May 10, 2006

Dear Anthony & Vanessa,

Well the devotional booklet came again and I want to enclose a few lines. The other day, Anthony, when you phoned we were disconnected and you could not finish. But you got the message of your coming baby finished. Congratulations! I talked to your Daddy on the phone today and he told me things were fine. I was so glad and thankful. I wish you all the best - a healthy baby. You are in my prayers a lot. God is so good to us & we must trust Him in every area of our lives.

I had a very nice time with your parents when they stayed at my house, during the Centennial weekend here in Winkler. Your Dad did a very good job of conducting the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

We have had some nice weather. Now it's a bit cooler. Your Uncle Ted has quite a bit seeded - wheat is done, starting on the beans. Auntie Marge was over on Monday planting some flowers for me. The cukes and tomatoes we will do later when all the danger of frost is past.

Love you a lot & nothing will change that - Grandma

Chronic & Narnia

Lazy Sunday
Lazy Sunday, Wake in the late afternoon
Call Parnell just to see how he's doin'
Hello? What up Parn? Yo, Samburg what's crackin'?
You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? NARNIA - man it's happ'nin'
But first my hunger pangs I'll stick it like duct tape
We'll hit up Magnolia and mac on some cupcakes
No doubt, that bakery's got all the bomb frostings
I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling
Two no six no twelve - baker's dozen!
I told you that I'm crazy for these cup-cakes cousin

Yo where's the movie playing? Upper West Side dude.
Well let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route.
I prefer Mapquest. That's a good one too!
Google maps is the best. True dat, double true!

68th and broadway, step on it sucka!
What ya wanna do Chris? Snack attack, motha-f%&*a!

Yo stop at the deli, the theater's over-priced,
you got the backpack, gonna pack it up nice,
don't want security to get suspicious,
Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals crazy delicious!
I reach in my pocket, pull out some dough,
girl acted like she never seen a 10 befo'
It's all about the Hamilton's baby!
Throw the snacks in a bag, and I'm ghost like Swayze.

Roll up to the theater, ticket-buyin while we're handling,
you can call us Aaron Burrs, from the way we're dropping Hamiltons,
Punks in our seats Movie trivia's the illest
What friends alum starred with Bruce Willis?
We answer so fast it was scary
Everyone stared in awe when we screamed Matthew Perry
Yo quiet in the theatre or it's gonna get tragic
We 'bout to get taken to a dream world of magic

The chronic-what-cles of Narnia!
The chronic-what-cles of Narnia!
The chronic-what-cles of Narnia!
The chronic-what-cles of Narnia

The ones I'll miss...

Life is a little less frantic and stressful without TAITRA, but the last couple of weeks I've been getting e-mails from students who were sorry to see me go. Apparently management at TAITRA didn't sugarcoat my reasons for leaving and told all the students what happened, more or less. The support and positive feedback I've been getting from the students has been amazing and gratifying. Here are just some of the messages I've been getting:

Dear Sir, it's Nora. It's so surprising that you quit. Although you may be still sad or mad (I am not sure...maybe both), could it be possible for you to come back? At least, come back to teach us, Group 1. Our group has discussed and we really want you to come back. Concerning the mean mail, we feel so sorry that it hurt your feelings and even angry at the bad effect, your leaving, done by that darn mail! There are more supportive persons, only there always come out disturbing opinions, instead of good points. I feel regret that I did not express those good point to support you in time. Would you come back? At least, come back for us, Group 1. We do expect your Negotiation & Job Search courses. We deem you a good teacher who always pays much attention to find out our weakness and reminds us of further improvement. During today's Group 1 discussion, we think we all make good progress in Presentation. We support you, we do.
Sincerely, Nora

Don't care about what the crazy person said!! I think most of students of ITI 17th are supporting you. It's really a pity for us. I learned a lot from you, thank you very much for all of your effort. I still hope you could come back.
Take care, Bill Hsu

Hello Anthony, Wie geht es dir? I am quite sad that you won't come back to teach us. I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot. I hope we still have other chance to meet each other in the future. Thank you and take care! My mobile no.: 0952-XXX-XXX
Regards, Tina

