6.20.2006

Get that woman some food!

Yesterday, after my first day of summer school as a teacher of special ed students, I returned home tired, hungry and some would say a little grouchy. I am notorious for my Achilles stomach and due to the chaos of the first day and the attention needed for my high need students, I hadn't eaten all day. In fact, I hadn't even had time to use the restroom. So, it wasn't very long before my husband could tell that my blood sugar was tanking fast and that a crisis was looming on the horizon.
"Eat an apple!" he said frantically. "Have some lunchmeat! What about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?!"

Finally, I relented and our marriage survived. If only all life's problems were so easy. So, today I came across a Reuters news article that showed how on the other side of the world a marriage in China went very very differently:


Wife accused in swordplay death of husband

Tue Jun 20, 8:19 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese woman has been charged with accidentally killing her husband with a sword after he refused to make her dinner, the Shanghai Daily said on Tuesday.

Police said Tang Xiaowan, 25, who has been practicing swordsmanship since she was young, had often forced her husband of three years at swordpoint to carry out her demands.

On March 3, her husband, Li Weidong, refused to cook dinner because he was late for work.

Police said Tang picked up her sword and put it on Li's chest and promptly slipped, stabbing Li by mistake.

Li died in hospital from loss of blood.

Tang was arrested Monday and charged with manslaughter.

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6.12.2006

Thanks For The Memories

aying goodbye is something that I've grown accustomed to, having moved around a lot during my life, but it still doesn't come easy. The past few weeks have been filled with many farewells; to Harper while we left him to travel to Utah for my sister's wedding, to my family after the vows were said and we returned to Minnesota, and finally, today, to my students.

Surprisingly, the last one turned out to be the hardest. With my dog and my family it is always only a matter of time before we see each other again and so our partings are filled with promises of future plans. Saying goodbye to my students carried with it a finality, because the truth is, this might be the last time our paths cross.

Several graduated high school today and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. I brought in my husband's old cap and gown for one of the girls to wear and as I handed it to her this morning I saw her eyes get misty with gratitude. "This is probably the only time in my whole life I will ever get to wear one of these," she said. We both knew it was true, that it was nothing short of a miracle for her to get this far with a learning disability and a two-year-old son.

For other students of mine it was only the last day of the school year. Although they will return either for summer school or in the fall, I might not. This year has been an amazing adventure; one that I never thought I'd be on and one that might end with the summer. Because of this, it was hard for me to say goodbye.

These students have touched my life. They have shown me what second chances can do and they have challenged my stereotypes. They have let me in and trusted me and that is something I take very seriously. My biggest hope is that I was able to show them that someone believes that they can change themselves and change the world. And although we never meet again, I am grateful to them for the role they played in my life. I wish them joy, I wish them love and I wish them a future.
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5.25.2006

Mercury vs. Arsenic


During afternoon classes today, a coworker of mine who is a fish-eating vegetarian began telling me why I shouldn’t eat chicken. A student had started teasing her for not eating meat and as a means of redirecting I asked the woman why she had chosen to become a vegetarian.

“Well,” she said, “my ex-husband had a spiritual leader in India who told him that when he eats meat he is also inheriting the soul of the animal at the time of slaughter. After that, it was ruined for me.”

“So, he didn’t eat meat for religious reasons,” I said, trying to interpret for the student who had since acquired a puzzled look.

“Yes.”

“But you eat fish, right?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “I eat salmon once a week for the omega 3’s.”

“I don’t eat fish,” I replied. I haven’t since I was old enough to protest. “I don’t like the taste or smell of it in addition to the fact that the oceans are over fished and then there’s the mercury to worry about.” (I’ve become defensive from my years of being anti-fish).

“Well, chicken has arsenic in it,” she exclaimed, as I swallowed the last of my drumstick from lunch.

Mercury versus Arsenic. What a competition.

So after my coworker told me to look it up and I said I would, we both backed away into our separate corners. And I did look it up.

It turns out that there is a trace amount of arsenic in chicken. In a recent study of chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken they found 2 parts per billion of arsenic. (New York Times article). I suppose she was right.

But so was I. A simple google search of mercury and fish will turn up a staggering 14,300,000 results. And the kind of fish she consumes weekly, farmed salmon, is especially toxic. The recommended allowance is a mere one time per month versus four to eight times per month of wild salmon. (Washington Post article)

So, I suppose we both lost the fight of mercury versus arsenic. But I have to say, in addition to gloating a little I can’t help but feel a little more safe.

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5.15.2006

Happy Spring!


My husband took this gorgeous photo in the park across the street from our apartment today. Spring seems to have sprung in Minnesota. Finally.
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5.08.2006

This is for all you medicine moguls out there

This is what I would really like to know: Why do they make cold medicine packages so incredibly hard to open? And why is it that the medicine you need to take when you can’t think to save your life always comes in the hardest of the hard packages to open? Why, oh why, can’t they just put the stupid things in a bottle with a screw-on cap? I’m beginning to think that this is someone’s idea of a sick joke and all I can say is, I hope you’re amused.
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