Childhood Heroes

When I was a kid, I had really bizarre, diverse interests. My possible plans for a future career included but were not limited to: geologist, archeologist, veterinarian, artist, opera singer, fashion model, and children's book author. As such, I did not really have what you would call a "childhood hero," someone I looked up to and wanted to emulate. I just had a lot of really good ideas and people who inspired me... mostly dead people or fictional characters, and mostly people I would be ashamed to admit I wanted to be like now that I am grown (such as Wonder Woman! Although in my defense, I mostly just liked her outfit).

The cool thing, though, is that I got to meet one of those people on Friday, and he did not disappoint.

As I mentioned previously, I kind of wanted to be an author/illustrator of children's literature. I used to write books in my spare time, although they were all terrible and few if any survive today. One of my favorite children's authors and poets (especially as I moved into middle school) was Gary Soto. This is a photo from his official website.

Gary Soto is a Mexican-American author from.... drumroll, please.... FRESNO! Yay! Go home team! I remember having to evaluate "Canto Familiar" in English in High School, and I remember thinking how much his work moved me.

Later on, as I moved into college, I had to start doing social and historical criticism of different literary genres, and he started cropping up more and more as the definitive voice of Mexican-Americans in the later half of the 20th century. Since I grew up in Fresno, where the lines between different cultures blur very thin, I could identify with a lot of what he has to say, despite the fact that I definitely am not Mexican (although that fact seems to have eluded my 3rd period class recently). His poem "Oranges" moves me to tears nearly every time I read it, partly because it is so beautiful, and partly because when I read it, I am home.

He was the keynote speaker at a conference I went to on Friday. Afterward, I got to shake his hand and he autographed a book for me. I told him I come from Fresno, too, and we spoke a little bit about home. We laughed about a comment he made earlier during his address- that Fresno isn't hell, but you can see it from there (a joke that you probably won't appreciate if you haven't been to Fresno, but one that is very hilarious to those who know the town). He told me his wife went to Roosevelt Elementary and El Capitan Middle School.

It was neat. It was also cool to know that success hasn't affected him much- he is very humble and was willing to take a few minutes to talk to me, even though he had a very busy schedule. He was approachable and funny, and all-in-all, he has inspired me to start writing about my own experiences growing up.

Now if only I could think of something to say...

End of the Line

Well, it's been nearly 4 months since I started with acupuncture and herbal supplements for fertility and so far the results have been mixed. I have had tremendous improvement in my overall health. My chronic, life-long indigestion and heartburn are a thing of the past. My adult acne, if not totally gone, is at least cleared up. I'm sleeping better than ever, and my chronic migraine headaches are mostly gone (except for the past 2 weeks, I've had an inexplicably constant headache, for no apparent reason whatsoever). I also have a functioning immune system. Last year I had 5 sick days used up by now. This year, I almost started to come down with the flu. I had a low-grade fever and some slight chest congestion for about 4 days, and that's been it. I've managed to dodge H1N1 (cross fingers) and strep throat- both of which are running rampant around here.
I have not, however, seen much improvement in the symptoms that I was seeking help in. Obviously I'm not pregnant- I'm not even close to possibly being able to conceive. So, I'm throwing in the towel. I promised Luis that if we didn't see drastic improvement by October I'd quit going to acupuncture, since it's pretty expensive. My last appointment is going to be Nov. 5th. My first appointment with a Reproductive Endochrinologist will be November 11th.
I'm so scared and angry and confused. I don't really know what to do next, but I'm hoping at least the R.E. will be able to help me figure out exactly why my body refuses to respond to any sort of treatment.
Anyway, I don't want to talk about it much because it's a really painful topic for me, but just so you know- if I'm a little moody or distant these days I'm going through a really rough time with this.

