After a month of being back in the States, I still feel just like this panda looks … utterly exhausted. I don’t know if it’s jet lag, culture shock, the frantic pace, laziness, lack of exercise, or just something in my head.

Regardless, the smile that keeps creeping out of me proves that it’s worth every minute!

One of my new fifth graders is absolutely adorable … in a Ralphie-esque way. He’s short with curly blond hair and big glasses, and he walks around the school with wide-open eyes and a big wheeled suitcase-type bag. He’s a little guy stuck in a big world.

Near the beginning of my first class with this student, he eagerly raised his hand and waited to tell me something. I could tell what he wanted to ask (from the context of the situation), so I addressed his issue with the whole class. His hand stayed up, however, so I walked over and answered his question again, gently putting my hand on his shoulder to make sure that he was listening. He wasn’t, so I finally called on him, and when he verbalized his question, I answered it a third time.

That sort of thing is usually annoying to a teacher … but I resisted the urge to harrass him, mostly because he was just too darn cute. Then this morning, he sent all of his teachers the following email.

Dear fellow teachers,

I am e-mailing to inform you of a condition I have in case you have not been notified. Since I have been 1 I have been deaf in my left ear and it does not turn out too good when I can’t hear you, the teacher because it might make you think I’m not listening. So if I don’t hear you, it’s not because I’m not paying attention; it’s because I couldn’t hear you. Just wanted to let you know because in some of my classes this has happened and I didn’t want to make you mad. Just wanted to let you all know. Thanks.

Signed,
[name removed] (in the 5th grade)!

How precious is that?

As the school day was drawing to a close today, I could feel the exhaustion creeping up on me. I jumped in the car ten minutes before the last bell, drove home, and dropped on my bed for a long three-hour nap. And I just don’t do naps.

I think the last couple of weeks of classroom preparation, teaching, house hunting, and generally getting life “back in order” have really been taking their toll. Last week I had to get up early to catch a ride to school because Louie was in the shop … and I had to stay up late every night to edumacate myself on the home-buying process and research properties. And now that school’s in full swing, I’m realizing just how involving and complicated everything there can become.

Simply put, I think it’s going to take a while for my body and mind to re-adjust to American life. I often find it hard to keep up when people are talking to me, and my mind is constantly having a lot of trouble focusing on tasks and ideas. Things just move so fast and there’s so much going on … I don’t know if I can keep up!

Maybe it’s not culture shock … maybe I’m just getting old.

[Titanic Moment, by Lance Webel]

Today the home hunt continued … my father and I toured seven houses in Cincinnati, four of which were repeat visits that I wanted to show him and three of which were multi-family homes. Yep, that’s right … I’m considering living in one unit while managing the other units!

The first two multi-family homes we visited were junk … old homes in bad neighborhoods with sketchy situations. But the third was fantastic … a three-family place in the middle of Kenwood (a growing area) that had been meticulously redesigned and maintained. It’s a little beyond the price range I was considering, but it has two longtime renters whose monthly payments would go a long way towards eliminating that discrepancy. All in all, it’s the best option I’ve encountered yet!

So here’s the deal … I need to learn as much as I can as quickly as possible about being a landlord. Have you done it? Do you know someone who has? If so, what advice can you give me?

[Two-headed, by Lance Webel]

I think it’s stupid that Michael Vick is being suspended, sent to jail, and totally hung out to dry by the media for what he did. Sure, he broke the law … but had he taken drugs, gotten in a fight, or even beaten up his wife, the reaction wouldn’t have been nearly as strong.

I don’t get it … are dogs somehow more important and valuable than moles, snakes, rabbits, or mosquitoes? Do they have souls? Are people upset because dogs are usually domesticated, because they bleed more, or because they often have names? Or is all the uproar just because Vick and company were training them to kill?

I just found out that my father is driving down tomorrow from Akron to visit for the weekend and help me look for homes. Yippee!

I now have confirmation … I still can’t drive a stick.

Here are some of the interesting Internet searches that have led people to webeldotnet recently:

my heart is growing fonder of you
i want to go to Cuba because
every evening sky an invitation to trace the pattern stars audio
hong kong hate weather wet
cambodia blog header
imbedded myspace music
switchfoot photo book transcript
涟钢星光
call people for free
heidi yangshuo
influencial quotes
christian youth pool party swimsuits one piece
webel reunion
ga yeon lee violin
i ‘ll be yourth baby tonight
casino macau high rolling
chinese egg donor
ups “TRANSFER NOTIFICATION FROM SITE TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR DELIVERY ”
“this holiday life” “donkey talk”
sunni shia hatred
“calculate speeding ticket”

And my top five favorites …

poem spiderman teaching
how to play loudi
nappy backrounds
squirrel attack in toronto
hearse for sale

I had to laugh when I discovered that YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and MySpace are all blocked at my middle school here in Cincinnati. It’s like our own little personal Great Firewall of China!

Good news for all of you Cincinnatians … IKEA is coming to West Chester!

IKEA West Chester will present nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, three model homes, 50 room settings, a supervised children’s play area, a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates, as well as American dishes. Other family-friendly features will include a ‘Children’s IKEA’ area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store.

“Now that construction is underway, it is exciting to see actual physical progress towards the future IKEA West Chester,” said Michael Maier, IKEA real estate manager. “We will be bringing our unique family-friendly shopping experience closer to more than 100,000 IKEA customers in the Ohio Valley who currently are driving great distances to shop at our stores. This location also will attract new customers from Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis, Lexington and Louisville as well as from the Cincinnati area.”

When the store opens in Spring 2008, IKEA West Chester will welcome 400 new coworkers into the IKEA family. Candidates interested in working at this employer of choice should look for all positions online at www.IKEA-USA.com, where they will be able to apply for diverse positions available in: home furnishings sales, interior decoration, customer service, safety and security, cashiers, maintenance, goods flow, receiving, warehouse and stock replenishment. Also, setting itself apart from other retailers, IKEA West Chester will offer approximately 60 food service opportunities in its Restaurant, Swedish Foodmarket, Café Bistro and coworker cafeteria. IKEA has been ranked in FORTUNE’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list (three years in a row), Working Mother magazine’s annual list of “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” (four years in a row) and Training magazine’s annual “Top 125” ranking of companies that excel at human capital development (five years in a row). IKEA will create 500 construction jobs and generate significant tax revenue for local governments and schools.

[via hp]

[Child’s play, by Lance Webel]