Annal 29: Tale from the Dark Side of the Force

Sometimes I fall under the illusion that I'm cool.  This usually happens when I am surrounded by friends who love and appreciate me despite my quirkiness.  When I'm with them, taking pictures of myself with a photo of Mr. Darcy, or walking into sunlight while crying out "It burns, Precious," seem like completely natural things to do.  I can write statuses on Facebook that read: "Today is a day where one feels as if they attempting to walk into Mordor only to discover the Black Gate is too heavily guarded to enter that way. What is one to do? Turn back to the safety of the Shire, or press on despite the fact that Shelob and an army of orcs block the way? And what of this ring that constantly drags me down, willing me to give up?" and my friends completely accept me (yes, this may have been my status today).  Then I have moments like the one I had this morning.

I had no students today, but was still at the school working on report cards and finishing off cleaning up my classroom.  I decided I needed some tunes to help me feel inspired.  You see I need a good deal of inspiration in order to do certain things.  I decided that the obvious choice in music would be the "Imperial March" music from the Star Wars movies.  I know... it was one thing to be odd, but now you can label me under sci-fi geeks as well.

So there I was, listening to my awesome movie soundtrack, all the while trying to defeat insurmountable odds and complete my report cards.  I thought this was cool.  The response of a neighboring teacher told me differently.  "Really?" she cried.

Is there where I mention that for superhero day at school I dress up as Darth Vader?

Yup, that's cool right there.

I should probably mention that I moved on from the Star Wars music.  I progressed to the Indiana Jones theme song, and from there to Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings soundtracks.  If my life had a soundtrack, it would definitely be epic.

And so on days when I think I am cool and I cannot figure out why I'm still single, I will reread this blog entry.  Then everything will suddenly become clearer to me, in the same way Frodo becomes clearer to the Nazgul when he puts the one ring on his finger (yeah, I went there).

Such is the life of a Christian single.

Annal 4: Tale from the Dress-Up Day

Every once in a while I have a complete moment of clarity and everything makes sense.  Like when you try to get up from your chair but you’re stuck.  You keep pulling and then all of a sudden you realize you sweater had hooked on something and that was why you were stuck.  Today is one of those moments.

I’m currently looking at myself and I’m wearing a cowboy hat, plaid shirt, studded belt, and a duster.  My hair is in braids and I’m greeting students as they walk in with a “Howdy.”  It’s Western Day at school and I’m all dressed up.  Now minus the hair, which is mine, everything else is borrowed.  And by borrowed, I mean I had to send out a Facebook message begging anyone with Western gear to please help me out.

You see, I love the theme days.  I think it’s cute the way my students will get dressed up and I love the creativity, but it goes far deeper than that.  I love dressing up.  There’s a scene in one episode of “The Big Bang Theory” where these four guys are incredibly excited to dress-up for a Halloween party.  That’s me.  If I had a costume of the Flash you would probably find me wearing it more often than I care to admit.  Actually, that is not true.  I would totally admit to wearing it.  You see, not that long ago our school had another theme day: Super Hero Day.  Yeah, guess you dressed up as Darth Vader?  That’s right, I wore black, I had a cape, and I most definitely had the mask.  The only thing missing was a voice distorter but even that didn’t stop me from breathing heavily and lowering my voice to raspy tone.

How does this all lead to my moment of clarity?  The lights have turned on, and angels have sung, and much like a vision all has become clear: I am a geek.

Some days it all makes sense why I am single.  I mean, I’m sure there are loads of people lining up out there wanting to date a flip-flop wearing cowgirl who doubles as a master of the dark side of the force, who can also tell you intricate details about the majority of the X-Men.  Yes, that was sarcasm.

I am a geek, but such is the life of a Christian single.