Thoughts About Whitney

Last week, upon learning about Whitney Houston's death (via the BFF's text: "Breaking news: Whitney Houston died!"), I posted something on Facebook about starting to plan my Whitney tribute for the Black History program next year. I got a kind of shocking response by an acquaintance; something about not teaching children "to idolize crack fiends any more than they already do." I felt the rage and a defensiveness of Whitney start to well up inside as I attempted to put together a response. And, naturally, I wondered why I love Whitney so much and why I was offended by this person's attack.

I kinda feel like I grew up with Whitney. The Bodyguard was Lori's and my first rated R movie, watched in the company of our parents and older sister, Erin. Erin promptly bought the soundtrack on tape, and we listened to in her car on repeat. I'm pretty sure that when Erin went to college, "Queen of the Night" was on one of her answering machine outgoing messages. She sang some Whitney in high school for our choir's "Cabaret" show- and did quite a fine job, I might add. I can't hear "One Moment in Time" without thinking of Erin.

Fast forward to the 2000's. The Preacher's Wife- yes. Did Murphy, my co-worker at Pine Cove, and I sing "I Believe in You and Me" karaoke- style in the dining hall with full microphones and sound system when we got bored? Yes we did. Did we incorporate my singing "I Will Always Love You" in old-lady voice into a skit for summer camp? Absolutely. Any time anyone attempted to sing ANY Whitney song on American Idol, it inevitably resulted in my yelling, "NOBODY SHOULD SING WHITNEY BUT WHITNEY!" at the TV.

Lori and I have a fun tradition of attempting to learn the words to songs we love but don't really know while on long road trips. One road trip was especially fruitful; we conquered "Queen of the Night," "Run to You," AND "I Have Nothing." Boom.

Naturally, we were bummed whenever we heard about Whitney's drug problems ("Crack is whack!") and family problems, and always hoped for a recovery and comeback. I'm sad she's gone, and even sadder that the manner of her death has overshadowed the great things she's done and the great music she's made. She wasn't perfect, and I sure don't want to teach my kids that drugs = success. In fact, her death, if found to be caused by drug use, gives me an opportunity as a teacher to explain to my kids the value of making good choices and saying "no" to bad ones.

When I talk about Whitney, I hope you don't hear me "idoliz[ing] a crack fiend." When I say that I miss Whitney, I miss the memories that her music pushes to the forefront of my mind: memories of a sister gone, memories with a sister who's my best friend, dance parties, song-breaks to wind down- memories of growing up. So for that, I will defend and love Whitney forever.

Lately

To quote Nacho Libre, "My life is good. Really good." Here's a little sampling of what's been going on recently, which may also serve as my excuse for neglecting the ol' blog...

Settling in for a Friday Night Lights marathon with a Newks' salad and good company.

We've been living it up with the social activities lately. Lots of parties, lots of ladies' Bible study, lots of making food from Pinterest and movie/game/show watching in the company of friends. Love it.

First annual GALentine's Day festivities!

The Black History program is next Tuesday. Fun fact: I chose the date for the program before I realized that the day before the program is a staff development day. As in, no school on Monday for the kids, come to school Tuesday, and BAM- program time. Awesome. Fortunately, the kids sound awesome and look super cute doing their Temptations moves to "My Girl" and their Michael Jackson Experience moves (yes, I am the proud temporary user of a Wii in my classroom just to learn the dance) to "Beat It."

I'm creating a database for my last class at UNT. Creating. A. Database. It's hard. It takes a long time. But it's kinda cool, and the nerd in me loves it while the overachiever in me hates it and the lay-on-the-couch-and-watch-a-movie-lover in me is dying a slow and painful death. I can't wait till March 1st, when the first chunk is due.


Apparently there are only 3 weeks till Spring Break. I'm not complaining.

Here We Go Again...

I love Christmas break. Really, I love every school break. I love my job. I also love vacation.

This week has been full of playdates with Lori, eating out for lunch, braving Christmas shoppers, and movies. Awesome.

But now, at 11:41 p.m., it's fair to say that I've reached the part of Christmas break that makes it even harder to wake up and go to work on January 2nd: all rested up.

I've slept in, laid around, chilled out to my heart's content. So now, at 11:41 p.m., I'm wide awake wishing I were asleep in my bed. That's where I should be. I like my bed. I like falling asleep.

But now, and probably for the next week and a half, it ain't gonna happen before midnight. Oh, well. I guess I'll just sleep in tomorrow.

The Race

It was cold. Very, very cold.

It was wet. Very, very wet. So wet, in fact, that Lori and I bought more rain gear in a panic the night before. It was a good decision. All night long, as we both lay sleepless in our beds, we prayed as it thundered, "Lord, please get all the rain out now!" He didn't.

