A Report on Reality--My Reality, That Is . . .

Mostly I teach school--preparing lessons, face time with classes, evaluating student work. Still, there are spaces of my reality configured with other activities and different interactions.

(1) When the movie offerings on base fail to engage my interest, I resort to Netflix, and this autumn's on-base flick options have turned me homeward more often than not. Consequently, I have finally viewed a goodly number of the selections that have languished in my Netflix queue, selections selected over a year ago for the most part, I might add. At some artsy moment I lined up quite a number of foreign films, and the last few months have become the time frame for their arrival. Now, as foreign films tend to be filmed in foreign languages, these movies have generally required the reading of subtitles to make any sense of them. Believe you me, when one must read subtitles while viewing a movie, there is no other successful multi-tasking going on. I even had to abandon folding clothes! Peeling a pomegranate and consuming the seeds--a current craving--is tricky, so mostly I stick to microwave popcorn while watching those of the foreign genre. And truthfully, I haven't been all that impressed with most of the foreign fare. (The only one I would recommend is a French one, Au Revoir Les Enfants.) Many seemed kind of preachy or else designed by agenda. I liked the Spanish ones mostly because I could listen to spoken Spanish while reading subtitles! And I confess, at the end of October I scooted some fluffy, escape-worthy flicks to the top of my queue--Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Clueless, and Ten Things I Hate About You--for a little respite!


(2) On Monday and Wednesday afternoons the base fitness center with the Olympic-size pool offers a water aerobics class at 3:30, a time I can usually manage. No fitness class works for me, though, unless I like the teacher's style, which usually means he/she has to mix-it-up because I get bored easily. I started attending this water aerobics class last April with Angela, a friend from church. She assured me "Norway" was a good instructor. Now, despite the image his name might conjure, Norway is Japanese, and I have no idea if "Norway" is his real name or not. Although small in stature, he is noticeably fit, has boundless energy, and owns a glowing reputation as an excellent instructor for both kick boxing and yoga, too. (He teaches those classes during morning times, so I have never attended.) I did enjoy the water aerobics class last spring, and, even though Angela moved during the summer, I decided to continue with the class on my own this fall. Class numbers vary, and on a couple of occasions I have been the only one in attendance. I felt awkward at first, but, man-oh-man, did Norway give me an amazing workout--one he developed and tweaked especially for me moment by moment in real time. It became an hour for me with a personal trainer for the price of attending a class...like about $2!

The other day while lotioning up--swimming pool water and the house heating systems here dry out my skin big time--and sliding the slick across my stomach I experienced a momentary shock: My abs were hard! In water aerobics class Norway is all the time reporting that we are working our "core" with such-and-such a move or with this-and-then-that particular alignment of the body, even as we do the main aerobic portion of the class. I have not fully believed how much core work indeed we have been doing...until now. I may no longer have 20-something musculature or 20-something skin, but, boy-howdy, I bet I have the fittest abs of my entire life!


(3) Having finally read the complete Twilight saga--commencing with Twilight last May and finishing up with Breaking Dawn in September--has provided source material for some entertaining, and sometimes revealing, conversations with my students. A majority of my female students have read the books and some of the guys have, too. However, even guys who haven't read the series tend to pay attention to girls who have read the series, and a lot of these guys have seen the first two movies, so we all can talk! And we do: Team Jacob or Team Edward? Werewolves or vampires? And any stated opinion must be supported well enough to withstand the challenges presented by the opposition! My students are currently in the midst of an astronomy unit in their science classes, and this last week during my Advisory/Seminar class, five of us--four students and me--explained the scientific definition of "eclipse" to a female student by including analogies derived from the third book in the series, Eclipse!


So here it is December--Thanksgiving gone and Christmas before us. All the boats harbored on the navy base wear extra lights, strings of lights, in holiday fashion, and the tugboats are still my favorites.

Mt. Fuji frequents the horizon more often in this season, too--a study in blue.