Okay you may ask, where is/are the camp post(s)?  Well, in short, I haven’t written it/them yet.  As you can tell from the last sentence I don’t know how many of them there will be.  Work was quite busy over the last week and I really had little time for myself when I returned home, usually around 7-ish with photos to go through and upload.  Aside from that my mother had an episode a little over a week ago that left her with a slightly fractured ankle and so I have been doing some extra work helping with that.  Her ankle will be healing for about eight weeks (one down, seven to go…)

So how about some “small world” news?  Not about me, but about one of our church’s pastors?  Both of the main pastors at my church are from Canada, though now have citizenship here.  What do most boys growing up in Canada do?  Hint- it’s not baseball, the past-time of this country.  Even I participated in that for a couple of years- one tee-ball when I was very young, and one as a very poor player in intermediate league because my best friend at the time played it.  Interesting story there- he was on the best team in the league, I was on the worst.  What do you think happened when we played each other?  A classic case of overconfidence of course, so we won.  The only game we won if I remember correctly.  Oh, well.  My interest was never really there so I didn’t practice, got stuck in right field, and the only ball I ever hit was an easily caught pop-up.

But this isn’t supposed to be about me.  I am sure you have figured out by now that what most Canadian boys do growing up is play hockey.  You know all professional athletes start somewhere, and the story of a hockey superstar intersected with the story of one of our pastors on a team together as kids.  The reason for him bringing it up in his message was about teamwork, the body of Christ working together in their separate roles defined by spiritual gifts.  The story was how he tried and failed to score a goal on his own when a teammate was wide open to pass to.  Wayne even came up to him afterward and asked why our not-yet-pastor didn’t pass the puck to him.  Oh, did I just give away the superstar?  Even though I only gave his first name, I do believe that will be sufficient as all of you of course mentally added his surname.  Being a very gifted player even at a young age, you know he would have scored that goal too.  But anyway, just as not all hockey players are goalies or forwards, just as not all baseball players are pitchers, we in Christ are not all teachers, not all pastors, not all bearing higher-profile gifts.  God has given us different gifts and we are, as I already mentioned, to use them together whether our gifts are onstage, backstage, outside, or wherever.

So… how has your week been?  Camp post(s) still coming soon.

Last weekend I picked up a job in hometown district for first grade.  In fact, it was the school nearest my home.  Later, a job in supersized district appears for a resource teacher (they call it by a different name, but that’s what the job is- for those students who need the extra boost).  It was of course much further so why would I want to change over to this one?  Yet, for some reason I did.  Probably because I hadn’t worked in that district for a month thanks to them canceling most of the jobs I’ve taken in recent days.  Yes, the expected one included.  That actually lasted an entire week believe it or not.  I guess no one bothered to check and see that a mere 90-day (noncertified) sub had their three-week assignment.  We’re the ones who get the unwanted/last minute scraps at the table.  Did you know 120-day (certified) subs in this state can work more than 120 days?  They have to get a waiver from the state to do it, but for some reason they get it.  There was one year the state said no, but with some finagling they managed to get it back for the next year.  For the end of that one year, jobs were easier for me to come by.  So back to the story, I did change the job.  1st grade is a little below my comfort zone anyway, as I have mentioned.  So Monday I arrived and guess what?  They told me I was needed in first grade at the start of the day because another sub was going to be late!  Sigh.  It happened to take away my only break that day outside of a 45-minute lunch (the teacher didn’t have any students for nearly the first hour, after that it was one group of students to the next.  Actually, they offered to let me stay in first grade and bump the other sub to my assignment.  After having worked in this class for the last hour I thanked them for the offer but moved on.  And, the other teacher worked with older kids.

The first grade irony continued on Wednesday.  I subbed for elementary PE where we played hockey tag all day, a combination of the two games in the name.   The “it” players are armed with hockey sticks and they try to hit other players with yarn balls.  Depending on the rules the players hit could be out or become “it” as the stick is handed over.  The morning was all 4th-6th grades, most of whom knew what they were doing.  The afternoon had four groups, one 4th grade, one 2nd grade, and two 1st grade.  So, back to first grade for another hour 😉  Not only that, but one of the classes, probably the roughest group all day, was a class I had subbed in for a couple of days last year.  Several older students had asked if they could help me during their lunch, and this was the class they would have helped with had I said yes.  I should have said yes.  Oh, well.

In case you’re wondering, Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of IT in hometown district, same school as last week.  The 6th graders were working on house floor plans instead of enlarging cartoons, and the 7th and 8th graders were still doing modules like last time.  Nothing much to say.

