No longer a laggard!

I just finished teaching a Public Health Theory course for National University. BORRRRING. You can imagine how excited the students must’ve felt considering that even the teacher didn’t want to be there. But we managed to make it through…

One of the first nights of class we discussed the Diffusion of Innovation Model. This describes how quickly certain groups of people adopt new concepts. My example was the IPOD. Some people stood in line for hours to be the 1st ones to have this new technology - these are the innovators. Eventually the majority of people catch on and for some, it takes us longer to catch up. These are the laggards. I then pointed out that I still did not own an IPOD and was therefore a laggard with respect to this technology.

Class moves forward and I try my damnedest to make the discussion of health belief models and theories of reasoned action somewhat interesting. In general I think the class is doing OK, but you never know.

So we get to our final class and one of the students asks if she can make an announcement before we start the final exam. I figured she had a job opportunity come up that she wanted to share with everyone. I do my housekeeping and then tell Tanisha she can come to the front for her announcement.

She starts talking about some of the theories from class and how she can apply them to her life and blah blah blah. I am barely paying attention when she says “So Angela, we don’t want you to be a laggard anymore.”

She hands me a Hello Kitty lunch bag and inside are kitty related pens, sticky notes, a calculator and an IPOD!
Shut the front door! How awesome is that?!

I was so surprised and truly appreciative for such a thoughtful gift. I guess students still give their teachers apples.

(thanks mia for that one!)

Habla espanol?

At the gas station yesterday I was pumping and heard someone walk up behind me. I turned around to see these guys standing next to my car. >>>>

Odd in general but then one of 'em asked me "Habla Espanol?"

I just looked at him with I'm sure a weird mug on my face and said "No."

What the what??!

Then they walked away.

The guy pumping next to me was looking at the dudes walking away. I asked him "It is weird that those men just asked if I spoke spanish?"

He got way too excited and said "Who? Those JEWS?! No way."

Life isn’t fair – oh yeah, and your bunnies are dead

As the daughter of not one but two military parents, there were many hard lessons to be learned in our house growing up. Saturday morning was for cleaning before you could do anything fun; it is never appropriate to chase your little brother with a baseball bat; and assault rifles use an intermediate cartridge with a detachable magazine.

But there is a lesson learned that is so vivid in my head, I had to share it with you.

My sister and I had two cute little bunnies that we kept in a small cage in our backyard. Sherry’s bunny was all white and so she adequately named it Snowball. I called mine Jennifer.

(Stupid, I know)

Anyway every day after school we would run home, go straight through the house and into the backyard to see our soft and cuddly bunnies. Until one day…

Our mom stopped us before we opened the back door and had this look on her face.
“Girls, I have something to tell you. The big dog that lives next door jumped the fence and got into the bunny cage. Your bunnies are dead. Go outside and see.”

Sherry and I walked our sad, crying little selves over to the bloody cage. Bits of bone and fur were still there, but Jennifer and Snowball had gone to bunny heaven. I don’t know where the dog had run off to…

We just stood by the crate with tears in our eyes and mom came over to us. She said “Hey life isn’t fair” and proceeded to cleanup what was left of our tiny pets.

Blunt.

I mean DANG mom! Can I get some sympathy up in here? But that’s how she was, that’s how she still is, and I love her for it. You gotta learn these things at some point – why not 2nd grade?

Por que no estan en la escuela

I attended a conference last week where the topic was Race and Sexuality. It was put on by the local STD clinic, Planned Parenthood, and other health related groups. We had lots of interesting discussions about race and how it impacts our access to care, especially for sexual health concerns.

During one exercise we had to list stereotypes people have given to certain groups. (Please note these were stereotypes being discussed by a group and not personal opinion.)

We talked about Asian people being good at math, black people being athletic, etc. etc. Since we have a very strong Latino population here in San Diego, we spent a long time discussing people who speak Spanish and the sometimes negative feelings it brings about in others. Sentiments such as “You live in America, you should speak English” were brought up and the concern that when someone switches to another language, it’s because they are talking about YOU.
Lastly we talked about young black women – their attire, lack of ambition, and that they are typically loud. It was a very powerful presentation considering we had plenty of students in attendance that dispelled those myths…

So 30 minutes later I am at lunch by myself across the street from where the conference is taking place. Next to me are two older Mexican women eating and talking. In front of us are two black high school girls that are ordering. I am on the phone with a friend while the girls are ordering and my friend asks “who is yelling in the background?” As the girls continued to talk and order, I hear the women next to me say, in Spanish, “Why are those girls so loud? Por qué son esas chicas tan fuerte? Why aren’t they ever in school? Por qué no están en la escuela?”

Classic.

Vajazzled

Not really much to say...just check out the video for yourself....

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