Stone Life

I wanted to say a hearty 'Congratulations' to Abbey and Jose and to welcome Jose to the Stone family. I suppose that in all fairness he is not a 'stone' per se; she is an 'esquivel', but for our purposes he is the former as much as she is the latter. That is my sister on the right, and yesterday my father (yes, the one crying on the right) officially handed her over to Jose in a ceremony in Waco. It was honestly one of the most enjoyable weekends that Julie and I have had in a very long time. I am not sure if I have ever had that many family or friends together in the same town at the same time. The wedding itself was nice, but being with everyone was wonderful.

I am generally something of a hermit by nature; I do not answer my cell phone, I retreat to my office whenever I get the chance, I hardly return emails in a timely manner...etc, etc, etc, but weekends such as this remind me how fortunate Julie and I are to have the families that we do. There are far too many, "We should....."'s that never amount to anything in the Stone-household, but without question, "We should make more of an effort to spend time with family and friends" is one that resonates deeply with me after this weekend.

The other highlight for me personally was being able to do music with one of my best friends and rock-megastar, Will Norvell. Once upon a time we learned to play guitar together as teenagers, and a few years later we tried to live together and play on a regular basis, but it was not until we were old and married that we were able to play together and it be truly enjoyable. I seriously could not be more impressed with him as a musician, and he really made the night musically.

I am a self-proclaimed selfish blogger; I am nothing short of irate when others do not update their sites, but I am absolutely comfortable adding to my growing list of contradictions and hypocrisies by not returning the favor.

I suppose for lack of time for substantial thought on a subject that is a.)Intriguing me, or b.) bothering me, I will indulge, for what I say to be for the limited sphere of bloggerland that is my audience, though in actuality, like Dostoevsky’ underground man I am only doing this to stroke my own ego (his was done out of spite, and I do not think that applies to me in this instance), in the ever-popular “update”.

Moving – it is official; no, we have not sold the house or found a new place, but we have a realtor coming by on Thursday, and we have committed in our minds to doing whatever is necessary to sell the house and move back to Dallas. The Lord has been very faithful to us with this house, and we are far from ungrateful (another Dostoevsky term) in unloading it, but it is the right time (though it may take a year to sell it…so maybe the “right” time is a foolish notion). Along with this change of venue we have had the good fortune to be able to give away a nice chuck of the “stuff” that we have accumulate over these last 3 years. Sunday night was pretty cool; we saw our first vanload, a van filled with our entertainment-center and a coffee-table-set, being driven away by a family who seemed ecstatic to have their needs met. We have basically reserved all of the furniture that we are getting rid of between family and friends, and we look forward to watching more of it drive off in the next few weeks.

New Job – Selling the house and moving back to Dallas has been heavy on our hearts for months, but our prayers have been that it might be made obvious to us. At present, both Julie and I work in Arlington, she goes to school here several nights a week, and basically moving would be an odd choice. Almost completely out of the blue (eerily unexpected), I was given an email address to a principal in a school in Dallas that I had never heard of. I was not looking for another job per se, but my friend knew that this school would be the kind of place I would fit in nicely, and he had heard they were looking to fill an English position for next year. I sent an email of inquiry, and within hours they emailed back asking for my resume. I sent it, and my attention was obviously aroused. When I received the standard obligatory response from the principal later that day (“Thanks….We will let you know if anything comes available….), I was neither surprised nor let down, and I assumed this was a dead-end. That night I received a much more excited email from the head of the department, who had been forwarded a copy of my resume, and she had insisted to the principal that an interview be set up immediately. Turns out, our educational backgrounds are very, very similar: she received her MA Humanities in Literature, though from UTD, and she was pursuing a second Masters at UD (it’s like a cult there – no one knows anything about it, but once you are there, you’re hooked). Long story short, we met for a few hours later that week, and we hit it off like old friends; we could not be more in line with the other’ views of teaching and literature. It is 2 or 3 times larger than my current school, and so I was not surprised when the principal sent me away with the understanding that the process had just begun, and that they would not make a final decision for a month or more. That was on a Thursday, by Friday morning the English-chair had emailed and said she had pleaded with the principal to look no further, to no avail, but before the weekend was finished I received an email from the principal saying that we agreed with his colleague, and they basically offered me the job if I wanted it.

After going in for a second interview, meeting with the headmaster and grilling them on the particulars of their school, they offered me a very nice position. I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade Pre-AP and AP English classes, the school is very academically rigorous, and the pay is a nice bump as well. All in all, I could not be more excited about it. The school is Prince of Peace Christian School in Carrolton (princeofpeace.org).

My Black Hole - The next month or so will be spent being devoured by Czeslaw Milosz, a really great Polish poet, Jane Austen, and the anti-Jane Austen (aka: Friedrich Nietzshe) The semester is winding towards a conclusion, I am in a good rhythm with my reading, but it's now time to begin researching and writing over these 3. I have already spent a few weeks on Milosz, whom I am growing to really growing to love, but the other 2 are hanging over me still, taunting me like school children. I'll show them.

That's enough for now.

To be, not ask
Indecisive,
Like love-lorn leads
So often despair.

Underneath
Piles of rubble,
Rubbish maybe,
Static striving yet.

Idolize
Contemplatives,
Scholarly, the
Melancholy
Shade, it pervades.

Lacking, shell
Of confidence,
Daydream grandeur,
Be not far off.