First day to fitness

I wanted to type this blog so that it will make me accountable for starting on my fitness challenge to myself. It is going to be a long tough road ahead but I think will be well worth the all that I will go through. Right now I weigh 176 lbs. I can blame it on my children but I do not think that is fair because they are not the ones who tell me what to eat and how to take care of myself. I can blame it on being depressed but this is going to be the only way to hopefully help me out of this funk. And to be able to continue on with my goal. My goal weight is to be back at 125-130. I have been trying to start working out for the past month but I just cant seem to make myself. So I want to join the 100 mile club which is sponsored by a program out on the Hopi reservation and that will also make me accountable and push me to complete this challenge. And what it entails is that you have a certain amount of months to run/walk the 100 mile goal. It has been tough with all that I got going on in my life school, the kids but i figure once I start this it will help with my energy as well as my moods. But after I post this I am going to go for a run/walk and will hopefully be running/walking every morning and night.

Dialogue #25

** I am going to apologize in advance because dialogue is something that I have a problem with. I never can get how to write something. So this is going to be my attempt :)

This being the week before Spring Break it is the last week of the quarter for my children at their schools. Tonight was my first round of parent teacher conferences. Although this teacher had a very different way of presenting their information. My youngest daughter Lawrena kept reminding me all last week "Mom don't forget that you have parent teacher conference on Tuesday at 5:30" I told her "I won't forget" I go on to tell her "You will have to stay home and we will discuss what your teacher shares with me when I get home" she tells me "No mom, I have to go with you because I will be the one presenting you with all my information" I am thinking to myself this is way different than when I was younger. That was the time that my mom and my teacher got to talk about what I was doing wrong in school. So I was anticipating what was going to happen this evening. It was actually very beneficial for me as well as Lawrena because I was able to see how she can present herself and carry on a conservation and stick to what she needed to, to get through the topics.
     We entered her classroom. The teacher said Hello and went on to explain to Lawrena that she has her checklist to go through and when she comes to the grades then she will intervene at that time. Lawrena led us to her table she begins pulling out her work which has been graded, and all I see in front of me are A's on the pages. She goes over her various folders and the things which she has completed and things which she is working on. She then shows me a little which she wrote to me and it really hit home. My daughter really an intelligent young woman, she wrote "Thank you for taking time from your day to come to my conference. It shows me that you appreciate me." I am sitting there thinking to myself, "I am so lucky to have a child like this, I never have to tell her to do her homework, she comes straight home gets everything done. Important projects she does not wait until the last minute to work on them." I wonder if I ever tell her thank you for being that way, but I am sure that I do not say it enough.
      We get through her checklist and get to the grades part. As we approach her teacher she says to me "Mom I am so nervous to know what my grades are." I ask her " Why, do you not think that you did well?" By her saying that to me she made me nervous. As I am opening the envelope I can see her excitement on her face. I open it up and lay it on the table she yells out "YES!!!!! Straight A's" she is so proud of herself as she should be. The first 2 quarters she missed having straight A's by getting one B. I turn to her and ask her "So how much do I owe you?" Because I know that is exactally what she is thinking about. She says to me "35 dollars, mom" awhile back I made an agreement with them for the younger ones they get $5 and A, and my older daughters get $10 an A. She is so excited because she made a goal for herself to get all A's this quarter.
        I talk to her teacher about a few things. We discuss her test scores for gifted and talented and she informs me "We have yet to receive those scores yet, and it is more than likely that they will not be available until after Spring break." She has tested for gifted and talented 3 times now and the other times she just barely missed getting into the program. I am concerned because she will be starting middle school next year and I am wondering if they will be able to challenge her. I do not want her to start to dislike school because she does not find it challenging enough. I then ask her teacher " Is there anything which I should be concerned with?" She tells me "The only thing that I would like her to work on is going over her work. I noticed that she has very strong problem solving skills and she is able to find easier ways than most to get her assignments done. And I find myself reminding her Lawrena did you check your work." I turn to Lawrena then and tell her "Teach me what you know so that I have better test taking skills." She smiles at me and says "Mom". I go on to ask her teacher "The time when we were away did she have any problems making up what she missed?" She just laughed at me and said "Are you serious you have an over achiever there and she had everything done the next day." I look at Lawrena and am so amazed because she never even told me she had this make up work to do. She took it all upon herself to get it done. I wish some of these skills would rub off on her sisters and brothers.

