Stupid Ankle..

So our first full day at sea was super rocky pretty much all day and night. I had to use the restroom in the middle of the night. When I left the bathroom I held on to the door handle with my right hand and stepped down into the room with my right foot at the exact moment that the boat lurched to the right. The door swung violently to the right, taking me with it. I fell and twisted my right ankle, which is the ankle I sprained so badly two years ago.

So no snorkeling in Cozumel for us. Fortunately for us (but unfortunately for everybody else on the cruise) the Mexican Port Authority closed the port in Cozumel to all boats smaller than 50 feet because of the weather, so almost all water based shore excursions were cancelled. That meant we didn’t have to persuade the cruise personnel to refund our money for the snorkeling tour we had purchased, but could no longer do because of my stupid ankle.

My ankle is a lot better now, I don’t think any permanent damage was done or anything. I’m just trying to rest it as much as possible.

We decided against Naked Marcus…

One night on our last cruise, Marcus slept walked around the cabins. That was not cool. I woke up to a knock on our cabin door in the middle of the night, and a nervous and disoriented Marcus at our door. I had heard Marcus get up, but I thought he had gone to the bathroom. I had no idea that he had left our room.


To prevent a recurrence on this cruise we tried to come up with a way to either prevent him from getting out of the room in the middle of the night or at least to make it impossible for him to get out of the room without waking me up first.


We brainstormed several options: blocking the door with luggage or some other item, tying a cowbell to the door, simply putting a life jacket on the door handle hoping he would take it on his way out the door, and my personal favorite: Marcus sleeping naked. The thought behind that one was that Naked Marcus would most likely be stopped by security way before he made it all the way to the deck. We thought better of it; I mean we don’t want to be banned for life from Carnival Cruise Lines. Ultimately this is what we settled on:

Keep Me Away From Your Children....

I have been known to tell little kids that they don’t have to do something (although in my defense in each case it was something the child was afraid to do and the child seemed to only associate not having to do something with being afraid, not a general I don’t have to do what adults/parents tell me). I have also used the word stupid around little children. In one case I referred to one of our cats as the stupid cat, at which point a 3 year old, who incidentally was not very close by, started yelling at the top of his lungs “stupid cat, stupid cat” over and over again.

Well last weekend, Marcus and I got together with some of my closest friends from college and their kids for our annual campout. We’ve been doing this since our freshman year at ACU. I spent a lot of time with Bethany, the 3 year old daughter of my bff and roommate from college Amanda. Bethany and I were talking and all of the sudden she pointed to my chest and said “Ha ha look at your chest.” I looked down at my chest, and my shirt had fallen down a little bit revealing my cleavage. Without even thinking I said “Bethany, that’s called cleavage.” At which point Amanda, who was sitting next to me, shook her head and then put her head in her hand.

In my defense Bethany is super smart, really a little sponge, and so I often forget she is just 3, plus there have been countless other good things I’ve taught her, I’m really used to just explaining stuff to her because she is so smart, and I was surprised she didn’t know that word already. (I sometimes forget that not everyone comes from a family with women who are so, umm, endowed).

Anyway, the next day when I was saying goodbye to her before she left she said something about my “boobies” at which point I used the word cleavage AGAIN! Seriously, keep me away from your children!

Bethany and me hanging out.

All the kids. From left to right: Dawson, Bethany, Ashlynn, Carson, Landry, and Christopher

When did that happen?

I bought a Newsweek with Obama on the cover today, mainly as a collector’s item. They are already showing up on eBay. I read an article a few days ago that said magazines with him on the cover were flying off the shelves. That didn’t seem to be a problem in Abilene though! Anyway, the magazine was $5.95! When did that happen? Last time I bought one I think it was like $3.80. Goodness!

Missing a good friend

It’s funny how you can see something that will trigger memories about someone who passed away and make you just really miss them all of the sudden. The missing them can almost feel just like it did the moment when they passed away. Today I was missing my good friend and mentor Dr. Charles Trevathan.

Charles was my favorite professor when I was a student at ACU, and when I started teaching there a few years later he helped me tremendously with my own classes. He and I had a lot of great discussions and he always had an encouraging word for me when I was struggling. He thought I was awesome at my job, and that meant a lot to me.

Charles passed away from a sudden heart attack about a month before the last election in 04. He and I discussed every presidential debate that year, and I have missed him throughout this whole election season. He would be so excited about Obama winning the election. He would be even more excited about discussing this election cycle in Cultural Diversity.

I came across something today that made me miss him even more. I’m thinking about replacing my vote Obama bumper sticker with a new one since the election is over. As I was looking through all the Obama victory stuff on cafepress.com I found this t-shirt design:

That image reminded me of a framed set of pictures Charles had in his office that he would take into his Cultural Diversity class when they discussed the African American Civil Rights Movement. The first picture in the frame was of Rosa Parks sitting on a bus looking out the window. Charles said that when he found that picture he wondered what she was looking at and what she was thinking about. Several years later he found a picture of a white family at a KKK rally. The mother and father were in full Klan garb, and their little girl, who was probably two, was standing in between them, her hands holding onto a hand of each parent. The three of them were facing away from the photographer and were watching a burning cross. He put that picture in the other half of the frame with the Rosa Parks picture, so that is looks like she is looking at and thinking about that family.

When I saw the pictures of Dr. King and President-elect Obama side by side, I had a sudden urge to talk to Charles about his pictures of Mrs. Parks and that white family and suggest that he remove the Klan picture and replace it with a picture of Obama. I think he would have loved that idea. As soon as I thought of it, it just hit me again that he was gone and I suddenly missed him almost as much as when I found out he died.

Some Random Stuff....

1. Please pray for my friend Jan and her daughter Stacey. Stacey lost her baby yesterday. She was due in about 2 weeks. Jan, Stacey and her family are devastated.

2. I am teaching my first class in a little over a year tomorrow! I’m teaching a 3 hour Social Theory class for my department chair that is out of town. I’m excited and nervous, but mostly I’m annoyed that I need to prepare when all I want to do is watch election results!

3. I am super excited about the election, but it does really stink that no matter who wins, roughly half the nation will be happy and half will be unhappy. I hope that this year I am part of the happy half! That would be a nice change!