Book recommendation

If you've ever been on that Battan like cross country crawl via Greyhound, this book Greyhound Diary is a good chance to laugh your ass off recalling that experience. The book checks in at a mere sixty pages, but it is a rant full of observations and vitriol on the sadness of the typical bus experience. I read it one day this summer and have been meaning to mention it.

Here is the book description: The Greyhound Diary Travel Guide is a depressingly hilarious roaming narrative. A postmodern Odyssey from the backwoods of Wheatland to the lost highway in West Memphis. From the trashed streets of Newark to the industrial cesspool that is Cleveland. Trapped inside the Turtle Boat with tattooed clowns and freak-show white trash, a grueling masochistic non-stop journey into the heart of fear. Everyone, regardless of age, race, color, creed, sexual orientation, class distinction and/or drug and alcohol dependency will relate to this universal saga steeped in American popular culture. This horrid tour is a cynical account of what it feels like to be out there on the bus in the middle of nowhere crawling around at ten miles an hour with Amelia Earhart's retarded brother at the controls. This is everything you've forgotten on those trips home from college. A fascinating, compelling ride.

A new Mitch Hedberg release

Since Mitch won't be doing any new tours, this is the next best thing: The first and I would imagine last posthumous release. If you haven't caught the comedic stylings of Mitch Hedberg, you're missing out. What kind of world are we living in where Bernie Mac, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks and Mitch Hedberg die young, but Sinbad and Carrot Top are hale as a horse?

In other matters, I've discovered in just a few weeks on the job that Saipan isn't the only place in America with severe academic issues. Indeed I can see literacy just falling off a cliff in this country. I have scores of students claiming not to have a single book in their house. Now, there is an especially strong tendency here among students to come up with every excuse under sun or moon to avoid work, but I'm starting to think they aren't lying about having no books in the house. Things like spelling here are far worse than in Saipan. With a far better staff of teachers, better funding, though not dramatic with all the federal goodies the CNMI gets or is at least eligible for and not all administrators take advantage of, students here in the mainland are every bit as intellectually troubled as what I saw in Saipan. There are bright spots. I have an honors class that reminds me why I got into this job.
***
Chrissy Hyde, who has one of the sexiest voices in history, had an album called Learning to Crawl. I started seeing that already yesterday as Brad Ruszala's goddaughter is becoming mobile, not so agile, and sometimes hostile. She's still on the master cleanse of her own, drinking just milk.

Turbitt kids growing leaps and bounds

Life of late: Ashley turns four months on Monday and is trying to walk and talk already. I'm not a baby expert, but it sure seems early. She radiates this bursting desire to do both these things already, and it is pretty jarring to her dad. With the slightest assistance she can stand already. After having a lot of help in Saipan and the Philippines, Cynthia is taking care of this high maintenance little girl all day while I'm at school with the boys. This is an extraordinarily difficult job.

Also, after a lot of effort and practice, I finally got Alex to take that leap of faith, so he can now swim. Not bad for five years old. There have been other big events in his life. He started kindergarten last week and also discovered erections, which leaves him rather perplexed.

Also, sat about twenty feet from Bill Maher at his show in downtown Phoenix last week. It was a great show. Next week the Dave Matthews Band is in town. Those things almost make up for not being able to go diving.

Kicking it with an Arizona bikini girl

This little girl loves the pool. We've been going in most every day. Studies show all kinds of physical and intellectual benefits for infants doing so, not to mention the benefits to actually learning to swim at a younger age.

I was driving home and caught this cool visual of the sun behind a cloud.

Small world

I bought a used tv from an older woman in a Phoenix suburb, and while chatting she asked me how long I've been in Arizona, which is a state about as full of transients as it gets, and I told her I just came from very far away. She asks where from, and I tell her Saipan, which results in the color in her face turning a whiter shade of pale. She relates that her father died there in the Battle of Saipan while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

A couple days later a colleague in my school system related living in Saipan in the fifties and seeing "black sea monsters" (divers in archaic dive getup) and playing in the WWII bomb craters. Small world really.
***
CNMI headlines real and possible:

GAO downplays Fitial’s economic disaster scenario

Fire blamed for distraction in world record fiddling attempt

The Queen has landed

My baby girl and the rest of the family arrived haggard though otherwise ok this week. I've gotten some extremely useful professional development this past week as well. My new school has far less technology than Saipan Southern, but far better teacher training and a much more extensive support system. I still haven't seen rain out here, though I did see some serious lightning. I don't think Phoenix, as hot as it is, feels anywhere near as hot as my previous locales in Saipan or the Carolinas.

