#52weeksofwriting

[joexopoet]

(image from OrlandoWeekly, art by DelaCruz)

DAY 1

Life was mostly the same the day after. As if we’d paid for a landscaper to swing thru at midnight; take a leaf-blower to the roads and some of the parking lots; maybe pressure-wash some of the blues and whites. The morning reminded me of how when you wax an old car, it can look better, but not new. You can’t buff away the memory of backing into a shopping cart or scraping the front bumper on the curb. Soap only helps wash the dirt off. The wax only hides the wear. We’ve still traveled all those thousands of miles, worn our treads whether new or used tires. And the road beneath us still needs repaved. Our winter homes could use a fresh coat. Our yards, a hard raking. I wonder if, when the work is done, the midnight landscaper empties the ash tray, sits back into the comfort of morning, and lights another cigarette. Blinks away the December, what little was left, and goes home, with dirty hands. Begging to be clean. 

I keep hearing the phrase ‘New Year, New Me,’ but maybe today isn’t the only time we have. Maybe life will be new again tomorrow.

-XO

[pacitarae]

AZ Future Cities

Brushed & Flossed

 Future Cities – Sunday, 20 January, 2019

Yesterday at approximately six o’clock in the morning, Darling Son and I got in our vehicle and drove for an hour to the Arizona Future Cities competition. It is an engineering and creative hotbed of creativity. Read about it here:

Future Cities

Dr. Camille Casteel High School hosted the Arizona regional competition from seven in the morning until about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a long day. Teams of middle school students present models of cities in the future. Their models are backed by other key elements that include a simulated city, an essay, and sound science and engineering practices. Many of the presentations featured green concepts as well as sustainable energy sources. The judges’ questions included what the teams learned about engineering as well as collaboration. Judges wanted to know how the students’ visions altered over the course of their preparation. Additionally, the celebrity judges for the five finalists wanted to know not only how the teams planned to minimize crisis situations, but also how to recuperate from a crisis.

The students were well prepared. Their creativity amazed me. I loved their energy and sense of humor. The teachers and engineer mentors worked hard in guiding the students to bring their futuristic visions to fruition. Wow. Congratulations to all the winners. Congratulations to all the participants. Thank you to all the teachers, mentors, and volunteers who made this experience possible for our students, our future.

That’s all I have time to write, but the brevity of the post does not reflect the power of the experience.

[pacitarae]

Comic Conventions

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Comic Convention – Woot! Woot! – Sunday, 13 January, 2019

Woohoo! What a ride this week has been! I continued classes with my freshmen and juniors. I started a new class with sophomores. I attended women’s basketball and boys’ soccer matches. I won tickets to Ace Universe Phoenix 2019.

During Friday afternoon’s fifth hour frosh English class I received a call from the principal; I won two tickets to the weekend gathering of comic nerd-dom and all things pop culture. I revel in my geekiness and any opportunity to gather with brother and sister geeks is time well spent.

Darling Son joined me Friday night for a presentation by John Eaves, prop artist extraordinaire. We were almost ready to head home when we discovered a world of more geeky wonders awaited us on the top level. I struck up a conversation with one of the vendors on the main concourse.  As Darling Son explored the purchase possibilities of their display I commented on what a nice location he had secured for the convention. He shared there were vendors on the top level who were not getting much foot traffic because many convention patrons did not realize there were exhibitor displays beyond the ground level. Evidently, those vendors made their voices known because I began to notice announcements admonishing conventioneers to visit the exhibits on the upper level. We did. I’m glad we did. That is where I found my copy of an 11”x17” replica of the movie poster for the upcoming Captain Marvel film. Darling Son found a couple of Funko Pops to add to his burgeoning collection, and he also discovered a wonderful print of Captain Rex helmets by Rob Taylor and his Herofied Art.

Another first: Darling Son decided to begin collecting patches for a jacket. I told him that I already had a patch jacket; since I was wearing it at the time, it was quite evident. He didn’t even look up from his search for the perfect three patches to commence his collection. He just said, “That’s a travel jacket, Mom. You need a geek jacket.” I concurred. With special convention pricing of three patches for twenty dollars, the three fandoms he selected to honor are Star Wars, a mash-up of Jurassic Park/World & Aliens, and Big Bang Theory. I joined hime by starting my collection with a Ravenclaw crest from Harry Potter, an anti-demon possession glyph from Supernatural, and a stylized Black Widow symbol from Marvel. Hence, we did our due diligence of supporting exhibitors with our small purchases at art, toy, and miscellaneous booths.

Yesterday was a solo con day for me as Darling Son had other plans. Before we went our separate ways for our scheduled day, we went shoe shopping. Now I totally understand what my Darling Mom meant when she said, “You’re growing like a weed!” Growing kids means purchasing new shoes and clothes. Aarrgghh! I don’t know how she did it with three kids; I have a heck of a time doing it for one kid.  $$$$$$$

As we entered our first shoe shopping stop the clerk commented on my t-shirt. He courteously greeted us and then joked that he took exception to my shirt: “That’s not R2-D2!” I was wearing one of my all time favorite geek tees: a depiction of a Dalek with the inscription, “OMG! R2-D2! I loved him in Star Trek!” One would have to be a fan, or at least knowledgeable of, three fandoms to understand the shirt: Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dr. Who. I had worn it in honor of seeing David Tennant as one of the honored guests of Saturday’s Ace Universe comic convention. Upon reflection, I wonder if I am a geek snob. I don’t think so. I’m always willing to talk about or answer questions about my fandoms. That must be the teacher in me as well as the geek in me. Goodness knows, there are far too many fandoms to keep up with all the hot and happening goings on in popular culture. I often ask Darling Son for fandom references. My little know-it-all does not know it all as he frequently admonishes me that no one can know everything about all the options in pop culture. I get that. Yet, I also recognize that fans with different interests will have knowledge I don’t have. I ask questions because I truly want to know. My curiosity may spawn a new personal interest; it may simply engender a simple, “Oh, that’s cool.” Whatever the reaction, it is awesome to share ideas with other fans.

