Labor Day Weekend 2011

Posted on September 4, 2011 by mathdreads

I cannot remember the last time I spent both a Friday and Saturday night at home…even during the two and half months when I first moved to Austin and was unemployed, I managed to go out to the free events.

Yet, after work on Friday, I swam laps, came home, warmed up dinner and finished watching a movie that I’d started the night before.

Saturday morning, I took a capoeira class, came home to freshen up and eat lunch, then took two tango classes. That was particularly touching since I’d taken tango lessons for over a year before taking a three-month break.  I stayed away long enough to miss it. Fortunately, I attended the second class and learned that one of our tangueras was returning to her native country, France.  So, I got to say good bye to her.

Then, I dashed over to my favorite nail shop.  Although it was a risk without an appointment during a holiday weekend, I was not disappointed.  There were three guys and two women ahead of me. They were all friends and since we had to wait, some of them decided to make a drink run.

They returned with two bottles of champagne, a bottle of OJ, and a bottle of cranberry juice.  And the best part, they shared! So, it was like being at happy hour in the nail shop. I sipped my chilled poinsettia (champagne and cranberry) while talking to them and thumbing through the magazine I’d brought.  By the time I returned home, I felt that I’d already met my social quota and it was only 7pm.

Of course, one of the things that I love doing the most is just taking a few hours to read. I never know what will inspire me to add to the story that I’m writing or in a future lesson plan.

As a matter of fact, I think the reason I’m much happier in the classroom this year is because I’m back to writing all my lessons.  The most I’ve used of someone else’s stuff is a quiz, which I still went through and modified some things.  I’m so fortunate to teach upperclassmen and have an elective course with no official curriculum.  That way, I have a creative challenge to keep me on my game.  The way I see it, I’ll save myself a trip to mediocre-ville if I’m actively engaged in the fine art of lesson planning.

Tomorrow, I’m going to a BBQ, hosted by my capoeira teacher.  I’d like to say that I instigated the whole thing although, truthfully, this group gets together on a regular basis.  It’s just that I’ve had the idea of making a cheesecake and decorating it with fresh fruit in the shape of the Brazilian flag for a couple of months now.  I baked the dessert today, but I’m waiting until tomorrow to put the fruit on it.  I’ve never done that before and don’t exactly know how that’ll affect it…I could always research it, I guess.

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Gymnastics of Natural Disasters

Posted on August 28, 2011 by mathdreads

This morning, I attended my usual 10 am bikram yoga class.  The instructor welcomed us to class and stated that we must have come to practice hot yoga in order to cool off! After completing yet another invigorating bikram class, I confirmed that today’s scorcher would top 100 degrees, the maximum temperature for bikram yoga. We’ve broken the 1925 record for the number of triple-digit days in one year.

As if going to bikram was not hot enough for me, I finished cleaning my apartment, got myself cleaned up and attended the Hot Sauce Festival. By the time I arrived, I was too hungry to wait in the long lines to sample the various hot sauces.  Instead, I scanned the food vendor area, saw the shortest line and jumped in it.  Fortunately, the vendor was an Ethiopian restaurant that I’d wanted to try since moving to Austin.

With my sampler plate of Ethiopian food and an electrolyte that scarcely suggested “lemonade,” I sat down in the shade, near the live music stage, to slowly begin my second major sweat of the day. I had impeccable timing since my friend’s band was setting up to play.

As best I could, I enjoyed the food, music and fact that I was not stressed out. I couldn’t help but think about the chronic droughts here in Austin.  In order not to throw myself a pity party, I thought about the poor East coast, which first had an earthquake, followed by a hurricane and subsequent floods in some parts.

I called my parents, who live in the central part of North Carolina, to see how hurricane Irene was treating them.  I became concerned when a recorded message informed me that the number I’d just dialed was no longer in service. That number had been in service since 1979 when my parents bought the house and was one of two land line numbers that I had committed to memory.

I called my mother’s cell.  To my relief, the phone was not out of order due to any natural disaster, but rather my parents, who are both in their 70s, had finally got Dad his own cell and let go of the land line.  Of course, I had to find all that out the hard way.  The last time I’d spoken with them, they were just thinking about doing that.  I did not think that in as little time as a week, they’d actually have followed through on the idea.  I expected at least a month or two of hemming and hawing.