FTW

I have looked like a zombie for the past 2 days. This has not been voluntary. I lost my makeup bag this weekend during all of skirt-sewing, lesson-planning madness. I retraced my steps and even went as far as to drive over to the church parking lot to see if I had perhaps dropped it. I tore apart my bedroom, my office, my bathroom, my classroom, and my car several times trying to find it. No luck. 2 days I looked for that stupid thing.
I was grabbing my car keys to drive out to WalMart this afternoon to see if I had dropped it in the parking lot, when I realized it was in my laptop bag. Why was it in my laptop bag? I have literally no idea. My best guess is that I must have shoved it in there while running into church after putting on my makeup in the car. Classy, huh?
I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Fall Projects Part II

This past weekend I finished up a bunch of other projects I've been working on lately.

This collage is of a couple of needle savers I made to store needles, thread, and notions in. I have a hard time keeping track of everything when I'm sewing, especially if I want to take a project on the road with me. I had this green corderoy laying around which coordinated well with some heavy canvas I bought so I combined them and came up with this. It's a neat little fold out book style needle saver with pockets for ribbon, applique's bobbins, and scissors. I made an extra one for my sister Emily who also sews a lot.
Also pictured is my new makeup bag. The old one (pictured top center) was clearly having issues. It was approximately 6 years old and was getting pretty nasty, so I made a new one. It's a great size because it doesn't feel very large, but holds A LOT of stuff. I lined it with red fabric for a bit of flash.

I've blogged about my halter top apron before, but have never gotten around to actually photographing it. If you want the pattern, I'd be happy to send you instructions in a pdf file. Also pictured are some harlequin pattern aprons I've made recently. I don't know which apron I like the best, they are all so cute! It kind of makes me want to think of excuses to cook, which hubby definitely doesn't mind, especially when I make yummy treats like French Muffins, or Honey Bun Cake.

These last photos are of some diaper bags I've made recently. The brown and pink one was originally for my SIL Ana, but she's kind of moving out of the diaper bag stage and doesn't really want/need it, so I may gift it to one of you lucky ladies. The blue/brown one is for my sister Melissa. It's my favorite one I've made so far, because the striped suiting material I used for the outside lends itself so well to the bag. It has a crisp, clean look and I love how the blue bubble lining adds a little bit of whimsy to the design, without making it look too childish. The little flower applique's make it look sweet without looking too girly.

Anyway, this week I'm sewing 4 dance skirts for a baile folklorico performance our branch is having on Saturday, so it should be interesting. I kind of get to invent the pattern since I'm basing the skirts (for teenage girls) on a sample made for a small child. Thank heavens I still remember the mathematical formulas for circumfrence and area. Go Pi! Each skirt has about 10 yards of material, so wish me luck.

Fall Projects

Here are the promised pictures of the most recent Fall projects. There are more to come next week because I am off of school for Fall Break and with no Andrei around during the week and Luis out of town visiting family in Mexico, and with mama' gone, Ana working full time, and Kenley in day care, I'll have the place pretty much to myself. Ahh... It's going to be sweet.

So without further ado, my most recent projects

I wanted to harvest all of the remaining tomatoes before the first heavy frost predicted for last week, which ended up killing my cherry vine, but most of the tomatoes were still green. I googled "Green Tomato Relish" and found a great recipe with a promised salsa-like flavor. All it took was some basic ingredients, my green tomatoes, a whole lot of apple-cider vinegar, and some canning equipment to get the project off the ground.

Here are some photos of Sherriff Woody helping out with the whole process. Andrei was being quite naughty that afternoon and it was mostly attention-seeking behavior so his punishment was to help me core and quarter about 100 green tomatoes and dice some red peppers, onions, and garlic. It ended up being less of a punishment than originally planned because he loves to help me cook, as does Sherriff Woody, which I didn't mind very much. Betcha didn't know the Sherriff was an ace in the kitchen, did ya?

Our other major project last weekend was prepping the house for Halloween. I LURVE Halloween- it may be my favorite holiday because I am weird like that. I have never decorated the house for Halloween, though, because I live with a bunch of people who do not celebrate it (and no, we do not celebrate Dia De Los Muertos either- lame!). Anyway, I made up my mind to decorate this year for Andrei, mostly because I miss having him around all the time, so I try to make the time we do have together pretty special.

