Spring Break-(yay!) and Some Other Random Rubbish

Ugh...I've waited too long to post! I'm sure all of you missed me terribly, and so here's a little treat: a post!

Joke.

Spring Break starts Friday at the moment that the end-of-school bell rings. Oh wait, I'm in track. Nevermind. School ends after a school day more than ten hours long. I depart for freedom in stubborn perspiration and with groaning bones and with angry muscles and tendons. Back to Spring Break--Spring Break starts Saturday morning.

As I interjected in slightly larger text above, "Yay!" Especially "yay" considering we're getting out of the house and breathing in the refreshing scent of away-ness. St. Simon's Island. Yeah. Another beautiful island paradise. Masterpiece of nature. One of God Almight Creator of the Universe's finest works of art. It's the Lorax situation. "What a beautiful, clean ocean! This would be the PERFECT place to build a hotel resort...ooh! and right next to it how about a commercial mall?"

Don't get me wrong--I love vacationing in a beautiful place. But do you ever feel guilty for enjoying the result of humanity's stain on nature?

At least we left one island in the archipelago behind. Jekyll. Of course, it's got tourists teeming all over it, but there are very few hotels and restaurants. Thank God. You know, that's only because the island is also teeming with gnats and mosquitoes which they can't get rid of, but it's one more tally mark for nature. Enough hippy rant. Onto some more useless rants.

My art teacher, who happens to be one of my favorite employed teachers of my entire life. I won't talk too much about him, but I'd just like to tell you about one of his literary suggestions.

Ever heard of The Lies My Teacher Told Me? I know, it kind of sounds like a third grader's book that belongs on the same shelf as A Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. In truth, it's a nonfiction about how romanticized American history really is. Even before this, I figured it just didn't add up that such a huge country was founded totally on the shoulders of perfect men. Well, it's not so. Two facts from the book that I'd like to share with you just to give you an idea about it: 1) Ever wonder why you don't hear much about Helen Keller after she graduated from college? It's because she joined the Socialist Party as soon as she graduated. American press and even government covered it up to protect her image. I was horrified when I heard this. Don't judge her if you're all Anti-Socialist. Do me a favor and judge America instead. 2) Did you know that Christopher Colombus was one of the cruelest men in history? Do you have any idea how many Native Americans he killed? What a dictator he was?

Try the book.

Next, another tiny update: Went to another community service center today. It's a center for children of lower class Americans. Mostly Hispanics--many of them belonging to single parents. Every day after school they go there for help with homework and some dinner. It was fun, except grade schoolers are so often liars when it comes to food. When they weren't ordering me firmly to put the food on my plates before they stood me up; they were claiming that they had only had one cookie and one brownie, which was very strange considering I saw two of each hidden cunningly under their knees. Nah, overall it was pretty fun.

And I have a girlfriend!

What a note to close on.

The end.

Fin.