Showbiz

It was a good day today. It started with the Rock Afire Explosion performance of Usher's In the Club. Some guy in Alabama bought an old Showbiz Pizza act and now takes requests over the internet as to which songs he should sync up. This was the highlight in the office throughout the day.

Then I was invited to travel Europe for 15 days at an amazing price and in which I would leave Monday. I spent the day along with Gwen securing childcare and making plans to go. It should be interesting because I will be responsible for six students as we travel, London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Vatican City, Athens, etc. We are flying my mother-in-law out here for the second week and that seriously puts my mind at ease (Thanks Tena!). Right now I am excited and anxious. There's nothing really to do but pack.

Being away from Gwen and Lola is going to be even more difficult than I had imagined but it really is a short period of time when I think of all of the overworked parents that never see their kids. I've had students tell me nonchalantly that they talk to me more than their parents. I'm grateful for the job that I have which allows for serious quality of life.

Tonight we had a guest speaker in class. She is a principal from North Las Vegas. An area that Hunter S. Thompson described as, "Nevada's answer to St. Louis--a slum and a graveyard, last stop before permanent exile to Ely or Winnemuca." She faces incredible odds in her community where there are daily shootings and other random acts of violence. She goes to work everyday with a realistic mission that it is her duty to create future involved and active citizens fit to operate in a democratic society. She has created a sense of community in her elementary school where families come to settle disputes. She also spends her time walking the neighborhoods and visiting the homes of students that she cares about. It is beyond test scores for her and her staff. They look at the positive things that the students bring to the school. They understand that the parents in her community are very poor. An American third world country kind of poor. A place where people not only face stifling generational poverty that really begins in utero but are also politically and economically powerless to the point of near invisibility. Did you know that there is an entire zip code in North Las Vegas where they don't even have a grocery store? It is a place where it is common to find illiterate parents. This is also where refugees typically settle. She has students from various African countries that have fled famine and war. I don't know what this post is supposed to mean. What does a healthy community look like? Do you live in one? How do you know? Pinch faced, petty, hyper consumptionist, and mean spirited neighbors are about as conducive to community as your typical rambling drug addict with a shiv. Hell, I started off writing about the Showbiz Pizza band. Let's get on with the show!