Worlds Collide

Ah, Donald. How I love thee. Let me count the ways…

Actually, mostly I just love Donald in MathMagic Land. Ahhhhhhh. Such a great short. It’s a short because it’s only about 27 minutes long. That’s short for a cartoon. At least, when it came out – in 1959! How I adore this cartoon. It’s so much fun. And the best thing ever for a Friday morning.

I am doing a Jump Start program. It ran this week and will run next week. The kids are getting a “jump” on the new school year. They are incoming 9th graders, meaning they just finished the 8th grade. They are getting an idea of how high school classes are run, the layout of the school, how to take notes for high school classes, and various other things as well.

Anyway. It’s Friday and I didn’t want to teach. I’m pretty sure they didn’t want to learn. Soooooo . . .

DONALD! Horray! ::does a little dance::

Ah, Donald. How I love thee…

Edit
PS: Many thanks to my dear Italian Angel, Rick, for sending me the video. Without him, there would be no bliss this Friday morning…

No, I didn’t go and enlist. I’m not in the Navy. However, the closest ‘base’ to me in Naval. I’m talking about the National Naval Medical Center. (Yes, that’s where the President goes for his stuff, unless it’s a dire emergency. Neat, huh?)

Anyway. This post is for anyone with knowledge of how to contact the people in charge of the volunteer program for the military personnel returning from overseas. I know Betty probably knows, but if any of my other readers (do I have any left? (; ) know who I can contact, please let me know.

Here’s the sitch – I’m off for about a month and I’d like to have something to do during the day besides prowl blog sites and wait, impatiently, I might add, for people to update. I figured going off to help out as the military personnel return would be a great way to spend the time. I mean, for the love of bob, I leave close enough to DC to spit on it, capital of the country. Plus, Dad was in the Airforce and I know I would have wanted someone to help him if he’d needed it.

So – hit me, internets. What’s the website/phone number/whatever to go help out the returning military personnel?

And now, my esteemed readership, for the finale of my little escapade out to Costa Rica. Who knew I could be so long-winded?!

(Wait a minute . . . )

——————————————–

And now to the unfun part of the trip. I got sick. In fact, all of us got sick. Every single person on the trip, save – like – two of the five adults, got sick either this last day at the beach, the next day when we flew home, or when we got home. Oh, it was miserable. I could not keep a damn thing down because it was all coming right back up – in both directions. It sucked so very much. Fortunately, the room we had at this beach-side hotel had air conditioning, so I was able to sleep in comfort. Sort of. I couldn’t decide if I was hot or cold. It varied. It wasn’t fun. I wanted to eat. But the very thought of food made me ill. Our Tour Guide – the local guy who carts us around to various activities – had a doctor come out to look in on us sick people. The doctor gave me a shot. I was bruised for two weeks. No, really. Stupid subcutaneous shot. Ergh. I found out when I got home what I had. Dysentery. How did I find out? The Tour Leader ended up needing to go to the doctor for her bout with it, she got so ill. Her doctor was ex-airforce and knew all. Gross, huh?

So, for the most part, my trek out to Costa Rica was great. I had a good time, overall. I hate the beach, so I spent most of the time there poolside and reading, but it was still fun. (Yes, I hate the beach. Stupid sand gets everywhere. Ergh. Beach = eww.) Really, it was an experience. I need to take a picture of my remaining Costa Rican money – which are called colonnes, by the way. Very cool. I love the 5000 Colonnes bill. Very colorful. So much more fun than US money.

Without further ado – here we go to part two!

(Ha, I crack myself up . . . )

———————————————

Which brings me to the next section. We took a tour up into the mountains and stopped to have a look a one of the volcanos. Absolutely gorgeous. I did see the active part. Yes, Lava flow. Ohl, baby, so VERY cool, I cannot tell you. We also went to some hot springs while there. Amazingly refreshing. Though, the night was freaking cold and getting out was not fun. :lol The hotel where we stayed that night did have air conditioning. I, fortunately, was able to get my shorts dry overnight there. Thank God.

We continued further up and into the mountains. We spent a couple days there. We visited a Butterfly Farm – an experience I heartily recommend. Looking at all the butterflies was actually really interesting. We also – what the hell else did we do up there. I cannot, for the life of me, remember. I’ll email one of my students. Anyway, there was a bonfire each night, which was actually good, because it was freaking cold once the sun went down. Go Mountain Air! WOO! Unfortunately, I managed to get a flying ember on my sturdy college windbreaker. Oh, sadness. I loved that jacket.

We left the mountains and went to the beach on the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica. I walked in the Pacific Ocean. Yay! I was also forced to buy new flipflops as my old ones literally died while I was walking. Do you know how hard it is to walk with your flipflop broken? Nearly impossible. I strained my ankle doing it. Why, you ask? Because of the way I had to walk. My ankle muscles are so not used to that. So they protested. Evil muscles. :lol

Stay tuned for Part 3…