School lunch

I'm back on the school lunchroom social circuit. Last Friday I joined a 2nd grader from church at her school for lunch. She invited me. That makes me way cool. :) As I stood there waiting for her class to make its way down the hall, I took note of the huge banners that hung on the wall. They had big words printed on them, like integrity, cooperation, honesty etc. and included stick figures depicting the honorable trait listed. Some of the stick figures were kind of funny looking...maybe even scary looking. As I stood there looking at those banners, I began to wonder if having those banners up really instills those values in kids. Do posters advocating Respect really cause more respect to be given? I wonder.

I also continue to wonder why the lunch room always has to be so quiet. I mean, aren't those kids expected to be quiet and attentive all day long? Couldn't they have 30 minutes to just laugh and be silly with their friends? I'm sure from the perspective of the teachers, it can get old to hear the yelling and loud voices day after day, but I wonder if that's really the kids' problem.

Today I ate at a middle school. Middle schoolers are great. They'll talk to you just because you're there. I get the occasional, "Who the heck are you?" but mostly the kids sitting with my youth just include me in the regular table conversation. Today was college spirit day, so students could wear college jerseys and even hats. Lots of Vols and other SEC schools represented, but a few Big 10 and ACC folks, too. I don't think I saw one jersey/hat from a Big 12 school. That's a real shame.

On a totally unrelated note, I'm really loving life in Nashville right now. There are a number of reasons for that, and I won't go into them all here, but I just want folks to know that I'm enjoying myself and really feel like I'm in a good place.

Tuesday night at Fido

Well, folks...here I sit at Fido (not Fido's) at 10:00 on Tuesday night. I'm here with a friend who was in desperate need of internet access so she could finish some work. We're definitely the cool cats sitting across from each other and both typing on our laptops, although we're not totally cool because we have Dells. Here at Fido (and most coffee shops for that matter) you pretty much need a mac to be totally cool. I swear the music skips and the entire place turns to look when I pull out my Dell. It's like those Visa commercials where the guy tries to pay in cash when everyone else is using their Visa card. And no, I'm not being sponsored by Dell and Visa to place their products in my blog.

Sitting here "late" at night reminds me of freshman year of college when I spent hours upon hours "studying"/hanging out at Rockin' Java on the main square in Kirksville, MO. Rockin' Java changed names a couple of times while I was at good old Truman State University, and I'm not sure it even still exists, but it was one of my late night haunts. I mostly drank italian sodas and the occasional mocha. I'm not sure I was all that productive there, but I loved the atmosphere and it gave me a reason to take a walk and clear my head from time to time. Shout outs to Molly Nahm, Amy Maslan, Colleen Reid, and anybody else I used to go there with. I remember nights when it was snowing outside and I so didn't want to make the trek back to campus. I wished there were underground tunnels from Rockin' Java to Centennial Hall.

There's a guy over my right shoulder who looks like a portly Art Garfunkel...mostly because of the crazy hair, but also because of his nose. I wonder if he ever gets the "hey, you kind of look like Art Garfunkel." In high school, when I had hair down to my shoulders and a one inch goatee, people used to tell me I looked like the lead singer of Spin Doctors. That guy and I have both since cut our hair. I saw the Spin Doctors at a club here in Nashville last year. It was kind of surreal. I felt like more people should have been wearing army boots, blue jeans, t-shirts with a band name on them, and flannel shirts tied around their waists. Apparently that's not cool anymore.


Why coffee shops? Why are they the place to go and hang out? We didn't have the wireless free internets back in the day, but we still went to Rockin' Java to study. What's that about? Is it the groovy music? Is it the caffeine? Is it the mix of cushy chairs for those who want to lounge and the hard wooden tables and chairs for those who really need to stay awake? Yeah, why coffee shops?

Why bottled water is lame

So, bottled water really bothers me. It bothers me that people buy it by the case, drink half of a bottle, and then throw it away. It bothers me in so many ways. Here's an article from The Week that made my day: The High Price of Bottled Water.

Check it out and let me know what you think.