I really don't know what to say in situations like this because frankly, it's plain BS. I was totally pissed off which is not an uncommon reaction for me especially for something like this, hehehehe. Just wanted to let you know that Group 1 has asked me to tell you that we miss you very much, and it was a total shame because we're all looking forward to the Job Interview classes as well as Negotiation. God, I am so frustrated because I seriously wanted you to teach those classes. We have your back though it's a little late for all that, but you have our support all the way. You were an amazing teacher because you let us know what we did wrong without any extra-bullshit... Thank you, dude...i hope to see you some time ok..? Hey, fyi, my number is 0960-XXX-XXX. Love ya~
Always, Dee

I'm sorry that you got a terrible mail written by an asshole. I can't believe that we have such a terrible classmate! Anyway, good luck. :)
Nancy

Dear Anthony, I’m Kate. You wouldn’t know how shocked we were when we heard the news this morning. I don’t know who wrote that stupid letter and its stupid content, but I think it’s really awful to do such a thing. We were looking forward to your Job Hunting and Negotiating class……. It’s a pity for us not having you. >_< Anyway, I just want to tell you that you really taught us a lot. I don’t know what other groups think but I (and most of Group 1) think you are a GREAT teacher. Please don’t feel bad because of that crap. We’ll miss you……(can’t you consider about going back for our class? I mean only for Group 1? Since Group 3 doesn’t care.)
Kate

It's nice to get mail like that. It makes me feel that my efforts weren't totally in vain, and that there are still a lot of good, earnest, eager students out there. I'm choosing to remember these good students, and am hoping that the good memories eventually obscure any bad ones.

Blip on the Radar

The day after we did the home pregnancy test, the doctor confirmed V was pregnant, but he couldn't find the baby. Considering how early we discovered the pregnancy, that's not a surprise - the baby was just too small.

However today, just six days later, the doctor found what he was looking for. The baby is where it's supposed to be, and we're relieved. This is the first of many hurdles we need to pass, and so far all is well.

The doctor also presented us with this, our first image of our baby. I'd like to say that this photograph has brought the pregnancy home to me and made it real, but I can't. For all I know this is an image of Chinese MiGs invading our airspace. The doctor has assured me it isn't, so I guess I'll take his word for it, but I'm not closing my mind to the possibility.

Reckless Abandon

Life is good. Between our school and my morning job at TAITRA I'm a little too busy, but oh well. Actually, TAITRA is pissing me off somewhat. Most of the students there are great, but some of them are there to get certificates without doing any work. Fine by me, but when a student takes the podium to give a presentation that they took straight of the internet, without even using any of the physical presentation skills I taught, I'm going to have something to say about it. Actually, what I said was "Ok, you don't need to finish. Please take your seat." You'd think I had just slapped them across the face, to see their reactions. It's not a very political move, but to hell with it - I'm not going to tolerate blatant cheating. If they at least went to the effort to be subtle about it! If I were allowed to fail students, I think things would be better - we could set at least some rudimentary standards. The way things stand now, however, if a student pays and shows up for at least the first half of the session, he gets his certificate. ~shrug~ I'm just glad I'm not tied to that place. If my job satisfaction were to be limited to my TAITRA experiences, I'd be be checking out the want ads hourly!

On a more personal note, Vanessa and I have decided to no longer worry about "being careful". We're ready to put our family planning into God's hands and see what happens. I think it's not as daunting a prospect as it once was. V's cycle has all the punctuality of an Italian train, so we've already had a few false alarms. The last time I was faced with the prospect of a possible pregnancy, I realized I was pretty unconcerned, which surprised us both, I think. This got us to thinking that if we want to have kids someday (we do), why not now? Will there be a better time? What are we waiting for? Since we couldn't really think of a good answer to those questions, we decided to let nature take its course. V thinks it'll take a while, but I'm telling her she's not even going to have a bikini summer. She's amused by my confidence in my virility and her fertility, both unproven, but we'll see what happens.