Mom told me that the hurricane just brought some rain their way, but nothing serious.  As a matter of fact, the earthquake had been more dramatic, but not for her.  She had recently undergone knee surgery and had been doped up on percocet.  So when Dad asked her if she had seen things on the shelf shaking, she said, “Oh, I thought was just the percocet. I’ve been seeing things shake for a couple of days!”

And maintaining a good sense of humor is just one of the ways they’ve been married for 50 years. 

As we ease into the school year, I can only hope that none of the collective natural disasters interferes with classes.  I’m mildly concerned about water shortages.  Just walking down the unair-conditioned hallways breaks me into a sweat. Too bad I cannot put down a yoga mat and do 90 minutes of bikram with the students. 

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Starting School

Posted on August 21, 2011 by mathdreads

I’ve definitely ended my fantastic summer vacation the right way–by looking forward to the upcoming new school year with as much ease as I possibly can. My classroom is as decorated as I want it to be, I’ve got lesson plans for the first week and I’ve previewed my class rosters.  The most important thing is that I’ve not worked this weekend.

It’s always a wonderful thing to relax, destress and return to work refreshed and full of creative ideas.  Although I certainly don’t agree with some of the practices that are done in the name of the all mighty standardized tests (this year, we’ll have more assessments than “normal” since we’re phasing out one and phasing in another),  but I’ve written a handful of lesson plans already and I’m excited to get into that groove again.  Since we’re on block scheduling, I only have to write six lessons a week versus ten since I have two preps.

Last year, I hung up several pieces of decorative cloth that I collected from my life of teaching and traveling abroad.  I’ve decided to go with that theme again, but I’ve only decorated the front of my classroom so I can dedicate the rest of my wall space to student work. It’ll just be easier to display their creations without my decorations interrupting.

Some people were referring to this weekend as the last “free” weekend, but I disagree with seeing school as something negative.  I like vacation as much as the next person, but I also know that I can still have an enjoyable social life, especially while living in a happening town like Austin.

As a matter of fact, on the evening of the first day of school, I’m going to an interesting potluck dinner hosted by some local artists I’ve not seen in a long time, meeting a friend for dinner at one of my favorite soul food restaurants later on in the week, going to hear the Buena Vista Social Club on Friday and going downtown to celebrate a friend’s birthday on Saturday night.

And whynot?  When I’m at school, I’m the picture of organization, creative energy and efficiency.  Outside of school, I must relax, recharge my batteries and interact with the rest of society. I get most of my best ideas when I’m either exercising, especially swimming, or attending a cultural event. 

At the same time, on school nights, I make sure I get to bed at a reasonable hour in order to get my 7 to 8 hours of sleep.  There are many delusional people who believe that they can do “just fine” with fewer hours of sleep, but I cannot think of anyone who suffers from that delusion and doesn’t get jacked up on caffeine and/or sugar in order to function.

At my age, 40.9, I stick to doing things the natural route since any shortcut I take as far as diet, exercise or sleep will negatively affect my lower back.  That has been a consistent source of pain for me. I hold stress in my shoulders, jaws and lower back.  I’ve gotten better about not hunching my shoulders, but I still have to wear a nightguard. So far, yoga and chiropractic treatment have just started to chip away at my cemented lo back–just in time for school.

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Back to School: The Soft Opening

Posted on August 14, 2011 by mathdreads

During the middle of the summer, I thought I would burst into tears when this day had finally come, but I’m remarkably at peace with going back to school tomorrow.  Granted, it’ll be orientation week, which means that I’ll be semi-vacationing without students. Plus, I’ll be able to enjoy at least an hour-long lunch, unlike the 38-minute lunch we teachers are scheduled once the students return.

Unlike any other summer vacation in the past, I spent this one as a full-time writer, complete with making a fact-finding trip to Utila, a Honduran Caribbean island, which is the scene of my second novel, The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa. Not spending the summer moving into a new apt, working or studying has truly allowed me to unwind and get the stress out of my muscles.  I’ve even started going to yoga twice a week to aid the process, but truthfully, my middle-aged lower back has been my biggest motivator for that!

As is the case with most things in life, I’ll miss the little things: mid-afternoon naps, a glass of red wine with my 1 hour lunch, and going to the bathroom whenever I feel the need.  As much as I joke about wearing adult diapers so I can “go” whenever I want to, I’m not sure that I want the hassle of wearing one.  Besides, I usually keep myself in a state of partial dehydration and retrain my bowels not to move so freely after eating. That’s the trickiest thing to readjust to.  On the one hand, it’s not healthy, but it is necessary.