We ran. We ran fast, determined to finish and run the whole way. We did it, and we did it together. It was fun and miserable and easy and so hard all at once.

I'm not sad that we did it, and I'm not sad that it's over! Now to the Christmas eating...

Why Am I Doing This?!

Lori and I have been training for the upcoming White Rock Half Marathon in Dallas. It was surprisingly easy to convince Lori to train with me, mainly because she somehow wrangled me into training for a 9 mile race that (fortunately) never made. Since that race was supposed to happen in October, Lori and I have actually been training since mid-August. Needless to say, we're ready to get this show on the road.

Training has been really fun. Really fun. Has every run been fun? Nope. But training was good. We've had a LOT of laughs, a few adventures (read previous post about new puppy), and have shown these hills who's boss.

Too bad Sunday's rainy weather is threatening to dampen our spirits (no pun intended, but pretty awesome). Don't worry- Lori's been preparing us with rain gear, research, and dri-wick everything. We're not so concerned about the cold, since we've run in the 30's before. It's the rain. Dang.

So if you'd like to join us in praying that the rain holds off, we'd appreciate it. No matter the weather, we're pretty excited about Sunday, or are at least anxious for our victory meal after the race!

9 Miles and a Puppy

Last week Lori and I did our 9 mile run (this week was our last long run-10 miles!) , and it was one of the more unusual runs we've had.

We started out strong. And by strong, I mean awesome. We were cranking out the hills, feeling pretty good, and doing our best to beat the nightfall before we got into a bit of a sketchy neighborhood. About mile 6 we downed the Gu and started to turn down a hill that led back up into said sketchy neighborhood. We had just enough time to make it out of there before dark.

This particular turn has a small batch of little woods to the right, and it's never unusual to hear noises and rustling around in the leaves. What IS unusual, however, is to have something dart out at you and run straight for your feet as you pass. As Lori and I turned by these woods, out darted a small furry animal that immediately resulted in my squealing and jumping into Lori, causing her to scream in fright of my scream. When we recovered, we looked down and saw a tiny puppy sniffing at our feet and trying to climb our legs. I picked up the puppy to get it out of the way, and Lori and I walked around the corner- back and forth a few times- attempting to figure out from whence the puppy came. We even got to knock on the door of giant mansion we'd just passed- though we didn't even get a good peek in. No luck. Time is a-tickin' away as we try to figure out how we can get away from the puppy that apparently finds joy in running right under our feet and tripping us. Thankfully Lori knew a family that lived a couple of houses down, so we ran there, borrowed a phone, and called John.

By now, daylight is totally spent, and we've got to finish our run. John was still on his way home from work, so we had no choice but to pick up the puppy and attempt to run with it until John could meet us. Running with a puppy is hard. Really hard. And really funny. With puppy in arms, we headed up the hill into semi-sketchy neighborhood, taking breaks to pass the puppy back and forth in the complete dark. John met us shortly, promptly fell in love with New Puppy, and did us the favor of driving slowly behind us like a creeper so we could have light for our sketchy run.

Aside from the unexpected addition to our 9 mile, it was actually a really good, really fun run. And now we have another puppy to play with!

Old School

Lori and I went home for the weekend to do Christmas shopping with Mom. The best part of the trip is getting to spend some fun time with Mom and Dad (and shop, of course). The worst part is the drive. It's a 3 1/2 hour trek, which isn't terrible, but there are several stretches of nothingness that make it feel like you're never going to get there.

About an hour from home, I decided to surprise Lori with a little blast from the past on the iPod. This, of course, led to our singing good ol' 199o's Christian classics at the top of our lungs until we pulled into the driveway.

Here's the run-down of our jam session:

4Him
"Measure of a Man"
"You Are Holy"
"Great Awakening"
"Where There is Faith"
"Basics of Life"

From 4Him we moved on to Point of Grace. We were disappointed to find that some of our favorites were, somehow, missing from my iPod- songs like "This Day" and "Jesus Will Still be There." But that disappointment did not stop us from enjoying these musical treats:

Point of Grace
"Dying to Reach You"
"You Are the Answer"
"The Great Divide"
"Steady On"
"Gather at the River"
"More Than Anything"
"Circle of Friends"

We were hankering for a little Brian Duncan, "Blessed Are the Tears That Fall," but for some reason I don't have that one either. We settled for...

Michael W. Smith
"Secret Ambition"
"Picture Perfect"

Our best surprise of the night (I was quite proud of discovering this jewel on my iPod) took us back to the good ol' days of concerts at Six Flags. Get ready for...

Carmen
"The Champion"

Man, that was some good car singing.