Of the places I've laid down my [car], I think of two I regret

~Fleet Foxes ("So Long to the Headstrong")

I tell people that I have two vices: swearing and speeding.

Apparently, I need to add a third item to the list: being a complete imbecile.

Today, while working my third shift in downtown Bellevue for my new traveling barista job, I, in typical dumbass form, parked in a strip mall lot because I'm afraid of the cost of skyscraper garage parking.

Of course, a $25 parking ticket hurts worse. Much worse. This is my second in as many months. Yep. Now do you see why I need to add that third vice to the list?

So, let's do the math:
3.25 hours of work @ 10/hour = $32.50
1 parking ticket = $25.00
Gas = $3.00
Taxes = the rest (maybe more)

Perfect, just perfect. Although, on the upside, I got to overhear Financial Advisors talk all day about how manic the market is, how everyone should sell Starbucks stock, how this is the perfect time for ME to invest, how the bailout is a brilliant plan, how redistribution of wealth is unfair (easy for them to say) and other political hot topics. Intriguing. Even though this parking ticket makes me want to rip my hair out, I really like my job.

Just a puppet on a lonely string, oh who would ever want to be king?

~Coldplay (Viva la Vida)

I'm back! It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm in one of those "is it even worth writing anything?" moods. But, I'll fight through it. So much has happened in the last five months worth recording and sharing, and though it will most assuredly be out of order, it will be good to write down memories from my time at camp this summer, Europe, and thoughts from the present craziness in the world and my life.

In a somewhat turbulent time of elections and significant trouble for America, and many big (but less noticed because of our own issues at home) international happenings, I keep wondering what I will remember about 2008. My big 401K obliteration? I think I'll be able to buy some saltines when I retire. That'll be nice. The amazingly interesting and questionable turn of events in the Presidential Race the past few months and the sad but unfortunately imminent questions of how some of our country will deal with a President who is a minority (yes, I'm calling it. deal.)? Or, will I be self-centered enough to remember only that 2008 has been the most random, exciting, busy and growth-inducing year of my life thus far? Admittedly, I am old enough now that forgetting any of it should not be permissible.

I watched Charlie Wilson's War with my parents last week, and while my mom and dad couldn't look beyond the nudity and profanity to admit that it was a good movie, I really enjoyed it. Without forging into a full-on review, I'll say this rather ashamedly: I had no idea that the events portrayed in the movie (the US involvement in Afghanistan in the late 80s-90s) had occurred. Granted, I was in preschool when it all began, but I am still surprised that we did not study that relationship and how it deeply effects the history of the past eight years in high school, especially because September 11, 2001 was the second week of my senior year. This realization is also timely because I am now a graduate student again, this time to obtain my master's in teaching, and I keep thinking about the school's responsibility to arm students with the knowledge and understanding of past and present. History and politics were always difficult but interesting subjects to me - how can students realize that understanding their world is so crucial? I was hit with this again just recently when I visited two formerly communist-controlled cities: Berlin and Prague. I learned quite a bit about their history and have a thirst to understand it more fully. Would American students take more interest in and ownership of their education if their country's history was staring them in the face daily in the form of patched up buildings, memorials, political graffiti, and other reminders of what their families have endured in the last few decades?

In one of my classes this quarter, we talk about teaching styles, philosophies and theories. I know I won't fully develop mine until I am in the classroom and have some experience, but the passions I brought in for teaching have only become more strong, even as I realize how difficult it will be to feel I have creative freedom while being told exactly what to do by the district, board and parents. My biggest hope is that I can present science in a way that students will be able to make connections to the world around them, figure out things for themselves, ask questions and realize that learning is the key.

This presidential race has been quite a rollercoaster and promises to deliver surprises in the last week. Oh, how I long for next Tuesday to be over and for our country to start moving in a new direction - united, I hope! One thing is for sure, I would not take that job for anything. I admire and appreciate that there are individuals who are actually willing to take the helm in one of the least desirable times in recent history.

Change is afoot. They think so in Britain, at least.

(I took this photo in a tube station in London in September...this was everywhere!)