WARNING

Over the past couple of years, my husband and I have been watching all of the different Star Trek series season by season. We’ve already watched Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and we are nearly finished with Voyager. Since we have been home for the break, we’ve watched quite a bit more than usual, probably several seasons worth of Voyager in fact. During a recent outburst in which I tried to warn the television characters about the danger of disrupting the space time continuum, my husband pronounced me a genuine Trekkie. I insisted that he was wrong as I’m not one of those Klingon speaking, pointy ear wearing, weirdoes who goes costumed to those crazy conventions. I have to admit though that I might actually be displaying some troubling signs of Trekkie freakishness.

You might have inadvertently become a Trekkie if…

1. The paradox of disrupting the space time continuum no longer seem so complex…they actually make some sense.


2. You think it’s cool to have your picture taken with a Ferengi in Vegas.


3. You have a healthy appreciation of the Prime Directive.


4. You sometimes want to scrap the Prime Directive.


5. You are familiar with the many lives of Dax.


6. You occasionally have to step back from your irrational anger toward the arrogant Captain Janeway.


7. You say things like, “Make it so,” or “Indeed”, or even “You must comply”.


8. You can spot returning actors even if they play an entirely new alien and look nothing like their former role.


9. You can quote the Rules of Acquisition.


10. Someone makes you mad and you call them a “pahtk”.
    

Unfortunately, the fact that a person could even make a list like this might suggest some Trekkish tendencies. And just so you know, if you understand even three or four on the list, you might be in danger yourself.

Red Sock Generosity

I just want to take a minute to brag on my school. When we opened five years ago, we turned the names of a few kids in for Christmas gifts from a local charity. We were glad to do that, but we began to think that maybe we could do something more. A colleague told me about her gift closet that she keeps at her house year round. Basically, as she is out and about doing normal holiday, birthday, or bargain shopping, she picks up extra items that are such great deals it’s silly not to buy them. She gets things that would be appropriate for colleagues, friends, and her kid’s friends. Then when a gift item is needed, she can just pull something from her gift closet. It ends up saving her time and money in the long run. I thought that was ingenious and began a gift closet of my own for students at school. Several people got on that band wagon, and we started adding to the gifts of our needy kids.

We knew that the kids we were helping only represented a portion of the needy kids in our school. So, the other counselor at my school streamlined our information gathering process in an effort to serve even more of our kids and their families. She also pitched the idea for a fund that would augment our gift closets. Because our mascot is the Gladiator, she called it the Gladiangel fund. We held $1 hat days, in order to get it going.

Needless to say, this project has grown a little every year. After the first couple of years, we began adding an outfit and a gift item for all of the kids whose names we continued to turn in to the local Christmas charity; this made a total of three gifts that they would receive. Additionally, the ones that came from us were only labeled with the child’s name. That way, it could be from Santa or the parents.

The number of families asking for help continued to grow, so we began asking teachers or teams of teachers to take on families. Their response was overwhelming. Not only did some of our teachers take families, they started asking for help from their Sunday school classes, small groups, and generous family members. (It is, of course, all kept anonymous - both the givers and receivers.)

This year we served more families than ever, over 35. That translates to approximately 120 kids, and probably 5-10 thousand dollars. During the week that parents picked up gifts, I was met with tears and called Jesus, Santa, an angel, and told “God bless you” countless times. One mother came with a tube connected to her body because she had a hysterectomy that went poorly last month; she was still waiting to be stitched up. Another mother came from the hospital on her way home from having a baby. Another mother came from work, not knowing which relatives were going to let them stay the night that day. Another family continues to heat their home with a home made fireplace in an oil drum with makeshift venting out a window.

Though we served more than ever this year, I know that it still only represents a fraction of the need. I was completely humbled to look into the eyes of that need and realize how extravagantly rich I am in comparison.

May God bless all of those families in need as well as all of those who showed red sock generosity to help them.

Long Time No Post

It's been a while, so I'll just give a brief rundown of recent events.

Thanksgiving was great. My brother and nephews came in for several days. I made their favorites-mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and monkey bread to name a few. We had special bonding time over a long lunch at Gatti's, with lots of tokens to spend, and then caught Fred Clause (which I highly recommend). We played Lights Off Golf, went to Jump 'n Jive, and the park. It was great fun. I just love getting to be the cool aunt.

The next week, I went to Austin with a good friend to attend the Assessment Conference. The conference was good, but the company was better. On one day, after our sessions were over, we headed to a fantastic mall and did a ton of Christmas shopping. I discovered the pinkest girliest store I've ever encountered called Libby Lu's. Perfect for all of my nieces.

The much anticipated 2008 District and Campus Testing Coordinator Manual arrived, and I've been busy reading, highlighting, and tabbing for an exciting new year of testing. OK, mostly I'm being sarcastic, but I have to admit there is the tiniest part of me that actually enjoys reading this stuff. Don't worry, I'm going to seek counseling.

I've been very busy being Santa's helper at my school; more to follow later on this one.

This past weekend, we went to Sudan for Click Christmas. My husband and I invited ourselves out a day early for a little extra visiting. We arrived hours before several inches of snow fell. It was beautiful. We had a nice visit with family and got some nice gifts. I especially enjoyed the impromptu piano recital from my niece and getting to do the honors of tucking her in for bed.

I am truly looking forward to a lazy Christmas break. For the first time since we've been married, we are neither going anywhere nor having anyone here for Christmas. We are not boycotting events or anything so dramatic, it just happened to work out this way. I'm envisioning movie watching, book reading, scrap booking, crocheting, sleeping in, drinking hot chocolate, and other such deliciously leisurely activities.

May all of your holidays be as sweet.