The Return is coming

I've been away for almost 2 months, a lot has happened, but I'm coming back. The changes will be coming soon.

THE LIST

To inspire creativity, create more writing prompts for next year, and as extra credit, I had my students create a list of 100 things they want to do before they die. In return, the students started bugging me about my own list. So I thought it would be a good idea to throw it up on here too. I can't show the crossed out ones, but here's the original list, created about 8-10 years ago, I can't remember....

1. MOVE OUT OF NEW JERSEY
2. write a novel
3. see all seven continents
4. have a professional career in teaching
5. own my own Ducati motorcycle
6. MOVE TO AND LIVE IN COLORADO
7. get my master's degree
8. kiss a girl while skydiving
9. play tennis competitively again
10. become a published author
11. have someone ask and sign an autograph
12. learn a martial art
13. drive a motorcycle down the Auto Bahn
14. work at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City
15. ski 50 days in a single ske season
16. own and rebuild a Triumph motorcycle
17. invent my own ice cream flavor
18. ride a motorcycle across the country
19. drink an entire bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup
20. stow away on a ship to South America
21. get a degree from a top ten school in the world
22. visit the seven wonders of the world
23. win a poker tournament in Vegas
24. not break more than 10 bones
25. be able to test drive a Ferrari because I'm "Dr. Songero"
26. join the circus and travel with them
27. ski in every continent
28. complete a triathlon
29. ride on 50 different roller coasters
30.learn to play a musical instrument
31. ski in every state on the east coast
32. spend a night in the Hong Kong gambling underworld
33. date a stripper and convince her to quit her job for me
34. create a hysterical drunken toast at a wedding
35. spend an entire summer in Sicily
36. try over 100 types of beer
37. learn to salsa dance
38. actually hit with a tennis pro on court
39. steal a giant trail map from a ski resort
40. write and publish a play
41. fly a plane
42. work for a newspaper
43. take boxing lessons
44. do the Running of the Bulls in Spain
45. skip church for over 10 years
46. see Les Miserables on Broadway
47. have dinner with a celebrity
48. own an exotic pet
49. get a PhD and teach in a university
50. sell my novel to a major publishing house
51. kiss a girl while riding the gondola throughout Venice
52. have a job as a department chair
53. swing dance really well
54. ski from one country to another
55. see Metallica live five times
56. design a nationally televised TV commercial
57. cook my mother's lasagna or veal cordon bleu for a date
58. take a class at the Sorbonne
59. win a case against a cop for a speeding ticket
60. go to all four grand slam tennis tournaments live
61. take a mobster's money in a poker game and give it to charity
62. eat grits
63. learn and speak the Romantic languages
64. learn how to play golf
65. own an original Dali portrait
66. have Beluga caviar and Havana cigars displayed in my own office
67. run a 6 minute mile
68. drink vodka in Russia
69. scuba dive in the Aegean Sea
70. spend a night in jail
71. buy and listen to an entire country music CD
72. see all 50 states
73. fill up an entire refrigerator with chocolate milk and nothing else
74. live in Japan for only 6 months to a year
75. develop an addictive habit and break it
76. live in Italy for a few years
77. get an autograph from Patrick Ewing and John Starks
78. take a tour of the White House
79. own a sphinx cat
80. take a multi-day hike in the highlands of Scotland
81. go bungi jumping off of a bridge
82. try and eat 50 doughnuts in one sitting
83. go scuba diving and swin with sand sharks
84. go on a safari riding an exotic animal
85. perform stand-up in front of a live audience
86. shoot a gun
87. collect enough Joe Camel dollars from smokers to get something for free
88. live in Paris for a few years
89. visit Bruce Lee's grave in Seattle
90. have my parents come to me for help with writing
91. become handy around the house
92. learn to eat and enjoy seafood
93. learn to eat spicy food
94. tour Iran and buy Persian art
95. get in a fight and beat up the kid that bullied me in school
96. date a stewardress
97. own both a Ducati and BMW motorcycle and alternate days riding them
98. sing in public on a holiday or special occasion
99. go camping
100. be able to complete and start another list of 100 things to do

Ends, beginnings, and having Faith

No question about it, this was one of the best skiing seasons ever. I'm skiing the bumps better than I ever have in my life. But as I thought about going up this weekend, I realized that ski season is over. As much as I didn't want it to be, it's time to accept the fact that ski season is over. Great year, and next year will hopefully be even better, but time to move on.

