i met arnold schwarzenegger last night

So on the first night of my second class at grad school, the director of our local Chapman campus walked in and simply announced:

"Actually, the whole Tuesday night program has been invited to meet the governor."

As the Czechs would say: "Cože?"

Our professor---this was news to him, too---joked that we were going on a field trip and that we would all have to sign permission slips. We laughed. He said, no really, you have to sign permission slips.

We did. It was no hassle, but less funny than the first joke.

And last night we all filed into a conference room in the governor's office in the capitol in Sacramento, where we met some ordinary people who are doing amazing things. We were met by cabinet officials, the governor's chief of staff, his cabinet secretary, the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and then the Governator himself. He chided most of us for not wearing any green on Earth Day.

Thankfully he did not pinch us. The man has huge hands. I couldn't take my eyes off of his huge hands.

To be honest, apart from the genuine coolness of his story and the honest celebrity appeal, his story was the least interesting, but I think only because I've heard his story before. It was a cool opportunity to get to hear from our state's most public public servant (although I sincerely imagine he feels the same way about us). It would be fascinating to pick his brain (no, not like in Total Recall) for more reflections on what he calls the best job he's ever had.

All in all it was the coolest Civics lesson I've ever been a part of. After the Q&A we were led onto the floor of the Assembly Chamber, where the professor who set this all up, who is also an sitting assemblymember, described her job to us right where she does it. It is far too dry and unfitting a comparison to say that it was like an "I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill" lecture, but in the end, all of her stories and discussion covered all the same material.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day, Mr. Governator, sir.

nuh-uh

A customer had finished paying for her drink in the drive thru today, and, as you might expect, she drove away. But then the next car, a big, white SUV pulled quickly past the window without a word, and the next car, black, did the same. We were confused.

And then we saw them both pull around into the opposite parking lot and that the second, black car was actually a CHP patrol car. It's my guess that the white SUV driver thought that our drive thru would fashion a quick (caffeinated) escape from his pursuer.

Note to self: this doesn't work.

ewi crood zi, rog orog

I sometimes wonder how it is that some people can come up with so many imaginative nonsense words. Now I know how they do it.

They play Scrabble in great desperation.

jots and tiddles

Note to writers and bloggers: you help your reader when you use bullets.

• The above sentence lends itself to multiple interpretations.
• Maybe it's because my other textbook is definitely the driest I've ever been assigned (like an extended owner's manual for a DVD player or a Buick or something), but I truly love one of my education class textbooks. Wow: people who know how to write, how to tell stories, how to dazzle me with pictures and diagrams (read: shiny objects), how to incorporate a well-thought-out philosophy without being preachy. I even strongly suspect the authors write from a Christian worldview while not to a specifically Christian audience. Call me nerdy. It's a good book.

• Here's what's left of my infamous snowball fight injury. And below, here's me posed with a punching pickle! Yessir, Mr. Pickles has opened up (sandwich) shop right here in Auburn (close to Staples). Let's hear it for local businesses you never think to eat at!

• And here's my dad, entranced on his birthday by one of Abbey's delectably delicious Pizz-oo-kees (not copyright infringement because of the unique spelling...which rather suits Abbey anyway, right? ;-)

spine dos fish family

A silly way to say "back to school," emoticon.

Yes, I started grad school this week in my first session at Chapman. We've been back in California for gettin'-on-a year now, and it's time to take the next step. We were planning to have me start in June, but timing related to student teaching says that now is the time to start.

So far so good. It's been long enough since I was a student that I've been looking forward to this, and I imagine a year of this (including student teaching) will be enough to give me my "fix" for a good long time. I'm already a day through homework and still alive.