Hobby airport

I'd just like to inform the world that may be considering flying to houston. If you're destination is on the south end of the city definitely consider using hobby airport. I've never seen nicer restrooms in an airport. Never. The stalls are all family size. There were 3 hooks to use - better than many dressing rooms at the mall! The sinks are those cool trough like ones with automatic spouts all along. And there's enough general floor space to feel like you can fix your hair without taking up counter space. Oh and the rest of the airport is quiet and relaxed and crowd free. Very nice.

NO inversion

This looks like heaven - clear blue sky! This is the view from my hotel room window. I love the floor the ceiling windows. I love my room. Mostly I just love the weather.

Insights

On this momentous day i'm trying to find some insightful purpose to the contrast of me sitting in a "summit" for high school teachers in my district on small learning communities, compared to where i'd rather be - d.c. "SLC" is the latest greatest idea in closing achievement gaps. I haven't been in the system long enough to gauge how much of a passing fad this may be but my school seems to have a fair amount of skeptics. I know i'm not feeling the vision. I'm just trying to do my duty. I AM feeling the vision, though, of obama being sworn in as our new president. I love historic moments. I want to feel a part of things. Maybe I should shift my desire to being a part of this educational movement. I get to head to houston tomorrow to check out how some great school down there is doing it. Then I can return home and be a big advocate and leader for our school. We'll see how it goes. Here's to a hope in change!

Happy inauguration!

I attended an inaugural ball tonight. Look, bret and I are posing with the president! It was a fabulous party and I was amazed at the number of people I knew there. I bet if i'd stayed longer I could have seen another 10! it was one of those nights I wished I had a camera since there were so many happy pretty people there!

nerves

ugh! some of you may not know, but about 5 years ago i got a bad back ache that resulted in a less than normal right foot/leg - a bit of numbness has remained. well... two days ago my right hand started to tingle. i started fearing a similar problem as my foot. but then yesterday i was tingle/pain free! who knows why but i was happy. trouble is, this morning, it came back. this time i think i sense more of an ache or tightness in my shoulder, so that's probably causing it - but really - won't it please go away?! i don't need this in my life.

starting monday right

it's not often that i wake up on a monday ready to go. but today i did. not sure why. could be a great sunday evening. i got to hear president monson speaking to the young adults of the church - he's a funny man with good advice. i definitely came away uplifted and happy to be alive - challenges and all. so when i got up this morning i happily did my sun salutations, made a delicous lunch of roast beef sandwich on 10 grain bread with a fuji apple for dessert. i think another reason for my happy monday morning was that i decided before going to bed that i was going to wear jeans today. in fact, since our ward is having a luau for family home evening tonight, i went ahead and wore my nearly hawaiian shirt to school. (it's from the philippines and is not quite the perfect print, but the cut works and it's super comfy plus associated with great memories.) anyway, to really top off my monday morning, one of my yearbook students decided to deliver a plate of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! holy cow how did i get so lucky? it's my favorite flavor. she gave me a good dozen, of which only 5 are left. now who can beat that for a happy monday morning?

Cashews

Covered in chocolate you'd think they'd be pretty good - but really, they're nothing special. Can'teven properly taste the cashew. Now give me an almond and i'd be happy. Or at least dark chocolate. Besides, eating half a pound in one day is a really bad idea on other levels.

iFLY

A few weeks ago I discovered something i'd written on my planner that left me confused, "death." I was happy to finally remember what i'd meant by that. I meant that I was going sky diving. Turns out I just did indoor sky diving so it really wasn't anything near death, although they do require you to sign a lengthy legal document excusing them from liability in case of death. Well, I went yesterday and thought it was pretty stinking fun. If it didn't cost 50 bucks I might really insist everyone try it. I got to go for free. Hooray for free passes!

Potluck!

Every year some old friends and I gather for a "corner girls" reunion. We usually do potluck. This year we lucked out with a delicious array, if somewhat beige. The hostess was going to make soup but forgot we were coming so instead she pulled out the baklava and some of the best chocolate around. I brought homemade bread to go with the soup. We also had chinese pot stickers, south west egg rolls (that chile's can get pretty creative), and pastilla (selling is probably way off) that's a chicken dish from ethiopia. I loved the variety of food but mostly I loved the company!