I had the SCATHINGLY brilliant idea of making window clings this year as a tasteful and fun decoration. Vinyl window decals can cost upwards of $35, however, so I made my own custom decals out of white contact paper- I found some designs I liked on the internet, free-handed them onto the contact paper, cut it out and viola'! Fancy-pants Halloween window clings for about $3.50. Nice!

Aside from the Halloween stuff, I also wanted to do some general autumn-themed decorations that I could leave up until Thanksgiving. Our house is mostly decorated in reds, golds, browns, and greens, so it kind of lends itself to an autumn pallette. Andy and my mom (who was still in town after the funeral) helped me cut out paper oak leaves, which I sewed together with some cheap silk leaves I got at the dollar store. We made garlands out of these strings of leaves for the entryway and kitchen chandaliers.

Mom helped me pry apart the world's toughest silk sunflowers to make some nosegays for the entryway banisters (which I thought turned out perfectly) and I used the remaining flowers and ribbons to gussy up my favorite thrift-store find this year- a $5 antique birdcage (thanks Provo D.I.! You always surprise me in a good way!). We stuck a spooky raven on the top of the birdcage for an extra-Gothic touch. Take THAT, Martha Stewart!

Anyway, I think everything turned out well. It feels really cozy in here these days, and I'm glad we took the time to fix things up for the autumn holidays. It went so well, I think I might venture into other holiday decorations in the future...

Case of Mistaken Identity

We are reading "The House on Mango Street" in my 8th grade advanced class. It's a skinny little book that is completely PACKED with heavy issues and beautiful prose. It's easy enough for the most struggling readers to decode and complex enough that the most advanced readers can spend weeks picking it apart.
One of the most intense themes in the book is the idea of being an "outsider." The Protagonist Esperanza feels like she's an outsider from her family because she is a teenager and the rest of her siblings are young, because she is the oldest girl and her only sister is too young to really connect with, and because she's far too "cool" for her parents. She feels like an outsider in her neighborhood because she is a Latina who wants a career in writing rather than simply getting married young and producing children (not my words- hers), and in her school because she is the only Latina in her class. She feels like she sticks out like a sore thumb.
We were talking about that in a class discussion and it came up that I often feel like an outsider around my husband's family/friends. One of the girls in my class asked me what I meant by that, and I explained to her that I'm often one of, if not THE only white person in the house and that I go days sometimes without speaking my native language to anybody. The entire class of 8th graders went dead silent and Jesus shouted out, "YOU'RE WHITE!?!?!?!"
I have been his teacher for 2 years now and he was in my class for 3 out of 8 class periods last year, and I guess the enormity of that realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
I'm also guessing by the stunned looks of 15 latino 14 year olds that my Spanish has improved lately. Am I wrong in thinking that this is completely hilarious?

Update

I've been meaning to blog about all of my most recent projects for a while, but time keeps slipping through my hands and I can't seem to get a grip on everything that I need to get done between teaching 6 classes, dealing with the enormous, never-ending mountain of paperwork for the ESL Department, caring for Andrei and Luis, and keeping up with the house work.
I'm pretty exhausted, which is a lame excuse but the one I most often use for neglecting my little blog.
Anyway, things here have been hectic and mundane as usual- lots to do, but none of it very interesting or out of the ordinary. I still intend to post pictures of my projects tomorrow or Friday, but for now, here's the link to the blog entry I contributed for regarding my Grandpa's funeral last Friday. It's all pictures, but that's what you all come here for anyway, isn't it? At least you'll get a better idea about who was there, etc. Too bad we couldn't get any pictures of me playing a musical number with my cousin Jessica. She is a violin performance major at BYU (FANCY!), and I was a little surprised that they asked me to do a number with her because rusty doesn't even begin to describe my musical abilities these days. Nevertheless, I broke out my Great-Grandpa's pioneer violin, said a lot of prayers, and I think we did a pretty decent job. As I explained it to my cousin Amy, I just played the good parts loud and the bad parts soft, and it all came out okay. It was a little challenging, though, because I had to ad lib an alto line to a song written in 5 flats. Yipes!
So, pretty much it. Tune in tomorrow for pictures and posts regarding fall projects at Chez Farias.