Best Week Ever...

This past Friday I found out that I got hired for summer school and on Tuesday I found out I had a job for next year. I told my best friend, as we're preparing to leave for Denton, TX for a friend's wedding, "If I found a girl this weekend, it'd be the best damn week of my life."

This post stems from that conversation, and was suggested by the aforementioned best friend.


REASONS WHY TONY (myself) HAD THE BEST WEEK EVER:

1. Getting a job:
As level-headed as I seem to be, I was concerned about whether or not I would have a job for next year as a teacher or whether I would need to stay on as a paraprofessional. However, on Friday April 4, I interviewed with the principal of Rosedale Middle School for the Functional/Behavioral Classroom teaching position. After the interview and visiting the classroom with the current teacher, the principal smiled and shook my hand saying, "I have an eye for people so I'm going to call and suggest that you be offered the job." So I will be working with students that have autism, as I do now, which I am ecstatic about.
{Sidenote: One downer to getting this job is that I will have to transfer from M.E. Pearson Elementary School where I currently work to go to Rosedale Middle School and get acclimated to the students and classroom environment to see how much of the current procedure I like and want to continue. I almost cried when the principal told me this, because I love my current students so much.}

2. Getting a summer job:
I will be working as a para with my current students this summer making bank and loving on educating some awesome kids. So financial worries subsided at the current moment.

3. The revolution has begun:
Amongst several of my Kansas City friends a growing desire to "be Jesus" in and amongst our metropolitan community has moved from dialogue to action. On Friday April 4th, friends and I drove around different sections of downtown KCMO trying to find homeless people to minister to and bless. Not necessarily with a sermon or gospel presentation, but by meeting a physical and immediate need. If you read the Gospels, Jesus' spiritual ministry is almost always accompanied by him meeting a physical/immediate need of his audience, i.e., stopping a woman's hemmoraghe, healing the lame/sick/blind, freeing the possessed, feeding the hungry. It's good to see and be part of Christ's Church being like their founder.

4. I went to Manhattan, KS:
I hadn't been able to go back to my second home since last Fall due to car and money troubles. Being back in the legendary Blue House once again and playing video games with the ever-interesting Aaron "Simien" Calderwood, brought a lot of joy to me. Not to mention I had an unadulterated weekend with Bubba Bone.
{Sidenote: Whilst I did get to see a love-smitten Rachel Scribner and the always lovely Matt Briggs, there were many other friends I had to neglect just out of simplicity and low-keyness. However, I did not get to see my favorite sorority girl/little sister figure friend. You know who you are.}

5. Jake White and Amy Coleman became Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Michael White:
I had never made it down to Denton/Dallas to visit Jake "Snick-Snake-Snoik" White, since Peterbilt lured him away from Kansas to the concrete jungle of Dallas, TX. However getting to see Jake getting married to the lovely Amy (who admittedly I don't know very well, but who heart-warmingly hugged me at the rehearsal dinner rejecting a handshake and proclaiming, "I want a hug, cause we're like family now.") was awesome. I'm a jaded hopeless romantic, and besides women popping babies out, there's not a more beautiful thing in the world than a wedding. It was also nice to see that God has surrounded Jake and Amy with a loving support group that will walk beside them through their marriage in both KC and Dallas. All of Jake's friends in Dallas were really cool, godly people (some thought cooler and more godly than the KC crew because they had awesome haircuts and didn't consume alcohol...both of which I was not guilty of this weekend). The wedding reception was quite fun. I discovered White Zinfandel (another sweet and tolerable wine), learned to two-step (thanks to Ashley Deaver) and became King of the Mountain. Instead of rice or bubbles, the guests were given pool noodles to greet the departing wedded couple with. This turned into a half-hour battle royale amongst the guys where gonads, ears, eyes, and backs became desired targets of pain. Zach Payne gave me quite the beating with double pool noodle action. I also learned that White Zinfandel is not Gatorade and if you do a lot of physical activity with only that in your stomach and your body has nothing to regenerate energy with, it will purge the delicious wine out of your body in a harsh punishment.
{Sidenote: The downer of the weekend is I lost my camera sometime Saturday afternoon. Not that I'd taken any pictures, but still an unfortunate loss.}

So I didn't find a girl. I wasn't looking, though there were many attractive single women at the reception. My only accomplishment was withstanding ice cold water with my right hand for 5 minutes.

All-in-all a great week. Or as one bearded friend would say: "This was the best week ever!!!"