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apocatim
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Name: Timothy
Birthday: 6/15/1980
Gender: Male
Interests: Culture, Demography, Lusophones, Maps, Young Adult Novels, Urban Sprawl, Coffee, Walking Trails, Airports, Piano, Sanjeet, News, Español, Karaoke, etc...
Expertise: Telling people how to get from here to there.
Occupation: Special Education Teacher
Industry: Schools
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/14/2007
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| Blessed are the Geminis, for they might make a decision.I can be intensely critical of myself. It seems like no matter how much I achieve or what I do, there's always fault. I think I get it from my mother (Isn't that every gay man's excuse?). There's a rain cloud to every parade, there's a flaw in every silver lining.
In three weeks I start a new job, move into an office, put up my shiny diplomas and get a leadership title on my name, but how much farther could I be if I hadn't squandered five years on my bachelor's? I was slated to finish in three years, but I moved and changed and dropped.
Or what if I had tried harder in grad school? Or stayed in to go through the PhD. program?
In September I will make my last payment and be debt free. But what if I had been smarter with my money and not gotten credit cards or a fancy SUV? I could be in a home by now! I could be paying on much better things!
If my weight goes down, I must be sick or it's a fluke or I need a new scale.
If my weight goes up, I'm ready to change my name to Jabba and call my realtor to inquire about any foreclosed huts on the market.
The Other Tim....
It's like there's this parallel Tim in my head... well he goes by "Timothy." He made all the right choices. He stuck with them, he saw them through. Parallel Tim is currently in Suburban New Jersey, a townhouse on the palisades with a Manhattan view. It's not forever, but it's a step for him. He's been with his partner for 10 years now and he designs highways and communities for a consulting firm. In a month or so he'll be getting that new Volvo convertible. He has never had a critical thought, never heard of self-doubt.
Rev. Carol Trissell did an awesome sermon called, "The Funerals End Today," about getting over all the things you're not, the things you never did, and the things you did that will kill you if anyone ever finds out so that you can live in the fulfillment of who God has lead you to be. To move forward with nothing holding you back, to lunge freely, without anchors into the ocean of grace.
So the lesson for ME is in knowing without a shadow of a doubt that nothing is random, nothing just happened. For me, every choice, every relationship, every fashion, calorie, kiss, shout, heartbreak, joy, sickness, push and shove, give and take; everything that has touched the wet clay we call Tim is part of a greater plan.
That it's much more important than where I am right now or what I am doing right now, that it's going somewhere. Not just somewhere, but a very specific place, to the fulfillment of who I am to be, to God's purpose for my life. There's been way too many coincidences and lucky landings, too many places where I should have been shot, run over, killed (I was a REALLY DUMB teenager!). This has to be leading to something really swanky.
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| I am a hideous, wasteful, sloth of a manA few years ago, I found myself in a classroom in Mexico surrounded by a large group of college students from Paris. I didn't get along with the majority of them, mostly since I had trouble with their suspiciously French-sounding Spanish (not that I speak proper Castillian by any means). Anywho, we had a group discussion on social issues in Mexico and the teacher, MaLu, listened to us debate and philosophize for an hour before stopping us, shaking her head, and saying, in Spanish, "You are all obviously not from the 3rd world." The Frenchies hated being lumped in with a Texan!
I thought about that last week when I opened my water bill. Eleven Dollars! One month of water was eleven dollars! I have NEVER spent 11 dollars on water! I know that is normal for most people, but I don't waste water! At least I didn't think I did! My normal water bill is between 4 and 6 bucks. I could hear Señora Malu shaking her head and saying, "wasteful, gluttonous American! Que lastima!"
So I am now on Day 3 of water conservation. I am determined to get a $5 or less water bill this month.
The biggest change is that I switched back to Mexican-style showers. This means I get in the shower, get all wet, and then turn the water off. Then I soap up, shampoo, Noxema, whatever, and turn myself into a walking bubble bath. Then I turn back on the water and rinse everything off. This is what we did in Mexico City because you never know when the water will stop coming out of the tap.
I timed it and I spend an average of eight minutes in the shower. With the new water use, I use about two minutes worth of water. This means i can get four showers for the price of one! Now, if I can find someone to shower with me, we can get 8 showers for the price of one!
