Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plain

Painting of Historic Route 66 in a garage at the
Blue Swallow Motel

Yes, we are in Oklahoma tonight.  Rain and tornados followed behind us for an hour or two, but we are safely tucked in for the night.  There are lots of full hotels in the area, though (this is the second one we stopped at).  And parking lots filled with trucks--workers obviously here to clean up after last week's tornados.  We are planning to leave early in the morning to escape this somewhat unnerving state.

Appropriate sign at the ghost town of Cuevo, NM

Still, we had another excellent day of travel from New Mexico, across the Texas panhandle and halfway across Oklahoma.  We had thought we'd be good and stay off Route 66, but several times were side-tracked to points of interest, often pulling a U-turn to go back to something we'd passed.  Once, we were saved from a possible accident because we stopped at the ghost town (literally) of Cuervo, NM.  We actually turned around and went up a (deserted) one-way street (for a bit) to get back to it.  We got out and explored the abandoned buildings before moving on...right into a traffic stand-still of mostly tractor trailer trucks (reminded me of our border crossing from Zambia into Botswana, going through all those trucks on foot).  Turns out it was an accident involving two motorcycles.  Looked worse than it probably was, though.

The Mexican eatery where we ate our lunch.

We took a couple of detours onto Route 66 just to break the monotony.  We saw a lot of cool signs and buildings and ate at a home-town, home-cooked Mexican place called "Unburritable."  Loved that name!  The food was pretty good, too.  Another Route 66 stop was the Blue Swallow Motel (look it up, it's pretty cool).  We met the owner and got a tour of the place.  Quite charming!

We stopped briefly in Amarillo to get something to drink at Starbuck (Iced Chai Latte for me) and to see the Cadillac Ranch, an interesting art instillation in the middle of a cow pasture.  We saw many other interesting things along the roadside as we whizzed by, looking them up on my trusty 3G iPhone so we could be truly enlightened travelers :)

Here are some of my favorite photos of the nearly 300 we took today:

Joe Bear and La Rosa de Lima at a
Hispanic Catholic Church we
stopped at (we saw the spire and
drove through the village until we
found it).

Abandoned home next door to the church at Cuevo, NM.

Linda's artistic view of the house and church.

The Cadillac Ranch--10 Cadillacs in the middle of
a cow pasture!!!

Close up of the half-buried Cadillacs.

Linda and Rondi in the heat of the day in the
middle of a cow pasture looking at Cadillac
graffiti!!!

The Blue Swallow Motel

Linda hanging out with some bikers along Route 66 :)

For the numerically challenged!

A giant cross by a church surrounded by
much smaller crosses.

Welcome to Oklahoma!

Bright colors along the roadside in OK.

More bright colors

Wind generators along the OK roadside.

On the Road Again

Rock formation in the White Mountains along the Salt
River

So.  I was going to fly home tomorrow to Boston/Maine to spend most of the summer with my parents.  But something happened on the way to the airport and I ended up in Albuquerque, New Mexico instead.  Well, it wasn't quite that dramatic, but I did have a change in plans and am now at the start of a cross-country road trip to Maryland with my friend Linda.  We are driving in her VW van and boy did we have an excellent first day, although we only went about 400 miles in 12 hours.  That's because we kept side-tracking ourselves, having first decided that we would take the scenic route 60 out of Arizona instead of the expedient route 40.  We do not regret our choice.

This is our VW van reflected in a Saddle Shop's window.

Love the name:  Drift Inn Saloon.  I also saw Rode
Inn Hotel!

Turns out there are many, many interesting things to see on the back roads of southeastern Arizona.  This is an area neither of us have explored, so we were all agog often.  Sometimes it was funny road signs, sometimes it was hilarious store signs or amazing sculptures made out of motorcycle parts or cowboys alongside a covered wagon or VLA telescopes (very large array) or throwback Western villages and towns or buffalo or pronghorn antelopes, or any number of other interesting things that kept us from making much headway.

We will make up for lost time tomorrow.  We will be good girls and stick to the highway as much as we can through the boring parts of Texas and Oklahoma.  But we don't promise to take a few side trips when we just can't stand it one minute more on the 75 mph freeway.  If we see a sign for a museum or library, we might just take off to see what we can find.

For now, though, our adventures have halted and we are spending the night in a Best Western Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We had fun today, but were more than ready to stop for the night.  Tomorrow will be another adventure, I am sure :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Hilarious signs at the Drift Inn Saloon

I've heard of "Open" and "Closed" signs.  Never saw
a "Shut" sign before!

