Happy Charro Days!

If you're asking what Charro Days is, then I guess you've never lived in Brownsville. The best way to describe it would be as an "annual fiesta celebrating Brownsville´s bi-national heritage." That was straight from the official website since I was struggling to explain it in my own words. I only remembered it because spoke with Mary in the SJA finance office yesterday and she told me about it.

I'm sure everyone down there is enjoying the time off from school as well as the festivities that go along with the whole weekend. I also seem to remember something about picking up trash as part of required school service hours. If any of you are still doing that this weekend, good luck!

I'm baaaaack

I don't usually go with the repeated letters for emphasis, but this time it seemed appropriate. In any case, I am back for the time being, and I have a few minutes for an update before I go to play basketball for the rest of the night.

Busy, busy, busy. I just got back from Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, which was a great time. I listened to a few great speakers, one of whom used to teach at Notre Dame (the university, not the High School--I've found it necessary to specify out here...). It was all about storytelling, and one of the things he shared was a "grotto story." It took me back for a few minutes to a place where the craziness subsides and you can just be. There aren't a lot of places like that in the world anymore, and I think we need to hold on to the ones we have. The point of the talk was that those places and stories can always be present to us if we would only bring them back into memory. Perhaps we all need to do that more often.

-chc

ACE Reunions

It was great to visit with all of the ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) teachers in the LA area last night. I don't get to see them very often since everyone is so spread out (plus, teaching tends to keep people really busy).

Fr. Scully was in town, so we had Mass at the house followed by dinner. I guess I only just realized how separated from that world I am now that I've taken some time off from teaching. There are all kinds of struggles and teaching triumphs that I had already forgotten about. I miss it sometimes, but I need this chance to try some other things.

I also ran into a former ACER who used to teach at SJA several years before I got there. We chatted about the valley, the legendary teachers at SJA, and students that we had in common. The students he taught in 8th grade are already in college, and several of them are at ND. To any of my own students who might be reading, I just want to say that it will make my decade if three or four of you go to Notre Dame. Just think about it.

-chc

Crazy Week

Another week, another post...maybe someday I'll get back into a daily routine of it. I would like to thank my faithful viewers for being patient--I miss you all and hope that I can visit sometime soon (if not this year, then the next).

It's been quite a week. The biggest news is that my car got rear-ended the other day. I'm doing okay, and I walked away from it mostly unscathed (some back pain which I hope goes away quickly). My car is another story. I actually didn't think that the damage was that bad, but we'll see what the insurance adjuster says. Hopefully it will be worth fixing.

In other news, my weekly basketball game was cancelled for the second week in a row. I usually play a pick up game with my roommate Ryan and some other guys, but they had the gym all set up for a Valentines Day party.

Does SJA have a Valentines Day dance this year? I can't remember if there was one last year.

Until next time,

chc

Long Time, No Blog

It's been about a week since I've last posted, mostly because I didn't have the time. I know it only takes about three minutes to put something up here, but if I had three extra minutes I would probably do something else more important (like sleep). To my faithful viewers (all four of you), I apologize. I'll try to start posting more frequently again.

So how about that Super Bowl? I actually slept through the first half of it because when it came to sleeping or watching two teams I don't care about, the sleep won. If I sound tired it's only because I just had one of those weekends where you need another weekend just to recover. What did I do that exhausted me so much? The sad part is that I don't even know. Perhaps things will slow down this week. That would be nice.

-chc