And then he invites a friend who invites a friend who invites a friend.....
So I am going to set aside any amount I spend less than 11 dollars. If it's five, I will set aside six, and so on.
Any savings will go to this charity:
Drop in the Bucket, which builds wells in Africa to bring clean drinking water.
http://www.dropinthebucket.org/Welcome.html
Save a drop, Save a life!
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| Lemon tree, very pretty.Lemon guy died today. I buried him at trash.
I first met him in 2003 at a Chinese thrifty shack on Harwin. He was two dollars and well worth it. A lemon with yellow plastic legs and an antenna coming out his head. He sat with me in the tub, or rather next to the tub since he's afraid of water. He only got FM stations, but he provided hours of quality listening during my relaxation time. He had a unique way of playing stations, an almost canny ability.
I think I dropped him one too many times. Today I tried to elicit enjoyment from him, but he was cold and silent. I picked him up, pressed him to my ears... silence. I shook him gently, perhaps he was napping, nothing but a death rattle. His official cause of death was insurmountable internal damage. His parts rattled around inside his plastic exterior.
I will move on, I will survive. I had my eye on this new fangled shower radio that actually gets am stations. Perhaps he knew my eye was wandering and sacrificed himself rather than compete with a younger, sleeker model. I'll never know, but I do know it will take time to move on, well, not too long since my 20% off at Bed, Bath, and Beyond expires next week.
So long, faithful lemon. I hardly knew ye.
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| WGD'sBush quote of the day "I don't have a magic wand to wave over gas prices, I don't have that right now."
Really Mr. President? Will you be obtaining this wand shortly? Could it be in Iran? Should we attack there? Oh Let's do it!! They have Wands of Gas Destruction.
Ok so I have blogged about one of the teachers on my team before. The one with hearing issues and just plain weirdness. Sometimes I refer to her as scooby snack. She still sends me copies of emails she sends out, mistakenly thinking I'm her supervisor.
So today I got one in which she was badmouthing our district supervisor. I literally yelled, "Oh Dear God!" and covered my mouth when I read it. She put it in writing, sent it to people who don't even have any control over or association with her situation. Plus this is the last person you want to attack. Don't poke the bear!
There is a difference between standing up for yourself or presenting your case, and throwing rocks at a lion. I don't understand it. Plus she was wrong! The info she presented proved her wrong!
When I talked to the supervisor she attacked, she laughed and said, "Who taught her how to use the computer? This is your fault Tim!" Seriously though, this lady is toast.
I really feel bad for this lady. I just can't save her. Lost... Cause...
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| Ready for Week 5.I spent a good chunk of my weekend working on paperwork for this week. I wanted to get it all done and out of the way, so I camped out at Starbuck's for a few hours and wrote until my hand cramped up.
Why is it that I can get all spiffed up to go out and no one tries to pick me up, BUT sitting at a coffee shop after walking the trail, all sweaty and gross with my UH hat on, and I get some guy trying to make flirty conversation. It happens often! More than I care to discuss. I had a table full of confidential paperwork, so I shooed him away.
I also devoted a few hours to getting things set up for next year. I am still working on crafting my proposal for how things will run. I have talked to two other department chairs to see how they run things and gather their wisdom. It's amazing how much info you can get out of people! People love to be helpful. They like feeling they have made a huge difference in someone else's life. However, there is a fine line between mentoring and mooching. The trick is to not seem like a mooch otherwise they will cut you off.
I also set up my little homemade calendar (You can do ANYTHING in Powerpoint!). It's still naked except for district holidays and staff developments, but soon enough it will fill with meeting dates and deadlines. I want to start August 25th fully prepared. You save each slide as a JPEG, then right-click and set as desktop. That way your calendar is in your face, inescapable.
Isn't it pretty?
I also drove around looking at townhouses in the outer Memorial area. They're surprisingly affordable! I guess the Houston market is beginning to tank like the rest of the country. Either way, the thought of a 2 bedroom townhouse with a courtyard within walking distance of the bayou trail has me salivating and adding a little extra to my home fund this month. If I can forgo buying a new TV and save my summer school paycheck, by the time next year's tax refund check rolls in, I will have a swanky down payment. SWANKY!
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