On the other hand, my greatest hope is that tennis season is just beginning and will actually last this time around. Tennis is what I love the most. No matter what activity I do, absolutely nothing relaxes me more than tennis. It's hard to explain, but I can focus far more when I'm hitting-- the rest of the world goes away and it's relaxing more than anything else. My only concern is my health, time after time after time, I get hurt and it keeps me away from the game. But this time I'm holding out for faith, faith that if I go slowly I'll be back to playing competively again. It's not about winning (although more trophies would be nice), it's about being in a tough match. Win or lose, it's about being in those situations because that's what's relaxing to me.

Speaking of Faith, I hope things continue to stay well with her. The hardest part of getting to know someone is when two people can only catch each other passing by. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it's rare to find someone as focused and independent as I am. But she's definitely someone that's making me take time out of my life to get to know. As you've read, my life is full of people that are full of shit, don't care about anything, or act and speak based on their own agenda. With Faith, I've never met a more honest person, someone who would never hurt another. For me, it's a great change, I can spend time with her and never have to worry about anything. It's great to trust someone, and it's great to be happy. And I believe she does feel the same. It's worth writing about-- especially when you never get that chance. When you do, hang on to it, it doesn't happen very often.

So this summer has tons of potential. There may be a new job out there for me, I plan on writing my second book, and I'll have to see what happens from there....

In need of real Italian food!

Don't get me wrong, I love living out in Colorado, but one of the biggest drawbacks is that the Italian food out here sucks. Most people out here seem to think that Maggiano's or the Olive Garden is authentic Italian, when a better comparison would be that those two places are the McDonald's of Italian. I do know about Carmine's, which is very good, but otherwise I'm SOL on that. So I'm asking my readers, if you know anyplace, let me know. I'm craving some veal parmesean, scallopini-- a place where they serve romano with you food instead of shakable grated parmasean. It's definitely not like the food I grew up on!

Good news?

I found out last night that my contract has been renewed. However, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. There have been comments about my distance (physical and otherwise) and that it's becoming a problem. My problem with that is that it's not job-related in any way. I like my distance because I really don't like the people I work with. This is my job: I come, I do my very best and work my very hardest, I leave. It's that simple. I'll never be a part of this community.

So now I'm really thinking about quite a bit. Should I renew my contract here? I don't like to quit something I've started, but as my readers know, I don't like it here. So my options right now are to stay, to find a surrounding school, to go teach high school in the city, to go back to the adjunct thing, or just to get the hell out of teaching for a while. Wouldn't it be nice to rely on my writing for once?

One thing that I'm sure about is that I want my PhD. I plan on going to Stanford, and I want my PhD from there. That's the plan for 2008-2009. So, I'm actually asking for feedback for once. Readers, what do you think? Any advice for this next year? Is this place worth coming back to?

The plate is getting pretty full....

This month, along with the end of November, are the worst times of the year for me. The work just piles up, and like a light bulb blazing on, everyone decides they want to do better in school. So here's all the jumble that's going on in my mind. I'm building the brand new English program almost completely from scratch without any help. I have stacks and stacks of papers that I need to give direction to my students on. I also have to complete all my license material, something I haven't really taken seriously all year. I still don't take care about it, because I don't plan on staying in a high school very long. On the other hand, I'm still rushing to cover my curriculum in my college class at ACC, a class that has yet to impress me overall. I'm putting in 12-15 hr. days and I'm exhausted. This has left me very little to spend at the gym or for my writing. The new book, Lost in Tumbleweed, is stalled probably until the summer when I get more time. I've been reading like crazy to complete as much material as I can for the first year exams at Stanford. And I'm studying for the GRE to get my scores up. I'm also working on three academic essays, a personal essay, and other writing projects. Socially, I've hardly seen many of my friends over the last few weeks. I'm kind of bummed that ski season is over. I've met a very special someone in my life that I'm not sure what to do about. More than anything, I value her friendship, and will not sacrifice that for anything. But that's a whole other story.

That's just what's on my plate, though. As busy as I am, things aren't all that bad. School is over in less than a month. As crazy as it seems, things are slowly turning the corner at the school. I actually believe that I can solve the problems here, or a number of them. I'm writing more, and I've been patient with the above mentioned person, and I think she feels the same as I do. More than anything else, what I need right now is rest: plain and simple. When I can, I will....

Good Friday has became great!

It's very simple, I don't have to work tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I'm sitting in on a budget meeting where I raised more than half of the money. This ought to be good since I already know what I'm planning on doing with my money. If you read this soon and have any advice for handling these people without ridiculing them, let me know. Otherwise, I've got to sign off for the time being. Hopefully, I can come back to this later. Maybe, I'll have time to ski instead....that sounds good!