Drawing an Interaction #22

            I really miss the atmosphere of an Architectural firm. Deadlines, deadlines, and more deadlines, codes, procedures, computer aided drawings, conservations with Civil, Structural, Electrical Engineers. Trying to make sure that they have the updated drawings and we have their drawings so that everything matches and we are ready for submittal to the city. I sit there with the Architect asking how the firm was able to handle the the economic downfall and manage to stay afloat. How much things have changed and what the future looks like. Our discussion took about 45 minutes and throughout that time we were interrupted about 5 times. Which showed me that the company is doing quite well.
             I learn that the firm has done quite well despite the economy because of the contracts which they had in place before the economy had its downfall. All the funds were allocated and the projects were well on their way to the beginning stages. Very few companies had this kind of opportunity and many of them had to shut down because of the lack of work. Many of the office managers were now doing the work of the drafters and going through the process themselves rather than over seeing these steps.
             Many things are beginning to change and they are trying to implement more of a "green" design in many of their projects. Before people were afraid of the cost when creating the plans for a building but now they are beginning to see the benefits in the long run. Not to mention the incentives the government gives the owners. Which leads to the changes in the codes and details that go into the buildings, and is better for someone to be Lead certified to better understand the codes and all that a drawing would need to entail so that it can pass through with minimal red lines and changes. I am informed that the industry is beginning to pick up slowly and that having a background in sustainable design is a plus with the up coming future. People are slowly beginning to buy property and make the changes and so there will be jobs in the future.
            I find it always very interesting to speak with someone that has been an Architect for quite awhile. They always start their stories off by when I was younger we had to draft by hand. One mistake always lead to starting a whole new page. Which I totally understand because when I was going to school I was one of the last groups of students that they required to do manual drafting, and I had my share of those "starting over" pages. They are always very passionate when they speak about the design and how they pay close attention to detail. Which is always needed because if you do not you can design something that may not pass inspection. There is so much that goes into creating a new building and they are a part of it all.

Peer Review

Matt- First of all thanks for your critique made me really think about the way I present my writing techniques. I think that if I had a little more time to be able to sit and edit what I write many of the things which you suggest I would be able to incorporate into my writing.
Responsibility- I thought was very entertaining. I never really thought of a job in this manner and the ways in which we allow ourselves to be treated just so that we can receive a paycheck. I really admire your free will to express yourself in your writing. I would have been freaking out thinking what if an elder read some of what I wrote and it had that kind of language in it. What would they think about that? But the way that you do use it makes and point and shows your feeling at the time.
America Under an Electric Sky- I have never had the opportunity to go to Vegas and experience that of Fremont Street so your story gave me a little of that experience and it seems like some place that would be interesting to visit and a place to experience one of these days. I guess I will add it to my list of places to see once all my kids are grown :)
Nynn-
Ridiculously Overwhelming- I thought that is was a great new style of writing for you and really did help to break the story into the specific parts and all that was happening. Maybe this is something that I should try in my writing so that it helps what I am writing about flow a little more.
Nascar Fans- This was a great depiction of someone going to the races for the first time and taking in all that happens there. I for one never have been able to experience an actual race day. But we have gone to the fireworks show that they have out there on the 4th of July and many of the racers are out there and do, do a couple laps. I on the other hand do not find it all that interesting watching cars go around and around. I would be one of those people just there to watch other people.
Miranda-
Responsibility- Your writing about this particular subject took me back to the first time I became a mother and how nervous I was about everything she did. I am still that way seven kids later but I tend to not hover as much as I did with my first daughter. I still freak out when I hear one of them crying, but at times I think that they like to get hurt just so that they can get the one on one time because they all still come to me just so that I can kiss their boobo and make them feel better.  When we go through that little ritual they are off playing once again like nothing ever happened. I really enjoyed your descriptions about how you were feeling really was able to visualize what you were describing.

Soyokos

I wanted to share a picture of what they do look like so that you have a picture to go with the story.

