rustypants speaks

we were busy beavers today.

pensacola chamber of commerce gave us a phone book.

verizon wireless told us we can’t add a third line with a pensacola number and two cincinnati numbers.

we got a bit lost.

we called about a house across the street from my new school.

i met my new principal (he’s quite cool).

i saw my classroom (unflatteringly pictured at right).

i signed my contract.

we lunched with the principal at the new yorker deli (if you visit pensacola, it’s worth the trip – unless you live in new york).

we got an apartment.

we’re officially residents – we have a pensacola address now.

we went to maria’s seafood market, grabbed some jumbo shrimp, had it steamed, crossed the bridge and went to pensacola beach.

sat on the beach (flatteringly pictured at left) and looked back at the past couple years, ate delicious shrimp, watched the sunset, stuck our toes in the water, grabbed a couple seashells and were content.

today we’ve more to do, not the least of which is to…

celebrate Lise’s birthday! woo-woo!

more later.

we’re on the road again monday morning for pensacola – we’ve a thousand things to do down there, including:

• signing my contract / meeting my principal / fingerprinting
• visiting two or three schools that are still hiring art teachers – lise’s going to work on getting her foot in the door and see how things look for getting a position in the district.
• finding the apartment complex we’re looking to rent from starting in August, filling out paperwork and writing too large of a check.
• stopping in on the school district offices and getting some final information before school starts next month.
• visiting the chamber of commerce for more moving information and area details
• hitting the beach in the evenings for sunsets, strolls, and sea shell hunting.
• going to joe patti’s seafood and loading up before we leave for cincinnati thursday morning.
• celebrating lise’s 39th birthday wednesday july 11th!! woo-woo!! want to send her a note? email her at liserust at gmail.com

for now, however, i expect my thoughts will soon be wandering the way they always do when i’m ridin’ sixteen hours and there’s nothin’ much to do. we’ll survive somehow.

it should be no surprise to anyone that my favorite show of all time is The Simpsons – nevermind that it’s been on for 18 years, it’s still clever, biting social commentary on a broad cross-section of American life. i can’t get enough of it.

now that the simpson’s movie is weeks away from release, i’ve given in and become a pawn in the game.

i’ve wanted for years to have a caricature done in the likeness of groening’s creations – it was worth the wait.

one thing i’ve always enjoyed about the show is their willingness to offend anyone and everyone – christians, muslims, hindus, whites, blacks, jews, gay, straight, men, women – nothing is sacred (and thank goodness).

i occasionally meet folks who are offended by the portrayal of God / Jesus / Christians in the show but i look again at the point: non-christians look at us and THINK WE REALLY ARE LIKE THIS or that we believe this or that about God! it’s a caricature of the real thing, a stereotype – but it’s what people think.

and if it takes a cartoon to offend us, make us step back and say, “geez – do i really (act / think / believe) this way? is this what people see when they see me?” then i’m all for it.

want your own Simpson’s likeness? www.simpsonsmovie.com – click on the section about making your own avatar and have fun!

7-11 turns stores into kwik-e-marts – promo for new simpsons movie.

hee hee!!

we had a fun-filled visit to maryland last week.

we got to see a lot of good friends. ate crabs. stayed up late talking. played cards.

dolby got to hang out with his old friend, Ace. they got into some wonderful fights and rough playing over dolby’s toys (Ace won 98% of the arguments because he’s just a smooth and cool dog – dolby’s not refined enough yet).

and now i offer the pictures to you. enjoy. or not.

drive together in perfect harmony?

we got lise a new car today. pretty little 2003 Saturn Ion with 28,000 miles on it in excellent shape and taken very good care of by previous owner. her old 2000 Saturn SL2 has 156,000 miles and, while it’s been very dependable, i’ve been concerned about moving 1,000 miles away from her family and her obvious desire to visit as often as possible. this was my solution.

so my black ion, her white ion, living together in perfect harmony.

my car’s name is Shaniqua (because she’s black and beautiful). i’ve suggested that lise name her car something like bob. or jim. or steve. we’ll see.

are things like

waterdeep coming out with their first album in years.

…

today in maryland

while lise and i were out acting strange with old (young) friends…

(pretending to catch flies?)

(imitating a cat throwing up?)

(doing a bill the cat impersonation?)

…

dolby sat at home and wondered…

…

will they ever be back??

…

and don’t they WUV ME???

today, after my saying something stupid, the following exchange took place:

me: “why do you bother keeping me around? it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

lise: “i figure, ‘it’s extra income.’”

much has been going on lately (like, duh) = it’s time to stop and process some of the muck accumulating in the crevices of my brain. sit tight and read on:

• the house has been up for eight days now and we’ve not gotten a single call. am i freaked? am i worried? naw. not yet. we knew this was gonna be a tough row to hoe when we set out to sell. the market is poor and there’s a glut of houses in cheviot / cincinnati up for sale – some better, many worse than our nifty little place.
• i’ve got my first interview this thursday with the principal of a school in pensacola – much excitement, obviously!
• lise’s been in toledo for a couple days visiting with her mom. a good visit was had and she’s all rested, relaxed and ready to hit maryland for a couple days.
• my wife = pure awesome. even with my mom’s finger up her nose.
• we leave for maryland later this morning for what will likely be our last trip there for a while. from cincy to maryland, it’s 550 miles. from cincy to pensacola it’s 750 miles. from pensacola to maryland it’s 1000 miles. zowie! but we’re not focusing on that – we’re looking forward to hanging with barb & joe plus seeing many of our kids from youth groups past. it’s gonna be a great time.
• and speaking of youth group kids: when did i give them permission to get jobs, get married, move away, start families, etc?? i thought they were supposed to stay 16 forever? hee hee. the truth is, this is where a lot of the fruit of ministry is seen – to watch them take the foundational things laid in years past and put them to work as adults – priceless, dudes, priceless.
• i’m almost finished with the book Wicked – and i liiike it! my friend amanda calls it her favorite book and she loaned me her copy. it was one of those books that you take, flip through, get discombobulated by big words, confusing names, unknown places and decide, “i’ll lie and tell her i started reading it, didn’t like it, and am just giving it back” but then… yeah, i decided to read two chapters, just so i wouldn’t have to lie. next thing i know, it’s 4/5 of the way through the book and i’m wondering how it’ll end!
• new tunes i’ve been listening to & like: sarah carr told me to check out augustana and snow patrol, so i did. they’re both pretty good, but i’m leaning towards augustana. chris brown‘s self-titled album is pretty cool. alan parsons put an album out a couple years ago i just recently got called A Valid Path. a techno-alan-parsons? veddy iiinterestink!
• new tunes that aren’t impressing me: joss stone (borrring). john legend. acoustic alchemy (Zzzzzzzz…).
• new tunes i WANT SO BAD TO LIKE and i DON’T HATE but…: ry cooder‘s My Name Is Buddy. hearing cooder do dustbowl-like tunes is… i dunno. i just dunno.
• i get shocked every other day or so when i realize: we’re moving the last week of july to pensacola. that’s 4-5 weeks away! holy CRAP! people to see, family to hang with, things to pack, apartment to find and rent, people to say goodbye to – we’ve been so busy getting the house ready that the time has just flown by.

if you’re in the area, please make it a point to holler at us and lets get together before we go!

and now, it’s almost 2am. sleep is welcome.

g’night.