In other surprises, these new HDTVs are amazing. This technology barely existed when I left, and HDTV is a quantum leap over what was previously available. One day, hopefully in time for the NFL season, I'll get one. I'll be seeing Bill Maher and the Dave Matthews band this month, and the Cowboys v. Cardinals game and the Coldplay concert in the Fall. Nice to have access to those types of things again. I'm hardly settled in, but I'm getting there. Compared to a few months ago, I have better housing, a much better car, better food available and a job with more upside potential. On the flip side, I still don't really know anyone here yet.

Day four down

Day four down. I have a new place in a very cool little town, I'm getting close to a getting a brand new car, I visited my new school, I had the best burrito ever, I took in Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks, which ranks last compared to the other major league baseball stadiums I've visited: Yankee, Fenway, Camden Yards, the Jake, New Comiskey, Shea and whatever they call that new stadium in Atlanta, but it is convenient to get to and the game tonight was pretty good. The only negative is that I miss my baby, my wife and my boys big time. One more week and change until they get here.

All hail the Waffle House

In the classic film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate all his meals for a month at McDonalds. If the clerk asked him to Super Size his meal, he was required to indulge in that prodigious orgy of grease and disgust. His health, to put the case mildly, took a turn for the worse. That flick was a mockumentary of the prominent fast food culture in the U.S. and an important one that I've liked to show my students.

I've been in Phoenix three days, and I've done five trips to the Waffle House already. I'm not trying to prove a point, but rather I just think the place kicks ass. The grilled chicken sandwiches are fabulous -- the best I've ever had. The waffles are of course brilliant, and the grilled bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches are nice for the occasional artery clogging delight. The hash browns come with cheese, onions and lots of other choices. In Waffle House parlance this is called "scattered, smothered and covered." They also have chunked, which doesn't sound too good, and I'm not sure what that adds. The coffee, fair warning, is and always has been, the weak link. I'm not a fan of chain restaurants in general, but the Waffle House actually does have good food and it lives up to its motto of "good food, fast and cheap" -- all while being open twenty four hours a day.

Waffle House was a staple of my college days. The main problem is that the House is rather regional -- mostly southern. New Jersey, sadly, is IHOP country. Note the true Mason/Dixon line above. One time I drove four hours or so from Columbia, S.C. to Atlanta, GA on a college trip and amused myself by counting Waffle Houses. Memory said the number was pegged at 45. If I had checked into the regional Waffle House availability, the relocation debate I had would have gone easier. All hail the Waffle House. ***

Randy Steele has a blog called Everybody's Got a Cousin on Saipan. I spent two weeks in Les Penas, Philippines, a section of Manila, and bumped into three Saipan folks. I saw Dennis, the erstwhile drummer from the Big Beats in the local mall, Sam, the one time owner of Sam's, now Wild Bill's, in the Manila Domestic Airport, as well as Richard Waldo, current NMC professor and former PSS chief bean counter.

Almost in Arizona

I'm few days away from flying to Phoenix and I'm getting excited. There were a lot of places I thought about and explored moving to both in the U.S. and abroad, but the chance to see something new and unique and make a long term commitment drew me to Phoenix. I'm really looking forward to going rafting in the Grand Canyon, exploring the new scenery and eating great Mexican food. After eight years as an expat, I can't believe I'll be living near a major league baseball stadium, have access to arena concerts (the new Coldplay album is great and I want to see that tour), really follow my much beloved NFL, go to comedy clubs and sample that vast enclave of diverse culinary offerings -- all while the power stays on and is reasonably priced.

As much as I enjoyed Saipan, I had gotten bored of it and saw little future for me there. I'm rooting for the small group of people trying to fix that place against long odds of entrenched idiocy.

I needed to do something new. Starting somewhere fresh won't be easy, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I've been nomadic for a long time, and now I want to be somewhere I can envision staying for a while with all the investments that go along with that kind of decision.