For our friend Sara :)

Yes, we did go down this curvy road from the
mountain top into the canyon and back up!

"Rambo" (Artist named him!)

A genuine Rembrandt in the town of
Springerville on the border of Arizona
and New Mexico.

This sign caused us to turn around and go back
to see the little library in the middle nowhere
and nothing (see below).

Entrance to the Cabin Library.  So quaint!

A cowboy and his covered wagon.

Joe bear kept us company.

Salt River in the White Mountains of Arizona

Seventh-day Adventist Church in Springerville, AZ

The long and not-winding road!

Windmills

Barn near the quaint little library. 

Linda and Joe Bear, my companions
on this road trip.

Linda and I decided we were works
of art :)  We're in an art gallery
in Springerville, AZ.

We ate lunch in the Java Blues
restaurant.  Sign says "All Gamblers
and Fancy Women must sign up with the captain
before boat leaves for New Orleans!"

Zambia Mornings

I've been in Livingstone, Zambia, on a mission trip for the past week with a group of 45 students and adults connected with my school.  It's been an amazing experience to say the least.  Today is our last day of work before we conclude the trip with two excursion days--tomorrow to Botswana for a safari and Friday to Livingstone and Victoria Falls for various experiences (including bungee jumping for a few!).  My job on this trip has been to keep in touch with the parents.  I chose to do that via a blog--Into Africa (www.taamissiontrip2013.blogspot.com).  Because the internet is slow at night when everyone is here using their phones and such, I spend the days at the lodge writing while everyone else is out working.  It has been peaceful and quiet, these African mornings.  Quiet enough to write a poem :) 

In the morning

there is the table at the edge

of the Kaazmein Lodge patio.
In the morning

there is my computer, a pen,

my much-traveled journal,

the bottled water with its

hard-to-open caps.

And always there is

the blue African sky.

There are sometimes companions

(Robbie, Jacob, Christi one day;

Ahilyn, Adrian, Narce,

Alejandra on another).

There are brightly colored squares

on the black table cloths.

Workers are sweeping--

calling good morning to me

while tending to business and

listening to canned music.

There are zebras grazing

peacefully,

wildly.

And always there is

the cool-yet-warm African breeze.

My view looks across

the patio to a footbridge,

and an island.

Mornings, there are

African kingfishers,

African mockingbirds,

African herons.  Or bitterns.

Or some other kind of

long-legged African water bird.

My job on this trip is to write--

a thing I’ve often longed to do

in the quiet of the morning

at a table with a view,

a breeze,

and sometimes a companion

or two.

My job on this trip is to share—

to put into words an experience

that defies words.

My roommate asks how

we will be able to share

all we’ve experienced.

We can’t I say.

We can try, but words

—which I love—

cannot

do justice

to

Zambian Mornings.

~ Rondi Aastrup
   Kaazmein Lodge
   Livingstone, Zambia

Relief and Accomplishment

For the past month, I've been working on a big editing project.  One that has required us to reflect.  One that has asked us to look at the key experiences of the past six years of our school's life.  We are preparing for our accreditation visit next month and I'm on the writing and editing team for the self-study.  It has been an interesting journey.  My assignments were to write chapter one (the school profile), head up the focus group about curriculum and instruction, and then edit the whole project.  Last week, I was editing every spare moment.  Some sections went through three and four edits, and some are first drafts (and it shows).  When different people are writing different sections, it's challenging to try to put it all together as if it came from one source, one voice.  Hence the late nights and the hours (five and six hours each the past two nights) of work after a full day of teaching!!!  All told, I logged over 50 hours of overtime--for which I cannot be paid since I'm on salary.  Something's a little skewed about that, but that's another story. . .  

All of those 50+ hours, I was accompanied by my friend and colleague, Jill.  She is actually the leader of the whole project and she truly has put her heart and soul into it.  She was able to take Monday off as we finally put the project in the mail to the visiting team at about 5 p.m. last Sunday.  I took a few hours off, but didn't want to miss out on my teaching.  The principal sent us out to dinner and a show Wednesday night, though, and we had a good time, first going to Brios for supper (delicious) and then to the Mesa Arts Center to see The Good Lovelies in concert.  Now, prior to last week, I had barely heard of this band, but Jill knew their music and really wanted to go.  I'm always game to learn new things, so I didn't mind going...and was pleasantly surprised and the delightful time we had there.

