luke 2:8-14

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 

Merry Christmas.

favorite christmas book

"and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them..."
  "shazaaammmm!"
"what?"
  "with a vengeance in darkness, the mighty marvel!"
"gladys, i don't know what you're talking about."
  "the mighty marvel in wonder comics."
"no, this is the angel of the Lord."
  "out of nowhere, right? in the black night, right?"
"well, yes, in a way."
  "shazaaammmm!"

[the best christmas pageant ever]

thoughts on OCS

officer candidate school so far can be best summed up in the words of the immortal clark w. griswold:

"hallelujah, holy shit. where's the tylenol?"

the final countdown

i leave for military training in exactly 2 1/2 days.

hoo boy.

happy election day

my dad spent the morning giving his employees their year-to-date tax totals as an election day incentive to vote against liberals. awesome.

double double, toil and trouble

went to a rock concert last night. saw james bond, a lumberjack, superman, and a giant chicken singing along to queen.

i love halloween.

and we wonder why he's still a bachelor?

danny: "isn't being a groomsman kind of like being a pall bearer?"

new job

i'm working for my dad again. i think this will be good preparation for the navy. i work with all men, i'm surrounded by machinery, everything is covered in a layer of dirt and grease, and belching is a prolific occurrence.

the perfect man

i've figured out who he is.

the looks of henry cavill, the voice of josh turner, the brain of winston churchill, the politics of ronald reagan, and the personality of jim halpert.

now the trick is to find this elusive creature...

i have a problem

me: "i have 90 history books from grad school and college...i need an intervention."
john: "you don't need an intervention. you need a card catalog."

i have seen my future and it is freezing

me: "how cold does it get in newport in the winter?"
dad: "pretty cold. and you'll be stationed out on the Point."
mary: "oooooh. that sounds cold AND windy."

sigh...

did i miss the four horsemen?

this morning i signed my mother up for facebook.

the world as i know it has ceased to exist.

beautiful things

the world is full of beautiful things
butterfly wings, fairy tale kings
and each new day undoubtedly brings
still more beautiful things

the world abounds with many delights
magical sights, fanciful flights
and those who dream on beautiful nights
dream of beautiful things...






i've always found this song to be very haunting, yet at the same time it manages to ignite my imagination in ways few things do.

listening to it makes me see starry skies, hear wind, and feel magic.

take me out to the ball game

tonight i went to the ballpark and had chicken tenders, french fries, beer, and funnel cake.

lots and lots of funnel cake.

i love baseball. any sport that centers this much around food has got to be good.



tonight was my second nationals game of the season, and it was stunningly less impressive than the first (which happened to be last night...yes, i went to see two major league baseball games in as many days...i love baseball). last night dunn hit three home runs, one of which was a triple, and they won 7 to 6 against the padres. awesome game and extremely entertaining. especially since my group included two british guys, one of whom was visiting from england and hadn't ever seen baseball before. he was fascinated with how laid back everything was. i guess compared to european premier league soccer, it is pretty chill. so the game was great. tonight however...they lost something like 7 to 1. sadly, the fluke winning streak (2 games) seems to be over and we're back to the nats that we all know and love.

one of these days this town is going to get a team that doesn't suck overall (redskins, nats, wizards) and doesn't choke in the playoffs (caps...blame it on the russians).

words fail me

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 4, 2010; 1:08 AM

ISLIP TERRACE, N.Y. -- Police say a man lighting fireworks has blown off his arm at a party on New York's Long Island.

Suffolk County police say 36-year-old Eric Smith was using a 3-foot long metal tube to shoot mortars from the street near his Islip (EYE'-slip) Terrace home around 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

Police believe he leaned over the device to ignite it and didn't get out of the way before an explosive shot out of the launcher. His left arm was severed at the shoulder.

Smith was taken to Southside Hospital in serious condition while friends packed the lost limb in ice to try to save it. Police believe doctors will try to reattach his arm.

A hospital spokesman didn't immediately return a call.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states...