Happy New Year!  Holy cow, 2009 already!  I hope you had a good New Year’s.  Ours was wonderul.  We hosted a bash, which is always great so that we don’t have to pack up the kids and all their luggage just to haul them out somewhere to stay until the wee hours of the morning.  We played charades and other games and ate lots of yummy treats.  Our kids – #2 and #4 in birth order – fell asleep way early.  The older one stayed asleep all night, but wouldn’t you know it – the baby woke right as we crawled into bed at 4 in the morning.  I was able to sleep for a few hours, but that’s more than I can say for my husband who woke with the baby.  But then he got a short nap while I ambled downstairs to do some much needed cleanup from the party.  After that, we were ready to drag ourselves over to a friend’s house for a New Year’s Day chili feast – I’m told the beans bring good luck in the new year.  More food, more fun, and we didn’t plan on staying long but ended up getting home about 7 in the evening.  I did miss the hockey game at Wrigley Field, but the Red Wings beat the Blackhawks anyway.  I’m not a big hockey fan; I just thought it would be cool to see Wrigley all decked out for hockey.  I wonder what they would have done if they had gotten some of that freak 60 degree weather again – how to maintain an ice rink in those conditions?  Oh well, that’s a tangent, good thing this site is called tangents.org

So the chili and rest of the food at our friends house was great, but I wish I could have enjoyed it more – seems I partied a little too hard the night before and felt a little tired and queasy come chili feast time.  But it’s my own fault – I should know that I’m getting older and can’t handle the late nights (or early mornings for that matter) like I used to.  But oh well – my friend did give me some delicious chili to take home, so hopefully it will be more enjoyable now that I was able to rest last night.  Now I’ll just have to get used to writing 2009 instead of 2008 all over the place…

 With Alaskan Sarah Palin’s eye on the White House and all the northern exposure in the media lately, we decided to pull out one of our old favorites the other night and watched the 1999 movie Mystery Alaska.  It’s a pretty good movie and obviously has lots of replay value, at least for us, because we’ve seen it lots of times.  It was interesting watching it this time since I think this is the first time we’ve seen it since we’ve moved into a small town, and the movie is all about small town living.  The main difference between Mystery Alaska and my small town is the climate, of course.

In Mystery, residents’ lives seem to revolve around hockey (and sleeping around, but don’t let that give you the wrong idea about the movie.  Every small town has its sordid secrets).  Boys in Mystery grow up with the “goal” (pun intended) of getting to play in the famed Saturday Game.  Hank Azaria plays a former Mysterian who left town because he was never good enough to play in the game.  He becomes a writer for Sports Illustrated instead, although his success in the real world does not make him feel any more acceptance in Mystery, even if he does arrive in a helicopter.  He gets the brilliant idea to bring the New York Rangers to Mystery to play the Saturday Game, and well, you’ll have to watch the movie to see what happens.  As in any small town, there is a bit of drama, and the movie is successful with its character development as it follows the lives of the most popular residents of Mystery.  Russell Crowe, who is not normally one of my favorite actors, is pretty good in this movie as the family man / town sheriff who is growing too old to play in the Saturday Game and must face some tough decisions about what is best for his family versus what is best for Mystery and the integrity of the Saturday Game.  Burt Reynolds is excellent as the no-nonsense judge who also struggles as he raises his teenagers.  In fact, perhaps the funniest line of the movie is said to his character by his wife.  She is consoling their teenage daughter, and he wants to know what’s wrong.  “Walter,”  his wife says, “if you don’t leave, I swear I’ll tell you!”  If you have kids, especially teenagers, you can appreciate the truth and the humor in that line, more so if you see the movie and know the daughter’s issue to which she is referring.

Even if you don’t like hockey, this is an entertaining film with dramatic moments interspersed with comedy.  Its one shortcoming is the fact that there is too much adult content for it to be considered as a family film.  However, adults will enjoy the fine performances by the large ensemble cast which make Mystery Alaska a well-rounded, heart-tugging and entertaining film – definitely recommended by this blogger!

I was debating on which blog to write this post. I, personally, have had enough of filmmakers making the same movie over and over again and attempting to make it a sequel. There has been Cruel Intentions I and II (based on the film Dangerous Liasons). It even had the same characters but played by different actors. Last night, The Cutting Edge 3 premiered. I did not tune in as I have seen the first movie at least once (and that is enough, thank you). The first movie starred D.B. Sweeney (a B-movie actor if there ever was one) as a hockey player who either is passed his prime or is injured. Somehow, he becomes the partner of an Olympic-medal hopeful figure skater (Moira Kelley). What follows is as predictable as any Dirty Dancing-esque movie could be. The two meet, argue, attempt to work together, fall apart, get back together, and finally perfect their routine enough to compete. Did I mention that they also fall in love…. how predictable?

OH…. forgive me please. The Cutting Edge 2 features the daughter of the characters of the original. It seems she has the same dream as her mother and meets and falls for her headstrong, stubborn skating partner. I’m sure that it is as brilliant as the first movie…. only the character names have been changed (or most) to protect the integrity of the first movie.

Unfortunately, I could find no synopsis for The Cutting Edge 3 to compare the plots of the trilogy. However, I can provide the following as a possible scenario:

A former hockey pro reluctantly agrees to become the partner of a stubborn, self-centered Olympic figure skating hopeful. Sexual tension begins to rise as they struggle to go for the gold.

Strange, but they seem like a case of been there, seen that, and seeing that was not so great. So enough of Hollywood rehashes posing as sequels even if they are direct to video or made-for-television. At the very least, Grease 2 attempted to be a completely different story… but that is another turkey.