Eaves dropping on the train

For spring break, my boyfriend and I took the train to Portland, Oregon to visit a good friend of ours. I found out the train is one of the best places to eaves drop on people and with 12 hours to do that I heard a very wide variety of discussions.
The cutest by far was the little girl that was probably about 3 talking with her parents about people on the train. She noticed that there was a family that was sitting in front of that and pointed out that they had a mommy, a daddy, and a baby. Then she turns to her parents and said, I have my family too, see, my mommy, my daddy, and me the baby. Then she paused and goes and we have our diaper bag. We are a family.
It was absolutely adorable, and anyone that cares for or has children knows that the diaper bag is what completes a family :)

Another conversation that occurred was between the guy sitting across from us and the man sitting in front of him. They started the conversation when the train attendant told them that if any couples or groups got on the train over the next few stops they would have to be moved to the back with the singles. As the attendant walked away one of them laughed and said well its not my fault my ex was a cheating whore and now I am single. They both chuckled and turned back towards the front. Then after a while the man that had made the first remark broke the awkward first words of a conversation and asked him where he was coming from and where he was going. the second man answered very honestly, explaining that he was coming from Portland to Havre , Montana to see his brother and fiance. His parents were making him do it and he was pissed because his brother was whipped and his fiance was a brat that didn't like her fiances brother.
They talked so openly and exchanged stories like this for almost an hour. I didn't realize right away but near the end of their conversation realized that they had not even exchanged names. How is it that people can feel so comfortable with someone even if they just met. Are we able to connect that well with strangers because we don't know them? Does it feel comforting that someone knows our deep dark secrets but we will never see them again? What is it about strangers that give the us the strongest feeling of connection?

You Don't Know What You're Saying Till You See What You Say

At first when our professor told us these wonderful words of wisdom I was completely lost in them. I tried to break it down into smaller chunks but all I came up with was; you don't know what you're saying; till you see; what you say. As you can probably guess breaking it down that way was not much help. Then after reading other peoples blogs I decided to come at it from a different direction, backwards. You see what you say; then know what you're saying. And that suprisingly made way more sense.

I not only realized what it was saying that it is intirely true!!!

You don't know what you're saying, till you see what you say. Everything that we say is only mysterious creations of our mind that force us to contimplate and obsess over the concern of it legitimacy. It is not until we see what we question that we are satisfied the reality of our original minds creations.

I hope that makes sense to some people but even if it doesn't I think the real message that should be taken from this blog is that even though you may not understand something the first few times you approach it not only is that okay, it is an excellant time to discover a new way of learning.

Professor Sexon you will appreciate this

Recently I have started watching all the movies I used to watch as a young child in hopes of being able to identify what stories and tales came before them but had the same plot line. In doing so I found a reference to the Brothers Karamazov in a 1986 film, "An American Tail".
As Fievel traveled from Russia to America, he lost his family along the way. He ends up meeting a cat named Tiger and this was their conversation that started their friendship.

Tiger: "I like butterflies with big golden wings and blue and green tips."
Fievel: "Me too"
Tiger: "I like Swiss Cheese Ice cream."
Fievel: "Me too, me too!"
Tiger: "You too-too? Wait a minute. What's your favorite book?"
Fievel: "Why the Brothers Karamozov."
Tiger: " The Brothers. I don't believe it!"

My made up bed time story for Max

When I was asked by the little boy I nanny to read him a story I asked if instead I could make up a story of my own. I asked him to pick what the story would be about and how old he wanted to main character to be. I am not sure why I chose him to decide those parts of my bedtime story but I suppose it is because age can change everything in a story. Anyways he asked to hear a story about a dinosaur and of course because he is four years old he wanted the dinosaur to be the same age.

Slowly I say to him, once.... upon.... a time... there lived a wonderful happy family of dinosaurs that roamed the open fields of Bozeman, amongst all the other types of dinosaurs. This particular family of dinosaurs had a mommy, a daddy, a son and two daughters. The son was the oldest and the only one of the family without beautiful blue scales that glistened in the sun and shown so bright that they could be seen even in outer space.His mother, father, and sisters had the most vibrant scales in the valley and were all very proud of their beauty.

One cloudy day as the family walked across the field to get a drink of water at the pond Little Max noticed a small butterfly floating across the sky followed by a trail of the shiniest dust. Max started following the butterfly with great curiosity. (I used this word in particular because yes the 4 year old boy used curiosity in context daily)

After following her for some time he asked, "Excuse me, where did you get your dust?"

"Well I didn't get it any where, I was born with it. It's beautiful isn't it?" she replied.

"Yes it is. May I have some? The rest of my family have wonderful scales sparkly just like your dust. Maybe then I can also have blue scales." Max timidly said to the butterfly.

"This dust is mine though. I was born with it and it looks good on me, if I loose any I will not be as beautiful."

Max lowered his head in sadness and turned to walk back to his family nearing the water hole. After a few steps Max felt a raindrop fall onto his nose. And another and another. He heard a soft scream and saw the butterfly begin to fall to the ground. Oh no butterfly, I have to help her get out of the rain thought Max. Bravely Max ran towards the poor helpless butterfly and scooped her up with his paw. He bolted towards the only tree in the field and made it just in time. All the sudden the sky seemed to open up and release every drop of rain it had.

Max placed the butterfly down on the ground under the safety of the giant umbrella tree and looked to see if she was hurt. Her wings had gotten wet so she could not get up and had fainted. But brave Max waited with her until the ski cleared up and the sun came out, when finally she woke up and saw her hero, Max.

"You saved me, dinosaur, you saved my life from the rain." She whispered. "Thank you Max for being so nice and helping me." The butterfly flew up from the ground and began circling Max. Suddenly there was a giant cloud of blue dust that was seen from all across the field and when it settled all the dinosaurs saw the shiniest bluest dinosaur of all. The butterfly still looked beautiful and made Max blue like his family. Max and the butterfly became best friends and always shared with everyone.


After I finished the story and left Max (The boy I nanny) to sleep I realized that I had just proved the point of our class, all stories are retellings . I had just told Max a made up story of my own that was really a retelling of multiple stories. The first few that came the mind were The Rainbow Fish, The Ugly Duckling, and characters from Peter Pan, and the Land Before Time. Because Max does not know or understand that all stories have been told and that we only write them again but with different details, he thought the story was amazing and new.

Live

As time goes on our lives may start to peel

like that of sweet yellow shells of lemons.

And yet through love we join our hands and feel

That in the end we all meet in heaven.

Our time on earth is worth more than riches,

So why must we forget and work to death?

And drive our goals straight into the ditches.

For now its time we all take a deep breath,

Its time we set all of ours stresses free

And let these things that hold us down fly far.

When we are sad and weak its hard to see

The greatness of the life outside the jar.

Yet in this life we must remember good

And try our best to live life as we should.

Linen and Sky (a found poem)

Time sweeps away

like a breath of fresh air,

fresh,

fresh air.

While effects of stale time,

stale,

stale time,

leaves the fresh scent

of stifling odors,

odors,

stifling odors.

I got these words from the side of a Febreze Air Freshener. It read; Febreze Air Effects is like a breath of fresh air any time because it actually sweeps away those stale and stifling odors while it leaves a fresh scent.

While washing my hands in my roommates bathroom, I noticed her Febreze bottle sitting on the counter and began reading the purpose of the spray. A few words that stuck out to me were fresh, air, stale, and stifling odors. Because these words stuck out to me most I decided to make them the words I repeated or emphasized more in the poem. I loved this activity because we were able to express our creative abilities within the guidelines of a simple activity.