I’m sure some of my colleagues spent this weekend getting their classrooms together, but I’m going to start the new school year off right by not working on the weekends.  Part of the reason stress overtakes some teachers is that they don’t take the time to de-stress, thinking that they have to get ahead or catch up.  After teaching for 15 years, I know that I cannot be at my best without properly rested and as stress-free as I can manage. 

The first thing that goes out the window when stressed is creativity, whether it’s creative lesson planning or creative problem solving.  I learned early on by mistake that when I swam, I immediately felt more energized and as an extra perk, I intuited good solutions to problems.  Years later, I read a book on genius and discovered that other creative people would swim, drive, run or otherwise engage in a physical activity in order to intuit ideas, which is another good reason not to work longer hours. I can exercise and come up with creative ideas to implement in the classroom.

Teaching public school here in Texas makes implementation of creative ideas quite tricky, but the students are worth the effort.  Being happy with my job is worth the effort.  I just have to stick with a regular exercise schedule to come up with the creative solutions to make it possible.

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Novel Research

Posted on August 7, 2011 by mathdreads

Convenient enough, this week’s blog title is a double entendre since I visited Utila, a Honduran Caribbean island in order to do research for my second novel and this was the first time that I had done such a thing. If I were the least bit apprehensive, other than my brush with ESP about the flight itinerary fiasco last Monday, then my giddiness about my new venture was laid to rest.

Not only was Utila the lush, green beauty that I had remembered previously, but it had also changed.  The nuanced details that I gathered simply from being there in person are priceless.  I managed to conduct four formal interviews with my favorite new toy, a smart pen that records the conversation.  Everyone who I warned about the fact that my pen records, seemed rather impressed at such a piece of technology being used to conduct an interview.

I took pictures of the mundane as well as the spectacular during my five days on the island with the only notable exception being a yearly “underground electronic” music event known as Sunjam.  Among other restricted items, event goers could not bring a camera or cellphones or anyother image-recording recording device.  I had to take more notes during my four hours on the rented island where Sunjam took place than at any other location.

At one point, I saw four out-of-place looking older gentlemen.  They weren’t exactly dressed in three piece suits, but still had that aurora about them.  And stereotypically, the tallest man in the foursome was obviously the one in charge to which the others deferred.  I kept my eyes on them as the tallest man, who happened to be Honduran, walked slowly around, leading the other three men and pointing things out.  I waited until they made their way in my direction and took the opportunity to approach them.  I figured that they had been on the island about thirty minutes discussing things in their tight little circle of four and wouldn’t mind too terribly if I asked a question.

“Excuse me, are you one of the event organizers?” I asked the tall Honduran man with my nicest, most nervous smile. He politely informed me that he was a commissioner. I nodded in acknowledgement and continued to hand him one of my business cards, explaining that I was a novelist and I had wanted to interview one of the organizers to get some background information about Sunjam.  At that point, two of beta males looked around and one of them told me that when he saw one of the organizers, he’d point him in my direction for an interview.  I thanked him.  Before I returned to my palm tree to sit down, the commissioner handed me one of his business cards in return.

Not ten minutes had passed before I was introduced to Luis Maier, a promoter based out of Tegus who, together with his partner who owns a dive shop in Utila, had started this event 15 years ago.  He graciously granted me an interview, not at all minding that my smart pen was a recording device.  I just marveled at how with just a little initiative on my part, I found myself interviewing one of the top guys. 

I must admit that a combination of my “star struck-ness” and inexperience at interviewing, I missed asking some of the obvious questions, but fortunately, I was able to glean more information from the official Sunjam website.

I dedicated about a fifth of all the pictures I took to my gloriously named room at the surreal Jade Seahorse hotel, Shangri-La.  What a joy it was for the five days that I spent in Utila to return to that place.  During my first visit to Utila, I’d taken many pictures of the grounds, but this time around, I actually stayed there and dedicated all my picture taking to my room.

Now, I’m en route to the States, but I have to first spend a day on mainland Honduras. I had caught an earlier ferry than the original one I’d planned to take, thanks to the additional transportation that Sunjam caused. I’ve finally managed to escape the airport in La Ceiba, which is by far the worst of the three mainland airports.  Due to incompetence on part of the Taca Airline people working the desk, I had to pass through security a whopping four times since, for one reason or another, they kept messing up my flight information and had to issue me boarding passes three times!

