Two Hour Delay Irony

North Carolinians are funny when it comes to snow. When the forecast of snow comes, school is usually cancelled altogether or we have a two hour delay. Two hour delays are my favorite because we still get to count it as a school day and I don't have to make up the hours! Last night the forecast called for "wintry mix" (basically snow and freezing rain mixed together). We all get way excited about two hour delays because that means you get two hours of extra sleep, and who doesn't need that. The school districts usually decide about 4 a.m. what they're going to do. I tell you, waiting for a two hour delay is much like Christmas Eve when you're waiting for the jolly elf to come and visit. You might wake up a couple times in the night just to discover that it's not time yet. It's so frustrating. Then finally when 4 a.m. comes you run to the nearest electronic news carrying device and check! Yes!!! It's a two-hour delay. Two more blessed hours of fabulous sleep! Off to your warm bed you return only to find that you're so excited that it's a two hour delay that you can't sleep. And of course you only really settle down enough to get a mere half hour or so of sleep before it's time to wake up. Ah, the irony....

Friendly Technology

It started with e-mail. I think I got my first e-mail address when I was 15 (it's the one I still use in fact). I had just started working at the library in Richfield, Utah and e-mail was the wave of the future. We had had a 'family' e-mail for a few years through Dad's work, but I decided I needed to venture out and pave my own way into the 21st century. That was kind of it for several years. Yeah I'd dabble in ftps and gophers, chat in the occasional chat room, but e-mail was really it until I got to graduate school.

Utah State University being a land grant university, they had several opportunities to 'try' new things before other universities did. Also, USU was big on branching out...they had satellite campus all over Utah, including the state penitentary. So I had the opportunity to take some Internet or satellite based classes throughout the years. When I came to North Carolina in 2002 to attend graduate school, some of the technology we had been using for years at USU was just starting to show up on the campus of UNC-CH. As I'm one who has always been fairly comfortable with computers I was somehow deemed the "techie" of my cohort and was often called upon for computer trouble shooting. It even landed me a job (a somewhat boring and tedious job, but a job nonetheless). Because this job was so boring I began to entertain myself with web design. I worked with the webmaster of the UNC-CH School of Education so I bugged him for some books and online tutorial sites and off I went. I made my first website using the space UNC-CH allotted me. In hindsight it was much like a blog, but blogs were'nt nearly as cool as they are now...

After I graduated I thought for sure they'd kick me off the bandwidth and move on in life. They haven't, but I did. I was kind of quiet for awhile. I continued to build websites for my church group, but that didn't have any sort of personal touch to it. I'm not sure who it was, but someone convinced me to get a MySpace profile. It took forever to set up with the Mac, but I finally did it! I had pictures and a cute background and even had friends...it was pretty awesome. I wasn't real good about checking my MySpace (because of the Mac issues) but through the years I did connect with a few "long lost" friends. For example, my roommate from college Tara. We were only roommates for one year but it was a pretty great year. I also 'found' a friend from high school (oh the stories to tell there).

Well, then came Facebook. I am now a bonafide Facebook junkie. If I don't check it at least every 24 hours I experience a sense of anxiety over "friend's status" and the witticisms I must come up with to end "Ashlee is..." I obsess about my scores on ridiculous quizzes and curse myself for even trying to compete against some of these fools. But going along with the title of said blog segment, I have come across several friends using Facebook, too. It's like I'm rediscovering my roots...

I have a few friends with blogs and always have enjoyed reading them. They are far more eloquent than I and I will admit that I was somewhat intimidated by the prospect. But I bit the bullet and decided to start this blog anyway. Not that this is anything really exciting (cause it's not). Just for kicks I went down my forever old e-mail address book and pretty much e-mailed everyone telling them about this blog. I didn't even know if half of the e-mails worked, but I thought, "Hey...the worst they can tell me is no." I got some fun comments from my sisters and my tech savvy friend and a comment from my Bishop but I wasn't really expecting anyone from my past to come "rediscover" me. When I looked in my e-mail inbox this morning, however, I had a note from none other than Beau Cartier.