Today I get to geek out with other fans of Tom Hiddleston and his representation of Loki in the wonderful world of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Today I also get to haul student essays to the convention. Darling Son will join me so I will be able to bring a bag of grading with me. Thus far this weekend, I’ve managed to ignore the work I need to do. I refuse to miss Tom Hiddleston, so my solution is to bring the work with me. When I have to get up and move and stretch, I am able to leave stuff with him to secure our seats. One of the things I miss at this convention is that there is no space for sitting and working/eating/veging that is not in arena style seating. There are no tables. There are a very few spaces for standing and eating or perusing materials.

So, with all this great stuff at Ace Universe, how is it different from the early summer Phoenix Fan Fusion (formerly known as Phoenix Comicon and Phoenix Fan Fest)? One of the big differences is price. Two adults can attend Phoenix Fan Fusion for the price of one general admission to Ace’s convention. Phoenix Fan Fusion is longer: Ace Universe is one evening and two weekend days. Phoenix Fan Fusion is four days and three nights of events. Ace Universe provides space for exhibitors. Phoenix Fan Fusion provides two exhibit halls (one is titled “Hall of Heroes”). Ace Universe spotlights a single headliner or group of headliners for a large number of people in a large space. Phoenix Fan Fusion provides a large headliner hall and multiple special interest presentations in convention style scheduling. So, what is the take away here? If you have plentiful disposable income, by all means, attend Ace Universe. It is a fun time filled with great headliners and motivating music. If your entertainment budget dollars need to stretch, wait for Memorial Day and Phoenix Fan Fusion. Regardless, you will have a good time if you geek out over pop culture and you are surrounded by fellow fans.

[pacitarae]

New Year? New You!

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New Year? New You! – Sunday, 6 January, 2019

Well, last year I crashed and burned on the 100th day of my 365 days of writing. There was major end of the school year stress. There was the excitement of getting it together for a new job opportunity. There was whatever there was. I even began the 100th entry, I just never posted it. Soooooo… in honor of the need for humanity, and the queen of second chances, here I am with a new challenge. I’m going to set a goal to write a weekly blog. The daily thing is just too much with everything else going on. I’m okay with that. I have to be.

It is actually a combination of Darling Son and Friend R who have inspired this entry.

Darling Son got me started with talking about the silliness of people making New Year’s resolutions they don’t intend to keep. I tried to get all cheerful about it and explained how good intentions and goal setting aren’t bad things. He is already jaded at a wise old age of thirteen. His adolescence sees him as ready to judge others’ failures without taking into consideration extenuating circumstances and the just plain craziness that makes for modern life. Example: We are in the midst of finding a new gym as the fees for our current gym are outlandish for the services provided. I loved belonging to our local YMCA. There’s a pool, some yoga classes, a weight/cardio room, a just-getting-started weight room, and discounts on youth recreation programs. Slowly the hours have dwindled down to nearly nothing; the pool is no longer year round (in Arizona!?), and Darling Son has outgrown the recreation opportunities that fit his interests. So, we are spending WAY more money than is sensible for the services we use.

Challenge? Well, Darling Son does not want to go looking for a new gym in January because that is when all the posers are looking for a new gym. I delayed in canceling our Y membership, so we are good to go until the beginning of February, but all the excitement and ganga deals for new gym memberships are happening right now! I’m going to have to just get jiggy with it and maybe use this month to explore the specials. Thing is, I HATE the high pressure sales deals. The use of the word “hate” is a whole other blog entry. So I will just state for the record that I do not use that word lightly.

In addition to the whole gym membership thing, I have the added incentive to evaluate New Year? New You! because my Friend R was talking about getting a new planner for her life organization. We met up on New Year’s Eve afternoon and were talking about how goal setting and life organization is easier with an interactive calendar or planner. I used to keep a planner! Those were the days when I was more organized, or at least when I held delusions of organization. I have spiraled into quite a disarray of organization so her words of wisdom have inspired me to give that a try again. When I went online to look for a new agenda to note my plans and responsibilities I discovered the new trend of “bullet journaling.” Let’s be honest here, part of me wants to decry the “next new thing” as one more task designed to make people like me (disorganized and overcommitted) to feel inferior to people with “perfect” little systems of organization and clean bathrooms. The other part of me wants to la-di-dah something that is a been-there-done-that-called-it-something-different-then. I started keeping calendars, agendas, planners, etc. back in my middle school days…not teaching middle school, but living it. I noted, I color coded, I doodled, I highlighted. Yeah. I’ve survived (and sometimes thrived) multiple incarnations of keeping a portable date book.

Hey, does anyone else remember those little calendars we picked up at the Hallmark store and carried in our purse to note all our important dates? Wow! I just remembered that! I don’t remember when I started using those, fifth or sixth grade? By seventh grade I know that I had already committed to something that was a bit heftier in the way it allowed me to keep track of deadlines, important dates, and spend time to save time. I had a little tan-colored, faux-suede agenda with a snap to keep it closed in my purse. Oh, and a little brown etching-like illustration of a wildcat kitten. Awwwwwwww.

Okay, enough with the memory lane. This makes me want to dig out some of my old calendars, planners, agendas and look at the things that kept my life busy in years gone by. But, that is a digression. My focus today is on the third part of me that desperately needs and yearns for the chance to reboot my organizational skills and make time for what really matters. So, here is to all of us finding time to make the time for what really matters in our lives. I wish you good times…whatever that means to you…Happy New Year! New You!