Nonetheless, I don’t want to end this blog in a negative note since it’s suffice to say that I’ll never fly Taca again.  What I plan to do once I’m back in Austin is to work on my novel for several hours a day, incorporating all the delicious details that I’ve gathered through traveling and interviewing people.

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Utila or Bust!

Posted on July 31, 2011 by mathdreads

Normally, when I’m about to visit a Caribbean island, I excitedly count down the days.  This time, however, I’ve been cringing the coming days.  I’m not sure if this is a self-fulfilling prophecy or a rare psychic moment, but starting on Friday, I’ve had one aggravating thing after another happen.

First, I broke my blender.  Unfortunately, the broken part isn’t one of the many parts that can be ordered and replaced.   The blender motor no longer works and for that, there’s no authorized repair place in town and even if I send it back to the manufacturer, I have to pay for everything since it’s no longer under waranty.  I spent an incredible amount of time looking up small appliance repair places and the only one that was open on a Saturday didn’t fix blenders.  I have two more people to call, but neither work on the weekends. So, the broken blender dilemma must wait until I return. The worst case scenarios will be that I have to buy a new blender and/or try my hand at fixing it myself!

Then, my precious laptop, which is going to make life so much easier for me while writing and advancing my second novel started experiencing screen resolution problems.  I did a variety of things before I stumbled upon restoring the factory settings, which means that all the software that I had installed, I must reinstall.  Since it’s twenty minutes to eleven at night, I’m truly not excited about this.  I’m currently reinstalling my security software and the all important MS Office.  I’ll also have to reinstall my smart pen software, which is my new play toy.  I don’t dare do any of this while in Utila since, I’ve already learned from my vast overseas experience, some things cannot be downloaded while being in a developing country.  It’s best to get all these things squared away now.

In the meantime, I ran around town to put together my contribution to a 50th wedding anniversary gift for my parents.  That actually went pretty well, considering all the electronic device problems I’ve recently experienced. The most challenging thing was getting the oil pen to write.  Nonetheless, the picture frame that I decorated with it came out remarkably well without a hint of the frustration that has been building up the last 72 hours.

It’s a good thing that I don’t have to drive myself to the airport or fly the plane.  I predict that I’m going to have a restbroken sleep and perhaps forget to pack something vital although I’m about 99% packed.  Thank goodness I packed right after I finished cleaning up myself and my apartment after bikram yoga. 

It’ll actually be delightful to be at the airport since that’ll mean that I won’t have to run around or anything, just enjoy the traveling experience.  I initially thought that my forebroding feeling was nervousness about my research endeavor for my novel.  After this frustrating bout of bad luck, I’ll be happy enough to vacation and just incorporate whatever I happen to absorb without any more ambition than that!

                                                                     **

I knew it!  I knew it!  I knew it!  My foreboding feeling was confirmed in less than 12 hours after I blogged the preceding post.  I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to discover that TACA, the Honduran airline that was to be the carrier for the last half of my air travel to La Ceiba, had completely changed my itinerary and told NO ONE about the change. 

My Continental Airline ticket agent, together with an Orbitz agent, pieced together that although the original reservation that I’d made at the end of May still existed, TACA had switched the ticket a few days afterwards, much to all of our surprise.  So, now I already have my boarding pass for tomorrow at 7 am.

Yet the saga continues since TACA doesn’t want to book me in a hotel for a night.  Thanks to their new bookings of my return flight, I have to leave the beautiful, laid-back island of Utila a day earlier, spend the night in La Ceiba, then catch an early flight out.  My Orbitz agent gave me word that there’s a possibility of getting a later flight, which will mean that I get to spend my last night in Honduras on my island of choice, but a TACA representative will call me around 2pm today to let me know. 

I’ll give them until 2:30 before calling Orbitz again for a fourth time to let them continue negotiating for me.  The last Orbitz agent told me that she had documented everything and if TACA does not give me what I want in terms of a later flight or overnight in a decent hotel, then she encouraged me to call Orbitz again.

Ahh, excellent customer service!  Yet another thing that separates developed and developing countries.

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New Beginnings

Posted on July 24, 2011 by mathdreads

This week I celebrated the beginning of two very different things: a new capoeira studio and a marriage.  The interesting thing is how both events gathered well-wishing people together, brought out all the smiles and daydreams about all the good times that are to come.

Of course with my luck, I’m going to be out of town the first week when the capoeira classes start at the new studio and I’m going to miss my friend’s wedding, but at least I was present for the first roda at the new studio and the “pre-wedding girl party” for my friend, which started off at Barton Springs pool and ended at her house .

