Kari Brooks

One of the assignments I gave my students this week was to brainstorm some things they were thankful for, and why. (Naturally this is what an elementary teacher assigns that short week of Thanksgiving!) As they came up with some pretty creative ideas, including “Aunt Julie’s apple pie and the sweater that grandma made,” I was working on my own little list of things I am thankful for and I was reminded not forget the little things.
I am thankful for my health. Working with kids for so long has created this super immunity system in my body and allows me to never have to take a sick day.
I am thankful for Derek. The friendship I have known with him is unlike anything I have every experienced. I am grateful that I have his love, support, laughter, and awesome underwear-flicking abilities.
I am thankful for my family. I am so very lucky to have such a good relationship with both of my parents and my little brother. Although there are times when I wonder if I am not truly obsessed with them, beings how I talk to one of them at least once a day, I have come to realize it is a mutual obsession – and we are all okay with it.
I am thankful for my baby, Ninja. With his warm, 93 pound, body sleeping on my legs at nite, my feet are never cold. Also, the loyalty my dog shows me makes me feel like royalty. How can you not be thankful for a companion that loves you more than his own b-hole?
I am thankful for my wonderful friends. Because of them, I have many great memories (that often turn into ridiculous stories.) With these friends I am reminded that while time does continue to move forward – good friendships always last the distance and change.
I am thankful for food. Lord (and the poor waitress at Chilis) knows that I would be a sobbing wreck without it.
I am thankful for Derek’s family. Although I know they don’t always agree with me, (something about using the “F word” too much!) I am grateful that they have always accepted me and appreciated the love I have for their son/brother.
I am thankful for my education. (And so is Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation – I am providing their Christmas bonus checks this year!) As the psychology of a teacher continues to unfold, I realize more and more how much I love to learn, and I am very grateful that I have the time and ambition to continue.
I am thankful for my students. They continue to enlighten my life every day. I learn so much from each of them, I can’t imagine not doing my job. I mean honestly, who knew that you clean a desk with just a little pee on your shirt?

‘Tis the season for reflection.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Tonite I am a little weirded out about how small the world is.
For quite a while now, my dad has being giving Derek and I a hard time about what we post on the internet. About how awkward it is that the world knows when we shit or how talented we (at least one of us is…) are at underwear removal. But to him I have just always responded with something along the lines of “how funny that is.” I mean really! Isn’t it funny to tell other people intimate things about yourself that are just a little awkward?
All done in a non-confrontational way on the internet.
I mean… what I have to say might make you feel a little uncomfortable, so why don’t I just post it here on the World Wide Web for you or anyone in the universe to see?
That’s funny.
But, right on the other side of funny, real close to funny, touching sides with funny… is weird.
I have often thought about who might read my blog. Not too many people. I mean really, I don’t lead too much of an exciting life to have others care about checking in on a regular basis.
This naïve little thought of mine was floating around my head until the other week in class. One gal in my class mentioned that she had read my blog. Hmm… cool.
Cool?
Weird?
Last Wednesday in class another gal made a comment about the blog as well.
Funny.
We all have the same sense of humor. (Making points to the idiots in the front row of course.)
But, if these ladies are reading, are my students? Are my co-workers? What about that kid in the front row? Does he know how much I wish he would leave my treasured profession? And how much of that is funny? Or is it just on the weird side?
Not too many people would make that big of a deal about it I suppose.
I mean, I did decide to write in an on-line journal. But, do I really want everyone I know to read these ramblings?
Well so then, why write?
Hmm… maybe because I have always kept a journal of life happenings, maybe because I like to write and secretly want someone to pay me to sit here at home and type on my keyboard about the life of a special education teacher, maybe because a little bit of me wants to rebel against those who think someone teaching America’s youth has to be conservative and lame, maybe because it is a passive aggressive approach to some sticky situations in life, ehh…mostly because I think I am funny.
Anyway, this is what got me thinking about how small the world is and then I decided to do some serious investigation.
The mother computer, stationed in the great NYC, came up with this slightly pedophile idea called MYSPACE which gave me a great place to mill around.
After conducting some investigation, I have come up with two things…
1. I am done with MYSPACE. I can hardly fathom the amount of people I can track back to others. It’s just crazy. A friend of mine from college has a photo in her album with another friend of mine from high school in the back ground. This is just one example, and one that I am sure got my husband all riled up and excited about what a great idea the mother computer had linking us all together… I am sure he is thinking about how this is a sign that we really shouldn’t be “burning bridges.” But it freaks me out.
2. I wouldn’t mind being paid to be an internet stalker.

Although it might be a little bit funny for the people from the class of 2003 to read about elitist attitude and see my boobs in the slutty Halloween costume photos. I do think I am a little disturbed by the idea that I don’t know who in the world has access to me. That’s where funny jumps right on over the line to weird.
(Not that I am really concerned that I have many people in the world just sitting around wondering what happens if they use “the google” to look for Kari Brooks. I am just saying…)
I mean, are we really all connected through this great invention called the “internet?”
And if your answer is yes… can you please explain to me just exactly where the fuck is the internet?

(Ha. That question… slightly awkward because it’s true. But, so funny.)