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

147 years

the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. it is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

[a. lincoln. 19 november 1863]

people today have no concept of all the sacrifice that has gone into keeping liberty the core value of this country. it's so sad to see it all just slipping away...

been dealing with the system a long time

me: "last time i wasn't on the base access list, so today i'm not only bringing printed copies of the entire email chain between my recruiter and the access control officer AND my printed patient appointment log, but i have highlighted them both to emphasize the important information showing that they need to let me through that gate this morning."

meredith: "you are a bureaucratic rock star."

success

20 full push-ups!

what's been amazing about this isn't this particular accomplishment. it's the fact that the second you (if you're a girl) mentions that you're trying to do push-ups, every male in your life will have advice on the best way to do them, train for them, do more of them, etc. they will come out of the woodwork to tell you how to do them better. it doesn't matter if they are a person who looks like the last time he did a push-up was for the presidential fitness test in the 5th grade. he's immediately a world expert. i'm getting emails, advice at bbq's, discussing it on hiking trips. my students are even sending me facebook messages about it, all with helpful hints.

don't get me wrong. i'm certainly not complaining. i just find it amusing (and, i'll admit it, pretty cute too). and some of the advice has been really helpful. the ironic thing is that the best advice has come from my father, who didn't attempt to fix my form, training methods, or exercise plan. he told me about the tricks that surface nukes (aka. the navy's geek brigade) use to survive push-up day. in his words, "i am an expert at passing physical fitness tests, without actually being physically fit." apparently you need to do as many as possible before you have to breathe. this method does wonders. and if you do them fast enough, they'll never notice (or care) that you're not actually going as far down as you're supposed to.

my father is a genius.

on an slightly related side note, tomorrow i get to spend the whole day at bethesda, trying to convince a whole group of navy doctors that my various genetic and childhood medical issues aren't going to keep me from being able to make power points.

get fit or die

i've got about three weeks before i have to be able to do 20 push-ups. right now i'm at 10.

i'm going to do this if it kills me.

class trips

you haven't really lived until you've spent two weeks at the beach with teenagers.

summer is almost here

if i could sum up my hopes for and vision of my summer in one picture, this would be it.

and the waiting game begins

supposedly the selection boards met on monday. i don't think i can make it another two weeks.

end scene

and...done.

24 hours to freedom

i'm sitting on the floor in the corner of my dining room next to the washing machine, hiding behind the table, wearing earplugs, and drinking tea by the gallon.

i'm going to get this paper finished tonight if it kills me.

nearing the end

in ten days, i will have my life back. granted, over the course of those ten days, i have to:

1.) finish my movie project
2.) write the final report for my movie project
3.) finish my ridiculously complicated 25 page research paper
4.) prepare a presentation on the ridiculously complicated research paper
5.) get my AP kids to pass their exams
6.) finish planning prom
7.) survive prom

so it's not exactly the easiest ten days. but at the end of it, life will be beautiful.

also

the horde of extremely drunk, very loud, tone deaf st. paddy's revelers outside my window are singing n*sync. awesome.

yet another thing to add to the list

got the official word yesterday that my school is shutting down at the end of this school year. we just don't have enough students to get the money we need to keep paying our rent, and every year enrollment keeps dropping. that's the problem with small schools: the smaller you get, the harder it becomes to get more students because people are afraid the school will end up closing. which is exactly what happened. i'm not as upset as i thought i would be; i'm mainly just sad for my juniors. although we are going on their senior trip this year (meaning that i get to spend three weeks at the beach in june) and we're setting up a dual-enrollment program for the community college so they can still graduate from the same school.

so, i'm now job hunting. again. i can't put into words how much i hate this process, particularly when it involves dealing with the every-annoying usajobs website and the stupid hiring regulations of the federal government. specifically the fact that a computer screens your resume before an actual person sees it. sigh...

but i have one potential lead which may pan out into something really awesome. we shall see.

fleeting

i've realized that i've started marking the passage of time by the increments between me telling the annoying message about updating my anti-virus software to remind me again in 15 days. every time i turn around, there that little box is, reminding me that my life is quickly zipping by. sigh...

just a man and his will to survive

from: laura
to: meredith
date: thu, jan 14, 2010 at 3:07 p.m.

one of my juniors just did a presentation recreating the battle of chancellorsville using green army men and lego figures choreographed to "eye of the tiger".

it pretty much made my day.




from: meredith
to: laura
date: thu, jan 1, 2010 at 4:19 p.m.

this is one of those moments when you know you've made a difference in the life of a child.

back to school

me: "my classroom has been invaded."
mike: "by aliens??"
me: "no, teenage boys."
mike: "i think that counts."