Funny thing, I have hardly ever come to our Thursday rodas since I don’t actually enjoy playing capoeira, but I absolutely love training, which keeps me in shape. Just like I have no intentions of marrying, but I love helping my friends celebrate their special occasion.

At both events, I took pictures.  As a matter of fact, I took 150 pictures at the roda since it was challenging to capture a good shot of the capoeiristas playing.  Whereas during my friend’s pre-wedding party, I got some good candid and posed shots once I selected the correct flash setting.

As I suspected when I was 35, I’m becoming increasingly sentimental as I age.  I feel so fortunate to have my life peppered with so many reasons to celebrate.  My father said during his 70th birthday celebration a few years ago that the key to living a good life was laughing a lot and being happy. Like father, like daughter.

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Don’t Play Well with Balls

Posted on July 17, 2011 by mathdreads

I’ve always thought of myself as the most uncoordinated person who was still motivated to do coordinated things. With lots of practice and determination, I’ve become quite decent at salsa dancing, swimming and training capoeira, but note how none of those coordinated activites involves balls.

I finally realized when I was a young adult that I don’t do well at any sport or game that involves balls.  And the more balls, the worse.  The last time I played pool, the only ball that I sank was the cue ball. The last time I bowled, I actually scored an impressive 133, but I shamelessly had the bumpers up.  I’ve tried to bowl like an adult before, but concluded that with my special spherically-challenged handicap, I earned the right for extra assistance in my game.

Excluding ball-based activities from my life has not blocked my happiness. I’ve happily taken advantage of many wonderful things in life where I did not have to dribble, shoot, bowl, throw, catch, pitch or hit any balls. Yet, I still practice eye-hand coordination when I paint; so I’m not exactly sure what’s the basis of my spherical challenge.

So it’s quite ironic that this past Saturday, in the heat of the day, I played soccer for the first time.  Granted, the field was one-fourth regulation size and we only had 15-minute playing halves with a 15-minute break in between, but I could not be told that it didn’t count as a full game.  I wanted to quit after the first half along with one member of the opposing team. We figured that the teams would still be equal.  Instead, we were convinced to play goalie. 

If ever I find myself in such a situation again, I’ll definitely play goalie again since I’m over all this running back and forth in the heat of the day.  Besides, I was pretty good at blocking potential goals, catching a few and swatting away others. I’m sure my goalie efforts helped my team win the game, 5-4.

As I watched the women’s US soccer team battle it out with the Japanese team, I could truly sympathize with their efforts.  I marveled at how much they ran around without becoming winded until the very end where they were unfortunately defeated. Everyone at my table seem defeated as well except for me.  That’s how I know I’m not at risk at becoming a sports fanatic.

As far as being a ball player…I’ve got a long way to go, but with my humble attitude about my skills, I’ll just have fun with my incompetencies.

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Monochromatic Butterfly

Posted on July 10, 2011 by mathdreads

Since I’ve dedicated this summer to being a full-time artist, my main creative outlet has been writing since I work my second novel daily and nearly everything I read somehow flavors that manuscript. Additionally, I finally found the time to reflect on my first two years of teaching at an Austin public school, which has been the most challenging teaching situation I’ve ever faced.

I wrote an essay, called “Monochromatic Butterfly: How Teaching to High-Stakes Testing Leads to Teacher Mediocrity.” Although I started working on this essay a few days after school was out in early June, I did not finish the first round of editing until The Fourth of July.  I thought that was an appropriate time to email what was essentially a two-page protest about my current teaching situation to about 30 friends, the majority of whom were educators or had been. I requested that they email me their reaction to the essay. I made a special request to friends who happened to be English teachers and/or writers to edit the essay.

My goal was to send my polished essay with the AISD superintendent and Lloyd Doggett, but a few friends suggested that I send it to a few major newspapers as an op-ed piece.  One friend, a journalist, recommended that I interview other teachers and throw in some stats.  I laughed at the latter suggestion since I know that people lie with statistics all the time.  I don’t want to adulterate myessay with that deviltry!

In the meantime, I was amazed at some of my friends’ passionate response to “Monochromatic Butterfly.” I emailed them back, asking permission to add their unedited reaction to my essay in its entirety.  This would at least give other educators’ voices, chorusing in harmony with my main point: high-stakes testing leads to mediocrity, both among students and teachers.