Our seats were great--third row in a small, intimate theatre that held about 200.  This women's trio of Canadian folk singers were funny...and good.  It was somewhat of a shock, though, to look around us and see that we were, besides the singers, the youngest people in the room, by far.  Don't know why that demographic...but we all enjoyed ourselves.  The girls kept saying "thank you for coming.  You're all so attentive!  And it's true.  The audience was on their best symphony hall behavior, quietly listening during the songs and clapping enthusiastically at their conclusion.  We also gave them a standing ovation at the end, which I believe delighted the singers enormously.  They are relatively new--only about 6 years old as a band.  I was impressed.

Of course you pay for doing something like that mid-week.  I have indeed been scrambling ever since to get everything done that needed doing before this day ended. But...it's all done now.  And so I go to my rest tonight tired, but with an enormous sense of relief and accomplishment . . .

The Good of Experience

"What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?"  ~ Frederick II

 Reflect on your key experiences of the past year or so.  What stands out?  What have you learned?  What more do you have to learn to become the person you want to be?  Kind of loaded questions I think.  Important to consider, though.

[Those were the writing prompts from Thursday.  I didn't have time to write much then, but have finished the thoughts I started with my classes from that day.]

So . . . what are some of the key experiences I've had this past year or so?  What stands out for me?  Professionally, I think I've had opportunities to stretch myself.  Two years ago, I was "just" teaching, not really wanting to do anything else for awhile.  I had come off five years of being principal, of doing something that I was passionate about, but didn't really want to be doing (paradox?).  I needed space.  I needed to learn to breathe again.  So I left Boston and moved to Phoenix, left administration to go back to only teaching.  The next year, I got back into a bit of administration--mostly in an advisory capacity--just enough to make it interesting, not enough to overwhelm me.

This year, though, I have a lot more to do in that department.  It's almost as if I have one foot in each camp--classroom and administration building.  It's been challenging...and draining.  Part of me want to go back to "just" teaching again.  It's certainly easier and far less stressful.  But clearly that is not possible for me.  I cannot seem to steer clear.  I have finally given up the fight and have accepted that I will never again be able to "just" teach.  It seems that God has something else in store for me . . .  Looking back, I find that I do not regret letting go of my plans and following where God leads.  Looking back, I see clearly what I could not always see in the moment.  Looking back--reflecting--I see the good of very experience and I see that, in God's hands, all things work together for good.  That is the good of experience.  And reflection.

Blessings, part 2

Not only is today's writing "Blessings, part 2," it's writing-with-sophomores, part 2.  My T/Th section of sophomores is a little bit bigger class, but aside from numbers, they are basically the same...interested and eager learners for the most part.  A fun group to teach and work with.  We are listening to Yo Yo Ma while we write...another one of the blessings in my life :)

When I was thinking of the word "blessings" a few minutes ago, I thought of how many of my friends end their letters with the word "blessings."  Quite a few of them do in fact, both male and female.  In a way, it's kind of a throw-away tag line, maybe even a trendy one.  I know when I first became a principal I was concerned (not in a major way) about how I would end--and begin, for that matter--any communication I sent from my office.  My direct supervisor always ended his missives with "4 His Kids."  His supervisor closed hers with, you got it, "Blessings."  So...what was my tag line going to be?   Truth?  I never did figure it out.  Many times it would be "Take Care."  But that would depend on how well I knew the recipient.  Most of the time, I just tried to say something that sounded like a satisfying ending...almost like the ending of an essay!  My salutation dilemma I solved with a simple "Good Morning," "Good Afternoon," or "Good Evening," depending on when I was writing.

But back to the blessings.  A blessing today is our Week of Prayer speaker.  He looks almost exactly like Kris Kristofferson, but few of our students would know who that was.  They think he looks like Jesus, a dirty-blond-haired Jesus.  And he's telling them some pretty cool stories of Jesus, so in a way, that fits.  Anyway, he's been a huge blessing to us and it's only his second day.

Looking Back to Yesteryear

My second day (and third class period) of writing with my students.  This time it's seniors.  The lucky 13 in my first-thing-in-the-morning British literature class.  We're studying Hamlet and, unfortunately, had to take a three-week break right in the middle of it, so today we'll be looking back in order to understand the things that lie ahead (see the quote from yesterday's first entry) in Hamlet's life.  But first, they are writing.