Semi Journalistic Observer

Being able to be a part of a Hopi ceremony is always a experience all ceremonies are now closed to non natives and writing about your experiences are very limited because one is always afraid about how much they share and getting in trouble with those that are looking out for the people. The Powamuy ceremony is a time for cleansing of the previous year and looking forward to the up coming year. With this comes a great deal a preparation for this one day event. Even before the day that the ceremony takes place there is preparation by everyone. The woman doing the duties of the home, men in the kivas, even the kids are getting anxious because they know that this is the time of the year that they will be disciplined by these very scary beings called Soyokos. The day begins before dawn the children are all still sleeping the men have been in the kiva all night awaiting the morning when they will then harvest their plants and take the home to their families. All the while men walking into the house contributing some of their plants to the family, feeding those that they care about, providing for them. The woman get busy at cleaning the bean sprouts preparing it to be cooked which needs to be done in a matter of a couple hours as the next responsibility of the woman is to go and feed the men in the kiva. During this time the children are beginning to stir and you hear bells and strange noises beginning to be made outside as the Kachinas come out of the kivas to deliver the gifts to the children. The woman began to get the bread, piki, donuts, coffee and the beans sprouts together to go to the kivas. One goes out the door to the middle village, while there are five other bundles of food waiting on the table to be delivered to the five remaining kivas in Walpi. Then it is time to set the table so that all those there can enjoy the taste of the sprouts. Which is a delicacy for the Hopi people because this is a food that is only available once a year. It is about this time that the children began to get scared because they know what is coming next. The grandmother enters the kiva and maybe about a hour later out emerges the Soyoko family. They go from house to house gathering food from the children talking to them. While we await for our turn all you can hear are the screams of frightened children. They are getting closer and closer to the house and anxiety is very high at this time even the parents and grandparents are becoming scared by the low voices and the crying children. They finally arrive and we were thinking was just going to be a simple give our food to them and they go but that is not the case this year. Each of the older girls are talked to because they bicker amongst themselves, like to talk back to the adults, do not like to help with the house work. The boys have it a little easier this year they give them their meat and are done with it. Thinking we are complete but they grandmother comes into the house and talks to the entire family telling them that they really need to look at themselves and the way in which they are living their lives and so they are having problems with their children because they themselves are not living by example. They are complete and move on to the next house. Everyone then prepares to leave. Only the woman of the house and the children remain. Throughout the day various people come into the house and always sit down to the table to eat and they are on their way out the door probably on to another house to visit. The night is another eventful time. There will be dancing in the kiva by Kachinas and only the woman and children that are initiated to know what the Kachinas symbolize are allowed to watch the dance. Which then goes into the early hours of the next morning.

Responsibility

Being a Hopi woman comes with huge amounts of responsibility and things which need to be completed in order for things to work smoothly and in harmony with all that is happening throughout the villages. The men have their own responsibilities and so they are seldom around to help with the preparation for the home front. With my family there has never been enough men to do a lot of the hauling of the water or the chopping of the wood or gathering of the coal. Growing up I was always taught both the women and the men role of what needed to be completed so that everything was ready for when the time came. The most important chores which needed to be completed was the water, wood, coal, and butane. I am lucky that I live here in the valley so I have water delivered to my home here and we have numerous amounts of the five gallon water bottles so I occasionally take these water containers out to the reservation where they come in handy. We have a more contemporary home located at the foot of the mesa where we do have running water and electricity and it is here where these five gallon containers are filled and the loaded into the back of the truck. We also have humongous piles of wood which are used for various reasons. The dominate reason being that for heating the home. This wood of course always needs to be split as we have one of those old fashion pot bellied stoves which heats our home on the mesa. So the splitting of the wood takes place and is usually loaded into milk crate containers because they are studier than boxes and usually fill about six of these containers, which then goes into the truck. The next portion is the gathering of the coal, which are broken into smaller pieces and put into about six five pound buckets. Which are then loaded into the truck. Because of the space issue and the location of our home on the mesa we are very limited to the size of propane container we are able to use. We are only able to have a five or seven gallon container. This we have a local store which sells propane to those in need. So these containers also go into the back of the truck to be taken to Polacca Circle M to be filled. Once they are filled then we are able to make the trip to the mesa. Once on the mesa top the roads are so used that there are huge pot holes which we all try to avoid but never quite accomplish because of all the things in the back of the truck which could tip over and would make more work for us. We finally make it to the village of Walpi where there is very limited time to unload when another family will be coming in with their load. All these things are then transported from the truck to the house and placed in their perspective locations hoping that what you brought will be enough to make it through the upcoming ceremony. Then it is time to return to house on the bottom to gather all the cooking supplies, these kinds of trips happen three or four times before everything is there that is needed. After all this is completed then begins the tedious job of making the bread, pastries, hominy stew and all other traditional foods which are to be served during this time. The life of a Hopi woman is one that never seems to be completed but one that I enjoy because everything has its purpose and is a time for us to all come together once again.