I have (with a tear in my eye) been unable to see Beau Cartier since before his mission. We went to USU and were both RAs with the most fabulous staff. I have been in only minimal contact with those fabulous individuals whom I will love forever and that kind of saddens me. I have tried to find them on MySpace and Facebook but to no avail. Several of them are married and have had babies in the last year so I can only imagine that they don't have copious amounts of free time (like I do) to write ridiculous blogs. But back to Beau. Beau also got married last spring, and apparently his wonderful wife Allisun is keeping him in line and online. Beau and Allisun have a blog!

Again, that fact is not really that remarkable. But I was so excited to "reconnect" in this small way to a piece of my history that I feared might by gone. (One of my greatest pranks was pulled on Beau and it still makes me laugh...but that's a different story) Will I start calling Beau weekly and sending personal e-mails. Probably not; I'm too lazy. But I know that I can check up on him using this fabulous piece of technology. I need to be better about checking in on the people I love. I can't expect them to check on me if I don't check on them. I'm just grateful that we have tools that make keeping in touch easier. Life in the 21st century couldn't be peachier...

Resolutions

I've never really understood resolutions. I guess there's a part of me that hates setting myself up for failure. That being said, I'm not immune to the "what can I do better" pondering that comes with every new year's day. I usually spend the holidays ruminating about all the things I could (and will) do better the next year... committing to exercise, scrapbooking once a week, reading the entire standard works, twice... Okay, maybe I set myself up for failure. But the more I think about it, this year I'm resolving to do something completely different. Something that has nothing to do with exercise, nada about scripture study, and nought to do with keeping my house clean. This year I resolve...

Several weeks ago I was doing what I do best, and interrupting one of my elementary special education classes. The students in that class are academically several grade levels behind their age level peers. They struggle to read, write, and do math. Several of them have several emotional issues that riddle their lives with anxiety and trauma at even the slightest mistake. But they are my favorite. They are eager to learn and to be friends. I'm not ashamed to boast that I am one of their favorite visitors to the classroom. On this specific occasion one of the students, Michelle, asked me to play concentration with her (with her favorite Dora cards). Soon another student, Jose, joined in. As we started to play the other students meandered over and asked to join in. Of course Michelle let them. I was a little worried though... Michelle loves to win and can (and will) get very upset when she doesn't get her way. She's adamant about rules as long as they are in her favor...but today she surprised me. In fact they all did. 

The first card match went to Lamar. Michelle was a little bummed, sticking her bottom lip out, but then started clapping for Lamar. "Way to go," she said to him. The next match went to Jose when he matched two Dora's. "Dora's my favorite," Michelle said, "I'm glad you found Dora, Jose!" Samiyah was next to find a match; Lamar and Jose now joining in the jubilation at her success. With each match, the joy of success became louder as the "That was awesomes" and "Good jobs" came from each member of the game. Jose started giving out hints to where the hidden cards were...Michelle started jumping up and down anytime someone came close to picking up a known match...Lamar was clapping and whooping and hollering...The last match went to Michelle (her only match I might add) and high fives went around the circle. 

As the game ended and the decibel level rose to one of a dull roar, I was quickly (and lovingly) told by their teacher that I was never allowed in the room for freetime again. But I think she saw it too; her class worked as a team in those few crazy minutes before lunch. They took turns and played by the rules. That in itself is not really that spectacular...most students have learned that by the time they're in school. But what I don't see in most classrooms is the spirit of team success. These few students were cheering on their classmates ruthlessly. When one got a match, it was as if they all had just turned over the winning card. When one chose the wrong one no harsh words were said. When the game was over there was no winner because they all had won. 

So back to resolutions, commitments, goals... This year, I resolve to win. And I don't mean having the most matches, the most money, or the most dates. I resolve to win with the people I love, the students I work with, and the work I do. In essence, if it's good for the team, I resolve to do it. Happy New Year!