With so much emphasis on the test, students mainly prepare through rote memorization and the “new strategy” that my school tried this past school year was to standardized the lesson plans as well.

I was horrified that things had worsened.  My love for teaching had only lasted this long due to my freedom to be creative in the classroom while teaching the curriculum. Take away creative freedom and I might as well do some other less stressful job that pays more. (I know a few passionless accountants who make more money and have less stress than I do!)

Whatever happens as a result of “Monochromatic Butterfly” at least it has provided me a creative outlet to vent and share my opinon. Sometimes, just getting things off my chest is just the thing I need to continue pursuing happiness.

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Hanging Out with Family

Posted on July 3, 2011 by mathdreads

My two-week visit “back home” is nearly drawing to an end, but at least my visit will end with a bang since tomorrow’s the Fourth of July.  I love coming home to attend my family reunion and then spend additional time with my immediate family.  Some people find it hard to believe that I’m so close to my family since I’ve lived either out of state or out of the country.  As a matter of fact, when I flew into Dulles, Mom welcomed me “To the Land of the Living” as if I were coming from a much more exotic place than Austin, TX.

I always feel that I eat too much and exercise too little when visiting my family. I was smart enough to write down some of the beginning capoeira curriculum before I left Austin both to teach my 10-year-old nephew and to make sure that I practiced while I was away.  At 40.9, there’s no way that my body’s going to bounce back well from a two-week total absence from capoeira.  Fortunately, my nephew’s a very active, energetic soul who happily practiced with me twice  in the backyard and once at a waterpark.

This particular waterpark was more geared toward much younger kids, but my nieces, nephew and I still managed to have a rip-roaring good time.  In my normal life, I usually swim 21 laps (3 sets of 7 different strokes) twice a week, but I only raced my nephew a few laps in the underpopulated pool.  We were very lucky since, as we pulled up to the waterpark around 4pm, two busloads of screaming schoolkids on summer break were fetched away! I spent most of my time in the pool, practicing several capoeira kicks.  Of course, my nephew joined me. With nothing much better to do, even my two nieces practiced each kick a few times.

Another day, we went bowling.  As soon as we entered the bowling alley, I spotted a sea of gray-haired people and leaned over to Mom and whispered, “This is where people your age hang out.”  When we walked over to the counter to get our tacky two-toned highlighter colored bowling shoes, I loudly and without a trace of shame requested bumpers.  My older sister teased me, but I didn’t care.  I know my limitations.  I don’t do well with any sport or game that involves balls; so this would be the only way I could bowl and enjoy myself.  Besides, it has been years since I’ve bowled.

Bowling has become so high tech now that they can program who gets bumpers and who doesn’t. Everytime my sister bowled, the bumpers dropped, but they were present for her kids and me.  Plus, the score was automatically done by the computer.  I had been looking forward to brushing up on my bowling math, but shook my head in slight disgust that all this automation would lead us to being a dumber society.  Nonetheless, the automatic scoring told the truth: I won the first game with 133 points!  I’d bowled 4 strikes.  At the end of the first game, I knew that my second game would be lackluster since my right shoulder was in pain. Even though I was third place for the second game, I was still the overall winner.

When my sister had first mentioned going bowling, her kids had screamed “chili cheese fries!” So after bowling two games, we got two orders of the intestinally challenging dish.  It was so warm, gooey and yummy, I felt guilty about every delicious bite. Surely I’d pay somehow for eating it.

This morning, Igot up a little too early for my taste, 8 am.  When school’s in session, 8 am is “sleeping in,” but since I’m in the middle of vacation, it’s a wee bit early.  We all got dressed to go to church, which I love attending since I don’t go to church in Austin.  I love Black baptist churches, but I’ve never had the desire to join one or be baptized. It’s not that I don’t think I’m worthy or think I’m better than any other Christian.  I’ve just never believed that those things were necessary for my relationship with God. And whenever I can cut out the middle man, I do.  That’s why I self-published my first novel.

The minister seemed annoyed by the low attendance and commented about how we would stay longer if we continued acting like we didn’t really want to be there!  Either he was joking or the energy changed enough in the room that he saw fit to release us after an hour and a half. Whatever the case, I liked his message of Independence Day being more than just our freedom from British rule. We should celebrate our liberation from whatever challenges that used to enslave us.  As I gear up to start a new school year, I’m going to see how much systemic foolishness I can emancipate myself from.

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