to spend as much of the time I have off with my family. Thirty-five hours on the train each way is not what I call fun.

I know I've got to get home soon---my grandpa's ill, and our whole family is gathering for a wedding. I can't miss this time with them, but I hate the feeling that I'm being taken advantage of.

Is it bad that I only do laundry every two weeks (and it's only one load)? I know, as a female I'm supposed to have tons of clothes and a very low tolerance for grime, but maybe those genes just skipped me.

I know that the shopping genes bypassed me. I hate to shop. I only believe in buying things that I'll feel good about wearing (and wearing often), so it takes forever. Add to this the fact that I'm pretty modest (no low-rise jeans or low cut tops for me, thanks), and it adds up to a whole lot of time in the stores.

So is it any wonder that I put shopping off for as long as possible?

This really made the theft of one of my suitcases off the bus in Costa Rica a debilitating blow. There went almost my entire supply of comfortable, worn-in jeans (that were actually tall enough!). I was devastated. I literally only had two shirts, a headband, and a set of underclothes to my name. It was a sad, sad day.

Okay, I Laughed

I love teaching kids. If they're not deliberating who to call in the case of a vampire uprising ("But the fire department can't do anything about vampires!"), they're making innocent slips of the tongue.

We were working on the -ank word ending. I was having them read words off of the board, and this took a nasty turn when we came to "sank." This child couldn't be satisfied with such a straight forward word. Oh, no. He had to add another letter, turning the nice, innocent "sank" into "skank."

Oh, yes.

As I desperately tried to stifle my giggles (these were second graders, after all, no need to discuss exactly why this word was so funny or what precisely it meant), I moved on. Wouldn't it just so happen that the next word was skin. Oh, joy.

I laughed, and I laughed, and then I changed the subject. Very smooth.

Entertainment on a Limited Budget

It's the end of the month, and all of my food stamps have run out. Every spare penny is being diverted to food and rent, as my paycheck still hasn't come through. Yet you have to have some form of entertainment, unless you are to go mad.

Luckily, a theater friend knew of a playhouse that needed an usher one night. In exchange for handing out programs at the door and policing the theater at intermission so that no food or beverages made their way in, I was able to see the play for free. Given that each ticket was $15, this was a good deal.

I also hit up the library for reading material (an unmentionable number of chick lit books and some classics) and DVDs. A few trips to a nearby state park founded out the mix.

How do you stay entertained on a limited budget?

Swine Flu Vaccine

I love staff meetings. Who wouldn't, when you can learn such intriguing things as "We can't require you to get vaccinated, but you cannot come to school for twenty days if there is a Swine Flu outbreak." It seems a little twisted to me. Add in the the little bite that you have to let payroll know, and we're looking at uproar.

So, I get to be a guinea pig for the Swine Flu vaccine when it comes out in October. I'm so excited!

Washington!

Three days after starting the wonderful but long drive, I am finally in Washington. The drive wasn't too crazy, and I loved the mountain passes in western Montana (75 mile per hour roads with curves galore! So much fun!) There was some great scenery at the beginning and end of the trip. The middle was a bit tedious (I'm not a wide open spaces type of girl), but the other scenery made up for it in spades.

I love my town. They have a great public library, very nice people, grocery outlets just fifteen miles away, and awesome hiking trails. My landlady is really into natural foods and products, and composts all kitchen waste. She was having a dinner party with a bunch of friends the night I came in, and invited me to join them. All of the food was vegetarian, which was great! One of the ladies' sons lived in Nicaragua for five years, so we got to talking about Central America, which is always nice. I felt so at home.

Washington has everything I wanted and more: a good public library, food co-ops, water, trees, and mountains. I am in bliss.