It's interesting to go through a "last semester of high school" with seniors.  They struggle with wanting to get out now and hang on as long as they can.  They are done (or want to be) with high school work, but not necessarily high school life.  Especially in a boarding school environment, I think.  For me, I have to literally look all the way back to my senior year to remember what it was like for me so I can give them my best as we go through this last semester together.  Sometimes, especially as the end nears, I feel frantic that I didn't do enough, that I didn't tell enough, that I didn't take enough time with them--as a class or as individuals.  I don't like having regrets, but that's always one of them every year.

So, what are things that I need to work on?  Using my time better in class?  Using my influence more out of class?  Going back to my thoughts of yesterday about content of character as opposed to content of essay . . . what do I give them?  What do I say and do to help them know they need Jesus more than any single other thing in their lives????

Blessings

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."  --Charles Dickens

This is the second writing prompt of the day for my sophomores.  What are your present blessings?  List and reflect them.  Well, one of my blessings, for sure, is my students.  I feel a great happiness when I think of them and see them learning and growing.  This writing year that we spend together is not easy.  And there's not a lot of "fun" literature because it's more about them as writers than others.  But they have worked hard.  I've not had to struggle to keep them focused.  I've not had to beg or bribe them.  I know they wish it could be more "interesting" at times, but it is always practical.  Even now.  And they get that.  What a blessing!

Another blessing is my family.  I spent almost all of Christmas vacation with them.  This was a longer break than usual, too, so I made the most of it.  I miss my family a great deal.  It's a real challenge to be without them, so any opportunity to be with them is a blessing.

My friends are a blessing, too.  I have many...too many to count, but not too many to appreciate.  Here, at Thunderbird, each one is very different from the other.  There are not many overlaps in interests--or time together.  That's been interesting to me, to virtually have a different friend for many of the interests in my life.  Last night I went and watched Downton Abby with one of those friends and had a great time laughing and enjoying the life of 1920s Britishers.  I look forward to next week's episode and the time to share again.

Semester Reflections

"Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead." --Unknown

I'm writing with my students today.  It's been awhile since I've done that.  Years ago, I did it all the time.  Actually kept a journal in my classroom and wrote whenever I had them write.  I got away from it for some reason and have missed it.  Today, at the beginning of a new semester, I've resolved to get back to it.

So it's 1:10 p.m.  I have 16 sophomores in the room, heads bent over the page reflecting on the past semester.  What are things that worked in your academic life?  What are things that need work this new semester?  What will you do to assure success in 2013?  I love the sounds of thinking!  It's a beautiful thing to see and hear.

And what is it that I saw and heard from them last semester?  And what did they see and hear from me?  We learned to write from the ground up.  Bit by bit, piece by piece, we learned how to build an essay.  For some, it was easy.  The words flowed easily and smoothly.  There was no struggle to let them loose from their mind.  Others had to fight--with themselves, with those around them, with the distractions that are part of an active classroom.  But they learned.  And so did I.

There are always things that I know for sure work.  And then there are those I need to work on.  It's sometimes hard for me to explain something that comes so easily for me.  Not that writing is easy.  But I know how to do it...  So I have to try to remember what it's like to not know.  And sometimes that frustration keeps me from doing my best.  That's what I will work to improve this semester.

Now, it's nearly 2:30 and I have the AP class with me.  This is a full classroom of juniors and seniors.  With them, I want to do more serious academic writing and thinking.  We've had a good semester, and they've done well, but we need to start focusing on the test prep.  I don't like teaching to a test.  Something in me rebels against that.  I don't know what exactly.  I like the freedom to determine what is important for my students and that takes it all away from me.  Which may be what frustrates me.  I am far more interested in the content of their characters than in the content of their essays!  But that makes it a little difficult to take an AP test if all I've done with them is develop who they are . . . and not what others think they should know.

Empty Nest = Full Nest

I've been reading quite a few Facebook posts from friends who have college-aged children.  Most of them are bemoaning the quietness of their homes now that those children have gone back to school.  I understand that loss, but it rather amuses me that I, on the other hand, am somewhat bemoaning the fact that tomorrow, I will be getting up early to face a not-so-quiet classroom full of children who have left their homes today to come back to school (I work at a boarding school).

While the quietness of my classroom beckons at the moment, I will be ready to exchange it somewhere around 10 tomorrow.  While I've enjoyed the break--longer than I usually have at this time by a few days thanks to the calendar--I am ready to get back to the regular routine (although it's anything but routine!).  What is an empty nest for some will become a full nest for me.  I look forward to it!