The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

The school year got off to a rocky start. First of all, there's not much for the Reading Specialist to do the first few weeks of school. It was too early to start working with the teachers, who are just trying to get things up and running in their classrooms. I was uncomfortable with not being busy enough. Second, my responsibilities are still somewhat ambiguous. No one has sat down with me and told me what I should be doing. I've just heard a lot of what not to do. It's a new position, so I don't think anyone really knows, and I'm just kind of making it up as I go along based on what I learned in grad school. Also, it's like my confidence has been out the window since I moved back. Suddenly I was questioning myself and my abilities, knowledge, and qualifications for this position. I was afraid I was out of my league and had nothing to contribute. Well, things have started to turn around. I knew if I could just get a few people to "hire" me, and if I w

I love fall so much. I was sooo homesick last year during fall. It sucked knowing that everyone back home was wearing sweatshirts, and in Phoenix it was still 95 degrees at the end of October. (Of course, once December hit, it was like fall and spring for 5 months with no winter- heaven!) Saturday I went for a gorgeous 8 mile hike on the Ice Age Trail up in Wisconsin. I didn't see another soul, so it was the very best kind of hike. I even did part of it without my iPod on because it was just so quiet; I love that sound of absolute silence and feeling like you're the only one around for miles and miles. Other things I loved about my hike were: The vivid fall colors- all the trees are changing! The sound of leaves crunching under my feet The perfect sweatshirt weather The smell of fall (why does it always smell like something is burning in the fall??) I wish my iPhone took better pictures. The colors don't look right. But I loved walking through this: Into this: In Phoenix I

Rachel should charge a fee for her therapy services. We were on the phone the other night, and I was telling her about Outdoor Ed. Specifically, the high ropes course- you go up a rock-climbing wall, cross three complicated rope things, and then zip line down. Rachel was like, "I bet you were all over that." "What are you talking about? I didn't even consider it. I'm out of shape, I don't like heights, I'm totally uncoordinated, and I didn't want everyone watching me." "Um, Erin? What's wrong with you? Phoenix Erin was such a bad-ass; she would've been so excited about that... We need to figure out why Chicago's not working for you." This change has crept up on me, but it's definitely happening. Rachel was right. If this had been in Phoenix, sure, I would've been nervous, but I would've been excited to try. (And I don't think I would have had a choice; my coworkers would have just expected me to do it, given

Outdoor Ed was a blast! We went to the same place I went in 8th grade. It was so great to do it as an adult, without all the insecurities I had back then. Plus I got to have my iPhone and Diet Coke and flat iron. When I was in 8th grade, I remember doing this thing where we had to get everyone in the group over a wall, and I was freaking out because everyone was going to know how heavy I was. On top of that, someone tripped in the cafeteria and spilled soup on me, which was also very traumatic and embarrassing. Everything is such a big deal when you're in middle school! I try really hard to be sensitive of that with my students. Anyway, this time was different. My coworker, Katie, and I ran the pond mucking station, where the kids collected muck and looked for organisms. This was not as exciting as it sounded, and we were glad that they added something new this year- the worm holes. After pond mucking for a little while, we'd take the kids over to the giant tube slides that the

We promised we would never forget. So here’s what I remember: I remember the phone ringing and waking me up on a Tuesday morning. My aunt sounded upset, but I was too tired to register that and said, “Oh, Aunt Kathy, I’m glad you called. I needed to get the name of the lady who does your hair..” She interrupted to ask if I’d been watching tv, and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went out to the living room to tell my mom, who was giving a piano lesson, and went back to my room to watch tv. I saw the second plane hit, and went out to tell my mom. I saw that the Pentagon had been hit, and went out to tell my mom. It seemed like every few minutes, I was going out to share more bad news with her. I remember how scary that morning was. We didn’t know when it was going to stop. It seemed like one thing after another. Many of the skyscrapers in downtown Chicago were evacuated, including my dad’s. I remember my mom and I pleading with him to come home, and him calmly expl

The weekend after Labor Day means the Sandwich Fair! I've been almost every year since I was like, 10. I love seeing the farm animals and the crafts and quilts and most of all, the award-winning vegetables. Don't ask me why, but I get really excited about these. This year, my favorite things to see were the enormous rutabagas and this crazy-looking deformed squash. Seriously, I went nuts over a rutabaga. I also enjoyed these pumpkins. My new Camelbak came in the mail the other day and I was dying to try it out, so I went for a hike at Starved Rock today. Yes, it is frequently an object of my scorn; it doesn't feel like real hiking since there are so many wooden walkways and it's so crowded. But it was still nice to see some cliffs in Illinois. I also found this nice little alcove that I climbed into to take a break. It was off the path and somewhat private, which was nice. It was kind of pathetic how excited I was to climb up something. Other than that, nothing too exci

When Ray pressed a worn copy of Black Hawk Down into my hands and insisted I read it, I kind of wanted to laugh in his face. I'm pretty immovable on my stance of not reading anything upsetting/violent/unhappy. After 10 years of friendship, doesn't he know that? Instead, I smiled politely and accepted the book with no intention of reading it. But our school does SSR time (sustained silent reading) twice a week, and last week, I needed something to read. Something school-appropriate; I didn't want to have to explain the plot of Cops and Cowboys. So I grabbed Black Hawk Down and was immediately hooked. It's intense. I feel like I'm watching a movie; there's so much excitement. It's not the kind of nonfiction I'm used to reading. I like how it's telling the story from so many points of view. I'm not very far into it, but in addition to the American soldiers, they've also shared a Somali point of view. And it's so sad, because you see that in

In his brilliant book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years,” my boyfriend Donald Miller talks about how our lives are like a story. A story consists of a character who wants something and has to overcome conflict to get it. In one section he discusses the “want.” What we want determines the quality of our story. No one would want to go see a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo and has to overcome conflict to get it. I had the sobering realization the other day that this actually is my current story. What do I want? A Subaru. I have really good reasons for wanting it. It will allow me to do more of the things I love, and save money doing them because I can just sleep in the back of my car. But attaining this Subaru is not easy. It’s going to take several months of saving. And, as a result of that saving, I won’t be able to go on many hiking adventures. This is the conflict I have to overcome to reach my goal. Would anyone want to watch a movie about my life right now? Most definitely no

The closest wilderness areas to Chicago are 5 hours south of here, near Carbondale, and 5 hours north, in the north woods of Wisconsin. I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get out of the city this weekend, so I opted for the cooler temps of the north woods. It was only my third time up there, and I can't believe what I've been missing! I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time up there in the near future. I did the Jones Spring trail, which should have been a 9 mile loop, but I cut it short and made it 6 instead due to a wardrobe malfunction. I was wearing Kristin's hand-me-down hiking pants, which were too big on her. I didn't realize how big they were on me until a mile into the hike, when it started to rain. I don't mind getting wet and dirty, and I had an umbrella. But the pants were getting all wet, which weighed them down, and it's really hard to hold an umbrella while holding your pants up, but if I didn't hold them, they were act