I Figured Out Why My Costumes Were Lousy...

Today was a "Spirit Day" at SCS, and no, that doesn't involve a second act of grace or dancing in the isle. It's a day for the kids to leave the uniform at home, and dress in costume for a theme of sorts. This celebration has given me time to reflect on my own grumpy bear tendencies to dislike dress up days.

I think the real reason I don't love costume days is that I've mostly been too broke to make up for my lack of imagination. Allow me to explain: The two kinds of good costumes I see either cost a lot of money, or have as serious amount of imagination. I have neither of those things, though I must admit my "Sexy Lumberjack" Halloween costume was a stroke of genius(pasty white hairy legs in short shorts really set this one off:0). I'm cheap enough to never wanna buy a good costume, but my limited imagination disallows truly great inexpensive options.

Oh well... guess I'll just have to stick with the Sexy Lumberjack year after year...

Commercials

I was preparing a very nice 3 egg, broccoli, onion & bell pepper scramble served over brown rice this morning, and a strange thing happened. Out of the blue--and for no apparent reason--I got The Shane Co.'s commercial playing repeat style through my head. You know, "Now YOU have a friend in the diamond business... The Shane Company. Located on the corner of Highway 217 and Scholls Ferry Road..." It made me laugh out loud when I realized what was going on. Kisha asked what was up, so I told her, and something about saying it out loud made me wanna sing, "5-8-8-2-300, EMPIRE!" This has got to be some sort of mental regression.

In other news, the Davis family took a trip to the coast, so I've been driving myself to work for the past 4 days. It reminds me of being home... you know, where I would drive myself to work and then drive myself home, and have all that really good thinking time with just me, road noise, and my stereo. It's funny, but I think cars are culturally American. Once we become adults, and sometimes BEFORE we've reached maturity, we rarely go without a car. At least in middle class America. If you drive a car on your own, do me a favor: next time you get in, say a little prayer of thanx to the Good Lord. You've been blessed!

Hardcore For Breakfast

I'm not entirely sure why, but lately I've been feeling lousy in the mornings. Normally I'd put on some Miles Davis or Bob Marley, but lately that stuff that usually helps me ease into the morning hasn't improved my mood.

What has been improving my mood is Nine Inch Nails, POD, and TOOL. How is having hardcore for breakfast helping my feelers? I dunno, but since it's working Imma keep doin' it!

Turn that junk up to 11!!!

Spurts

It's funny how blogging comes in spurts. Some weeks I'm prolific with it all, and other weeks I'm so blah that I can barely write.

The world has simply been moving around me. I've not been all that proactive about anything, and thus things just seem to be happening. It is as it should be, because I'm mostly just waiting for June 12. I suspect that the last week before I leave will be somewhat chaotic, but I'm still a month away from all that. For now I just need to stick to the lesson plans and finish the school year strong.

I have been reading more, which I think will eventually lead to some theological bubbling-over.

Citizenship, Regardless of Leadership

Living in a foreign country makes me think of citizenship in ways I never have before. Here in La Vega there are snapshots of the way people feel about their citizenship. A lot of Dominicans want to identify with me immediately, so they let me know they're trying to get a visa to visit New York (because NY is probably very close to Oregon, and by the way do I know anyone at the embassy that can make their paperwork go faster?). The other foreigners that I see down here are quite quick to recognize how things are in THEIR COUNTRY.

I'm one of those foreigners. Shoot, I'm worse, cuz I not only go out of my to note the difference between the US and DR, I also take great pains to tell people how much different Portland is from the rest of the country. I speak fondly of the finer points of having more restaurants per capita than other cities, more hiking trails than most states, and a far milder climate than most places in the world. I tell them that some native american tribes died almost instantly when they encountered the trials of white men because of how easy and unchallenging their lives were near the Rogue River.

Funny, I can't really tell you much about politics back home. My citizenship is tied to a place and a lifestyle, but not so much to the leadership. I read verses like Philippians 1:27 and feel like I know what Paul means; regardless of leadership, we've got a citizenship into a lifestyle that doesn't depend on the president of a company, leader of a church, or director of a program. My allegiance is to a different kind of movement--a movement without a flag, motto, or pledge. I joke about "Jesus For President" as a way of saying that I don't really care who the president of the US is, and really it's true. No matter if Obama or Ron Paul are elected, I will still have my primary citizenship to a God who poured everything into a human form, came and lived with us, and continues to pursue us. I follow an active God who cares for the broken people we consider worthless. I serve a God that can melt a heart that is as numb and hard as my own. Yep.

Prayer

I don't get the current concept of prayer that I perceive from christian subculture. It seems to be the belief that if many people appeal to the omnipotent, God will somehow change God's mind in whatever matter is presented. This observation comes from years of research, and is ignited by my past year teaching at a christian school in the Dominican Republic. It seems that both Dominican and North American teachers have this idea that we should all pray for each other's obscure relatives, friends of friends, and anyone else that has recently contracted cancer, diabetes, or the seasonal head cold. Why else would people ask complete strangers to pray for someone they have never met?

I like community, and I want us to be connected to each other in a very "bodily" way (I say this to mean the way God became a body and did body stuff among us). Let us live together, love together, work together, and worship together. Let us pray together, but not with the mindset that we'll change God's mind. It seems a bit absurd to think that we can somehow impact the creator with our chants or pleas, no matter how "in the will of God" our attitude seems to be at the time. Let us search for God, and let us find that God has been looking for us. Let us pray that we can form relationships and communities that go deep, that we will know how to pray for our friends without having to announce "it's time to take prayer requests." Let us not only think of our own stuff, but be interested in others and what they are doing. (Philippians 2:4)

Tuesday Like Monday

A bit of realistic art from my 7th graders

Yesterday was Dominican Labor Day, so I didn't have to come to work. Instead Kisha and I had the opportunity to go up to a lunch spot in Jarabacoa and spend some time just chillin', walking around the property, having a couple drinks, and visiting the all you can eat buffet. Grampa would be proud... I definitely got my money's worth :0)

It was such a good time that we called Moreno to come pick us up from Parque Duarte so we wouldn't have to spend 15 minutes in the extreme noise that can usually be found between the park and our house. We got ice cream while we waited, and between that and the leisurely day we had it felt like a mini vacation. Very nice.

I remember we were supposed to be doing this relatively often. The plan was that we'd take plenty of personal days, and we'd be able to afford that because I have a steady, good paying job, after you consider the cost of living difference. But the ideal never really happened. Most things here are pretty expensive, and with the exception of rent I'd say that life is as expensive or more expensive as life in Portland (i.e. gas is somewhere around US$6.50/gallon). We can't cut away because we can't afford to.

I'm not really too upset about the money thing, but I will be happy to get home, where I know the tricks for saving money while still maintaining some manner of sanity. I could really go for some Halo on Kyle's Xbox right about now! Gaming makes my Tuesdays like Monday a great deal better.